The Third Tiberium War

Introduction

2008-12-30T18:15:00.001+08:00

This is a novel on two men in the Steel Talon (and later ZOCOM) Regiment. It is set in the middle of the Third Tiberium War (based on CNC3 and Kane's Wrath). Ignore the date. It is incorrect. Visit THX-43110's story at http://thx-43110.blogspot.com/. I have noticed a few getting confused about the layout. Please note that you start reading at the TOP. These posts are written by both THX-43110 and THX-43111. Please do not refrain from typing in comments on our posts. Just include your name and/or your email address (the one that you check frequently). Please vote on the poll too as it tells us what you feel about the novel.

Chapter 8

2008-12-08T19:25:00.005+08:00

Kaasim shot right up from his dilapidated bunk in the barracks,waking up from a nightmare and still recovering from the shock that had just happened before his eyes no more than a few days past.He looked at the bunk beside him to find it empty,much to his regret.He scanned the bunk room in the barracks.The room was large and empty with nothing more than two long rows of double decked bunks with small cabinets for each militant and a weapons rack located at the far corner of the room.dozens of his comrades laid scattered across the cold metal floor,soundly asleep.

The deep clanking of steel boots echoed in the hallways.The black hand are coming this way.He promptly dove under his threadbare blanket and took the guise of a sleeping teenager.The black hand troopers marched into the bunk room,their three glowing red eyes scanning the entire room for any militants who were not asleep.Amidst the Black hand troopers,a Lieutenant enunciated clearly,"You two,tell Kane that his militants are on the way."The two Black hand troopers immediately marched off to the command bridge.The lieutenant raised his leg and within a moment,sent it crashing down on a nearby militants back.The man screamed in agony as he felt a sudden jolt of back along his spine.The other militants woke up to see the black hand trooper shout,"All of you dogs get moving now!Kane has orders for all of you!"

the people moved sluggishly,still dazed by the sudden turn of events.The black hand trooper grabbed his pistol from his holster and took a shot at the nearest militant,sending the man to the ground promptly.Blood spilled from the dead man's back,pooling around his dead body.The other militants immediately noted that it was business.Within moments,efficiency was doubled as the militants rushed to their respective weapon racks and passed down their weapons,all of them being outdated 20th century chain guns,Kaasim received an AK-47,a reliable but now outdated weapon.He put on his combat vest that was just hung on his bunk bed and wore his helmet.joining his squad,Kaasim followed the black hand troopers who herded them all to the assembly hall.

Kaasim walked into the assembly hall,remembering the previous time he entered not but a few days ago on a mission that would scar him for life and change his thoughts of nod.The militants all stood at attention as the screen began to show Kane's face to them.

Kane sat in his command chair deep within a bunker miles under and from Sarajevo,untouched by the Ion cannon strike or the Liquid tiberium bomb.He looked at his brother Natsumi who was in charge of the AV feed to the militants and looked back at the camera."Is the visual feed ready brother?"Kane spoke calmly.Natsumi looked at Kane with gentle eyes and nodded his head.An LED on the camera blinked,and he immediately greeted the militants.

"Good morning my brothers and sisters of Nod."

The crowd stood at attention.Kaasim looked ahead at the screen,but his mind wandered about,thinking about the events that had happened.

"I come before you in our finest hour!The visitors have arrived on Earth and have bestowed upon us a mighty gift!the gift of the future!Yes my brothers the visitors have given us the sight of the future,our tiberium future.First the Tacitus has given us the knowledge of their arrival and now they bless us yet again with these threshold towers which will lead us onto the path of ascension in which we shall walk and upon us the new age shall dawn!the age of tiberium.But to walk this path,we need to prepare.for we must earn our right of passage by destroying GDI and their blind attempts to rid the earth of this mighty gift.Brothers,listen to me and your place on the path will be reserved for you and we shall all evolve together into the new age as a species as we leave the disillusioned GDI in our wake.Follow me and the path shall open up to us.MY CHILDREN BROTHERS AND SISTERS ONE AND ALL

Prepare for Ascension!

PEACE THROUGH POWER

The militants went into a frenzy,all of them encouraged by Kane's charisma as a leader.The black hand lieutenant the shouted,"All right maggots get you asses moving to the reckoners!"The militants swarmed to the vehicle bays.The hall suddenly lurched.Kaasim looked around and wondered what and how it had happened."I thought this thing was a building?"Said a nearby militant.

"Maybe its some sort of aircraft"

"Who knows"

He stepped into the vehicle bay to see a group of priests blessing a long column of militants as they prepared to enter their respective vehicles.The priests injected divination fluid into them,the liquidized tiberium flowed through their veins and made them more energetic and aware of their surroundings.Kaasim got into his reckoner heavy APC and stared into blank space as the doors began to close.from inside the APC,Kaasim felt a sudden jerk,followed closely by the sound of the vehicle bay doors opening.the raider buggies swarmed out of the bay,followed closely by attack bikes.Kaasim's reckoner then drove forward,with the scorpion tanks in tow behind.He looked out of a porthole in the reckoner transport to see a gigantic black/red manta ray like Vehicle with its mouth agape and the scorpion tanks exiting from it.so that's what the building was.

The reckoners moved forward at a constant pace,the scorpion tanks just in front of them.the entire vehicle brigade moved in unison towards what was left of the blue zone city of Beijing to scour the city for items that could be scavenged.

Half an hour later

the reckoner came to an abrupt halt,causing Kaasim's head to jerk forward in a sudden painful motion.The door opened up,bathing the once dark cargo hold with a sickly green glow from tiberium,the very substance that they revered.Kaasim followed the rest of the militants out of the reckoner and into the city of Beijing.

"Group Alpha!you are to scour the northern streets.Group Beta into the south."

Kaasim followed closely with his team into the northern section of the city,looking for anything worth scavenging.the streets around the militants laid bare,the building torn and the road cracked.by the sides of the roads were bodies sporting burns and pooling blood.but what surprised them the most was the presence of almost man sized bugs that seemed like scrawny stick creatures with an elongated nose with a charred nozzle.On closer inspection,as they approached the giant creatures,the militants saw the sickly green tiberium fluid that filled them and the plasma reserves that stored the blue stuff that melted tanks into slag.

They walked for just over ten minutes when he heard a sudden clanking in the distance.All the militants hit the ground and acted professional,pulling up their rifles and aiming instead of cowering behind them.the sound became louder,causing a couple of militant recruits to shiver in fear while the more experienced ones stood firm.The mist before them clouded their vision,enshrouding whatever produced that sound from their sight.It moved even closer,the militants able to see a brief outline of it, a human with devices placed on its wrist while its hand carried a long spear like weapon followed lastly by a metallic housing unit.It led out a loud shrill scream,sending the militant recruits into a fright,compelling them to fire blankly at the shadows.Shocked,the militants watched as three recruits peppered the area that the being had been with bullets,only to travel through the smoke and hit nothing,while the being appeared a good ten meters away.

"FIRE!"

the militant platoon went into a frenzy,the lot of them mindlessly emptying their ammunition on the being which evaded the ongoing barrage of lead with fluid grace,before unveiling its own surprise.the fog cleared to reveal the creature,a seven to eight foot tall humanoid creature with tentacles at where its mouth should be and thousands upon thousands of tiny tiberium shards formed around it,forming an armored plate.Its skin could be seen at the joints,revealing a sickly dark green vine-like skin that seemed boneless.

The creature,or Foreman rather,Jumped three meters in the air,evading another onslaught of bullets before releasing a flurry of miniature plasma discs.the discs flew through the air and found their marks,the burst cutting down a full squad of militants.the foreman hit the ground and promptly dodged a stream of bullets while stabbing another militant with its Tiberium spear.Kaasim slammed a fresh clip of bullets into his rifle and began spraying at the Foreman,hoping to land a hit at it.But alas,none of the bullets found their mark.The foreman moved too fast for any of them to react in time.

sidestepping once more,the Foreman dodged yet another wave of bullets before releasing another flurry of plasma at the militants,downing another three,leaving a small group of six militants.Definitely outmatched,The militants broke into a run as they attempted to retreat from the massacre.The foreman got down on all fours and its skeletal frame morphed,that of a cat and sprang forth with unimaginable speeds,catching up with the militants quickly.the last militant turned around and promptly met his demise as a tiberium spear was plunged into his gut.the foreman got back on two legs,its form changing once more and continued the chase.Even on his two legs,the foreman ran faster than the lot of them,soon catching up with another two militants.the other two militants turned and while backtracking,They sprayed a full clip of lead at the Foreman,hoping to slow it down.the Foreman Continued forward,the bullets ricocheting of its Tiberium shard armor.It grabbed another spear from its containment device ad flung it forward,killing the first militant before grabbing the other militant,Flinging her about before launching her into the high rise building.

Kaasim and the other two militants ran to no end,while calling for help.One militant grabbing her communication gear and requested for scorpion tank backup.It was granted,but they needed to reach it a couple of blocks down the road.she looked behind to see the Foreman catching up with them,its tiberium spear in hand.

Just ahead was the scorpion tank.They waved at it,hoping that the driver would help them as soon as possible.She looked back once more.The foreman was only a few of its strides away from them and gaining fast.The scorpion tank registered the foreman as an Extra terrestrial.the driver drove forward with a smile of his lips."finally i get to kill some of these aliens."

the foreman was close to stabbing the nearest militant when it suddenly saw the scorpion tanks light AP shell flying for it.the foreman jumped into the air and dodged the explosive by a few meters,leaving the cannon operator in shock and awe.the driver accepted the challenge.he commanded the cannon operator to constantly feed the cannon with shells as he went wild with blood lust.Cannon shells were released at a constant pace,only to miss as the Foreman expertly evaded shot after shot.Kaasim watched as the scorpion tank missed time and time again against the invincible alien.

the driver got wiser and placed a single shot to send the foreman jumping to evade it.He then aimed the next shot at where it would land."You die now bastard"

The Foreman jumped to evade the first shot and was about to land when it realized that a second shot a been fired at it.It landed and tried to dodge but the shell was too close.the foreman closed its eyes and quickly the tiberium shard armor did its work.the thousands of shards began flipping and overlapping into a thick plate at the foreman's chest while another layer formed on its face,protecting its face.The shell collided with the armored plate and led to a huge explosion.the driver watched the spectacle and laughed as he watched the shell hit the foreman.the smoke covered the Foreman as the armored plate flipped back out and slid around its body to form its armor once more.It readied its spear as the smoke began to clear.It had found its next prey.

the scorpion tank driver watched the smoke clear to be fearful at what he saw.Not only had the Foreman not been killed but it was also moving towards him at an exponential rate with its spear already prepared.Frantically,he shot another shell at the foreman,only for it to dodge it and continue reaching for the tank.

Kaasim watched as the Foreman ran to the tank and knew for a certain fact that it was doomed.He and the other two militants ran around the corner and hid,while peeping through a hole to watch the spectacle.Shocked,they watched as the foreman tore through the layer of armor encasing the scorpion tank,followed by numerous punctures in the Scorpion tanks armor as the tiberium spear jabbed through it and lastly the foreman jumping back out with the cannon operator and driver in either hand,before throwing them onto the ground and continuing on its way.Kaasim and the other militants then continued on their way,wary of making any noise so as to avoid another encounter with the Foreman.

chapter 7

2008-12-07T14:45:00.002+08:00

September 20, 2047, Blue Zone City, Beijing, Asian GDI main ops base (under attack), 1315

'Where's that backup?'
'where's GDI when you need them?'
'Ahhh my arms' blown off!'
'oh God, save me!'
'**** this aliens!'
'MEDIC! We need a MEDIC!'
'We need help over at district 17b.'
'There's plasma all over the place!'
'Get the refugees outta there!'
'Sir the place is overrun!'
'Taste lead you alien bastards!'
'Come on men!'
'Retreat!'
'ARGH! My leg! ****!'

Petty officer Kirk heard all of those over the radio transmitter from all over Beijing. He furrowed his thick dark brow, his face tightening and showing its sharp curves to the men around him. He stood at an impressive 2 meters, towering over his fellow comrades. He stepped forward, his black military-grade boots completely coated with grime and scrin blood with his GD-2 by his side. Behind him trailed his platoon with ten battle-hardened riflemen, a machine gun crew, a missile crew and two grenadiers. The platoon of men propped themselves against the many pillars of the building that they hid in.

The grenadiers tossed grenades to the riflemen, who immediately clipped them onto the utility belts by their waists. The grenadiers knew full well that their officer would make sure that they sat the battle out. Kirk had never really liked grenadiers, often believing that they were redundant since riflemen already carried grenades and they could not possible draw out three out of every ten men to become grenadiers, and with their excessive loads, the grenadiers would serve as nothing more than riflemen that would slow them down. One grenadier took another grenade from the dispenser and checked the ammo count. His wrist displayed a large 23 on the screen. Running low already? He tossed the grenade over to Kirk who accepted it and clipped it onto his belt. He raised his hand in a simple gesture. The other riflemen immediately nodded and spread out, moving towards the many windows or openings in the building, using nearby debris to form makeshift enfilades.

'Sir, we have secured the area.'

'good,' Kirk replied, 'we better be ready when those bugs come get us.'

'Understood sir,' the corporal said and went on with his duties.

'Where's the machine gun crew captain?' Kirk asked, looking around to see the crew missing.

The riflemen gestured to the makeshift enfilade at a large hole in the building to the west. He nodded thanks and walked towards them. He found them lying down, their eyes fixed on the outside of the building. He squatted low and looked out of the hole to see an empty street. Assured that there was no alien presence incoming, he stood and walked away. Suddenly a voice screamed over the comm channel.

'WE'VE GOT BUGS!'

He wheeled around to see half of the riflemen firing from their locations at the street opposite their position. The machine gun then fired in unison, the cacophony echoing in the building, making Kirk's ears ring. He ran to the closest rifleman, who immediately shifted slightly to accommodate Kirk's firing space. He looked out the broken window to see a swarm of alien Disintigrators and Ravagers approaching them, some of them emanating shrill cries as they made their advance, only to be mowed down by the machine gun supported by the other GD-2s. He then ordered all the men to spray their bullets in the direction of the Disintigrators. Kirk aimed his GD-2 at their legs and sprayed a long sweeping stroke, firing all the thirty bullets at the aliens' legs. That, along with concentrated fire, effectively crippled ten Disintegrators and Ravages while killing most of them.

A sudden sound roared. Kirk looked beyond the horde to see a gigantic millipede-like creature approaching them, its multiple layers of layered skeletal plating striking one another as it swerved left and right, approaching them at a sluggish yet alarming pace. Kirk yelled over the comm channel, 'Tankbusters to the second level. Take out that big bug!'

The missile crew blinked their acknowledgment lights on Kirk's HUD display and immediately clambered up the stairs, lugging the rocket launcher and ammo. They positioned themselves at a window, which provided them with a vantage point that overlooked the entire battle just below them. They set up the rocket turrets, and the second man loaded the rocket and armed the missile. He rapped the rocket launcher's launch tube once, signaling that it was armed and primed, then dived for cover. The other man grabbed the rocket launcher's handles and took aim. He launched the explosive, releasing a huge plume of smoke in its wake. The explosive flew true and collided with the millipede-like creature, otherwise known as Mechapede.

Kirk heard the thunderous sound of the rocket firing as it continued to echo in the building. He then saw the plume of smoke billowing from the area of impact. He then took a closer look to assure himself that the Mechapede was pulverised, then recoiled when he realized that the Mechapede had thrown a forcefield around itself, rendering it nearly impregnable. He squinted his eyes to briefly make out a silvery screen that blanketed the Mechapede before it winked out of existence.

'Men, concentrate all fire on that damn bug! It better not live to reach the subway Station!'

Only half of the platoon answered, much to his bewilderment. He scanned the rest of the men's posts, only to find them smoking with green crystals creeping over the areas. He ran to his grenadiers. One of them were killed, the other dashing to a GD-2 lying on the ground. He grabbed the grenadier yelling, 'Now get over there and kick some ass!'

The grenadier nodded and grabbed the rifle, it feeling extremely light after having to carry the grenade pack all over the place. He slapped a fresh ammunition clip into the rifle and cocked it, firing a quick burst of bullets, immediately killing a small group of three Disintegrators, sending them crashing onto the asphalt. Kirk ran to the machine gun crew to see the gunner still shooting while the ammo feeder was wounded with a deep gash on the leg and a third degree burn, screaming at the top of his lungs as the blood caked up at the gaping wound.

The Mechapede crawled ever closer, firing plasma discs and Tiberium shards at the rest of Kirk's men, supported by Ravages and Disintigrators that were marching forward, seemingly indifferent to the battle.

He fed ammunition to the machine gun, then fired a long fresh clip of bullets at the alien Disintegrators from his own GD2, some missing to hit the Mechapede, only to ricochet off its shield barrier and hit the surrounding buildings. He slapped another clip into the assault rifle and cocked it. To his disgust, the feeder jammed and the GD-2 malfunctioned. He tossed it aside and withdrew his pistol, firing all the rounds at the oncoming Mechapede while his other hand reached down to grab another magazine. He flicked a switch and instantaneously, the magazine slid out of the chamber, only to be replaced by another fresh clip. Kirk fired again at the Mechapede to no apparent avail. He swore under his labored breathing and primed a grenade, tossing it over the enfilade and peered through the hole to see the alien infantry lines finally thinning followed by a resounding boom, flinging assorted aliens all over the place.

He looked out to see the field before them littered with hundreds of alien carcasses with a sickly green liquid pooling around the corpses. Ahead he saw the Mechapede dishing out many squirts of the exact same liquid from two points at different sections of its armor. The Disintegrators lying on the ground suddenly sprang to back life, its limbs suddenly repairing at an ultra fast rate. He saw limbs that had been shot off reforming at the stumps of the creature's legs. Fallen Ravagers also reformed and stood, except a few, so wounded they were unrecognisable. He stared in disbelief. The gunner fired yet again, this time, the Mechapede, seemingly agitated, had gone ahead of the horde and shielded them from the incoming fire. The grenadier primed grenade after grenade, lobbing them over the enfilade and out at the Mechapede, strangely penetrating the shield and landing against the side of the Mechapede. It exploded within the shield, concentrating all the pressure within the barrier. The Mechapede led out a shrill, ear-splitting screech as numerous sections of its armor was incinerated. The green black liquid suddenly poured out from the two points over the injured segments of the creature, it writhed from pain. It subsided and Kirk watched, flabbergasted as the segments that were rent open suddenly were sewn back together to form its original form,completely unscathed from what had just happened.

They continued to lay fire on the gigantic Mechapede,only to bounce off the invisible barrier that protected the creature.Small slits opened slightly from the sides of the Mechapede, showing off a long row of what seemed like gills.Heat ripple along the sides of the slits as they began to glow a distinct white hue.Not good.He ran away from the hole in the building,followed closely by the gunner and the survivors.He counted his men to see two riflemen,the grenadier,the gunner and one of the missile crew.He brought them to the furthest end of the building and ordered them to blow a hole in the wall for them to get out.As they set up the charges,Kirk felt a distinct change in the temperature.It seemed extremely hot all of a sudden.He looked at the far wall,the sweat that built up on his brow dripping down and entered his eyes,obscuring his vision.The wall seemed normal at first,but then he began to see small red spots appearing on the wall.The dots enlarged tremendously and as they continued,the wall seemed to soften up slightly.Kirk registered the sight and yelled,"hurry up on those charges!they're melting the entire damn building.

"sir the heat's fusing the wires!"replied the soldiers.

Kirk wheeled around at the soldiers and fired a shot at the bomb.The bomb exploded as the hot lead smashed into the explosive contents within the bomb.The other soldiers did not react in time but managed to evade most of the blast.a rifleman shook with fear as he realized that his leg was lodged under a large chunk of the wall,bending the limb in an obscure angle.He screamed in pain as the bones in his shattered leg began to tear his skin and from the intense heat that had suddenly accumulated around them.Kirk looked around to see the wall eroding away.He looked even closer to notice a white line appear.He aimed his rifle to realize that it was too late.the plasma disc flew to them and collided with the grenadiers backpack,igniting all the grenades.

"Ru..."Yelled Kirk,but it was too late.

