Strunkriidiisk
THE LEGEND
- Location
- Canada
- Pronouns
- He/Him
No, Sarajevo is easily within reach to have been abated to Blue Zone in the interim.
Attempting to Fulfill the Plan: GDI Edition
Strunkriidiisk
THE LEGEND
- Location
- Canada
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Rebuild, no. But the massive fuckoff crater that precipitated the changes that led to this situation makes for a poignant symbol.
- Location
- Outside the Box
- Pronouns
- She/Her
The decryption key is "Sincerely, Kane" in several different languages.
Q4 2065 Results
- Location
- The Underdark
GDI Online Q4 2065
Hi, its Kane, Ask Me Anything!
AccomplishingProvidence
Yes indeed, my children, as both the photographic and video evidence prove for you, I am indeed Kane, First of His Name, Prophet, Messiah, and Leader of the Brotherhood of Nod.
A new era is dawning on this scarred planet, an era in which mankind shall finally achieve true mastery of Tiberium, and what was once a weed shall become a crop, and what was once a fallow field shall become a garden.
Rest assured, I have already opened discussions with the leadership of GDI-yes yes, Mod-bots, I know you're trying to ban me, stop it please-so this is not their first inkling of the matter.
But while the leaders of a nation are important, so too are her people! And what a people you are, having helped transform GDI from a creaking, groaning edificial monument to the worst imperialistic excesses of the 20th Century, into something that could truly usher your people into the galactic stage one day.
So! To celebrate all of these momentous happenings, I have decided to give you all the gift…of me! I had thoughts to preserve this moment for a time down the road, but the thought of not being able to have an open conversation with you all burdened my heart, so here we are.
Ask and I shall answer, within the bounds of reason. Naturally things like military movements or state secrets are right out, and I reserve the right to simply decline to answer. And any silly nonsense like "why won't you just die" will be rightfully ignored. But questions that are genuine, even if "petty"? I shall endeavor to do my best, though I humbly beg of your patience as I am a man called upon for many things.
FloatingWood
… What?
Alright, I'm going to wait a while until the moderators either deal with the obviously hacked account or permaban Providence for being too stupid to live for pretending to be Kane.
YellowZon3r
Not movements. But. I do want to know. Secret Red zone bases. Yes or no?
KneeDeepInTheTib
I've got a question, sure. What in the unholy everloving fuck was the purpose of building a gigantic L-Tib reservoir under Temple Prime, oh glorious Messiah? That blast cost me my entire fucking family.
YellowZon3r
See, we actually already know that from the Qatarites. Big Tiberium boom to call the aliens.
Step 2 was beat them up for tech.
KneeDeepInTheTib
I want to hear it from the man himself.
Se3We3dFa4m3r
Forget secret RZ bases. Is Nod Atlantis real?
InTheZONE
So I've got a lot of questions but most would just lead to me wanting to murder you even more than usual. I'm gonna stick with this one, was this really the best you could do? I mean, thousands of years old, charismatic enough to manipulate your way into positions of power in numerous governments, obviously someone who plans ahead and what, you just figured you'd start a bunch of wars to kill billions? You had no better plan?
GDIWife
Reynaldo attacked schools and hospitals with buzzer swarms, murdering hundreds of innocent people including children. Was he acting according to your wishes then and would you be willing to see him brought to justice for his crimes?
AccomplishingProvidence
#FloatingWood : No games on this subject, my friend. This is, as the younger generations say, "for real".
#YellowZon3r: An excellent ploy based on my momentary wording, but I think we both know this isn't something I would share here.
#KneeDeepInTheTib: I take no enjoyment or undue pride, but #YellowZon3r is correct. The triggering of a Liquid Tiberium deposit explosion was necessary to bring in the Visitor force at a time when this planet could still fight them. I had not necessarily anticipated the…ferocity of the explosion, but the choice was between that, or the entire planet doing the same thing in a century or less. Nod and GDI alike lost many that day, but the species survives. It was akin to having to excise an aggressive tumor; damage was done in the name of preserving more.
#SeWe3dFa4m3r: I appreciate the legalistic interpretation of my wording but I am afraid I must decline to answer in any particular manner.
#InTheZone: Let me ask you this: do you think the initial presence of Tiberium was my plan?
#GDIWife: I certainly never ordered anyone to attack schools especially, though I'm sure you understand that my Warlords have much discretion. As for hypothetical trials, I think you'll understand that such discussions are not something that would occur here of all places. However, I would leave you with this question in return: How swift should the justice be for "rogue" GDI military personnel who ruthlessly attack and hunt columns of refugees from Nod-controlled areas, and/or do not discriminate where their own bombs fall?
Tom Smith
Mr. Kane, why are you bald like my dad? Daddy says only old people go bald, but you don't look old!
AccomplishingProvidence
#Tom Smith: I shave my head. I've tried a lot of hairstyles over the years. Currently I appreciate the sentiment of "bald is handsome". Your father has good taste in hair styles. And yes, I am old. Very old, even.
YellowZon3r
Kane. I've never really been a believer in 'you' personally. As you can tell from my background. I grew up under Nod controlled territory. Did my part. GDI's borders rolled over us and in the absence of anything better to do ended up doing the same job as a harvester pilot for GDI for a while. Then enlisted to be able to go beat back the red zones as much as I could help. Too… 'yellow' shall we say to be trusted to join the likes of Zocom. But. I grew up listening to the radio and the speeches about GDI's greed, I guess my question is, what would you say about the state of GDI today? The way it tries to serve it's people, and those who were brought (or sent) into it such as a number of old folks. That's my question I guess.
DrownedInTheBlue
Okay, I understand You are a leader of a nation and all that, But i Have To ask.
Why cyborgs? there had to be better options, Like you have a fanatical base, why did you need to remove Like half their brain? Surely Power armor or heaven forbid Tib Mutation would have been better? At least then you weren't taking away free will… So… Why?
AccomplishingProvidence
#YellowZon3r: Would it shock you to say that the GDI of today, the one largely shaped by the iron wills of Secretary and Director Grangers, is one that is not overly dissimilar from the rough drafts I worked out decades ago with my inner circles? It's honestly been a pleasant shock, I'm more than a bit proud of how far you've come. The periods of peace that have happened in the last several years are largely owed to how GDI isn't a festering cesspool of heartless, soulless, neo-liberal capitalistic greed, profiteering, and mindless expansion. What is true today for GDI was not true when you were but a child.
#DrownedInTheBlue: My children who volunteered, before or after death, to serve in that capacity, do so well before viable power armor was more than a laboratory pipe dream. Tiberium Mutation, especially at the time, was too unpredictable. The gardens being tended by my children now are, while not tame, better understood by us all, as well as the fruits of the labors there. If you're asking me if I, we, would do the exact same thing today, then likely not. But then again, I'm reasonably confident GDI has been moving away from requiring that their grenadiers have a minor in discus throwing, as well. Time marches on.
YellowZon3r
Yeaahh… The little AI grenades were great. Knew someone who reprogrammed them to chirp and play little songs. Shame the grenadier specialisation has mostly moved to 203's.
FloatingWood
Claiming that GDI is or was a monument to the imperialism of the 20th century is… not entirely inaccurate but to do so in a way that implies Nod wasn't and isn't guilty of the same and worse is quite rich. Across the world, Nod merely absorbed and continued the terror campaigns of old, established terrorism networks and governments, pioneering a hybrid warfare of subverted citizens blowing up hospitals, bus stations and stadiums while soldiers in the black and red murder entire towns at a time.
For all of GDI's sins, it does not praise those who should have known better in their target selection.
I suppose asking you to condemn those that do is too much… but will you stop them from doing any such future attacks?
AccomplishingProvidence
#YellowZon3r: Mankind is so delightfully inventive sometimes.
#FloatingWood: We are not sinless. But one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. Terrorism to some is asymmetrical warfare to others. This excuses and absolves nothing, but the world is shades of grey and green, rather than black and white and red. And GDI has more than a few bombs that have landed on weddings, never mind Ion Cannon strikes on barely-armed Islamic pilgrim convoys, for the crimes of having occurred in Yellow Zones. I'm past interest in who cast the first stone, but rather more in if we shall find a way to cast the last amongst mankind.
Stones among the stars are a matter for another day…
CatQueen
First a very important question: Cats or Dogs?
