LASER Weaponry (Obelisk of Light, LASER Turret)
LASERs[1] had been around for quite some time, of course, before Nod began to use them as weapons platforms, but up until that point they were in a form unsuitable to acting as a weapon due to a number of problems including size, weight, cooling, power requirements, and even battlefield durability. Because of these factors, LASERs were relegated to minor roles - such as static emplacements for shooting down long-range missiles - until an obscure Thai engineer developed a new, durable reflective and refractive system that was to revolutionise the way LASERs were built and used.
Based on research into creating durable magnetic ceramics by scientists in Japan, the engineer managed to create artificial ceramic crystals that could internally reflect and refract light with power loss only matched by the most precisely engineered glass mirrors. The usefulness of this discovery was lost on most of the world - glass mirrors were still easier and cheaper to manufacture and most military types had long ago dismissed LASER weaponry as simply not viable. Most American armaments manufacturers were trying to perfect missiles and ballistic weapons, and basic research was being done on particle-based weaponry. However, Nod smugglers who had been working relatively close to the Thai engineer by supplying him with materials for some of his more... exotic... experiments recognized that the ceramic crystals could be useful for future Nod plans to expand infrastructure and commence a more open conflict with the rich nations of the world. This view proved correct, as Nod engineers soon developed a working prototype of a static LASER defensive system.
Obelisk of Light
The prototype structure originally stood almost 10 stories high and had a large supporting base containing cooling and power systems. One of the Nod builders, upon seeing it vaporize a dummy target tank remarked, "Behold, the bringer of Kane's light". Given that the structure would never be used on its own - only as part of a larger Nod installation - specialised underground power and cooling conduit systems were developed that allowed the tower to draw energy and send waste heat to nearby Nod power plants. The resulting structure, stripped of its internal cooling and power components, resembled a large obelisk in the Egyptian style. Thus, the name "Obelisk of Light" was born.
The form of the Obelisk changed little throughout the first major Nod-GDI conflict as GDI tank commanders were thoroughly unable to find exploitable weaknesses in the structure. Though relatively cheap and easy to construct, given an existing base, Obelisks were still extraordinarily durable under combat conditions. However, by the time Kane resurfaced and the second major Nod-GDI conflict began, GDI armor and weaponry (not to mention numbers) had improved to a point where Obelisks were proving incapable of effectively defending Nod bases. A solution, which proved only moderately successful, was to increase the range and power of the Obelisk by combining internal power and cooling with external connections. The resulting structure, with its larger base, very much resembled the original prototype. For stylistic reasons the base area was shaped like a giant scorpion - this, of course, added nothing to the effectiveness of the weapon.
More interesting, albeit less effective and useful, was the eventual development of small LASER cannon emplacements that were excellent at covering the Obelisk's one major weakness: infantry. These small cannons used the same power and cooling transport conduits as the original Obelisk, but used standard LASER components mounted on a solidly-built, rotating platform. The end result, a LASER Turret, proved fairly efficient at point defence against GDI infantry and light armor.
LASER Turret
Ion Cannon
Ion Cannon
Orbital weapons were a military dream ever since the "space age" began in the early 1960s. As peace efforts between the USA and Soviet Russia continued, a treaty banning their implementation was enacted. This didn't stop technologists from continuing to dream and plan, however. When, many years later, it became clear that Nod was a definite global threat, the UN Security Council enacted a special, secret, resolution that amended the original space weaponry ban to exclude the Global Defence Initiative. Suddenly, military technologists were given the opportunity to work, in secret, on an orbital weapon that would allow the GDI to compensate for Nod's ability to seemingly spring out of nowhere by being able to strike at Nod forces as soon as they appeared.
A major contributor to the GDI - the United States - had been interested in space-based weaponry (albeit for defensive rather than offensive purposes) for a long time. US Military research institutions provided their work on the Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI) to all of the corporations contracted to design the new orbital weapon. Most designs favoured either numerous space guns that would use Gauss acceleration tubes (a.k.a. rail guns) to rain down fire, or large space installations supporting a single large LASER combined with orbital mirrors for direction.