The intense shock from the following explosions flung the squad around the room.Kirk could not breathe.He looked around him as if the world around him was alien to him.He gazed at the Mechapede's thick armored legs followed by the layered bio-metallic armor.His vision blurred as he prepared to pass onto the next life.The last thing that he could see was the Mechapede slowly moving like a snake towards its next location.the subway station.The Petty officer drifted off into a deep sleep as the Mechapede slithered its way towards its objective.one that he would not expect to wake up from............................

***

Conner led the other men to the entrance of the Subway station.They got out of the pitbull when Harding yelled at the top of his voice,"Conner!We've got some big company!"

Conner wheeled around and boosted the magnification on his helmet to x2.He saw the Mechapede slithering its way towards them at a fast pace.He quickly aimed his GD-7 and fired at the creature.The others followed suit shortly after.Harding set his hands on the machine gun once more and with a resounding click,he began releasing hundreds of bullets through the air to the Mechapede.It continued its motion to the subway,undeterred by their attempt to halt it.Conner,in unison with Pierce and the Specforce trooper,morphed their GD-7as into the 7B and began trailing the Mechapede,painting the front of the Mechapede with their laser designators.Their beams fired and raced to the Mechapede,only to stop dead in their tracks by the sheer power of the Mechapede's superior shield systems.Conner gave a yelp"This thing is too strong!We have to get outta here!"

Plasma discs flew at them in a volley and twice as relentless.the Spec force trooper was knocked back by two plasma discs to the chest.He looked at General pierce with whatever strength he could muster.General pierce looked back and gave a gruff grunt.The Spec force trooper died then and there,his GD-7 ruptured and melting by his side.

the Mechapede continued to advance towards them,undaunted by the resistance put up by the soldiers that stood in its path and the refugees.

Conner turned around and yelled,"Guys,seriously we have to get the hell outta here!"

General pierce first left with Avery guarding him,followed by Harding as plasma began to turn the pitbull into melting slag.Conner and James followed closely behind,both of them lagging behind to scavenge whatever remaining equipment and ammunition they could.Conner took aim for the last time and fired a beam of energy at the advancing Mechapede to no avail and ran back into the subway station.The Mechapede turned its long body frame to the entrance of the subway station.It began wriggling its way into the station,its side scraping against the many walls.A piercing screech echoed through the subway station,reaching the ears of the many riflemen and civilians alike,sending the lot of them running in a panic.

"ah!what'll we do?!"
"you brought us here to die!"
"We're doomed!"
"People!we are going to make it out of here!Trust these soldiers!"
"What good would it do!?The aliens are at our doorstep!"
"Help us!"

Conner stood above the other riflemen who attempted to quell the ensuing panic.He tapped into the other rifleman's helmets and began to broadcast

"People!Settle down.We'll all get out of this safely.Now can all able-bodied people please gather weapons and food from wherever in the station you can reach.We're getting out of here.Will the women and Children please head to that area over there and have someone take census?Everybody Calm down."

The crowd wouldn't listen and continued on their panic-stricken frenzy.The walls of the subway station shook yet again,causing the civilians to scream once more.General Pierce could not take anymore and stood on a platform and used Conner's helmet to transmit another message.

"People!will you all please listen to this officer?I understand that you all may have your differences and may not think that he is a capable officer to lead us but i want you all to know that he may well be the best we've got and he currently the only one who's willing to get us out of here.Can i have some cooperation?"

Upon hearing the General's words,the crowds began to calm themselves.Conner watched silently as the noise died down and he stood there,staring at the mass of more than six hundred civilians all with shock,fear and despair in their eyes.He then began the broadcast,"People!These creatures will swarm into this area sooner or later,now i want all able-bodied men to take up arms and the others to look for any useful supplies in this station.The stores in here should have something.Will the women and children please all gather at the corner and someone do a headcount?Quickly!I do not know how long this building will last.Soldiers come with me."

The crowd dispersed to their task,except a few who were plain stubborn.Conner walked up to them,staring at their faces to see definite defiance and unimpressed.The group of men walked up to Conner."What gives you the right to lead us around huh?Did we ask you to lead us?Why do you have to be such a busybody?!"Said the men.Conner heard other comments from the group of men,then spoke clearly,"there is a difference between you leading them and me leading them.If i did, I would get most of their cooperation,but if you led them,they would still be in trouble.you did not try to lead them just now,what makes you think that you will now?"

The men,taken aback by the sharp retort,cowed down and just followed his orders,leaving the last man facing Conner.Their eyes met,locking in on either person.The man glared at Conner,hatred and rage overflowing from his being.His glare softened slightly,in comparison to Conner's endlessly crossed face.He backed off and walked off to the other men,leaving Conner to himself.In Conner's imagination,he thought that he could see that the hatred and rage still lingered in the air that the man had been not too long ago.Conner shrugged it off and rejoined the rest of the riflemen guarding the entrance.

Chapter 6

2008-12-06T23:20:00.000+08:00

September 20, 2047, Blue Zone City, Beijing, Asian GDI main ops base, 1257hrs...

Corporal Harrison ducked behind the wreckage of an office building which had collapsed along with the whole avenue. Portholes marked the area where GDI tank shells had impacted, in a brave attempt to halt the Scrin progress, and their success was unknown, most probably non-existent. The other civilians trailed behind him, with Sandra leading the rear. He peered over the side of the debris to see a Shard Walker with its bulbous head pointed at the sky. The Shard Walker seemed strange among the other creatures that he had seen. Instead of being either thin and scrawny or big and bulbous, it was rather a bit of both. The front of the Shard Walker was similar to a stick insect, it was completely thin and almost skeletal. The gun stuck out of the creature's head, just in front of the six legs which it moved on. Its back carried a large clump of Tiberium shards. It fired a shard of Tiberium into the sky. Harrison followed it and watched it impact against an Orca Gunship, puncturing an engine. Another three bolts flew into the air and pulverized the Orca Gunship completely, its smoldering shell crashing to the ground. Harrison looked around for an alternative weapon to battle the creature. His hopes rose as he saw an FGM 90 rocket launcher lying on the ground not too far away, lying in the hand of a dead GDI soldier., along with his/her squad mates.

He squatted low and placed his rifle on the ground. He sprinted forward, not noticing the Shard Walker had already caught drift of what was happening until he was right in the middle of the road. He ran for his life, narrowly avoiding shards of glittering Tiberium as they whizzed past him. He hit the ground and skidded across, dodging another deadly volley of Tiberium. Hefting the FGM, he loaded its only rocket, which was lying alongside the soldier, in and armed it. The trigger pulled back. A giant plume of smoke shrouded Harrison as the missile streaked forward, its tip headed straight for the alien creature. It hit the Shard Walker, puncturing its weak frame and exploding, the impact splitting the alien vehicle in two. As the smoke and dust cleared, he saw the mangled body of the Shard Walker, its thin skeletal front snapped in two with hints of Tiberium creeping out and the Tiberium on its back shattered. Green slime outlined the carcass. Harrison's stomach lurched slightly from the horrid sight, but it was quickly dismissed. Sandra walked up, her sub-machine gun in hand wary for any more enemies. They were not too far from the subway station. Harrison scouted ahead while Sandra stayed behind to look after the fourteen people that stood slightly stunned at the sight. Harrison crossed the street and went to the four-way junction. He peered over the side and looked to see the subway station heavily guarded by GDI units with their assorted weapons at the ready, the missile squads scattered across the place behind debris and other tanks with their rocket launchers primed and Zone troopers which all stood a head taller than the rest stood at the entrances, their single-shot railguns primed and ready to fire. Each one of them were covered in massive suits which protected them from the harmful effects of Tiberium, but in this case their helmet screens were collapsed as they were still in a Tiberium free zone and the need for greater visibility arose. Harrison stepped out and waved his hand. Three riflemen answered his signal with raised rifles. Harrison shouted across the street, "Fourteen refugees! We need backup!"

The riflemen nodded in acknowledgment and immediately sent in eight men to cover them. Harrison walked back with the eight men and headed towards the civilians. They extracted the refugees and began to head back to the subway station. Two led the way while the rest brought up the rear in case of unexpected surprises. The law of expectancy answered. Just beyond the next junction, a group of Ravagers appeared, backed up by the much bulkier Shock Troopers. They noted the small convoy of humans and opened fire, launching Tiberium shards and plasma discs at the fleeing group. Harrison turned around and sprayed multiple bursts of lead at them, but their attack did not waver. The other riflemen soon joined him, the four of them fired in turns, maintaining suppressive fire throughout. But their fire met a dead end. Buzzers appeared from the insectoid horde and created a barrier in front of the others, sacrificing themselves as shields. They lobbed a couple of grenades over, and took advantage of the situation, sending the group a few metres on. The resounding roar of the grenades were heard throughout, along with smoke. The smoke cleared, revealing a silvery metallic surface moving ever closer towards them. The soldiers panicked. They all fell back, and the refugees were went into the building. Harrison ran to the missile squads and relieved them of their weapon.He rushed back to see the wall moving even closer now.He did not bother to aim.He pulled the trigger and launched the rocket.The missile streaked through the enclosed air and smashed into the buzzer wall.It exploded and hundreds upon hundreds of fragments exploded and sent the buzzer knives flying around.Harrison stared as the wall began to repair itself as more buzzers came into view and filled up the places where the other buzzers left opened while others reinforced the wall.

Harrison grabbed another rocket and fired it yet again.The second one he aimed at the ground in front of them.It collided with the ground,sending fragments and debris into the air,hitting the buzzer wall.The wall was instantly torn apart from all the chunks of the road that were flung at them.Harrison had not time to celebrate.He suddenly felt a painful sensation in his leg.He looked down to see a buzzer knife embedded in his thigh,apparently puncturing his armor.He instantly remembered something that pierced him as badly as the knife did.There are Tiberium spewing critters right in front of you followed closely by bugs that you will never want to meet again.RUN!Harrison's subconsciousness forced him to ignore the knife,spin around and race for the Subway station.As he ran,he felt something warm trickld down his pant leg.He looked to see blood flowing out of his wound.He slowed his pace down.He passed the GDI defense line and joined the rest of the refugees.Among them was a GDI field medic.With whatever energy he could muster,he hobbled to the medic,keeping himself up with his GD-2.The medic saw it and processed it.She instantly set him down and injected a packet of morphine into him.Harrison felt a numbing pleasure as the opium began to take effect on his senses.The medic asked him"Are you feeling okay soldier?"He didn't reply,his mind drifting from the pleasure that he felt all of a sudden.The medic kicked him in the thigh,but he did not notice anything more than a tingling vibration in his body.She waited for a reply,but he gave none.

She took it that it worked and began to remove the blade from his thigh.she tugged at it,straining the whole time, but the blade mostly remained lodged in its position.She attempted again.The blade was yanked free from Harrison's thigh at last,without having to apply more morphine.The medic tossed the blade into a corner and began to pour the Beta serum onto the incision.She wrapped it up with a bandage and walked away,leaving Harrison in his dream-like state.As Harrison began to come back from his delirium,Sandra walked to him and sat by his side.

Outside the Subway station,the defense line began to waver.Missiles streaked across the open air along with the scattering bullets and the large white luminescent discs that destroyed everything that they came in contact with.One man,Kirovski,fired his GD-2 and effectively felled a couple of ravagers who had crawled over a zone trooper who did not dodge a hail of plasma in time.He ran straight at another advancing disintegrater and smashed the butt of his rifle at its plasma cutter.It let out a screech in pain and looked back at Kirovski to see him spray a burst of lead at it.It collapsed momentarily.Kirovski continued to blast more disintegraters when he saw two men rushing towards them followed closely by a Pitbull.He noticed that they were all strafing.Machine gun fire sprayed from the pitbull.Something is wrong.Very Very wrong.

Conner urged James to stop the Pitbull,which he did and in turn sent the Pitbull skidding across the road and the momentum sending it smashing into the postbox.Letters flew in random directions as the post box erupted from the sudden crash which left it mangled at the roadside.Conner jumped out of the Pitbull with his GD-7 already raised and primed in its GD-7b state.He aimed it at a nearby Scrin vehicle;A seeker.The seeker,alerted of their presence turned around,revealing its slender body to Conner.The seeker floated two feet off the ground on what seemed to be gravity projectors and looked no different from the average computer mouse except that it was huge and the back of it did not slope down but curved to a point at the back and mounted near the end,was the plasma disc launcher that floated on a smaller projector.Heat waves rippled around the seeker as the alien vehicle prepared to fire a deadly barrage of plasma at the poor Steel talon infantry.The other soldiers did not take any time to hesitate.Harding Wheeled the machine gun to bear at the vehicle and peppered its sides with long sprays of machine gun fire,the machine guns three barrels spinning wildly with the rhythm.Avery stood up and rested himself on the pitbulls frame,bracing himself for the imminent recoil.He pumped all the rounds from his shotgun hastily,the recoil practically throwing him out of the Pitbull.

Conner aimed the laser targeting scope at the seeker and fired.A Long thin blue beam lanced forward at the seeker.It touched the seeker.The seekers armor rippled slightly and shimmered silver.The silver shielding covered the entire seeker for a moment before converging on the beams target point.The small circle then started to flicker and falter.It wavered from the intense shock and flickered off.The beam pierced through the seeker with ease,sending the seeker collapsing onto the ground.The carcass of the seeker then erupted in flames.Smoke billowed from the seeker and rose high into the sky.Conner looked up to see many of such pillars of smoke rising,all forming an enormous cloud of blackness above Beijing itself.

Conner looked at the radar screen on the Pitbull.The subway station was no more than a couple of blocks away from away.They sped off,driving towards the subway station,wary for anymore Scrin creatures.They made a sharp 90 degree turn into another junction to see three cars turned over with men taking cover and firing from open spaces while disintegraters worked hard to slice through the car plates.James floored the accelerator and sent the pitbull rushing forward.Harding slammed the trigger and sent the bullets racing towards the aliens.It tore through the aliens without remorse,rupturing their frail exoskeletons.The Pitbull halted in front of the overturned pseudo-barricade.Conner got out,his GD-7 by his side.He looked at the main hole where he found another GD-7 pointed directly at him.He stepped around the side of the barricade and looked in to see A specforce trooper looking back at him,his GD-7 at the ready.general Pierce stood right behind him clad in specforce armor as well.

"What happened to the other specforce trooper?"Conner asked,bewildered

"cut down by plasma to the head."

Conner 's stomach lurched on the mental image of the specforce trooper's head being blasted off.He shrugged and dismissed it."We have to get you to safety sir."

"Well i have no complaints.Lead the way trooper."

"Sir,yes sir."

Conner walked back out with General Pierce and the other Specforce trooper.He looked back at the pitbull to find James away from the driver's seat and kicking over a shock trooper's shell.He then retrieved a GD-5 from the ground and looked further ahead to see a mangled body of a sniper and his spotter.James stepped toward the sniper and policed his ammunition and walked back to the Pitbull.General pierce got into the pitbull and positioned himself in a manner where he could fire out properly,his legs almost sticking out of the pitbull itself.Conner and the other specforce trooper went ahead as scouts,moving gingerly and swiftly amongst the wreckage and debris.

Conner continued and observed the tactical map on his helmet HUD.They were almost there.He looked at the subway station that was not too far ahead of them.He saw the defense line crumbling with the shock troopers slaughtering GDI riflemen and the Zone troopers putting up a futile effort to hold back the assault with their already dwindling numbers.Conner then twitched.He heard this one sound which urged him on impulse to turn around and look at the producer of the sound.He turned and looked at a group of shard walkers approaching him,their long spike-like noses jabbing at the air above them.James jammed the pitbull forward while Harding fired a long stream of bullets at the pursuing creatures.A shard walker collapsed on the ground,half its legs hewed off by the onslaught of lead.It landed on the asphalt with a loud thud,the shards on its rear cracking and shattering,hundreds of shards flying off in random directions and piercing through surfaces.

Conner spun around,followed shortly by the spec force trooper.They released an onslaught of railgun shots at the incoming attackers.another two collapsed from the constant fire,dark green blood pooling from the holes that covered them.Conner ran ahead,the pitbull and the specforce trooper slowly gaining on him.He looked from the top of a slope and saw the subway station just dead ahead.He observed the surroundings to see a defense line that comprised of no more than twenty police officers and riflemen,a handful of zone troopers and a squad of missile troopers with one man suddenly running to them with an FGM 90 with him.Then he saw the Scrin units attacking the defense line around it.He watched as his comrades collapsed before his eyes.he switched to his GD-7c.He shouldered the sniper rifle and took aim at the scrin invaders.The targeting scope zoomed in but he could not get a clear shot.frankly the zone troopers were blocking them.He jumped as he suddenly felt heat rushing over his shoulder,only to realise that a bolt of plasma had just fown past his ear.

He wheeled around and took aim with the sniper rifle.Not wasting any time,he fired the slug at the shard walker and sent it to the asphalt.He tapped the 7a and continued down the road.The others followed suit and went down the slope.But what they did not note was the horde of Shard walkers still behind them that were gaining.Conner turned around and fired a burst of railgun shots at the first shard walker he saw,turning around once in awhile to keep his footing.A shard walker screeched in pain but then returned to normal and began spouting volleys of tiberium at the retreating soldiers.the specforce trooper followed suit and released a hail of railgun slugs at the enemy walkers as they continued their pursuit.

Conner and the spec force trooper began strafing and continued to fire at the walkers with the pitbull following not too far away.

Sandra rushed up the stairs to the entrance of the subway station to see the garrison in tatters.a dozen mangled bodies lay on the ground,ripped,gutted or completely disintegrated.zone troopers were what took the bulk of the survivors,there being no more than six survivors and half of them being zone troopers with ruptured armor.They stumbled into the entrance,injured from the brawl outside.Sandra pressed herself uncomfortably against the side of the door.she looked out of the door to see one last man crawling towards the entrance,oblivious to the rest of the scrin insectoids that were preparing to jump him.She could not bear it.A ravager approached him with deadly silence.Its legs lowered as it prepared to leap on its prey.She jumped out of the shadows and killed the ravager,its mangled body ripped to shreds from the attack.The man,dumbstruck by what had just transpired,scurried with his GD-2 in hand and entered the entrance, tossing Sandra his rifle and ammo clips while she passed him her Gd-3.She cocked the rifle once,removed the magazine and slammed a fresh clip in.the cocked the weapon one last time and with a resounding clank! she released a spray of bullets at the insects.two disintegrators were immediately downed by the onslaught followed by another,the bullets sweeping low and crippling its limbs.She slammed another clip in an fired with wild abandon.More and more scrin insectoids collapsed.Suddenly,a shard walker approached the entrance and fired a volley of tiberium shards at sandra.She ducked as she watched the shards go through the space that she had occupied not too long ago.

Chapter 5

2008-12-05T13:50:00.001+08:00

September 20, 2047, Blue Zone City, Beijing, Asian GDI main ops base, 1349 hours......

Sandra walked to the soldier, pulling off her helmet at the same time. As it came off, she felt the warm sensational Asian sun on her skin. Her blond hair swayed in the mild breeze, glittering in the light of the sun which was now high above them, gazing down on the half-intact city. She held her helmet under her arm, with the GD-3 in her other hand.

'What are you doing here? You can't possibly be the backup I asked for?'

'Well ... sorry to disappoint you. I got orders from HQ, but it came too late. Hey, I am surprised to see you here. I thought you are supposed to be with a Predator crew in west Beijing?'

'We,' she gestured at the two other civilians, 'ran into some trouble. And no, I am disappointed only because one came, and he is not really something. What happened to the rest of your platoon, Harry? Got them all killed again?'

He ignored her mild verbal abuse but caught the second last sentence, something he had heard countless times. Anger surged in Harrison's body. The tragic past occurrence which eclipsed all his achievements in a cloak of shame came to mind again. He clenched his fist, pouring all of his anger and hatred into it. He stopped in his tracks as the memory flashed before his eyes...

April 4th 2047, Yellow zone Y1, Temple Prime, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1456 hrs....

Dull rapid thumps sounded as Juggernauts released their ammunition on the Nod base surrounding Temple Prime. GDI units rolled into the base through various entrances. In retaliation, swarms of Nod militants, tanks and other assorted units charged towards the GDI battalions. GDI had the tactical advantage of higher ground. Their infantry were at the entrance, with tanks fast approaching the entrances which sloped into the base. They targeted the Nod militants and unleashed hell on them, which was the way all Nod soldiers were going. Thousands of bullets and projectiles zipped through the sky, some at GDI troops, as hundreds of Riflemen and Rocket Squads fired their weapons at the defending Nod army. Lieutenant Harrison, positoned at the central entrance of the base, raised the Sniper division on his comm channel.

