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

Raw Plan/Resolution:

August 22, 2060

You sit mutely and stare at the timer on your G-Pad as you sit in the APC's gunner seat. By now, your Orcas should have already engaged the Ops Center, destroyed it and then pulled back as you planned. As usual, various scenarios play out in your head. Nothing as creative as a swarm of stealth tanks or the reappearance of the Scrin; more like the Orca flight leader deciding to take on some Barghest-class fighters with half his aircraft loaded out for ground attack.

The timer ticks as you tap your hand on the armrest, the sounds of welding coming through the APCs hull - the Rig's drones going to work mounting armor plating. The reality is that the Ops Center should have already come down, and you should have had long-range comms. But, given the "global network connection unavailable" message whenever you try to access said comms, it obviously didn't happen. And at this rate, you won't have any confirmation what happened one way or the other until the Ox comes in tomorrow with the Pacifier and runs in the latest batch of comms. Needless to say, sleep, especially on the floor of an APC in shifts next to snoring zone troopers, does not come easily.


August 23, 2060

The outcome is neither the nightmare scenario you expected, nor the spectacular victory you wanted. The Ox drops the Pacifier off, and passes the combat report. The Orcas had time to make exactly one strafing run on the Ops Center before being engaged by about half the brotherhood's available airpower here - three Barghests and a Venom. The flight leader noted that the Barghests looked a little beat up, indicating a lack of credits for repairs.

Being beat up didn't stop them from running the Orca flight off, shooting one down in the process. The Orcas fought back gamely, taking out a Barghest, but aren't in great shape - they won't be making any more combat runs until that southern forward base convoy gets to your base. Which should be happening in twenty four hours. Meanwhile, you move your ground force component forward, your zone armor suits dismounting at the end of the march to scout ahead a little - the crowd of vehicles will certainly show up on any Nod sensors, but the person-sized zone armor units will not. Unless you start lighting off rockets and railguns.

It seems that the Nod commander has gone for the "sprawling" approach - a lone air tower rises over the relatively flat terrain to the north. You can see two Barghests and a Venom, drones and mechanics swarming over them, trying to carry out repairs. You tap Sgt. Jarvi on the shoulder and motion back to your APC bivouac - time to grab some food, stim up, then hit the tower - using artillery to bombard it so the Nod aircraft have to come to you. At least that's your plan, you reflect as you absently chew off a piece of fungus ration bar, having forgotten to apply any of the seasoning packets. You clench your fist at your inability to call in the Orcas at will - the comms blackout basically leaves you with one data dump per day whenever the Ox flies in. That's no way to coordinate the arrival of aircraft whose loiter time is measured in minutes. Plus, you need them to fly recon patterns.


August 24, 2060

You move your ground units and artillery directly to the south of the air tower. All zone armor units disembark, the APCs and Rig arranged in a perfect air defense formation while the Predator sits around uselessly. You check the air tower again with your optics, calculating the precise range and feeding the data to the artillery units for a little extra accuracy. You note with some disappointment that the Barghests and Venom look to be in a lot better shape than a few hours ago - probably the brotherhood has had to dismantle something to get the repairs done. The artillery units give the ready signal, and you grip your LMG tightly, even knowing it'll be completely useless in the coming fight. "Open fire." you order.

The artillery thumps behind you, and you scowl as the fighters lift off - the shells still in the air. But even as they lift off, the tower is hit twice - the first shell knocks out a corner while the second one flies directly through the opening at the top. A gout of flame emerges from the structure and it keels over in the direction of the external damage, a cloud of dirt and smoke emerging as it collapses. Your scowl turns into a determined frown. Now you just have to take down some aircraft. The two Barghests and Venom are joined by two more Barghests, which move south to engage your units.

The scythe-like fighters scream in, their plasma flying towards your vehicles as rockets fly out. The Pitbull's weapons pods are melted off, but the enemy aircraft are unable to inflict other meaningful damage, forced into evasive action by the cloud of rockets corkscrewing into the air. For a few moments, neither side gains the advantage, but eventually the Barghests and Venom take a few hits and decide to retreat, strafing one of your APCs on the way out, disabling both its left-side wheels.

You sigh. Now they're going to fly back to their remaining air and support towers, carry out repairs, and then you're going to have to go through this rigamarole again - except this time missing two of your vehicles. But what if you didn't have to do that?

