A report on Tiberium and its affects
Personal Log: Commander Michael McNeil - December 12th, 2030
Lately, I look around and wonder how we got to this point. We continue in this struggle to survive the Tiberian insanity. This bickering over food, the wars for supremacy, and the out of control mutations are increasing at what seems like an exponential rate.
Tiberium was supposed to change the world for the better, a limitless resource with unimaginable properties. It may have started out as our best hope for a new and exciting future, but that future is not one that we designed. I wonder how the earth will look in another 50 years and if we will even recognize it? I just don't know anymore. All I do know now is that Kane is dead. There's no way he's going to snake out of this one, I saw that evil light drain from his eyes when I ran him through. It's too bad that the rest of the snake's body is still wriggling around striking at anything that moves. Nod is broken and the new power players are stepping up to the plate. I know Slavik is licking his wounds and hatching new plans.
The turbulent and gloomy weather that we are seeing lately is a reflection of my faith. I can't fight nature and this Tiberium beast which is ravaging us all. I can only roll with the punches and keep pounding against the onslaught of doubt I have. Give me a hoard of Nod's elite guards, those I can handle and beat, but this Tiberian plague is hard to grasp.
It is hard to even comprehend where to begin. I can only rely on the scientists and doctors who are diligently working on the problem. With Kane gone and his temple now in our hands maybe we can decipher what he was working on. We have the pieces of the puzzle now, we just have to figure out how they all fit together. Maybe the Tacitus can help lead us to those answers. Another week is what they say it will take to pack this place up and ship it out. It's not soon enough, I hate sitting around waiting and watching.
Log Entry 635 - Slavik, Anton - General | Entry Date: 12-17-2030
The Generals
Burn them all! Nod has enough problems with the GDI jackals digging through the ruins of Kane's temple, but now these new "generals", more like fools, continue to bicker and vie for power. I cannot allow this infighting to continue. The inner circle is divided and I need to remind them that even though Kane is gone, his plans live on.
I will remind them of that. You would think they would know better than that by now. I have not survived death time after time and stood at Kane's right hand this long to see everything crumble all around us. Our lack of communication and inaccurate information is a severe hindrance � without CABAL's presence, we are deaf and blind to the rest of the world. I cannot let anger distract me from my path. Kane's plan will become reality � I will see to that. The steps have been taken and the machine has been set in motion. I will not let Nod degenerate into chaos as it did in the past. We are stronger than that � I am stronger than that; but first things first. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day.
The Data Matrix
En route to the Philadelphia, the Kodiak was caught in a heavy Ion Storm and crashed while transporting the Tacitus Data Matrix and its cipher notes from Kane's temple at Cairo to Tratos. Due to increased ion particle activity in the upper atmosphere, EVA global command links were severed from the Philadelphia and communication satellites. As a result, General Paul Cortez, commanding officer of Southern Cross, assumed global GDI command until the Philadelphia and General Solomon could be reached.
Cortez assembled the Firestorm Task Force, headed by a young Commander recalled from his duty on Operation Lazarus, to deal with the situation... First order of business; to find the crashed Kodiak and retrieve the Tacitus Data Matrix and other valuable information from the craft, at all costs.
Following the retrieval of the Tacitus and while on its way to the Daedalus complex, the Firestorm Task Force was ordered to investigate a disturbance by unidentified life forms near and in Colony 3, one of several small GDI settlements designed to protect civilian population, both mundane and mutated humans, from the increasingly faster and tougher spread of Tiberium forming of Earth.
While GDI forces were spread thin and Southern Cross was trying to compensate for the lack of EVA global command abilities and no contact with the GDI headquarters, the Philadelphia space station, a small Nod commando unit intercepted Tratos on his way to the Daedalus complex and assassinated him.
A Cabal Against Generals
With the disappearance of Kane, the Generals of Nod's Inner Circle stood divided, tearing the Brotherhood of Nod. General Anton Slavik, leader of the Black Hand of Nod, ordered the capture of the Nod command and control AI core, CABAL, from the Cairo base GDI formed around Kane's temple.
Upon reactivation, CABAL ordered the continued implementation of Kane's divination and Tiberium-forming efforts. CABAL sent a small and covert force of field engineers and specially equipped cadre to facilitate his recent experiments in evolution.
Using psycho-tropic agents, the Nod team has managed to "convince" the civilian populace of GDI Colony 3 to lure newly formed Tiberium creatures from a nearby experimentation range, aptly named the Genesis Pit.
"...Tratos. He is the only sentient, other than myself, that can translate the Tacitus. Kill him!"
- CABAL
Unleashing the new Tiberium life forms on a civilian population has thrown GDI forces into disarray. Seizing the opportunity, or perhaps orchestrating it from the start, CABAL ordered the assasination of the leader of the Forgotten; Tratos.
