After Activation 1186 - Origin Universe
After Insertion 1147 - Cultivation Universe
Millennium 159-32M - 40k Universe
AD 2018 - C Red Alert/Generals - Rise of the Reds Universe
Captain Taggart stood at the helm of the United Coalition Ship Odysseus, his face watching the window that was located in the viewing room at the very front of the ship. It was a massive thing, easily the size of an Aircraft carrier at 500 meters long and 200 high/wide, a ship that was designed to explore the universe, more specifically it was designed to explore the Solar System.
Or so that was what the official announcements said, the reality being much less benign than it was portrayed to be. The public after all, didn't need to worry about the idea that there were aliens about and that they were distinctly less than friendly. And so the Odysseus would be travelling out of the Solar System, making its way in an almost straight trajectory (once the slingshot variables had been accounted for that is) before heading out to the unknown. They had gotten very good at detecting stars and the like but when it came to things such as other planets within the same system, it was much more difficult.
After all checking the gravitational fluctuations, the shifting of the sun itself, and the slightly changes to their own world from what could be assumed to be external influences all turned up a significant level of "something" that was not visible to their own spectrum and their own attempts to ascertain whatever this unknown was all serving to do nothing but telling them that it was big, but whether or not it was multiple somethings or a singular supermassive something was still entirely conjecture. In short, they had learnt very little from it all, justification for their little journey out into the Solar System and beyond. A hunt for that elusive planet X and to also test the result of prolonged isolation of crews in the event that they ever needed to send out their own space fleets.
For Captain Taggart that naturally meant that he had spent the last 12 years on his ship, every day standing in the viewing room, his eyes watching the constant stream of little dots that were stars. Sometimes he would be able to see a slightly bigger dot which in turn proved to be a planet or an asteroid of some kind but it was increasingly rare and he hadn't seen any since they had broken out past Pluto.
The ship was still broadcasting its information, of course, telling the world what was going on, telling the world that they were in fact still alive, that there wasn't going to be any catastrophic failures that would see them all dead. Or something.
It was a reality show if he understood the contact correctly, a way for the world to participate in their journey, a way for the world to see what it was that they were doing and to at the same time participate even if tangentially.
Tiberium technology had advanced enough that they were able to build their own Tiberium Printer and by impregnating certain asteroids that they found, harvesting them for minerals then destroying the asteroids as to prevent another Tiberium Earth incident, they were able to design and build new things as they were offered to the general public. Tiberium technology had advanced enough that they were able to build and develop ways to create synthetic cloth and the like from the Tiberium.
Something that had proven invaluable given the inevitable wear and tear that years of wearing the same clothes had on their equipment.
It also allowed for them to build and develop more parts of the ship itself, building a maternity ward for the inevitable pregnancies, building them a simulation room of sorts where they were able to vent their energy, building them little alcoves, this viewing room and more.
It was like travelling along with the knowledge that they needed to be developing various pieces of technology as it was given to them, as if it were a game of some kind. Magic Scaffolding Appear! Was a very appropriate saying he had heard from an engineer before he had shipped out.
As for himself, Taggart was enjoying a cup of coffee, the ship's hydroponics facilities had been expanded several fold and the coffee plants that were there had multiplied by almost the same amount. Everyone wanted their coffee and if they had to wage war on the rest of the galaxy for it then they would do so.
Taking the last little ship, he turned and walked away from the viewing room, purposefully taking some rather slow steps as he meandered his way through his customary daily tour of the ship. It was a tradition at this point, there being little enough for him to actually do that he was able to do this without worrying about things going catastrophically wrong for some reason or the other.
From the front of the ship to the back he would be walking the 300 meter length, making sure to visit each and every floor for cursory examination, his eyes giving a brief scan to make sure that everyone was as it should be, before heading out again. A full investigation of the various different facilities was on the safety inspectors assigned to them, their job being to make sure nothing went unpunished.
If a weapons bank was to suddenly fail in the middle of a testing that was several dead crew members, something they couldn't afford given how difficult it would be for them to replace any casualties.The only real option being to have them grow up from the children not exactly ideal when that would take at the very least another 8 years.
As Taggart made his way through the ship, the little mug of coffee floating alongside him, his own feet firmly anchored on the travelator that allowed for him to move without floating everywhere. It looked rather undignified for the captain to be floating along in the middle of the corridor like a pleb after all.
