GDI Platoon Commander: A "GDI Edition" side-quest (non-canon)

Raw Plan/Resolution:

August 8, 2060

Being honest, you're outnumbered and outgunned. Not locally, but overall, in the theater - there are just more Nod aircraft than there are yours, claims of region-wide GDI air superiority notwithstanding. You snort - you're not even angry. At this point, it's just what you've come to expect from "higher authority".

Being outnumbered, if you continue to stay on the defensive, they will grind you down; and once they're done with you, they'll team up on Lt. Richter. She may be lucky, but you doubt that even she could take on three Nod bases by herself. So, you call her up and explain the plan.

"... have your Orcas on standby. The second I give the signal, launch and hit the Nod facilities in these sectors." you finish. "That looks like a pretty big, juicy base, so taking those structures out should hurt quite considerably."

"Priority targets?" She asks.

You think for a second. "Construction yards, air towers. If you have to, engage air defenses - you need to conserve your forces, Orcas don't exactly grow on trees."

Lt. Richter chuckles. "Someone should tell your pilots that."

You smirk and roll your eyes. Your dead Orca pilot count is pretty high, and it still kind of stings, but you're at the "laugh or cry" stage. "Shut it, Lieutenant. You've got your orders. Wait for the signal - you want to hit an empty base not a hive of Barghests and Venoms. Command out."

---

You start things off shortly, ordering the APC that is within range of your base back; you monitor your harassment force's progress from the command post - they buzz the Nod base, confirming the presence of a lone Scorpion tank and a buggy. A couple of Specter shells get sent out their way, but your APC drivers follow good evasive patterns and don't even come close to being hit, breaking south and out of sensor range. Your zone armor units hop the chasm between C3 and B3, confirming no activity at the destroyed A3-A4 bridge, then retreat to the relative safety of the APCs.

Your Ox has already departed and is heading for Lt. Richter's base - you expect it'll get back after the fight is over. Unless your base gets leveled, then you hope that the pilot has the good sense to stay clear. You know that Roux would - which makes you wonder what she's doing now.

Even though you yelled at the poor scrub (formerly) in charge of the northern depot about it, you do the exact same thing - have your harvester stick around to grab an extra load of Tiberium from the A4 field. Both to deny it to the Brotherhood and to have it for yourself. Unlike the unfortunate junior Lieutenant, you've occupied the Brotherhood's attention with a feint from the other side of their base - so your harvester gets its sweep in, fills the storage tubes and is away before any artillery can respond. Escorted by a Predator and a Mammoth, you're relatively confident it'll eventually make it back to the D6 field, certainly by the time you're able to set up a refinery there.

You take in and let out a deep breath, re-tightening your ponytail. Now you just have to wait for the Nod aircraft to show up - you've "demonstrated" that your base is under-defended, so the temptation to hit you before your APCs and zone armor get back should be pretty strong.

---

You only have to wait a few hours before the sensor contacts show up, flying over the ruined east half of your base. Securing your helmet, you sprint out to the rocket APC, hopping into the gunner seat.

"Hostile contacts incoming. All units to defensive positions. Orcas launch immediately. Lt. Richter, launch your assault." you pause for a second, making sure the status lights you're responsible for are green. "Orca flight, remember to stay close to the base defenses so our anti-air can support you. If you get too far out, you're going to get chewed up - and then we'll be next."

"Thanks for the air tactics lesson, ma'am." the Orca flight leader (yet another new one) replies.

You sigh. You might not be some kind of air combat expert, but you've done your time training as an air force liaison, so you do actually know some basic principles about air combat tactics. And even if you didn't, you still know some basic principles about general combat tactics, one of them being not to engage the full enemy force with an outnumbered half of your force by itself (the exception being harassment and various diversionary actions, but you don't usually harass the main body, and you can't really harass if the hostile force is faster than yours). But you don't have time to chew him out or explain right now - the Nod force consists of three Venoms, four Barghests (as you expected) and, to your dismay, four carryalls with infantry transport modules. In your annoyance, you almost forget that you have an Overseer at your base. You order it to move beyond the walls so it can shell ground targets within your base - your sniper team should be able to provide accurate sighting data.

The air-to-air engagement starts off disappointing - your Orcas bob and weave, avoiding the worst of the Barghest shots, but failing to get missile locks. One of the Orcas does get a solid near miss on a Venom with an air-to-air missile, but a second Venom sneaks up on its tail and nearly severs one of the wings with the nose-mounted laser.