Desperate Measures
"The Daedalus team and I are still convinced the Tacitus is our best approach. The assasination of Tratos has put us months, if not years, off schedule. At the present rate of Tiberium organic syntheses, within a year, maybe less, our atmosphere will be one hundred per cent toxic to humans."
- Dr. Gabriella Boudreau
With the assassination of Tratos, the Daedalus team was dead in their tracks, trying to translate the Tacitus Data Matrix. They however found an unlikely alternative for translating it. The Computer Assisted Biologically Augmented Lifeform, or CABAL. The Nod AI which assisted Tratos in the translation of the Tacitus for Kane.
Upon activation CABAL was unable to complete the translation for GDI. It revealed that a second segment of the Tacitus existed, in an uncharted area in a temple, outside La Paz, Bolivia.
"Nod was incapable of recovering the second segment. You have done so, as I orchestrated from the beginning. Humans, as ever, are easily herded."
- CABAL
With the Tacitus at his possesion, CABAL started a culling operation. Harvesting humans for Tiberium mutation and Cyborg production. First in line was GDI Colony 6.
From the Ashes
Nod's Inner Circle of Generals reached a decision, based on Nod activity, thought to be ordered by General Slavik. The retrieval of the Tacitus, the extermination of Tratos and other such endeavors. However, those orders did not come from the Black Hand leader. They came from CABAL, acting on its own accord.
"The Brotherhood is at an evolutionary dead end. I am the only salvation to the continued supremacy of Nod. It is my world now. Listen to the sounds of your own extinction, human."
- CABAL
Turning on its supposed controllers, CABAL killed the Generals of Nod's Inner Circle. All but one... General Anton Slavik, leader of the Black Hand of Nod, managed to escape CABAL's treachery. And in doing so, he ordered the retreat of as many Nod squads as possible, to save them from CABAL and for the continuation of Kane's legacy.
Rescuing as many Nod followers as possible, General Slavik ordered a surgical strike on a GDI base, to steal a data core of their Electronic Video Agent. Although not as sophisticated an AI as CABAL, EVA will not try to turn on its masters.
Having communication and command capabilities back online, using the stolen and reprogrammed EVA unit, the Black Hand of Nod had turned its attention to CABAL:
"We are the Black Hand of Nod. We are the salvation of Nod. CABAL betrayed just not You and I, but he betrayed the Brotherhood. He betrayed Kane. And there is only one price for betrayal... Destroy CABAL!"
- General Anton Slavik
Core of the Problem
Due to the desperate situation faced by both factions, General Cortez and General Slavik agreed on a cease fire... to wipe CABAL's forces from the face of the Earth. Before attempting to destroy CABAL's core, the forces have created plans to destroy CABAL's axillary bases.
GDI scientists reprogrammed a captured cyborg and infected it with a virus. The Firestorm Task Force was then ordered to get that Cyborg, undetected, into CABAL's auxillary Cyborg Production Plant. There to critically damage his cyborg production capabilities.
While preparing for the final assault, Slavik's forces were ordered to take out a different auxillary base of CABAL's. A Tiberium research and resource gathering facility in Eastern Africa.
After crippling CABAL's resources and Cyborg production, the combined GDI and Nod forces have overwhelmed CABAL's main base, smashing all of his forces into junk and scrap metal. Destroying even CABAL's latest creation, his own Core Defender. A product of combinations of Nod cyborg research and GDI mech technology.
CABAL was destroyed... Much like Kane before him... Or so it seemed.
One Victory
The destruction of CABAL allowed GDI forces to retrieve both segments of the Tacitus... or, rather, what used to be two segments. The two merged and the Tacitus, upon activation, started to decode itself, to display data;
"We found the Rosetta Stone. Data, Paul, millions of teraquads of data... We're seeing formulas and engineering data, genetic codes, material I can't even begin to recognize. It will take some time, but... at least now we have all the pieces. We can reconstruct the puzzle from this."
- Dr. Gabriella Boudreau
For the Brotherhood of Nod, the destruction of CABAL was yet another semi-religious experience. A further proof of their purpose. A further proof for the validity of their cause;
"Today we have defeated the single greatest threat to the survival of the Brotherhood, and triumphed. Today the madness of CABAL was put to an end, and a new era has begun. We are strong. We are invincible. We are the future of the survival of man kind. Nod remains a unified force, with one vision and one purpose. We will continue to uphold the ideals of Kane. Peace through power. When Kane returns we will truly be unstoppable. In the name of Kane!"
- General Anton Slavik
With a scene full of clone vats in an undisclosed location we are left with the words of Kane, or CABAL, or both as one entity:
"My... My vision has permutated. My... Your... My plans have followed a path unpredicted by the union of Nod and GDI. My... Your... Our directives must be reassessed."
- Kane/CABAL
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