[This is my personal adaptation of Command and Conquer Generals. It will go over the course of Generals and Zero Hour. For convenience purposes regarding fanon, the year is pushed back 10 years; it is 2023, not 2013. Missions will occur sequentially as I believe they occur.]
April 3, 2023
Washington, DC, USA
The White House was buzzing with activity today, and there was a damn good reason why. General Carville had two soldiers pushing people out of the way as he stalked towards the Oval Office. He held a pack of papers in a manila folder.
"Global Liberation Army," he heard one White House staffer say. Carville smirked. Military intel was ahead of the CIA, if only by minutes. He stepped into the secretary's office, who buzzed him in. General Carville gave the secretary a smile and nod before entering the Oval Office.
General Black was a thin man with dark hair and a bulbous nose. He was young, for a President, but he was handling the office well. Carville liked him. Black did have a temper, and it was starting to show.
"…the HELL to with what the Chinese think, we've got a CHEMICAL PLANT that's been taken over by TERRORISTS! We don't even know who the hell they are!" Black shouted, "Get them to shut up while we deal with this!"
"Yes, sir," the aid nodded and darted out of the office. The President turned and scowled at Carville.
"General Carville, it's an honor. I served under you seventeen years ago in Iraq and Saudi Arabia. We did good work there. Hopefully we can do good work now."
"I'm glad to hear that, Mister President, it's good to have someone who's served in the Oval Office again. I have information about the situation in Mazar. I think it'll bring a breath to you."
"Let's have it, General."
"Two days ago, a military force consisting of tanks, Technicals, and truck-mounted anti-aircraft guns overran the city of Mazar. Our local garrison was unable to respond to assist the city, and by the time they scrambled, the base was overrun."
"So we have nothing in the area."
"No, sir. We still have quite a number of troops in Afghanistan at their President's request. We've also made use of some of our Air bases from the Afghanistan war. We have significant air forces ready to deploy. The problem is that we have no ground commander. If we were able to bring our troops into the area, we could liberate the base and use it to deploy heavy armor and liberate the city. We can also conduct periodic paradrops."
"What about the base commander?"
"Executed on live television the day after the base was overrun."
"They didn't destroy the base? Why not?"
"Likely, to make use of the War Factory. We have parts on hand to build things like ambulances, which the terrorists could use to gain favor with the populace. They also have personnel who are hiding in the buildings."
"Why didn't we do that?"
"We did, sir. Our ambulances were either hijacked or destroyed."
"I see. So we have troops but no commander?"
"That's not entirely true, sir. I can have General Granger handle the Air command as they strike the city. There is a Colonel in Kabul that I have faith in. He's done very well in wargames with the Chinese, I've worked with him before, as well, during the last war. You met him, actually."
"I have?"
"Colonel Jeremy Ironside. I think it's due time he got bumped to General, particularly if this turns into a larger conflict."
"Right, I remember him. He fought off that mercenary raid in southern Yemen, and then crossed the border into Oman to wipe the rest of them out. Really gutsy of him. And then he had the balls to dare the Omani government to try and take him. He was a real pain in the ass for the last administration, are you sure we can trust him? He sounds like a loose cannon, almost starting a war like that. We send him to northern Afghanistan, what's to stop him from crossing the border to give chase?"
"I'll make it damn clear to him he's to do this mission and that's it. We give him a star and tell him to clear it out, he'll do whatever we tell him."
"I'm not convinced. We're talking about serious chemical weapons here. What if they try to sell them to the Ungyurs? China will have our ass."
"If there's one thing Ironside is good at, it's total destruction of his enemy. He won't cross the border, and anything I tell him to destroy will be obliterated. I guarantee it."
"Then it's your ass, General, if he screws this up. Give him his field star, and we'll see how he does. Now, do we know who took the base?"
"Do you remember the 'Global Liberation Movement' about three years ago?"
"Yeah, they did a lot to distribute UN supplies and construction crews throughout Africa and the Middle East. They've done a lot to keep things quiet; are you saying they're the ones responsible for this? I mean, Christ, we've got Americans working with them all over the world."
"That's them. After Russia invaded Kazakhstan, they ended up with a lot of soldiers and a lot of equipment. Now they seem to have decided that defending the Russian Steppe from the Federation isn't enough. They're calling themselves the 'Global Liberation Army' now. They're making demands that we pull out of every country east of Syria, or they'll start using chemical weaponry."
"Dammit, dammit! They were supposed to be our allies, at least we were on the same side! What the hell happened, who did we kill to piss them off like this?"
"I don't know, Mister President. We'll look into it."
"Yeah. Look into it."
April 3, 2023
Afghanistan
"General. The rank suits you," General Granger nodded. Ironside stood stiff and saluted him. Granger saluted back.
"General. Good to be working with you again."
"Well, so long as you don't bait any more wars, yeah," Granger nodded, "Think you can do that?"
Ironside crossed his arms and gave Granger a glare, showing that he was not amused, "I think I can refrain. Think your helo's will be around to cover me this time?"
"Don't worry, I've got the skies. You get our boys out of there, do you hear?"
"I've got this," Ironside nodded, and Granger left him to step into the plane. He was going to end up airdropping into the battlefield as soon as they liberated the base. From there, he could directly command the troops in the Command Center. Until then he would have to trust Alpha and Bravo team. He was in the air in minutes.
Bravo Team was on the ground before General Ironside even arrived. They swept in and chewed through the GLA; they'd carelessly placed their ammo reserves, which made for some excellent fireworks. They took no casualties; a couple of Rangers were hit, but the doctors in the Barracks were more than happy to patch them up. Ironside ran his hands over the command console; it was filled with computer monitors and blinking lights. He had almost total control over every unit in the battlefield from here. Which, right now, was not much. He quickly ordered the assembly of tanks.
