Given that the Planetary Assault Carriers outmass the Mammoths by about a third or so and are intended to carry a massive amount of weight (all those Invader fighterdrones), the PACs can deal with a sizeable leeway in regards to extra weight.
Hence, fortification-grade rebar and a fair bit of armor plating to floor it out. Besides, who wouldn't want to go FLYING TANK (because f*** you and everything you love)?
Humans invented the World-Altering Missile, Tiberium Catalysm and the Tiberium Control Network, which is basically post-scarcity tech. And they're not even a spacefaring civilisation yet.
... You know, I kind of want Traveler!Commander to phone LEGION on a one way comm channel to say something to the effect of, "I'M BAAAAACK, MOTHERFUCKER!" Followed by blaring Ride of the Valkyries via speaker drones as the PACs and V-35s come blazing in with the embarked vehicles and troops.
Quick question to all you war buffs out there: Mounting a modified Davy Crockett warhead onto a plane-mountable missile body as proximity triggered Air-to-Air/Space-to-Space weapons. Feasible or no?
Quick question to all you war buffs out there: Mounting a modified Davy Crockett warhead onto a plane-mountable missile body as proximity triggered Air-to-Air/Space-to-Space weapons. Feasible or no?
"Anbu Harbour Command, this is Combined Joint Task Force Epsilon-Theta, we are on approach from the Northeast to reinforce your position. Hold your fire, we're coming in."
"Anbu Harbour Command to CJTF Epsilon-Theta, we read you five-by-five. Do you require an escor-OH SHIT, INCOMING HOSTILES! Scramble the Firehawks!"
"Anbu Harbour Command, this is Commander Elliot Gruber in command of CJTF Epsilon-Theta, do NOT engage! Alien forces are friendlies sanctioned by GDI High Command! I say again, alien forces are friendlies!"
"…copy that, cancelling fighter sortie. If they're really on our side, we could really use some heavy air assets like their warships right about now. CJTF Epsilon-Theta, you are cleared to approach from heading-wait, are those Mammoths you're carrying?!"
"Soldiers of Nod, cast aside your chains and fight! Show them the light of Ka-"
The hypersonic crack of an anti-personnel round echoed as the grand-standing Brotherhood Confessor's head detonated, the back of his signature tower-shaped helmet blowing open like a metal flower and spraying gore everywhere. With a glacial slowness, the armoured warrior-priest tipped over backwards and landed with a resounding crash, the man's chaingun clattering to the floor.
"Shit! SNIPER!" Brother Powell cursed and ducked behind an abandoned cargo trailer, hastily waving the rest of his stunned squad back into cover. With their leading Confessor dead courtesy of the blasted GDI Sniper Teams, the senior militant could easily tell that the rest of his comrades, converted locals from the poorhouses of Chaozhou drawn by the Church of Kane's grand speeches, were dangerously close to breaking apart and fleeing for the hills.
Disappointing, but Powell supposed he couldn't expect them to have the fire-forged wills of long-time veterans like his brethren just yet.
Taking a gamble, the senior Nod militant scrambled out of cover to the Confessor's cooling corpse, dashing out of cover with his head kept low. Quickly unhitching the dead officer's cloak and chaingun, Brother Powell donned the Cabalite symbol of office, in full view of the cowering militia. "Hear me, brothers!" he cried, waving his borrowed weapon wildly. "The only way to survive in the battlefield is to fight, so FIGHT! The oppressors will give you no quarter, cowering will only get you killed! Push onwards and we may see another day!" Seeing the scared men and women staring at him with hopeful eyes, Powell muttered a quick prayer to the Messiah before making the final pitch. "In the name of Kane, PEACE THROUGH POWER!"
"PEACE THROUGH POWER!" the scattered militants, now revitalised, echoed. Hefting their chainguns, the squad of revolutionaries reformed around their new leader, opening fire on the encroaching GDI soldiers across the shipping yard with renewed vigour.
A dull, bass hum filled the air.
"Huh?" Powell muttered as he and his squad looked around in confusion, their fire briefly tapering off. Strangely, the GDI troops were doing the same, ducking behind the many shipping crates and talking animatedly into their headsets. "What in the world…?"
