Traveler [C&C3:KW Multicross SI]
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1. And then John was an Alium
Librarian
SAN Loss Isn't Fun Anymore...
First fic, reviews and criticism are welcome. Inspired by the likes of @Faith, @Drich, @Battleship_Fusou and all the other PA SI Fics on Sufficient Velocity, this is the story of the poor bastardsTravler-59 Sect's attempts at surviving the hellhole known as Planet Earth.
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Somewhere in North Africa, Yellow Zone Y-2
January 1st, 2048
January 1st, 2048
[Upgrade Complete.]
[Initiating Reactor startup sequence… Complete.]
[Gestating Experimental Processor Core… Complete.]
[Defragmenting AI thought-cycles…. Complete.]
[Imprinting AI Personality Matrix…]
[Loading… Load Complete.]
[WELCOME, FOREMAN]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Initiating Reactor startup sequence… Complete.]
[Gestating Experimental Processor Core… Complete.]
[Defragmenting AI thought-cycles…. Complete.]
[Imprinting AI Personality Matrix…]
[Loading… Load Complete.]
[WELCOME, FOREMAN]
"Foreman online."
This was not how I expected my day to end up. What am I even supposed to say when I woke up as some evil alien cthuluoid this fine morning?
I suppose I ought to be freaking out by now, but currently my brain feels like it's an overloaded van stuck in a mud pit, lots of noise and going nowhere quickly. The scrolling alien symbols and too-bright neon images flashing through my "sight" aren't helping things either, causing me to wince every now and then as Things Man Was Not Meant To Know burned itself into my soggy brain. "Ugh… an explanation to what the heck's going on would be pretty welcome about now," I burbled, hundreds of tiny tentacles (cilia, was it?) cradling the pulsing mass of flesh that was me in a vain attempt to stave off the mother of all migraines. "bloody hell, does anyone have any aspirin or something?"
[Greetings, Foreman.]
Whoa. I've got a voice in my head. Wha-
[You are designated as Traveler-59 Experimental Autonomous Drone Platform, currently attached to Scrin Ichor Harvesting Operations on System Sol as part of field trials. Due to the loss of overseeing Foreman to indigenous wildlife on Planet Earth, you are now in command of all Traveler-59 assets located in Region Africa.]
[Biomonitors indicate that injecting acetylsalicylic acid into Experimental Processor Core would be detrimental to component integrity. Not recommended.]
Oh. Right then, I guess? Apparently I've been turned into a weird alien bio-computer of sorts, as part of some Scrin egghead's pet project. From what I've gathered, what was supposed to be a milk-run-slash-field-testing went completely FUBAR, leaving little ol' me in charge. That correct so far?
[Correct. As per contingency plans enacted upon loss of senior Sect Foreman five planetary rotations ago, original objectives of planetary colonisation have been deemed unfeasible and have been updated. New main objectives are for the preservation and successful evacuation of all critical assets to nearest Threshold Towers for extraction. As Threshold Towers are still under construction, additional main objectives are to assist in the completion of at least one Threshold Tower and to defend the local Relay Node until extraction is possible. Establishing contact with Chief Foreman, Foreman 371, highly recommended for both main objectives.]
[Secondary objectives are: To secure viable specimens and technological samples of indigenous Human species for research purposes, and to facilitate Ichor harvesting operations for as long as possible. To this extent, Traveller Sect has authorised requisition of military and industrial units through the Warp Gateways with down-payments of processed Ichor. Be advised that due to ongoing conflicts in Planet Earth, unit availability has been negatively affected.]
I see, I see. Defend the Threshold until Foreman 371's done building them, loot as much Tiberium as I can from this godforsaken rock and yoink any shinies that come my way. A part of me feels a tad guilty for thinking of other people as if they were cattle, but the sheer dissonance of being a giant alien brain stuck in a robot spaceship and the dull shock pervading my systems is enough to keep me on track-
Wait a minute. What was my designation again?
[You are designated as Traveler-59 Experimental Autonomous Drone Platform, currently attached-]
Traveler-59. If what the voice said about "Scrin" and "Ichor Harvesting Operations in System Sol" is true, this is Command & Conquer: Tiberium Wars. The Scrin (my bosses) have just landed after Temple Prime got pasted by an Ion Cannon and are proceeding to get their asses kicked by HUMANITY STRONK. Me being Traveler-59 means I'm in the Kane's Wrath expansion pack, and Region Africa means-
Oh SHIT. HEARTS AND MINDS. The tenth mission in the Nod KW campaign, where LEGION (the player Commander) comes to sunny Africa to kick the asses of the TRAVELER-59 aliens infesting the Yellow Zone. And he'll be packing a freaking REDEEMER.
Right, right. I can fix this. My cilia wiggle as I reach out with my mind, seizing control of the Drone Platform I'm residing in. Pre-programmed instincts kick in as my Autonomous Drone Platform (bah, I'll call it ADP for short) reaches out and syncs with the other 4 Drone Platforms built by my predecessor. With a thought, various Scrin units fall under my sway and the Drone Platforms' integrated radar systems activate-
[Enemy Units Sighted.]
"Bloody hell." I mutter, cilia reaching over to facepalm (Brain-tentacle? Who cares?) as the unmistakeable shape of a Nod MCV materialises on my "sight", the insectoid mechanical monstrosity marching into the area alongside a whole sea of black/red metal. "the damn AI's here already, with a strike force right off the bat to boot."
I am so SCREWED.
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Assorted Information
2. Hi, LEGION!
Librarian
SAN Loss Isn't Fun Anymore...
Okay, focus. If my guesses are correct, I'm going to be drowned in waves of Vertigo Bombers and Avatar Warmechs anytime now. Existential crises will have to wait, until I'm NOT being hunted down by a brutally efficient Tacitus-derived AI. Calling up my facilities, I start queuing up Reactors from the 5 D-Platforms (ADP included) I have, while bulk ordering more Harvesters from the local Warp Spheres. As the trilobite-shaped alien vehicles pop out of the Warp, I immediately have them strip-mine the nearby Ichor fields for all they're worth. Pretty soon the brand new Reactors begin churning noxious Ichor fumes into the air and flooding my grid with Delicious Power, and I start building 5 Refineries at once as soon as the existing Harvesters come into port.
I quoth the Nod Harvester: "The Beautiful GLOW." I resist the urge to laugh evilly as the 6(!) Refineries and 12+ Harvesters begin scooping up metric tonnes of shiny, shiny Ichor and sending my economy skywards. Scrin Infinite Storage Capacity, I love you so much.
With boatloads of Power and a fat bank of creds, my 5 D-Platforms begin working in concert to utterly forest my base with Plasma Missile Batteries. Vertigo Bombers, ye'll not be sniping my D-Platforms today! Warp Spheres and the lone Warp Chasm (hey, the Hexapod had to get here somehow) start spitting out a raiding force of Seekers and Toxin/Plasma Disc Mechapedes, both of which are quickly "garrisoned" by Buzzers. That done, I send them packing off to the central township to back up the Cultists there, they'll be able to deal with any attempts by LEGION to infest the city with Rocket Militia.