'Eagles, go in for the kill.'

'Affirmative, sir. Be there in five minutes.'

Bullets raced through the air and cut through hordes of incoming soldiers. The retaliating militia suddenly halted and began to retreat slowly. GDI troops pressed on, closely followed by the 3rd's tank division.

Black Hand troopers and Confessor Cabals led a charge, rallying the substandard militia against the enemy. The militia began to push forward again, with heavy losses sustained on both sides.

One Black Hand trooper stood a head taller than the others. His armor was painted crimson, silver and black, his cape red with the Black Hand insignia imprinted on it. Evidently, he was someone of high rank. He stood on a rock and yelled, 'For Nod, for the Messiah, for Tiberium!'

The GDI soldiers were repulsed by this, but the militants reacted with renewed vigor, charging mindlessly at the definitely elite GDI riflemen battalion positioned at the top of the slope. The Black Hand trooper leaped down, ran to the front lines, raised his flamethrower high, which showed the picture of a scorpion at its nozzle. He jabbed the weapon forward, sending the horde charging at the riflemen. They charged, only to get mowed down by the hail of bullets that ripped through the weak bulletproof vest that they wore. The Confessors curged the Militants to fire, which they responded by raising their 20th century chain guns at the riflemen and firing insanely. A dozen more riflemen dropped to the ground, dead, adding to the number of fallen. Suddenly a crackle sounded, followed by the clang of heavy metal on rock. The Confessors turned around to find their Black Hand leader dead with a sniper round in the head. The very same crackle was heard many times more, dropping Confessors and Black Hand troopers. Suddenly the Nod militia was encompassed in plumes of yellow smoke.

Gunfire was heard by the GDI riflemen, but none of the fire was directed at them. They watched as the Nod militants entered a frenzy from confusion and fear which the hallucinogenic grenades, courtesy of the Confessor Cabals who activated them in a last ditched attempt to disrupt GDI's ranks, induced, and began killing one another. What the Nod militants saw was vague shapes of both GDI and Nod infantry surrounding them. As the yellowish smoke cleared, what they saw were piles upon piles of dead militants, with a touch Confessor Cabals that tried to quell the riot. GDI armor had finally arrived and pushed through the Scorpion and Flame Tank brigade at the second entrance and the Juggernauts continued to pound the third entrance's militant defense line. They were behind schedule. Harrison led his men into the compound alongside APCs and Pitbulls as the rest of GDI's troops continued to press against the Nod infantry and tank line, wary of any enemy units. They turned the corner of a Nod Tiberium Refinery, leaving it for heavier firepower, skipping past a shimmering shape of a stealth Nod Harvester and the Tiberium crystals on the ground and in doing so bumped into a group of Confessors. Harrison pumped three rounds from his shotgun while one of his men sprayed a clip of sub machine gun fire. The soldiers collapsed, whittled by bullets. Overkill. From above, he heard the sound of Firehawk engines. They were coming down from the stratosphere. He ordered everyone to get down and take cover. They followed his orders as the Firehawks swooped down and released their surprises to the Nod base. Explosions took place all around the base, enough to shake Harrison and his platoon off their feet. They reoriented themselves as SAM sites released tiberium shatter missiles at the new arrivals and prepared for company. Harrison's helmet comm system beeped. He saw that he had been issued new orders. He was to go into this building which they identified as the Ministry of Science building. It was not too far from their position, but was heavily guarded. He was also ordered to discard his old mission, which was to destroy an Ion Disruption Field generator. He acknowledged and forwarded the message to his platoon and within moments, they were all headed to the GDI Forward Operations post deployed there by a Surveyor earlier on to gather their special equipment which had been airlifted to it. Quite ironically, it was behind their current position.

Half and hour later...

They made their way to the Ministry of Science building, slaughtering another three patrols of militants along the way. Harrison jabbed his shotgun forward and released a round, the recoil sending his arm back. The rounds were pumped into three militants, sending them all backwards with multiple holes in their bodies. The bodies collapsed onto the ground, freeing up the pathway straight to the building. A soldier by the name of Sergeant Sanderson brought up the rear with his GD-2 armed and ready. They passed a couple of Power Plants, which were upgraded with Tiberium cores. Harrison thought of the other five members of the platoon who had been killed by the Obelisks of Light which had in turn been destroyed by Mammoth 27s. The encounter was due to a careless maneuver by Harrison, who thought a short cut would be better than the designated route.

Harrison was about to burst into the main steel door of the designated structure when something made him hesitate. Doing extra in a war is the first step to a promotion. He gritted his teeth. He will get one.

'No, go to the closest Ion disruption Field generator.' He moved first, and was stopped by a very brave soldier.

'Sir, that is not our duty. We were even ordered to discard it. We shouldn't go.'

'Are you pulling my rank, soldier? I'm the CO here, so now listen and obey my orders! Insubordination is not something I would stand for.'

He went on alone, and to his immense relief his men followed, however reluctantly.

'This is for your good,' he added as an afterthought. Together they ran to the new designated building, putting down any Nod resistance. To his dismay, he saw that the Ion disruptor structure was heavily guarded by an assortment of Nod units, such as (as usual) militants, Fanatics, Nod Death Trucks and Beam Cannons. One Beam Cannon, a tiny four-wheeled vehicle with a slightly teardrop-shaped laser emitter that could turn 360 degrees, spotted them (along with the others) and charged a beam, the energy swirling above it and ripples of heat forming along the sides of the cannon itself. It then released it right in the middle of the squad, which dove for cover. Too late. Two men were vaporized instantly. Other units moved in their general direction. A Stealth Tank shimmered into visibility and launched two missiles that trailed green smoke and threw three of his comrades off their feet.

'Pull back!'

'Sir, I told you this was a bad idea-' one started.

'Shut up!'

Harrison used his helmet computer to plant a.

Seconds later, three Juggernaut shells impacted the Nod small army. A single burst really wasn't enough and only managed to kill six Nod soldiers, pulverise a Beam Cannon and smash the Stealth Tank to bits, but the shock knocked the Death Truck onto its side and it blew apart, increasing the damage dealt. The blast was felt even ten meters away where Harrison was standing.

The second truck exploded, bringing up two balls of orange fire that erupted within seconds and blazed, and a hell lot of shrapnel. The men slowly got up, and went over to the devastated area. Fire was still burning, and green tinges were everywhere. Harrison took out the five grenades that he had, save three, just in case.

'Give me your grenades.'

His men did so, and he chucked them at a wall, all unprimed save one, in a pile, and ran for cover. They detonated, tearing the half the wall off. His men fired bullets and slugs into the gaping hole, blind through the smoke. Another three Juggernaut shells whizzed forward, each eager to be first. The victor was rather undecided as they smashed into the exposed area of the structure. One evidently did something big, as a massive green-tinged explosion ripped apart half of what remained of the building. One of the Rifleman was sliced into two by a rather large piece of shrapnel, while another got hit by a Tiberium backwash. The liquid green substance instantly ate began eating away his armour. He collapsed in a pool of green slime, rapidly engulfed in liquid tiberium. Harrison and his men looked uncertainly at the mess.

'Sir, this is-'

'I know! Shut up,' he suggested. He was frustrated at his failed attempts to be deserving of a promotion. Still, it was not too late to complete his self-designated job.

Harrison ordered his men forward, at the same time utilising EVA to figure out what happened. Apparently, a liquid Tiberium core was detonated by a shell that punctured its casing. Its immense power was used to power the anti-ion field, but leaving it extremely volatile to direct hits from heavy weaponry. Then again, barely anything could withstand direct Juggernaut hits.

He rang the BC (Battle Commander). 'Sir, I have destroyed the central Ion Disruption field Generator.'

The reply came almost immediately. 'Ah, lieutenant Pearson - Harrison? Moron, I told you to go to the Ministry of Science building, and you, ignoring my orders, went to the IDFG. Didn't I tell you to discard that mission?' the BC sighed. 'Harrison, when the Ion cannon levels this base, be prepared for demotions and lots of profanity. Get back to your job.'

'Sir-' but the BC cut the link. His plan had backfired. Most of his men were dead, only due to recklessness. HIS recklessness! He deserved the demotions. He signalled at his men to follow him, not trusting his voice.

An hour later...

Harrison burst through the steel door he saw a couple of hours ago with the help of a grenade. His men fired in, and all Nod resistance was nullified. His men went in further, quelling any resistance. This place is massive, sergeant Sanderson thought.

'OK team, listen up,' Harrison spoke while gunning down a careless Nod soldier. 'We go to the main Nod science lab. There, gather everything without Tiberium, including info drives. Two guard the rest.'

Half the roof fell. His men ducked instinctively. A wall then collapsed, revealing a Mammoth Tank rolling over the debris.

'BC's orders,' the Mammoth Tank's PA system yelled. 'Relax. Get on with your job.'

Relieved, Harrison led his men down another corridor, smashing open doors to find any hiding Nod cowards. One particular door was what made all the difference, along with Harrison's carelessness. He riddled the lock with his shotgun, smashing it beyond repair and recognition.

None noticed the sign on the door: KEEP OUT MUTANT TEST IN PROGRESS, until Harrison's shoulder impacted the door.

'Sir! the sign!'

But it was too late. and They looked at the shadow to reveal an over-sized man clad in thick armor with spikes sticking out of his back. The being entered the hallway, revealing a man of Brobdingnagian proportions clad in black and crimson steel with Tiberium infused spikes on his back. The creature towered over them and stared at the half sized people below with blank and innocent eyes.He raised up his hand to their level and released a stream of fire from a small point in his armor.

Harrison and his men opened fire but the man remained unfazed. He raised his hand and fired a stream of flames at them,coating two men in fire,sending them running about in a frenzy.He grabbed the fallen soldier's rifle and fired with both of them.The lumbering giant then opened a hatch from his forearm, revealing a Tiberium shard launcher. Harrison knew that it would be trouble and instinctively fired twin burst of steel at the weapon,but the bullets merely caused a dent in the apparently harder metal.He noticed a small nook in the creatures armor.Just enough for a nice little grenade.Another three soldiers fell from the Tiberium shards. They were now left with three men. The situation was grave. Just where they were headed. Sergeant Sanderson saw the opening and made a dash towards the giant. He jumped up and unpinned a grenade, shoving it into the snug little nook in his shoulder plate. The creature growled as he prepared to release his volley of Tiberium at Sanderson when an explosion occurred at his left shoulder. The impact blew him at the right wall, knocking him out effectively.

Harrison tugged of the creature's helmet and fired a shotgun slug at point-blank range. The creature shuddered from the impact. They proceeded on mission,their numbers dwindling and rather shaken. Headquarters ordered to pull them back and get in a commando, but Harrison refused to comply and continued along the pathway, knowing full well that he would be punished for insubordination afterward, but he decided it was worth the risk.

After traveling through endlessly winding pathways of the hall, sloping upwards slowly but surely. They halted at a room labeled the mainframe core. They prepared themselves at either sides of the door while Harrison kicked the door open and lobbed his only grenade in. The grenade exploded. They heard screams of agony as the incendiary grenade burned through everything except computer units.The second grenade-a pressurized liquid nitrogen bomb-exploded in a high pressure burst,stopping the flames.They crept in with their weapons at the ready.All the bodies were lying on the ground,their skin sporting fresh third degree burns.The soldiers winced at the sight of the NOD soldiers that had been burnt that badly.At the side were two dead militants and a rocket trooper.Obviously their escort.The solders fanned out,walking to separate computer interfaces,taking out tiny bottles of liquid and pouring them on the flash frozen liquid nitrogen surfaces.The liquids began eating away the surfaces,leaving the surfaces untouched and ready for use.They each took out small devices,plugging them into the computer interfaces and immediately collecting information on NOD.

Sanderson out of curiosity opened a strange-looking file.It first showed nothing more than a file about GDI.he brushed it aside.the next one looked interesting,regarding a manta-ray like fighter.After skimming through the basic schematics and specifics,he placed it in the device.Then,he opened a third file and the screen became blank.He staggered and regained his footing.He looked again and a pale silvery face appeared before him.the entity spoke,its voice cold and emotionless,"What is your designation?Who authorized your opening of this file?"Sanderson stared in disbelief.The face disappeared and the screen turned black again.The face reappeared and spoke plainly"Awakened program initializing"Suddenly,the plating of the computer interface opened up and wires shot out and grabbed the two chain guns and the rocket launcher.Harrison beckoned the other riflemen out of the room.Sanderson stood in shock as the entity began manifesting itself in the many other computer interfaces to form a single body and fusing the chain guns and the rocket launcher to fashion a weapon.Sanderson came to his senses and ripped out the device,running straight out with his rifle still dangling by his side.

The entity stood up, the pistons in the metallic body pushing. It towered at two meters tall, its curving but thin frame partially exposed. Its 'head' hunched, the being walked out of the room to see the soldiers running through the hallway.

Harrison ran through the hallway,followed closely behind by Sanderson and the two remaining soldiers.They heard an awkward whirring sound,followed by the staccato of gunfire.Sanderson heard a grunt,and on impulse,turned around to see a man collapse with a bullet through his abdomen.The man grimaced in pain as blood began pouring from the hole in his back.the man then turned around to face the robotic being and fired his entire clip from the GD-2. The being having timed the bullets impact to the picoseconds,formed a layered shield around him by sliding the plates to converge on the area of impact. The bullets streaked and slammed into the shield before pinging off and ricocheting in different directions. The man dropped to the ground, motionless.

Harrison did not give a second glance,continuing down the gently sloping hallway.Sanderson turned around,his arms carrying the device still and looked at the robotic being.He thrust the device into his pack and withdrew his rifle.He sprayed a full burst at the robotic being.It shrugged it off as if the bullets were paper.It fired another burst from its twin chain guns.They ran around a corner in time to dodge the onslaught of lead.The soldiers quickened their pace in desperation.The entrance was merely a hundred meters away.two men stood at the entrance,their guns prepared to handle any problem.Sanderson realized something.those were Nod soldiers standing at the doorway waiting to ambush GDI soldiers who had unwittingly entered the building.Sanderson fired two successive bursts from his GD-2 and immediately sent the two soldiers to the ground.

Behind them,they heard the alarming sound of mechanical pistons pounding on the ground in a far quicker pace.The robotic being was running after them if running seemed possible.They turned around to see the shadow of the awakened charging at them.It gained distance on them.It fired a burst of bullets at them.They panicked slightly.Harrison and Sanderson got out the door.The last man hobbled behind,with a bullet wound in his leg.He panted as he strained himself to get out of the door and into GDI's safety.He felt a cold shiver crawl down his spine,only his time it felt too real.The cold shiver became a cold sliver,followed by a sudden jerk.He was lifted into the air.The man swung his arms in protest and hit a hard metallic surface.He looked at the screen.The pale silvery face stared at him and uttered,"Nod shall rise again.Prepare for ascension."The soldier heard the sound of gunshots and felt a numbing sensation.His eyes became cloudy and dark.He closed his eyes.

Sanderson ducked behind the bulk of a Mammoth tank that halted outside the building while Harrison in ran and hid in a corner.The Awakened robot stepped out of the door,its armor gleaming in the small rays of light that penetrated the thick clouds of smoke that lingered over the war torn base.Sanderson crouched behind the thick armor of the mammoth tank which had yet to register the incoming threat.He felt the heat of the mammoth tank radiating to him.He could not take it much longer.He turned around and shot right up,catching the attention of the robotic being. It stared at him with a blank cold stare.Sanderson spent a full clip in vain,firing all the ammunition at the being only for it to bounce off its converging shield.Sanderson resorted to the shredder rounds.He resorted to shredder rounds.The shredder rounds were slammed home and immediately the sound of a gun cocking was heard,followed momentarily by the sound of Sanderson's rifle firing while the metal plated improvised shield collapsed from the splitting rounds that penetrated it like water on paper.The robotic being struggled to keep its armor intact.plates began sliding back in an ill-fated attempt to protects its inner circuits.The partially ripped metal plates slid across hundreds of wires,but unbeknown to it,the sliced edges of the metal plates began to cut the wires of its slender frame.The being raised a metallic arm and fired a shot at Sanderson's position.

Sanderson was greeted with a slight sense of epiphany watching the seemingly indestructible robotic being finally fall,but as it raised an arm,Sanderson snapped back and prepared to finish it off.It fired a shot and sent a bullet racing through the air.Sanderson flt a moment of sudden pain and looked at his right shoulder to find the armor plate missing and a deep gash and broken bone located there.His senses caught up with him and sent him screaming in pain.The last thing he heard was the Awakened utter in its monotonous voice,"Awakened battlemech program deactivating,self destruct sequence initiated."He blacked blacked out from the excruciating pain the bullets had caused him.Harrison stared in disbelief as his last member of his platoon had nearly died just because of his own desire for glory.He called for a V-35 ox transport to retrieve the wounded soldier and walked back to the corpse of the other fallen soldier.He stared at the fallen body of his comrade,reflecting on whether he could have done something differently to have saved them all.He crouched down and collected the memory device from his pack and placed it in Sanderson's hand,dragging him off the road and to the main entrance of the building.Moments later,he heard the thunderous noise of the Ox's engines as they touched the ground.a team of paramedics rushed out and unfolded a stretcher,and placed him on it while checking his pulse and vital signs simultaneously.Harrison boarded the Ox transport and sat beside Sanderson,looking at the comrade that he might never see again.A scanner was placed over Sanderson and gave readouts on his status and designation.Harrison in the midst of it all approached one paramedic and asked,"Where will he be going afterward?"

"He will be sent back to Australia,sir"

"Carry on"

The paramedic began to grab tools and quickly removed the bullet shards that remained lodged in Sanderson's body.Harrison sat in solemn contemplation as they continued their operation.........

Chapter 4

2008-12-04T22:16:00.000+08:00

September 20, 2047, Blue Zone City, Beijing, Asian GDI main ops base, 0934hrs...

The other riflemen snapped to attention around him as Conner approached the wolverine. He glanced at them, gave them a salute before heading to the pilot, whose chute had deployed and had landed not too far away. He took the combat knife from one of the riflemen, stepped toward the pilots seat and ripped the parachute open. The pilot lay sprawled in his chair, unconscious. He checked the pilots vital signs. All clear, just knocked out. The group of vehicles came to a halt. A platoon of riflemen came out from the guardian APCs, guns at the ready and took aim. Behind them, two Pitbulls pulled up with their machine guns loaded and pointed at them. Conner beckoned for the men to put down their weapons. Harding put down his GD-2, Avery lowered his GD-4 at an angle where he could snap it back up in case. The other men and women followed suit. A predator tank appeared behind the APCs and halted, its 90mm main battle cannon aimed at the Wolverine. The hatch opened, and a man dressed in official uniform stepped out. His hair graying and neatly trimmed, with his hat straight. On his shoulder they saw two stars and the faint outline of the GDI Steel Talons symbol. General Pierce. He walked up to them, flanked by his personal bodyguards who were seasoned special forces units and excellent snipers, all armed with the experimental GD-7s as well. He raised his hand, signaling for the riflemen to stand down. Slowly the riflemen lowered their weapons, with just the slightest hint of hesitation. General Pierce walked to the wolverine,and spoke clearly, 'Who is the CO of this platoon?'

His voice commanded much respect. Harding approached him and replied, 'Sir, sergeant Conner Hunter is our CO, he's over there.'

As soon as Private Harding had mentioned Conner's name, general Pierce's eyes dilated. He walked briskly to Conner, leaving the Special Forces troopers behind. They stared at the survivors while general Pierce spoke to Conner until one of them leaned forward and asked Harding, 'Is this all that escaped the base since the ION storm?'

Harding replied briefly, 'I'm not sure, why?'

The Specforce trooper stepped back. He whispered to Harding, 'Tell ya later.'

Harding wondered what was it, but shook it off. Conner turned around from the pilots chair, and saw the soldiers point their rifles at the survivors, who had also pointed their firearms back at them. Next he saw a Predator Tank crawl forth and a man flanked by Steel Talons Specforce Troopers walked to them. He knew who the person was. The man walked to him. He stepped carefully not to trip over the parachute. He immediately snapped to attention and saluted the general. He returned the salute. The general said,with his voice clear, 'Well I'll be darned. You of all the soldiers in that damn base made it out alive.' ‘Sir, yes, sir...' Conner replied,with an obvious hint of confusion.