A massive shadow crossed over the horizon, outlined with an otherworldly glow.
An absolutely massive object glided across the horizon at a leisurely pace, the ebony-coloured thing hidden within a mysterious oval-shaped bubble of glowing energy. As he and the militants watched, the bubble peeled away to reveal a gigantic spine made out of black metal, a metal box strapped to its centre and looking out of place on the fearsome object. Powell blanched as his mind finally made the connection between half-remembered briefings and the massive flying object. The Visitors. The Visitors were here.
Turning to address his equally- confused men, Powell paused. Was that…music?
A pair of Rocket Militants, first on the scene, ran into a grassy clearing right below the alien airfleet and settled into firing positions, raising their Airburst dual-rocket launchers to the skies. The Visitor's aircraft had lowered their forcefields for some reason and were now easy picking for them and their compatriots on the way, they were going to be hailed as heroes who slew the dreaded alien leviathans in the name of Kane!
The Rocket Militant leader paused as he peered through his launcher's scope, noticing something odd along the bottoms of the alien warships. Were those… tanks?!
[We've reached the drop zone, standby for drop. This is going to be a bumpy ride!]
Inside the Mammoth, the tank's crew hastily buckled themselves down as a number of Scrin Drones crawled along the Mammoth's surface, the biomachines settling into position around the carrying bracket's load-bearing struts. Bolted-on loudspeakers (courtesy of InOps' PSYOP division) blasted a very familiar tune amongst the rattling and banging of a several hundred-tonne armored vehicle jostling about in the wind.
On an unseen signal, the squidlike Drones extended their manipulators and began drilling through the metal support beams.
[Commencing drop! Happy hunting, Bravo Company!]
In a series of sharp pings, the rearmost struts snapped and the whole cradle swung downward, falling rear-first into the Planetary Assault Carrier's sizeable slipstream. The frontmost struts were severed half a second later and the Mammoth Tank went into freefall proper, cage and all falling away from the Scrin vessel like a, well, brick. Across the fleet, Devastator Warships and V-35 Ox Transports similarly disgorged their payloads, unleashing a whole cloud of free-falling vehicles and soldiers. By the miracles of simultaneous drops and Galileo's Law of Parabolic Motion, the two Mammoth Tanks fell side-by-side in the middle of a ring of smaller vehicles, forming the heaviest skydiving pattern of all time.
Parachutes unfurled at all four corners of the Mammoth and pulled taut, blowing open and slowing the humongous tank's descent by a small margin. As the surface drew closer, the Drones still on the Mammoth's hull scuttled over to the tank's sides and triggered a series of attached modules before powering down and falling off, their power supplies expended. RATO boosters, taken from the Airfields back in Berne, opened up in plumes of glowing fire barely a kilometre above the surface, the powerful rockets bathing the ground in superheated exhaust as the improvised retro-thrusters slowed the vehicle's descent further. The parachutes, bolstered by the rising exhaust from the RATO boosters, billowed like mainsails for the final stretch.
Impact.
The Mammoth Tank hit the ground in an earth-shattering blast of sound and flying dirt as it struck a sparse grassland clearing full-force, landing right on top of a hapless Rocket Militant trying to shoot down the V-35s overhead and smearing the poor man across the muddy floor. Crumple zones built onto the bottom of the cradle imploded as rebar and armour plating folded like wet tissue paper, the material absorbing the force of the landing and the Mammoth's sheer weight and fusing together into a lumpy metallic pancake that conveniently served as a "sled" for the rest of the cradle, the logic-defying assembly finally grinding to a halt after sinking a full meter into the (considerably redder) soil.
Within the Mammoth Tank, the driver and the gunner shared a fistbump. The commander was too busy holding in his breakfast.
Firing its engines, the Mammoth Mk.II's dual Mil-Spec CVJF ducted turbine generators came alive with twin screams of high-speed metal and its quradruple treads roared to life, smashing its way out of the ruined carrying bracket by simply driving forward. A series of pneumatic hissing and electrical thrums announced the superheavy battle tank's dual 150mm railguns charging up as it cleared the bracket in a cacophony of smashed material and flying dirt, catching the surviving militant with its right tread and mowing the poor fellow down in a spray of gore and agonized screaming. "The Ride of the Valkyries" tapering off as the music ended, the loudspeakers switched tracks and began blaring heavy metal.