I shiver as I recall a Skirmish Battle gone horribly wrong. SAM City is no joke, no joke at all.
Oh, hey. LEGION's started exploiting the Blue Ichor field next to his base already, as a sneaky little Stormrider poking at his borders tells me. Welp, calling up a bunch of Shock Troopers and disintegrators for some Kool-Aid Man shenanigans.
Do I dare? Do I really dare?
I add in a Prodigy and a single Assimilator.
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"Nobody hijacks MY brain and gets away with it!"
[Our base is under attack.]
Looks like LEGION is assassinating the Cultists with a pack of Venoms and freeing up the southeastern Ichor Field with Specter Artillery. Smart move, the Photon Cannons and Storm Columns there can't hit those artillery tanks at that range. With THREE Ichor Fields to mine the crap out of, that AI's probably going to start drowning me in Avatars sometime soon.
Which is when, by the magic that is the Ambushing, my raiding party starts lobbing Plasma Discs at the poor gunships.
Seekers and Mechapedes alike fling a veritable storm of plasma shells at the four Venoms, completely atomizing the first Venom a single salvo. As chunks of char-grilled Patrol Craft rain down from the skies, the trusty little Scrin minitanks surge forward, swatting down Venoms Two and Three before they even finish turning around. Venom number Four manages to about-face in time and skedaddle the hell away from the area, the little Nod plane managing to survive the couple of Plasma Discs rammed up its backside as it de-asses the area in record time.
Right, LEGION's probably got a good look-see at the raiding party's composition through that surviving Venom. Anytime no-
[Enemy Units Sighted.]
Wow, that was fast. The AI's caught on that the Seekers and Mechapedes have little to no tanking ability, and proceeded to throw a blob of Beam Cannons, Scorpion Tanks and a few Avatars my way. No infantry it seems, as the combined might of the mind-controlled Black Hand squads in the area in addition to my Mechapedes' Toxin segments will eat any Poor Bloody Infantry alive. With things as they are, the Beam Cannons and Avatars will likely oneshot my little pretties before they can do much.
This is when, with the help of a little Stormrider orbiting near LEGION's base, a Wormhole manifests almost on top of a confused Nod Harvester and starts shitting out troops by the dozen.
Hi, LEGION!
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Author's Note: Fear the multiple Construction Yards/D-Platforms working in conjunction. FEAR THEM.
I quoth the Nod Harvester: "The Beautiful GLOW." I resist the urge to laugh evilly as the 6(!) Refineries and 12+ Harvesters begin scooping up metric tonnes of shiny, shiny Ichor and sending my economy skywards. Scrin Infinite Storage Capacity, I love you so much.
With boatloads of Power and a fat bank of creds, my 5 D-Platforms begin working in concert to utterly forest my base with Plasma Missile Batteries. Vertigo Bombers, ye'll not be sniping my D-Platforms today! Warp Spheres and the lone Warp Chasm (hey, the Hexapod had to get here somehow) start spitting out a raiding force of Seekers and Toxin/Plasma Disc Mechapedes, both of which are quickly "garrisoned" by Buzzers. That done, I send them packing off to the central township to back up the Cultists there, they'll be able to deal with any attempts by LEGION to infest the city with Rocket Militia.
I shiver as I recall a Skirmish Battle gone horribly wrong. SAM City is no joke, no joke at all.
Oh, hey. LEGION's started exploiting the Blue Ichor field next to his base already, as a sneaky little Stormrider poking at his borders tells me. Welp, calling up a bunch of Shock Troopers and disintegrators for some Kool-Aid Man shenanigans.
Do I dare? Do I really dare?
I add in a Prodigy and a single Assimilator.
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"Nobody hijacks MY brain and gets away with it!"
[Our base is under attack.]
Looks like LEGION is assassinating the Cultists with a pack of Venoms and freeing up the southeastern Ichor Field with Specter Artillery. Smart move, the Photon Cannons and Storm Columns there can't hit those artillery tanks at that range. With THREE Ichor Fields to mine the crap out of, that AI's probably going to start drowning me in Avatars sometime soon.
Which is when, by the magic that is the Ambushing, my raiding party starts lobbing Plasma Discs at the poor gunships.
Seekers and Mechapedes alike fling a veritable storm of plasma shells at the four Venoms, completely atomizing the first Venom a single salvo. As chunks of char-grilled Patrol Craft rain down from the skies, the trusty little Scrin minitanks surge forward, swatting down Venoms Two and Three before they even finish turning around. Venom number Four manages to about-face in time and skedaddle the hell away from the area, the little Nod plane managing to survive the couple of Plasma Discs rammed up its backside as it de-asses the area in record time.
Right, LEGION's probably got a good look-see at the raiding party's composition through that surviving Venom. Anytime no-
[Enemy Units Sighted.]
Wow, that was fast. The AI's caught on that the Seekers and Mechapedes have little to no tanking ability, and proceeded to throw a blob of Beam Cannons, Scorpion Tanks and a few Avatars my way. No infantry it seems, as the combined might of the mind-controlled Black Hand squads in the area in addition to my Mechapedes' Toxin segments will eat any Poor Bloody Infantry alive. With things as they are, the Beam Cannons and Avatars will likely oneshot my little pretties before they can do much.
This is when, with the help of a little Stormrider orbiting near LEGION's base, a Wormhole manifests almost on top of a confused Nod Harvester and starts shitting out troops by the dozen.
Hi, LEGION!
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Author's Note: Fear the multiple Construction Yards/D-Platforms working in conjunction. FEAR THEM.
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Librarian
SAN Loss Isn't Fun Anymore...
Getting to it, any C&C3 player that's fought against the Scrin can tell you what a headache SUDDENLY MASTERMIND/ASSIMILATOR can be. By coming in from the sides and hitting the Ichor Refineries, the SI has basically bypassed LEGION's net of Shredder and Laser Turrets in front of his base. Normally the Ichor Field's ringed by a ridge and is inaccessible, but Wormhole shenanigans cares not for that.
Tech will come later, as the Traveler-59 Foreman manages to lay cilia on some shiny Nod tech and de-ass the area before the Nuclear Missiles start flying.
3. Grand Theft MCV
Addendum: I'm basing LEGION's base layout on Youtube playthroughs of the Hearts and Minds mission. Trusting in the ridge to wall off the Ichor Fields is normally a valid strategy, but Aliums happened.
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Do make sure to fix the personal problem. While the build times for the units and buildings are technically canon, having actual people able to pilot the units are a whole different story away from game mechanics. So while you may be able to mind control all the people in an MCV, you can't use any other units that are not AI controlled like the Avatar or the tanks, not without mind controlling more people who knows how to pilot those units.
3. Grand Theft MCV
Librarian
SAN Loss Isn't Fun Anymore...
Almost immediately, the war-host of Nod machinery about-faces and an Armageddon Bomber swings by, inundating my raiding party in explosive Ichor vapors. Looks like LEGION's caught on to the feint and is rushing back to defend his base, giving up the mind-controlled Black Hand squads as lost causes. Even as the gas cloud erupts into flames and annihilates my Seekers and Mechapedes, my base's Technological Assembler fires up and encapsulates the enemy vehicles in a wide-spread Temporal Wormhole.