Allowing himself to hum slightly, Taggart kept going, his eyes staring straight ahead while the crew members on their ways to their various duties saluted him, he in turn nodding and smiling at them. He was of the age where it was ok for him to be doing that, no more need to salute everyone anymore, his rank and age made that irrelevant.
Taggart even allowed himself to hum slightly as he made his way forward, smiling widely as he did so. Ah, this was his favourite moment of the tour, the three thousand four hundred and fifty eight crew members of the Odysseus were evenly split between male and female.
The maternity wards were where this all changed. Inside of these were in fact, people that had become couples or had simply gotten themselves pregnant and had given birth, the maternity ward seeing no point in its history where it had been anything less than half capacity at some point of the other.
Thankfully it had not reached the point where he would need to institute population controls, but it was very much getting close to it.
Another few years of this continued growth and it would reach the point where they couldn't have enough facilities to support the new additions, what with their being a lack of resources this far outside of the solar system itself.
As for Taggart he had put those thoughts out of his mind for now, instead heading into the maternity ward and enjoying himself. The sight of so many little children bringing a smile to his face, his own child was there somewhere, the little tike being only a few months old at this point but enough to recognize who he was in the first place. The highlight of his day that let him get through everything else.
A little smile here, a little tickle and belly rub there, a few questions to the crew members that were here with their children and he was out again. Continuing his tour as duty dictated.
Walking forward he made sure to check inside the various weapons bays that dotted themselves throughout the ship. Each of them holding the weaponry that was necessary to keep them all intact should contact with the Scrin occur earlier than they had thought it would and the Scrin proved to once again be hostile.
Each of them was using weapons that had proven themselves useful against the Scrin in the first place, Catalyst warheads courtesy of NOD, Sonic torpedoes, basic conventional munitions, lasers and more. Enough weapons spread across wide enough of a spectrum that they would be able to deal with any threats that presented themselves. It was not arrogance to say that they were ready for anything, merely a truth.
They had also managed to work out a way to control the growth of Tiberium, something about a Control Network? The installation had gone into the Tiberium Earth before they left, a final farewell present, maybe they would do something with it… or they would blow it all up and doom their entire planet because those of the Tiberium Universe were… kind of idiots actually. He felt sorry that they had to live with that.
Still, they were getting their technology from the Scrin still and it was working out admirably.
Comparing the Scrin of before and then reverse engineering their weapons systems, the weaknesses had been found, ready to be exploited. The Coalition and to an extent NOD were not willing to let the Scrin do whatever they wanted on their own world, instead, they were going to be hitting first to show them just who was boss.
Not in those terms of course, likely it would be couched as a defensive strike or something along those lines to appease the xenophiles amongst the population. It the Scrin demonstrated the same kind of personalities or at least follow the same actions as had been modelled previously, the Odysseus had been given permission to engage. It would take several weeks for the footage to make it back to the home world, but it would be enough to prepare themselves for what was coming should they be defeated.
The expanded hydroponics facility was a separate part hanging underneath the ship itself, ready to be detached at a moment's notice. The mess mass there was the less energy they needed to maneuver in space, If they had too much mass there would be a proportional increase in the energy needed to move it. Meaning the Hydroponics which were optional could be detached to give the crew a better chance at survival, what with them being vulnerable to an attack by what was possibly 42 ships.
As Taggart walked himself through the fields of fresh herbs and vegetables, looking at the synthetic meats growing in their vats and the cows that had been taken up with them in the first place. Usually, the cows hung about in the center of the facility, where there was gravity, what with there being the rotating cylinder that simulated the effects of gravity. Today they were being taken on their walk he assumed, either that or they were simply floating along behind the shepherd for the sake of it.
Taggart shook his head slightly before making his way out of hydroponics and toward the residential areas next. He wouldn't be doing much, just upbraiding those that had messy clothing, an unclean room then moving on. It was more of a matter to get his face around the place that they would be able to recognize who he was in the first place. 12 years was a long time to spend on a ship and the more their leader appeared unapproachable, the more their resentment would grow.
Chances of a mutiny were slim, NOD was part of the crew and everyone knew by now how they dealt with what they assumed was insubordination and possible threats of mutiny. That combined with the fact that nobody knew who they were specifically, the idea of not pissing off NOD had become prevalent through all ships of the exploratory fleet.
Making his way onto the bridge, Taggart absently greeted his bridge crew before sitting down into the Captain's chair and resting his legs. He was 50 this year, far too old to be doing this but it was his duty and he would be damned if he wasn't going to carry it out.
Leaning back into his chair, Taggart smiled, it looked like today was just another day aboard the Odysseus.