The other Barghests and Venoms come at your ground forces, screening the Carryalls as they fly in - you have no choice but engage and let the transports land in your base perimeter. Your targeting system gives a lock-on tone, and you release a rocket. The target aircraft, a menacing, circular black shape with forward-swept wings, twists aside at the last second, catching a good concussion wave, but remaining airborne. Tracers fly up from your base, contacting another, but you shake your head - it's not going to be enough, especially not with one of your Orcas about to fall apart.

"Warrant Officer." you transmit to the construction crew chief as the Barghests circle around for another strafing run. "Got any additional turrets for me?"

"Thought you'd never ask, Lieutenant." he replies. "Yeah, we got another missile launcher for you, but we're gonna have to take a bunch of computer equipment from the factory for the targeting systems."

"Fine, do it." you answer, firmly. If you don't get that turret up, having a working factory is going to be a moot point. "EVA, emergency infantry deployment, rocket loadout."

"Affirmative." the EVA tells you. "Weapons fire... incoming."

You grind your teeth. "Yeah, I know." you mutter, staring up through your gunnery camera as a Barghest makes another pass at you. Your driver swerves to the side, avoiding the deadly green energy bolts that turn dirt to (really poor quality) glass as they impact, allowing you to lock on to the incoming Barghest. Your rocket flies true, impacting it on the underside as it flies over. The circular craft dips and barely clears your base's western wall, leaving a good number of little metal chunks scattered over your base.

As you scan the air for new targets, you watch one of your Orcas, you're not sure which one, trailed by a laser-firing Venom, take a few too many laser pulses - one of its wings shears off and it corkscrews into the ground to the south of your base. The Venom dips low, avoiding your targeting reticle entirely.

The Carryalls have finished disgorging their cargo, four full squads of Afanc-class Gana, the cybernetic crocodilians marching forward. You sniff, hoping that those Overseer guys are almost done. The Gana open up on your infantry and stationary turrets - you hear casualty reports almost immediately as the squad trying to emerge from your barracks gets penned in by minigun fire and a Venom's strafing run. To your surprise, your engineer squad pulls off a pretty effective ambush with their short range weapons - emptying several sub-machinegun clips into one of the Afancs. Once about 75% of its organic body has been replaced with lead, it collapses.

Another Barghest comes at your APC, grazing the top of the vehicle with green plasma bolts. You're pretty sure you can feel the heat from the driver's compartment, and the vehicle creaks alarmingly, but keeps moving. A quick check tells you that the Orcas and Venoms are pounding each other; an explosion and the sounds of grinding metal signals the collapse of one of your turrets.

"Orca Lead here, my aircraft is shot to shit, disengaging." comes the report.

"Are you fucking kidding me, Orca Lead?" you scream into the comms. "Where are you gonna go, you think those Barghests are gonna let you land here for repairs?! Circle around, find your nutsack and get back into the fight!"

You cringe as the Barghest comes around for another pass on your APC - you were so busy yelling at the Orca pilot you forgot to track that particular menace. Just for a few seconds - but it's enough. You're not going to be able to get a lock on it before it fries you. Your driver swerves to the side, but he's no Corporal Arias - the APC loses traction and spins out, hitting several bumps in the process and nearly flipping over. You cringe again, both because you're pretty sure you opened up a wound under your bandages and it hurts like hell, and because you're about to get melted to slag. But, to your immense relief, the Barghest pulls aside, a missile flying right past it. "You're welcome, Alpha-Two." comes the transmission from Orca Lead.

"Glad you found your balls, Orca Lead." you reply breathlessly. "You too Orca-Three." you call out, noting a "landing" status indicator on the other Orca.

While your driver regains control of the vehicle and gets you back in the fight, you notice a very low count of hostile aircraft - maybe three that you can see. Checking your RADAR map, the rest of the airborne blips have disengaged to the east. Without air support, the Gana are systematically gunned down by your ground forces - with the Sniper team's fire direction, the Overseer's shells land among clusters of the crocodilian cyborgs, scattering them to the four winds and rendering them easy prey for your mobile units.

The last cyborg squad rushes forward, spraying their miniguns wildly in the direction of anything that moves. Unfortunately, that includes the sniper team as they duck out briefly to call out an artillery fire adjustment. The lack of focus costs them however, as the remaining Afancs are shredded with everything you've got.