Are you the Cain from the bible? And if so who is/was Able?
Are you an Alien?
What is your favourite food?
What is your favourite holiday destination?
AccomplishingProvidence.
#CatQueen: In order:
-Both.
-No, but also perhaps a bit yes. My brother.
-It's complicated.
-There was a recipe for a lamb stew I stumbled across in Egypt in 1150 AD but it's gone now. So currently I'm partial to a spicy lamb biryani.
-Paris.
KneeDeepInTheTib
#AccomplishingProvidence You're the Messiah. Did it ever for a moment cross your mind to perhaps evacuate civilians? Perhaps find some way of triggering that explosion in some godforsaken pit far away from civilization instead of Temple Prime?
Let me tell you a story. There used to be an angry little Initiate who sang the praises of the Messiah and vowed to end the monster that was GDI, and she took so much pride in learning from her Brothers and Sisters in the Black Hand, one day to become like them. But then her Messiah did something exceptionally foolish - even if maybe with beneficial intentions - and she watched a newborn sun bear the ashes of her mother, father, little sisters and brothers, and everyone she had ever loved to the heavens from a quarter of a world away, and wished she could join them.
She ran. To that hated enemy, no less, because she had nowhere else to go and nothing but shattered faith left to her. They took her in, fed her, clothed her, housed her, and even in those days just after that war ended they kept better care of her than Nod ever had. Things got better. She helped fight the green death crystal, she helped fight her former comrades, and now?
I can forgive Nod for a great many things because I know the people within it are basically good (most of them, anyway) and in need of and deserving help unshackling themselves from the Warlords who dream themselves their masters. But you?
You murdered my family. I know they're just another dozen souls added to your butcher's bill; a statistic. You never knew of them or their faith in you and couldn't care less. I cannot and will not ever forgive that ultimate betrayal, that lack of care or ability to look after your own people and safeguard them from harm.
I hope, some day, you face justice for your many crimes. I pray that I'm the one who gets to deliver it.
AccomplishingProvidence
#KneeDeepInTheTib: I have seen worlds fully consumed by Tiberium. I have seen worlds burned to try and prevent the crystal from reaching so deep the planet exploded into fragments that infected the entire star system. When that meteor landed in 1995, all organic life on this planet, including me, was on a timer to death. Have I made mistakes along the way? Yes. Have many people died both for my mistakes and because of my movements and plans? Yes. I do not exalt in these deaths. They bring me no joy, with a number of exceptions so small they can be counted on two hands with fingers to spare.
The vision I have given to Nod is not false. I saw a world mired in greed and corruption, and reached out to those who wanted better. The people who will carry that vision, that hope, into the next generation, the next century, will be the ones who are praised. If my name is damned in the mouth of all the children of Terra from now to the heat death of the universe, but we are able to keep mankind alive that long, I will consider it worth it.
InTheZone
#AccomplishingProvidence No, I just think your response to it was utterly shite. You really couldn't do better than repeated global wars (that you ended up losing)?
FloatingWood
Well, after all that I can only come to one conclusion… there will be no peace. Kane will neither condemn nor constrain those of his followers who continue the violence.
Even Initiative First knows to at least make the right mouth noises when one of their idiots causes a riot or physically attacks a member of the public, which is the absolute bare minimum needed to maintain some measure of peace.
DrownedInTheBlue
#AccomplishingProvidence Wait, Before or After? How does one volunteer after Death? Other people are hitting on the important Subject matters so I'll avoid those for the sake of showing basic respect, and for the record I did not know about the uh, Unique designs GDI used for Grenades before The switch back to normal grenades, but like, I feel The ability to make choices after Death is a very important thing. So uh, How did you manage that? Or am I just misunderstanding you?
Your point on power armor and the greater understanding of tib is fair though, for me, My first memory is my mom showing me her Zone armor, so I'll own up to kinda just… forgetting that it wasn't always good, let alone perfect.
InTheZONE
#FloatingWood Honestly? I truly hope there can be a lasting peace with Nod. However misled they've been they're still human. Kane on the other hand? At most there can only be a cease-fire, something temporary. He's caused too much death and destruction for anything permanent. When Nod's out from under Kane, then maybe we can have peace.
AccomplishingProvidence
#InTheZone: One shouldn't give up when they fail the first time. As for your second comment, only time will tell.
#FloatingWood: I'm not going to lay out internal domestic policy here, to be frank. All I will say is I do not seek the death of children.
#DrownedInTheBlue: Signing an agreement, or verbally doing so, to either become one, or donate themselves for the cause. I won't speak to the disposition of eternal souls.
Q4 2065 Results
Resources: 1560+650 in reserve (-30 from Reconstruction commissions) (-15 from Bureau of Arcologies) (-15 from Consumer Industrial Development) (-10 Division of Alternative Energy) (-20 Department of Munitions)(-30 Department of Refits) (-240 InOps) (-60 General Pool)(-50 Epsilon Eridani Expedition) (100 in Reserve for Banking)
Political Support: 104
SCIENCE Meter: 4/4
Free Dice: 6
AI Dice: 4 (full bonus)
Dice Capacity 60/60
Tib Spread:
Surface
27.945 (+.96) Blue Zone
.785 (-.895) Green Zone
0.07 (+0.00) Cyan Zone
23.37 (+.065) Yellow Zone (127 points of mitigation)
47.83 (-0.13) Red Zone (110 points of mitigation)
Underground Tiberium infiltration estimates:
0.31 (-0.36) Blue
12.44 (-0.31) Yellow (60 points of mitigation)
88.16 (+.67) Red (29 points of mitigation)
Next Mutation Roll: Q2 2066
Current Economic Issues:
Housing: +101 (+88 LQ, +13 HQ) (1 high-quality housing per turn)
Energy: +28 (+6 in reserve) (+5 per turn from sub-departments)
Logistics: +31 (-14 from military activity)
Food: +69 (+32 backed reserve, +5 unbacked reserve)
Health: +49 (+6 Emergency Health) (-8 from refugees)
Capital Goods: +60 (+2 per turn from Distributed Industrial Authority) (+688 in reserve)
Consumer Goods: +68 (+10 per turn from Private Industry) (+3 per turn from sub-departments) (-15 from realignment) (Net -2 per turn)
Labor: +10 (+3 per turn from medical care) (+2 per turn from Immigrant qualifications) (-3 per turn from other government) (-1 from graying population) (Net +1)
Tiberium Processing Capacity (3090/4200) (740/1850 HG, 1350/1350 IHG, 1000/1000 X) (HG: 1 per 90, IHG: 1 per 80, X: 1 per 40)
Tiberium Reserve (0/500)
STUs: +16
Taxation Per Turn: +240 (no change from economic turbulence)
Space Mining Per Turn: +100
Maintenance Reductions: +50
Increased Refining Efficiency: +100
STU Production and Consumption
Net: +16 per turn
Production: +56 per turn (8.2... HG, 16.875 IHG, 25X, 6 RZ SMARV)
Consumption: -40 per turn
32 Economy
-6 Tiberium (2 Harvesting Tendrils, 2 Sonic Weapons, 2 T-Glass)
-26 Other (9 Structural Alloys, 6 Hovercraft, 2 Gravitic Shipyard, 2 Microfusion Labs, 3 Caravel Shipyard, 4 Fluyt Shipyard)
8 Military
-5 Aircraft (2 Tactical Lasers, 2 Plasma Munitions, 1 NovaHawk Refits)
-1 Ground Vehicles (1 Mastodons [Shimmer Shields, Point Defense Lasers], 0 Havocs [Shimmer Shields])
-1 Strategic Air Defense Networks
-1 Navy (Lasers)
Projected Fusion Power Plant Decommissioning
-16 Energy, +1 Labor Q3 2066
-16 Energy, +1 Labor Q4 2066
-16 Energy, +1 Labor Q2 2067
-16 Energy, +1 Labor Q3 2067
-16 Energy, +1 Labor Q4 2067
-16 Energy, +1 Labor Q2 2068
-16 Energy, +1 Labor Q4 2068
Status of the Parties
(strong support, weak support, weak opposition, strong opposition)
Developmentalist: 705 (200; 400; 75; 30) 17.6%
Militarists: 629 Seats (300; 100; 200; 29) 15.7%
Starbound: 618 Seats (400; 100; 100; 18) 15.5%
Market Socialist Party: 555 Seats (300; 155; 50; 50) 13.9%
Socialist Party: 493 Seats (250; 100; 93; 50) 12.3%
Free Market Party: 405 Seats (50; 150; 100; 105) 10.1%
Initiative First Party: 334 Seats (0; 34; 100; 200) 8.4%
United Yellow List: 117 Seats(80; 30; 7; 0) 3%
Reclamation: 99 Seats (50; 40; 6; 3) 2.5%
Homeland: 41 Seats (20; 10; 5; 6) 1%
Open Hand: 4 Seats (2; 2; 0; 0) .1%
Total: 4000 Seats (1652; 1121; 736; 491)
Military Confidence
Ground Forces: High
Air Force: High
Space Force: Decent
Steel Talons: Decent
Navy: High
ZOCOM: Decent
Plan Goals
Spend at least one die on Steel Talons projects every turn
Projects
Promises to Litvinov:
Spend no more than two free dice per turn on Military.