"Yea verily," The Mammoth's sister vehicle sombrely intoned, reciting the Mammoth Tanker Corps' unofficial motto. "Though I charge through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil."
"For I am driving a house-sized mass of FUCK YOU!"
Turns out that LEGION had spotted our little airfleet rolling into the area and had sent a group of fast-movers to shoot us down, consisting of Attack Bikes and Rocket Militants gathered from the nearby areas. Fearing the loss of the V-35s, Gruber-Commander had ordered us to drop ASAP, so we just dropped our cargoes like a bunch of hot potatoes.
The poor Noddies had the absolute worst luck of setting up right in the middle of our LZ.
Squishy-squishy.
Setting down the MCV far more gently (those fabricators are expensive), I had my AutoShip throw down a Warp Sphere and lift off and rejoin my exhausted airfleet, charting a course towards a quiet spot behind the newly-formed frontlines. Setting down again in the empty clearing, I called in another Warp Sphere and an Extractor in the middle of nowhere.
The Scrin's Extractors work on the principle of Harvesters gathering up chunks of Ichor from the local fields and vomiting them back out into collection vats within the Extractor. Serving as a processing facility, packaging plant and shipping yard all in one, the Extractor will then "refine" the collected Ichor material into its separate compounds, feeding a certain amount of mundane material back into concentration vats to be "fermented" into base Ichor. With that in hand, the base Ichor and other resources would then be secured into shipping "pods" and transported back to Ichor Hub via an in-house Warp Transmitter relaying off the larger Secondary Warp Transmitters on the partially-constructed Threshold Towers on the planet.
Yes, those Secondary Warp Transmitters are the things responsible for beaming in structures and units from back home. They're not perfectly efficient, hence the "build-times" for units that mainly consists of the Portal/Warp Sphere/Gravity Stabiliser synchronising with the Thresholds, which in turn synchronises with Ichor Hub.
The Primary Warp Transmitters on the finished Thresholds are rated for transporting invasion fleets across the galaxy. Instantaneously, and at once.
Those things are terrifying.
But I digress. All this talk about Warp Transmitters leads to my next point: they're already built (or can be built) for two-way connections. With a little bit of software machining, it's perfectly possible to use the Thresholds as "bridges" and send units and items through different Portals connected to the Transmitter Network, like stable Wormholes with distance limitations dictated by the Thresholds.
Did I mention that the Threshold Towers' Secondary Warp Transmitters have a planet-wide range?
I feel the bullsh!t flowing through me. IT IS A GOOD FEELING.
[Express delivery!] I chirped as the first of my little Harvester unit passed through FOB Anbu's resident Warp Sphere, the little hoverthing chock full of precious resources. Gliding over to the local GDI Refinery, I had it vomit its cargo straight into the bubbling collection vat, disgorging streams of molten metal into the giant cylindrical drum swirling with melting Ichor. [More shipments on the way, Gruber-Commander! Good luck out there!]
[Thanks again, Traveler. Notify me when your air fleets are ready for battle again.] The gravelly voice of my current liaison and nominal Commander, the ex-Watch Commander (reassigned) Elliot Gruber, rumbled over the airwaves. Below my Harvester, the Refinery diligently stirred the metal shipment into the slurry of melted Ichor already within, long tubes sticking into the vat and siphoning glowing-hot slurry to feed the centrifuges within. On the other end of the facility pressed pallets of metal were being loaded into waiting cargo haulers for delivery to the Construction Yard and War Factories springing up all over the base.
One of the major limitations of the MCV paradigm had been access to resources. A ConYard had to be close to an Ichor field in order to set up a starter economy in order to fund the rest of the base, which would then expand outwards into a sizeable fortress built on the bountiful minerals mined out of the fields. Although an MCV gave unprecedented mobility and strategic flexibility in the form of "instant bases", it also limited commanders into setting up their bases beside Ichor fields without exception and going on from there. Setting up a base without any Ichor fields nearby simply wasn't feasible, the long routes between Refineries and Ichor fields in the region put the Harvesters at risk and all but crippled the entire base in terms of resource flow.