'What happened to everyone at the base? You guys are the only ones who got here after the ION storm?'

'Sir... the entire base and its personnel was destroyed by ... aliens sir.'

The seasoned general arched an eyebrow. Aliens? Could they really be invading west Y1? He knew aliens would attack the Yellows, but they did that only to gain foothold and harass GDI forces or increase tiberium level. Aliens invading this area should clear out soon, but then why approach a major city? They should be entering R4 next, but the Steel Talon base was in-between R4 and the city. It did not make sense. The eyebrow settled back down and the general's features became static once again. 'We'll discuss it in the APC.'

Conner nodded and walked with general Pierce to the APC, flanked by 2 Specforce Troopers, James, Harding and Avery. The survivors were also escorted by the Specforce troopers to other APCs and some to Pitbulls. James, Avery and Harding both walked with Conner to the APC. Within the APC, they all sat uneasily as the general spoke to Conner and the Specforce troopers stared at them, their GD-7s ready. Conner took off his helmet and showed general Pierce the automatic recording from his helmet cam. It showed the Shock Troopers and the Disintegrators that he killed when he rescued Harding and Avery. The general watched the video in shock when he saw the alien creatures and was even more impressed with Conner's daring and ability. He watched the clip of Conner jumping off the Dropship, an apparently insane suicidal move, grabbing onto the Stormrider and destroying it by himself. He switched off the video feed, commenting, 'Those were some moves that I don't even think my guys would do. You got guts I'll give you that. The idea about getting out of that Steel Talon base was quite good too, although we practically lost everyone else, and this recording of the aliens, we'll have to keep them in check.'

Conner gave a small grin, having gained the general's favor. Private Harding inched closer to the Specforce Trooper who asked him the strange question and whispered to him, 'Why'd you ask that question?'

The trooper turned his gaze to Harding and answered silently, 'My best friend was there. I did not want to leave him there. I had to follow orders and go with the first convoy. I did not see him among the second convoy. So this means ... he's dead.'

The soldier held in his feelings, not wanting anyone to know his sadness. The convoy crawled through the empty streets and into an underpass, heading to the GDI in-city base.

September 20, 2047, Blue Zone City, Beijing, North Asian GDI main ops base, 1146hrs...

Captain Wong stood in front of the screen. On it, he saw nothing wrong along the city. The police probes that were scattered around the city in place of security cameras showed no signs of problems. He walked out of his office and crossed the multiple corridors, through the gym, looking at GDI police corps troopers training themselves, some on punching bags, some on weights and some were sparring on the wrestling ring. He crossed another hallway and entered a gallery. He walked to the window. From there he looked down at the dozens of new recruits training underground at the gallery, some shooting targets, others taking fitness tests and some cleaning their GD-1 As. all of them getting shouted at by drill instructors. He watched as the recruits started their firing exercises. Soon, the entire room was echoing the sounds of gunshots as the rubber bullets tore through the paper printed bulls eye targets. He launched a probe and controlled it to zoom in on the targets. Among them, one had succeeded in landing full head shots on her entire clip. He thought to himself, 'We could use an officer like her.'

Suddenly the intercom blared, ‘Captain Wong, you are are needed at the control room.’ Class 5 emergency,' Captain Wong's eyes widened. Class 5 emergency? What could be that serious? He rushed past many officers, all of them stopping to salute him. For a man pushing sixty years, he was running like a man still in his prime. He burst into the control room still panting. The woman at the screen turned around and told him what happened. Captain Wong stared at the screen. On it he saw three small but growing energy anomalies. He immediately moved to the radio transmitter. He spoke over the microphone, 'All available units, get armed and loaded, get onto your patrol cycles and head to the following locations. The destinations will be programmed onto your cycle screens now.'

As he spoke, the woman typed furiously, sending the locations to selected patrol cycles.

Around the city, Patrol cycles answered the call and the sleek, two person motorcycles sped to their destinations, one man sitting down on the lowered padded cycle seat controlling the patrol cycle, a tough job as that position causes frequent muscle cramps, while the other behind him sits in a lightweight circular pod that acts as both a turret and a defensive barrier that covers the him to his mid torso. He would sit on a small rotating platform that gave him a full 360 degree firing area. The patrol cycles zoomed to their respective locations, expertly maneuvering out of traffic without slowing. The officers approached the first location.

A dozen of them surrounded a rundown warehouse. They entered it from many locations. Four entered from the roof, walking across a steel bar that was all that was left of the skeleton of the roof section to the walkway just across, three knocked down a back door and the last five just blowing a hole in the wall and entering. The officers stared in amazement and shock at a purple sphere easily half the height of the warehouse ceiling, which was three stories high. Another two entered, hiding behind opened crates. A wise move. They aimed their GD-1As at the sphere as though it were a living creature. It began to pulsate and increase in size. Energy crackled and escaped, arcing in many directions, disintegrating whatever was within proximity. Those on the roof climbed down hastily by a fire escape conveniently placed at the end of the walkway. The last group went in from the main entrance which was left unopened. They cautiously joined the others, and at the same time, all the officers took out their GD-1As and began loading stun rounds. The first officer moved closer to the entity. Energy crackled loudly as he stepped closer, though not because of his presence. It moved near him but did not touch him. He walked cautiously to the purple entity as though in a daze. He was now only an arms length from the orb. He moved his hand forward and went ahead to touch the orb, ignoring his comrade's advice that he get away immediately. Just before his hand touched the orb, a wave of energy burst from the orb, sending him flying backwards. The other officers took cover, only to get knocked back as well. From the orb, A giant leg appeared, followed by another three more. Shock Troopers. They scanned the area for any human presence, but was quite unnecessary as some were already screaming, running away from the aliens. The other officers quickly took cover behind the crates in the shadows and fired their weapons, unleashing a barrage of stun rounds. But the rounds merely bounced off their hard exoskeletons. They retaliated, sending a wave of deadly plasma at group. The crates melted under the onslaught and the officers followed. One Shock Trooper suddenly collapsed from the stun rounds after getting hit in the unarmoured section that went from front to back in between the armoured exoskeletal plates one too many times. Without much hesitation, they switched to live rounds. Still hidden by the crates, they began to fire, bringing down another two shock troopers. The aliens fired again, sending plasma discs in every direction, melting crates and killing two other officers. The survivors retreated, sprinting the the nearest exit and to their patrol cycles.

Within their patrol cycles were compartments with GD-2s with stun rounds and live ammunition. Four men made it out before a Shock Trooper 'appeared' in front of the entrance, blocking two officers, who brought it down with three shots in the narrow vulnerable opening through which the plasma discs were expelled, and they suddenly fell, crushed under the weight of the large alien creature who teleported over them.

The sphere grew even larger. A Corrupter stepped out of it and began spraying the building with acidic black-green slime, melting the warehouse away. The officers on the walkway above the Corrupter ran for their lives, only to get sprayed by the liquid that the Corrupter shot upwards. One officer dropped to the floor of the walkway, apparently mutating. The liquid seeped into his body, transforming him. His arms fused together to form a third limb. His legs grew larger and tore through the layer of skin. He screamed in pain as his raw flesh touched the burning liquid. He got down on his three legs. His head shrank and fused to his body, leaving his eyes attached onto his body. Inside, his skeletal structure transformed into that of a three-legged invertebrate. He,or it walked towards the shocked and disoriented officers. It hit the first one with extraordinary strength, sending him down off the walkway through the wall, leaving a man sized hole in the warehouse building.

The others did not want to know what it was going to do to them. They slid down the ladder, ignoring the impact from landing on the ground. They jumped onto their patrol cycles and drove off to get to the other officers. Only half the initial group was left and all of them were still in danger. Officer Kirovski, a Russian police officer whose home in Russia was destroyed by tiberium and war, ordered the officers to tip over the patrol cycles of the fallen officers in his low Russian voice. They did as they were told. Quite suddenly, the alien Shock Troopers appeared right behind the barricade of motorcycles. It appeared and let loose a volley of plasma. The other officers whipped out their GD-2 assault rifles from the patrol cycle compartment, firing all their bullets to try and stop the aliens. Among the bulky shock troopers which towered over the poor officers running backwards, still firing, smaller man sized four-legged creatures scurried about, ready to jump out and strike with tiberium launchers as mouths. The Shock Troopers suddenly closed the space between them, overlapping their hardened shells. Behind the seemingly impenetrable shield, the tiny 'Ravagers' jumped out, releasing streams of tiberium shards at the unsuspecting police officers. Another three more officers went down,whittled by tiberium shards. Kirovski grabbed the last officer by the collar and pulled him to the patrol cycle. He jammed the accelerator while the other officer wielded both GD-2s with his arms akimbo and sprayed full clips at the aliens. Kirovski yelled over the Police radio

'We need help. Alien creatures here!'

Captain Wong overheard the cries from Kirovski. And many others from around the city. He took off his spectacles, trying to digest what had just happened. He called on the GDI command center and explained the problem to the commanders, much to their amazement. Captain Wong continued, until he heard more cries from the other officers. He paused the transmission and yelled over the comm channel, 'All officers, scramble, we've got company. All officers pull out from the energy anomalies.'

But before the message were registered by the officers, they were all dropped.

Immediately, more than two hundred patrol cycles exited their respective vehicle bays, followed closely by heavy-duty MFVs (Multipurpose fighting vehicles).

* * *

Conner and a Specforce trooper sat at a corner of the APC, talking to each other about the GD-7 and its abilities. The Specforce trooper sat in shock upon hearing about the GD-7d and told Conner a trick on the GD-7b. In the midst of their discussion, they heard two dull thuds from the outside of the APC. The APC jerked to a halt and the door swung open. There was a yell then the soft, creepy hiss of melting metal. Private Harding stepped out of the back entrance followed closely by Avery and then the general followed by the rest of the occupants. They looked ahead to see Shock Troopers on the roof of the APC. Avery immediately jumped back and sent two rounds at the Shock Troopers. The first one collapsed under the sudden shock of the shotgun slugs. The second one prepared to fire, at the retreating group, its vertical slit widened slightly, heat waves fluctuating around it. It almost killed Harding and Avery, had Conner not blown a hole through it with his GD7 railgun burst.

Even further he saw a dozen more Shock Troopers and other alien insectoids destroying the rest of the convoy. He got back out and the general was hustled away by his guards.

'Meet us at the Subway station!' Conner yelled. The general nodded and went off with his GD-1 in hand. The SpecForce troopers followed closely behind, activating their GD-7a assault rifles and followed him, cutting down a squad of alien Disintigrators along the way. The remaining soldiers moved ten paces away from the APC when it blew up, a massive ball of orange flame that threw them onto the ground. As the smoke rose from the wreckage, Conner and James got up and aimed their rifles at the incoming aliens. Conner fired, hearing screeches of pain as the railgun rounds sliced through a Shock Troopers armor. They ran backwards, unleashing bursts of bullets through the smoke and hitting the aliens who were returning fire. The ground just in front of them was cut by a blazing blue beam that had passed over them. A nearby vehicle was sprayed with Corrupter slime, then blew up just after. The road was stabbed by flying tiberium shards that were coughed out be a Shard Walker. They did not turn, fearing that spotting their foes may decrease their moral and slow them down. They ran and suddenly found a working Pitbull around a corner. All around them, civilians ran away from the oncoming onslaught. They got into the vehicle. Harding and Avery took the passenger seats while James took the driver seat and Conner took the gunner seat. He replaced the GD2 attached to the gun and replaced it with the GD7. James activated the Pitbull and revved it. It sped through the smoke of the alien weapons that seemed to be everywhere, leaving tire marks on the road. Conner sprayed the machine gun bullets at the shock troopers, cutting them down easily. They made a full 90 degree turn right into the next street, only to meet a Corrupter not too far away. Conner swiveled forward so he was now facing the front of the Pitbull, a laser sight appearing on the skin of the walker, which was spewing its corrosive acid on the buildings and the innocent civilians that were running from it. He pulled the trigger. The bullet immediately surged forward, stabbing a hole in the the Corrupter. It gave out a shrill scream before collapsing and lying motionless.

They continued down the street with Conner turning back and jamming down the machine gun, chewing up the Scrin Disintegrators which he saw behind them as they went along. Aluminum bullet jackets hit the ground as the Pitbull sped away. James suddenly stopped the Pitbull. Conner asked, 'What gives? We're in the middle of the damn street with alien bugs coming at us in all directions!'

James retorted, 'That's the idea. Cut them down! We have to save the civilians,' Conner understood his plan immediately.

He wheeled the machine gun around to see Disintegrators, Shock Troopers and Buzzers racing to them. Conner did not hesitate. He jammed the firing buttons at the incoming horde who were too far away to be of any immediate threat. Bullets raced across the air, landing in the alien creatures, killing them instantly. The aliens collapsed to the ground, writhing in pain, green alien blood of different shades pooled around the dead bodies. The aliens stopped advancing. But the hordes were too large for him to cope with. Harding and Avery fired from their passenger seats.

The alien creatures recoiled by the sudden force of bullets and slugs that attacked them. The Buzzers adapted. Twenty Buzzer swarms moved forward and dispersed. Hundreds of razor sharp knives filled the width of the street. It then compacted to form a Buzzer wall, layers overlapping one another. The machine gun fire continued to rain down on them, but the bullets merely pinged off the wall of alien engineering. Conner noticed the four walls and could see them moving closer to their position. He released the machine gun belt and pressed a button on the machine gun. The barrel instantly split into two, flipped open and closed back together, forming a larger barrel. He squatted down and grabbed the second belt that was on the ground. He picked it up. Conner then slid of the cover of the ammo feeder. It revealed a larger entrance point. He slammed the belt home and sprayed the bullets at the walls.

This time, the wall could not compete against the power of the 50 calibers. The first wall of Buzzers thinned, the many knives being shot and flung far of, losing connection and falling to the ground. Others were too damaged to receive the signal that the orbs were broadcasting, dropping to the ground by the dozens. Conner aimed the GD-7b simultaneously and fired, sending the beam flying and creating a hole in the buzzer wall. The Buzzers attempted to patch the numerous holes up, only to be blasted away. The Buzzers dispersed and disintegrated, their cores overloaded from the constant stream of orders to hold the wall, patch the wall and move forward. The knives shattered, leaving the creatures vulnerable. Conner made short work of them, aiming at the other walls shortly after. They were getting too close for comfort. Harding lobbed a grenade over.As it neared the wall,the wall suddenly sprouted a beam of knives at the grenade. It caught the grenade in mid air, unaware of its deadly potential. It reformed with the wall, thinking that the slower projectile could be used to patch the wall. The alien wall suddenly shattered.

The wall exploded and knives flew all over the place, disintegrating afterward. The Buzzer wall was in tatters. What remained quickly attempted to patch up the hole and create a smaller wall when their cores suddenly exploded, punctured by 50 caliber bullets. Remaining aliens charged, releasing plasma discs and beams, chewing up the pavement and James was forced to execute evasive maneouvers. Harding sprayed a burst of bullets at a Shock Trooper's legs, sweeping low and in a line. The legs of many of the creatures got shot off and were instantly crippled as they released whatever they could. Conner destroyed the third wall, slaughtering the remaining aliens. James jammed the accelerator, sending the Pitbull flying towards the last Buzzer wall.

Conner registered the sight and jammed on the trigger. Bullets spammed and cut swathes in the wall. Avery stood up, his stomach rested on the metal grille that covered the a part of the roof of the Pitbull's passenger area. He gave them a warm welcome, blasting shotgun pellets and slugs at the wall. Dozens of shards hit the ground,lifeless.The Buzzer wall twitched as one and shattered, the cores overloading from the multiple orders (it would seem that these Buzzers are not too bright are they?) James smashed into a Shock Trooper who was readying another disc launch, cracking the outer shell and pushing it aside. It screeched in pain. James sped back and move forward, crushing two Disintegrators with ease. Conner whittled the remaining creatures with the machine gun, breaking through their exoskeletons. Conner turned around to look at the carnage that they had caused. A little more than a hundred mangled bodies lay there unmoving, some were unfortunate civilians. They sped off to look for something that they could do to help.

* * *

A Reaper Tripod swept its energy beam low, its tentacles charged with plasma energy. A tentacle turned, slicing a Predator Tank in two. The GDI force stationed there had been brought into the fight. The gunner got out of the hole which only moments before was her equipment. She ran with her GD-3 in hand to behind the GDI soldiers combating the aliens, hoping they would not to run into any more company. Moments later, the Predator Tank was sliced again, as well as the pilot who got out too late. She made a turn at the street corner, just dodging a large chunk of the road that was sliced up by the tripodal being jutting out from the ground. She dropped behind it, to see a little girl hiding underneath, with two fingers in the mouth and a small teddy bear clutched in her hand. The soldier could not do anything but pity the girl. She took her by the arm and carried her to a nearby relatively undestroyed shopping center to find a woman and two other children. She was surprised that they were not sent to the closest station out of here.

'Protect the children. I'll take you all to the closest subway station. They will be evacuating the civilians from there.' Sandra then heard the clicking sound of the alien creatures. She hefted a piece of road debris, ready to use it as a distraction. Her GD-3 sub-machine gun ammo counter read a healthy green 50. Perfect, full ammo capacity. She pushed the group into an empty shop behind the counter and hid behind the information desk.

A Shock Trooper materialized at the entrance, its bulbous body too wide for the door. It had noticed Sandra entering this structure. It launched a disc at the door which had kindly parted to let it past, the impact flinging a good half of the twin doors away, still melting, while the rest of the plasma just dented a hole on the floor and expanded it by melting away the tiles. The massive alien creature flickered like a 20th century TV, vanished, and reappeared inside the building, its width taking up a bulk contradictory of the many slim mannequins there. Sandra quivered in fear behind the two-foot thick piece of concrete and decorative ceramic. She did not belong out in the field and spent most of her time safe behind the foot-thick composite armour of Predator tanks. The Shock Trooper crawled forward, its four claws smashing the tiles. She plucked up her courage and hurled the rock at a glass window of a clothes shop. It missed and hit a white figure standing very still in an odd pose with branded clothes. The rock impacted it on the head and knocked it down. The Shock Trooper, startled, launched two discs at a shop, effectively destroying the window that was her earlier target, the racks closest to the entrance, pulverising the cloth and the raised sensors to indicate if a person had paid for the set of clothes she was walking out with. The shop alarm was raised, wailing uselessly. Sandra crept forward, signaling to the group of frightened people in a sport shop to stay put. Using a shard of a broken mirror, she peered into the hallway to see the Shock Trooper not too far away. She grabbed the door frame to help build up momentum.She pulled against the door,sending her moving forward and out into the hallway.She chucked the rock across the hallway,distracting the alerted shock trooper.It smacked the bug in the flesh in between the shells,causing the creature to writhe from the alarming pain.She let loose a full barrage of bullets at the creature,ripping it apart.She turned back into the room to see the three children huddled in a corner with the woman's arms wrapped around them. 'Come on, its safe now.' The children stepped cautiously to her, the woman following them closely.

They exited the building only to see the the tripod's leg step just in front of them, its other leg crushing the slab of the road that the girl was previously hiding behind. It did not notice them, its attention apparently focused on something that was approaching. She led them away from the entrance, away from incoming aliens, and into an alley. They hid behind a dumpster. Sandra slapped a fresh clip into her GD-3. The ammo counter flashed green again and Sandra took no time to aim it back up in case. She heard the staccato of a Pitbull's machine gun fire. The Reaper Tripod returned fire, its tentacles swinging wildly, releasing the plasma beams in random arcs, one almost going through the alley itself. Bullets flew all over the place, punting holes in the concrete and shattering still-intact glass. A sudden blue beam of energy appeared in the narrow view that she observed from. She had to amp her polarizing viewscreen to be able to see it without blinding herself. The tripod screeched as it absorbed the full blow and collapsed with black/green slime and smoke trailing from its body. She moved toward the alleys entrance. She stepped out to see the Pitbull already speeding off, leaving one fully armed and ready soldier. The man turned, his GD-2 assault rifle at the poised and ready.

