Attempting to Fulfill the Plan: GDI Edition

[Vehrec]

Bah, you guys just need an Omake to make up for the three points. Here, have a quickie.

House of the Lord.

Kane peered through the helmet of his environment suit at the distant Tiberium tower. "Magnificent. Truly, the Third Tiberium War, for all it's disappointment, was worth it for this." He turned to the Black hand and his Guest and cocked an eyebrow through the bubble helmet. "I know, Commander, that you may feel otherwise, but despite all our setbacks, this truly is the culmination of all my plans." Kane swept his hand towards the horizon. "The days are fast approaching now, when all the world will see the truth of my prophecy and wisdom."

Kane stepped down and sighed. "Alas, we are much reduced, and must take time. Our...failures, as much as it pains me to admit, are now evident for all the world to see. I gave the Black Hand orders to carry out opperation Abel, but there has clearly been more corruption and greed to purge in the Brotherhood than I thought. This warlordism is a good cover for us to rebuild, but every day it continues, we loose more and more of our precious brothers."

"I am afraid that even I cannot stop it now-too many blame me for the failures of Killian, and my star is tarnished by the assault on our temple. So I will build a new temple here, in the ruins of the Vatican. The final temple, a laboratory to study our prize and prepare for the return of the Scrin. And I will need you to go forth into the world commander-assemble your veterans and your army, and bring our brothers to heel again." Kane turned and walked across a roof riddled with Tiberium. "We must make haste, you and I, commander. For though I have the vision to know what comes, no man nor messiah knows the hour and the day."

 

[cryptoam]

So now we get a look at the applications of the new sonic micro emitters.
Resounding Demonstration (3/?)

Morrow: Everyone has their PPE on right? We are testing out a new containment solution and we are unsure whether or not the process successfully abates any airborne tiberium.

Hafsa: It's somewhat uncomfortable but yes.

Mason: I don't think so here.

Morrow: Great! There are two demonstration sites here. We are going to the first one here.
This is the zone that handles preventing tiberium from adversely impacting the performance of our equipment and people.
Sir, I would like to ask you: What allows us to operate vehicles in highly contaminated environments?

Hafsa: Advanced materials that resist tiberium assimilation and sonic emitters...?

Morrow: Yes! While we do not have any better materials available right now, we do have better sonic emitters. As you know, sonic micro emitters are used to neutralize any tiberium that lands on the vehicle or enters the filter. If the neutralization does not work, power can be increased to destroy the assimilated sections or retard the growth of the tiberium so that it may be dealt with later. The problem here is that due to the innate nature of the emitters, the allocation of sonic micro emitters is suboptimal from theory.

Take a look at this scale model of the ZOCOM variant of the MBT-6 on this table here. See all the highlighted areas here? Those are the micro emitters. The blue sections are for extra redundancy and to compensate for malfunctions or battle damage. Green represents those that are needed for normal operation. Yellow are the fallback emitters used when the others are undergoing recalibration. Red represents the deadloss from compensating for the variable nature of current micro emitters.

Now, the models on this table here represent possible micro emitter placement. This one here represents a conservative conversion. We managed to decrease the amount used here by 5%. This one here assumes that we can optimize the network extremely well. That version decreases the needed numbers by a quarter. Of course, that level of reduction is highly unlikely due to the need for redundant units.

Hafsa: I see. So we can make use of these to decrease the number of sonic micro emitter units needed for everything right? Mason, what do you think?

Mason: I can see quite a few benefits here. Even the mild decrease of micro emitters needed can help us further optimize the construction and outfitting process of our units. While the decrease in time and resources are negligible on a unit basis, the mild decrease of strain on our logistics can bring a decent amount of savings. Not enough to fund new initiatives, but enough to boost funding to a select few and still have effect.

Morrow: Right! This was part of the reason why we worked with your scientists and engineer on sonics.

Anyways, If you are wondering whether or not this works, we have two ZOCOM MBT-6 one which has the normal micro emitters and one that has the new ones. Stand back because we are about to challenge it with a tiberium spray here.

-----​

The three stepped back from the two vehicles that were about to be sprayed with a corrosive tiberium containing agent. The sprayer quickly turned on, spraying both for a couple of seconds and just as quickly shut off. Both vehicles looked wore for the wear but the level of damage was identical. After a while, the few areas that had pitting damage by the tiberium became apparent but both vehicle's network of micro emitters quickly purged the intruding tiberium. Once it became apparent that no further tiberium caused damage would occur, testing personnel quickly sterilized the area of any remaining active tiberium.

-----​

Now tell me which one is worse off. Which one do you think had the new micro emitters. Can you tell?

Hafsa: This one? I have no idea which one had which version of the micro emitters.

Morrow: Exactly! The one on the right had the new ones. Both tanks took similar damage but the number of micro emitters needed to replicate the same level of protection is the same.

Now, I have another demonstration for you. Come follow me.


As you can see, this area is for studying better ways to contain small tiberium outcroppings. As you are well aware, one of the key components that are used in the containment of tiberium is the sonic fence. It can generate a high amount of sonic energy along predefined paths to block the growth and passage of tiberium. It's sonic energy also prove useful for other purposes but that is not or focus today. Our focus is on how we can improve the containment while still remaining at budget.