Politics
With the public becoming aware of Kane's attempts to make contact and many other problems making themselves known, the Initiative's political scene has become quite agitated. Lines are being drawn and what seemed to be settled arrangements in preparation for the changing of the guard are not.The biggest issue is an obvious one; a split between those who would be willing to hear what Kane has to say about his proposed solution to Tiberium, and those who are not. Those who are not cite his long history of starting wars against the Initiative and its people, some going so far as to refer to him as the cause and origin of humanity's ills in this Tiberium world. While negotiations are one thing, actually working with the man is going to be difficult to sell to anyone who have invested themselves into the struggle between GDI and the Brotherhood of Nod.
Despite this, preparations are underway for the Philadelphia conference, held under secrecy, with only the highest level staff present, including Kane, Seo, Hackett, Litvinov, and Carter, representing the past and future leadership of the Initiative. It is something that is not being widely publicized, but it is a meeting to decide the path the future will take.
[ ] Japan-Korea Tunnel
While building a tunnel underneath the sea of Japan will be a monumental undertaking, it will provide a rail connection between the two areas, joining them together into a single overall rail network, providing for both rapid transit and an easing of logistical linkages. It will likely mostly carry perishable goods that currently require air transport or fast courier ships, along with a regular passenger service.
(Progress 436/350: 20 resources per die) (+3 Logistics)
Digging a tunnel between Japan and Korea is a major project. While the tunnel itself is still far from complete, the preparatory work had already been done, and the tunnel boring machines started digging almost as soon as the paperwork had come down from the top with the needed signatures. The tunnel is being bored from six locations – connecting through two islands to minimize the length, offer stretches of an open sky to the corridor, and maximize boring speed. The eventual route will begin in Korea, at Geojie, then proceed to Tsushima island, then Iki island, and finally coming out in Kyushu near the Hado cape. As with other, major tunneling efforts, it's not actually one tunnel for the entire length; rather, there are three parallel tunnels being dug from each starting point: two outer tunnels for the trains, and a service and evacuation tunnel between them for safety.
Modern tunneling machines make quick work as a result of STU alloy digging blades and sonic projectors aimed at the rock face, but they do run into a number of problems, with one of the more significant ones being the amount of subsurface Tiberium that the project is running into. Each of the tunnels has experienced multiple instances where progress had to be halted in order to bring up harvesters to pull Tiberium out of the walls and floor. There is an ongoing debate as to the question of ongoing maintenance and Tiberium abatement going forward; opinions are divided, and suggestions range from regular inspections and rail-deployable harvesters, to adapting Tiberium spike technology so it can be integrated directly into the tunnel walls.
[ ] U-Series Alloy Foundries (Phase 6)
Shifting goals from bulk alloys to more specialist systems, tib resistant cutting blades will be a relatively minor but significant shift in GDI's ability to harvest Tiberium. While it will be expensive for what GDI gets out of the program, it is also an investment in the core technologies and competencies of working with STU based alloys.
(Progress 499/455: 40 resources per die) (-4 Energy, -1 STUs) (-10 progress requirement on tib mining projects)
Building blade and spring materials from U-series alloys has been a process, and one where one of the earlier examples is now on your desk as a letter opener. While loss rates are still annoyingly high, superhard cutting blades and a wide variety of other tools are starting to come off the production lines. Most of these are high wear components. Something like a diamond core drill bit will only last for between forty to eighty meters of drilling into concrete. Especially for some of the larger constructions, that means that a single building can eat hundreds of drill bits with ease. Making even a twenty percent improvement cuts the total consumption dramatically, and the test bits are commonly doing over a hundred meters.
While the most immediate impacts are primarily in Tib-mining, that is because the U-series alloys are noticeably more Tiberium-resistant than most other methods, while also having the resilience to cut through solid rock. The resistance shown by Tib glass to the crystal is one thing, but a tool that cuts through rock and tib alike without being eaten is another.
[ ] Nuuk Heavy Robotics Foundry (Phase 4)
With the initial production shock labored into existence, further development is predicated on massive investment and expansion of the project, laying massive production lines, and setting them in motion towards one of the largest projects ever envisioned by the Global Defense Initiative.
(Progress 589/935: 20 resources per die) (+32 Capital Goods, -2 Labor, -8 Energy) (+1 to Infrastructure dice)
(Progress 0/1800: 20 resources per die) (+64 Capital Goods, -2 Labor, -16 Energy) (+1 to Infrastructure dice)
Nuuk has been a major project, facing multiple major hurdles in terms of production, most notably, stressing the energy supply for the region. While much of this has been handled and a major expansion of the Greenland energy grid is being prepared to service the planned expansion now underway, there were multiple occasions of power interruption or circuit breakers tripping to protect the broader network due to unexpected surges in demand.
In terms of mass automation, there is a significant amount that can be done, but one of the most troublesome points is interface. EVAs can and do a lot to streamline the connections, yet at the end of the day every system must be able to safely interface with humans, animals, and nature; all of which are sources of significant chaos in what can otherwise be an extremely orderly affair. This requirement for adaptability, more than anything else, has been a major constraint on how much GDI can make physical labor a thing of the past.
[ ] Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky Caterium Fabricator (New)
Building a Caterium fabricator will be a relatively minor project, all things considered, with there being (at this time) relatively little demand for the product. However, it is a starting point, and beginning to make the material available will be both a stepping stone towards more advanced versions, and make some substantial amount of the material available to those who could find uses for it.
(Progress 195/160: 25 resources per die) (+3 Capital Goods, +2 Energy)
Caterium, as it turns out, is a pain to make and even more so to use. Not quite as flexible as most standard wires, nor capable of safely channeling the amount of energy as other Bergen production – about a third of production is being sent back due to breakage or burnout. It is in an irritating-to-work-with middle ground, where on one hand it is flexible enough to try to make it work, but that very flexibility also makes it hard to work with. It is prone to getting wear kinks, and repeated bending tends to break the cable even with safeguarding.
The Kamchatka peninsula is historically a major success story of the Initiative, and home to some of the Initiative's more… patriotic citizens. Lightly inhabited before the fall of Tiberium, the region became a settlement site for a mixture of refugee groups from Siberia, and East and South-East Asia in the prelude to the Second Tiberium War, as GDI pulled as many as could be moved towards the poles while the central latitudes became increasingly inhospitable to human life with rapidly increasing levels of Tiberium contamination.
After the Third Tiberium War, it became one of the sites of significant levels of early production prototyping, in large part because it is far from any major warlords' centers of power, and that means that it is more difficult for many in the Brotherhood to push their operatives. While locations like Greenland, Iceland, Ireland, and the UK are more amenable to full scale secure production, Kamchatka has served well as a secure location for early small scale production and development, and supplies a critical outpost to secure the northern Pacific Ocean.
[ ] Adaptive Cloth Factories
While primarily for consumer goods, adaptive cloth is adaptive cloth, and the production will also feed into military procurement among other fields. Mostly, the Initiative will solely be producing the cloth, and then farming it out to private fashion houses, and Initiative backed design studios to do much of the work of integrating it into things that people will actually wear.
