Operation: Thunderbolt

Supreme Commander Romanov

General's Conference Room

The Kremlin, Moscow

1805 Hours Local

Despite the hectic mood lately in trying to get our new spacecraft up and flying, the start of the meeting was delayed. I used this time to read the documents that were inside the red folder in the seat next to mine. The general that sat there was a fairly new one to the command, but we couldn't have won our previous mission without her. She was Veronica Barnes, formally the Air Boss on board one of General Granger's many aircraft carriers, but she got infested by an alien species known as the Zerg. She now had the complete control over her own assault force of Zerg, although we were still looking for a relatively low-value area for them to establish their base.

I had considered the Red Zones on the Earth in y own universe several times, although that would prove to be deadly to the Zerg that went in there. The Red Zones were areas of Tiberium growth that made that particular section of the planet uninhabitable to human life. About 30 of the Earth's surface was covered in Red Zones, and so far, only the few people lucky enough to become Tiberium Mutants had survived it.

I had also considered the polar regions of the Earths in the other universes we had visited, although I quickly dismissed that as well. It seemed as though the Zerg were warm-blooded, although that meant nothing in polar conditions. When I had asked her to relocate her forces to the moon, she agreed and pretty soon, the moon in my own universe was literally crawling with Zerg forces.

Anyways, I read the contents of the folder. Apparently, the tanks we had encountered in a recent battle against the yeerks were found. Their classification was the XT-205 'Shagohod'. The description of the plans was identical to the ones I had engaged and destroyed from the air. They each had a 100 barrel volley cannon for anti-armour warfare, twin forward high-calibre machine guns for anti-infantry purposes, six SA-6 Surface-to-Air missile sites mounted on them, two rocket engines that would each deliver over two million pounds of thrust allowing the tank to go at speeds of 300 kilometres per hour, and one Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile mounted inside a massive launcher over the front of the vehicle.

It would have to be a terrifying monstrosity if you were on the ground going up against that thing. We needed it, and badly. Our spacecraft development could wait until we found a general willing to take over the development, but General Kwi already favoured massive tanks for his assaults.

Now other Generals started arriving, each flanked by an aide and a bodyguard. Not that there was much that was going to attack us here, but Internal Security had actually had the nerve to demand that whenever Veronica Barnes was in the building, all essential personnel were required to have at least one bodyguard present at all times. I finished reading through the folder and placed it back on the chair where I had found it. As if on cue, Veronica Barnes came in to the room flanked by two of the deadly Zerg species known as 'Predators'. These were a new type of Zerg, original created from the DNA of a Hydralisk, but even more evolved then the Lurker or even Hunter-Killer breeds.

Finally, she sat down, and started to explain that one of her scouts had found a weapons factory that was potentially able to mass-produce these tanks in less then a day. The man in charge of this operation was one Colonel Volgin. By an astonishing coincidence, the current head of the KGB and this man shared the exact same name, although the scouts didn't actually see him. It was obvious as to what had to be done: kill the leader of this operation, destroy any yeerk presence in the universe and acquire the plans for the tanks. Any other concerns were secondary.