One of the major costs of the sonic barrier is it's barrier generation. Current sonic barriers rely on the usage of specialized emitter arrays to project the associated sonic energy barrier. There are two primary designs. One makes use of medium sized sonic crystals to power the barriers via brute force and the other uses massive banks of micro emitters to make use of certain special interactions that permit higher sonic energy efficiencies in the barrier. The problem with the first is that it still makes use of strategic resources that could be used in other applications like a Zone Shatterer. The second method is inefficient in the number of micro emitters needed. As I explained earlier, the nature of the sonic crystals causes drift that can cause issues later on. For a vehicle that merely needs to project the sonic energy to at most a feet, the demands need are somewhat lower. For sonic barriers however, the specific interactions needed to create and sustain a barrier has far more restrictive drift tolerances, forcing the addition of at least 30% micro emitters to compensate.

Our new sonic emitters do not have such issues. The drift is lower than sonic crystal based micro emitters and is far more predictable, allowing for some compensations that increase the time needed before recalibration, allowing for lowered numbers. At the same time, the better reliability and predictability of the new sonic micro emitters allow for more advanced array designs allowing for more redundancy, further improving performance and reliability; both of which are critical for tiberium containment. At the same time, lowered emitter counts reduce power demand.

Now both of these posts have been tested for a long time and have been proven to successfully contain tiberium. Take a look at this post here. Ignore the emitters that are labeled black. Those are the self protection arrays for the barrier post. The arrays that you are interested in are painted in orange. The one to your left is the old design. See how a significant chunk of the post is filled with micro emitters. Now look at the one on the right. See how much we can reduce the array size? This helps make the mantience and power demands lower. Factoring in both the lower capital and recurring costs, this is a important cost saving that also permits better performance.

Hafsa: I'm sold on the idea. Mason, how much do you think could be saved here?

Mason.: Depending on the scale that these micro emitters can be rolled out, I would say any where from 2 billion to 10 billion can be saved over the lifetime of the vehicles and structures that these are implemented. This is not factoring in any of the other savings. One of those savings is the loss from need to carefully transport sonic crystal contain equipment everywhere. This could help us decrease the impact of ambushes which would have knock-on effects everywhere. I can not calculate the true savings here due to such factors.

Hafsa: So a decent chunk in change. Not enough to really change everything but this could help start the snow ball...
Morrow, I believe that GDI will be interested in bringing this technology to fruition.

----------​

Spoiler: A/N:

Don't ask about the negotiation. Suffice to say that some fair deal for both parties will be made.
The new micro emitters are better in some ways to the previous crystal based ones, and worse in other ways:
Crystal based emitters:

• Wide application(can create a wide array of different base modulations)
• Ready Pipeline(no need for investing capital)
• Arbitrary energy with good efficiency(electricity to sonic energy conversion)(if you need megawatt level(eg Shatterer level), this is your only real option)
• Rapid response(Need modulation one and then quickly switch to modulation 2? We can do it)
• Easier to create a basic design(still need to calibrate per crystal)

New micro emitters:

• Lowered cost per unit(when mass manufactured)
• Defined and known characteristics, no need for calibration
• Stable operation(minimal and predictable drift)
• Avoids usage of sonic crystals(strategic resource)
• Once you have a design, you can replicate the intended characteristics
• More resilient to impact(most of the time)

As for the savings, like Mason said, the overall savings will not be enough to fund new things but it can be used to boost the effectiveness of other initiatives.
PS: This series is not yet quite done. I have left the timeline ambiguous specifically so that the bonus could be used at any time.

EDIT:
Phew! I accidentally deleted my draft of the omake here lol. It was supposed to be up yesterday.

 

[cryptoam]

An Interesting Offer (1/?)

Secretary Abotts Mason: Sir, there is a proposal from one of the companies that is involved in our reclamation that I believe that you may want to take a look at.

Head of Requisitions, Jacob Hafsa: Great, another money grabbing proposal I'm guessing.

Abotts Mason: Well, not quite. This one is in regards to the use of the micro sonic inhibitors and the sonic barriers that we use to block the spread of tiberium on a local scale.
This company say that they can replicate the emitters without using any sonic crystals and that If they can mass manufacture them, the emitters would be cheaper than the current version due to not needing the crystals.

Jacob Hafsa: And which ones do they say they can replace?

Mason: Well, the emitters that they have are intended to either block tiberium encroachment onto vehicles and structures or be used in a novel mode to recreate our sonic repulsor barriers that we use to contain tiberium. For the static version they say that the novel mode can be used to fully block off any chance that the tiberium can spread via air. The saving that would be available are not much per usage but it would quickly add up in aggregate.

Hafsa: Really? Let me guess: they have the tech but it is very expensive to manufacture.

Mason: Yes to a degree. The said that making the necessary emitters are currently expensive but they have a plan to mass produce them cheaply. However, they need some funding to help defray the capital costs.

Hafsa: Well, I'm guessing that they are offering a demonstration and gave us contact information right? Which company are we talking about?

Mason: Yes, Vanguard Remediation is the company making the offer and they have one ready within this month.

Hafsa: Them? This should be somewhat interesting. Those people are always working on something. Most of the time they are beaten to the punch in releasing new tech to the markets but when they are first, that means that it is very close to full commercialization.
Contact them for me and schedule the demonstration for when I am free Mason. And thanks for letting me know about this.