(Progress 181/300: 15 resources per die) (+5 Consumer Goods)
Work has continued on adaptive cloth, both for military purposes under the name Chameleoline, and under a variety of names for more civilian uses. Some of the first production batches have gone out to various test units, and come back with mixed reviews. One of the more noticeable negative ones have come from Arctic units, where it seems to be struggling with the cold, and the need to reflect white. Other units mostly have found it to be nice but overall unimpressive. While the ability to change camouflage patterns on the fly can be useful, the vast Tiberian wastes' environment has much less concealment than camouflage is generally designed to exploit; and in many cases, rather than engaging on identification, both sides will simply engage on movement in their front.
[ ] White Goods Programs
White goods are major home appliances. While the state of the art has progressed in the last fifteen to twenty years, nearly all of those appliances in GDI's houses are old models, designed before the Third Tiberium War, and in many cases significantly before then. While wholesale immediate replacement is not viable, looking at the progress in various fields, should allow for GDI to make some efficiencies and conveniences more readily available.
(Progress 204/200: 15 resources per die) (-1 Capital Goods, +4 Consumer Goods, +1 Energy, +1 Labor)
The promise of all white goods has been a more convenient life. A life where you didn't have to worry about your food going bad, hand-washing dishes and clothing, and assorted other promises, some more true than others. In the end however, all of these promises were more than a little empty. Across the mid to late 20th century, household chores did become substantially smaller affairs, but at the same time, the new free time became increasingly taken up by other work. The new generation of machinery has done much the same, focusing on speed and efficiency, but it is something where even saving a few minutes of free time actually makes a significant difference to perceived quality of life.
One of the more significant problems looking forward in terms of white goods, is that any future upgrades are either going to be revolutionary, or merely chipping away at the margins. A high efficiency induction cooktop is already putting nearly 90 percent of the energy used into the cookware. While another percent or two is theoretically possible, any "next step" would largely be switching to another mechanism of cooking entirely, something along the lines of the switch from hearth cooking to wood stoves, or from wood stoves to gas and electric systems, each of which fundamentally changed the mechanisms of cooking, not just iteratively improving on the existing system.
[ ] Bioplastics Development
Bioplastics in various forms have been in use since the 1850s. However, a significant number of them are either low- or limited-performance, or simply difficult to produce in the modern-day environment. Genetically engineering a dedicated plant to produce the precursors to high-performance bioplastics is one element of making the Initiative less reliant on Tiberium.
(progress 111/80: 20 resources per die) (Plant Genetics)
Pushing the edges of bioplastics has been a painstaking process, with many programs publishing limited improvements, if any. Probably the most important program that was pushed for was investigating a series of high temperature plastics. Most GDI weapons systems use some form of polymer cased ammunition, due to trying to cut down on weight wherever possible. Polymer cased rounds weigh between twenty and thirty percent less than their brass or steel cased counterparts, and that can be significant when the average rifleman needs to carry over two hundred rounds of ammunition, and a machine gunner can expect to go through thousands. While switching to a biopolymer basis would do little to impact the end user, it was hoped it would free up industrial assets to do other chemical works, and make some marginal changes in the dynamics of ammunition storage.
Most of the other plastics developed in the project are relatively marginal improvements, or simply marginally cheaper than existing products. Most of them are good enough for use, but the costs of changing over would not pay for itself in any reasonable timeframes. It has become clear that, rather than looking for new plastics, it might be more effective to look towards developing cultivars producing higher concentrations and purities of plastic substrates. Such plants would not have as great an effect as was desired, but still free up some petrochemical refining capacity by decreasing the level of pre-treatment required.
[ ] Terrain Retention Projects
While reforestation and restoration of the biosphere is currently a relatively low priority, especially due to the risks of Tiberium undermining, that does not in fact mean that GDI cannot care about soil retention and otherwise stabilizing the system.
(Progress 227/160: 15 resources per die)
Beyond simple mass planting, in some parts of the world more active terrain retention projects are required. Retention dams, soil stabilization, packed earth walls for wind breaks, and other means of cutting down on the amount of moving air and water. Most of them are various formats of compacted soil, because they need to be able to break down without leaving too much detritus in the environment.
Looking more broadly at Initiative efforts to regreen the earth, they are all, so far, little more than trying to put bandages on bullet wounds. They can help, to be sure, but at the end of the day, it will take much more to make the earth whole again. That fight will be one that takes generations. Even now, if Tiberium is stopped tomorrow, it will take over a century for substantial parts of the world to get past the bare first steps of being more than bare rock and soil. But what has been done matters. It matters because there are kids wandering through fields of flowers, there are adults relearning how to see green without fear.
"So… Hans, those robodozers? Where did you get those from?"
"Buddy of mine worked on one of those automated truck projects, and I asked if it was possible to do the same with construction equipment."
"Only worked with dozers?"
"No. Well, not if you don't mind the risk of some crane swiping everybody off the scaffolds. With the dozers you can just put up a fence and let them work."
[ ] Medical Plant Deployment (New)
Salvebrush and Kingsfoil are far enough along in the development process for them to be seriously deployed. While the Initiative medical system is not under particular strain at the moment, plants like these are steps towards greater self-sufficiency across the Initiative's smaller settlements.
(Progress 223/220: 15 resources per die) (+1 Labor, +4 Health)
Putting medicinal plants out into circulation has more to do with confidence than impact. The ability to do serious, sustainable, medical work when completely cut off is a comfort to a lot of people. Proper modern sieges are a rarity. On a quickly moving battlefield, oftentimes the mass at the point of contact is weighted so far in one direction or another that a position can be simply stormed, bombarded, or otherwise reduced, or beat back an advance with such force the attacker goes for an easier target. However, there are many times when an extended siege can still occur, mostly when neither side has brought up the heavy core forces to that particular engagement. At that point, it becomes a conflict of supply, and medical supplies in the modern day are one of the things that can run out extremely quickly.
However, it is something that happens. In every conflict in the modern age, sieges have occurred, mostly a result of Initiative fortifications, and the Brotherhood holding back heavy assets. One such was the siege of Sydney during the Third Tiberium War. While the city was never cut off for more than a few weeks, the siege lasted over a year, with both sides suffering substantial losses. The Initiative Navy may have kept the sea lanes open, but they lost multiple warships in the process. The siege would be broken not by the Initiative, but by the invasion of the Visitors, and the Brotherhood stealing Initiative nuclear systems in the process. Sieges like this one play large in the public consciousness of the war, with many of them receiving sustained news attention, compared to more rapid conflicts where one side or the other is overwhelmed and destroyed in a matter of days or weeks.
[ ] Enhanced Harvest Tiberium Spikes (Phase 4)
The Enhanced Harvest spikes, while not politically uncomplicated, are becoming a proven technology, and with iterative improvements in the design, are becoming less controversial, especially as they aid in reduction of the problems of subsurface tiberium.
(Progress 447/180: 20 resources per die) (+10 resources per turn) (+1 Underground Red Zone Abatement, +1 Underground Yellow Zone Abatement)
(Progress 267/180: 20 resources per die) (+10 resources per turn) (+1 Underground Red Zone Abatement, +1 Underground Yellow Zone Abatement)
Politically speaking, the EHTS program is a good example of the ability of the Treasury to sway opinions. Part of that means being public about failure. Rather than burying failures, publicizing events like the Springfield Spike Collapse, where a half dozen Tiberium spikes collapsed in short succession due to faulty bolts, is part of ensuring that the public actually has confidence that the Initiative is being public about its failures. Especially in circumstances where people are extremely concerned about major failures, and the potential for the spikes to generate surface Tiberium outbreaks.
"I told you, I told you, these demon spikes would bring ruin, and now a dozen collapsed together in Springfield. A cloud of tiberium dust has spread through the air and will poison and mutate the people of Ohio, just you wait."
Website Garrytheprophet, reporting on the Springfield Spike Collapse.
(Note, the Springfield Spike Collapse incident occurred in Springfield, Ireland, BZ-1)
[ ] Tiberium Inhibitor Deployment
Tiberium inhibitors have by now moved from experimental deployment to serial. While each will be significantly energy-expensive and require a major investment of resources, it is now one of the fastest routes to abate the Tiberian menace.