The first sets of designs were rejected because they were too difficult to maintain - requiring expensive and dangerous space missions in order to re-supply the weapons with ammunition. The second set was rejected because it was too fragile - the large LASER host station would be an easy target and the smaller orbital mirrors were too unreliable. Only one design managed to succeed where these others failed. An exceptionally efficient power design combined with a revolutionary new small particle acceleration system made GXE Corporation's "Ion Cannon" the winning design.
Its operation was simple, in theory. Magnets and static-electricity plates attract charged particles from the solar wind and collect them in a storage system. In order to fire, the Earth's atmosphere is first "softened up" by a stream of accelerated electrons that create a highly charged environment (i.e. stormy weather) over the target. Once the preparation cycle is complete (the matter of a few seconds), the particle accelerator generates a high-intensity concentrated proton beam that saturates the target area. The target area receives a combination of heat due to small-scale nuclear fusion and large amounts of subatomic radiation.
The net effect is instant vaporisation of metals at ground zero combined with severe damage to concrete buildings (due to effects on their supporting iron rebars) in the surrounding area and lethal damage to afflicted organisms. Despite the intensity of the results, the weapon has few long-term effects and is remarkably safe, energy-efficient, and accurate. However, these advantages are severely counterbalanced by the weapon's extremely high costs and delicate nature. A total of three Ion Cannon weapon systems were separately sent into orbit but only one survived the trip. GDI military analysts currently speculate that had all three weapons functioned, the Nod-GDI war could have been cut short by months.
Lazarus Shield (Stealth Tank, Stealth Generator)
Cloaking was known to the Soviets in the Great War, and as Nod began its "resurgence" (resurgence since supposedly the sect originated from ancient times) it easily acquired the technology from defectors in the Russian government. Nod had considerable interest in stealth weaponry; as they were essentially terrorists and lacking in infrastructure, the idea of having units or even structures that could evade detection interested them greatly.
Kane took personal interest in this project and set up an elaborate research institution to develop a Stealth Tank. Unfortunately, this large institution was an obvious target and was hit fairly quickly in the first GDI-Nod war. Fortunately for Nod, they were able to escape with the plans and were later able to reacquire the captured prototypes before they were transported to a GDI tech center. Shortly thereafter the first operational units rolled off the production lines at secret Nod-controlled manufacturing plants around the world and were transported to battlefield areas where they were remarkably effective.
The cloak shield depends on mass for operation: the more massive an object, the more energy required to cloak it. There are certain trade-off levels, therefore, that limit applications of the cloak. To cloak a large object, a large power plant was required. Presumably this power plant would also need to be cloaked, adding to the total amount of mass to cloak and requiring a larger power plant, etc. Given limits on power plant efficiency, therefore, the first stealth units were tanks equipped not with heavy cannons and treads but with light missile launchers (which actually proved more effective than cannons simply because effective ammunition was easier to acquire than tank shells) and wheels.
Stealth Tank
Armor was also sacrificed, but this was to be expected. The "Ezekiel's Wheel", also known as the Stealth Tank, was a revolution on the battlefield. GDI doctrine, which revolved around defending one's base of operations extensively before developing a large tank force to beat the enemy, had great difficulty adapting to Nod's new-found ability to strike deep in its bases with near-impunity. In effect, the Stealth Tank was the pinnacle of the Nod battlefield doctrine of maintaining mobility and striking quickly.
But the heavy tank treads of GDI proved too much for Nod to bear, and the war ended in defeat. However, the stealth technology was never captured nor were its production facilities ever completely destroyed. When the second war came around, GDI, having adapted fairly well to the Stealth Tank, was to be plagued once again by stealth technology. In the effort to more effectively hide its bases, a team of Nod engineers made the simple decision of designing a large-scale cloaking system that was fully capable of cloaking everything within a 200-meter radius. Power requirements were enormous, but power was relatively easy to generate.