After Activation 1193 - Origin Universe
After Insertion 1154 - Cultivation Universe
Millennium 166-32M - 40k Universe
AD 2025 - C Red Alert/Generals - Rise of the Reds Universe
It finally had happened.
Contact.
The Scrin had been sighted approximately 35 years from Earth itself.
The fact that they were in the exact same configuration as they had been during the initial events of the time… well, that only caused much… worry on behalf of humanity. The fact that the Scrin were evidently the same as those of the Tiberium universe, they who were going to be trying to harvest the world for whatever sick goal that they had, well that was something that was going to need to be dealt with. Dealt with, with extreme prejudice. They were not going to get away from this one intact that was for sure.
To begin with, they were going to destroy these vessels before they could do any serious harm to that of Earth itself. The Scrin could not be allowed to get close, they had potentially more weapons and hardware that they had not managed to deploy in their brief time on the Tiberium universe, something that was going to need to be dealt with, if not then they were going to suffer for it. Suffer terribly at that. The many thousands of potential casualties was certainly lower than could have otherwise been due to their research into Tiberium itself, but it was still possible they had some kind of ability unknown to humanity.
And so it was that plans were made very clearly to destroy the Scrin fleet before it could reach Earth. The Achilles survey ship was in the area and it was going to be used for this battle.
The portal technology of the Scrin forces had been dissected and using their expertise in decoding NOD technology, the Coalition were very much able to develop and perfect their own warp portal technology. The Tiberium printers aboard each survey ship (themselves upgraded over time) were able to print their own portals in atomically perfect designs, enough that the long wait times from sending radio signals back to Earth were waved. They could now send communications through the portals, able to send devices and after a few… hiccups, send organic matter.
Cows certainly tasted better minced…
As for the rest of it, certain matters had to be taken care of first, but the portals were ready to transport across the men and women to make the next stage of the plan work. That being the need for them to deploy dozens of attack craft that would attack each and every Node ship as they were called, destroying them instantly before they could transmit anything that could possibly resemble a distress call.
If humanity could use their portals which were powered by the mystical power of Tiberium, then so could the Scrin. They needed to be destroyed at the same time and instantly, if not then there was the chance that they would be receiving some kind of retaliation, it might take a few thousand years to arrive given how these ships were moving, but it would arrive sooner or later.
It wouldn't be an issue if they managed to complete the next part of the plan, but that was still quite a ways away if they were doing things by the book as they had been for a while now. Best to make sure that everything worked before sending people through.
As for the Achilles it would be bringing in pilots, bringing in special forces teams and the materials needed to construct their craft. The active scans had detected the Scrin fleet and it was now time to engage.
The general plan of attack being on where they boarded each shuttle, exit out over the fleet and dropping down onto the ships themselves, planting their Catalyst explosives courtesy of NOD onto every hibernating Scrin ship that was in the fleet, of which there should be at least 42 of them. Once that was completed, they would then proceed to exfiltrate the ships, get at least a certain distance away that they wouldn't be caught in the blast radius when they all went boom, then flying back to the Achilles confident in their victory. After the shuttles tore them apart with their Tiberium absorption weapons, of course, no point in leaving behind any possible means that the Scrin could continue their attack on the homeworld.
As of this moment, it was all beginning to set itself into motion.
The soldiers were being transferred onto the Achilles on the temporary housing built by the crew, while engineers and technicians were using the Tiberium Printers to build the parts of the shuttles that they were going to be using to get on board. At the same time crew of the Achilles was preparing their weapons and the like, the long dormant attack systems installed when Achilles had first left dock, all being warmed up and ready. State of the Art when they had left, and only upgraded further and further since then, each one able to destroy a ship the equivalent size of the Achilles with a few strikes.
The soldiers were ready, the shuttles nearly so, all that was necessary now was the go-ahead and they would crush and destroy the Scrin before they could get in close enough to hurt the homeworld.
For Earth.
Captain Jack Ryan sat inside of his shuttle, a small craft that had all of them almost crouched down in position. That and they were all upside down, when the shuttle was over the fleet, they would be kicking themselves out, down onto the ships themselves. The shuttles would be moving perpendicular at the same velocity to ensure that they wouldn't be missing the giant-ass ship. That would be particularly bad considering that if they were lost… well, chances of a pickup in this kind of environment were small, not until the fleet passed detection range, which was well outside of their own oxygen supply range.