Mason leaves

Hafsa: Interesting... Vanguard has been having some issues with cash flow recently. If this works, I could see them getting a reliable cash flow. Of course, this could be a attempt to get some money to help them recover from that. On the other hand, they always try to make sure that they having a working product and plan before they do things like this.

----------​

Spoiler: A/N:

Well, this makes my little foray into omake writing for this quest. I'll be slowly developing the little story arc here. Keep tuned to find out more!

Also, as for the intended final effects and cost of this innovation, I will say this:

1. The tech is nowhere close to being used for offensive purposes(eg replacing the sonic crystals in the Sonic Emitter defense or the Shatterer vehicle)
2. The cost isn't significant for GDI(eg there is no need for us to allocate resource. The company just needs enough to make create the first assembly line and they can handle bootstrapping the rest.) Depending on how the QM views the impact at the end, it might make the DC of various stages of remediation slightly lower.(@Ithillid please wait until this mini-series is done before deciding whether or not to do so.)
3. The micro emitters have a bunch of other uses at the cost levels that Vanguard can make them. There is a reason why they just want enough capital to construct/retool one assembly line.

 

[cryptoam]

ME:

Spoiler: Saving space

OP-01: Target Sighted. Transmitting Coordinates
FOB-01: Coordinates Received.
OP-01: Requesting O-MK:AE bombardment to prep area.
FOB-01: ACK O-MK:AE. Ranging Shot Out.
OP-01: Readjust North 30 meters.
FOB-01: ACK 30 meters North
OP-01: Target Hit. Fire For Effect until Cancel.
FOB-01: ACK F O E until Cancel. Commencing. Cancel Code is 813470
OP-01: ACK. Cancel Code Fingerprint 5.
FOB-01: Out.

Time to continue the bombardment lol.

Logistics and Goals (2/?)


"Yes. Wait, why my team? Ok, I understand
How long do I have in order to get my team?
Wait, why this much urgency? Is it due to the-
Oh.. Beating the competition. Got it.
Yeah, I can start getting the group together- Listen. There is a reason why WE are called the Special Delivery group. We can do it.
Wait, you are not saying- WTH are they thinking? That's exactly the sort of thing that slows down the process. Yes, I get that the cross pollination across the Vanguard Family is key to the process but this many people in the group working on a single RWS family is not how you get to a MVP quickly. At least not without issues.
Well, that's why... Can't be too surprised at this."

Lubna Huges ended the call. One of the down sides of being recognized as part of the vaunted Special Delivery "group" was that you could be called upon by the company to any project that they deemed you neccesary. Oh sure it paid more than the majority of the other jobs available and the benefits were great but when the company called, you had to listen.

They did try to make sure that an issues or disruptions were minimized if not outright reduced. After all, burning out the type of people that were "in" the Special Delivery group would quickly blunt the primary competitive advantage of Vanguard. That was why the leadership always tried to prevent the bullshit from external factors like the shareholders from screwing things up. Unfortunately, when the shareholders pushed hard, the company had to give in somewhere. And the new project, Project Crow Nest was the sacrificial pig. The shareholders were pushing hard to see what new streams of revenue the company was looking at and quickly tried to turn the entire project into a cash cow, nevermind doing so would destroy Vanguard Defense and by association all Vanguard Enterprises associated corporations reputations.

And that was where she came in. She would have to take over the project and help curtail any excesses that was being forced into the project, using her expertise to push back against the shareholder's plan. But in order to do so, she would need to call on some friends. Thankfully, Vanguard's policy of assisting cross pollination across the network allowed her to get contacts. One would be vital: Gerrad Small. He had knowledge over the hardware side of systems like remote weapons stations while she had knowledge on the firmware and software. Together, they could take control and get the job done well.

"Hi, this is Huges here."
"Oh hi Hughes, what's the issue? You generally don't call unless-
Don't tell me. Someone fucked up on one of the projects that you ae handling?"
"Kinda. You are aware on how shareholders have been breathing on our necks to get new cash flows and subtly pushed us to try and find ways to get more? Especially using methods that would cause the development of things to become bloated and let us drag it out, allowing us to draw more funding? Well, they managed to find Project Crow Nest, which is for development of new RWS for GDI and are trying to bloat it."
"Fuck. That's going to backfire on us."
"Yep. Fucking Corporate. The moment that the investor know, they insist on slapping all sorts of sensors and shit on stuff to bump up the fucking price for price gouging GDI. That's not the way we do things."
"So you need me to act as an expert to help corral things and push back right?"
"Yep. The project has already started and it does not look good."
"Well, we may as well earn our paychecks. I'm in."

Spoiler: A/N:

The Special Delivery group are like IBM notorious Black Team. They are the ones that Vanguard recognizes have a high synergy with each other and are most of the times highly capable specialist or generalists. It is thanks to these people that Vanguard Enterprise and it's associated companies are capable of meeting it's goals. Of course, the process is extremely expensive and takes time which is why it's shareholders tend to be fairly skittish. Yes, the company has managed to be fairly profitable but the nature of the company does present enough risk that if the company doe not keep a steady net positive cash flow and continue innovating, things will rapidly deteriorate. The investor are scared of that.