With the magic of Portal Tech however, we've just set up a nigh-impregnable supply chain that enabled CJTF Epsilon-Theta to build a fortress out of thin air, with resources shipped in from my little Extractor here, which was diverting processed materials from other Extractors within the Scrin strongholds across the Red Zones.
ALL of the Red Zones.
I may not be a clever Foreman. I may not be a clever person.
Traveler is the overall commander for the entire expedition force on Earth. Giving them a utterly ridiculous amount of resources. When most Foremen have to make do with local fields and whatever starting funds they get, the Traveler-59 detachment has access to entire continents of Tib, ripe for the picking. Taking a hit to productivity under the excuse of "military operations" even for just a single hour, that still gives an income of probably millions of creds a second.
And the Scrin don't have storage limitations.
~The hiiiills are aliiiive with the sound of bull-shiiiiit~
That, and the Lifeform Reclamation System on the Eradicator Hexapod. Carbon-based meatbags don't have much valuable minerals for Tib to mine out though, so it's quality tends to suffer. Most vehicles in the TibVerse also tend to have passive protections against Tibbing, or else they'll end up Crystalled seconds after leaving the War Factory.
Other 'verses are fair game though. Plot point later.
That, and the Lifeform Reclamation System on the Eradicator Hexapod. Carbon-based meatbags don't have much valuable minerals for Tib to mine out though, so it's quality tends to suffer.
"Hello there! I see you've had a rather... energetic entry, of a sort. You need a hand getting out of there?
...aaand you're charging weapons already. Great."
- Traveler-59, at the start of the mission
"Okay. I don't know who you are, where you come from or what you want, but you don't just go around shooting up my stuff like that and expect to get away with it. It's ON now, you robot chucklehead!" - Traveler-59, defeated
"What the HELL is that-that THING?! You... cheat!" - Traveler-59, on completing "Curbstomp"
In the First Contact (Challenge) mission, the Planetary Annihilation Commander mounts a surprise attack on a small Scrin mining camp garrisoned with Seekers, Buzzers and Disintegrators situated near the rim of the Commander's Landing crater. Mission objectives are to remove all Scrin presence in the area, as well as capture the enemy Outpost and Tiberium Spike to open up access to the Scrin Tech Tree.
Curbstomp: Complete the mission with an Atlas Titan fielded
Unlocks: Bully (Title)
Mission 2: King of the Hill
"Oh, it's you again. And by the looks of things, you've managed to not only keep the Ichor at bay, you've even copied some of my units! Very impressive, I must say! Unfortunately, we and our partners in ZOCOM have some business in this area, so we'll be showing you out the door.
Whether you like it or not." - Traveler-59, on spotting the Commander's forces approaching the Tiberium Research Facility
"D-did you just kick me out of my own house?! You... you insolent-! GAAAAH!" - Traveler-59, upon repelling the counterattack
"HEY! I was gonna use that!" - Traveler-59, on completing "No Free Parking"
Traveler-59, along with a ZOCOM Commander, have set up shop around the Tiberium Research Facility located along the Red/Yellow Zone border, setting up a sizeable fortress among the region's mountains and valleys. The Commander must penetrate their combined defenses to access the Research Facility, and the various technologies stored within. Mission objectives are to remove all enemy presence in the area, capture the Tiberium Research Facility and keep it from being recaptured or destroyed by inbound Scrin/ZOCOM reinforcements from the mainland.
Briefing Information
Map Used: Triple Threat
Teams: 2 vs 1
Enemies: Traveler-59, ZOCOM
Tech Unlocked: Sonic Weapons, Stormriders, Scrin Tier 1 Vehicles
Unlocks: Desert Storm (Challenge)
Bonus Objectives
No Free Parking: Destroy every single Transport before it lands
Unlocks: Mannerheim Line (Title)
Mission 3: Desert Storm
"Ah, my mechanical friend. You've been making a name for yourself these days, did you know? All these snazzy names like "The Assimilator", "Iron Tsunami" and the like, the media just laps those stuff up! The three of us here were just discussing your rising fame, and we've planned a show of... appreciation, for you and yours.