(For Yellow and Red Zones, project is unlocked once all allocated MARV hubs are completed)
-[ ] Blue Zone 6 Japan (Progress 113/75 (38 rollover): 30 resources per die (-3 Energy) (+2 Yellow Zone Abatement) (+2 Underground Yellow Zone Abatement) (1 Political Support)
-[ ] Blue Zone 14 (Progress 165/75 (90 rollover): 30 resources per die (-3 Energy) (+2 Yellow Zone Abatement) (+2 Underground Yellow Zone Abatement) (1 Political Support)
-[ ] Blue Zone 8 South America (Progress 344/75 (269 rollover): 30 resources per die (-3 Energy) (+2 Yellow Zone Abatement) (+2 Underground Yellow Zone Abatement) (1 Political Support)
-[ ] Blue Zone 12 (Progress 269/75 (194 rollover): 30 resources per die (-3 Energy) (+2 Yellow Zone Abatement) (+2 Underground Yellow Zone Abatement) (1 Political Support)
-[ ] Yellow Zone 10 (Progress 194/100 (94 rollover): 30 resources per die) (+2 Yellow Zone Abatement) (+2 Underground Yellow Zone Abatement)
-[ ] Yellow Zone 11 (Progress 94+90+38=222/100: 30 resources per die) (+2 Yellow Zone Abatement) (+2 Underground Yellow Zone Abatement)
All available inhibitor locations have been completed. A significant milestone in the Initiative's efforts to combat underground Tiberium, and something that has the Brotherhood of Nod paying attention. While there is no movement yet, the constant reversal of surface Tiberium has been extreme, with Initiative efforts cutting corridors through Red Zone after Red Zone, liberating Panama, and making significant dents elsewhere. It is a testament to the ability of the Initiative to conquer the crystal, at long last to make it serve humanity, rather than destroy it. At the same time, in your heart, you know that it is a fragile illusion to hold. The stats are clear, the simulations all end the same way. And then there is the letter on your desk.
Dear Seo,
We are both men who are unsatisfied with this world. It is in that spirit that I am reaching out. Both of us realize that unless something changes, our world is doomed, and are both likely to see the last of humankind. You have done, more than could be asked of you, more than I could have ever hoped for to fight that fate, but you can look at your estimates as well as I can, and it is simply not enough.
. . .
I am reaching out in the spirit of scientific progress, of change, and of hope for a better world. It is time, at long last, to bury the hatchet, and try to work together. You know my past, you know my history. We both know that I have always worked towards a better world, and I need you to help me see that vision completed.
- Kane
[ ] GDSS Columbia Bays
-[ ] SCOP Bay
While Columbia is not laid out to take maximum advantage from solar energy, and its organization is not designed for farming, single cell organisms (a mixture of yeast, algae, and a handful of other producers) can be farmed on the station, producing a mix of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats that will keep people alive, and serve as a baseline for outsystem feeding as solar energy becomes increasingly less available.
(Progress 272/250: 20 resources per die) (+3 Food, +6 Food in reserve)
SCOP or single celled organic proteins, are essentially a combination of yeasts and phytoplankton, designed to be a means of converting otherwise wasted energy into food, with multiple keystone strands, for the most part either thermal, or radiation based. In either case, there are a number of products, ranging from essentially a textureless protein paste, which can be cooked and firmed into mildly textured blocks of mostly protein and carbs, somewhat similar in texture to a reasonably firm tofu, and tasting something like chicken, although not particularly much like it. Most of the people who have been offered a chance to test the product don't really like it, but are willing enough to eat it, so long as there are other sources of texture. The dishes that are most well received are various forms of vegetable stir fry, with the SCOP bulking out the sauce. The product does however take very well to various forms of preservation, with much of it being freeze dried for preservation, either into powder formats, or more often, the blocks.
"It is not bad, so much as singularly lacking in any quality that could be considered good"
- Test batch feedback form
- A. D., product tester
- H.D., cook
[ ] GDSS Shala Bays
-[ ] Experimental Crops Bay (Stage 2)
Even with the biosphere on its last legs, there are some ideas that GDI scientists are too nervous about the potential of them getting out. Extremely fast growing crops, biological sources of explosives, medicine, and volatile compounds, and a wide variety of other ideas are potentially too risky to allow out into the wild, but could offer a wide array of benefits..
(Progress 297/215: 20 resources per die) (MS) (Unlocks new development projects)
In terms of experimental crops, much of the efforts thus far are towards microcrops – an array of things that can be grown in useful quantities in window sills and other constrained growing areas. One of the ones that has seen more success so far is spices, which are still something where GDI has a problem. Cinnamon, for example, is effectively unavailable due to the need for a two year growing cycle, and being tree bark. Similarly, nutmeg, mace, and a handful of other tree spices have been effectively absent from the Initiative diet. Initiative bioscientists have aimed to rectify this somewhat, and have successfully engineered a number of cultivars – derived from juniper – that concentrate appropriate flavoring agents in their berries, which can then be picked for use, even without needing to dry them. Although the project is conservative by experimental crop standards, it has been a good Christmas present to Litvinov as she is headed out of office.
On the more radical side are (for example) successors to the Kingsfoil and Salvebrush projects, formulated to provide raw materials for an in-development sealant that is responsive to the human blood coagulation chain. Intended to be deployed as a spray-on product, it might also be possible to put it into the Zone Suits and bodygloves as a safe, automatically deploying sealant that will protect wounds, reduce blood loss, and ideally, prevent sepsis even in cases of gut shots.
-[ ] Animal Husbandry Bay
While most of the effort is going to plants, animals have often been a significant part of human agricultural work. Most animals will be farmed for various forms of animal products, dairy, eggs, and the like, as growing animals for consumption in space conditions is terribly wasteful in most practical terms.
(Progress 236/215: 20 resources per die) (+6 Consumer Goods)
One of the key elements for orbital farming is space efficiency. While battery farming is possible, with a chicken for every cubic foot, that is actually dramatically inefficient in space conditions, because the same life support system that is supporting the humans also has to support the animal population of the station. On top of issues of sickness and cross contamination, happy, healthy animals are also often a good way to augment human morale.
One of the more efficient options being tested is actually ducks, as they are relatively friendly and (if raised correctly) can serve as companion animals, and lay eggs, which means that populations can be effectively controlled without slaughter, and they can be paired with catfish ponds rather than needing nearly as much space of their own.
-[ ] High Efficiency Void Crops Bay
There are a number of extremophile bacteria, lichen, and similar that are able to grow even in the airless, highly irradiated void of space. With extensive genetic engineering and experimentation, it may be possible to engineer human edible crops that can be farmed and harvested with a minimum of material and maintenance.
(Progress 183/180: 20 resources per die)
Space is a place of extremes. When directly in the sun, things can rapidly heat to well above boiling. When in the shadows, they can flash freeze. On the other hand, there are extremes on Earth as well, and many species that have found their niche in the most extreme of conditions. Rhodotorula, for example, is a common spoilage agent, able to thrive in conditions well below zero. On the other extreme, Deinococcus radiodurans, is one of the most radiation resistant organisms in existence known to humanity. Most of these extremophiles are single-celled organisms, and that can be somewhat problematic. However, these organisms can be put in places where nothing else can live, and that makes them incredibly valuable as a basis for engineering useful strains. A water tank as part of the layers of radiation cladding, or on the gantries that link space stations to solar panels – areas like these could become growing spaces without cutting into human habitation. The possibilities are not quite endless, but the promise of making food outside of habitation space makes a lot of people quite happy, because it means that they can provide their own emergency food supplies without needing to be in a large station or settlement.
[ ] Lunar Homesteading (Phase 5)
Continuing Lunar Homesteading projects are a combination of beginning to build basic community facilities, including low gravity pools, community exercise spaces, and other amenities, alongside expansions of living space, primarily in already existing homesteading spaces.
(Progress 351/220: 30 resources per die) (1000 residents)
Putting down roots in Lunar soil is an ongoing process, and one that sees the Initiative now running low on people to stuff into Lunar settlements. While there are slots open, there are not enough people to actually fill them, especially because GDI also wants many of the same populations for vital Earthside roles. For a lot of master machinists, doctors, and assorted other highly skilled professions, getting space qualified is something that they can just do as it's offered as an optional election in addition to classes they are already going to as part of their professional education. For jobs with a less centralized educational system, it often takes them further out of their way, and makes them less likely to actually pursue getting qualified for living in space, despite essentially all sections of the population expressing very high desires to live somewhere off Earth.