"Alpha-Five, Pi-One, remain here with the Overseer." you order. "All other units, move north to designated coordinates and set up. We're going to finish this, now."

Sgt. Jarvi taps you on the shoulder, opening up a private comms channel. "Ma'am, should we be pushing it like this? Our units need repairs and resupply, and we're going to be awfully exposed in there."

You sigh. "We're out of spare parts and replacement consumables until that convoy gets to our base; the next Ox drop isn't for another twenty four hours. And our Orcas are out flying recon patterns. Meanwhile, those scrin-tech fighters over there are getting patched up and are going to come for us a lot sooner than that." you shake your head. "I understand what you're trying to say, but I don't think we have another option."

Sgt. Jarvi shrugs. "I think we do. We could pull back to sector D4 here, at least that way the Noddies will have to expend some effort trying to find us."

"And leave the Overseer behind?" you ask. "That thing's too slow to keep up." you pause. "I wish I hadn't brought it, or had it dropped closer." you add, mumbling under your breath.

Sgt. Jarvi nods. "Well, you can't say I didn't try, ma'am."

You look at him. "I appreciate the concern Sergeant. And if you're right..."

You're pretty sure he smirks. "That scenario doesn't end well for us."

You nod. "Right. All units, move out as directed."

---

The continuation of your assault doesn't go nearly as well as the initial part. Despite the damage inflicted on them, three of the Barghests return to the fight as soon as your forces set up. Your Pacifier gets a single shot off (which whiffs despite, or maybe because of, you designating the target coordinates yourself) before being strafed and melted to slag, sliding left and right to avoid the missiles fired by your units. You scowl. There's an air tower to the north where there is a Carryall on each of the four pads, and a smaller, wimpier-looking air tower off to the east where the Nod combat aircraft are huddled. If you could just get some firepower over there, you could take it out, and then they'll have half as many places to repair.

"Sgt. Jarvi. Activate jump jets and over that chasm. Take out the support air tower." you order.

"Yes ma'am." he replies, the zone armor squad arcing over the Tiberium-filled chasm and bounding towards the lesser air tower. Your plan is simple - keep firing at the Barghests and distract them long enough for Sgt. Jarvi to knock the structure down with the zone troopers' railguns.

The distraction doesn't work, although one of the Barghests takes a couple of good hits from your raider squad's rocket pods on its way out and climbs up out of engagement range. "Shit." you mouth. "Sergeant, hunker down. You've got fighters headed your way. We're coming too, will distract them then everyone bails out."

Your transmission is acknowledged, and you order the raider squad to form up, then everyone fires their jump jets. As soon as you land, your raiders brace themselves, firing rockets up at the Barghests strafing the troopers - though to little effect, as the latter are using the air tower for cover. The only cover around for kilometers, in fact, other than the wreckage your remaining vehicles are clustered around. One of the Barghests is struck in the right wing as it swings around for another pass, wobbling as it flies off into the distance, nearly colliding with the other one, which has to spin off to the side then pull up to avoid being rammed and crashing.

"All units, disengage. Back to the APCs. Now." you call out.

Combat Results: Grinding Advance
1x Orca destroyed
1x Barghest destroyed
Air Tower destroyed

Overseer is now elite
Orca #2, #4 are now veteran
APC #2, #5 are now elite

---

The daily data download you get from the Ox flying supplies and replacement parts in gives you the shivers. And not the good kind. The Orcas have completed 75% of their assigned recon patrols, and the sensor scan data from your Orca recon flights - greatly reduced in efficiency due to losing one - frankly scares you.

"One... two... three... " you count up the large red dots, mouthing the numbers out quietly. "... nine... ten." And another five small ones. "Kane's left nut." you mouth. Based on their size, they're probably mechs. Based on their speed, they can't be Centurions or Titans. Although you suppose they could be going slow to fake you out. What else does Nod have that's that size and speed? Purifiers, Avatars, Redeemers. Probably not the latter, there's no way there was enough Tiberium at the southern forward base to make that many. And nobody actually builds Purifiers if they can help it, Avatars are objectively better.