It takes you a minute or two to convince your hands to release their death grip on the firing controls.

"Can we land now, command?" Orca Lead transmits.

You sigh. "Yeah, you can land now, Orca Lead." You shake your head. Goddamn pilots.

Combat Result: Victory
1x Orca, 1x Sentry Turret destroyed
Sniper Team WIA
1x SAM Site, 2x Orca critically damaged
Factory forced dismantled

4x Gana destroyed
3x Barghest, 2x Venom critically damaged

----

You delegate cleanup detail and head to the medical bay in the barracks (having learned your lesson about that). Your G-Pad beeps with an incoming transmission as you wait for the more critical casualties to be triaged - both members of the sniper team survived their perforation experience, though you're not sure whether they'll be back in the fight any time soon - it's Lt. Richter. She's grinning.

"Kicked their ass, ma'am. Shot down a stray Venom, killed a militant squad."

You frown. "That's it?"

Lt. Richter's grin gets even wider. "Not even close. We got an MCV, took out two air towers, an Ops Center and a Tech Lab. Best part? We blew up a pair of silos, scattered Tiberium all over the west half of their base." her grin drops a little. "Orcas took some damage, and we couldn't find their factory, so I think we'll need to hit them again to finish them off. But they might have some air defenses this time. "

You smirk. "Eleven aircraft, four landing pads, Lieutenant. You do the math."

Malorie's grin comes back. "So four Orcas with air-to-air loadouts and four with air-to-ground, plus the Aurora." She shakes her head. "Still can't believe that Venom actually got a shot off at that bomber and made it miss. We'd have nailed another building if it wasn't for that Venom."

You shrug. "I think it'll be fine, Lieutenant. Now about that credit shipment?"

She spreads her arms. "Harvesting doesn't resume for another twenty four hours. I think your flyboy is going to have to wait here until then."

You nod. "It is what it is, Lieutenant. Try not to ride him too hard, I need him to fly that Ox back here. Listen, I need to go, the medic is getting impatient."

---

"So, you can learn after all, Lieutenant." the medic tells you as he changes your blood-soaked bandages out and applies what you assume is disinfectant (because it stings, making you cringe and audibly gasp) before spraying your back with sealant and re-applying the bandages around your lower and upper torso. "Sort of. You did go back out into the fight before you were healed up." he adds, disapprovingly.

You sigh. "Look, medic. Those Nod aircraft don't shoot themselves down."

He raises an eyebrow as he circles the bandage around your torso again - the cuts and burns go all the way up and down. It takes you a lot of effort to distract yourself from his muscular forearms that somehow manage to make the bandages tight without hurting - you solve the problem by staring at the wall ahead of you.

"Maybe not," he counters, "But I bet you could command the battle just fine, even better from the command post. Don't you have a bunch of wall-screens and an EVA unit in there with a real-time RADAR and camera feed from every active unit?"

You contemplate telling him that yes, it's more of a pain in the ass, but you can barely keep yourself from collapsing into a sobbing mess whenever you're not out in the field yourself and your forces start taking losses. So you avoid the problem by personally participating in the fights. Even if you're not that great a shot. Although you're actually not that bad in a command suit or at the gunnery controls of an APC. And he's done a good job of avoiding both any more (now that you think about it, pretty inappropriate) "Violet likes women" rumor mill comments and staring at the girls (before they got covered up with gauze), so maybe he won't say anything stupid if you tell him. But then again, he might just nod sympathetically and then refer you for psychiatric treatment, which you feel is the last thing you need at this point. Dammit, Violet, focus on the conversation, you remind yourself.

"Well?" the medic's voice startles you.

You sigh. "Sure. It just lacks that personal touch, though." you mumble a retort, your gaze moving down to the floor. The rest of the bandaging proceeds in awkward silence before you self-consciously slide your shirt back on over the bandages and return to your quarters.

---

News from the southern forward base is about what you expected - the Brotherhood aircraft from the coastal airbase returned and leveled about half the base, sweeping aside the meager air defenses that could be mustered. The losses include a Mammoth tank and a Pitbull - at this point the SFB is more or less a lost cause, and you're going to tell them to pack it in. Your main decision here is whether to have them dismantle the base or leave the buildings to occupy the attention of the brotherhood aircraft for another day or two.