Small Nod firebases grew into large Nod installations almost overnight. Building a stealth generator, shutting down power to all other buildings, then putting up additional power plants was a simple solution. To GDI, the small bases seemed to disappear and stay disappeared. Satellite spy operators had bigger things to worry about than the disappearance of small outposts. In this manner, Nod was able to build up a tremendous support network that they did not have in the first war.
Kane derived the name, Ezekiel's Wheel, from the book of the Hebrew Prophet Ezekiel (Bible). It is said and believed by many that the book of Ezekiel is a retelling of an encounter with extra terrestrial life forms and technologies. Ezekiel's Wheel is one such retelling, describing metallic wheel within a wheel structure. Considering that Kane did indeed possessed alien technologies, the naming might not be strictly allegorical, or indeed completely without true reason.
It should also be noted that Nod's elite corps, the Black Hand of Nod, has adapted this stealth technology for their own purposes, named Ezekiel's Cape. This smaller version is essentially a combat suit, used by the most competent students of the Black Hand of Nod, themselves the elite of the Brotherhood. This suit cloaked the soldier from sight as well as certain sounds, making them virtually undetectable in combat, except for muzzle flash and other such environmental obstacles to the technology.
Not a very effective combat unit in large scale battles, Nod later utilized that Ezekiel's Cape technology for the Chameleon Spy, creating the penultimate secret operative.
Harmonic Resonance (Disruptor)
Most people would hardly associate a fine glass of champagne being drunk at an opera with military technology. Yet, strange as it seems, this is how the Disruptor technology that was to prove so effective in the second GDI-Nod conflict originally arose. Every layman is, of course, familiar with the fact that glass can break if the right high-frequency sound of a sufficient intensity is directed at it. Most soldiers are also familiar with the concept of sympathetic vibrations - soldiers on foot must break step when crossing a bridge in order not to risk the combined force of their footsteps adding up to a power sufficient to damage the bridge.
But even for a highly educated researcher like Professor Ari Tournesol such simple concepts are rarely remembered on a day-to-day basis. Employed in the European section of the GDI's research division, Prof. Tournesol was between-projects when the first GDI-Nod conflict broke out. After completing their latest research on new kinds of armor-piercing shells, Tournesol's team was assigned some leave time before they got to work on their next, as yet undecided, task. The team, based in Hamburg, was attending a celebratory opera when the magnificent soprano Rosa Di Marco managed to shatter several champagne and wine glasses in the audience during a particularly forceful solo. This proved to be the inspiration for the team's new focus.
It took almost two entire wars to finally see results, but the payoff was worth it. Tournesol's group managed to perfect a device specifically designed to shatter objects made of iron. Unlike the simple physics behind glass resonation or sympathetic vibrations, the military technology was incredibly complex to develop. Suffice it to say that after many, many, trials and errors, the team managed to find a set of electro-magnetic radiations and acoustic frequencies that, when combined together and emitted with sufficient intensity, were capable of causing severe structural damage to anything built out of iron (or an iron alloy) and welded together. Special focusing and controlling equipment were then developed to control the emissions in order to prevent friendly-fire. Many GDI vehicles were also re-engineered to need as little welding as possible (and in non-critical areas) to minimize the effect of the weapon should it fall into enemy hands.
Despite the complexity of developing the device, its construction and maintenance were exceedingly simple. GDI officials were shocked when a low-level engineer on the development base was able to build a partially-working version out of of parts in a tank service bay. This contributed to the extreme caution with which the device was used, and the incredible measures that went into security. The operational model, the DCS-43 "Disruptor" Tank, was equipped with numerous self-destruct devices that completely obliterated the actual weapon without harming the crew inside (as well as one controversial explosive device that destroyed the entire vehicle, crew included, that could be detonated by remote).
Disruptor Tank
Mechanical Walking Technology (Wolverine, Titan, Mammoth Mk. II, Reaper, Core Defender)
With the Earth's atmosphere thinning, leading to more meteorite strikes, and Tiberium rapidly changing the surface of the world, GDI's tank divisions posed a problem. Heavy tanks required solid ground for maximum efficiency, but Tiberium plant life tended to make the Earth mushy and soft, unsuitable for treaded travel. Meteor strikes were also making the terrain much more rocky and hilly. All these factors, combined with the already desperate need to update GDI's weaponry and replace its aging tanks led to the adoption of walking systems - first pioneered in commercial robots in Japan - as the new frame around which, it was envisioned, all future GDI weapons platforms would be built.
