After Activation 1167 - Origin Universe

After Insertion 1128 - Cultivation Universe

Millennium 140-32M - 40k Universe

AD 1999 - C Red Alert/Generals - Rise of the Reds Universe

There were multiple Temples of NOD located throughout the world, each one being the place in which the command and control of the region's forces were directed from. Each of them being a means by which to direct the armies of NOD, to train the most devout of the Black Hand, and to launch the Nuclear Missiles housed within the central silo. Each was a vital structure as well as the spiritual and physical home of much of NOD's forces, a center around which they could rally around. Each more important than the brick and mortar that made up their parts.

Each of these buildings therefore, served as a means by which NOD could crush their enemies from afar and to send out the infantry and armies with which to crush the enemy from up close. There would be no way for them to survive without it. Without the centralized controls, without the directions from above, each NOD commander would be reduced to using their limited range broadcasters, unable to effectively coordinate with anyone, unable to do anything more than just continuing their mission and hoping for the best.

It was rather expected therefore that the combined might of the surrounding area's armies and forces were dedicated to defending the Temple of NOD. They could not allow for the enemy to get into the Temple, to destroy it, to cripple the NOD command structure across the region. Everything would be dedicated to defending the facility, it would be held at all costs, regardless of the cost.

It was just their luck that the enemy's forces were able to get into the area, dropping in vast numbers of infantry from their aircraft, dropping in vehicles, the drop pods landing behind their defences and deploying teams of saboteurs who were actively engaging their forces and keeping them occupied. It was a coordinated attack and they very clearly knew what it was that they were doing. They wanted NOD blind, leaderless, easily defeated.

The Black Hand refused to accept this idea and were even now fighting with everything they had.

It had started off as any other day for the commandos being trained at the Temple. Learning how to place explosives properly to derail trains, which was more difficult than one would think. One had to after all, place them at a distance and a manner to destroy at least a 5 meter chunk of the rail, otherwise the train would be able to merely just keep going using its momentum. If there was an unloaded car then that distance could be lessened, but it was always best to go the full distance.

It was just after the training therefore that the alarms signaling an attack went off. An alarm that was very different from the usual air-raid sirens.

The commandos had rushed over to the armoury to receive their weaponry that would allow them to defend the facility, all of them ready for the fact that they would likely die. Being on the front line of an enemy assault was never a good thing, the initial momentum would need to be met with bodies to hold them back, bodies that wouldn't be coming back from this.

Regardless they had a job to do, the Temple would be protected and NOD defended. Kane had entrusted this facility to them, they were not going to let him down.

The first assault had come from the front, what looked to be a large mass of shadows, infantry it looked like, the sharper angles indicating their armour.

They were not in range of the Obelisk of light that protected the Temple, not yet. But soon. Very soon.

Now.

The Obelisk hummed into life and activated, the massive device, many meters tall attacked. A curved spire that stood intimidatingly pointing up at the sky, a symbol of the might of NOD. It was beyond the spectrums that they could see with their eyes, but the effect was easy enough to identify, the mass of soldiers being turned to ash by the intense heat and energy being transferred by the Obelisk, its laser systems being used to full effect.

The Commandos had cheered briefly at that, cheering even more, when the tanks that tried to engage it were vaporized in turn.

There would be no way for them to get in!

Only for one of the aircraft that had finished dropping off its troops turned back around and started on a direct course at it, heading directly in for a suicide ramming. The Obelisk fired again and destroyed the frontal nose of the aircraft, but it was just too big, there wasn't enough time to destroy enough to thread the Obelisk through and the aircraft slammed into it, toppling the mighty device.

The Commandos gritted their teeth, one of their most potent defences had been destroyed and even though they had .50 cal sniper rifles, they weren't enough against vehicles. Hopefully, the Turrets with their 105mm cannons could do a more sustained job, one that wouldn't see them just destroyed as quickly as the Obelisk was. They needed that time, both for reinforcements as well as for the nuclear missile to be readied. If they were to fall, they would make sure that there was nothing left for the scavengers, and that they would take them all as well.

The Commandos fired down range, the enemy was retaliating in kind, bullets streaming in what felt like a veritable blanket at them. The Commandos reconsidered their approach, this was just far too much fire for them to defend against, not when the Minigunners and Rocket Launcher troops were not in the area. In fact, where were they period?

Actually, why had the aircraft managed to get in this close, to begin with? Their SAM defence systems should have destroyed them long before they were in visible range.

A runner was dispatched and he returned with sobering news, the barracks had been hit and most of the regular soldiers had been killed, the SAMs sabotaged. The saboteurs had been killed, their bodies lying amongst those of the NOD dead… but they had done their duty.