They were doing this stealthily after all and having a shuttle burn down would only give away all of them. Those that missed were on their own, a nice thought to have certainly…
Jack breathed in slightly, he was ready. Deep breaths, let's not waste what oxygen he did have.
Backwards engineering of the Scrin systems had told them that the Scrin did not have very good passive sensors, not on these ships which were essentially their mining vessels. Upon their warships, it might be different, but this was a civilian vessel essentially and it was largely blind, as for the crew… if it had any, were all dormant and sleeping, waiting for activation when they reached the objective.
For Jack this meant that so long as they didn't fuck this up, they would be able to get inside of the Scrin ships if they made sure to not trip the sensors, if the schematics passed onto him by command were accurate, and if there were not a few Scrin that were awake as a skeleton crew.
On his back was a single supermassive charge, a catalyst bomb, one that would allow him to destroy an entire Node ship if he placed it on top, a refined NOD design or something of the like. He wasn't too sure about trusting NOD, but they certainly had humanity's best interests at heart.
The lights flashed. Red. Time to go then.
The hatch above him slid open, revealing above his head the massive ships that contained the 8 Node ships with which they were planning to strip his entire world of resources.
Not today.
As the light to his left flashed green, Jack felt the little compressed air piston beneath his feet activate and push him out of the shuttle. Arms hugged tightly around his knees, Jack made sure that he wouldn't be affecting the trajectory in any way at all, he didn't want to miss and clipping the edge of the little hole would certainly make him do that.
Ready Ready Ready.
And he was out. Floating, the feeling of weightlessness, the feeling of being helpless, the feeling of being weak. All of it flooded through his mind for a moment before he was pulled back into the moment. Time to get stuck in then.
Head looking forward, Jack re-oriented his body in order that he was effectively diving headfirst onto the ship.
Now it was just a matter of waiting. His horizontal velocity would ensure he would touch down to where he was looking so long as the ship didn't change it's orientation, while at the same time his vertical orientation was going to need to be accounted for. No point doing all of this then slamming into the ship and killing himself.
Ok. Time.
Flipping himself over with the use of a few thrusts of his compressed air on his back, Jack touched down on the behemoth, feet first. His boots, magnetic in nature stuck themselves to the ship.
Looking around he could see the other members of the team touch down at the exact same time as he did. Zooming in with his helmet's camera, he could see the other teams landing further down on the other side of the ship and in the middle, his was at the end, the most risk jump.
Nodding once he confirmed all of them were on board, he made his way over to the port side of the vessel, there should be a large gaping hole there. These ships were keeping the Node ships in segregated little pods that just sort of… hung there. It kept them safe so that if anything happened to one Node ship they would not all be destroyed, and that certainly made his job that much harder. Still, he had a job to do and he was going to do it. There were 8 of them, and there were 4 of the Node ships assigned to their team.
That meant 2 bombs... per ship. Not the worst ratio he had seen, but he had certainly seen better. Still, if they were going to work as they had been touted to, he was going to need just one anyway. It was better to be safe however.
The front-most team would be dealing with the ship's interior, destroying the command center and making sure the Scrin couldn't call in reinforcements.
As they made their way over, Jack considered that this was just like his training at the academy. Just walking all over ships, walking all over the moon, mars. Just walking and patrolling in space. It didn't really do much considering that there was no real way to hide in Space, but it instilled discipline or something.
As half of his team followed him down, Jack considered the possibility that the Scrin were just waiting for him down there, just waiting for him to appear so that they could pepper him with lots of little plasma pellets and perforate the suit, killing him instantly. Not the most pleasant thought, but it wasn't like he had much to do when he was just walking downwards.
A walk, a little more, a little walk and there he was. Right in the middle of it. A large hexagonal pod, one that looked like that of a honeycomb actually, insect-like, just like the rest of their stuff.
Making his way inside, Jack carefully placed the Bomb in the space just next to the Node ship, touching it might set it awake and the walls were too far away for him to affix it over there. Best to stick it in the void near the ship so the blast zone would still include it. The damage wasn't done from the explosion, but rather the chain-detonation of Tiberium that would follow.
Satisfied he turned and left, making his way back up to the top of the ship followed by his partner for this job.
Legs moving the opposite way this time.
One step at a time just like before. None of that fancy moon jumping here, there was no gravity after all.
At the top, it was a matter of releasing a streamer connected to the front of his harness that flowed out and had an extremely powerful electromagnet on it. Just making sure that it flew up upwards, as far as the tether would go. Now it was a matter of just waiting for the shuttle to pick him up by having the magnet connect to the magnetized hull and pulling him along with it. Much easier than trying to physically rendezvous with the damned thing.