As for Project Crow Nest, it has been forcibly modified by the shareholders. Let's see how the two will corral the project.

 

[cryptoam]

and some kind of flechette sabot or fused airbursting round for the Zone Troopers would give them a lot more effectiveness against infantry.

Click to shrink...

Let's just say that Vanguard Enterprises can deliver!
The ammunition that is being sold here is possible, i's just that you need to get the shells manufactured well enough to not have issues with the high jerk(an actual physics term) from railgun launches.

A random Vanguard Defense Sales Rep: Welcome, GDI officials. As we all know, we are no longer for the moment facing near or peer adversaries. Instead, we are handling various attacks from various sources that do not require a railgun shot to handle. Such targets would be better served by a specialized round that is intended for anti-personnel and structure/obstacle clearance. Unfortunately, we are limited by the fact that the majority of our vehicles only have two types of weapons:

1. Guns that have limited range and less effect.
2. Railguns/canons that have long range but are not as effective at taking out threats that we are facing now.

A common strategy that was used involved a specialized munition that could use specialized multi-mode fuses and payload designs to easily generalize to such roles while saving a section of the ammunition loadout for tougher targets.

The problem here is that all of our longer ranged weapons have a costly guidance system or subject the shell to sufficiently high forces that makes the previous shell designs insufficiently reliable.

However, we here at Vanguard Defense have used our expertise in manufacturing high precision and reliability components to bring you both the AP-Frag and the HEDP rounds, fully compatible with any railgun/cannon that you may have in your inventory.

Let's show them off!

Okay. Here, we have both the MBT-6 Predator and it's variant with the railgun. Traditionally, the ammo had a limited impact on enemy personnel that had some degree of spacing from each other. The normal variant could use it's specialized fragmentation rounds but such rounds were relatively useless against vehicles and the burst was limited. The railcannon is not able to use such rounds at all due to the high forces that would break or otherwise make the fuse unreliable and would have to rely on after effects to do area damage. With our AP-Frag shell though, we can use the same shell type and successfully engage enemy personnel. Let's see it in action.

FIRE!

-----​

The first tank fired it's shell. The crew already has selected the intended target type and configured the fuse settings, namely enemy personnel and prox airburst. The round was automatically configured for it's role via a direct connection. Then the chemical propellants were ignited by the primer. As the shell was accelerated, the shock broke a membrane, finally enabling a small battery to start working. At the same time , a small capacitor that was sustaining the fuse was about to give out, having been drained after it was no longer being charged by the vehicle. The small battery took over the power supply and the first microelectronic component was enabled. It rapidly went through it's response, and decided that there was no need to engage it's contingency settings. The microchip then sent the shell into hibernation for a millisecond as a safety measure to prevent fratricide. After the hibernation, the microchip handed control over to another microchip, one that handled the proximity airburst fuse. It rapidly enabled the local radar and distance measurement systems, engaging ECCM at the same time to prevent hostile interference from predestinating the shell.*

The shell went for a additional second and a half, with the onboard sensors not detonating the shell into an airburst yet. However, at 2.1 seconds, the proximity fuse detected that It would quickly impact a surface and detonated the shell.

The shell's fragments were carefully designed to explicitly cause the maximum damage to any target that was unfortunate enough to be insufficiently protected. At close ranges, the impact would be equivalent to multiple 50 caliber rounds impacting a general area. The fragments tore into the environment, badly damaging the local witness plats and ballistic gel dummies. None would've survived the explosion.

The next tank fired. Normally, the shock of the railcannon would've badly damaged the fusing mechanism, causing the fuse to be unreliable. However, Vanguard Defense's design prevented the shock from adversely affecting the shell, permitting it to function identically to it's copy.

-----​

And would you look at that! Both tanks have managed to "hit" and kill their targets from a very long distance. I guarantee you that the radius of impact is far larger than any of your previous shells.

And as for HEDP, well; let's see. We have set up a variety of common fortifications and obstacles that you may want to engage form a distance.

COMMENCE FIRING!

-----​

Both tanks started firing at their assigned targets. The HEDP shell functioned similarly to the previously fired AP-Frags.

The first set of targets were simple sandbags and Hesco barriers. After the first impact, it was apparent that those would not save the unfortunate soul that were depending on those for cover. Six ballistic gel test dummies were badly mangled.

The next set had lightly armored vehicles, with both the integrated(normal) armor and improvised armor. It was quickly apparent that such armor could not prevent the vehicles from being oneshotted.

Antitank fortifications and obstacles were the next set. The dragons teeth were quickly demolished and any possible blockage was quickly reduces to rubble.

Finally a set of fortified structures were attacked. Each one was badly damaged, with the armored dummies killed.

-----​

And that is the HEDP round!