So, ten Avatars. Two independently-firing large-bore laser cannons, and a giant flamethrower to boot per piece. Plus an advanced sensor package. All moving towards Lt. Richter's base. At their current rate of advance, you estimate she has about eight days before she's in a world of pain. The only silver lining you can see here is that the Avatar's standard configurations don't feature anti-air weaponry. That's what all the smaller vehicles with them are for, likely. Probably buggies and bikes, maybe a couple of Manti. A total of five. This must have been what Captain Jones of InOps was hinting to you about - bastard probably wanted plausible deniability - 'see, she found them by herself with her Orcas, and it wasn't our intel asset at all' you mimic what you assume was his thought process. You bet his orders were to keep the information concealed.

You wonder if a force this size is considered worthy of strategic intervention. An ion cannon strike, if command sees fit to approve it, needs real-time targeting data, so that's unlikely to happen. Lt. Richter does have two Aurora-class bombers at her base last time you checked, so maybe those are an option. But those would definitely attract attention from the Nod coastal airbase, likely leading to an all-out air confrontation. Which maybe will go your way, or maybe will go Lt. Richter's way. You're pretty sure she doesn't have any Manfred von Richtofens in her little air force; and anyway, the dead old bastard would probably be fighting for the Brotherhood. Not out of religious fanaticism or anything, he was a pretty smart guy from what you've read about him, although intelligence doesn't necessarily prevent being gullible. But he just didn't sound like a GDI type to you. It takes you a few minutes to extricate yourself from musings about first world war fighter aces, which then leads you to thinking about the mass artillery barrages employed during that war, which reminds you about the destroyed Pacifier and its melted crew. Sorry guys. I screwed up again. you think to yourself.

EVA Report Follows:

Hold Northern Forward Base (primary command directive, GDI-controlled)
Hold Northern Air Supply Depot (primary command directive, Nod-controlled)
Hold Southern Forward Base (primary command directive, Nod-controlled, Nod condition critical)
Hold Southern Air Supply Depot (primary command directive, GDI-controlled, under threat)

[Use as many turns as you want, but you only have a limited amount of credits]

Power (available/total): 82.5/350
Logistics (available/total): 5/20
Building Slots D6: 3/8
Building Slots E6: 0/8
Tiberium Credits: 2701
Tiberium Storage Capacity (available/total): 0/2000
Tiberium Income: 0
Construction Capacity: 1 building/turn, 1 defense/turn
Infantry Requisition Capacity: 1/turn
Vehicle Requisition Capacity: 1/turn
Buildings:
D6: Outpost, Refinery, Plant, Airfield
E6: Conyard, Commpost, Factory, Barracks, CS Airfield, Walls, PD Turret, AA Turret, 2x AAM Turret

Construction Options (Pick up to 1 per turn, valid spots are D6, F6):

Infantry Requisition Options (Pick up to 1 per turn. Will arrive in E6):

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

Aircraft Requisition Options (Pick up to 1 per turn, starting the turn after airfield is built):

Current Force Status:

Locally, having flown in supplies (and a little bit of reinforcements), you're twenty four hours short of finishing the Nod presence in the sector off. All you need to do is move your force back to the ruins of the destroyed air tower, bolt down the Overseer, shoot down or drive off the remaining Nod aircraft (of which you didn't actually destroy any, to your chagrin), preferably before they melt said Overseer.

The other problem is how to deal with the Avatar swarm, which you have some trouble convincing yourself wasn't conjured up by your over-active imagination. Lt. Richter's forces are "on par" with the coastal air base, so the two groups continue building up and fencing with each other, occasionally inflicting minor damage then disengaging. An Orca or two get exchanged for a Venom, a Firehawk for a Barghest, but nobody gains a decisive advantage. Your opinion is that asking Lt. Richter to commit her air units to eliminate the Avatars in sufficient strength will weaken her air component to the point where her aircraft will get ripped apart. Not that you're much of an expert on that, but, for example, sending four Firehawks will reduce her effective aircraft count by 20%. So you discount that as a possibility.

Her Auroras could probably help, but strategic bombers will very likely be targeted if they move out. As you've concluded before, you just have no idea how an all-out engagement will go. You don't like 50/50 odds, you prefer your odds somewhere in the region of 100/0 in your favor. But you'll take any advantage you can get before forcing an all-out air battle with an uncertain outcome.