The military had tried that for a time, only the number of accidental deaths had persuaded them otherwise… eventually.
As for Jack, as he felt the scheduled shuttle pull him up and off the Scrin ship, reflected that this was the first hostile sabotage bombing of an alien ship… which was nice.
After Activation 1193 - Origin Universe
After Insertion 1154 - Cultivation Universe
Millennium 166-32M - 40k Universe
AD 2025 - C Red Alert/Generals - Rise of the Reds Universe
The Scrin motherships as they had been designated erupted in a vast torrent of greenish fire. The pods on the side that housed the Node ships each bursting out like a firecracker, a massive bonfire that spread to the rest of the ship, smaller explosions on the surface while some very clearly catastrophic ones emerged underneath the hull.
As they continued, it reached the point where the hull itself cracked open, unable to withstand what was happening inside and shattering from the pressure, bits of hull floating out into space, propelled by further fires.
From the front of the ships where the projected command station was located, the explosions were not evident, likely due to the internal reinforcing that was evident inside, a cause for momentary concern seeing as they could not verify the destruction of the command center itself. That was until the ship tore itself into smaller pieces that in turn presented to the world a burned out husk that was the command center, the initial explosion likely being so large that the entire area had been exhausted of all its Tiberium in a single strike.
The same scene repeated itself throughout the entire Scrin fleet, their ships being torn apart in bouts of Tiberium fueled flame and death. There were clearly no survivors… at least that was what the Warchiefs hoped.
They were titled as such since they were the chiefs of the global military, chiefs of the war machines in essence. They were called Warchiefs so that they could never forget exactly what it was their roles were in the grand scheme of things and to ensure that they did not overstep their bounds, the constant reminders of what would be necessary each time they made a decision constantly in their minds.
War would be a last resort, and it would be a truly brutal resort. With the weapons that had been developed ever since NOD had come to the world had ensured that when it came down to it, they would be able to truly tear apart anything and everything that might possibly be a threat, not or ever.
Their current concerns were that of the Scrin. Their mining ships had been destroyed, but what of the military forces? What of their fleets? Would they come seeking to find out what had happened to the lost miners? Or perhaps would they ignore what had happened, since there was no real way for them to find out really. Each ship being sent off on multi-thousand year expeditions that possibly could collide with a rogue meteor or something of the like. It was still a risk… but at least it wasn't one that they had to undertake… unless.
NOD.
The ever present wildcard. The possibility that they would drive humanity to war against the Scrin being far too high, especially if they thought that humanity could win. It was far too damned likely now that they thought about it. This ascension of theirs… to the stars, or possibly to leverage themselves into an empire of stars? Knowing Catherine it was highly likely to be the latter, it was not as if she was the most… stable of beings out there now that they thought about it.
In which case, it was likely that they were going to be going to war with the Scrin… somehow. The hows were still in the air, but the possibility was unfortunately very real. The Warchiefs gave each other commiserating looks before turning around and giving the order to have the military to be put on soft alert, one where the possibility of an alert was there so they should stick around their bases. They could still go out, just not too far.
Which proved to be appropriate given the fact that Catherine appeared on the screens that the Warchiefs were watching the destruction of the Scrin ships from. She grinned at them, laughing at their dismayed faces. For those that were veterans of the wars of their own world and then that of the Tiberium World, her face was one that evoked many many bad memories. She had been responsible for so much of the suffering that they had to go through and here she was.
They resisted the urge to groan, that would only encourage her. Like a virus that never gave up, she would constantly badger them until they gave in and that was not an option they would consider. Not while the enemy was here. That enemy being her. It was a Catch 22. Either they obeyed, or she would force them into it somehow.
Dangerous. Too damned dangerous.
"Well now, is that any way to say hello to me?" She said grinning at them.
"Good afternoon Catherine, how might we help you today?" Asked the one with the white hair, not rising to the bait.
"Well… it has come to my attention that you have finally managed to kill off the Scrin invasion! Good work guys! And Girls! And that thing over there with the red hair [she winked at that]. That is good, we can finally begin phase 2 of my plan for domination of the galaxy! But first! We must find the Scrin and then declare war on them! Do not worry dudes and dudettes, I have a plan. It will call for the sacrifice of a few billion soldiers but that is irrelevant! We can conquer the Scrin and kick major ass while we do so. Like totally major ass, like ass so Major that it might as well not even be an ass anymore but like, a new asshole."
"..."