Now there are probably some questions that you may be asking.
First, how difficult are these shells to integrate into my vehicles and how easy is it to use the shells?
We have a wide variety of low footprint modifications ready for any vehicle that is compatible with our shell sizes. Such modifications can be rapidly done in the field. We modified the two MBT-6 Predators within 3 hours. Our test crews here had no prior significant training with the rounds. They were quickly trained for the same three hours that we used to modify the tanks and with the help of our modifications and the smart nature of the rounds, they managed to effectively engage the targets that you seen here.
Secondly, how much do these modifications cost?
Well, thanks to the fact that the vehicles had a FCS already, the needed components were minimal and it was very cheap to retrofit them. If you do not have a FCS on your weapons, we also have a low cost addition to remedy that and enable the modification to happen.
Third, how much do the rounds cost?
Thanks to our proprietary manufacturing techniques, we managed to create these rounds for the same price your normal rounds.
Finally, how reliable are these rounds?
You don't need to ask. You already know how we test any prospective gear or product that we sell to you. These are already tested for drop, temperature resistance including rapid cyclic changes, EMP, and many other adverse environments or conditions.

Thanks for coming to our demonstration. You may now take a look at our targets and the impact that our rounds have made. I and some of the engineering team members will be around to help answer any questions that you may have.

----------​

Spoiler: A/N:

So, that's my sales pitch lol.
This should give you a hint on how Vanguard Enterprises generally functions.
As for how these work, well let's just say that a bunch of enhancements to manufacturing of electronic components allowed for highly ruggedized electronics that could survive the forces involved. Advances in battery technology also allowed for the supply of on demand power when needed.

*The shell acts like a VT fuse from WW2 except advances in microelectronics and antennae design allow for better accuracy and ECCM as to prevent a special jammers from causing the shell to detonate prematurely. Of course, there are jammers that can do so but such things have a limited time to act and are very large(vehicle mounted). Large enough and complex enough that it would be difficult for a peer threat to reliably defeat the shells.
EDIT: If you want a source, here you go: Proximity Fuze Jamming - W.W. Salisbury (smecc.org)

PS: Feel free to ask me how these would work. There is a reason why the sales rep did offer to answer any question that remain.
PPS: Please comment. Us omake writers need feedback to improve.

 

[cryptoam]

Soo... I was watching some battlefield 4 and the UAV reminded me of IRL military drones in development.
This sparked the idea of disposable drones for GDI to use for all sorts of purpose. I also didn't want Vanguard to hoard all the new stuff that I created in my omake. So, let's see what ideas our (not yet existing) start up has.
Soo.... I present:
A Start (1/???):

Peder Rebekka looked up from his table. Soldering and assembling components in the aerospace lab was getting monotonous. Sure, the various ideas that he was implementing were novel and the process was difficult and worthy of the grants that the lab was getting. However, just designing and validating new designs like various control schemes or drones for the his field was getting boring. The relatively low pay didn't help either.

"Vanghaun, are you done with the code yet? I'm done with the assembly here."
"Almost there. I'm still trying to work out why the telemetry keeps cutting out after a minute randomly. It looks like a memory leak or something here. The damn code can be a little temperamental."
"Did you check to make sure that you are using the latest version of the telemetry library? They did release a patch to fix various leaks and other problems."
*Thwack*"No... What day is today?"
"Patch Friday of course for the relevant library. Let me guess, you forgot?"
"Yep. Why do they release the library if it's still somewhat unstable at times?"
"Because they wanted to create demand for their hardware and have people find bugs and improve the code? The same reason why quite a few companies do the same thing?"
"True, that is a compelling reason. Oh, and the patch has been applied, recompiling... and now let's see of the problem reoccurs."

Vanghaun quickly turned around from her seat and looked over the assembled drone. The drone was the latest attempt by them to create a small man portable drone that had the ability to conserve power for a long time as needed. Ideally they would've been able to drastically speedup the design and testing process by using known components and code. However, the goal of their current research was to demonstrate the effectiveness of using multiple different power modes for the drone allowing it to switch power between flight and computationally heavy tasks. Unfortunately the demands that the old telemetry system had forced the main processor to continuously wake up, obviating the entire point of the new design.

Still, it was a marvel how they could manage to pack all the components in the design. High energy density lithium phosphate batteries were used as ballast in key sections to help balance the drone. At the same time, the heavy(as in the level of computation, not weight) computational components were successful fitted into a small form factor amenable to carrying and storage in the deployment tube. The engine for the drone was also a thing to marvel. The high efficiency and powerful motor allowed the craft to carry itself or a long distance while the specially designed fold out wings reduce the drone's footprint while giving it great lift and glide capabilities. None of the design could've been done without careful design and testing of prototypes.

"Hmm. What do you think Peder? Think this time the drone won't suffer a hard failure due to the main controller being locked up?"
"Your the one responsible for that this time. I've been busy assembling the entire thing and validating all of the connections."
"You are right about that. Anyways, it appears that your suggestion has worked. The software hasn't crashed yet in simulation. Time to see of this will fly for longer without entering a deadlock."
"Same here.
Uhh, it's getting late now. Why do they not pay us overtime?"
"Because it's not part of our contracts?"

 

[Vehrec]

InOps report: Brotherhood Tiberium Harvesting procedures and post-harvesting hazards.

The capture of a number of NOD harvesters and Tiberium refineries during the war showed a number of curious facts which InOps at the time marked as 'interesting but irrelevant'. These facts were primarily related to the fact that, despite a substantially smaller Tiberium storage area than the GDI equivalent, the NOD harvester produced about the same per-hour resources as it's counterpart. In theory, this should not have been possible-NOD's harvester was smaller, and has to make more trips to gather the same amount of material-how was this achieved? In practice, it was put down to higher speed of harvesting, with the Nod machine being noted as a 'messy eater' that spread small shards of Tiberium everywhere, which may have been part of.