An option you consider is to crank out another Orca or two, take out the Avatar force's air defense component, then harass them. They're slow-moving, so even if you take 48 hours to crank out two Orcas, that still gives you a whopping six days worth of time to harass them and degrade their strength to the point where Lt. Richter's strength and any reinforcements you send over to her will be able to overcome the remaining combat walkers.

However, you also need your Orcas' support in taking out the rest of this depot - otherwise it's just going to be a grinder that, given your recent experience, you're pretty sure you're going to lose. Coordinating Orca support will take another Ox round-trip due to the continuing comms blackout, using up precious time that you don't know you have.

Another option you think about is to simply ferry over your remaining credits plus whatever you can scavenge up from dismantling your base to Lt. Richter - if you can give her the extra five thousand credits, she can construct an ion cannon control center (she seems to have much better luck than you getting clearance for the advanced toys). Of course, then you're running the risk of failing your ground assault and leaving an extra four Barghests plus Venom at the northern depot, free to flank her forces.

Time until Avatars arrive at southern depot: 8 days
Violet ground power rating: 10.5 (6 anti-air) + 1 incoming infantry (+1 anti-air)
Violet air power rating: 4.5
Northern depot airpower rating: 5
Avatar group ground power rating (estimated): 20.5 (5 anti-air)

Lt. Richter air power rating (estimated): 24
Coastal air base air power rating (estimated): 20-28

Lt. Richter credit donation for ion cannon:
[] Dismantle all of it. Prevents any construction. Takes 5 days, guarantees 1x Avatar destroyed per day afterward.
[] You don't need an orbital laser for this.

Orca disposition/Avatar mitigation:
[] Help with your ground assault, then start harassing Avatar column (as many days as specified in option below)
[] Start harassing Avatar column after Orca construction complete (3 days delay)
[] Start harassing Avatar column immediately (no delay)

Ground attack plan:
[] Retreat south slightly until air support ready, then attack (2 days, +6 anti-air power)
[] Retreat south slightly until air support ready and extra Orca built, then attack (3 days, +7.5 anti-air power)
[] Just start the ground attack now, you'll be fine. Probably.

Raw Plan/Resolution:

August 25, 2060

All right, Violet. No more half-ass attacks. Just pull everyone back into air defense formation, and wait for reinforcements, you think to yourself. Time is on your side. you tell yourself. It really isn't, not with that formation of Nod Avatars approaching Lt. Richter's base. She may have a lot of aircraft, but those Firehawks don't really do much when an Avatar walks up to the airfield and blasts it with its dual laser cannons then fries everything for good measure.

Your plan is pretty simple - build another Orca for a full flight, then have the flight zip over to your location as soon as the new arrival's LEAK is done. Then, advance and eliminate the Nod facility. You event go so far as to tell the Ox to bring in the infantry squad followed by the engineer - maybe you can capture some of those Nod air towers or the Ops Center.

Just as you've convinced yourself your plan has a reasonable chance of success, it hits a snag.

"Ma'am, I've got a heavy vehicle signature to the south of the river." Sgt. Jarvi reports. You acknowledge, and quickly pull your helmet down, waiting for that tell-tale series of clicks all around that indicate a full seal - last thing you want is to be breathing in Tiberium fumes as you climb out the back of the APC.

Zooming in across the river, you're greeted with the sight of an MCV and its construction equipment setting up a refinery in the tiny Tiberium field that's consumed the remnants of the Nod base that was across the river. You spread your arms in confusion, thinking about how they got there, and where they got the third MCV from.

"They must have driven all the way to this crossing here." you say, having looked at the map for a minute or two, following the river to the next location marked as a viable crossing point. "Then doubled back."

"Should we blow it up?" Sgt. Jarvi asks. "We've got artillery, and I can have my squad jump over there, see if we can catch any harvesters."

You shake your head. "Negative, Sergeant. I don't want them to know we're here, and if you jump over there, we don't have anything that can bail you out when those four Barghests and their Venom pal come knocking."

Sgt. Jarvi shrugs. "Yes ma'am."

It stings to let them harvest the Tiberium - you note that they seem to have enough harvesters to clear three quarters of the field within a 24 hour period; so they'll be done and gone by tomorrow. Which means they're just going to generate a relatively small amount of credits for repairs, and maybe a Venom or two. Or three.