The Commandos gritted their teeth harder this time and began to pull back, against this many enemies, they could not hold the line. The Flamethrower and Chemical Sprayer troops needed to get up close to engage, the vast open spaces that had been designed to allow them clear fields of fire now working against them. Already Commandos were falling under the weight of the fire being leveled against them. They couldn't hold the line, it was just not possible. A retreat was the only option.

And so they did, falling back to the Temple proper, all of them. The remaining regular infantry, the vehicles, and what was left of the rocket troops, all of them running away. The Turrets had been silenced long ago, the enemy armour taking losses to do it, but they had acted like madmen and just charged forward, unheeding of the casualties. It was like fighting fanatics and that never ended well.

And so the Commandos had bunkered up, deep inside of the facility, every single floor of it being defended by the zealous Black Hand that would die before allowing it to be breached. It was into this that the enemy crashed, a tidal wave that was slowly eroding away at them, killing one or 2 at a time for every 10 that they lost. Heedless of their casualties, merely just fighting and killing, dying whenever they needed to.

In the cruel calculus of war, this was far beyond what any of them had expected and the Commandos were beginning to know fear.

"Grenade!" He yelled, ducking down behind the makeshift barrier, one made from ammunition crates and bodies. This was the fourth floor, just 3 floors up from the final floor, the floor that governed the nuclear missile. They had to defend it at all costs.

He was the last of his squad, the rest of them had died to defend the last 20 meters of ground that they had ceded. The entire elevator system had been filled with concrete, they were going to have to fight past him if they wanted to get deeper. He was a dead man, he knew it, they knew it, just how cheap of one he was… well, that was another question entirely.

As the blastwave receded and the shrapnel stopped bouncing around the interior, he popped his head over again and there.

He pulled the trigger on his shotgun, one, twice, thrice. Three shots, 3 bursts of blood and the enemy fell down, their chest cavities exposed by the awesome power of a shotgun at such a close range. He didn't even know who these people were, what they were, or what the hell they were doing attacking this base in the first place?

Just what was going on?

Ducking back down he began loading more shells in, always best to be fully loaded, especially when there was what seemed like an infinite number of enemies.

To his right was… oh. Dead.

Was another Commando, they had joined at the same time, been promoted together and had arrived here together, separated into a different unit but they still smoked and drank together. Poor bastard took a piece of shrapnel to the back of the head, he wasn't getting up after that one.

He shook his head and got back to defending his little corridor. The main hall was being defended by the rest of the Minigunners and Rocket Troops, them pouring enough firepower onto the attackers that he wouldn't be surprised it the enemy just tried to push through the corridors… wait.

He cursed himself.

Grabbing a few of the claymores he had stacked in the corner of one of the pillars, he wired them quickly for a tripwire detonation and threw them over the barricade. Improvised mines, step on them and you were likely dead.

If there was one thing on their side, it was that they had a ridiculous amount of ammunition, the rounds for training, the rounds for defending against an attack, and extra rounds for celebrations or whatever. It was enough that he could fire his shotgun non-stop for a year and he wouldn't be out of ammunition.

An explosion and a sound of flesh splattering, the attackers were dying.

Good.

More explosions, these without the sound of flesh splattering.

Bad.

They had cottoned on faster than he thought they would, well it was back to bullets then. Or shotgun shells in his case.

Aiming down the corridor he held his breath, ready. Waiting. Waiting. And… oh no.

He turned and sprinted down the corridor, the way that was away from their side. They had dropped in what very clearly looked like a long tube, a tube he knew from the briefings they had watched was called a bangalore torpedo. A long tube that exploded things all around it, and it was snaking to his position. Bad place to be near when it did go off, the enclosed space of the corridor would probably see him turned to jelly by the shockwaves even if it didn't directly touch him.

He ran, fast.

He was out. He was safe. Ok. Good. The explosion went off behind him and he felt the stirrings of his shirt from the blown up air. He was still feeling tired, he was still holding his shotgun, ok, he wasn't dead. Time to get to the next set of fortifications and start this all over again.

The attack on the Temple of NOD in South Africa was an attack that lasted for several hours. The attackers forcing their way into the facility in short order, but it was the taking of the facility that would be the hurdle they had to overcome.

The forces of NOD had set themselves in positions that allowed them to draw litres of blood for every step taken by the attacks, blood that the attackers were willing to pay in a battle of attrition underneath the surface of the earth.

While the defenders tried to bravely hold the enemy at bay, their leaders were trying to launch the nuclear missile housed within, a way for them to deny the attackers the base, as well as to deny the attackers their lives.

However, they were too late. Suicide aircraft rammed the missile silo and denied it from firing, those defenders still alive swiftly killed.

In the end, the attackers were successful, their copious casualties never once slowing them down.

Who they were was never made public but their fanaticism gave rise to only a single candidate… NOD.