Upon further examination, more strangeness was found-high radiation levels in NOD refineries, toxic chemicals in effluent and runoff near refineries, sickness in troops who did not use respirators in these facilities, mutations in local populations far above the background rate, and other facts inconsistent with standard refineries used by GDI or NOD in the past. While some radiation was attributable to stealth fields, nothing like the recorded doses should have been possible.

The defection of several elite NOD members has finally cleared up several points. Most notably, rather than use GDI's standard Mobius Process of Tiberium refining, NOD has developed a new, highly tunable yeild, refining process, named Abdul-Pascal-Kane for it's three creators. This APK process is able to be adjusted on the fly compared to the Mobius process per unit of Tiberium, producing exactly the materials needed for NOD's construction efforts. Though it uses smaller, more complex reaction vessels, APK is a bit quicker overall, and importantly, produces a witch's brew of toxic compounds-including trace amounts of bio-activated Tiberium, radioactive isotopes, heavy metals, and simply tiny amounts of unreacted Tiberium suspended in this waste slurry. This process is started long before the Tiberium reaches the facility, as even pre-refinement departs significantly from the Mobius process and produces 'hot' waste. Inside the refinery, the APK process produces the needed elements via a controlled collapse of the proton lattice of Tiberium, reaching conversion efficiencies as high as 70%. This reaction is intensely radioactive, and can only be done inside special lead-clad reactors as a result. The reaction vessels also burn out quickly, needing monthly replacement in standard field Refineries lest the background radiation inside the facility rise so high even cyborgs would not be able to work there.

InOps has two separate recommendations from this information: First, we should begin a propaganda campaign about the dangers of NOD harvesters in the Yellow Zones, to educate the residents and lower trust in the Brotherhood. While not the literal smoking gun of the Greg Burdette Studio Outtakes reel, this will serve to drive people away from NOD. Secondly, new disposal and shutdown requirements for NOD refineries are being prepared as quickly as we can distribute them to our Engineers, as we recommend that field commanders avoid destroying refineries unless absolutely necessary. The destruction of a refinery is a catastrophic release of toxic materials even discounting the partly digested Tiberium which will reform into crystals with anything it comes into contact with-including human flesh, GDI hardware, and local terrain. A controlled shutdown and disposal process to liquidate NOD assets is certainly preferred to such an eccological disaster, even in Yellow or Red zones.

 

[BOTcommander]

Next Part in my series of semi high quality shitposts from GD4Chan. (Not mine, only slightly modified it. Source in the bottom left corner.)

 

[BoSPaladin]

Omake: Project Purity

[ ] Personal Water Purification Units

Blue zone 2: North American eastern seaboard. Y-6 Border, Camp Echelon. GDI Local police report to local military commander. 02:16 hours local time.

From: Acting Police Chief Jesse Rodriguez.

To: Whoever the fuck is reading these things, assuming it's not just getting filed away in a spam bin by some piece of shit glitching EVA unit. (Redirected to Lieutenant Cmdr Banks)

I've reported this issue multiple times to mid level bureaucrats sitting with their thumbs up their asses and got zero response. I'll say it again simply. There is a confirmed Nod Asset preaching. To both yellow zone refugees and GDI citizens, maybe you guys sat in Washington don't remember but we used to be a blue zone too. And right now GDI citizens are being preached to by a Nod extremist. A known Brother of the Black Hand. I don't have the manpower or firepower to take down one of those flame-throwing pyromaniac zealots. Our department is stretched thin, all our Swat 're-positioned' to defend your precious 'key individuals' from either Nod terrorists or goddamn aliens and they've still not been replaced. Half our regular guys conscripted and the officers we have left either too injured, too sick, too half trained or too elderly to handle what is a clear military threat.

We're civilians. Get some soldiers out here to handle this.

Fuckwads.

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Y-6 InOps field office. Agent Rosie Griffin

She grimaced as her screen pinged softly with the notification of yet another high priority message, flagged through the logging of several key words. A quick skim of the e-mail and the accompanying intel file on the brother had her sigh heavily. Career black hand, a convert from the GDI blue zones, recipient of structural and chemical engineering degree's. One of GDI's best, son of a well off couple, fell in with the wrong crowd at college, volunteered with a mercy mission to the yellow zones, and somewhere along the line, indoctrinated to Nod's belief system, that GDI was the cause of the state of the world and the horrific inequality that all too often contributed to the gaping rifts between what used to be blue zone luxury, and yellow zone third world conditions.

Brother David had collected his degree's disappeared off the grid, and reappeared several years later, putting his keen scientific mind, charisma and religious fervour to use and soaring through the ranks of Nods Black Hand. Recruiting the disenfranchised inhabitants of the yellow zones, supplying bombs for their crazed suicide bombers, often drawn from those worst afflicted by tiberium poisoning and terminal illnesses, and sent to fight and die, giving their lives for the cause. Brother David personally could be tied to over a dozen Nod operations, either integral to the planning stages, helping supply some components, or leading combat missions directly at the head of nods militia's.

Tipped to perhaps rise through the ranks. Instead, that had all fallen apart with the splintering of Nod and Kane's latest supposed death. And now here he was, right under their very noses recruiting once more.