"We'll hit them once the reinforcements are here, Sergeant." you say, hoping that the Brotherhood will avoid doing anything like sending the Venom out for a recon flight to make sure their harvesting operation is secure; maybe they'll hope to just get in and out, and give you time to bring in backup including the extra Orcas.

They don't.

----

"Four Barghests, one Venom, converging on our position." you inform everyone as you zoom in on the locations provided by your command suit's sensor system. "Engage at optimum range."

Frankly, this is getting tiresome - your targeting system keeps 'fuzzing up' from all the jamming (not that it matters, all you've got is a dinky little LMG with no chance of hitting a Venom or a Barghest), comms stop working from more than a kilometer away, and even the audio filters can't filter out all the random background noise. Mostly because Nod's idea of comms jamming isn't actually random noise, it's broadcasting Brotherhood propaganda across all frequencies. So it sounds like an actual person talking, and the automated comms filters think it's an actual person talking, but really it's a recording of some guy with a deep baritone voice extolling the virtues of shoving Tiberium crystals where the sun don't shine. At least that's your takeaway after having to listen to it sharing comms space with your orders and people trying to report in. Although you admit that it'd be a pretty sexy voice if it wasn't for the subject matter.

Dammit, Violet, focus, you remind yourself. Thankfully, the firefight hasn't started yet. "Sergeant Jarvi. Remember how you wanted to hop over and help blow the refinery? Do it. Get the Overseer firing on it too when you need it, not like it's doing anything else here."

The sergeant acknowledges, and the zone trooper squad arcs across the river, immediately opening fire on the deployed MCV as your Overseer begins thumping 155mm shells over. You can't see much in the way of details, but the artillery shells land pretty close to the construction yard, and a big cloud of smoke and debris puffs up from the site. "MCV taken out." the sergeant reports. "Harvesters were on sensors briefly but they're gone now." he adds, sounding disappointed. "Squad, finish off that refinery."

And then you no longer have time to listen in on the "forced dissassembly" going on to the south, as the Barghests come screaming in, followed by their little Venom buddy. Your troops are exhausted, their pilots must be completely beat, but this time, your people get the best of them right away. The cloud of rockets rises to meet the enemy formation, and you can barely see any green at all coming back, just one APC with electrical feedback coursing along its outer hull. The rest of the aircraft break formation, doing their best to evade the incoming guided ordnance.

A Barghest tries to make a pass on your Overseer, but multiple near misses force it to abort its run; you watch your Pitbull take a single plasma bolt but remain intact somehow; and then a Barghest comes screaming overhead. You cringe and duck instinctively as rockets connect directly with its fuselage - it corkscrews uncontrollably upwards before stalling and falling back down to the ground in the distance, a plume of smoke trailing down towards and rising from the impact site. Your raider squad, meanwhile, plants their feet and fires another cloud of rockets at the Venom, hitting multiple times - it flips end over end, multiple parts breaking off before the main fuselage comes splashing down into the river, throwing up a cloud of evaporated water.

Your Pitbull's driver miscalculates, leaving the dome-like area covered by the rest of your missile-equipped units to pursue the Barghests that are burning north and catches a good amount of plasma for its trouble - this time its missile launcher and mortar are kind of fused into its hull - that's going to be a tough repair job for sure.

A quick status check confirms that your Zone Trooper squad and Overseer have taken out the refinery, and only minor damage to your non-Pitbull units. You get everyone back into formation and have the Rig start what repairs it can make on the Pitbull while the command suits (that's you and Sgt. Jarvi) stand on perimeter watch. Both for any returning Nod aircraft and for the daily supply Ox.

---

"Reinforcements have arrived." your EVA informs you, five minutes later.

"Hey Lieutenant, Orca flight here, nothing to do for the day while waiting for the new guys to get their aircraft worked up, so we thought you could use some air support." the Orca flight leader informs you, flying in formation with the Ox as it lands, disgorging an infantry squad from the transport pod. Frankly, you're surprised at and impressed with his initiative.

"Right." you reply. "Pitbull, Predator, Rig, Alpha-Two, Trooper Squad - hold position here. All other units, including Orca flight, mount up. Let's move north and finish off these Nod aircraft."

You clench your jaw and your fists as you board the APC again. This time, with air support, you've got their number - there's only three left. And that's all they'll have, unless they've got yet another MCV somewhere out there; pretty unlikely - you've taken out three already, and the Tiberium in the area is basically tapped out.