There, that should hold them for a while.
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Utter chaos erupts among the Nod personnel as a dozen Shock Troopers and Disintegrators pop out of freaking nowhere, immediately bathing everything around them in deadly light as soon as they step out of the Wormhole. Herding them towards the southern edge of the Nod base, the Scrin infantry go to town on the helpless Power Plants, the glowing ring-shaped structures quickly going up in brilliant explosions as their reactors go critical. Skirting the edges of the nearby Shredder Turrets' fire radii, only a couple of unlucky alien bugs go down to those automated shotguns.
My Prodigy, however, immediately goes after LEGION's Air Towers. Or more precisely, their scuttling charges.
[Structure sold.]
[Structure sold.]
[Structure sold.]
[Structure sold.]
Ohh, the sweet, sweet assholery of the Mastermind Sell-Attack. I'm not actually getting any resources out of this, but watching the surprised Vertigo Bombers falling off their perches as their Air Tower crumbles around them warms my evil alium heart.
Meanwhile, a stealthy little Assimilator scuttles into the sole Construction Yard and begins infesting it. The little alien practically mutates in a Zerg-esque fashion as it fuses itself with the very walls of the building, literally assimilating the poor workers within as it expands to fill its new metal exoskeleton. Even as the Assimilator's brain busies itself with hacking the Nod blueprints ensconced within the Yard's many databanks, I'm hitting the figurative "Pack Up" button as soon as it's done subsuming the thing.
A metallic screech resounds over the chaos in the enemy compound as the Construction Yard folds into itself, the huge structure morphing back into an equally huge crab-shaped MCV. The Prodigy practically jumps onto the metal bug (heh) as it fires up its integrated Teleporter, warping spacetime to deposit the gargantuan vehicle right in front of a rapidly closing Wormhole. Seizing control of the MCV's actuators, I have it leap forward as far as its ponderous frame can handle, slipping through the closing Wormhole at the last second and belly-sliding in front of my base with a ringing metal slam.
MCV, get. My cilia tremble in anticipation as I focus on the Giant Enemy(?) Crab stuffed full of delicious, delicious tech. Only problem is, MCVs are pretty sluggish and I've probably got a pissed-off AI marching on my base as soon as they're done with pest control.
Now, for the final bit.
Taking cover behind its few remaining brethren, the Prodigy springs forwards and aims its Mind Control Device at the Nod Tiberium Chemical Plant hidden within the base. Ensorcelled eggheads return to their terminals and input clearance codes ripped directly from their minds as they initiate the firing sequence of the single Catalyst Missile stored within its silo, inputted coordinates sending it on a short arc towards the base's own Ichor Refineries (the other ones, at the green Ichor field I haven't been able to touch). With one last command, I have the remaining Shock Troopers and Disintegrators spread out and latch onto whatever structures they can see.
As it watches the missile fall, I command the Prodigy to salute.
With a mighty whump, the warhead lands smack in the middle of the Refinery. Almost immediately, the Refinery itself goes up in a fantastic fireball as runaway chain reactions blow the whole thing to kingdom come, spreading the chain reaction across the entire base. Disintegrators explode with ringing bangs as their explosive innards trigger from the Ichor catalyzing, blowing out walls and support pillars in one last hurrah. A veritable Conga Line of exploding bugs form as the Scrin infantry spontaneously detonate, showering the area with plasma and acidic "blood" as they pop like alien firecrackers. It's almost a shame that my "sight" fades over the area before the lightshow finishes.
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MCV get? Check. Vertigos neutralized? Check. Economy crippled? Check. With his economy gutted and runaway damage all across his base, any sane man would recall all his forces and hunker down in anticipation of the incoming war-host sent to finish off the ruined base.
What LEGION didn't know is that after that stunt, my economy was completely tanked. My armada of Harvesters had done an excellent job of turning all the local Ichor into resources at the cost of literally cleaning out the Ichor fields, my territory was so cleaned out that I had inadvertently created a mini-Blue Zone in the middle of Africa. Even if I wanted to, I just didn't have the supplies to commit to any more battles.
Good thing I'm leaving then, as my D-Platforms fold up and lift off, my ADP beaming up the remaining structures back to Ichor Hub before lifting off itself. Soon enough, my little fleet of 5 D-Ships, a Nod MCV and an Eradicator Hexapod were waltzing off the battlefield and into the wastes of Red Zone R-1.
"Bye, LEGION!"
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Author's Note: Aaand here we see how this bunch of Dem Aliums will eventually lose out to the eponymous Von Neumann Death Machine. Metal Extractors go on for ever, while there's only so much Ichor on a battlefield. Sooner or later, you're gonna end up with an empty wallet no matter how good your economy is.
There, that should hold them for a while.
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Utter chaos erupts among the Nod personnel as a dozen Shock Troopers and Disintegrators pop out of freaking nowhere, immediately bathing everything around them in deadly light as soon as they step out of the Wormhole. Herding them towards the southern edge of the Nod base, the Scrin infantry go to town on the helpless Power Plants, the glowing ring-shaped structures quickly going up in brilliant explosions as their reactors go critical. Skirting the edges of the nearby Shredder Turrets' fire radii, only a couple of unlucky alien bugs go down to those automated shotguns.
My Prodigy, however, immediately goes after LEGION's Air Towers. Or more precisely, their scuttling charges.
[Structure sold.]
[Structure sold.]
[Structure sold.]
[Structure sold.]
Ohh, the sweet, sweet assholery of the Mastermind Sell-Attack. I'm not actually getting any resources out of this, but watching the surprised Vertigo Bombers falling off their perches as their Air Tower crumbles around them warms my evil alium heart.
Meanwhile, a stealthy little Assimilator scuttles into the sole Construction Yard and begins infesting it. The little alien practically mutates in a Zerg-esque fashion as it fuses itself with the very walls of the building, literally assimilating the poor workers within as it expands to fill its new metal exoskeleton. Even as the Assimilator's brain busies itself with hacking the Nod blueprints ensconced within the Yard's many databanks, I'm hitting the figurative "Pack Up" button as soon as it's done subsuming the thing.
A metallic screech resounds over the chaos in the enemy compound as the Construction Yard folds into itself, the huge structure morphing back into an equally huge crab-shaped MCV. The Prodigy practically jumps onto the metal bug (heh) as it fires up its integrated Teleporter, warping spacetime to deposit the gargantuan vehicle right in front of a rapidly closing Wormhole. Seizing control of the MCV's actuators, I have it leap forward as far as its ponderous frame can handle, slipping through the closing Wormhole at the last second and belly-sliding in front of my base with a ringing metal slam.
MCV, get. My cilia tremble in anticipation as I focus on the Giant Enemy(?) Crab stuffed full of delicious, delicious tech. Only problem is, MCVs are pretty sluggish and I've probably got a pissed-off AI marching on my base as soon as they're done with pest control.