A significant part of the problem is that the more speculative, pie-in-the-sky educational efforts are still time intensive and oftentimes do not pay out. Up until the early 60's, going out of their way and getting qualified to go to space and live there was something that few people did, and large portions of the qualified population did so because they could, versus being something that they expected they would ever make actual use of. This is changing and there is an increase in participants, but the need to spend an average of six to seven hours of effort just to get into the program (which is significantly higher than most retraining/career changing programs) has apparently been enough of a barrier to gatekeep portions of the population.
Still a janitor? Sure. But man, the view
Recruiting advertisement
[ ] Fifth Generation Electronic Video Assistant Deployment (Phase 1)
While still extremely expensive, and reliant on massive quantities of isolinear chips, some small trickle of fifth-gen EVAs can be produced and fielded. While the immediate benefits will be somewhat limited, the overall results are likely to be significant, especially as older-model EVAs are displaced into fields that have been considered lower priority.
(Progress 313/250: 40 resources per die) (+1 to all departments)
(Progress 63/250: 40 resources per die) (+2 to all departments)
(Progress 0/250: 40 resources per die) (+3 to all departments)
Putting out substantial numbers of isolinear based EVAs has been something of a problem. Even with Anadyr and Aberdeen almost up to full production capacity, the two critical bottlenecks have been supplies and maintenance staff. While an isolinear computer system is relatively tough, especially when sealed up properly, it still needs a substantial amount of routine maintenance. Scale that up to the hundreds of systems required to make a statistically significant dent in the amount of manhours consumed by paperwork, and things start looking dicy.
[ ] Military Logistics Drone Network (Phase 1)
Adapting drone control to the basics of self-driving trucks and other robotic assistants is not particularly difficult, and will substantially increase the tooth to tail ratio. While it will do little to reduce the need for skilled labor, many of the relatively simple driving tasks can be turned over to drone operators.
(Progress 155/200: 20 resources per die) (+5 Labor, -5 Capital Goods)
(Progress 0/200: 20 resources per die) (+5 Labor, -7 Capital Goods)
(Progress 0/200: 20 resources per die) (+5 Labor, -8 Capital Goods)
At the end of the day, a military is largely a delivery service with guns, and that has only gotten more true as the centuries roll on. A military in the early modern period, would have a very, very, lean tail, oftentimes living off of the land that they were fighting over. While there was something of a logistical system, it was, for the most part, the very most basic of supplies. Hardtack, uniforms, and salted meat. Most other supplies were gleaned from local infrastructure networks.
By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, most nations had centralized and pre-planned their logistics, turning war into timetables, aided by the speed and ease of a railroad system. At the same time, military and civilian requirements started to become ever more distinct. No longer could armies simply seize lead and gunpowder to make bullets, no longer could they rely on looting the countryside for vital military supply, and no longer was it militarily acceptable to have the level of disorganization that such pillaging required.
With this move towards a separate supply network came an ever increasing investment in infrastructure and cargo handling, the biggest being palletization and containerization. Rather than having to move individual shells, palletization allowed the use of forklifts, moving entire sections of supplies at once with a single individual, with some of the earliest patents dating from the 1920s. Containerization soon followed with the ability to stack multiple containers together, again reducing the need for handling. In many ways, it is quite a stroke of fortune, because it is much easier to remotely control a forklift to simply pick up, move, and put down containers, rather than needing to handle each piece of ordnance separately and by hand. At the same time, the sheer scale of military logistics is not to be underestimated, and automated warehouses need significant hardening against hostile action and general lack of attention by humans working there when the goods in storage have a noted disposition to violently becoming everybody else's problem.
In terms of implementation of drones in military logistical planning, there are, broadly, four layers. Starting from intake from the factories, the biggest difference at the warehouse level is that the system is being controlled at a much higher level. Robotic forklifts were already present, but running on a centralized mainframe under an EVA rather than having more manual control. The bigger differences are at the deeper layers, moving from the warehouse to the front.
In the middle the trains are actually the least changed, already highly automated, and largely self managing. While they will likely always need crews to some extent, automated loading and unloading systems make turnarounds fast, a vital commodity, and makes scheduling easier.
In the third layer is the last ten miles, for the most part based on truck convoys and here, internally autonomous self driving vehicles are massive. Reducing the amount of meat required to operate a truck convoy reduces one of the risk points, and means that command staff can send in trucks even if they know that there will be losses to incoming artillery, infiltrator teams, and the like. A lost truck is a lot less valuable than a lost truck crew.
The final layer is the so-called "mules:" six-wheeled rovers capable of moving over a ton of cargo, while being almost completely expendable. Directed by radio, or hand signals, mules will provide a considerable cargo movement capacity right into the front line.
[ ] Initiative Laser Systems Deployment (Phase 2)
While not a system that any particular branch is happy with, a combat deployable laser will find homes among many of the Initiative's assets, from the NovaHawk, to next generation field anti-aircraft systems, and the secondary batteries of Initiative warships. Even in the orbitals will the Infernium laser find a home as GDI builds its first combat capable voidcraft. The second phase of deployment will focus on refitting the Steel Talon's Titans among other systems, including the Initiative's battleships and carriers.
(Progress 116/185: 25 resources per die) (-2 Energy, -1 STU)
(Progress 0/185: 25 resources per die) (-2 Energy, -1 STU)
Putting infernium lasers into mass production may no longer be particularly expensive, but it is certainly something with some very long lead times. In some ways the hardest part is making the lasing rods themselves, primarily because of the logistical web. Even the most productive xenorefinery refinery typically produces no more than a 30 gram nugget of Infernium per day. While STU production is up dramatically since the program was first envisioned, the need for this specific STU – separate and purified from anything else – is still somewhat problematic, given that it requires extremely pure infernium that also needs to be smelted together with Infernium from other refineries.
While it will be doped into a lasing rod, the chemical composition of those rods is a problem, as infernium binds to the atoms and molecules in the rods in highly inconvenient ways, the worst being internal gaseous bubbles that require a complete restart of the process as there is no other way, at this time, of getting those bubbles out. Much as with many other highly advanced components, GDI's poor mastery of beyond cutting edge technology forces it to use its considerable industrial might to exploit statistics by sheer volume of production, recycling anything that does not meet standards and using everything that does.
Looking more broadly at the Initiative laser program, the future is probably in diversification. While having a single laser unit with various add ons is good for logistics, at the end of the day, a combat laser for a Guardian APC that is primarily being used to swat missiles, drones, and (if they get lucky) stop light artillery, is quite a different beast than a high performance air to air design, meant to sweep Barghests, Stormriders, and whatever else the galaxy has to throw at the Initiative from the sky.
[ ] Third Generation Zone Armour Development (New)
With major advances in material sciences and mechanical engineering, and Nod adapting to Zone Armour, a blank slate revision is required to meet the requirements of the future. While the current generation of suits is certainly serviceable, they will need work.
(Progress 94/80: 20 resources per die)
Zone Armor has undergone a fundamental reshaping of its mission. When Zone Armour was first designed in the 2030s, it was intended to be a very narrow tip of the spear, an environmentally sealed platform, Tiberium resistant, and fundamentally a weapon of the special forces meant for high contamination environments, a role it fulfilled with great success during the 2040s and 50's, and will no doubt continue excelling in for decades to come. Over the last decade and a half, it has also been forced into the role of heavy infantry, due to the Initiative's need to stem the bleeding wound that is casualty prone foot infantry, the desperate need for heavier firepower, and, probably most importantly, the need for massed forces that can effectively operate on the edges of the Red Zones.
Beyond the evolving needs, there are evolving technologies. When the current model of Zone Armor was developed, GDI was only beginning its experimentation with myomer technology. Today, nearly every component of the armor is years out of date, and needs replacement, from its jetpack to its armor scheme, to its power cables and artificial musculature.
Operationally, the next generation of Zone Armor is aimed almost to a fault at modularity, both in terms of basic components, but more importantly in terms of outfitting. A Zone Trooper and Zone Raider in the modern day have fairly similar effective roles, but share relatively little in terms of components. Bringing everything under one core design, fitted with an array of multi use hardpoints, will allow GDI to build a combat force that is flexible, and rapidly expandable. The core vision is that GDI can effectively equip any force as needed for the expected threat and target profile with the delivery of whatever component packages are required. At the same time, should supply lines break down, garrison forces and home guard units can be stripped of their armored components to maintain operational tempos in line units in those cases storage is insufficient to cover the deficit.