It wasn't hard to gain authorisation with inops clearance. Rank tore through a whole mess of red tape. Requisition some infantry squads and an apc. Set up a fictitious 'arrest' to extract a medical professional from their yellow zone lodgings to recruit into a blue zone clinic with better accomodations and rations for herself and her family, under the guise of the medic being a Nod sympathist and Rosie then had a reason for GDI units to park outside a crumbling apartment block that had a clear line of sight to the market square where Brother David liked to preach.

The 'police' operation was textbook. GDI rapid response booting down a door, tying bags over the heads of the doctor and her family, and extracting them to the apc for 'interrogation' and to start their new lives. Meanwhile, their apartment was secured for several hours to gather evidence and ensure there was no bomb threat. Typical GDI police state stuff that no-one would bat an eyelid at.

For dealing with the Black Hand agent himself though? He liked to act as a stallholder for cover, selling black market food and other luxuries to his fellow refugee's in an area that was quickly becoming a slum of canvas tents and hastily thrown up instacrete bungalows, all centred around a mess of stalls.

The press of bodies, people going about their business, buying food, working, some merely mingling with little work available. Rosie had to identify and point out the agent herself. Field work, of which she wasn't totally unfamiliar with. Go to slum, point out Black Hand operative. Snipers shoot him. Either a senseless tragedy perpetrated by Nod terrorists murdering an innocent man, or a precise GDI operation to remove the head of a dangerous Nod Terror cell plotting an attack, depending on which way PR decided to spin.

Rosie walked through the market, meandering, belonging, trudging her feet, she didn't even have to hide the handgun she was carrying, a little scuffed from use, but in a former american territory and what was now a yellow zone few people gave a second glance to an armed woman. More guns than people, wasn't that the statistic? She wasn't sure exactly how the numbers shook out nowadays with nods efforts to arm sleeper cells and random militia's along with the flourishing black market, but guns weren't an uncommon sight, even, here and there stallholders with rifles hanging from straps. Theoretically they needed a permit, in practice there wasn't enough police to enforce that law, and letting the merchants shoot thieves themselves helped keep crime low.

On the other hand, not everyone had a gun, so the scattering of rough looking muggers and streetgangs gave her a once over and decided to ignore her in favour of easier targets. Slightly dirty, bedraggled, torn clothing, messy hair, armed. She could have passed for any blue-zone young professional toughened up by the harsh circumstances. Blending in, it was a talent.

"Food for the hungry! And good news for the faithful! Fear not the great, green crytal!" The recruiter called from not far away. The crush of bodies had grown so tight she'd heard David before she saw him, even though this was known to be his frequent location. A suprisingly average looking man, somewhat in need of a shave with a short brown beard. His face held expressive eyes, moviestar good looks and a welcoming smile. Exactly why he was a Nod Propaganda piece and recruiter.

"Eyes on?" Rosie whispered voice low, her comment lost in the crowd amidst the hustle and bustle of hawkers, street vendors and chatters.

"Affirmative." A voice crackled in her earpiece. The sniper team had a clear line of vision to her. From here it was simple. She walked up to the Black Hand priests stall, bought something, and walked away. Brother David would then be executed as soon as the sniper team had a clear shot.

Pressing closer the crowd were refusing to budge, each refugee and hungry citizen staking their place in line to the free food and water that the brotherhood recruiter was handing out on this impromptu sunday mass. Seeing no way to approach without raising suspicion Rosie resigned herself to waiting as she focused on David's words for any intel of worth beyond the usual Nod Rhetoric.

"But you question, I hear you! Is not Tiberium the cause of our misery? It is a trial to be endured yes, causing suffering. But to those who hold it's secrets it contains all the answers we seek! Has not GDI grown rich through the harvesting of the bounty of resources the crystal provides? Limitless energy, durable materials, advanced engines. All this and more the crystal provides for those who truly understand it and can use it."

"It's poisoning people!" One man yelled angrily. His words causing an angry mumble throughout the crowd. "We don't want it!"

A flicker of agreement echoed throughout the crowd, though more than a few glared stonily at the man interrupting the brothers sermon. Though for his part David accepted the man's words with a nod.

"Indeed, as the Prophet foretold the crystal giveth but equally so it taketh away. With the illness it brings it also holds the key to medicines and perhaps the next step in human enhancement. Not only cures for mundane sickness, but the eradication of impurities in the genome. To not see our loved ones whittled away by cancers, or their minds ravaged by Alzheimers. All this and more the crystal holds. Medicines such as these." David finished holding up several bottles of pills.

Finished with his sermon folks stepped forwards to receive care packages. Food, water, and where needed medicine. The nod operative gently conversing with his followers and occasionally imparting advice. For boiling water and cooking food, everything from promises to help shore up a rickety wall to agreeing to fix the engine for a workers van. Call it what you would, favours, barter, charity even. It amounted to the same, indebting innocent people to the brotherhood, only for those debts to be called in at the cost of their lives.

Rosie almost lost track of time, near the back of the cue her ordeal was almost over, a small pair of orphan children being rewarded with MRE's and candy, likely 'lost' or stolen from a GDI supply depot. The priest exhorting them to study and work hard, and ruffling their hair before shooing them away to go and play.

