[ ] Red Zone Border Offensives (Stage 2)
With the Initiative now controlling significant stretches of territory along the edges of Red Zones, it is high time to begin exploiting them for their resources. While it will be expensive to do so, this kind of work can both fuel an economic boom, and push back the Red Zones while expanding GDI control.
(Progress 250/250: 25 resources per die) (Additional income trickle [30 resources]) (3 points of Red Zone Mitigation) (+2 Energy)
(Progress 250/250: 25 resources per die) (Additional income trickle [25 resources]) (3 points of Red Zone Mitigation) (+2 Energy)
(Progress 93/250: 25 resources per die) (Additional income trickle [15-35 resources]) (3 points of Red Zone Mitigation) (+2 Energy) [92, 32, 94, 45, 39]
Income 2d5: [4, 3] = +55 RpT
GDI forces, not content with last quarter's drives, have expanded the offensives, pushing hard in California and Europe, while in Australia, preparations have begun, but were held in base, their operations directors calling a halt before the offensive had even begun in a desperate effort to slow the immense bleeding that the widespread offensives were causing, even as tiberium advanced elsewhere.
The work is hard, fighting deep in the blasted plains. Great fissures have cracked open in the earth, spewing forth rains of liquid tiberium, geysers erupt in salvo and serial, some sending sprays a hundred meters into the air as pressurized liquid bursts forth in grand profusion. A squad in a bad place can be showered by liquid tiberium, and even the most tiberium resistant materials known to the Initiative, besides the T-Glass widely used in viewports, is consumed in a matter of hours. Entire platoons at a time are rendered ineffective as they try to push the front, meter by painstaking meter, further down the nearly two thousand kilometer stretch of hell marked to be taken in the offensive.
In the wastes, eruptions of visceroids are not common, but every few days, a roving pod encounters Initiative forces, and in many cases attacks. With over a dozen attacks in the last month of operations at the Chicago front alone, the Deep Red is apparently home to wildlife long thought near extinct, although in nowhere near the numbers indicated by the historical records.
In Europe, the conditions are even worse. The mountainous Balkans are hard terrain, a reason for short barreled mountain guns, not because the guns were good, but because they were the only artillery that could be hauled up sheer mountain faces. Avalanches are common, as mining efforts cause collapse after collapse, especially as the Initiative has to painstakingly reshape the surface for every meter advanced, cutting roads into and through mountains, breaking through into a valley or plain, before having to set forth once more up those harsh faces. Once more, attacks are common, mutated creatures boiling out of holes to attack the miners.
In one instance, the Lupkov pass became a choke point for Initiative operations, with a full battalion of ZOCOM and a substantial force of miners having pushed through, but then collapsing mountains blocked the pass substantially trapping them on the other side. A five day struggle ensued, while the cut off force attempted to mine back through the pass while fighting off tiberium and creatures on every side. Unfortunately, their last transmission was that the final defensive line had fallen and that they were out of ammunition and supplies, even with Pacifiers having maintained a constant barrage in support to their front. A last ditch effort to land supplies via OSRCT drop pods saw the ion storm overhead blow the pods over 20 kilometers off-course, spelling doom for the last survivors.
"Before Granger, we passed through Red Zones, fought them where we could, but mostly it was about recon, security, finding the safe routes and avoiding the worst of it. Now, Intelligence and recon said it was bad, but there is bad, and then there is the Deep Red. It is deeply alien, and angry. I never thought rocks could be angry before."
[ ] Deep Red Zone Tiberium Glacier Mining (Stage 1)
Deep in the Red Zones, Tiberium glaciers are some of the most dense concentrations of Tiberium available. With GDI able to put its railheads directly next to Tiberium mines, these are some of the fastest ways to surge Tiberium production from a single site.
(Progress 250/250: 30 resources per die) (-3 Logistics, +2 Energy) (additional income trickle [90 Resources]) (2 points of Red Zone Mitigation)
(Progress 250/250: 30 resources per die) (-3 Logistics, +2 Energy) (additional income trickle [80 Resources]) (2 points of Red Zone Mitigation)
(Progress 250/250: 30 resources per die) (-3 Logistics, +2 Energy) (additional income trickle [90 Resources]) (2 points of Red Zone Mitigation)
(Progress 28/250: 30 resources per die) (-3 Logistics, +2 Energy) (additional income trickle [60-90 Resources]) (2 points of Red Zone Mitigation) [93, 53, 48, 58, 93, 34, Natural 1, 3, 53]
Income 3d7: [7, 5, 7] = +260 RpT
The deep glacier mines are alien, alienating places. The bases are set on stilts, jutting out over titanic seas of glowing green. While in many red zones, Tiberium has overtaken the remnants of human settlement, trees and walls still standing, haunting markers of what has been lost, here in the deep red, every trace of civilization, every landmark, every reminder that this had once been a part of earth has been wiped away.
The entire goal of the project has been this: drives to secure and build up mines upon some of the largest and richest Tiberium glaciers in the world. It has paid off magnificently, but the cost has been tremendous. Each such glacier needs a dedicated rail line-and in some cases a highway as well. Each glacier mine is erected in a harsh and alien environment, but new tools claimed from alien claws now claw at the dangers. Spikes earth the energy of Ion Storms, directing it into sonic emitters almost constantly. T-glass gleams upon surfaces, and tendrils pluck the green and blue crystals from the workfaces. MARV chassis are required to support the largest of excavators, removing crumbled overburden and debris, as smaller harvesters drive into the gaps thus opened. Each harvester may have a useful life measured in weeks or even just days, before it must be cut off it's undercarriage and the contaminated bits shipped off to be recycled or scrapped entirely. All of this is underwritten by the tremendous productivity of these mines.
Ten point five percent of all of GDI's tiberium income now flows from these three clustered sources in Slovakia, Wyoming, and Iowa.
The glaciers under attack fight back in their own ways. Tiberium intrusions into the Deep Glacier Mining Zones are almost a daily affair, and the glaciers seem to grow back before the eyes of the workers, regenerating fresh cyrstal mass into each opened cut. ZOCOM has been able to trace that some of this mass is pulled from nearby tiberium fields, which in turn slow the growth of other fields in an attempt to replenish themselves via subterranean veins. This effect cascades across hundreds of thousands of kilometers, slowing tiberium growth in a vast area.
But GDI's resources are not so unlimited as those of Tiberium. The Lupkov Pass incident, where ion-storms and rapid Tiberium upheaval trapped a thousand men and women, is the pinnacle of tragedy, and by the time relief forces broke through, there were no survivors. Even if not for Lupkov, replacements for materials in many areas consumed in deep red zones are dangerously lower than the consumption rate. While GDI can up-scale production and has existing stockpiles that can last for up to a year, ZOCOM has sent a hasty message back up the chain calling for a halt to all further Deep Red Zone expansion until they can sort out all the problems.
The numbers for SADN Phase 4 were already posted:
What:
