Update: Fixed Cryo-Legionnaire description.
For those of you unfamiliar with the Red Alert series, here's a quick summary, following the Allied campaign timeline, which is considered to be canon;
Red Alert 1 is a sci-fi version of WWII, in which Hitler was erased from the timeline by Albert Einstein, in order to prevent the Holocaust (and mostly because the devs thought that a playable nazi faction was a bad idea.), which allows the Soviets to invade Europe without Nazi Germany getting in the way. According to some sources, this is where the timelines branch out, the two paths either being the Tiberium series, or the continuation of the Red Alert series.
TL:DR; Hitler never existed.
Red Alert 2, the Allies have won the previous war, but now with the help of a psychic named Yuri, the Soviets launch a surprise attack, marking the start of WWIII destroying America's nukes in the process.
In RA2: Yuri's Revenge, the Allies must travel back in time to the start of WWIII, in order to stop Yuri from finishing his Psychic Dominators. Then Yuri's Revenge timeline merges with the Red Alert 2 timeline.
TL:DR; World War III.
Red Alert 3 rips the second game out of the timeline when the Soviets use a time machine to eliminate Albert Einstein, however, they unleash the technologically superior Empire of the Rising Sun as a side effect, and to make matters worse, this somehow erases the concept nuclear weaponry. And as TV Tropes say, Japan is basically "Animeland" (The lore of the Rocket Angels does indeed confirm that manga and anime exist in-universe, though.)
The Uprising timeline's still up to debate as to wether or not it's canon, but it takes place during aftermath of the War of the Three Powers, and also contains a unique fourth campaign that plays like a dungeon crawler in which you play as the real Yuriko Omega
TL:DR; Japan is here, too!
At this point, the Allies will join the fun, and custom units will appear at this point.
And as much fun it would be to pit the Shogun Executioner against the Flame Dragon, there's aways a bigger fish, y'know?
Oh, and thanks for the support, comrades!
Upon exiting the Gate, the Imperial Japanese found themselves on a large hill, with a conveniently placed lake large enough to hold around three or four Shogun Battleships and still have room for a full base.
The Commander unpacks his MCV next to the Gate, ordering his Nanocores to unfold into Instant Generators while his Co-Commander began setting up a defense line consisting of VX-Defenders, Wave Towers, and Tankbusters, whom dug into the ground and promptly went to sleep, awaiting the perfect time to wake up and ambush the enemy.
Eventually, they had a pretty standard base. It wasn't a full-fledged fortress, but the current priority was securing some ground within this new world.
And with good timing, too, as a Sunburst drone had spotted an enemy army approaching them.
What happened next was a nearly one-sided curb-stomp, as the VX-Defenders and the Imperial Warriors fire upon them, mowing down the "Roman" army, as VX-Choppers cleaned up the remaining stragglers.
Finally, it was safe enough to continue setting up their base of operations, and clean up the mess they left behind.
[The next day...]
King Duran of Elbe couldn't seem to shake off a sense of dread that was building up within him. The Empire's Imperial Army hadn't shown up at all.
Earlier, the Empire had summoned their neighboring vassel states to send an allied army to take back Alnus Hill. He sighed, as the others decided to lead their troops to battle anyways, as scouts had reported that the enemy only had a few thousand troops.
He watched as they passed a large wooden sign, which, since it was covered with words from language they don't understand, it was rendered useless.
It was then when scantily-clad women with orange capes walked out from the walls of the enemy's fort, and he almost pitied them, seeing that they only sent out a handful of archers.
Keyword being "almost." They shot a volley of white arrows into air, which split apart into countless white-hot arrowheads, raining death upon the Allied armies, much to everyone's horror.
But that wasn't all, for he noticed strange gliding metal birds suddenly dive down summersaulting right before landing on the ground. He was left speechless when the bird-golems began to spit blue magic beams that tore through the soldiers.
Just then, strange 'Iron Elephants' came out, and started firing "spells" from their thin "trunks", as small blue-green blasts shredded the poor men, both figurative and literally.
[New objective received: Fend off the approaching armies.]
The Commander smiled. Looks like they were gonna a night invasion, if the troop movements meant anything. Oh, what's that? They're on the other side of the lake?
Haha. Sucks to be them, if they really wanted to flank, they'd have to deal with the night-time fog.
He ordered a small group of Sea-Wings and Tsunami Tanks to lie in wait in order to ambush the armies, reinforcing the predicted choke-points with Elite Imperial Warriors and additional VX-Defenders, should they manage to push through
[Incoming transmission..]
[{TRANS} Tatsu: Commander, after negotiating with the Allies, they will be joining us in this venture, so expect them to come through the gate at dawn. Also, I have sent you schematics for three new units, all of which have just passed prototype stage.]
[Files received.]
[New units available: Mistoid,Crescent,Drone Pods]
The Commander nodded, having some Mistoids built in the Instant Dojo, followed by three Crescents and three Drone Pods in the Mecha Bay.