You've made a name for yourself, Mecha Man. You might not be so glad you did." - Traveler-59, at the start of the mission
"This is bad. This is really bad. Looks like I'll have to pull out all the stops to get rid of you, huh?" - Traveler-59, defeated
"OH COME ON! Not only did you have to kick my ass, you just had to do it with my own tanks! I swear, I'll wipe that smirk off your stupid mug one day, just you wait!" - Traveler-59, on completing "United Nations"
The Scrin, Traveler-59, Steel Talons and Black Hand armies have gathered together for a massive armored push into the Commander's captured territories, the four factions have consolidated a considerable number of tank groups in a staging area located in a small town just beyond the Blue Zone limits. The Commander has deployed their forces to the region to preempt the oncoming land invasion, as well as to take out most of the enemies' ground forces in one fell swoop. Mission objectives are to remove all hostile presence from the area.
Briefing Information
Map Used: Downtown Dustbowl
Teams: 4 vs 1
Enemies: Scrin, Traveler-59, Steel Talons, Black Hand
United Nations: Own Construction Yards belonging to all four enemy factions and build all prerequisite structures for their Tier 2 Vehicles
Unlocks: WRYYYYYY (title)
Mission 4: Stormbringer Coming
"Right, you asked for it. I've got places to be at the moment, but I suppose I can spare a little... something for you to remember me by. For today, we'll be standing in OUR playing field! Time for you to experience the full might of the Scrin airfleets!
You may own the land, Mecha Man, but WE own the skies!" - Traveler-59, just before launching a all-out attack
"Oh bollocks. What do I have to do to KILL you, you goddamn metal bastard?!" - Traveler-59, defeated
"Aaaah! How?! Where the flying frak did YOU come from?!" - Traveler-59, on completing "Boom, Headshot"
While expanding into the Tiberium-saturated region of Berne, the Commander stumbles upon a major Scrin stronghold recently reactivated in light of their recent actions. Seizing the initiative, Traveler-59 wastes no time in unleashing a massed aerial assault on the Commander's fledgling base, hoping to overwhelm them before they have a chance to build up their forces. Mission objectives are to remove all enemy presence from the area and capture the enemy Technology Assembler, Signal Transmitter and Nerve Center.
Briefing Information
Map Used: Berne (campaign)
Teams: 2 vs 1
Enemies: Traveler-59, Reaper-17
Tech Unlocked: All Scrin Aircraft, All Scrin Infantry, Wormhole Technology
Unlocks: King of all Robots (Challenge)
Bonus Objectives
Boom, Headshot: Shoot down the Flagship before it leaves the area one minute after mission start
Unlocks: Broke the Space-Time Continuum (Title)
Mission 5: King of all Robots
"Oh dear god, it's you again. As you can see from the big honking death-robos running around in the distance, we're kinda busy at the moment. Just wait there for a second while we put CABAL back into the grave, m'kay? Who knows, maybe he'll even warm up to you and do us all a massive favour!
...seriously, Are you two omnicidal robot cousins or something? I can see the similarities." - Traveler-59, upon sighting the Commander's forces
"WELP, Earth's screwed. Everyone run for your bloody lives!" - Traveler-59, witnessing the unstoppable Commander in action
"You just ate CABAL. You just ate CABAL.
...someone save me. I don't wanna do this anymore." - Traveler-59, on completing "Coronation"
Major tectonic activity has drawn the Commander's attention away from their conquest, to a rural region dangerously close to the Tiberium-crusted wastelands of the Red Zones. Arriving to a scene of utter chaos, the combined armies of Nod, ZOCOM, Scrin and Reaper-17 face off against the out-of-control Marked of Kane, secure in their fortress in the center of the area guarded by the cream of the Brotherhood's technological prowess and three very angry Redeemers. Mission objectives are to remove all traces of the Coalition's forces from the area, and the subjugation of the Marked of Kane's controlling intelligence, CABAL, for use in data-mining.