The northern depot still has a couple of targets that can be hit; the F6 facility didn't quite get finished off, while the B6 facility is still intact. The D3 facility has likely tapped out the Tiberium field and the harvesting operation has moved on, but you think it's still worthwhile to try to track down the local income source.

The main difficulty with the northern depot is that it's not out of the realm of possibility for the Brotherhood to have constructed spare landing pads elsewhere - so Lt. Richter could be facing a bunch (probably ~7) of angry, battle-hardened Nod aircraft if she attacks there. Whether or not they're repaired or will be able to respond to attacks in a timely fashion is an unknown, but both of you think she'll have the advantage there regardless.

The SFB still has a "main" Nod base remaining untouched, so that's another possible target. Air defenses are unknown, but given that they a) were cranking out Avatars, b) were relying on the coastal air base for air support and c) have had their harvesting operations repeatedly destroyed, they are unlikely to be too extensive.

As for you, there's really nothing you can do, other than call your units back to base and hunker down until the Ox finishes bringing the credits over.

---

Lt. Richter still has two flights of four Orcas. Pick up to two things for them to do. They can double up.

Structure sensor signature sizes:
Large - Factory, Construction Yard, Refinery
Medium - Power Plant, Tech Lab, Hand of Nod, Obelisk, Air Tower, basically anything else
Small - Silo, Turret

Vehicle sensor signature sizes:
Large - Avatars, Titans
Medium - Tanks
Small - Buggies, Bikes

[] Combat air patrol - southern forward base
-Engage nod aircraft to keep them away from ground attack Orcas
-actual base is a lost cause at this point
[] Combat air patrol - northern forward base
-Currently unnecessary
[] Combat air patrol - northern depot
-Engage Nod aircraft to keep them away from ground attack Orcas
[] Target facility B6 at northern depot
-1x large, 1x medium building
-2x large vehicle signatures
[] Target facility F6 at northern depot
-1x Power Plant (Upgraded), 1x Hand of Nod, 1x Combat Support Airfield
-2x Militant (T-Rocket) squad
-Possibly up to 4x aircraft
[] Target facility D3 at northern depot
-1x large building, 1x Tiberium harvester-load (last estimate)
[] Target facility F2 at southern forward base
-2x large building, 2x medium building
-2x large vehicle signature
[] Target facility E2 at southern forward base
-5x medium building, 1x small building


Southern Forward Base disposition:
[] Dismantle and evacuate to your position (ETA ~15 days to your location with ~6000 credits)
[] Leave buildings standing as bait and evacuate to your position (ETA ~15 days to your location with ~3000 credits)

Raw Plan/Resolution:

August 9, 2060
Barracks Medical Bay

"I still can't believe those cyborgs caught the two of you like that." you tell the spotter, as him and the sniper lie in the medical bay, awaiting evacuation. Your medics have stopped the bleeding, but they'll need screening and possibly surgery which you can't provide at the facilities you have. The terms "perforated" and "lucky bastards" were used.

The spotter smiles weakly as the sniper makes several gestures in sign language. "He says we're more aerodynamic now."

You give a lengthy chuckle, rubbing your hand on your forehead. "What, because of the extra holes?"

"Something like that, yeah." the spotter replies.

"One of these days, I should learn sign language," you muse. One of these days, I should learn a lot of things, you continue the thought internally, maybe even subjects that don't have anything to do with war or Tiberium.

"... he says it'd be weird to talk to you directly." the spotter finishes his sentence. You sigh - this habit of yours of drifting off during conversations seems to be getting worse. You attempt to make the best of it and smirk. "And it'd be pretty weird for me not to be translating what he says."

You nod, patting each of their shoulders with a hand. "I guess we'll see when you two recover." you reply, checking your G-Pad. "Your ride's going to be here in half an hour, I better let the medics get you prepped for transfer."

The spotter sighs. "Great, that ought to be fun. Nothing like bouncing around in an Ox during air turbulence with a bunch of IV's sticking out of you."

You nod. "Yeah. Sorry, guys." you look both of them in the eye, in turn.

You exchange your goodbyes, then gingerly (but in as dignified a fashion as you can muster with your torso bandaged like a mummy) leave the medical bay, wondering if you'll ever see the two of them again. You hope so.

---

August 12, 2060

Lt. Richter's follow-up raid on the northern depot yields pretty excellent results. It seems that the Brotherhood pulled another construction yard out of some orifice where they had it hidden; this was to their detriment. They were able to scramble a flight of three Barghests and a Venom, with an additional two Venoms coming from the north eventually, and had thrown up a SAM site.