Mechanical walking was actually already fairly well known, so no major research work was involved. Instead, a succession of walking prototypes with various weapons configurations (e.g. cannon on the top, or two cannons on the sides, or three cannons on top and sides, or missile launchers and a cannon) were all tried. Eventually, the most efficient design - a single large cannon mounted just to the side of the center of gravity - was adopted. Refinements in design produced the Titan, one of the most effective and also easiest to build tank platforms ever conceived.
Titan
Similar work was done on a replacement for the Hum-Vee. Initially, GDI was experimenting with a form of advanced power armor, equipped with multiple high-tech weapons. However, the necessity to rapidly upgrade light anti-personnel platforms all but destroyed the work on power armor done at the end of the first GDI-Nod war. Instead, a (relatively) light suit of walking armor, equipped with dual chain guns, was adopted. The user simply sat in the upper frame and the mechanical arms were controlled by joystick.
Wolverine
Thus, the Wolverine was born. There was, however, considerable controversy and opposition to its development. Eventually, GDI Colonel "Thunder" Jameson (who was having great difficulty against Nod infantry skirmishers in the Middle East) pushed it through the approval process in order to alleviate his situation. The model was adopted universally the next year, although many commanders preferred to simply ignore it and use more Titans instead.
As it became clearer that "Tiberium is here to stay", GDI realised the need to reduce its anti-armor infantry component (due to the vulnerability of infantry to Tiberium's effects). Various solutions were proposed, but only one managed to capture the minds & imaginations of the GDI top brass - the Mammoth Mark II, a massive walking antitank and anti-air platform that could replace entire divisions of ground forces. Typical of GDI engineering thinking (e.g. "big is best"), the Mammoth Mark II II was basically everything that the Titan was, only more.
Mammoth Mark II
GDI generals almost fell over themselves in support of it in order that they might claim the honour of being the director of the project. The first prototype took altogether far too long to build and cost far too much, but thankfully GDI's technical engineers were able to develop methods of construction that would eventually allow mass-production of the unit (which never actually occurred, although at least two were used in the climactic battle versus CABAL). Nod almost succeeded in stopping the project dead in its tracks when they managed to destroy the prototype unit, but most of the initial weapons tests were completed and the unit had already been deemed an unqualified success. The Brotherhood's attack only seemed to convince GDI more that the Mammoth Mark II was an ultimate weapon, albeit one that needed to be supported by anti-air units.
The simple walking technology present in the Wolverine was easily captured and developed by Nod engineers, although they could find no useful purpose for it. Only when CABAL began his domination plans after the second GDI-Nod war was the technology put to use. CABAL needed easy-to-construct mobile platforms to serve as anti-infantry battalions. Existing Nod Buggies could be adapted for pilot-less operation, but were already deemed inefficient and ineffective. Instead, CABAL settled on a modification of his existing cyborg constructs to add a heavier platform and bigger weapons - the Cyborg Reaper. As a last-ditch defence, CABAL realised he would need something along the lines of the Mammoth Mark II. With insufficient resources to construct such a weapon and no information on the rail guns that were its hallmark, CABAL instead designed a humanoid (with, presumably, some thought given to the irony) walking construct to eliminate human resistance. In place of GDI rail guns, CABAL made extensive use of the Brotherhood's LASER technology - thus, the Core Defender.
Plasma Weaponry (Cyborg Commando, Banshee)
Plasma is a "fourth" state of matter - the primary three being solid, liquid, and gaseous. The plasma state is fairly similar to the gaseous state in that material flows freely to occupy available space, but with the added complexity that atoms become ions and shed their electrons which flow freely in the space occupied by the gas. Plasma is the essential component of many common devices including the fluorescent tube (a low-temperature plasma is created by electric current). In terms of weapons research, however, the only interesting plasma is high-energy plasma, which is so hot that the particles have enough energy to undergo nuclear fusion with each other. Fusion energy, of course, has been a dream for years. At the time of the first GDI-Nod war, however, it was exploited only in the form of the hydrogen bomb.