Now, for the final bit.
Taking cover behind its few remaining brethren, the Prodigy springs forwards and aims its Mind Control Device at the Nod Tiberium Chemical Plant hidden within the base. Ensorcelled eggheads return to their terminals and input clearance codes ripped directly from their minds as they initiate the firing sequence of the single Catalyst Missile stored within its silo, inputted coordinates sending it on a short arc towards the base's own Ichor Refineries (the other ones, at the green Ichor field I haven't been able to touch). With one last command, I have the remaining Shock Troopers and Disintegrators spread out and latch onto whatever structures they can see.
As it watches the missile fall, I command the Prodigy to salute.
With a mighty whump, the warhead lands smack in the middle of the Refinery. Almost immediately, the Refinery itself goes up in a fantastic fireball as runaway chain reactions blow the whole thing to kingdom come, spreading the chain reaction across the entire base. Disintegrators explode with ringing bangs as their explosive innards trigger from the Ichor catalyzing, blowing out walls and support pillars in one last hurrah. A veritable Conga Line of exploding bugs form as the Scrin infantry spontaneously detonate, showering the area with plasma and acidic "blood" as they pop like alien firecrackers. It's almost a shame that my "sight" fades over the area before the lightshow finishes.
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MCV get? Check. Vertigos neutralized? Check. Economy crippled? Check. With his economy gutted and runaway damage all across his base, any sane man would recall all his forces and hunker down in anticipation of the incoming war-host sent to finish off the ruined base.
What LEGION didn't know is that after that stunt, my economy was completely tanked. My armada of Harvesters had done an excellent job of turning all the local Ichor into resources at the cost of literally cleaning out the Ichor fields, my territory was so cleaned out that I had inadvertently created a mini-Blue Zone in the middle of Africa. Even if I wanted to, I just didn't have the supplies to commit to any more battles.
Good thing I'm leaving then, as my D-Platforms fold up and lift off, my ADP beaming up the remaining structures back to Ichor Hub before lifting off itself. Soon enough, my little fleet of 5 D-Ships, a Nod MCV and an Eradicator Hexapod were waltzing off the battlefield and into the wastes of Red Zone R-1.
"Bye, LEGION!"
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Author's Note: Aaand here we see how this bunch of Dem Aliums will eventually lose out to the eponymous Von Neumann Death Machine. Metal Extractors go on for ever, while there's only so much Ichor on a battlefield. Sooner or later, you're gonna end up with an empty wallet no matter how good your economy is.
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Librarian
SAN Loss Isn't Fun Anymore...
Already accounted for. In the latest chapter, the Assimilator takes over the Construction Yard by expanding itself to "assimilate" the entire structure, swallowing up any unfortunate workmen within and adding their knowledge to the Scrin. All the Prodigy does is run around zapping work-crews and having them hit the self-destruct buttons present in all C&C structures.
For manning vehicles and the like, I can safely say that the Foreman hasn't really thought that far yet. The tech might be useful for some SCIENCE!ing later on, when the Traveler-59 are safely hidden in Red Zone R-1. Prodigies with Nod Command Stealth Projectors, anyone?
Furthermore, this is a blitz attack, one that would probably be around 5 minutes of in-game time or less. Pop in, break stuff, die in a glorious chain-explosion. All the Foreman wanted was the MCV, and Traveler-59 scooted as soon as the Mecha-Bug came through the Wormhole. If LEGION committed his warhost of heavy vehicles still stuck in the center of the map as soon as the Temporal Wormhole faded, he'd be able to run roughshod over everything save the Hexapod.
Too bad Dem Aliums are already gone.
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Legion1771
The God
HELLO TO YOU TOO.
*obligatory "watched" gif/jpg/picture*
I look forward to you being a squid in other places. It shall be fun.
*obligatory "watched" gif/jpg/picture*
I look forward to you being a squid in other places. It shall be fun.
Librarian
SAN Loss Isn't Fun Anymore...
Thanks! I hope I'll be able to live up to your expectations.
*has not actually planned out the next 'Verse on the visiting list yet*
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Looks like you are well on your way to completing your missions.
Librarian
SAN Loss Isn't Fun Anymore...
This is chronologically the Beginning of the Earth Invasion, both Foremen (Scrin and T-59) still have to survive nearly a year of HUMANITY STRONK. And the T-59 Foreman is now a Brotherhood priority target with the recent plunderings.
Mind Control and teleportation are Traveler's specialties if memory serves. So good play, flying by the seat of your pants, using foreknowledge, and playing to your factions strengths.
And making Legion want to Rage!Quit probably.
That said, with all the PA SIs I had been thinking a C&C SI could be interesting, but I never put too much thought into it due to the Tiberium issue. I mean that, Kane, and aliums is most of C&C's thing. So I wouldn't even be sure what to do with them after... well, except I'd likely end up playing Reapers (What can I say, I turtle and steamroll), but then that would be a series of first contact things. Which to be fair is what the PA SIs do I guess, but the whole needs Tiberium thing again.
Also, watched part of the Forgotten thing. Couldn't go more than a few video's that I "L" jumped through due to some weird high-pitched background noise. But add-them if you want to, its your story.
And making Legion want to Rage!Quit probably.
That said, with all the PA SIs I had been thinking a C&C SI could be interesting, but I never put too much thought into it due to the Tiberium issue. I mean that, Kane, and aliums is most of C&C's thing. So I wouldn't even be sure what to do with them after... well, except I'd likely end up playing Reapers (What can I say, I turtle and steamroll), but then that would be a series of first contact things. Which to be fair is what the PA SIs do I guess, but the whole needs Tiberium thing again.
Also, watched part of the Forgotten thing. Couldn't go more than a few video's that I "L" jumped through due to some weird high-pitched background noise. But add-them if you want to, its your story.
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Librarian
SAN Loss Isn't Fun Anymore...
Indeed, the only things that turned Hearts & Minds into such a stomp was blatant metaknowledge abuse and teleport raids, bypassing LEGION's Great Wall O' Turrets completely. A fully kitted Redeemer (THE Premier Titan-Killer in the game) supported by a Turret Fortress would pretty much shut down almost everything Traveler-59 can throw at them, including the goddamn Hexapod.
Rage Generator on the Hexapod would not be pretty. At all.
From here, going after the Tacitus is almost a guarantee, for obtaining the proto-TCN for sustainable Tib-farming, as well as for Portable Relay Node blueprints to keep the swarms of Scrin troops alive in other 'verses. And all this has to be complete before the Battle at Ground Zero mission, or everyone dies when the Relay Node goes kaput.
I might want to snag some Floaters as well, maybe for some Relay Drone shenanigans. They DO generate a nifty amount of Tiberium Radiation, if I recall correctly.
4. SCIENCE!
Librarian
SAN Loss Isn't Fun Anymore...
It eventually hits me that I'm actually an alien bug, and doing pretty well at that.