This time, the Aurora dropped a plasma bomb directly through the roof of the construction yard, annihilating the structure; a Barghest and two Venoms were shot down, a Militant squad destroyed, and all the rest of the structures in the F6 sector there leveled. Only one Orca took meaningful damage, with a couple more laser scratches all around. At this point, you estimate that there's a total of three Barghests and one Venom left in the northern depot sector. And the four Carryalls, if they haven't been re-assigned somewhere else. As far as ground forces go, you don't know, but it can't be that much. The Tiberium there shouldn't have been tapped out yet, so you don't think they're going to pack it up yet.

It takes your Ox two roundtrips to bring the G-771G containers over from Lt. Richter's base to yours. You use the credits to carry out repairs to your damaged vehicles and set up a refinery in sector D6 - the only hiccup being having to clear out a stray Visceroid that had decided to take up residence in the Tiberium field there. Your harvester crew informs you that they'll be arriving there with a full load of Tiberium within twenty four hours; so you'll be able to resume some sort of construction and requisition activities shortly.

As for the southern forward base, you issue the order to evacuate, which is followed pretty expeditiously. Their remaining buildings are left as bait, forcing the Brotherhood aircraft to spend another sortie destroying the remaining structures. It stings to leave a decent-sized Tiberium patch in the Brotherhood's hands, but you would have had no chance to hold that area anyway - no need to get your people killed over it.

---

"Right. The Nod aircraft keep buzzing my base, so I've had to keep my Orcas out on anti-air patrol as a deterrent." Lt. Richter tells you during one of your daily video calls. "I've got the Tech Center up and running, and the last of a Firehawk flight just arrived. No Apollos or their drones, though." she adds, looking somewhat crestfallen.

To your mixed pleasure and chagrin, she's somehow managed to convince command to attach some Firehawks to her force. And here you are, hanging on by your fingernails, still haven't cleared the debris from your base. "I imagine they're busy polishing their... " you pause with a smirk, "... medals."

She returns your smirk. "Maybe. Well, in a couple of days, I'll have another full flight of Firehawks here. I'm thinking of beefing up my anti-air defenses so I can resume making air strikes." she pauses. "Having the three harvesters on the job really makes things go faster when there's a lot of Tiberium. Glad you told me to do that, ma'am." she finishes.

You give a crooked smile. "Yeah, I bet it is pretty nice. We'll be in touch. Command out."

EVA Report Follows:
Hold Northern Forward Base (primary command directive, Nod condition critical)
Hold Northern Air Supply Depot (primary command directive, Nod-controlled)
Hold Southern Forward Base (primary command directive, Nod-controlled)
Hold Southern Air Supply Depot (primary command directive, GDI-controlled)

[Note: this is a double turn]

Power (available/total): 80/250
Logistics (available/total): 0/12
Building Slots D6: 4/7 (-1 Tiberium)
Building Slots E6: 2/8
Tiberium Credits: 320 (+3000 overspend)
Tiberium Storage Capacity (available/total): 2000/2000
Tiberium Income: 1500/turn for 7 turns
Construction Capacity: 1 building/turn, 1 defense/turn
Infantry Requisition Capacity: 1/turn (disabled until more logistics available)
Buildings:
D6: Outpost, Refinery
E6: Conyard, Commpost, Factory, Barracks, Walls, PD Turret, AA Turret, AAM Turret

Miscellaneous Options:

Construction Options (Pick up to 2, valid spots are D6, E6, F6):

Defense Construction Options (Pick up to 2, valid spots are D6, E6, F6):

Infantry Requisition Options (Pick up to 2, but only if logistics goes above 0. Will arrive in E6):

Operational Area Map:

Current Force Status:

As you contemplate what you're going to do with those bittersweet credits that are about to be rolling in, you also contemplate what to do with your troops. You estimate that the Brotherhood will take the rest of the Tiberium that you abandoned in A4, and use it to crank out additional units. Probably Centurions, the local commander seems to like those, but maybe Specters. You wonder whether that's better countered by Orcas or additional artillery. Your current estimate is that they have a single Scorpion, two buggies and two Specters - the Tiberium they will get will allow (or already has allowed) them to crank out some combination of three Centurions and Specters. What you really want to do is send your Orcas to do some recon. Or have them strike out to the east to hit one of the "leftover" facilities in the northern depot. But that carries the risk of interception and shootdown, which you're not sure you can afford. Of course, they can't really afford the loss of the "leftover" facility, either, most likely.