And so, he waited.
The enemy's armies approached, the front lines holding shields up. 'Huh. They're just like Allied Peacekeepers. Except with swords and spears. Also, it is just me, or do these guys have better armor than the weird Romans?'
He shrugged as he changed the Sea-wings' orders from "Hold Fire" to "Aggressive Stance".
Looking back on at the Instant Dojo, he saw the first Mistoid walk out.
"Anything for you, Commander~!" He leaned back in his chair, going pale-faced.
'Oh god,' the unnamed Commander thought, putting two and two together. 'They're yandere-themed. Great.'
His Co-Commander just snickered.
Duran rode on his horse, near the center of the infantry forces. Wyverns and their riders flew overhead, watching the fort with a sense of bloodlust. Half of the invasion force went around the other side of Lake Alnus, all of which felt confident that their numbers would cut down the numbers of the "barbarians' defense", assuming that the enemy couldn't detect them flanking.
Oh, how wrong they were.
One of the soldiers suddenly stopped, pointing at strange lights under the lake's surface, causing the others to stop what they were doing.
[Cue Music: Red Alert 2 OST - Grinder]
Without warning, the "lights" surfaced, revealing them to be large flattened "fish" with a strange, somewhat cylindrical "eye" in the centers, accompanied by pair of glowing "eyes" that shone light on them. Out of their backsides came a flurry of bright blue magical projectiles that flew into the sky. At first, they were confused, but then confusion turned into horror as blood, limbs, fragments of armor, and dragon scales rained down on them.
To make matters worse, one of them pointed at something approaching in the waters. "The Iron Elephants are here!"
Sure enough, they were, "gliding" across the water, as the "elephants" starting blasting them with their magic.
In their current state of panic, many of the soldiers retreated, others advanced towards the "fort", some tried to throw their spears at their attackers, and then some just ran around in circles cluelessly.
The "fish" dived back down into the depths, before suddenly shooting up out of the water, flipping around, before circling around them in the air, shooting blue magic beams that causes their men to start dropping dead and dying.
King Duran, having been knocked off of his horse, charged towards the fort, determined to make the "barbarians" pay, even if he could kill just one with a single arrow.
It also occurred to him that this is why the Imperials never showed up.
He pulled the bowstring back, and watched the arrow fly into the distance, before one of the "elephants" turned towards him, and fired.
His vision went black.
-thwik-
"AUGH!" One of the Japanese Imperials screamed in pain as out of nowhere, an arrow hit him.
"Don't tell me...knee?"
"Yep, knee."
"...Goddamnit, didn't that joke die out years ago?"
[The next morning..]
Itami sighed, feeling tired after not getting any sleep last night, and also due to the fact that these "soldiers" would so brazenly run right into their killzone.
If this world had any form of a "Grim Reaper", then he or she was probably having a rather busy day.
He was told in the academy that he was to expect this kind of carnage, but not at the degree presented before him.
Before Itami could think any more about the subject, a Shinobi walked up behind him.
"Sir Itami, the Commander wants to speak with you." Itami nodded, walking back into the protective walls of the base. On his way, he passed by a group of Peacekeepers on patrol, as just as Tatsu had told the Commander, an Allied MCV had come through the Gate and set up base on the large flat area on the opposite side of the hill where the Co-Commander had deployed their MCV.
As Itami walked into the Imperial MCV's meeting room, he could see the Commander sitting at the desk, the other side of which sat five other Imperial troops; One of which he recognized as his friend and fellow otaku, Takeo Kurata, whom was also a Warrior.
"Ah, speak of the devil. How are you doing, my son?" The still-unnamed Commander said as Itami smiled and sat down in a chair. For some odd reason, one of the other five, a Rocket Angel, seemed like she was about to freak out. Or faint. Whichever came first.
"Doing fine, dad."
"That's good to hear. I apologize for not being able to attend the ceremony of your promotion."
"Eh, I understand. So, what'd you need to talk about?"
And so, First Lieutenant Itami Youji, was assigned as the leader of the 3rd Recon Unit, his particular squad consisting of Sergeant Major Tankbuster Kuwahara, Sergeant First Class Kuribayashi Shino, a Rocket Angel who had a strange preference for close-quarter combat; the aforementioned Sergeant Takeo Kurata, and some others I can't be bothered to type out at the moment.
After a while, the 3rd Recon Unit assembled outside of the gates.
It consisted of around six Imperial Warriors, two Rocket Angels, Two Sudden Transports, Three IFVs, two Allied Engineers,two Mistoids, four Peacekeepers, a Cryo Legionnaire, a certain scientist named Dr. Zelinsky,- and get a load of this- A Mirage Tank.
"Do we really need a Mirage Tank?" One of the Peacekeepers asked another fellow Peacekeeper.
"Hey, hell if I know. It might save our asses when we least expect it."
"...Sure, whatever."
And thus, they drove off to explore this new world.