Now, I'm under no illusions that the last battle was a fluke. I'd had the Three Keys to Military Victory handed to me from the get-go: Intelligence, Surprise and Speed. If what I'm guessing is correct, I'm pretty much a near-perfect mirror with LEGION, what with the incredible processing capabilities and reaction speed of being a Giant Biomechanical Brain. He probably wasn't expecting to be Tactical Genius'd (CREEEED!!!) straight out the gate with precision only foreknowledge can provide, if he'd built any Disruption Towers at all I'd be stuck. I'm probably going to be considered a high-threat target by Nod for that, in addition to my shiny piece of loot here.
Still, if things are as I remember, this should've been the grand intro (and pathetic exit) of the Traveler-59 faction. Most likely nobody knows what's up with this particular troupe of bugs or their differences with normal Scrin, that Ichor Vapor Bomb even had the decency to dispose of the few Cultists I had on the field. I.E, the poor dear doesn't yet know of our pinnacles of douchebaggery: high-speed Devastator strikes and the almighty teleporting Hexapod.
I can use this. I can definitely use this.
Well then, survival first. Navel-gazing can wait (through the magic of mental partitioning!) until I'm not about to choke on the very air War Of The Worlds style.
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The Giant Enemy Crab pings me a few hours into our trek, the Assimilator brain within signalling that it's managed to crack the first few Nod databanks within. Pretty convenient, that.
The Hexapod rumbles to a halt near a particularly juicy glacier of Ichor as five D-Ships embed themselves into the land in unison, Warp Transmitters firing up even as the flower-like structures settled into the unstable ground. Within minutes, a healthy industry of Reactors and Refineries are springing up to feed off the ridiculous bounty of green crystals around us, all safely hidden from prying eyes by the ever-present Ion Storm above. Even so, the odd flash and pillar of deadly light lancing down onto what I guess is the frontlines every so often keeps me from making too big a base here. No sir, that'll have to wait until I get to the Tower and its umbrella of Ion Disruption Towers. Until then, time for loot.
[Acknowledged, Foreman. Retrieving preliminary analysis of assimilated technologies.]
Thanks. Also, before I forget: are you sentient by any chance?
[Negative, this unit is an industrial Foreman Intuitive Control Interface rated for Drone Platform vessels. Sentient AI are reserved for Mothership-class units and above.]
…right, so a VI then. You won't be going Geth on me anytime soon, are you?
[Error: "Geth" entity not recognized.]
…never mind.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Right, first thing on my agenda is gobbling up all that Nod lasertech. With a helpful walkthrough from my now-identified VI companion, I rip the compressed files straight from the banks and unzip them to the tune of five Drone Platforms working in unison, completely bypassing the need to construct the actual Tech Structures for now. Immediately, juicy juicy blueprints of the ever-useful Spitfire lasers fills my "mind", giving us a step-by-step guide in the construction and installation of the nifty pocket-lasers. Cheap, mass-producible laser modules that are light, power-frugal and disposable enough to mount on Raider Buggies of all vehicles? I'm sticking that to everything I can manage. In fact, the Raider Buggy itself is so ridiculously simple that it's hardly a chore to cram in a basic remote-control system on the thin, that I promptly replace the powerplant with one of Scrin make and armor up the bugger to make a cheap and surprisingly tanky EMP rammer. Just to top it off, I replace the single chaingun with two Shock Trooper proton cannons on each side of the frame, the infantry-scale weapons barely making a dint in the miniature Fusion Core's output.
The damn things even fire on full-auto now. I hereby christen it the Rioter.
Second on the list is the Transformer-esque modular systems on the Avatar. The damn things are both tanky as heck and moddable to the point of stupidity, I wouldn't be surprised if the Avatar can tote Scrin tech with just a few tweaks in the design. I promptly gut the control systems of the Avatar and stuff an Assimilator in there, making sure to up-armor the doombot with Ichor Armor taken from the Annihilator Tripod. Pulling up the designs of the Mechapede and transplanting the toxin sprayers onto the Avatar is a simple enough job, turning the hulking war machine into a viable combat/repair unit, one that probably will fit better with Tripod defensive blockades than the squishier Corruptors.
Looking over the final designs, I belatedly realise that the concept of a giant doombot with a cannon-arm and sprayer-arm is starting to remind me of a certain franchise. With that in mind, there's no way I wasn't calling it the Colonel Warmech.
The rest of the tech, like the Obelisk of Light and all the support powers, take a little while longer to crack open so I limit myself to unit-scale designs for now. Stealth generators from the Stealth Tank and Specter Artillery are promptly ripped out, overcharged with superior Scrin energy systems and slapped onto pretty much everything I can get my hands on. Invisible Harvesters, Invisible Seekers, Invisible Stormriders, the works. The Stealth Tank and the Specter themselves might be good additions to my arsenal as-is in all honesty, if only I had a way to crew them.
Fortunately though, a quick check with the Drone Platforms reveal that my predecessor was quite the collector. Stashed in the "caches" of the Warp Gateway as "research samples pending extraction", there's a whole bunch of Black Hand Cultists milling around and waiting for orders. A quick Portal has them marching back out into existence, chanting and cheering like the brainwashed alien abominations they are. Luck has it that these are the eggheads and vehicle crews of the Nod subfaction, having been too valuable to waste leashing Black Hand troopers back in Africa. No, we just used civilians for that.
I have to resist the urge to put the lot of them out of their misery as they start hailing me as a Great Alien Overlord with religious fervour, but they're way too valuable as the only way I can crew and maintain all this Nod tech. A simple command sends them scurrying into the freshly-unpacked Giant Enemy Crab and manning the autofactories currently working on a Nod Refinery, the giant waldoes in the cave-like structure busy forging the beginnings of the Ichor containment units out of prepacked materials within. Hopefully that'll keep them out of "sight" for a few hours at least.
On the Scrin side of things, our five Platforms start queueing up Foundries en masse. An unfortunate fact that I've discovered about my new species is that the Scrin are cheating bastards, depending wholly on warping in premade troops from Ichor Hub and having near to no on-site production capability at all. What GDI and the Brotherhood do in seconds take minutes for the Scrin as the little Foundries slowly knit together refined Ichor poured into their depths with their spiderlike articulators, delicately forming the sensitive alien technology with painstaking slowness. Soon enough however, the many Construction Drones I have flitting around my base are banding together in long daisy-chains to dredge up the first of my Colonels.
And it's quite a sight.
Modelling the exterior of the Colonel after an upsized version of the Lume Walkers from Sanctum 2 fits surprisingly well, the pale grey hues of the Annihilator carapace coupled with the Avatar optics makes it a dead ringer for the plant-based alien and gives it a more organic look. The quick additions of two Harvester tendrils gives it the capacity to scavenge Ichor straight off the battlefield for both self-repair and refilling its Ichor glands, with the potential to fuel a Conversion Beam off of it should I manage to finagle the tech from my compatriots. For now, the Obelisk-inspired laser cannon it already has will do.