The northern supply depot is likely down but not entirely out. If the local commander tries to launch another attack on your base, you're likely to see the leftover aircraft come at you from the east.

With Lt. Richter's force tied up shadow-boxing against the coastal airbase, you're going to be on your own. You're tempted to tell her to send another strike, if she can, against either the northern depot or the (former) southern forward base. But that may leave her open to air counterattack until she bolsters her air defense situation.

Lt. Richter estimated air power: 12
Lt. Richter estimated anti-air power: 4 (2x Hydrofoil, 2x Rocket infantry)
Coastal air base estimated offensive air power: 12-16
Northern Depot estimated air power: 4
Your air power: 2

Disposition of your Orcas:
[] Local Recon
[] Northern depot: close recon of B6 facility
-reveals actual building and unit types
-minor risk of interception and shootdown
[] Northern depot: attack B5 facility
-1x large, 1x medium structure
-last reported 2x large vehicle signatures


Lt. Richter now has two flights of Orcas and a flight of Firehawks.
Pick up to 3 targets (may double or triple up), or the combat air patrol option.

Structure sensor signature sizes:
Large - Factory, Construction Yard, Refinery
Medium - Power Plant, Tech Lab, Hand of Nod, Obelisk, Air Tower, basically anything else
Small - Silo, Turret

Vehicle sensor signature sizes:
Large - Avatars, Titans
Medium - Tanks
Small - Buggies, Bikes

[] Combat air patrol
- continue stalemate with coastal base
- any other action may result in heavy Nod airstrike on her base
[] Target facility B5 at northern depot
-1x large, 1x medium building
-2x large vehicle signatures
[] Target facility D3 at northern depot
-1x large building, 1x Tiberium harvester-load (last estimate)
[] Target facility F2 at southern forward base
-2x large building, 2x medium building
-2x large vehicle signature
[] Target facility E2 at southern forward base
-5x medium building, 1x small building

Raw Plan/Resolution:

August 13, 2060

As usual, it bugs the hell out of you when your Orcas go flying into a Nod ECM bubble. But, as someone once said, "I'm the leader... need the info." And you want to know what the Brotherhood has got in that small outpost they've got in sector B5 at the former site of the northern depot. With Lt. Richter's Orcas and Firehawks flying sorties to drive off continued probes from the southern airbase (neither set of aircraft willing to commit to an engagement), you're the only one with the assets to find out. So, while your construction crews bulldoze the remains of the two bridges stretching north from sector D6 and your harvester crew unloads their Tiberium cargo, you send the Orcas in. According to the flight plan you concocted, they should only be in the jamming bubble for three, four minutes tops.

You check your watch, because the timer and the local clock on the G-Pad are apparently not enough, and try to find something with which to busy your hands. They go straight to your ponytail, taking the restraint off in a by now well-practiced motion, sliding it over your right wrist, grabbing a handful of hair on each side of your head, gripping the whole bunch with your left hand, then sliding it through the restraint. They've been gone for five minutes. You do your best to dispel the various "creative" scenarios your mind has constructed - a previously somehow undetected Bogatyr-class flying battleship is the most realistic one, with mis-targeted ion cannon blasts being a distant second and a renewed Scrin invasion a very distant third.

You spread your hands, shaking your head. Stupid bastards were just supposed to fly in, get a visual inspection, then fly out. Don't engage if there are ground defenses and especially if there are any aircraft on sensors. "Just take pictures." you remember saying. What in the name of Kane's left nut am I supposed to do if they get themselves blown up? you wonder to yourself, your lips moving without making any sound.

"Omicron flight reporting." a report breaks you out of your waking nightmare. "Sending flight logs now. One factory, one tiberium-core power plant... and uh, one Mantis AA plus one SAM Site. Returning to base."

You frown. The large vehicle contacts missing you can understand - those were probably the two Titans that got flown over by Carryall to your base, where their remains still rest. Plus, that data is from Lt. Richter's Orcas - almost a week old. But something seems off about the report, and you tap the Orcas' status icons for a more detailed readout. Ammunition levels at eighty four percent, eh? That means they must have shot at something. You think through the likely scenarios here and think about what you would do if you had a remote outpost like that and a couple of Orcas flying hard in your direction.

Your first action would be to crank out as much anti-air power as you can, hoping to hold the Orcas off until they either ran out of ammo or your own aircraft could get there. That's where the Mantis and SAM site came from. The Mantis is not a vehicle you've seen personally, but, from what you've read, it's basically a rapid-fire anti-air missile launcher, about the same speed as a buggy too. Unmanned too. You smirk, thinking about how you could benefit from a few of those - their brutal effectiveness against aircraft aside, they would also have the benefit of you not feeling like an awful human being every time one of them gets blown up under your command. Unless they're operated by full-scale artificial intelligences? But those don't have parents that you have to write a note back home to. Goddammit, Violet, focus.

Anyway, it looks like what you've got here is a couple of Orca pilots who clearly disobeyed your orders not to engage the enemy. Sure, they inflicted light damage on some Nod buildings and likely forced an unwanted deployment of anti-aircraft assets, but still. At this point, they're elite badasses and you're not exactly in a position to be re-shuffling your force structure at the moment. And you don't want to discourage battlefield initiative. However, the flight leader has definitely questioned your authority over open comms already, and you do need to make sure that people under your command follow your orders and don't screw around. You sigh - this isn't the first time you've had to deal with something like this and you suspect it won't be the last time, either.

Pick One:
[] Some kind of symbolic punishment
-[] Optional write-in what
[] Official reprimand/etc
-[] Optional write-in what

EVA Report Follows:
Hold Northern Forward Base (primary command directive, Nod condition critical)
Hold Northern Air Supply Depot (primary command directive, Nod-controlled)
Hold Southern Forward Base (primary command directive, Nod-controlled)
Hold Southern Air Supply Depot (primary command directive, GDI-controlled)

[Note: this is a double turn]

Power (available/total): 45/250
Logistics (available/total): 3/16
Building Slots D6: 4/7 (-1 Tiberium)
Building Slots E6: 0/8
Tiberium Credits: 370 (+3000 overspend)
Tiberium Storage Capacity (available/total): 1950/2000
Tiberium Income: 1500/turn for 5 turns
Construction Capacity: 1 building/turn, 1 defense/turn
Infantry Requisition Capacity: 1/turn
Vehicle Requisition Capacity: 1/turn
Buildings:
D6: Outpost, Refinery
E6: Conyard, Commpost, Factory, Barracks, Walls, PD Turret, AA Turret, AAM Turret

Miscellaneous Options:

Construction Options (Pick up to 2, valid spots are D6, F6):

Defense Construction Options (Pick up to 2, valid spots are D6, E6, F6):

Infantry Requisition Options (Pick up to 2, but only if logistics goes above 0. Will arrive in E6):

Vehicle Requisition Options (pick up to 1x, arrive at E6):

Operational Area Map:

Current Force Status:

August 14, 2060

You opt not to send your two Orcas back to the northern depot, instead having them sweep the area round the Nod base. They reveal four medium and one light vehicle contact in sector D2, and the Nod base still intact, although with greatly reduced vehicle signature counts inside (zero, in fact). Either the Brotherhood is trying to fake you out for some reason or they're coming at you soon. You don't really know for sure, either way.

You outnumber them, but if they start lobbing shells across the river, it'll come down to an artillery duel. Your play will be, as you've done several times before, zone armor and air support across the river - and ground units across the bridge if they weaken their side of the bridge enough. Their air support (you're reasonably sure it's the three Barghests and a Venom) will likely come gunning for your base. Again. A smaller number, but with no Lt. Richter to bail out, you'll want to up your anti-air firepower a good amount.

You also consider pre-positioning faster ground units on the far side of the bridge instead, for example in sector C5 or E5. When the Noddies no doubt move in to D5, you can pincer them from each side and crush them. Or at least run them off. Of course, this means you'll be less able to respond to air raids on your base with mobile units - so this means you need to up your air defense count more.

[] Stay on your side of the river as during previous attacks
[] Pre-position troops on the far side of the river

Lt. Richter estimated air power: 14 (8x Orca, 6x Firehawk)
Lt. Richter estimated air defense: 4 (2x Hydrofoil, 2x Rocket infantry)
Coastal air base estimated offensive air power: 12-20 (Mix of Venoms, Barghests and Vertigos)
Northern Depot estimated air power: 4 (3x Barghest, 1x Venom)
Your air power: 2
Your air defense: 2 (2x Turret)