Part of the Brotherhood research team devoted to nuclear weapons during the first GDI-Nod war (their primary focus was to simply acquire enough parts and expertise to build a nuclear bomb) branched off at the beginning of the second GDI-Nod war to study fusion and gas plasma interactions. At a laboratory deep in the mountainous badlands of Saudi Arabia, Brotherhood researchers were hard at work using conventional means (e.g. particle accelerators, Tokamak reactors, etc.). It was only when Kane resurfaced and began exploiting the alien technology of the "Scrin" that the Saudi team's research began to take off. Using designs for low-scale fusion power plants taken from the alien technology cache, the team was able to produce prototype plasma guns.
Powered by fusion, these weapons sucked in atmospheric particles, superheated them in a fusion reactor, and then projected the resulting high-energy plasma. The net effect was near-total destruction of the target. Due to interactions with the atmosphere, range was relatively short, but the effect was still considerable. Metal armor only increased the weapon's effectiveness, and larger tanks were mere death-traps against plasma fire. Plans initially called for a tank-mounted weapon that would be mass-produced. Had they succeeded, Nod would certainly have gained an incredible edge over GDI and would have negated GDI's armor advantage. As it happens, however, GDI became aware of the facility after taking over the base around the crashed alien spaceship.
The research facility was blasted by an Ion cannon and overrun by GDI troops after only a few prototypes of the weapon had been made. An escape tunnel permitted most of the team to flee, along with some of the materiel, but some of the tank prototypes fell into GDI hands. Believing that GDI would adapt their systems and plasma tanks would no longer have their edge, Kane stepped in and ordered the team to produce an aircraft-mounted version for his new tactical bomber (originally designed to use Tiberium chemical missiles). Weapons were quickly constructed and the resulting plane - the "Banshee" - proved instrumental in demolishing the research institution where GDI was testing their new Mammoth Mark II tank.
As they had done countless times before, Nod Black Hand covert ops sections intervened and ordered that a small version be made, which they adapted to their elite cyborg units.
Banshee
Cybernetic Systems (Cyborg, Cyborg Commando, Reaper)
Cyborgs have been both a dream and a nightmare of modern society for quite some time. The technology was first pioneered in wartime Soviet Russia - the fruits of their labours being the augmented "Soldier Volkov" and his cybernetic dog, Chitzkokoi. After the war, "extreme" research like the kinds conducted by the Soviets was destroyed and abolished, and it was only until much later that military-grade cybernetics began to re-appear.
On one hand, the promise of being able to easily replace lost limbs or to augment the human form seems enticing from a humanitarian perspective - consider the effect of mechanical eyes with perfect 20/20 vision would have on the elderly, or being able to replace the entire body for patients who have fractured their spinal cord. Simple augmentations would allow humans to work more effectively, able to control machines more effectively or be able to do precision tasks with less effort. On the flip side, the idea of a cyber-slave (one who has been augmented for superior strength but forced to labour as a slave) or a mindless cyber-warrior have been long though of as horrors.
Because of this dual nature, research into cybernetics was stunted in most countries. Medical research into prostheses continued and was encouraged, but many other investigations were severely restricted or outright banned out of fear. The resulting tension hampered cybernetic development. Interestingly, it was in Canada that research into the more questionable areas of cybernetics allowed. Several self-professed "cyber-men" sprang up at several research universities across the country and investigated different aspects of the cybernetic question by creating primitive cybernetic add-ons which they applied to themselves. The Brotherhood, "shielder of the oppressed" (which would include people with lost limbs or damaged senses), was of course interested, and succeeded in gaining influence (largely through dummy corporations which handed out grants).
They eventually managed to direct research towards the area which they were most interested in - military augmentation. As the experiments and the nature of the research became increasingly controversial due to Brotherhood meddling, protests and demonstrations began to occur at some of the institutions. Eventually, and almost simultaneously, the governing councils expelled the now labelled "aberrant" researchers. This was an unusually tense time within the Brotherhood - although the scientists had been working for Nod, they had not known they were doing so, nor did they hold themselves to the Nod ideology (seeing as how they were unaware of it).