* * *

James zipped through street after street, mowing down Scrin infantry when they had the chance. Along the way, they found a rifleman squad on the ground, with most limbs severed, along with corpses of many alien disintegrators. Following that, they spotted a lone rifleman who was stupidly standing guard. He flagged them. The stranger's left chest plate was stencilled: Harrison. Upon explained that his entire squad was killed and he was called to go somewhere in central Beijing, he hopped into the Pitbull. Harding began to sweep the area with his rifle, wary for any more aliens. . As they drove on, he stared in amazement at the Steel talon infantry at road blocks. Each and every one of them were ready with their weapons loaded and none of them flinching. Fully trained Steel Talon infantry were always the tough ones that made everyone else except ZOCOM look like sissies. He looked away from the soldiers who were ready for anything. Almost.

They made a left turn through a damaged street and past a Predator Tank that had been sliced in two. Soldiers littered the streets, looking barely different from the Predator Tank. They continued forward, only to turn left and jerk to a halt. Before them stood a Reaper Tripod with its three legs spread wide and its three tentacles ready. One small problem: their in our direction. James jammed the accelerator and expertly sped the vehicle toward the tripod's legs. Hopefully, they would make it there. Conner aimed the GD7 up and peppered the underside of the Tripod with bullet holes as a blue flash emerged from the alien behemoth and dissapated across the road, which could not be seen through the already black colored armor of the creature. A blackish green slime came dripping out, but the creature remained undeterred. Its tentacles flailed about,trying to arc the beams to slice swathes in the road, hopefully hitting the Pitbull which was now out from under the creature as well. James made the Pitbull swerve as it dodged the plasma beams that danced randomly across the roads, leaving a trail of fire and destruction behind. Flames licked the sides of the Pitbull only to be dispelled by the ceramic armor coating on the Pitbull's bulletproof armor plating, which unfortunately was not plasma-beam proof. A plasma beam pulverized a car, which was now a hundred separate flaming metal and glass pieces. Conner removed the cover of his rifle that concealed the GD-7d. Why was it concealed was still what his brain had been processing for the past one hour. He jumped off the Pitbull, expertly righting himself while the vehicle because of dropping this stupidly brave passenger, narrowly missed a beam that arced a tad too close. Harding found his way to the gunner seat by climbing unceremoniously, almost falling off his feet. He attached the machine gun currently on the floor, spun it round, and pockmarked the creature's back (front actually, as the tripod turned around) with bullets. The Pitbull suddenly jerked, sending a hail of bullets slamming into a nearby glass wall. Being that fragile, it shattered into pieces not unlike that of the car mentioned previously. Conner's GD7 morphed just in time. The alien fired three beams at the soldier, and he ran for cover. Conner, upon finding that a) no cover was to be found, b) the GD7d was now operational and c) The Pitbull had now stopped moving, as if offering him the unique opportunity to face death alone, gritted his teeth and steeled himself. He aimed the rifle right. The weapon charged up, gaining energy. He chucked a grenade it at the tripod to draw its attention. The light flashed green. He aimed it at the eye of the creature and fired. Heat rippled along the cannon nozzle. A large ion cannon blue beam surged forward, burning a hole in the tripod, sending it plummeting to the ground from the intense shock and force. It collapsed, with black/green slime collecting around the bullet ridden carcass of what was the tripod and blue electricity danced around the surface. Alien units are mechanically similar to humans'? Conner banished the thought. He waved the Pitbull over. The rifleman, Harrison, could not take it anymore. He just felt embarrassed that just that team of men in a Pitbull could take on a tripod while the predator tank that they saw earlier was dissected before it could do anything to the alien walker. He grabbed his rifle and jumped out of the Pitbull with the excuse of needing to go somewhere nearby, his embarrassment concealed beneath his helmet viewscreen. Conner got onto the Pitbull, wondering why the other soldier alighted. Upon hearing his story, they quickly sped off. The lone rifleman unlocked the safety on his rifle and prepared for combat when he saw half a helmet peek out of a nearby alleyway. Or maybe it was an alien. He raised his rifle, alerted and slowly stepped towards the alleyway.

Chapter 3

2008-12-03T20:30:00.000+08:00

September 20, 2047, Yellow Zone Y1, Somewhere near Beijing, Asian Steel Talon Production Base (officially decommissioned), 0015hrs...

Conner awoke with a splitting ache in his head. This was hardly surprising since a few hours before, the exterior of the Titan was crawling with homicidal aliens and barely any humans were around. James was still either unconscious or asleep. Aliens patrolled the base, looking for any surviving Steel Talon units that were stupid enough to attempt any form of retaliation. Actually, it didn't matter; all were to few in number to pose a large threat. Conner and James were one of the lucky few to survive. Not for long though. The aliens would find them sooner or later, probably while flushing out the base.

They needed a way to escape, and Conner had to look for one. If he did not look now, he might not find it anymore. It was safer now, under the cover of night. He went to the rear of the cab and looked for a GD-2 rifle. After a while of searching,he found one and took it to the exit hatch. He found the hatch merely a foot off the ground,but the hatch had been compromised and was bent out of shape to the point where it took him a while to squeeze out. He crept out of the Titan and into the War Factory.He looked back at his once glorious titan to see nothing more than a wrecked piece of junk with a long bent pole instead of the magnificent ocher colored Walker that he had seen yesterday.He was startled to find a Seeker floating into the area, its scanner sweeping 160 degrees in front of it. Just my luck, he thought. Of all the Scrin units, a Seeker has to come here. It was slowly approaching the wreckage, and in moments it would pick up Conner, and release a wave of light plasma discs. Light though they were, a single disc could fell at least two soldiers standing side by side. As it approached,Conner ducked behind a pile of debris and silently crept away,ever wary about the seeker. No devastating wave of deadly plasma flew at him, and no aliens came charging into his immediate area.A good sign.Conner moved gingerly through the shadows, trying his best to not step on fiberglass or anything else that would give his position away.He moved closer and closer to the seeker when he looked on the ground to see a couple of grenades and c4-charges. A Commando was here. The commandos usually carried GD-7 assault guns which fired miniature railgun shots over short distances and he was looking for that kind of firepower. The GD7 was actually GDI made, but Steel Talon scientists had created a new GD7 with three morph modes instead of the usual two. He scanned the area and found it lying underneath rubble, with the dead commando's hand still gripping it, and the body lying not too far away and a large swarm of alien corpses littering the surrounding ground, meaning that he did not go without a fight. He grabbed the GD-7 and some extra ammunition clips by the side of the Commando. Almost immediately, the gun hooked up to his helmet HUD and sent a strange signal. A red light blinked on his HUD,followed closely by a short list of instructions. He followed the orders and headed towards his fallen comrade. From his helmet, he extracted a microchip that he inserted into his own. His gun suddenly began to morph. It was in testing mode. Its first morph was into a sniper rifle - the GD-7c, followed by a railgun cannon for heavy armor -- the GD-7b. Then it began to shrink slightly into its new mode, the GD-7a. Conner inspected it. It was an assault rifle but one with a slightly longer barrel and with an an ammo counter of five hundred. He looked at the tactical map that appeared on his HUD. The seeker was closing in on him. He panicked and looked around his rifle for the morph button. At the rifle butt, the were three buttons, 7a, 7b and 7c. Only b and c were lit up. His helmet immediately registered the sight and the display prompted him to press 7b.The gun morphed once more, turning into the railgun cannon. This leveled the playing field. He approached the Seeker which had yet to find the source of the metallic sound. A voice appeared inside his head.

'Charge the weapon before firing. Its works on kinetic energy. your movements will keep the whole gun powered.'

'Who are you?'

'I am your AI from the microchip that you just put in your suits helmet. I'll only be hinting you and giving you assistance when necessary. Now back to work.'

Conner aimed the railgun cannon and charged it. A second later it was primed. He let it loose. A tiny ball shot forward and attached itself onto the plating of the seeker. He lowered the gun and stared in disbelief. The AI screamed in his ear.

'Keep your aim! That's not the shot!'

Conner looked down at the rifle that was in his hands pointed at the ground. The barrel began to shine a bright white hue. He quickly aimed the railgun at the tank and waited. A moment later, the beam surged forward just as the seeker turned. Plumes of smoke rose from the Seeker's carcass and fire immediately engulfed it. Dull green Scrin slime oozed out of the gaping hole. It dropped to the ground,lifeless.

Conner heard another noise: the odd clicking sound that only alien insectoid units made. At the entrance of the War Factory, a Shock Trooper and two Disintegrators crept in on four legs followed closely by a Corrupter,its extremely bulbous body taking up the bulk of the entrance.It walked in,making strange clanking noises as the many weak,segmented body armor plates clashed with one another as the body twisted like a snake to observe its surroundings even though it seemed to have no eyes.They had noticed a blue blast and were investigating the cause of it when they noticed a Titan seemingly stuck to the wall of the War Factory. They noticed the entrance hatch of the titan was swinging open quite drunkenly. Conner could have kicked himself for his carelessness.

The Corrupter had weak armor and Conner knew it. With his railgun cannon still charging, he changed to his sniper rifle. He hit the dirt and spread his legs across for more support.He peered inside the targeting scope to find it already tracking the creatures and.He targeted the alien creatures first and fired. His first shot killed the first disintegrator,the scrawny four-legged creature with what seemed to be a plasma cannon infused in its body,followed successively by another two shots to the Shock trooper,a rather bulky creature with a bulbous body and a thick armor plate,toppling it and crippling the last disintegrator shortly afterward. He switched back to the assault rifle, ran to the side of the corrupter and peppered the side of it with small railgun shots, doing minor damage and resulting in a sickly black-green slime spewing from the many holes.The corrupter tried in vain to move its bulbous body in that cramped area.Conner sprayed another burst of railgun shots.Some bullets missed the creature and hit a large metal chain that held the war factory gate open.The metal gate creaked and went with gravity, crushing the alien creature and spraying more slime in random directions, landing on many surfaces and eating through them, giving off a semi-luminescent green steam that was visible even in the darkness and making an extremely loud noise that echoed throughout the entire factory.

Conner looked on and saw the portion of the gate that crushed the corrupter disintegrating and melting away, creating a berth around the hazardous creature. Conner turned around and walked back to the Titan.

Back at the Titan, Conner grabbed the mangled hatch and entered the titans carcass with much difficulty.He entered the cab to find James was holding a rifle pointed at his head. Conner assumed that he was just wary of any Nod spies around.

'Who are you? Take off your helmet trooper, try anything and your head will be a meter away from your bullet-ridden body.’

'Relax. Its me, Conner.'

‘Prove it.’

Conner tugged his helmet off to show his face with a scar on his forehead, showing James his true identity. James lowered the rifle and staggered onto his feet, with the words disbelief and uncertainty written in block letters all over his face.

‘C’mon, lets get out of this place before we get killed.’

‘No complaints about that.’

They walked out of the War Factory gingerly and skirted the shadows of buildings. At every turn, they would halt, drop and scan the perimeter. They crossed junction after junction, narrowly evading some Shock Trooper patrols. Conner and James suddenly ducked down behind some steel barrels. On the other side, two Shock troopers stalked up to the barrels, not realizing the potentially deadly weapon on the other side of the barrel. They paused and stiffened, as if alerted. Conner jumped backwards and sprayed a burst of railgun fire that tore through the Shock troopers. The AI spoke to Conner, 'You might need these,’

A 3-dimensional arrow pointed to the ground at the rifle scope. On instinct, he looked down to find two small grenades and a GD-1 with some extra clips. He immediately grabbed the ammunition and handed the grenades to James. The two soldiers headed towards the one place that did not have any Scrin presence. The hanger bays.

Three hours later...

They approached the entrance to find no aliens and found it barricaded with two Pitbulls with their machine guns pointed directly at them. In fact, the aliens disappeared an hour ago. Conner zoomed in and noticed two shadows behind the two machine guns. Switching to his unit scanner, he saw nothing but five blips on screen. Changing to heat scanners, he saw nearly twenty blips on this HUD. He immediately lowered his weapon and uttered the code Olly Olly Oxen Free on his comm channel. The five blips all showed acknowledgment signs on his HUD. From the shadows the hidden figures at the pitbulls emerged and switched on their helmet lights. They quickly led the two men into the main hanger, with two other soldiers taking their place almost instantly.
Inside the main hanger, he saw a fully functioning orca Dropship at the center of the massive hanger,its wingspan spreading across the entire hanger,covering most of the bay in shadow.Along the sides he could see the missile pods completely filled and armed,with the machine gun not too far away stowed underneath the gunner pod along with the other pod at the other side of the dropship. He saw a full platoon of men and women fixing the orca, loading supplies and standing guard. A battle hardened soldier approached them, a sniper rifle slung across his back. Another rifleman followed him. The man stood straight and immediately gave them a crisp salute.

'Sir! Corporal Watson reporting for duty sir!'

'At ease. Who's your CO here?’

'Right now, sir, that would be the two of you.’

‘Oh. Well then pack up the gunship. We lift off ASAP.'

‘Sir! Yes Sir!’

He immediately shouted orders at the survivors, with the soldiers instantly snapping to their assigned tasks. Conner inspected the troops as they did their task. They were all privates. Why do all the good soldiers die first? Conner walked outside and took the time to get accustomed to his new weapon. He switched to the cannon and took aim at the surroundings. No contacts. He further inspected his rifle, and found one last button underneath a cover which the previous commando did not notice as the sliding of the cover was still stiff. The button shone with a dim green light. On it were stenciled the words 7D. He pressed the button and his gun immediately morphed into an extremely short and stocky weapon with a wide barrel. He aimed the weapon and charged the weapon. He released the trigger,heat rippling along the sides of the jet black weapon and sending a large beam of pure energy at a Mammoth Tanks' wrecked carcass, obliterating it. Electricity crackled around the blackened hole.

Corporal Watson appeared behind him.

‘What the hell was that?’

‘I don't know. Its like some mini ION cannon.'

‘That is one hell of a cool gun. Sir, the Dropship is prepared for takeoff.’

'We can't go yet. Get two fire teams ready and get one man in each team to grab all the charges he can get.'

'Sir, yes sir!'

The corporal ran back into the hanger bay. Conner glanced at his weapon and morphed it back into the 7A. He slid the cover back on and walked into the hanger.

He saw two teams standing at attention with half their number holding GD-1 pistols and only two of them actually holding GD-2s. He immediately briefed them.

'Okay men, in order for us to get the hell outta here, we have to create a diversion. And I have a plan that will also accomplish our protocols. You four, team Alpha and you for team Beta. Alpha, you will go to the STCHQ and set up the charges at the mainframe computers. We don't want anybody getting their hands on our information. Beta, you will be going to the eastern armory and detonating the place to high heavens. This will draw their attention and allow us to escape. Clear?'

The soldiers shivered at the thought of the prospect of dying on the field when they were so close to escape. They grabbed their weapons and silently headed towards the entrance. Conner watched as he contemplated on sending new meat onto the battlefield and most likely to their deaths.

One hour later...

Private Harding opted to be leader of Alpha group and now regretted it. Throughout the past thirty minutes the other soldiers in his squad had done nothing but complain. He cursed under his breath as he led the team silently through the honeycomb of rooms of the Power Plant. They were close to the STCHQ. He led them through the main reactor, noticing with much relief that all was now quiet, with their weapons pointed at different directions, wary of any enemies that may appear any time. They then walked out of the other end of the power plant and saw the STCHQ overshadowing it. They sprinted across the small empty space and flattened themselves against the wall of the STCHQ, hidden behind the shadows. They crept into the building, seeing nothing lethal. They ascended the flight of stairs, still cautious. A sudden sound was heard. Within a second, they all had all crouched down and aimed their weapons at all directions, on the lookout for enemies. They slowly continued their progress up the staircase. The squad finally reached the top floor and slowly skirted the hallways which were filled with bodies that were scattered across the floor. They slowly stepped over the corpses. Private Harding looked down and noticed a GDI soldier on the ground, with his hair all disheveled. His helmet was across the floor, a couple of meters away. But what was awkward was that he was choked to death and not burned by plasma. His face stuck with the expression of seemed to be screaming. He looked at the next one. The other soldier instead was pinned onto the wall by a spear-like shard of Tiberium. The next few were also seemingly killed by methods that differed from the norm. They found a soldier whose skull and helmet collapsed from a punch that went through him. Another man was killed by plasma but in a manner where his body was sliced but not separated into two. Lastly were two men who were struck in a manner where they dropped their weapons and were thrown halfway across the hall with their chests caved in. They continued, obviously frightened that there was some new kind of alien of this capacity. The members, seemingly shivering despite their body armor insulation, policed the dead soldiers' weapons and headed along the hallway.

They entered the computer mainframe room and were immediately shocked. Standing before them was a large bipedal alien easily two and a half meters tall. They could easily discern it despite the darkness. It's back had a quiver-like unit which housed multiple tiberium spears. On one hand which was more like tentacles, was a wrist mounted device and on the other was a plasma weapon that had assumed the form of a sword. It sensed their presence and wheeled around, immediately lashing out with its tentacles. The members of squad Alpha had reacted just in time, dodging the first strike and retaliating with a hail of bullets from their own weapons. The being raised his hand, and the wrist device powered up quickly and fired a sliver of plasma at Harding. He threw himself aside and it missed by just a hairbreadth, which was too close. He fired a stream of bullets at the creature. Seemingly unfazed, the bipedal being, or foreman resorted to hand to hand combat, grabbing a Tiberium spear. It gave a shrill scream and surged forward, taking in bullets as if though they were droplets of water. The spear jabbed forward, stabbing the first man who could not get away in time, then using the plasma sword to lash out at another soldier, which sliced the armor, leaving a large opening in the plate but leaving him otherwise unharmed. Harding shouted to him, 'Plant the charges and get moving double time!'

The rifleman nodded and activated the detonation charges. Just as they were placed on the ground, the soldier grimaced in pain. He looked down with a blurred vision to see a small shiny green thing sticking out of his already broken chest plate. Suddenly, everything went black.

Harding was left with another private. He quickly tossed a grenade at the creature, who tried to attack it, creating a temporary diversion and raced to the window, grabbing the detonator from the fallen soldier. Attaching to their rifles a hydraulic cable launcher and firing a cable at the nearby command room which stuck out from the main structure, they instantly jumped out of the building, with their guns hooked onto the lines and soon the cables unraveled and they went lower out of relative danger, leaving the foreman behind them. The grenade exploded, throwing shrapnel everywhere. The creature bled a black green slime, which dried and sealed the wound quickly. The Foreman moved to the window, watching the two figures disappear into the night sky on equally black cables. In a fit of rage, the foreman sliced the lines, and watched the two figures plunge into the darkness below.

Harding got back onto his feet. The hard landing did not do anything to him. He regained his footing on the building roof and stared at the bipedal creature. The soldier beside him, private Avery, crouched down and scanned the area, ready to kill. Harding drew out a small console and pressed a button. Moments later, flames engulfed the top floor of the STCHQ, effectively burning the foreman. From that distance, they could still hear the shrill scream of the foreman as the flames licked its body and scarred it. They watched in amazement as the creature could withstand bullets that could have destroyed at least ten shock troopers and yet just by flames was brought down. They stared as the STCHQ lost a full level. The soldiers quickly hit the floor. Harding grabbed his binoculars. From all the other entrances, he could see large metal men flanked by quadrupedal creatures swarming to the STCHQ.They had completed their task, now all they had to do was to get the hell out of here and back to the hangar. They headed to the nearest exit, to find one of the metal men approaching them unsteadily. They ducked behind the chimney of a power plant, prepared to come out guns blazing to kill the alien swarm. Sweat rolled down Harding's already furrowed brow. His grip on the rifle stiffened as the imagined creatures' footfalls echoed in his mind. He grabbed his GD-1. Turning around to see the metal man disintegrate in a swarm of silver knives, he saw the heart of the swarm: the purple orb. He aimed and fired three successive shots, unfazed by incoming death, and found that all landed on its target, effectively destroying it. The swarm disintegrated into thin air, and gave the two greenhorns a moment of peace. As they jogged away from the STCHQ, they heard a secondary explosion. The eastern armory was destroyed.