Affecting a nervous smile Rosie approached the Brother, playing the part of someone seeking out aid like so many others only to stop in her tracks at the broad shouldere mans rich chuckle.

"Here to kill me agent?" He asked in amusement, nigh equal parts curious as he regarded her with a soft smile.

Rosie didn't hesitate. Straightening her back to face him head on. Her team had her covered and she was armed besides. She'd dealt with worse than an unarmed fugitive showing her his open palms.

"Any reason I shouldn't Brother David?" She asked acidly. The man seeming pondering her question with serious thought.

"Perhaps not." The man admitted. "If this is the Penance God hath decreed for my crimes I pay it willingly. Though please, just David shall do. Without our Prophet to lead us our Holy Order has fallen into the hands of wicked warmongers and false idols. The Brotherhood I love is no more."

"And this is your penance? A handful of ration packs paying back for a lifetime of what, sin?" Rosie snorted.

"Call it regrets perhaps." The tall priest allowed. "I dedicated my life to a cause that aimed for the betterment of all humanity, to lift us all out of the dirt. Alas, we are left instead, with merely dragging down your blue zones to something approaching our level."

"Regrettable only in that you didn't destroy GDI entirely." Rosie countered.

"Perhaps." He said softly. "Yet here we stand with the Brotherhood shattered and innocents left to suffer. Do what you have to agent." David murmured.

Damn it. Damn him. Damn her. All she had to do was touch him or say the word and she could put this quiet zealot behind her. A fifty cal sniper round straight through his eye, clean, no collateral damage. As textbook white in this world of grey that things ever got. And yet.

"Damn it." She cursed, her thoughts flashing to the small, hungry looking children. It wouldn't be the first nod turncoat afterall. "What do you need? These people. They're sick. How many, how much food, water, what medicines?"

The Nod operative didn't react other than to slowly blink and size her up. "Need? Well, there's enough food, even if people mislike the rations starvation isn't truly a problem. No, far greater an issue is the waters of life. Too many drink contaminated water or go thirsty too often. Medicines only help so much, an ounce of prevention being so much cheaper and easier than any hope of a cure."

Doable, rosie calculated. Her local InOps cell had supplies in storage mothballed. Steel talon water purifiers for redzone missions that were either out of date or likely wouldn't be used with how close the division was to being disbanded totally. There was also the early successes with other nod defectors in other regions....

"Water purifiers. Okay. I think we can do that." Rosie allowed. "At least help a little."

"Every life saved is a blessing." Brother David agreed.

"But I need your word. If you really are trying to make the world a better place... Not one step back. We help you and you're GDI from now on. We defend the world. Nod are the ones that put us into this situation in the first place."

"So be it." The priest accepted with a nod of his head. "You have my word Sister."

 

[kelgar04]

A bit of a short Omake.

Omake= Refits

Able Company, 2nd Regiment, GDI 7th Armoured Brigade Tank Refit Depot, Cottesmore, Rutland

The bay was alive with activity as members of the attached mechanics. Engineering sections moved throughout the bay, working on the Predator tanks as the orders came down from on high to begin the process of preparing their tanks to be modified to have the Railgun become the standard armament for the GDI armoured forces. They were among the first wave to receive the refit kits for their tanks.

Right now, from where she stood Corporal Lisa Pratt as she took her scheduled break with a cup of coffee in hand that several crews were in various stages of pulling the old 152mm smoothbore and starting to work at fitting in the new Railguns with the Tankers helping fit it to their rides. Though she saw the advantages of the 152mm, she had to say she was glad to have the additional power of the new Railguns. It made it more likely that the tanks would come back in one piece at the end of the day.

She grimaced as she downed her coffee and headed back to her bay as she replayed the memories of the Third war. The 7th Brigade had been able to hold their own at the start of the war and then go on the offensive afterwards and then took part in the fighting in New Eden against the Scrin. But the number of Predators and their crews that had been lost had been staggering even with infantry support. She had seen what Avatar Warmechs and whatever the Scrin called their Tanks tear open and gut various predator while. Heck, she had only been a mechanic, but in the Third War, she had seen more conflict than she ever expected being a mechanic, but the Noddies and the Bugs didn't care about your status.

Grunting, she picked up her pace as she jogged back to the tank she had been working on that the crew called 'Spam can' for some reason that still escaped her even now. As she opened her toolbox, she took her pad from the desk and scanned through the notes she had been taking while removing the old 152mm and installing the railgun.

Right now, they were hooking up; they had fit in the new rail gun and were busy hooking in the power supply and monitoring system for the weapon and the autoloader. The whole thing was very plug, and play which made it a friendly system to work with at the very least. The problem they were having right now though, was they were having now was after hooking it up, they would have to run diagnostics to make sure nothing was wrong. The last thing she wanted to do was send a tank out with something that could crop up and cause it to get wrecked.

She looked up and saw the three other members of her team had gathered around her, and we're pulling out their tool kits.

"Ok, people," she said, "let's get back at it, Harrison; you start working on hooking up the adaptors to the engine, Lucis I want you to help me on hooking up the autoloader and gun stabiliser and Lefferts, I want you checking the fittings are all down tight then assist Harrison."

"Yes Corporal," they said as they dived back into working on the 'Spam Can'.