[ ] NovaHawk Factory Refits (High Priority)
GDI at the moment does not need massive numbers of new airframes, especially given the number of parts shared between the old Firehawks and the new Novahawks. Therefore, it is best to focus almost all efforts on putting in the upgrades, ranging from laser modules and repulsorplate arrays, to the reshaping of the fuselage to accommodate all of the changes.
(Progress 150/150: 25 resources per die) (-1 STUs, -1 Energy) (Refit)
(Progress 0/150: 25 resources per die) (-1 STUs, -1 Energy) (Refit)
The Novahawk is a solidly next generation design, and one that is finally able to not just meet the Barghests in battle, but defeat them. While it will take significant time to actually put them into the field, test squadrons are already racking up impressive kill counts in practice engagements, most commonly through shunting maneuvers, where rather than turning the aircraft, they take manual control of the repulsors, and shove it in another direction, pulling maneuvers that even the Firehawks cannot match. While the G-forces involved are often extreme, to say the least, they are able to put guns on target and avoid incoming fire.
At the same time, they are able to both land and take off from places that Firehawks cannot. A Firehawk's vectored thrust system points the exhaust of an active jet engine at maximum power at a target, with temperatures well north of 600 degrees. While building a runway or landing pad that can handle those temperatures and forces is certainly well practiced at this point, it is still not precisely cheap, and so many runways and landing areas are not built to those high specifications. Comparatively, running on repulsorplates, a Novahawk can land effectively anywhere so long as it can support the weight. This has included a number of Novahawk landings on apartment buildings and other locations with rooftop heliports.
"Jumpy, your wing snapped off. Jumpy. Jumpy!!
-Captain Sarah 'Mouse' Briggs, 3355th Training Squadron
[ ] Thunderbolt II Missile Development (Platform) (Munitions)
The primary difference planned for the second generation of Thunderbolt missiles is in the fueling system. While most of the other parts of the system work well enough, the aggressive maneuvering required to successfully intercept a Barghest, Kelpie, or other high end Brotherhood aircraft puts too much strain on the missile when combined with Visitor and Brotherhood derived fuels.
(Progress 62/60: 15 resources per die)
Development of the Thunderbolt II missile system has largely been split between two camps: bigger, and better. On the 'bigger' side, mostly from naval design bureaus reference anti-shipping missiles in an effort to produce Thunderbolt missiles in the 25 to 35 range, paired with air breathing motors to increase range and decrease fuel weight, although these motors typically (but not always) come with tradeoffs in complexity.
The 'better' side has instead focused primarily on the warheads, attempting to offer up systems that combine effectiveness with cheapness. Expending scarce STUs in plasma warheads is no way to win a generational war, and so one of the more significant efforts has been in finding more efficient ways to fight. One of them has been a design for laser heads. Essentially, this can be thought of as mounting a small crystal beam laser array and capacitor on the tip of the missile, rather than an explosive warhead. Although the angle of attack is rather narrow, the greater stand off range increases the hit chances substantially, so long as the missile can point itself roughly towards the target. While in testing the missiles had reasonable impact, it would be expected to take between three and seven such missiles to ensure a kill on a modern Barghest type fighter, an improvement over the standard plasma missile that is devastating on a hit… but only if it hits.
Overall, the Thunderbolt II series is aimed towards quantity rather than quality. While there are going to be expensive missile types, the vast majority of the use is not going to be hyper-maneuverable high speed air to air missiles. It is going to be long ranged bombardment from warships and MLRS platforms, ones where most of the missiles are surface launched glide bombs more than anything else. In some ways, the missiles as designed are actually a downgrade from the FESSMs that are the standard surface to air missile across the Initiative fleet, unable to take the same g-forces required for sustained maneuvering. On the other hand, the mass production advantages will tell, interoperable missiles of various types that are launch vehicle agnostic and cheap for their performance envelope are expected to degrade Nod's forces for similar or lesser cost compared to current tools, and a ship being able to sustain itself from the same supply of missiles as everyone else fundamentally changes the nature of missile combat for everyone involved.
[ ] Next Generation Armored Vehicle Factories
A new generation of metal, a new breed of machines, for a new kind of war. While the Predator, Guardian, and Pitbull have been the symbols of the height of the Initiative's relative overmatch, that is no longer the case, and it is time for a new generation to take the lead.
Progress 184/450: (30 resources per die) (-6 Energy, -12 Capital Goods, -6 Labor, -3 STUs)
Progress 0/450: (30 resources per die) (-3 Energy, -8 Capital Goods, -2 Labor, -3 STUs) (Refit)
Progress 0/450: (30 resources per die) (-3 Energy, -8 Capital Goods, -2 Labor, -2 STUs) (Refit)
Progress 0/450: (30 resources per die) (-3 Energy, -8 Capital Goods, -2 Labor, -2 STUs) (Refit)
Progress 0/450: (30 resources per die) (-3 Energy, -4 Capital Goods, -1 STUs) (Refit)
Progress 0/450: (30 resources per die) (-3 Energy, -4 Capital Goods, -1 STUs) (Refit)
Looking at the next generation of armored vehicles, one factory complex, located between Birmingham and Leicester, offers an insight into the scale and complexity of the entire operation. On one side, billets of U-series alloys, lasing rods, spark plugs, and a thousand and one other components sourced from factories across the European Blue Zones enter by truck and train. Automated unloaders transfer cargos from the wagons, and move them onto a series of conveyors, and an internal rail system. From there, the hulls are formed, and filled with equipment. Out the other side, come the vehicles, ready for painting into a regional camo scheme, fitted out with optional extras, and shipped to the front lines.
Or at least that is what will happen when the factory is complete. Now however, it is quiet, and in some ways incredibly creepy. Vaulted gantries only partially filled with cyclopean machinery, hanging from ceilings and sprouting from floors, and an unfinished web of narrow catwalks for maintenance teams to scurry along in this cathedral of war stretches into gaping divides where paths should cross.
[ ] Stealth Disruptor Deployment
While overall less effective than the still around nine kilometer range of current generation sensors, the stealth disruptor is still a potentially useful tool, and one that needs further development as both an attack surface against such targets as stealth tanks and Vertigo bombers, and as a means of ensuring that next generation stealth combats remain in the Initiative's favor.
(Progress 192/160: 15 resources per die) (-1 Capital Goods, -2 Energy) (Projected 6 quarters to begin, 8 quarters to complete) (Will time out at end of plan)
The first uses of the Stealth Disruptor have cemented its position as, at least for now, more of a nuisance device than anything else. Disruptor pods hung off of Firehawks have on multiple occasions turned back squadrons of Vertigo bombers in the last weeks over the Indian Ocean. While these disruptors are largely handcrafted prototypes, the actual production line has been kicked into gear. Production rates are expected to reach no more than a few dozen a year, primarily because these are most used on the extreme ends of the conflict curve, either at the lowest of the low intensities, where options other than kinetic are most desirable, and at the most high intensity of operations, where GDI cannot ensure that sensor packages are in the field and operational with all units, and so disruptor runs across Brotherhood formations become not only viable, but desirable.
[ ] Governor-A Deployment (Refits)
With the refit development finally complete, the requirements in tools and materials for the refits are now known, and the shipyards are ready to begin converting their production and maintenance yards over to supporting both building new Governor-As and refitting the existing inventory to the new standard. The refits include a slate of rationalizations to the yards themselves, incorporating far more automation than before, allowing fewer yard workers to do work that used to require many.
(Progress 355/350: 20 resources per die) (-2 Energy, -3 Capital Goods, +1 Labor)
The Governor-A refit is a substantial defensive upgrade, one primarily done by a dedicated shipyard in New Zealand as Governors go through their maintenance cycle. Everything is now also in place to ensure that any new tranches of Governors will be launched with the upgrade package already integrated, ensuring that in a year or two the shipyard in New Zealand will be available for a new task. With the Navy already eyeing a Governor-B program as well as extensive upgrades or replacements for battleships, carriers and frigates, it is not likely to be short on work for long.