Six Colonels land on the Ichor-crusted dirt with heavy thuds and shuffle off towards the perimeter of our sprawling base, gingerly stepping past rows of scattered Foundries as they link up with the 10 or so Tripods standing idly around. With the Tripods and the Colonels working together, the 16 or so walker force should repel almost any armored force coming down into these parts. The Rioters on the other hand finish building much quicker, barely two minutes per remote-controlled car bomb. These go straight into the Warp Spheres for later deployment, their small size and simple design making them excellent rapid-deployment assets. Rounding up the group with a convoy of Invisible Seekers, it's time to plan our next move.
It's currently the beginning of year 2048, that means that the Battle of Ayers Rock is already done and Qatar's been dusted. In all likelihood the European campaign's coming up for the GDI, in which the Scrin's weaknesses to sonics are revealed and GDI gathers for a big push into Italy, the endgame theater of TW3. Now, assuming that the following battles don't take too long, I'd be in position only to affect the Battle of Berne, or Turning Back the Tide in the GDI mission tree and most likely the first and last chance I'll be able to communicate with them without a backdrop of constant gunfire. If I miss this chance, GDI High Command's likely to decide that they'll be fine on their own and not need my help, and that they would very much like me dead instead.
I'd better pack up and hoof it to Deutschland then, while I still hold some bargaining power.
With a mental twitch, Foundries begin dematerialising en masse as the Drone Platforms lift off, the combined force of Colonels and Tripods snapping to attention before stumbling into motion. Four of the Drone Ships and all of the walkers make a beeline for Threshold 19 as my personal ADP, the Giant Enemy Crab and the convoy of Stealth Seekers peel off towards the distant shores of Germany as soon as the storm lifts, the many Harvesters scuttling around and polishing my little message to the humans before slipping into rapidly vanishing Warp Spheres.
I had a Mothership to intercept.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Sir, InOps just flagged something on the satellite scans we've got over North Africa. Pardon me sir, but you've got to see this."
"What is it, soldier." Lieutenant General Jack Granger snapped as he rubbed his tired eyes, the wizened Commander-in-Chief of the Global Defence Initiative worn out after a harrowing few days overseeing the counterattack against the alien invaders all throughout Europe. Even as he turned away from the tactical readouts detailing the developing battlefield in the Stuttgart region, a tinge of pride filled his chest as he thought of the stellar performance of the GDI field commander in charge. The man may not have had the best of beginnings to his military career, but his protégé had pulled on through the chaos rising from the Philadelphia's destruction and the subsequent Nod uprising magnificently. Even the appearance of a hostile alien force had barely daunted him and his men, the young Commander keeping a steady hand and driving the invaders back inch by inch with unrelenting resolve. The world needed men like him, Jack mused, for both today and the days to come.
Striding briskly over to the intelligence officer's terminal, the Lieutenant General's mood soured as he gazed upon the widescreen display. "Right. Mind telling me what the devil is this, good man?" he rumbled, pointedly ignoring the confused glances and harsh whispers the other terminal operators in the command center were exchanging.
"InOps received reports of an Alien taskforce clashing with a Nod strike group a few hours earlier and retreating into North Africa, they sent over a spy sat to check it out. Lost track of them in an Ion Storm that kicked up for a couple of hours, they were preparing to send in a ZOCOM squad to take out a potential stronghold there when the storm dispersed. The aliens scooted, and it looks like they left us a message." The officer dutifully recited, his voice quivering with nervousness as he went on. Turning towards his superior, the man wiped off some sweat off his brow and cautiously ventured. "If I may, sir? What the hell is going on?"
"Focus, trooper. I want eyes on those alien ships and their predicted trajectories and I wanted them yesterday. Get to work people, there's still a war going on!" Jack commanded, a sweeping glare sending the operators scurrying back to their terminals. Jerking in his seat, the original communications officer about-faced and quickly busied himself to avoid incurring the Commander-in-Chief's wrath. No more words were said.
And as he looked upon the captured images of a solitary Drone Ship of unusual make and the perfectly sterilized swathes of land carved out in the middle of Red Zone R-1 forming the GDI insignia and ringed with the repeated word "BERNE", Jack Granger wasn't sure he had an answer.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Author's Note: Whew. This took a while, bit here's the obligatory SCIENCE! chapter. The new Colonels are meant to be frontline support units that sync well with walls of Tripods, covering up the defensive aspect in the Traveler-59 arsenal that the loss of Devourer Tanks left. The brand new Rioter Buggies are something that I foresee will be pretty useful in the coming days as a high-speed recon/raiding party and the nightmare of any armored column, possessing more than enough punch to shred IFVs and knock out their larger cousins until a dedicated anti-armor asset can swing by to take them out. With all the epic battles queued up ahead in the coming days, speed will be vital.
This segment felt a little bit rushed to me, but Act 5 of the TW campaign was always on a surprisingly short timetable. As always, reviews and criticisms are always appreciated.
Now, I'm under no illusions that the last battle was a fluke. I'd had the Three Keys to Military Victory handed to me from the get-go: Intelligence, Surprise and Speed. If what I'm guessing is correct, I'm pretty much a near-perfect mirror with LEGION, what with the incredible processing capabilities and reaction speed of being a Giant Biomechanical Brain. He probably wasn't expecting to be Tactical Genius'd (CREEEED!!!) straight out the gate with precision only foreknowledge can provide, if he'd built any Disruption Towers at all I'd be stuck. I'm probably going to be considered a high-threat target by Nod for that, in addition to my shiny piece of loot here.
Still, if things are as I remember, this should've been the grand intro (and pathetic exit) of the Traveler-59 faction. Most likely nobody knows what's up with this particular troupe of bugs or their differences with normal Scrin, that Ichor Vapor Bomb even had the decency to dispose of the few Cultists I had on the field. I.E, the poor dear doesn't yet know of our pinnacles of douchebaggery: high-speed Devastator strikes and the almighty teleporting Hexapod.
I can use this. I can definitely use this.
Well then, survival first. Navel-gazing can wait (through the magic of mental partitioning!) until I'm not about to choke on the very air War Of The Worlds style.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Giant Enemy Crab pings me a few hours into our trek, the Assimilator brain within signalling that it's managed to crack the first few Nod databanks within. Pretty convenient, that.
The Hexapod rumbles to a halt near a particularly juicy glacier of Ichor as five D-Ships embed themselves into the land in unison, Warp Transmitters firing up even as the flower-like structures settled into the unstable ground. Within minutes, a healthy industry of Reactors and Refineries are springing up to feed off the ridiculous bounty of green crystals around us, all safely hidden from prying eyes by the ever-present Ion Storm above. Even so, the odd flash and pillar of deadly light lancing down onto what I guess is the frontlines every so often keeps me from making too big a base here. No sir, that'll have to wait until I get to the Tower and its umbrella of Ion Disruption Towers. Until then, time for loot.
[Acknowledged, Foreman. Retrieving preliminary analysis of assimilated technologies.]
Thanks. Also, before I forget: are you sentient by any chance?
[Negative, this unit is an industrial Foreman Intuitive Control Interface rated for Drone Platform vessels. Sentient AI are reserved for Mothership-class units and above.]
…right, so a VI then. You won't be going Geth on me anytime soon, are you?
[Error: "Geth" entity not recognized.]