The Barghests put up a fight, but, especially with the Orcas providing supporting firepower, they just don't have a chance - dual plasma cannons and the ability to randomly sideslip ten meters whenever they feel like it just doesn't stand up to the volume of fire you're able to put out. One of the Barghests is shot down while the rest zip off into the distance.

It takes you another twenty four hours to get an engineer over to the Ops Center to the north and take it down, re-establishing comms, to your great relief. Once your Rig finishes repairs, you move your fast units south, hoping to get to Lt. Richter's base before the Avatars do - it's going to be pretty close.

Combat Results: Unexpected Total Victory
2x Barghest destroyed
1x Venom
Refinery destroyed
MCV destroyed
CS Air Tower forced dismantled

1x APC critically damaged
1x Pitbull critically damaged

---

August 27, 2060

Once you re-establish comms, you're back in the loop, which lets you give your teeth, your jaw and your foot a break from all the grinding and tapping. First of all, the two Barghests and four Carryalls that escaped the northern depot got intercepted by Lt. Richter's patrols, half of that group getting shot down.

Also, you've started dismantling your base turrets and the captured Nod structures (an air tower, a power plant and the Ops Center), shipping the components to Lt. Richter's base for recycling. It occurs to you to re-run the numbers, and at this point, you're not sure that you'll be able to get her set up with enough resources for an ion cannon control center before the Avatars get there. Not to mention, if you maintain an aggressive harassment pattern with your Orcas (now five of them), you'll need to hold some credits in reserve for repairs.

The first harassing attack also turns out to be the last, though. Your Orcas cut through the Avatar group's air defense component like a laser beam through a Guardian hull - they take some serious damage and have to contend with a lone Barghest which runs them off (that and running out of ammo and going to bingo fuel) before they can consider targeting the Avatars, but, at the end of the engagement, all but one of the air defense units - a Mantis - are destroyed.

By the time you get your Orcas patched up and back out into the field, whoever was in charge of those Avatars must have seen the writing on the wall - there's neither hide nor tail to be seen of them. They're just gone, like a Tiberium field sucked them up.

You maintain near-constant Orca patrols while your ground units move to Lt. Richter's base, but find no sign of the combat walkers. Neither do Lt. Richter's aggressive Pitbull patrols within a wide perimeter of her base. A check of the southern forward base site reveals that the Brotherhood has cleared off the rest of the surface Tiberium and packed it in. You sigh - the slippery bastards always seem to get away. Honestly, you're not really sure who won this one. GDI's progress has been significantly delayed in this region, and the remains of the fortress town will likely have to be dismantled; but you've prevented the Brotherhood from making any advances past your positions to the coastal rear area.

On the plus side, the showers in Lt. Richter's barracks are really nice - both the water heaters and filters actually work, so you get hot water that doesn't smell like recycled filter mesh. The soap is... well, it's soap. You give your troops a day or two to rest, spending some time cleaning out your command suit and replacing the various life support mechanisms (making a note to file some feedback regarding the difficulty of replacing the catheters), then relocate everyone back to your base.

----

September 1, 2060

"That's fine, Lieutenant." Major Leon tells you when you call in your latest report. "You've held the line long enough in your area, and your relief force is en route. You are to rotate yourself and your personnel to the regimental staging area for rest and refit as soon as they arrive."

"What about those Avatars, sir?" you ask. "We still have no idea where they are."

The Major shrugs. "I wouldn't worry about it, Lieutenant. If they pop their heads up without air defense support, we now have a critical mass of air power in the theater, while the Brotherhoods air capability has been significantly degraded. Anything else, Lieutenant?"

"Any word on what happened to those Forgotten refugees, Major? And what about Captain Kovalchuk?" you ask.

The Major shakes his head. "No idea about the former, sorry. Once the navy picked them up, they were out of my area of responsibility, so I just don't know. I'll poke around and get back to you. As for Captain Kovalchuk, he's in recovery and physical therapy." The Major raps his head with his knuckles. "Concussion and nerve damage in the neck." he smirks. "It's likely to make him even more stiff, and I didn't think that was possible."