Private Jenkins wheeled around as a strange noise filled the interior of the armory. He backed up against the corner of the wall, keeping his pistol leveled. His other squad mates had been killed by strange quadrupedal beings with laser cutters as weapons that were fused onto their bodies. They were now looking for him. He looked around. His helmet lights shining around the dark and unlit armory. On the rack to his right, he saw a dark thin object. He grabbed it and examined it. A GD-4. The GD-4 CRAW Shotgun (Close Range Assault weapon) was the perfect weapon for this sort of place. He hastily cocked the shotgun, only to realize that there was no ammunition inside. He searched the rack for the shells, sweat rolling down his face and his breath fogging up the screen of his helmet. He groped around the darkness, with his helmet facing the only entrance point to the aisle. He grabbed a small spherical object and took it. A shotgun shell lay in his hand. He inserted it into the weapon from the side and cocked the rifle once again. His foot moved slightly, kicking a small metallic object, sending rolling across the floor hitting more items. He turned his gaze to the ground, realizing that the shotgun shells were scattered across the floor,with a dead GDI rifleman sprawled across the floor. He picked up an additional eleven shells and placed them into the shotgun, his gaze now fixed on the only entrance point. The scuttling noise seemed louder. His heart raced as adrenaline rushed rushed around his body. His innate senses told him to rush forth and kill the creature, but his intuition contradicted, convincing him to let the creature find him. He immediately switched off his helmet lights. The section of the armory was enshrouded by darkness again. Jenkins quivered in fear. The noises were moving closer and closer. He kept his aim forward. He heard what sounded like footfalls.Taking careful steps forward, Jenkins was careful not alter his aim. The creatures' legs suddenly appeared in front of him, lit by a sudden burst of blue which carved a rough C on the ground. It halted. Jenkins took the opportunity and leaped forward, pumping two rounds out of the shotgun, sending twenty-four pellets zipping through the air. The creature (Disintegrator) screeched in pain as the many pellets tore through its skin. It collapsed onto the ground in a pool of dark slime, revealing six more creatures. Jenkins in a fright, closed his eyes and pumped all the rounds at the incoming creatures. As the last shell case hit the ground, Jenkins looked up again, to see mangled bodies replacing the alien creatures. He regained his senses, reloaded the shotgun and cocked it and continued down the path. He heard a loud boom followed closely by a mild tremor.

As he reached the main door, he heard the noise that the aliens made, only this time it was more of a cacophony. He hit the dirt and peered out the door to see swarms of aliens converging on an unknown location. He waited till the bulk of the force was gone before walking out, only to bump into one of the metallic entities. He scurried backwards, staggered onto his feet and fired two shots at the being. The being split into a million metal shards and flew into the kill. Jenkins panicked. He loaded another shotgun shell and unleashed half of the shells on it, spraying seventy-two pellets at the being. The Buzzer swarm paused, and Jenkins fired repeatedly,blasting every knife back with small balls that took even more shards with it. Jenkins fired another two shots at the purple orb at the center of what seemed to be the creature's heart. This time what went forward was a slug, smacking the orb right in the center. The first shot ricocheted off the orb, first making it shimmer silver before shutting off. The second shot penetrated the orb, shattering the inside. The entire swarm then suffered a spasm, all vibrating in unison, then all the shards shattered. Jenkins looked at the sight in shock when he heard another sound. He looked up to find a sliver of plasma headed for him. He attempted to jump aside, but to no avail. The sliver struck him on the leg, melting it away. Jenkins screamed in pain,with blood gushing out from the wound to be evaporated by the immense heat. He quickly took out the detonator.The square console felt a very faint cold.He felt empty and weak. With whatever strength that he had left, he mustered it and jammed the button. He suddenly felt an awkward sensation on his skin. It felt cool at first, then suddenly superheated to sky-rocketing temperatures. He screamed as the flames engulfed the poor private. The Eastern armory had changed from a seemingly untouched building to thousands over thousands of fragments of rubble and debris.

Conner stood on the observation deck of the hanger bay's control tower. He saw two plumes of smoke rise from the east and the north. The two diversions were created. He squawked on the comm channel, 'Alright men, prime the engines and get ready to dust-off.'

He got an acknowledgment light from Watson. He switched on the controls for the hanger bay and pressed a button and before long, the hanger bay doors creaked and opened. He raced down the flight of stairs and back into the main hanger. Everybody was inside, now all they had to do was wait for the two teams. He inspected the ORCA Dropship. It was in working condition, and they managed to weld the Pitbull's Machine gun onto the floor of the passenger bay and the James was inspecting the wolverine that was attached onto the Dropships clamp. Conner walked to the entrance which still had the two guards. He stepped over the pitbull, maintaining a slow and steady speed, so as not to make a sound. He boosted the magnification on his helmets viewscreen. About a hundred meters away, two men were running backwards with their guns spraying rounds at the alien creatures. Conner knew that something was not good. He walked back into the hanger and entered a room that he had been to earlier while the teams were creating the diversions. In it were rows of jump-jet packs. They even had helpful diagrams to help any rookie who found a use for them, which would prove beneficial to this operation. He grabbed a one, secured it onto him via a connecting port on the back of his standard issue rifleman armor and sprinted back out of the hanger after ordering the two guards to follow suit. When they appeared once more, he ordered them to prepare in case of emergency to get out of the base. Over the comm channel, he repeated the same order, 'Everybody get one jet-pack. We need to be ready in case of any hiccups.'

Acknowledgment lights flashed. He then activated the pack, sending him flying high into the sky. He boosted the power through his helmet and rocketed towards the two struggling troopers.

Harding and Avery ducked behind the wreckage of a wolverine. Slivers of white-hot plasma raced across the sky, melting whatever that they hit into slag. Harding retaliated, sending a full clip of bullets at the incoming horde. Avery found a small hole in the armor. He immediately jammed the nozzle of his shotgun through the hole and began pumping rounds through the wolverine. The aliens wondered where all the fire was coming from as no one was in plain sight. They heard the sound of a gun cocking and before long, two Disintegrators collapsed. The cocking was heard again and again, each time sending more creatures to the ground. A Shock Trooper walked forward, its outer shell absorbing the bulk of the shotgun pellets. It sent a large disc flying towards the wolverine. The impact sent the wolverine a meter back and melting through most of its armor. The Shock Trooper stumbled, still in pain from some of the still oncoming penetrating bullets. As the Shock Trooper readied its second shot, it heard the noise of jet engines, only much quieter. It looked up to find two small jets floating in mid air with gold armor around it. A blue speck appeared, followed by many more. It stared in amazement, only to realize later that its front right leg was torn off. It collapsed.

As the railgun shots hit the alien creatures, Conner began maneuvering. He circled them, changing his aim every now and then, pelting them with uncountable numbers of railgun shots. The ammo counter read 147. Not much ammo left till I reload. He continued barraging the aliens with railgun shots, while they tried in vain to shoot him down. He sent the prearranged signal. Seconds later, two more men appeared in the sky, flying high then flying low and scooping up the two privates. Conner sent another signal as well. This time the ORCA Dropship appeared from the hanger bays. Its pilot seat occupied and the gunners armed with missiles and machine guns. They came in guns blazing, mowing many aliens who were stupid enough to stand their ground. Conner and the other two riflemen flew upwards. The passenger cabin doors opened up, showing eight men inside with another on the main machine gun. They flew in and released Harding and Avery, sending them into the cabin. They attached themselves onto the wolverine, acting as cover fire.

The ORCA dropships engines roared as it flew across the night sky. It was almost out of the Steel talon base. The pilot suddenly flipped the aircraft around, the gyroscopic pilot cockpit and the engines turned about and sent the ORCA dropship flying backwards. The two gunners immediately processed the reason why that was done. Gaining on them were a trio of Stormriders, relatively tiny alien craft which looked like tiny floating discs. Underneath their wings were odd looking devices which they soon found the purpose of. From the devices, torpedoes of pure plasma energy raced forth, gaining distance rapidly. Conner registered the sight and replied by spraying a burst of railgun shots at the incoming projectile. The bullets raced forward, closing in on the torpedo. The found their mark, sending the torpedo into a large explosion in mid-transit. The Stormriders then changed back into their usual weapon, which Conner did not really appreciate. The Dropship darted left and right, sending the men and women in the passenger cabin flipping around. It dodged the other two torpedoes by a mere few meters. It was soon dodging multiple slivers of plasma. The two men in the weapon pods fired their machine guns and releasing two rattlesnake missiles. The Stormriders began dodging them, as well as taking multiple well-aimed shots, but they merely bouncing off their hulls with shiny shimmers of silver. As the dropship exited the base and flew off into the horizon with the Stormriders pursuing, the sun began to rise, its rays illuminating everything. The Stormriders suddenly swerved slightly and reoriented themselves, only to be greeted by the two rattlesnake missiles. They impacted on one Stormrider,which sent it crashing into a mountain. The other two began firing bursts of plasma bolts, causing the pilot to maneuver wildly.

James and Conner, both at the wolverine, began helping them. Conner changed his rifle into the railgun cannon, and using the targeting reticule on the Stormrider. The tiny metal ball raced forward and attached itself onto the stormriders hull.Conner aimed the cannon.It fired, but missing the stormrider who had anticipated the attack and dodged the shot even as it arced to hit it.James on the other hand activated the wolverine and fired the dual machine guns and releasing the mini rockets which snaked forward leaving plumes of smoke and missed the first stormrider which had dodged in time.the machine guns on the other hand which were used to great effect, sent the other stormrider into some of the mini rockets,but only to be stopped by the invisible shield around the stormrider.Corporal Watson who was inside one of the weapon pods,locked onto the stormrider. He muttered under his breath, 'go to hell you alien bastards.'The next moment, another two missiles flew and hundreds of bullets sliced the sky.

The pilot had a small feeling of epiphany on what had appeared on his radar. The radar had shown a nearby city, Beijing. He redirected more power to the engines, hoping to get out of this mess. The ORCA dropship moved faster, sending Conner slightly off balance. He gripped the wolverine even tighter and sent another burst of railgun shots at the Stormriders. They were only seven kilometers away from Beijing's anti-tiberium walls and away from the anti air turrets situated there.

'AP bullets should be more than a match for them.' The pilot squawked over the comm.

'Just get us there in one piece.' Conner replied.

The pilot surged forward, closing the distance between them and the city. Plasma continued to rain on them. Suddenly an explosion took place. The pilot stared at the damage report, one of the ORCA fanblade stabilizers exploded and melting slag was dripping off the wrecked engine. The ORCA dipped slightly to the right before righting itself.

Inside the cabin, the soldiers prayed for a safe return and hoped for revelation. James were one of them, abandoning his post for a few moments, while the man at the machine gun attempted to blast the Stormrider out of the sky.

The Dropship passed the walls of Beijing and into the tiny blue zone, with the Stormriders just after. The AA guns sprang life and criss-crossed the air with tungsten bullets, ripping through a Stormriders armor. The vehicle spun and crashed onto the street below, sending a few cars flying and skidding across the roads and finally crashing into a torn down factory.

The other Stormrider flew in for the kill, sure that it would not miss its prey in confined spaces. The pilot fought the controls to bring the Orca dropship through the cityscape, dodging buildings and attempting to bring the dropship back up with the stormrider right on his tail and spewing plasma all over the place. Another sliver of Plasma hit the afterburner. Plasma splashed across the surface, melting it away. The Orca Dropship now had another problem.the Pilot looked at the statistics screen and saw another issue. They were running low on fuel due to the sudden exertion on the afterburners. The pilot panicked while trying to control the dropship.

It flew into an abandoned section of the residential sector. The ORCA Dropship swerved in the small area while the pilot tried to regain control. The surviving Stormrider flew and prepared to fire another plasma burst. Conner just then had a psychotic idea. We cannot not fire any weapons in here in fear of destroying the buildings and harming people, so... Conner released his grip on the wolverine and immediately started up his jet pack. He flew straight and slammed into the Stormrider. It tried in vain to shake him off, veering here and there. He blasted it open with a burst of railgun shots, to find nothing more than plain alien meat, or maybe genetically enhanced meat. The stormrider jerked as it reached this new development. He grabbed even tighter onto the hull of the Stormrider. Conner took a grenade that he picked up at the steel talon base, primed it and lobbed it into the hole. He jumped off shortly after, neglecting to activate his jet pack. That could wait. The grenade detonated within the stormrider. The alien ship exploded in a burst of green and silver and crashed into the ground.

The ORCA dropship entered an open aired abandoned GDI airfield. The pilot could not keep the Dropship flying. He ordered over the Comm channel, 'Everyone get out; this is gonna be a rough landing.'

All the men and women who survived grabbed their jet packs and flew out of the cabin. They grabbed onto the wolverine, releasing the manual clamp and activating their jump packs, slowing down the wolverines descent of about a hundred meters off the ground. The last private and corporal Watson followed shortly after. The pilot ejected himself out of the ORCA dropship and released the parachute. The Dropship smashed onto the runway and exploded in a large flash of orange. Molten metal flew in all directions and metal shards whizzed through the air. As he floated down, he could see the last Stormrider explode with a small speck jumping off it. Before he landed on the ground, all strength left him and he blacked out.

Conner saw the ORCA Dropship crash and explode and the wolverine with ten riflemen stabilizing its descent. He then remembered something that jabbed the inside of his mind. You are free falling! He activated the jet pack and slowed down considerably. He then saw the pilot and the parachute. He landed on the ground, his composite armor absorbing most of the shock. But still his legs ached as he stood up to realize that there was a large crack on the pavement that he had created by his sudden landing. He regained his footing and walked unsteadily towards the wolverine. The riflemen all sat beside the wolverine, some lying supine on the ground and two cheering esctatically. On top of the Wolverine stood James, the sun behind him shining brightly now. He looked calm and serene for a man being trapped in a three ton vehicle with nothing more than the armor on his back. Conner turned around. In the distance, he saw a small convoy of GDI vehicles. Finally, some human support.

Chapter 2

2008-12-02T14:43:00.000+08:00

September 19, 2047, Yellow Zone Y1, Somewhere near Beijing, Asian Steel Talon Production Base, 1157hrs...

The troops were still traumatized by the carnage and the losses sustained. For the past few hours, the factories in the Steel Talon base creaked and groaned as they worked tirelessly to rebuild the damaged vehicles and create more ammunition. As all the whirring from machines continued, James and Conner sat in the Titan, celebrating their victory in the comforts of a foot thick armor plating of the battle-worn titan. Suddenly the comm channel beeped. Conner switched it on.

'General Pierce wants the two of you at HQ now.'

'Understood.'

They had to cut things short. They were supposed to be at the barracks now but nobody would care where they were, but since the barracks was so close to the command center, the general would expect them there fast. Conner seized control of the Titan and started up the engines. The tank sparked back to life. Conner had brought the Titan through many places before while he was under training, but the car park of the Steel talon HQ was a first. No time for formalities. He needed controls for more fluid movements. He slowly eased his Titan through the office buildings located at the southern end of the base, the only place left unmarred by the battle. He looked around. Left, right, left, right, stop. Wait for it, OK. Left, right, left, right. Conner had finally managed to bring the Titan between the office buildings on a road meant only for official vehicles, patrol cycles and Pitbulls. Along the way he crushed a patrol cycle or two along the way and broke plenty of decorative flower pots. He stopped at the first step just outside the building. At the base of the building, stood a man flanked by Spec ops troopers, his chest high and his hair neatly tucked under his hat. General Pierce did not flinch even though the Titan stopped just in front of him, and neither did his bodyguards. As Conner and James got out of the Titan and walked up to the General, they did their best to make themselves look neater, mostly by straightening their uniform and wiping the blood that smeared onto them during the course of the battle. They stood at attention, and saluted the general. He returned the greeting and spoke to them.

'Ah, Hunter and Higgins. You two were a real morale boost today, did you know that?'

'Sir yes sir!'

'You two did very well today. I would like to congratulate the you personally since not everyone can take on two Avatars in one battle and still come out victorious, even though they were already quite battle-damaged. You men have nerves of steel. James, that stunt you pulled was also good, taking out the missile racks on the stealth tank. Smart. You two are the type we need to win this war. I am promoting the two of you to sergeant. We need heroes, gentlemen. And if you try that idiotic thing again, I will demote you to a point where you will be lucky to pick up the droppings of those tiberium fiends,' gesturing at the Titan crammed between two buildings and and the wreckage of the patrol cycles.

He handed them each chevrons which they wore on their shoulder plates, showing two chevrons and a GDI symbol at the bottom. He then gave them a crisp salute and dismissed them. Conner brought the Titan back put, breaking more pots on the way out and narrowly avoiding smashing the arm cannon into an office building nearby.

'Thank the Lord!' James muttered, but Conner shot him a dirty stare.

September 19, 2047, Yellow Zone Y1, Somewhere near Beijing, Asian Steel Talon Production Base, 1126hrs...

The sentries were getting bored. The aftermath of a battle is always the worst as the people now mourn over losses and get stuck on clearing the roads of the dead bodies of their fallen comrades. The walls surrounding the base were thick concrete ones that the sentries stood on guard with sophisticated sensor equipment to detect any approaching enemy. It was here that A very minor battle took place which paved the way for the Nod attack. During and before the battle, the sentries there were massacred for the undetected arrival of the Vertigo Bombers.

September 19, 2047, Yellow Zone Y1, Somewhere near Beijing, Asian Steel Talon Production Base, 0356hrs...

In order to maintain secrecy, Nod had to sneak in Shadow Teams to take out the sentries at the time. The Shadow Teams sneaked in and silently stabbed the first squad with Nod combat knives, then using their pistols with silencers on the next. They placed explosives on the various detector towers and called for the Vertigo Bombers. But amidst the silence, gunshots sounded and one after another Shadow collapsed to the ground. The remaining few ducked into the shadows, vanishing instantly, safe from the sniper. Another patrol suddenly appeared and spotted the team. They rushed forward, guns blazing. The Shadows fired bursts of bullets from their strange advanced pistols, killing most of them. The last man had managed to reach the alarm when he looked up, barely making out shimmers in the clouds under the moonlight. Bombers. He sounded the alarm and turned around. The enemy squad was missing. To his immense surprise, he found a bullet embedded in his chest. He looked up. Quite suddenly, everything went black. He added to the twenty GDI soldiers on the ground. The only remaining Shadow, ashamed that he had failed his mission to keep the assault unnoticed, pointed his gun at his head. No prisoners for GDI. Kane will not be pleased. He hesitated. He did not want to kill himself.

'Why can't I just run away from all this fighting and violence?' he mused aloud. Slowly, he lowered his pistol and prepared to fly off in his glider. He holstered his pistol and opened out the wings. He winced at a sudden searing pain. A bullet had pierced through his light armor. He landed on the ground with a thud. From a far distance away, atop a sensor tower, smoke trailed from the barrel of the sniper's GD5 rifle.

Approximately eight hours later...

The sentry took out his binoculars and peered through the scopes. It was something he did automatically. An Ion Storm was 5 kilometers away and approaching, a dark, frightening mass of clouds. He looked underneath it to see lightning striking the ground beneath, throwing up rock and sand, leaving the ground scarred and desolate. Winds swept the sand into dunes, which were immediately struck by lightning. A storm like that could wipe the base off the face of the tiberium-scarred earth. This was definitely induced by aliens. He saw a few through numerous skirmishes with them, as well as through simulated battlefields. He notified the commanders about he massive Ion Storm. Within the hour, all the speakers blared: All personnel prepare for mass evacuation. Within moments, armories and depots began clearing the ammunition and equipment while the aircraft began evacuating the commanders in convoys. The first one dusted off with ten V-40 Ox transports and six Orca Dropships and Gunships. An hour and a half later, the second convoy left the ground. The last convoy was still loading when the sentries saw something fall out of the sky. From afar it looked like the size of a Predator Tank, slowly enlarging to a size of two Behemoths, debris trailing in its wake. A red glow had appeared around the meteor, like a fire shield. It was not going to land near the base, but it might be bringing unwanted guests. They sent a a code 5 warning throughout the base, a tad unnecessarily. As it hit the ground, a massive quake shook the earth and the ground beneath them trembled and quaked, and a mushroom-shaped dust cloud raced for the sky. The sentries almost fell off the walls in shock. One drew his binoculars and peered through. The crater impact pummeled the ground at minimum twenty-five meters deep and a kilometer across. Tiberium shards were flung all over the place, and could be seen growing on the crater itself. A tiberium field. The commanding officers ordered a small task force to secure the site and look out for anything suspicious. In truth, they were as curious as the soldiers they dispatched. Such an asteroid was only seen months ago, and they all brought bad news, but recently GDI had confirmed that there would be no more aliens. A small group of soldiers immediately headed for depot and got into their respective vehicles. One by one, Pitbulls rolled out of the base followed by RPCs (Rocket Personnel Carriers) and Wolverines. Two Titans brought up the rear. The task force was probably enough to handle a small Nod force and reinforcements at times. Ten minutes went by when the comm channel beeped. Captain Probe answered. It came from a Titan's pilot.

'Sir, there seems to be no sign of life here.'

'I want you to check and recheck. I want to make sure that this thing does not have any kind of item or creature that this god-forsaken planet (not exactly true) does not need you hear me?'

'Sir, yes sir!'

The task force reached the crater and observed the surroundings. Nothing out of the ordinary. An RPC opened up and two squads of riflemen and missile troopers got out followed closely by a group of engineers from the other RPC. The soldiers fanned out and switched on their HUDs. Smoke was still coming from the asteroid. Heat scanners were useless. When they first switched it on,they were practically blinded by the sudden flash of red. They were in front of something that just burned up on entry of earth. Captain Probe spoke clearly on the comm channel.

'Switch on helmet lights, protect the engineers.'

On his helmet HUD, he could see a brief look of the area. His men were spread out slightly thin.They slowly made their way down the crater. Private Clinton took step after step down, unsure the whole time. The smoke was clearing. He stepped on some loose rocks. Within seconds he slipped on the crumbling rocks and was sliding his way down. The back of his armor burned as the armor abraded with the hot ground. He nearly burned his back when he came to a sudden halt. He had reached the bottom of the crater and the asteroid was only six feet away from him.

'Clinton, are you OK?'

'I'm fine sir. Just steaming hot here.'

'Maintain your position we'll reach momentarily.'

Clinton switched on the tiberium radiation scanner on his helmet. The whole screen flashed red. The entire meteorite and the crater was radioactive . He slowly took a step back and moved his hand on his back. Even underneath his combat gloves he could feel the singe of the heat on his back armour. It was so close to have been burnt during the fall. He heard an eerie clicking sound. He turned around and swung his rifle around. Sweat rolled down his face and into his eyes. He looked around, saying, 'Guys, don't play joke with me here. I ain't joking here.'

No Reply. He felt stiff. He was about to speak when he screamed with much fright. A giant bug; easily the size of him, was directly in front of him. It launched blue shards at him from what seemed to be its mouth. He rolled aside against the crater wall and aimed his rifle, firing before he actually took aim. Suddenly, more of those four legged creeps were firing at him, and he ran along the crater wall, trying to find a foothold in the steep wall, still firing, at the same time screaming into his helmet mike.

'Help! Giant bugs! Ahh! Somebody save me! somebody-'

Every man above stopped, listening to his cries followed by white noise. Some even chuckled. A month ago in Brazil some guy put a tarantula in his bunk and that was what he screamed. Then he stopped talking and the whole thing got more complicated. An immediate hush fell over the group. Captain Probe broke the silence.

'All units, secure position. I want a squad down there now to figure out what happened. All others watch their backs.' The squad closest to the crater started down carefully. They were alert, searching for anything abnormal, and couldn't find any.

'Nothing here sir.' The squad leader informed the captain.

'Keep looking.'

A foot was sticking out behind some debris. A military-grade boot.

'We saw something,' the squad went over. 'Its Clinton, sir. He got nailed by... a shard.'

Clinton lay face down with a blue shard sticking in his back. His rifle lay nearby. The squad leader scooped it up as Captain Probe went down with his squad and some engineers.

'Too dangerous down here. We're going up.'

'Stay down!' commanded commander Richards from the GDI base

'Why- sir, this place is too dangerous. I will not risk another soldier in my squad to die so that you can see what is inside this rock.'

'I am your commanding officer and I want you to follow my orders.'

'But sir-'

He could not complete his sentence. From the craters of the meteorite, white-hot discs of plasma rained down upon the unsuspecting GDI forces. Captain probe wheeled around, and watched in horror as half of his squad got sliced into sagging piles of meat by a large metal floating humanoid easily the size of a person. They assumed the form of a vague silverish man, but when attacking, they would break off into tiny razor-sharp knives, leaving a single floating purplish orb behind, and then rejoining it after killing its prey.

'Aliens! ten, eleven and one o'clock!' he shouted to whoever was still alive and listening.

He looked to the left. Another two soldiers melted from a single disc of plasma. He rushed forward. He still had five men and a group of tanks left and he did not plan to lose any more to extra-terrestrial beings. He fired burst after burst of bullets at the floating orb which was currently unprotected. The knife-like creatures few back and surrounded the orb, seemingly impervious to the damage sustained, flew at captain Probe. He took slightly more careful aim and with a final careful burst, hit the alien orb. The swarm halted, disoriented. The purple light shimmered before turning blue, then black. The orb then shattered into what seemed to be alien machine debris. The swarm of knives dispersed, disintegrating into air. He darted to the right and dodged a plasma disc by a mere hairbreadth. He joined his squad.

'Where are the engineers?'

'Two got out sir, the rest are those few piles of meat there.'

'Give 'em hell!'

The soldiers formed a small square and opened fire on the incoming creatures. One of the metallic swarms were headed their way. He felt the tension. In its form, the orb was in the center. He opened fire. As the bullets raced through the air, the metal knives all converged on the orb.the bullets ricocheted off the knives, sending some of them flying off, deactivated. The riflemen fired their bullets at the orb. The knives detached themselves and as one, protected the orb. As it neared them, more and more knives landed on the ground. Suddenly captain Probe saw an opening. He immediately fired a stream of bullets at the light. All the bullets reached their target. The orb dropped exploded. The knives shattered shortly after. They sprinted as best they could back up the crater wall, only to be shocked at what they saw next. The Pitbulls were mostly turned into melting slag, and the pilots pierced by multiple shards of blue tiberium. The Wolverines and Titans were either heavily damaged or inoperable. The men got into the last surviving operating Pitbull. He jammed the accelerator and sent the Pitbull rolling off into the distance. The other men where in the navigator seat, the two passenger seats and the last two stayed at the gunner seat,one operating the gun while the other changed its ammunition if necessary. The navigator looked back, activated his helmet normal display, magnified the view of the crater and practically turned into a pillar of salt. The fog cleared completely. The meteorite had completely split in two and thousands upon thousands of creatures crawled out of its surface. The meteorite had a somewhat honeycombed structure and had some sort of bipedal creature trapped in tubes. Gas escaped from the tube as it opened and the creature stood tall. It stared at the man with its main, dark eye. A chill ran down the soldier's back. He looked up. UFOs inbound. The aircraft shot plasma bursts at the Pitbull, which it narrowly dodged time and time again. Corporal Alexa turned the gun around and jammed on the firing trigger. 30mm rounds flew by the hundreds at the alien aircraft followed by a couple of missiles and then bullets again. The vehicle shimmered a purple hue and returned to normal, unfazed by what would have already shot down three venom attack helicopters. Captain probe drove the Pitbull to his best ability, which was just enough to evade another hailstorm of plasma. Alexa continued jamming the trigger until the gun finally overheated and stopped firing. Sweat rolled down her cheeks from within her helmet. She grabbed her GD2 assault rifle,leaving the safety of the machine gun off and in unison with the other soldiers, fired at the aircraft. The aircraft merely flew straight, absorbing the damage it had sustained. They knew that it was futile, but kept trying anyway. Alexa accidentally nudged the machine gun trigger, sending a small burst of bullets at the vehicle. The bullets flew true and hit their target.this time the vehicle swerved and reoriented itself. Alexa hopped back into the gunner chair and fired streams of bullets at the vehicle,hoping to destroy the vehicle.In the distance, they saw the GDI base.The switched on the comm channel and shouted, 'We need air cover immediately!'

From the GDI base, commander Richards heard the Pitbull crews' cries for help and quickly scrambled three Orca gunships to aid them. The Orca gunships dusted off and moved to the pitbull's location. As they neared it, a white flash whizzed past them, followed by another and another. Suddenly, one of the Orca gunships exploded. The others took evasive actions, with their. 50 caliber chain guns blazing. They found their mark. The first pilot launched his missiles. The projectiles snaked towards the alien craft, impacting with a thunderous explosion. As the smoke cleared, the aircraft still flew properly but the shimmer had vanished and smoke was visible on the vehicle's left wing. The other Orca unlocked the safety on his missiles and prepared to fire when the tail exploded in a sudden burst of energy. The Orca plummeted to the ground, with the pilot safe after ejecting himself, only to get struck by lightning just after. The Ion storm had arrived, practically opaquing the sky. The last Orca launched two more missiles at the aircraft which was charging straight at it. The missiles impacted and fire swallowed the craft, only to be absorbed and dissipate, with the aircraft still intact. It fired twin slivers of plasma and the last orca exploded. On the ground, the convoy was half way during lift off when the Ion storm shot down an Orca Dropship. Flames billowed from the skeleton of the wrecked aircraft, and the men inside completely fried by the lightning. Fire teams grabbed hoses and extinguished the flames quickly and prepared for any unwanted surprises as the convoy quickly landed. At first it seemed quiet, but with the Ion storm above them, they were unsure. Something broke the silence: A man's scream.

A blackish green liquid was covering him. From above, alien aircraft identified as 'Stormriders', the same as that harassing the Pitbull a few miles away suddenly rained goo on them. All of a sudden, the man began mutating. His hands stiffened and gave a sickly green glow. His chest sprouted tiberium crystals and within a minute, he had transformed into a tiberium incarnation of a human. The man lost all sanity, reduced to nothing more than an animal who's prime instinct is to kill. It got on all fours, and pounced on a nearby GDI soldier that was still recovering from vomiting due to the Ion storm. It used its hand, which turned into a crude tiberium sword and stabbed him, injecting the goo into him as well. But on the contrary, instead of mutating him, the alien mutagen killed him. The aircraft began circling the base, shooting the soldiers at random, mutating or killing many unfortunate GDI soldiers that came in contact with the mutagen.

Conner and James rushed to the vehicle bays as the scream was heard. They got into his Titan and attempted to blast the fliers from the skies. Conner aimed his railgun up in the sky and rotated his head to fire just in front of an incoming vessel. He timed it to its speed.

Three.

Two.

One.

'Fire.'

The railgun shell rocketed its way to the aircraft. The shell sliced a hole it a wing and it spiraled down, smashing into a War Factory. The ceiling gave way.

Other Stormriders flew into the gathering storm and vanished from sight. But they had done their damage. The mutants now made up 50% of the original number of soldiers. Some climbed onto the Titan cab and began puncturing its armor with shard blades. The machine gun atop the cabin was first priority. It was ripped off in a second.

'Uh Oh.' James moved towards the hatch, and saw two tiberium shards puncturing the hull. He aimed his GD2 assault rifle and fired twin bursts of bullets. The shards cracked and the Tiberium incarnate staggered and fell off the side of the moving vehicle. Conner fired a shot at another group of Tiberium mutants. They exploded and tiberium crystals flew in random directions, puncturing assorted items from oil barrels to wrecked vehicle plating. Conner walked his titan to the second ring of the base, on patrol for any more beings that needed to be destroyed.

Commander Richards stood in the command room of the ICCC. To his left, lieutenant Crea exclaimed, 'Sir! I am picking up some really large energy anomalies within the vicinity of this base.'

Now what? first these alien aircraft start mutating the men and turn them against each other and now this! He strode to Lieutenant Crea's seat and gazed at the screen. He looked at the scanners. At the center of the grid map, the outlook of the base gleamed a shiny blue hue. The anomalies shone in red at only one place. The ICCC compound. He looked out of the view screen. At the large main entrance of the ICCC glowed a minuscule orb of light. As he looked carefully, he noticed that the orb was expanding. Soon it was the size of a man and growing. Suddenly, a vague misshapen shape of a metal man appeared from the sphere. He turned his gaze at a petrified GDI soldier nearby. The poor soldier shivered with his hands barely gripping the rifle. Within a blink of an eye, Commander Richards saw the nearly impossible until now. Within those few seconds, the metal man disintegrated into many tiny metal shards, sliced the man into shreds and returned into its metallic humanoid state while more metal men came out from the sphere that had expanded to a very large extent, and following the metal beings were gigantic quadrupedal bugs that were easily the size of a small car. Suddenly, a large disc of white-hot plasma emerged out of what seemed to be one car-sized being's eye-slit (it had only one; a vertical, and purple-glowing), flew up five stories and burned through the glass screen of the command room, melting through GDI equipment, the lieutenant and almost hitting Commander Richards. As he scanned the area, he saw the corpse of lieutenant Crea sprawled over the floor. He grabbed a GD1 pistol from her side pocket and slowly walked out of the room. He cautiously walked down the hallway. Eerie noises bounced of the polished walls. Aiming his pistol at the door, he slowly inched his way to the door. Grabbing the handle, he pushed it open slightly and looked down the staircase. At the bottom of the stairs he saw the knife swarms slicing through a squad of distraught riflemen. He unlocked the safety on the pistol and slowly descended the flight of stairs, keeping his aim straight. he turned to see a giant bug with its foreleg crushing a soldier's chest. Commander Richards took aim. He fired shot after shot, all of them piercing the insects outer shell. The 'Shock Trooper' (as it was identified) turned its gaze to him and fired a disc of plasma out of its very eyes. Odd. It fires a long disc out of a vertical slit?

The commander sidestepped and fired another few shots which sank into the creatures flesh. Dark green fluid spewed out of the holes. The creature collapsed to the ground and writhed. Richards fired the rest of the clip on the creatures eye and the legs. It seemed to screamed (it was clicking) and finally fell silent. He changed his clip and picked up a soldier's assault rifle and ammunition clips. The swarm had gone down and out. He followed down the zigzag which were the stairs.

He was shocked when he came out. He saw fires all over the rooftops of the buildings. To his left, the barracks were in flames and the soldiers getting cut up to oblivion. He took a few more steps forth, taking aim and shooting another shock trooper to the ground with both weapons. In front of him, a squad of men came from behind a flaming building, possibly a storage structure.

'Sir, we are here to evacuate you.'

'Where are you taking me from here?'

'Sir, there is a convoy leaving the base out the side entrance'

'I'm staying with my men'

'Sir we have to-'

The men froze. They stared blankly at commander Richards. He turned around to see a gigantic tripodal being towering above them with three large tentacles swinging at random directions. Its only eye staring at commander Richards. The men fired their guns at full automatic burst, spraying bullets at the gargantuan creature, while quickly running for cover. But they were not doing any noticeable damage. A tentacle swung in their direction, with two prongs at the tip. In between the two prongs, small waves of energy formed and arced.Beams of plasma fired, slicing an overturned Pitbull that two riflemen hid behind into two and eradicated them from the surface of the Earth. The tentacle charged up again. Commander Richards led the remaining men and aimed their rifles at full automatic burst at the tentacle. The creature fired yet another blast of pure energy,killing the last two men and injuring Commander Richard in the shoulder.Blood gushed from the massive wound. Commander Richards collapsed to the ground and made a vain attempt to get up on his feet.The creatures tentacle charged energy yet again but before it took aim,a large beam of blue energy pierced through its outer shell.Commander Richards fixed his gaze on his rescuer, which turned out to be none other than Conner.

From within the Titan, Conner readied another railgun shell to fire at the Tripod-mounted being.It reoriented itself and aimed all three tentacles at the titan. Conner aimed for the eye

The shell whizzed through the air and slammed into the center of the eye. the creature writhed from the sudden pain, its tentacles flailing about wildly and the beams set loose, cutting swathes through the buildings and the ground, narrowly missing Commander Richards, who was hobbling towards the Titan. James opened the hatch and was about to jump off the titan to help him when he saw the worst. Commander Richards continued hobbling to the Titan,not caring about the surroundings. When he was a few meters away from the titan, he saw James flailing his arms, beckoning him to turn around. He turned around slowly, only to realize that he was too late. One knife followed by another pierced through his lightly armored commander uniform. He gasped and choked. More knives pierced through him and within moments, the great commander had turned into a pile of bones and flesh. James winced at the horrific sight. The knives regained its humanoid shape and walked uneasily towards James. James slammed the hatch shut and yelled, 'Conner get the titan moving! We've got company and I don't think you'll want to meet them!'

James sent the Titan moving backwards while Conner took control of the main cannon to destroy Commander Richards' bane.

He locked on the target.

'Fire'

The cannon whirred as if it was about to fire when a flash of blue light flooded the area, followed by a sudden distinct hum. The titan suddenly shut down. It stopped dead in its tracks, and the metal man, or buzzers, being named after the distinct noise they made when attacking, was gaining on them. Conner pronounced clearly on the reboot voice scanner system, 'This is Conner Hunter identification number 341654, Steel Talons Platoon 16, Titan division.'

The Titan slowly came back to life, but it was already too late. Just before the vehicle began walking, a 'Reaper Tripod', (so named for its devastating efficiency and it being the icon of Reaper-17's arsenal) the very one that neutrelised the Titan, fired blue plasma cutter beams that sliced the locomotors, keeping the Titan immobile. Conner closed all hatches and activated the one last resort that he never used before: the adaptive armor. He activated the it and instantaneously, the Titan's armour turned a silvery grey, protecting it from any noticeable damage. Conner looked out of the viewscreen to see the Reaper Tripod target its three tentacles. They charged and fired simultaneously, hitting but not damaging the walker. Conner looked at the adaptive armour status bar. The generator could not take another blow like that without overheating. He immediately aimed the arm cannon and with effort, hit the Tripodal being. Suddenly, the Titan was struck by a seemingly unstoppable force. Its hydraulic pistons fought hard to keep the Titan standing but the sheer raw power sent the Titan crashing into a nearby building. Conner could still aim the cannon, but the screen was now covered with slowly growing spots of tiberium crystals, hampering his view. The creature stomped away, firing yet again. A Pitbull exploded in flames. Conner backed away from the cockpit and headed to the miniature personnel area, where the crew could only barely lie down in without banging into each other. James was unconscious because of the supercharged tiberium Reaper Tripod blast and had suffered a major cut by falling debris with blood oozing out of his left temple area. He took out a medical kit and sealed the wound. Conner went back to the cockpit to find the polarized view screen crawling with insects easily his size. He saw them clearly but wished that he could'nt. He could only wait for the fight to bog down now...

Chapter 1

2008-12-01T13:53:00.000+08:00

September 19, 2047, Yellow Zone Y1, Somewhere near Beijing, Asian Steel Talon Production Base, 0432hrs...

The soldiers took no time in rushing to the various armories and rushing back out clad in composite armor. Numerous fully-armed soldiers, two men in particular, headed off in different directions, most toward the desert of Tiberium ravaged China. The first man, corporal Conner Hunter, headed towards the vehicle bay with his assigned engineer and machine gunner to man his Titan. He entered the massive structure to see his majestic, eight meter tall Titan MK II MBT (Main Battle Tank) standing proud and tall. Its sides were angular and freshly painted. By its side was a long black barrel, that of a 120mm anti-tank cannon upgraded to fire the new railgun shells along with the ID T-1542 painted in bold by the side with the Steel talons symbol. Conner ascended the flight of steps that would bring them to the entry hatch. As he went through numerous authentication checks, his engineer booted up the neural interface system and firing mechanism and the gunner checked the machine gun mounted above the massive body of the vehicle. Conner he heard the distinct staccato of Raider Buggy spitfire cannons chiseling away at the infantry of the base and Attack Cycle rocket launchers releasing their Tiberium missiles at various structures. Nod was attacking. Their fast units had gone past the defenses and into the vulnerable base before the emergency power kicked in. The Titan began powering up. Giant hydraulic pistons pounded as the legs of the 27-foot tall walker flexed and extended.

The neural interface sensor powered up and began reading his every move. He now had absolute control over the Titan now. With the sensitivity of its neural sensors, the Titan was able to move more fluidly with its legs mounted upon universal joints.The vehicle bay was filled with the thunderous sound of the titans footsteps. Conner eased his way out of the vehicle bay accompanied by an assortment of Steel Talon vehicles and entered the fray. Streams of bullets and tank shells filled the air above their heads, followed successively by the screams of people and the ear splitting noise of the explosions that took place. He immediately aimed the Titan's railgun at a nearby raider buggy and took aim, the railgun shell flew true and obliterated the nearly non-existent armor of the vehicle. The co-gunner on the other hand, who was controlling the machine gun on the top of the Titan was shot by the Raider Buggies' spitfire laser cannon. Blood spattered all over the interior of the Titan as the body of the dead pilot dropped back inside, motionless. Conner immediately ordered the engineer to dispose of the body while he took out the remaining attackers.