Cyborg Infantry
Several other organisations - mostly large military conglomerates - made offers of employment to the "cyber-men" while the Brotherhood struggled to recruit them directly. Eventually, Nod had to settle with assassinating one of the scientists who refused to join on the grounds of humanitarianism. Two of the others had to be abducted and brainwashed, reducing their efficiency, while the rest were indoctrinated with the Nod philosophy only after substantive effort and promises of goodwill. In the end, though, Nod came out on top and very quickly acquired the means for a full-fledged cybernetics program of its own.
The program didn't bear fruit until the second war, however. Only then was power generation technology (based on Tiberium) sufficiently advanced to favour the creation of cybernetic warriors equipped with an integrated gun. These cyborgs proved to be incredibly effective on the field, and displayed such exceptional survivability that the most veteran ones were eventually promoted and equipped with a new body and weapons system - the Cyborg Commando.
Cyborg Commando
CABAL, himself the product of a different kind of cybernetic technology, also saw an advantage of cyborgs - ease of control. The AI discreetly influenced Nod engineers to implant control devices in the cyborgs' brains so that he could take command of them when the appropriate time came. Although many Nod cyborgs were actually willing, zealous, Brotherhood volunteers, these devices were explained away as being necessary in case any of them - especially any the experimental models created using imprisoned mutants - should be captured or turned. Ironically, the devices were then used by CABAL to take control of the cyborgs and turn them against Nod.
Tiberium-Based Weaponry (Chem. Warrior, Chem. Missile)
The Tiberium plant (if it in fact can be called a plant - this is debatable) was very quickly known to produce a toxic gas (which might actually be one of its modes of procreation and spreading). Nod engineers, studying the poison, soon came to realise its potency and developed a simple aerosol projection system that had all the advantages of a flame-thrower - quick destruction of infantry, damage to lightly armored buildings, cheap production - without the drawback of a very limited supply of ammunition (liquefied Tiberium is far more potent per millilitre than napalm). The drawback was, of course, that harnessing the gas was very difficult. Only Tiberium could produce the gas, but it was difficult to grow Tiberium in indoor locations where harvesting would be easy, and it was difficult to harvest Tiberium gas from outdoor fields where growing was easy. Eventually, a device was created that could extract a limited amount of Tiberium gas (which has never received its own name) from dead Tiberium at a refinery. This proved sufficient equip one out of every 500 Nod infantrymen with a chemical projector - useful, but hardly abundant.
It was only at the discovery of the Tiberium-based "Vein Hole" creature that the power of Tiberium gas was truly harnessed. The Veinhole creature emits Tiberium gas when its nucleus comes under attack. This gas is identical to the gas emitted slowly by Tiberium "plants" but with the exception that what the creature is actually doing is not manufacturing the gas itself but storing it in a semi-liquid form inside its veins. Some biologists have drawn an analogy between Tiberium gas in the Veinhole creature and the lymphatic and blood systems in humans.
The critical point for Nod scientists, however, was that the Veinhole creature presented a simple and easy way to get access to Tiberium gas. A Veinhole creature easily sucked up Tiberium gas from nearby (sometimes superimposed) Tiberium fields and concentrated it in a a gooey tar or syrup-like form. Nod engineers quickly adapted existing harvesters to rip up Veinhole veins and transport the "Tiberium Muck" to a refinery, where a simple chemical process converted it into gas for use by chem. troopers. The same chemical process that converts "Tiberium Muck" into gas was also implemented in a new chemical missile - the Tiberium missile. Tiberium Muck, along with a reagent, is loaded into a warhead and launched. As the warhead approaches its target, the reagent is allowed to mix with the Muck, creating a large amount of Tiberium gas which bursts open the shell and spreads over a large area, causing widespread death and destruction. In practice, a simple explosive warhead was usually also attached to increase the effect on armur and buildings in the target zone.
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