You chuckle politely, then the two of you sign off, and you lean back in your chair, letting out a long breath. Partially in relief, partially in disappointment. It might not be over, but it is over for you, for now. With no Tiberium in any of the immediate areas, whoever's in charge next will have to set up remote harvesting operations and spikes - although from what you've been reading in the reports, the Brotherhood has been using stealth tanks to hit under-defended logistics elements. So it's possible that your replacement will simply be overseeing the forward base get dismantled as GDI re-consolidates.

You take one last trip out to the base perimeter as your Ox loads up. The river runs along the north wall, under the double bridge and then further west. You smirk, thinking about how many times you've had to have that bridge rebuilt, then look to the far side of the river bank, closing your eyes. You swish through the air, the command suit's main thrusters pushing at your back. Your feet feel pressure as you activate the maneuvering jets, the lines running down the sides of your legs with the nozzles near the bottom, bending your knees as you land. On the opposite side of the river bank, you're ready for action. You open your eyes. Your feet are on the ground, on your side of the river. Your command suit is safely stowed in the transport module attached to the V-35 Ox getting refueled and ready to take you back to regimental headquarters and then your blue zone rotation.

"It's quite the rush, isn't it?" Sgt. Jarvi comments, having walked up beside you while you were having your little moment.

"Yeah." you answer. "Are you due for your BZR yet?" you ask.

"Probably." he replies with what sounds like a scoff. "But the last two times I went home, my parents passed away and my wife divorced me. Think I might just stay around the area this time, I don't want my apartment to burn down as well. What about you, going anywhere in particular?"

"I haven't really had too much time to think about it." you muse, breathing in and out a few times. You've never been in this part of the world - while you're here, anything within a cargo Ox's flying distance is fair game.

You've had just about enough of far eastern Russia, but as you think about your options, you don't really know where you want to go, feeling kind of numb after the last two months. Right now, you basically just want to stock up on fungus bars and #84 flavor packets, and spend a week or two lying down and watching crappy TV or reading. Maybe go outside for a walk. Have a few beers. Definitely anything to prevent having to think about the state of the world or your more or less non-existent personal life. This time, you didn't really have time to contact any of your friends - and during your rare downtime, either network access was down or you just weren't in the mood to.

Your nearest option is BZ-6: Japan. You've never been there; you don't know anyone there either - but that's pretty normal. The islands have been relatively untouched by the Tiberium Wars, other than a recent missile barrage. Maybe you'll get a chance to visit some historical sites or hike the mountains. And also maximize the amount of down-time you get, it's only a couple of hours flying. You don't speak the local language, though, so going out to socialize is going to be a little rough if you decide to do that - any time you use the automatic translation software, you sound like a robotic moron. And that's when it actually gets the translation right, which, for anything more complicated than "where's the bathroom", you are still reminded is a "theoretically unsolved problem". In other words, the translation comes out hilariously wrong about one in ten times. The hilarious part being in retrospect, from a detached perspective. Which, you suppose, is a great way to get people to actually learn the local language or get out after being embarrassed repeatedly.

You could also visit BZ-11. You'll have to pick a little more specific location, the west coast of the North American continent is pretty long. Other than Corporal Arias, who's got a girlfriend somewhere there, you don't really know anyone in that part of the world, either. Maybe you'll climb the Rockies or hike the Alaskan wilderness. And hey, if you want to spend time with people, you've got a semi-exotic (for that region, anyway) accent and plenty of scars, especially burn marks across your back. Although you're not sure the latter makes it easier to socialize.

You suppose you could catch a ride along the northern YZ-18 coast back to the northern european zone, but it seems like a waste of time. Maybe what was formerly Korea, now BZ-7 is an option, it's an extra air hop from BZ-6; although you're not really sure what you'll do there. And also it's kind of close to the front lines on the ground - you want to take a break, not spend another two weeks in the shit. If you wanted to do that, you could just go back to Murmansk and wait for another floating air battleship to show up.

Regardless, you walk back to the landing pads, where your replacement awaits you to exchange command protocols.

Battlefield control... terminated.

Pick your blue zone rotation location
[] BZ-6: Japan
[] BZ-11: North America, West Coast
-[] North: Alaska
-[] Middle: Seattle
-[] South: California
[] BZ-7: South Korea

[AN: Whew, that operation was a marathon. We're coming up on the end of the Regency War, but we're going to have one last operation before it wraps up.]