…never mind.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Right, first thing on my agenda is gobbling up all that Nod lasertech. With a helpful walkthrough from my now-identified VI companion, I rip the compressed files straight from the banks and unzip them to the tune of five Drone Platforms working in unison, completely bypassing the need to construct the actual Tech Structures for now. Immediately, juicy juicy blueprints of the ever-useful Spitfire lasers fills my "mind", giving us a step-by-step guide in the construction and installation of the nifty pocket-lasers. Cheap, mass-producible laser modules that are light, power-frugal and disposable enough to mount on Raider Buggies of all vehicles? I'm sticking that to everything I can manage. In fact, the Raider Buggy itself is so ridiculously simple that it's hardly a chore to cram in a basic remote-control system on the thin, that I promptly replace the powerplant with one of Scrin make and armor up the bugger to make a cheap and surprisingly tanky EMP rammer. Just to top it off, I replace the single chaingun with two Shock Trooper proton cannons on each side of the frame, the infantry-scale weapons barely making a dint in the miniature Fusion Core's output.
The damn things even fire on full-auto now. I hereby christen it the Rioter.
Second on the list is the Transformer-esque modular systems on the Avatar. The damn things are both tanky as heck and moddable to the point of stupidity, I wouldn't be surprised if the Avatar can tote Scrin tech with just a few tweaks in the design. I promptly gut the control systems of the Avatar and stuff an Assimilator in there, making sure to up-armor the doombot with Ichor Armor taken from the Annihilator Tripod. Pulling up the designs of the Mechapede and transplanting the toxin sprayers onto the Avatar is a simple enough job, turning the hulking war machine into a viable combat/repair unit, one that probably will fit better with Tripod defensive blockades than the squishier Corruptors.
Looking over the final designs, I belatedly realise that the concept of a giant doombot with a cannon-arm and sprayer-arm is starting to remind me of a certain franchise. With that in mind, there's no way I wasn't calling it the Colonel Warmech.
The rest of the tech, like the Obelisk of Light and all the support powers, take a little while longer to crack open so I limit myself to unit-scale designs for now. Stealth generators from the Stealth Tank and Specter Artillery are promptly ripped out, overcharged with superior Scrin energy systems and slapped onto pretty much everything I can get my hands on. Invisible Harvesters, Invisible Seekers, Invisible Stormriders, the works. The Stealth Tank and the Specter themselves might be good additions to my arsenal as-is in all honesty, if only I had a way to crew them.
Fortunately though, a quick check with the Drone Platforms reveal that my predecessor was quite the collector. Stashed in the "caches" of the Warp Gateway as "research samples pending extraction", there's a whole bunch of Black Hand Cultists milling around and waiting for orders. A quick Portal has them marching back out into existence, chanting and cheering like the brainwashed alien abominations they are. Luck has it that these are the eggheads and vehicle crews of the Nod subfaction, having been too valuable to waste leashing Black Hand troopers back in Africa. No, we just used civilians for that.
I have to resist the urge to put the lot of them out of their misery as they start hailing me as a Great Alien Overlord with religious fervour, but they're way too valuable as the only way I can crew and maintain all this Nod tech. A simple command sends them scurrying into the freshly-unpacked Giant Enemy Crab and manning the autofactories currently working on a Nod Refinery, the giant waldoes in the cave-like structure busy forging the beginnings of the Ichor containment units out of prepacked materials within. Hopefully that'll keep them out of "sight" for a few hours at least.
On the Scrin side of things, our five Platforms start queueing up Foundries en masse. An unfortunate fact that I've discovered about my new species is that the Scrin are cheating bastards, depending wholly on warping in premade troops from Ichor Hub and having near to no on-site production capability at all. What GDI and the Brotherhood do in seconds take minutes for the Scrin as the little Foundries slowly knit together refined Ichor poured into their depths with their spiderlike articulators, delicately forming the sensitive alien technology with painstaking slowness. Soon enough however, the many Construction Drones I have flitting around my base are banding together in long daisy-chains to dredge up the first of my Colonels.
And it's quite a sight.
Modelling the exterior of the Colonel after an upsized version of the Lume Walkers from Sanctum 2 fits surprisingly well, the pale grey hues of the Annihilator carapace coupled with the Avatar optics makes it a dead ringer for the plant-based alien and gives it a more organic look. The quick additions of two Harvester tendrils gives it the capacity to scavenge Ichor straight off the battlefield for both self-repair and refilling its Ichor glands, with the potential to fuel a Conversion Beam off of it should I manage to finagle the tech from my compatriots. For now, the Obelisk-inspired laser cannon it already has will do.
Six Colonels land on the Ichor-crusted dirt with heavy thuds and shuffle off towards the perimeter of our sprawling base, gingerly stepping past rows of scattered Foundries as they link up with the 10 or so Tripods standing idly around. With the Tripods and the Colonels working together, the 16 or so walker force should repel almost any armored force coming down into these parts. The Rioters on the other hand finish building much quicker, barely two minutes per remote-controlled car bomb. These go straight into the Warp Spheres for later deployment, their small size and simple design making them excellent rapid-deployment assets. Rounding up the group with a convoy of Invisible Seekers, it's time to plan our next move.
It's currently the beginning of year 2048, that means that the Battle of Ayers Rock is already done and Qatar's been dusted. In all likelihood the European campaign's coming up for the GDI, in which the Scrin's weaknesses to sonics are revealed and GDI gathers for a big push into Italy, the endgame theater of TW3. Now, assuming that the following battles don't take too long, I'd be in position only to affect the Battle of Berne, or Turning Back the Tide in the GDI mission tree and most likely the first and last chance I'll be able to communicate with them without a backdrop of constant gunfire. If I miss this chance, GDI High Command's likely to decide that they'll be fine on their own and not need my help, and that they would very much like me dead instead.
I'd better pack up and hoof it to Deutschland then, while I still hold some bargaining power.
With a mental twitch, Foundries begin dematerialising en masse as the Drone Platforms lift off, the combined force of Colonels and Tripods snapping to attention before stumbling into motion. Four of the Drone Ships and all of the walkers make a beeline for Threshold 19 as my personal ADP, the Giant Enemy Crab and the convoy of Stealth Seekers peel off towards the distant shores of Germany as soon as the storm lifts, the many Harvesters scuttling around and polishing my little message to the humans before slipping into rapidly vanishing Warp Spheres.
I had a Mothership to intercept.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GDI Central Command
Washington, DC
Blue Zone B-2
Washington, DC
Blue Zone B-2
"Sir, InOps just flagged something on the satellite scans we've got over North Africa. Pardon me sir, but you've got to see this."
"What is it, soldier." Lieutenant General Jack Granger snapped as he rubbed his tired eyes, the wizened Commander-in-Chief of the Global Defence Initiative worn out after a harrowing few days overseeing the counterattack against the alien invaders all throughout Europe. Even as he turned away from the tactical readouts detailing the developing battlefield in the Stuttgart region, a tinge of pride filled his chest as he thought of the stellar performance of the GDI field commander in charge. The man may not have had the best of beginnings to his military career, but his protégé had pulled on through the chaos rising from the Philadelphia's destruction and the subsequent Nod uprising magnificently. Even the appearance of a hostile alien force had barely daunted him and his men, the young Commander keeping a steady hand and driving the invaders back inch by inch with unrelenting resolve. The world needed men like him, Jack mused, for both today and the days to come.