The second man, corporal James Conrad, headed to a different vehicle bay. This man instead of getting into a similar vehicle, got into a wolverine, a diminished version of titan. But not to be fooled, the stout 6-foot mini-walker had enough armor plating to withstand light tanks shells and carried 50-caliber machine guns mounted on each arm. Added to that, the Wolverine kept secret compartments of mini rockets and grenade launchers.The Wolverines were known to be excellent anti-personnel vehicles and have always had good records in battle. James also went through numerous authentication checks before the walker powered up and the neural interface attached itself to him. He quickly walked out of the bay behind another Wolverine and engaged the horde of incoming infantry. Nod militants began pouring into the base by the masses, slaughtering the unfortunate infantry who had accidentally stepped in their path. But many met a choke point. At the other end stood battle ready Wolverines. They took the advantage of it and spat streams of bullets at the incoming intruders. Bodies dropped to the ground whittled by bullets that tore through their armor like water on paper. Due to the sudden shift in power play because of the new and menacing Avatar Warmechs, Commanding officers ordered as many Titans and Wolverines to be sent out as possible, with the problem being that the new pilots had yet received enough training to prepare them for the ongoing battle. Some recruits in particular, were having difficulty adapting to the movement of the Titan being new to it and having only received a weeks worth of training at most. For Wolverines, the sensors were mostly focused on the head, for swiveling. Movement was solely controlled by the pilot. For the Titan, movement was both neural sensors and voice-activated, but speed was another matter. Wolverines were quick to move and fire While Titans had a slower rate of fire and were cumbersome for its role as an MBT. Connor almost decided to get out of this relatively slow vehicle and pick something faster when a Scorpion Tank appeared in his polarized viewscreen, its spitfire laser cannon flashing. A beam sliced a Wolverine's leg and it collapsed, still firing. Conner turned his head and the target scope centered on the light tank.

'Fire.'

The moment Conner spoke those words, various voice recognition sensors built exclusively for Steel Talon's Titans verified his voice and activated the railgun. The Scorpion Tank exploded in a cloud of smoke as a Titan railgun shell punctured its relatively weak armor and detonated its fuel cells and laser capacitator. Conner continued along the path, crushing numerous militants that did not get away in time. He spotted another vehicle: a Nod Avatar. His vehicle could not challenge something like that. The 39 foot tall battle walker was often known as the bane of vehicles and that no one should attempt to challenge one alone. Its laser beam would go through that half a meter thick armor as if nothing was there, and the avatar was often known to have secrets of being able of controlling another vehicles' technology. His heart started beating wildly. It was aiming at his Titan. One hit would instantly kill him and put the Titan permanently out of commission.

Adrenaline rushed through him. He waited till the Avatar's cannon was reaching maximum charge. He then targeted the Avatar's arm cannon as best as he could, firing at the last moment. He would have succeeded in permanently disarming the Avatar's primary weapon had he not missed. The railgun upgraded Titan shell flew past its target and lodged itself inside the Avatar's right shoulder, throwing red colored metal shards in random directions, throwing the laser beam off target. It hit the lower section of the Titan, loosening the joints of the Titan's leg.

'Half speed, South,' Conner spoke, and finding no response, yelled, 'Fix the left leg, we've got no response. Hydraulics must not be working,'

The engineer rushed down a ladder and into the lower segment of the Titan.

The Avatar, seemingly unfazed, took aim once more, charging its beam. Its lifeless sensors focusing on the relatively small walker. With a grim determination, Conner took aim at the exact same target. This will be your end. He fired again, and this time his aim was true, but an explosion nearby caught his eye. On impulse, he turned, the minute action causing the shell to miss yet again, hitting the lower chest. The Avatar beam sliced to the left, narrowly missing the cab. Sections of Titan armour fell. Along with the debris was the dead corpse of the poor engineer with a spanner and briefcase still in hand and his suit ruptured to reveal his bare chest with burn marks that had dried up the blood.

A red light turned green. The left leg is operational again. The engineer had done his job.

'Full speed. Southwest,' Conner said, enunciating clearly. He needed to get away from this battle quickly, or get pulverized. Retreat and get help. Maybe help would come now, if he called now.

He opened a channel in the main communication line. All units in an area would be able to communicate with the base and others on the field. In this case, the entire Steel Talon Base. Private channels were more common, but came with a smaller range. Conner and James also shared one themselves.

Transmissions suddenly squawked through his helmet earpiece, causing him to immediately regret his decision.

'This is Titan T-147. request immediate backup.'

'Behemoths approaching! All units hold position!'

'Where are the Orca Dropships?'

'There are too many! Where the heck did they come from?'

'Where's our air cover?'

'The hangars have been overrun!'

'Sir we need backu- ahhh!'

It went on to about forty one-way conversations in twenty seconds, never getting any better. Conner closed the line. Perhaps James could help. Then again, a Wolverine would not be of any good, even with HE (High Explosive) bullets. It was just a matter of who would be first to get pulverized. Not a nice thought. A pity he had not bothered to get more communication links. The only way now was probably to die trying. Not a nice thought either. He turned to face his massive foe, and saw it destroy a Pitbull stupid enough to aggravate it, then stepping on a MRT (Mobile Repair Transport), obliterating it and killing its passengers. Conner took the moment to scan the surroundings. Not a vehicle who could match the Avatar in combat. The massive walker returned its attention back to the Titan in front of it. It took aim. Conner took aim, while contemplating escape. He was quivering. I must have waited too long. Maybe it would fire soon. Too soon.

He fired.

He missed again, but the Avatar was still charging its laser, visibly oblivious to the Titan projectile. Three. Sweat trickled down Conner's nervous body as he tried to moved the neural sensors to target the shell just right. Two. He found his mark and armed the cannon. One. It was too late, laser was still charging. Zero. He closed his eyes and hoped for revelation.

Three dull thuds in the distance caught Conner's attention. The next moment, the Avatar was ripped apart by three massive shells in rapid succession. Metal splinters and sparks flew as the remains of the Avatar crashed onto the ground. Moments later,the carcass of the warmech erupted and exploded as the fires reached the oil reserves. A behemoth! No time to see his benefactor, however. Stealth Tanks were appearing all over the place, letting loose tiberium missile barrages, then disappearing again. Reckoners were deploying bunkers amidst the Steel Talon formation, scattering the GDI units.

James was not doing very well either. He was holding back the infantry charge at the West Sector of the forward base when Beam Cannons destroyed the first line of Wolverines. The Commanding Officer ordered a full retreat and called for reinforcements when his Wolverine got pulverized by a laser beam. He took aim and fired burst after burst of bullets in different directions. With each burst, militants dropped dead onto the ground. He then sprayed a long burst of bullets at another wave of attackers.

But behind them lay a deadly secret. A stealth Tank emerged out of nowhere and fired a volley of its deadly tiberium shatter missiles. James veered to the left, powerful legs moving swiftly over the ground. But the chance of missing the volley was slim. A couple hit the Wolverine's left leg, temporarily disabling it. Thankfully the Wolverine did not collapse. James turned around to see that the Titan behind him took the full brunt of the volley. It was that which the Stealth Tank was aiming for was badly hit, and was sending out a signal.

'Repeat! This is Titan T-147. Request immediate backup!'

James raised the wolverines arm mounted machine gun and with precise aim, impacted one of the two missile pods of the Stealth Tank.

The explosion engulfed the vehicle and blew apart its weak structure. Tiberium shards were thrown everywhere, but just before the Stealth Tank exploded, it launched another half volley. But the Titan was already badly damaged, and that volley was too much. It toppled onto the ground, flaming as it fell. James leaped out of the wolverine and turned around to aid the Titan crew. As he punched through the reinforced view screen of the Titan cab with his rifle and shoulder, flames began to engulf the Titan.

James pulled out the barely conscious pilot and went back in for the injured engineer. The fire was creeping toward the fuel tanks. James hastily dragged the engineer out onto open terrain.

Just in time. Missiles arced across the Titan, impacted it and detonating the incapacitated walker. He turned to see that his Wolverine had also been turned to scrap metal, smoke billowing from the carcass of the walker that he had just been assigned. The Stealth Tank turned and drove off, then the stealth generator kicked in and it vanished from sight. He grabbed a nearby GD-2 assault rifle, turning his eyes away from the dead soldier who was still clasping it. The smoke billowing from both wreckage affected his vision. He could not see further than his hand. He switched on the unit scanner on his helmets HUD (Heads-Up Display). Four blips, no friendlies. He unlocked the safety and fired four successive bursts of gunfire, effectively killing half of the NOD militants present. The other two dove for cover behind the shell of a nearby wreckage of an Attack Cycle, rapidly shouting for reinforcements.

James flung an unpinned grenade through the smoke and after a few seconds, it detonated. Fragments of the grenade, sand, dust and shrapnel flew in different directions, ripping through one of the militants' sup-par armor, cutting through his flesh and perforating an artery. The other militant was about to fire at James and the pilot who had finally got hold of his senses when his body was punctured by a tank shell that flew through him. James turned around to see a battle-damaged Titan, smoke coming out of the railgun at its side. James squinted his eyes and briefly made out the ID of the Titan.

'T-1542,' he breathed. Conner's Titan. He heard his private comm channel beep. Switching it on, he heard Conner's voice. 'Get into the Titan now!'

James helped the crew into the cabin of the Titan and went to the pilot seat to check on Conner. Conner was fine, and better yet, he was blowing up the enemy vehicles that were headed their way.His comm link sounded.He answered the summon and after a moment,switched it off yet again. Steel Talon commanders had known his position and ordered him to defend his current position while reinforcements arrived. A suicide strategy, but there was no other obvious choice.

From the smoke appeared another Avatar warmech. This time it had two laser capacitators and an additional two racks of tiberium shatter missiles mounted on both shoulders. He already had trouble with a normal one. This was worse. He activated the neural interface and targeted the Titan cannon precisely at the center of the Avatar laser cannon. He quickly primed it.

'Fire!'

The shell flew true and impacted with the Avatars secondary Cannon, destroying it and causing the whole left arm to fly off from the sudden force upon its already weak jointed left arm. Its right laser on the other hand was primed and charging.

From the Avatar's command console, the Avatar pilot timed his missiles to launch at a precise timing so that his missiles and the laser capacitator would hit the Titan simultaneously. First flew the missiles, leaving two dozen trails of exhaust in its wake.James opened the hatch of the machine gun emplacement. Following Conner's instructions, he manned the machine gun located just on the titans overhead plating and attempted to shoot down the missiles.

One

Two

Five

Seven

Ten

Eleven

He almost destroyed half of them. He jammed down on the fire buttons, sending a hailstorm of bullets at the inbound missiles. The missiles were only a few meters away and gaining. Conner's eyes fixed on the Avatars' main cannon. If I shoot at the cannon, the laser will malfunction but the missiles will still destroy the Titan, unless... he redirected the shot, aiming for the 'eye' of the Avatar itself. Sweat rolled down his furrowed brow. His heart pumped as though it were an overloaded electrical appliance. The missiles were too close now. Any closer and they would impact the Titan.

'Fire.'

The railgun cannon fired and the shell whizzed its way to the Avatar, hitting the primary photoreceptors, messing with the missile tracker and laser controls. The cannon overloaded, exploding and sending a shock wave that crippled the right arm. The missiles suddenly went haywire and arced in different directions,some hitting the Titan, buildings and already destroyed vehicles, sending tiberium flying all over the place and puncturing through numerous pieces of armor plating, including Conner's titan as well. With the Avatar neutralized, Conner fired one last shell at the Avatar's legs, nearly missing but crippling the walker anyway. It fell face first. With that, he turned away from the smoldering wreckage of the expired walker and headed away from the battle lines. He could not afford any more tangles with enemy walkers.

The bulk of the steel talons forces were pinned down at the center of the complex: the Central Headquarters, with small groups of vehicles and infantry scattered around the battlefield. Infantry took cover behind overturned vehicles and retaliated to the constant swarms of fire that rained upon them from eight different entrances. From the top level of the STCHQ (Steel Talon Central Headquarters), in the command tower, the general sent out a distress signal.

'All units converge and defend the headquarters. I repeat, all units retreat and defend the headquarters.'

The Behemoths reassessed their targets and all fired artillery shells at the hordes of militants attempting to break through the defense line. From the front lines, cries could be heard by the people that were shot.The constant staccato of exchanging fire from either side. The thundering roar of missiles soaring overhead and the sound of tank shells impacting the poor unfortunate souls that were hit.

General Pierce observed, from the command tower of the central Command Center, the bloody mess from below. They were now left with seven Wolverines, two Titans, nine Pitbulls and no more than a hundred men and women with reinforcements on the way. He suddenly saw a Titan explode and collapse onto nearby infantry and two Pitbulls. The situation was grim. Nod militants were breaking through and the men were running low on ammunition. This is just like one of the simulated battles in officer school. He had defeated the enemy with only group of old Pitbulls and those phased-out Disruptors. He gave a frown and concentrated on the task at hand. He ordered his officers to instruct the Wolverines to defend major entrances. With a sudden explosion the last Titan went down along with two more Pitbulls. The soldiers felt the doom on their shoulders as the Wolverines were decapitated by the laser blasts.

Conner stomped to the hangars, curious at why there was no air support. He saw a group of Militants and Fanatics backed up by a small group of Attack Cycles aiming their missiles and rifles at the hangers with the aircraft pilots struggling to stave off the attack with their own GD1s and 2s. An Attack Cycle noticed Conner's Titan and spun round, releasing a blue laser bolt-like projectile at the legs of the walker. A second later, the Titan completely shut down, staying upright because of automatic stabilizers that deployed without electronics. James leaped out of the Titan hatch at the underside of the walker. Already the soldiers were pointing their rifles at the Titan, not noticing James already out, hidden behind the massive legs. He cocked his rifle and, thinking better of it, primed a grenade. It was always the feeling he was holding a metal ball packed with explosives that may detonate any second that made him nervous.

'Get out!' one Nod soldier shouted in the poor way locals usually spoke. No reply, except a small black ball that rolled out from the Titan and came to a stop at his foot. Before he could register what was happening, he and a few others were blown apart instantly. The remainders rushed forward through the smoke, guns blazing, targeting the leg and James was forced to flatten himself uncomfortably against the hard Titan leg. Attack Cycles sped towards him, shooting their missiles at random intervals and directions. James ran out from behind and darted left and right, made his way to the nearing attack cycle and jumped on. blowing the driver off with a quick gun burst, knocking him off and killing him. He seized control over it and fired the missiles at the other Attack Cycles, simultaneously revving the accelerator. One was destroyed. The others turned, gave chase and started firing tiberium missiles at him. They detonated around him, throwing up tiberium shards.

Save one.

It struck beside James and threw him off his cycle. He landed on the ground but was mostly uninjured.He looked down to see a small tiberium shard embedded in his armor. He immediately ripped it off his armor and continued firing at the Militants. They started firing in the general direction of James but a loud whirring of fan blades caught their attention. HE bullets and missiles suddenly rained down on the NOD units. The last cycle evaded the bullets and was about to fire at the Orca Dropship when the engineer successfully activated the Titan and it fired a railgun shell at the vehicle, pulverizing it. The aircraft lifted up and joined in the ensuing battle.

General Pierce was on the verge of losing hope when the thunderous roar of Firehawk afterburners was heard. He looked out to see Orca Dropships heading towards the Nod army as fast as their Fan Blade engines would allow, followed closely by the firehawks as they primed their missiles to fire at the unprotected infantry columns. Conner sent his Titan stomping to the STCHQ to see the hordes of Nod forces scattering to evade the explosive onslaught. And as if the explosions needed an answer, infantry and vehicle platoons arriving from many secured areas of the base, rejoining the main attack group and repeling the attack.

Information

2008-11-30T13:45:00.000+08:00

Tiberium - A mysterious alien substance which landed near Lake Tiber in Italy (hence its name) in 1995 that leeches metals and other heavy minerals out of the soil, concentrating them in crystals which can be easily collected and processed. The leeching process leaves the landscape depleted, leaving the ground underneath effectively useless for agriculture. It is a valuable resource but turns any matter it touches into more of itself, giving off powerful radiation in the process. Generally, exposure to Tiberium (either a single heavy exposure or a long-term light exposure) will cause death by some form of total system failure. Three main factions wage war over this substance. NOD wants to cover the Earth with it, Scrin (an alien faction) wants to harvest it while GDI aims to eradicate it off the face of the Earth.

Steel Talons - The Steel Talons is a unique experimental technology division of GDI that specializes in utilizing untested technologies, providing near overwhelming force and firepower. The Talons were formed after the resolution of Firestorm Crisis, by General Joshua Mitchell. Mitchell's belief in having a substantially more highly advanced weaponry than any Nod opposition shaped the Talons' combat doctrine. Thanks to General Mitchell, the group was a test bed for a variety of the state-of-the-art military technologies, many of which were adopted into regular use by GDI forces by the Third Tiberium War. Notably, the division still uses mechanized walkers, such as the Titan and Wolverine. Both have been redesigned since the Second Tiberium War. Steel Talons is not the official designation of the unit; the name was given to the unit by Mitchell's admirers in the media, notably the famed war hero Nick Parker. Because of their unique purpose, the Division is somewhat autonomous from the rest of GDI.

Titan MK II - The Steel Talons brigade has continued to use a new model of the classic Titan, despite its maintenance and reliability issues. Its design and immense popularity among GDI military personnel have allowed the walker to remain in active service in a number of GDI task forces. The Titan Mk. II has a sturdier design than before. While less nimble than the Predator, the Titan is more heavily armed and can take more damage. The new design was more compatible with newer technologies, such as the railgun upgrade and adaptive armour systems. Despite it's success, only the Steel Talons continue to use the vehicle.

Wolverine MK II - With Steel Talon's attempts to keep walkers within the GDI military a new version of the Wolverine would have to be made in order to have computability with other advancements technologies at the time. It utilized a redesigned version of the Wolverine following the Firestorm Crisis. The new design, while substantially different from the original Wolverine, continued its anti-infantry and scouting roles. The new design can be upgraded with new armor piercing ammunition. The walker continues to stay in service with the Steel Talons, though in core GDI forces it's role was largely replaced by the six-wheeled Guardian Advanced APC.

Avatar - A powerful NOD walker armed with a laser cannon. It can take down many GDI vehicles with ease. There are unconfirmed sightings on such walkers with upgrades. An Australian Steel Talon base defending a liquid tiberium plant was reported being attacked by similar things

Rifleman Squad - The Rifleman Squads are the mainstay of the Global Defense Initiative. They are armed with automatic GD-2 rifles and all are equipped with standard GDI body armor and battle equipment. Their squads are composed of six soldiers, though this may differ between divisions.

Orca Dropship (no picture available) - The Orca Dropship is an experimental aircraft that was later introduced into the Steel talons arsenal to replace the Hammerhead, and although are not a common sight in other GDI bases, the Orca Dropship has nonetheless proven its reliability on the battlefield. Easily the size of three Orca gunships, the Orca drop ship has three seats, two gunner seats in front and a gyroscopic pilots seat behind. The gyroscopic pilot seat allows the pilot to fly the Orca Dropship backwards so that the gunners can stave off enemy attacks with their 50 mm machine guns and rattlesnake missiles. The maximum capacity of the Orca Dropship is 16 men and 1 wolverine, although they can be refitted to be able to carry a half a titan, in the case where heavy firepower is required. The Orca Dropship relies heavily on two fan blade rotors and four Firehawk engines located under either wing.

Prologue

2008-11-29T19:21:00.000+08:00

A klaxon rang out, shattering the early morning silence. Spotlights jabbed into the sky, revealing many bat-winged aircraft flying overhead. Tungsten bullets sliced through the air, targeting the intruders. Men and women ran out of the barracks, still dazed by the sudden attack. Several bombers were knocked out of the sky, flaming as they fell. Suddenly, they scattered, opening their bomb-bay doors, releasing their deadly payloads on seemingly random locations, namely the tiberium silos, power plants and firehawk hangars. The bombers then flew off, disappearing as quickly as they came. Mild tremors could be felt on the ground as the GDI infantry armed themselves.

Explosions took place. Raider buggies followed closely by Scorpion Tanks went in through the neutralized base defenses, destroying the sentry patrols. The first group of GDI riflemen made a futile effort to stave off the attack, destroying a Scorpion Tank, two Raider Buggies and a couple of Attack Cycles before getting riddled by bullets that swarms of NOD militants launched at them.

The first company of riflemen exited their armories and headed into battle, their hearts pounding to the beat of the gunfire from the battlefield. The battle had begun...