"General, good job in taking the base," General Carville declared moments after he arrived.
"Thank Bravo Team, sir, I just got here," he replied, "How's General Granger?"
"He's holding back for now until you can take out those Stinger sites."
"Stinger sites, sir? They have enough to bring this far away from Kazakhstan?"
"They seem to be swimming with them. Be careful."
"Yes, sir."
"General," Lieutenant Eva approached him, "Our tanks have discovered the pilots. They were just outside the base."
"That quickly?" he scowled, "They're not at their main base in the mountains?"
"No, sir. I don't think they expected us to retaliate in force like this. They're eager to fight."
"Put them in the Paladins," he instructed, and she relayed the order. The tanks could be seen on the ridge. They paused, and then moved forward, disappearing from view. Ironside looked at the monitors, and saw them clearly through the satellite feed. The tanks, in number and in force, approached the GLA anti-air sites, and made quick work of them.
"Thank you, General Ironside! Now it's my turn!" General Granger declared over the com. Commanche attack helicopters swooped in and obliterated a pair of towers, which fell over and crushed the tanks at their base. Ironside's tanks moved into the town, and started shooting at anything armed that wasn't painted with blue on it.
"Why did they put a chemical factory out here?" Ironside asked Eva.
"After the Russian invasion of Kazakhstan, Afghanistan made quite a bit of money selling supplies to them. It's less of a production facility and more of a mixing one. They import the chemicals from the United States, bring them here to be mixed and processed, and sold them to Kazakhstan," Eva explained. The tanks were moving out of the town, having eliminated vehicular resistance.
"And now it's just convenient for these guys to take it over and start making demands," Ironside shook his head, "This is Ironside to all units. Hold position while Granger conducts air strikes."
The tanks paused, and Raptors flew overhead, unleashing their payload and obliterating the terrorist defensive positions, allowing the tanks to move forward and wipe out the base. Ironside looked down at the monitor, and saw that ambulances were driving through the town.
"What're they doing here?" he pointed at the monitor.
"When we destroy the factory, there's going to be a lot of spilling. We're bringing in specialists."
"Wait, nobody told me to destroy the facility, just eliminate resistance!"
"Sir?"
"General Granger, this is General Ironside. What is your ETA to bombing run?"
"Tee minus fifty seconds. Thanks for taking out those Stinger sites."
"General, call off the airstrike! We can capture the facility!"
"No can do, everything's in order, General," Granger said, and he shut off the line.
"Dammit!" Ironside pounded his fist against the console, "All forces, pull out! It's going to be contaminated! I repeat, pull out!"
"General…There's going to be an air drop into the AO…" Eva pointed out. Ironside's hand covered his mouth.
"They're…Going to be dropped right into the toxins…" he shook his head. He watched in horror as the paratroopers dropped into the area, only for the aircraft to drop their payloads and destroy the chemical plant. Sure enough, the toxins spilled out of the facility. Even as the ambulances arrived, soldiers started to keel over in puddles of the blue liquid.
"They didn't even have chem suits…Who orders a paratrooper drop into a chemical contamination zone?" the General rubbed his forehead, "How many."
"A dozen, sir."
"We could have captured the facility! Damn it!" he started calling up Carville. General Carville was a rotund man with a moustache. He was also totally bald. Ironside gave him a salute, and it was returned.
"General, I'm getting news about the mission now. Is everything in order?"
"Sir, the terrorist threat has been eradicated. There's no signs of any stragglers, we were thorough. The new Battle Drones are hell on enemy infantry."
"Outstanding! I'll let the boys at the Pentagon know. They like to hear their toys are working right."
"Sir, were my orders to destroy the facility?"
Carville scowled, "Of course they were."
"Sir, we just dumped thousands of gallons of toxins into the area. Even with the ambulances containing it, we're going to need to evacuate the city, the sooner the better. We could have avoided this, if we'd taken the time to capture instead of destroy the facility."
"Ah, there's nothing of value out here except that facility, and we're not going to use it. We'll build them a new city and they'll be all the happier for it."
"That's not the point, sir, we could have avoided dozens, if not hundreds, of civilian casualties. At the very least, we should have used the Ion cannon, or brought firebombs."
"It's not a big deal, General, don't worry about it!"
"General, we dropped Rangers into that sludge. I have a dozen confirmed dead. Our dead. We didn't even need them there, we'd already destroyed the facility by the time they landed. If we captured it they'd still be alive, and we'd have been able to extract the chemicals safely, instead of leaking them into the environment."
Carville shook his head, "Say what now?"
"We dropped Rangers into the toxins. There's two squads of them, dead."
Carville blinked, and took a step back, "I'll…I'll get back to you on that."
The transmission cut. General Ironside curled his fist again, and ordered all Humvees and infantry to pull back to base, while the tanks protected the chemical cleanup crews. He had the Humvees declare a state of emergency in the town. He couldn't understand the language, but he knew the message.
"Attention residents of Mazar!" a voice could be heard, even in the outskirts, "There has been a toxin spill! You are all in great danger! Pack your belongings, and evacuate over the southern bridge! We will take care of you! You must move quickly! This is an evacuation notice! Evacuate over the southern bridge!"
"Lieutenant Eva, contact the united Nations. Inform them we are going to need medical supplies, food, water, tents, and transportation for…The population of Mazar. They're going to be relocated."
"Yes, General."