INITIALIZING...
BULWARK OS ACTIVATED.
SCANNING DATA INTEGRITY.
...
...
...
SCAN COMPLETE. NO ERRORS FOUND.
SYSTEMS CHECK COMPLETE.
RUNNING AT 100% EFFICIENCY.
WEAPONS LOADED.
BULWARK IS ONLINE.
MAINTAINING MONITORING PROTOCOLS.
{The following is an excerpt from the diary of a random Soviet Conscript..}
Dear Soviet Diary,
Today was weird day. General got Gate thing to work. But only for a moment, because it collapsed after pulling me in (don't ask how I knew it collapsed.) with a really moody bear. I now call him Moody Bear.
Me and Moody Bear land in weird camp. Suddenly greeted by vodka-drinking bear women.
I am now crowned as the King of Bear People!
[Database]
* = Custom/fanmade units
Shogun Battleship- A massive ship made for heavy bombardment using its twin triple turrets. It can deploy a special barrier at its bow and charge forwards to ram enemy watercraft.
Instant Generator- Imperial Japan's on-the-field power plants. Unfolds from an Energy Core.
VX-Defender- Anti-Infantry/Anti-Air base defense turret. Can switch between these two modes. Unfolds from Defense Core.
Wave Tower- A large anti-surface Wave Motion cannon. Apparently inspired by Space Battleship Yamato. Unfolds from Wave Core.
Tankbuster- Anti-Armor infantry. Their helmets are equipped with special plasma-based...somethings that allow them to hide underground. Uses plasma-cutters as a weapon.
Sea-Wings/Sky-Wings- Anti-Air submarine [Sea]/Anti-infantry gunship [Sky]
*Mistoid- Yandere knife-wielding medics. Creates a misty cloud of nanobots that heal infantry that stand within the cloud (excluding Rocket Angels) regardless of the allegiance of those infantry.
*Crescent- Medium-armored sniper tank/Light-armored crowd-control turret developed by Dust Industries. In its vehicle form, it can fire long-range shots at enemy infantry. In turret form, it fires a high-powered railgun projectile that is engineered to break apart and send shrapnel at groups of enemies. Possibly named after a certain weapon in RWBY.
*Drone Pod- A tripod walker that functions similarly to the Mistoid, except the ladybug repair drones will only repair "friendly" (as in those who fight alongside you) vehicles/robotics/Rocket Angels within a large radius. Armed with a basic laser repeater as a last resort. Can transform into a cute little flying disk to move over bodies of water, making it amphibious.
Instant Dojo- The training grounds for Imperial Infantry. Cannot be built on water. Unfolds from Dojo-core.
Mecha Bay- Where Imperial vehicles are built. Cannot be built on water. Unfolds from Mecha Core.
Peacekeepers- Basic Allied infantry. Armed with riot shields and shotguns.
Shinobi- Mysterious Anti-infantry infiltrators. Throws shurikens that rip through infantry, carries a traditional katana for melee. Supposedly amphibious.
IFV- Light-armored Anti-air [Default] buggies. Weapons change to match those of the infantry riding inside. (I.E, Peacekeeper = Anti-infantry shotgun, Archer Maiden = Large AA/AI Crossbow, etc.)
Allied Engineers- Functions like any other Engineer. Can set up medical tent that heals infantry. Using a jet-ski, they can traverse bodies of water.
Cryo Legionnaire- Men in thick suits armed with large Cyro-guns that slows enemies until they freeze. Larger vehicles take longer to freeze. Prolonged spraying makes the target stay frozen for a much longer period of time. When frozen, even a 9mm bullet will cause the mightiest Apocolypse tank to shatter like glass. Suits are equipped with massive jump-jets, allowing them to "body slam" frozen units. They can hover over water, making them Amphibious.
Mirage Tank- Anti-surface camouflage tank. When idle, it can disguise itself as scenery. Can invert its cloaking field to hide other units that stay within the "dome", at the cost of being nigh defenseless. Powerful weapon, but weak armor means strength in numbers is also a good option.
Additional lore can be found on the Command and Conquer Wiki.
And boom goes the dynamite, for I have completed ANOTHER CHAAAPTER.
Yay.
Trivia:
-Did you know that "Hell March" was originally composed during the development of "Covert Operations" and was meant to be associated with the Brotherhood of Nod?
-Originally, King Duran was going to witness the armies being torn apart by Sky-wing gunships. Unfortunately, I had to change that. I mean, really, who would try to flank them on the lakeside after seeing that?
-I intended to have the Allies come in much, MUCH later, but then I figured that bringing them in now wouldn't hurt. The story will still center around the Empire, but they will have the might of the Allies on their side.
I did come across a small problem, but at this point I don't remember what that problem was.
Oh well, it'll probably come back to bite me in the ass. Or it may not. Who knows?
If you have any custom units, tell me about it and what it does, and i'll see if I can try to fit it in somewhere.
Until next time, comrades!