Looking more at the long frame of the Initiative's surface navy, there have been substantial doctrinal arguments, mostly looking at doctrinal roles, and more broadly at the roles that each class is expected to fill. Battleships for example, have three main design schools. The first puts the battleship as a central command vessel, the shield of the fleet, combining sensors, countermissiles, and datalinks to centrally direct defensive and offensive actions, something that will not require many battleships, but does make them both large and expensive. A second group sees the future battleships as essentially supercruisers. Effectively splitting the difference in size between the Governors and the current generation Mountain and Summit class vessels, designed around needing substantial missile batteries, more than anything else. Finally, there are the conservatives, who see the current generation of warships as needing a direct successor, with the balance of fire, operational support, and defenses as being a good compromise, not needing much more than new technology slotted in. The battleships are where the most heated debates are, with there even being a camp that says that the existing classes should be allowed to age out of service, replaced with more cruisers, more frigates, and that if heavy throw weight is needed, coastal monitors and drone munitions vessels will serve for this purpose.
[ ] Unmanned Support Ground Vehicle Deployment
While the Talons will not require particularly many vehicles to see a large impact on their total deployable combat force, it will still be a reasonably expensive project simply due to the amount of automation that it requires.
(Progress 277/240: 20 resources per die) (-1 Capital Goods, -1 Energy)
After nearly a year of logistical snarls, the USGVs have begun meeting Steel Talons units in substantial numbers. Most are being attached to garrison units across the Initiative's research networks, bolstering the Talon's numbers, and prompting a number of test organizations to maximize the impact of the vehicles on the effective combat power of the Talons. Most formations seem to be finding that a four mech lance with six support vehicles is a balance which does not overtask any of the people involved.
Looking towards the future of unmanned support, it looks likely that GDI will be investing extensively in the concept of unmanned ground combat assets, not because it wants to, but because it needs to. Metal is simply so much cheaper per meter of frontage than any kind of meat. With the Initiative defending ever more territory there is a need for more combat platforms, including infantry. And even though populations are finally starting to grow, there is a large window of danger. Babies being born now are not going to be military assets on a modern battlefield for a good twenty years. While war is not going to be a first resort, it seems that every generation of the Initiative will find itself on the battlefield, fighting a war for survival. The only thing that can be done is prepare for a Fourth Tiberium War, expected sometime in the 2070's.
A/N1: It has been a long few years since I started writing this project, years in which decades have happened. There are a few updates left, but those are going to be primarily narrative, a culmination of the choices you have made over the course of the quest.
A/N2: This does help a lot if you want to support my work. Ko-fi.com/ithillid
KnightDisciple
Love God. Do Right. Fear No Man.
- Location
- Midwest, USA
Ultimately the fun was in the fact that the people in the universe didn't know.
Also in being a cheeky bastard here and trying to weasel-word around the accusations of such.
I dunno.
The deal Kane has dropped may trigger a civil war in both GDI and Nod, as well as a general war between the two in the next year or so.
You are being very very pessimistic.
*Looks at the multiple wars and nuclear strikes that have taken place over the last 2 decades* Looks back at the commenter.
No, no I am not.
I mean, canonically, that's exactly what happened. Nod suffered a schism and the GDI had a mutiny with (maybe) the protagonist strung along that almost ruined the whole TCN project for everybody.
- Location
- Outside the Box
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I know this is way too late, but may I ask who writes GDIWife? I want to write a (edit: short!) response to this from her.
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Strunkriidiisk
THE LEGEND
- Location
- Canada
- Pronouns
- He/Him
@MightbeaMimic I believe.
- Location
- Outside the Box
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Thank you!
GDIwife extension
- Location
- Outside the Box
- Pronouns
- She/Her
GDIWife
#AccomplishingProvidence: Do you see Humanity as children? I mean not just as something you say in your typical rhetoric. Do you see us as children?
Children need to be protected. Children need to be guided and taught. Children need love. And, ultimately, children need to be allowed to grow up, and become our equals. Children grow up, Kane. They do not remain children forever.
You do not protect humans. You regularly sacrifice them, in numbers horrifying to even consider. You do not guide and teach. You blind humanity with lies and religious extremism. You do not love us. You view us as cattle, as tools, as inherently beneath you. And you do not want us to grow up. You sought, again and again, to use NOD to take total control over humanity.
You are not a father, nor an uncle, nor any other kind of family member. You are a monster. And while I cannot stop you words, I believe you long ago lost any right to call us children.
(Posted with approval from @MightbeaMimic.)
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Man, those corridors cut in the American Red Zones are making it look downright Swiss-cheesed. Niiiice.
I'm surprised tiberium in Italy went down so easily.
AAAAHAHAHAHAA...
[grunts approvingly]
I have to wonder how the Qatarites knew that if they were being hounded by the rest of Nod after Kane returned post-Temple Prime explosion? The entire reason Qatar wound up working with GDI and then targeted as an apostate was, as I recall, that Qatar didn't know Kane had a plan and just assumed he was dead after the place he was supposed to be vanished in a gigaton-plus explosion and he went incommunicado and aliens invaded.
I mean... he has a point, yeah.
Check, check, check, check, and CHECK! WOO-HOO!
The reason I think this is funny is because Ireland is in BZ-1, not BZ-3. I suspect this is a legacy of the original Blue Zone designations, with the Irish absolutely refusing to be administratively grouped with the English, and I don't blame them one bit.
Well, we've decisively replaced CRP, I suppose, though CRP still has the advantage that you can make it from a sack of wood mulch or a pile of animal dung and that the CRP-making equipment is extremely simple and resilient and does not require favorable operating conditions.
I am surprised if we're running low of volunteers, though not surprised that the kind of people qualified to live in space are in high demand on Earth.
One big part of the target for future space colonization will, of course, have to be in training people to make themselves useful, while also redesigning and expanding the habitats to demand less impressive skill sets of the average person who lives in them.
You are the gdi military and agencies are not going to side with the initiate crazies especially when a civil war would kill a lot of there manpower which is already critically low, and yes nod has constantly fought with itself it is by design by Kane how the hell have you not noticed that, but gdi has been talking and making deals with multiple warlords like we have greenhouses that most of the products go out and into nod hands, and we literally have a skillful plant scientist that one of the hard requirements to get him to work with us is sharing most of it to nod so they can grow their own and they like we are doing it.
ConfusedCanuck
Where did it all go wrong?
- Location
- Neverland
I like this a lot cause in my opinion in the end Kane's one massive hypocrite that never had to pay for his crimes while arrogantly looking down on mankind and calling mankind children. When 80 percent of modern day problems in the Tib verse were caused by him directly or indirectly.
- Location
- The Underdark
If you are looking for people who want to be shoved in a tube? yeah, you have a volunteer list that could be summarized as everybody. If you are looking at people who have taken the classes, and can do the whole live in space thing properly? that is a much much smaller number. Especially because the orbital front, while it is getting better, is still very much primary industry centered.
- Location
- USA
Yeah, Kane shitposting on the interwebs before revealing his true name is completely and totally on brand for that troll. Damn it baldy, are you trying to give us a migraine!?
- Location
- USA
Just looking at the surface progress is amazing even if underground is screaming incoherently. A bit of a pity we never could do the reorganize the YZ we control into GZ project because I know at least in northern SA those YZ channels cutting the RZ are started from MARV Hubs we put down. There are other spots where I wonder how much of that YZ is NOD and how much is it reclaimed RZ that we have not organized, like the bit extended from florida because the northern half of that YZ grouping would seem to be hard for Nod to hold. I do think though that if we were doing another 4 years we could actually push back underground RZ tib
GDI Online Q4 2065
edit-
This is where we ended the quest in terms of surface tib
Below is where we started
Tiberium Spread
Blue: 17.35
Yellow: 32.62
Red: 50.03
(I am not entirely happy with this image, but it is the best my art skills allow me to do. I know there are a few areas that I did not color, I will update those as I can)
We can really see how the RZ has shifted and been carved out over the quest, though given that it was growing for a good while until we started pushing back and that we claimed YZ from nod and converted our starting YZ into BZ it is interesting to see how GDI areas have grown. I am also noticing how a lot of the YZ coastline has vanished into BZ or RZ (and if we ever did the turn our YZ into GZ tib project we could see where Nod could actually have YZ sub bases).
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