Briefing Information
Map Used: Dead Six (expanded)
Teams: 4 vs 1 vs 1
Enemies: Nod, ZOCOM, Scrin, Reaper-17, Marked of Kane
Tech Unlocked: All Factions Tier 1-3 Units, All Epic Units
Unlocks: Last Stand (Challenge)
Bonus Objectives
Coronation: Capture the three Temples of Nod in the Marked of Kane's base without destroying any of the Redeemers to take control of all three of them
Unlocks: Robot Master Race (Title)
Mission 6: Last Stand
"Hahahahaha that robotic monstrosity's back again.
...you know what? Fuck you. Fuck you and everything you own and love. Fuck this whole planet and everything on it.
Eat shit and fucking die already." - Traveler-59, unveiling the various Temples of Nod, Rift Generators and Ion Cannon Control Centers
"No more... please, no more... *sniffle* *hic*
Waaaaaaah!" - Traveler-59, bursting into tears
"I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! DON'T EAT ME! DON'T EAT MEEEEEEEE!!!" - Traveler-59, screaming as the Flagship ascends into orbit
Forced into a corner, the united inhabitants have rallied under the increasingly-unhinged Traveler-59 for one final attempt at stopping the Commander and his invincible conquest across the globe. Concentrating the full measure of their technological prowess and military might, the nine factions have banded together to create a monstrous stronghold armed with all the superweapon types in their repertoires. Such a juicy target crammed to bursting with the technological innovations of the the entire planet is a feast the Commander cannot resist, they just have to survive the full force of dozens of Nuclear Missiles, Rifts and Ion Cannons hurled at their forces in the war to end all wars. Mission objectives are to remove all traces of enemy presence from the area, and capture the Cheyenne Mountain Facility intact.
Briefing Information
Map used: Cheyenne Mountains (campaign)
Teams: 9 vs 1
Enemies: GDI, ZOCOM, Steel Talons, Nod, Black Hand, Marked of Kane, Scrin, Reaper-17, Traveler-59
Tech Unlocked: Everything
Unlocks: Journey's End (Bonus Challenge) *must complete "Make Love, Not War"*
Bonus Objectives
Make Love, Not War: Capture or destroy every Superweapon structure before it can fire
Unlocks: Like a Boss (Title)
Bonus Mission: Journey's End
"Come on come on come on, charge up already you blasted piece of shit! I need to get the hell out of this universe! That demon's going to eat me alive!
Oh god. He's HERE." - Traveler-59, desperately huddling against the ______ ______ _______ _______ as it charges up
"I-I had fun while it lasted. Bye-bye." - Traveler-59, overloading the Flagship's reactors
"B-but why...?" - Traveler-59, on completing "Golden Ending"
Traveler-59 has finally snapped and gone into full rout, running for dear life into the system's asteroid belt. Pursuing the alien into space, the Commander's sensors pick up a unexpected signature, revealing it to be an impossible existence. Sensing the very familiar energies of a cross-dimensional portal forming in the anomaly, the Commander must race against time to secure it before it and Traveler-59 vanish from this universe. Mission objectives are to capture the Anomaly before it charges up and activates.
Briefing Information
Map Used: The Outer Belt (custom)
Teams: 1 vs 1
Enemies: Traveler-59
Tech Unlocks: None
Unlocks: ______ ______ _______ _______
Bonus Objectives
Golden Ending: Capture Traveler-59's Flagship before it self-destructs, triggered on successfully capturing the Anomaly
Pants-shittingly terrified one. The Commander just owned eighteen (campaign pregenned) different Superweapons in the most fortified stronghold on the entire planet, before even one of them could fire.
Plus, he/she just ate CABAL right in front of the Foreman's face earlier.
Could you blame Traveler for drawing INTERESTING conclusions?
Inspired by Red Alert 3's bonus video when you beat all the Commander's Challenges. Seeing all nine of the enemy Commanders (Moskvin's is HILARIOUS) freaking out over your sheer bullsh!ttery is prime lulz material.