Striding briskly over to the intelligence officer's terminal, the Lieutenant General's mood soured as he gazed upon the widescreen display. "Right. Mind telling me what the devil is this, good man?" he rumbled, pointedly ignoring the confused glances and harsh whispers the other terminal operators in the command center were exchanging.
"InOps received reports of an Alien taskforce clashing with a Nod strike group a few hours earlier and retreating into North Africa, they sent over a spy sat to check it out. Lost track of them in an Ion Storm that kicked up for a couple of hours, they were preparing to send in a ZOCOM squad to take out a potential stronghold there when the storm dispersed. The aliens scooted, and it looks like they left us a message." The officer dutifully recited, his voice quivering with nervousness as he went on. Turning towards his superior, the man wiped off some sweat off his brow and cautiously ventured. "If I may, sir? What the hell is going on?"
"Focus, trooper. I want eyes on those alien ships and their predicted trajectories and I wanted them yesterday. Get to work people, there's still a war going on!" Jack commanded, a sweeping glare sending the operators scurrying back to their terminals. Jerking in his seat, the original communications officer about-faced and quickly busied himself to avoid incurring the Commander-in-Chief's wrath. No more words were said.
And as he looked upon the captured images of a solitary Drone Ship of unusual make and the perfectly sterilized swathes of land carved out in the middle of Red Zone R-1 forming the GDI insignia and ringed with the repeated word "BERNE", Jack Granger wasn't sure he had an answer.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Author's Note: Whew. This took a while, bit here's the obligatory SCIENCE! chapter. The new Colonels are meant to be frontline support units that sync well with walls of Tripods, covering up the defensive aspect in the Traveler-59 arsenal that the loss of Devourer Tanks left. The brand new Rioter Buggies are something that I foresee will be pretty useful in the coming days as a high-speed recon/raiding party and the nightmare of any armored column, possessing more than enough punch to shred IFVs and knock out their larger cousins until a dedicated anti-armor asset can swing by to take them out. With all the epic battles queued up ahead in the coming days, speed will be vital.
This segment felt a little bit rushed to me, but Act 5 of the TW campaign was always on a surprisingly short timetable. As always, reviews and criticisms are always appreciated.
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- Location
- The Great Beyond
- Pronouns
- He/She/They
Liked the part overall, but this
bugs me because Avatars don't look beefier than Tripods and Tripods barely equal their hp thanks to their shields.
oh and this
seems questionable given the evidence that nods hypertech might literally be stolen scrin tech, but it's more debatable.
bugs me because Avatars don't look beefier than Tripods and Tripods barely equal their hp thanks to their shields.
oh and this
seems questionable given the evidence that nods hypertech might literally be stolen scrin tech, but it's more debatable.
Librarian
SAN Loss Isn't Fun Anymore...
The part about the Avatars is so that I can abuse the Corruptor regeneration strategy for the Colonels to heal each other, normal Avatar hulls will just get eaten by the sludge. Also, the fact that the Tripod has equivalent armor to the Avatar and Juggernaut despite looking like an anorexic lasertree says something about the material's hardiness.
As for the bit about stealth systems, FUSION CORES. 'nuff said.
Do remember that this is a mining operation, and that the Tacitus might be the Scrin's equivalent of Area 51 research. What it contains is still way better than what's allocated to simple miners, and outdated ones to boot.
Last edited:
- Location
- The Great Beyond
- Pronouns
- He/She/They
That was actually kinda my point, it seemed to me like you might've been taking it as a given that Scrin stuff was better, but I guess not. And fair enough on the Tiberium sludge part.
- Location
- Russia
All of my yes to the story idea, and what you have already written is really enjoyable, so watched with wild abandon.
But I have to agree with some people above, that swinging a multiverse-trip capable force out of CnC is gonna be a pain. All of the advances on human side come from Tib studies, and even if hard science made leaps as well they definitely using Tib as a crutch/cheat. And Scrin... Yeah, basically made out of the stuff.
So essentially you gonna need to acquire either LARGE amount of Tib in compact, easily accessible storage (Kinda doable if you swing a TCN based on ScrinTech into a metal extractor analogue for Tib only).
Or you need a way to accelerate Tib growth rate, which seeing as Scrin resort to "bombard with asteroids and wait a couple of centuries to harvest the goodstuff" doesn't seem likely to be in SIs reach.
P.S. CNC4 might have been a major disappointment from plot standpoint, but it's good to see someone actually mentioning the glorious pieces of tech to abuse.
But I have to agree with some people above, that swinging a multiverse-trip capable force out of CnC is gonna be a pain. All of the advances on human side come from Tib studies, and even if hard science made leaps as well they definitely using Tib as a crutch/cheat. And Scrin... Yeah, basically made out of the stuff.
So essentially you gonna need to acquire either LARGE amount of Tib in compact, easily accessible storage (Kinda doable if you swing a TCN based on ScrinTech into a metal extractor analogue for Tib only).
Or you need a way to accelerate Tib growth rate, which seeing as Scrin resort to "bombard with asteroids and wait a couple of centuries to harvest the goodstuff" doesn't seem likely to be in SIs reach.
P.S. CNC4 might have been a major disappointment from plot standpoint, but it's good to see someone actually mentioning the glorious pieces of tech to abuse.
E.I.G.
Robo-Bird
- Pronouns
- It/They
Scrin do have a major "all our tech is Tib" disadvantage.
GDI and Nod can at least be explained as coming from the original Red Alert, possibly implying that they posses historical refining and fabrication tech.
So one option for the SI is to get the data on how C&C1 GDI was building stuff. They had field factories and such during the initial Tiberium seeding timeframe that is characterized by miner-plants more than grey-goo-crystals. It actually gives GDI a semi-peaceful bargaining chip, they are doing their best to equal or exceed the Scrin with as little Tib as possible. Well, at least with the SI.
Faith
Some idea of what I'm doing.
- Location
- Land of Waves and Warmth
On the bright side, when Traveller does start verse-hopping, Tiberium will be an OCP for most opponents.
And didn't Nod have a Tiberium Seed missile or something like that? I seem to recall cheesing the AI on skirmish mode by flooding the centre of their base with Tiberium growths. The SI getting their hands on those would be good for allowing them to spread the Tib around a bit.
And didn't Nod have a Tiberium Seed missile or something like that? I seem to recall cheesing the AI on skirmish mode by flooding the centre of their base with Tiberium growths. The SI getting their hands on those would be good for allowing them to spread the Tib around a bit.
- Location
- The Great Beyond
- Pronouns
- He/She/They
Strictly, in Kane's Wrath the Scrim possessed a Tiberium creation support power that returned more than it cost, as did the Nod Tiberium (bomber drop, I think?) that you are referring to.