"You are calling for us to sacrifice our troops for your goal to rule the galaxy?" Asked the non-human one, the one with red hair. He was a bit miffed about that but he did have a point. Just what was she asking of them, why was she so confident about it, and what the hell was going on? She just popped up out of nowhere to talk about galactic domination? What was this… ugh. It was Catherine.
"Noooo. Why would I want to rule a galaxy? Have you ever seen the galaxy? It's fucking huuuuuuge. Can you imagine the amount of paperwork that involves? I can like... I have ruled over like 2 planets once... and there was so much I could swim in it. Don't by the way, you get papercuts in all the worst places, or you could wear clothes. Anyway, bad idea, paperwork out the butthole. Buuuuuuthole… or holes, who am I to judge." She said, twirling around on her spinning office chair. One that looked ridiculously comfortable now that they thought about it. Why didn't their budget extend to those? Just a few chairs so they could sit and plot in comfort.
"Then why? Why do we need to conquer the galaxy if you don't want the power in the first place?" Asked the womany one, the one that looked like a woman, the breasts were an indication now that Catherine thought about it.
"Because humanity needs to prove it has teeth you know? The Galaxy is full of like, total assholes. Like serious assholes that want to teabag us all to death. The Scrin are like the drug dealers of the galaxy, we beat the crap out of them and we get a little reputation you know what I mean? Keeps us safe from the big boys out there that want to enslave us." Catherine said, a little more serious now. Leaning forward and staring at them, a glimpse of her true charisma if she wanted to employ it.
"So we need to prove that we are powerful if we want to be safe from the rest of the galaxy?" Asked the smarter one. Actually, the question was how did the rest of the galaxy know that they were there, why they wanted humans slaves in the first place too.
"Correct. If humanity wants to survive what is coming next, well you need to shape up boyo. The second you started colonizing worlds, you declared yourselves fair game. Shape up now, or the galaxy is going to pillage and do bad things to your butts." Catherine said, leaning back in her chair.
"So if we want to prove ourselves to the galaxy, we need to sacrifice billions of our own people… a choice made in hell isn't it? Either we sacrifice our own people, or we all die if you are correct." Said the red headed one. He was going to be ok, he didn't have a soul after all.
"Fine! You guys are such downers. I thought you would be all cool for it since your names are like "Warchiefs" you know? If you don't want to be awesome and totally be downers, you can like use Catalyst bombs to destroy the entire Scrin hub network and like cause them to explode you know? Because you're all boring and this is boring and I'm going to leave now before I say something I don't regret!" And with that Catherine left, the screen returning to the view of the Scrin fleet, this time it was being consumed by the various dispersal devices left behind by the Achilles and the shuttles.
"Well… I think that we can safely say that things have escalated beyond our control." Said one of the generals, his face twisted into a grimace. It wasn't as if he wanted war, General Thorn was good at war, but he didn't want it.
But now, well Catherine's threat hung over their heads, either they shape up or whatever it was that she wanted, or they would be suffering the consequences that would involve events that revolved around the destruction of the world or worse.
"So… who is going to tell the heads what is happening?" Asked the one with the black hair.
They Warchiefs all groaned again. Dammit, they were not looking forward to this.
While the politicians generally knew what they were doing now that the world was unified and there was no more need to jockey around each other for power on the global stage, that didn't meant that it didn't happen at all. They loved to bicker amongst themselves, saying this, or saying that, trying to get X done, trying to get Y done, trying to push for their little pet projects and the like.
It was a good thing that NOD existed now that they thought about it, not a thought that came naturally that was for sure. But NOT made sure that everything was on track of the politician in question… well, they tended to not exist after a certain point. NOD made sure to deal with them in such a way that the public never suspected… but the other politicians would know very clearly what had happened.
Through various deaths, through threats, through intimidation and the like, NOD made sure that the world and the colonies all over the Solar System were all trundling along properly. The overall benefit of the human race was in question here after all, if they wanted to play favourites, they would not do so at the cost of the people of the Sol system as a whole.
It was the only thing really that ensured the outer colonies remained in the Sol influence in the first place, NOD forcing the politicians to treat them fairly and to help them grow and achieve equal status as the other major colonies being a major factor. If they hadn't… well NOD would have had words and nobody ever enjoyed the idea of NOD having words with them. Those tended to not end well at all. The last idiot had been found, having died from a caffeine overdose… because he was hung upside down with coffee being poured from a massive storage tank right into his asshole.
They had hidden how he had died of course, but the humiliation of it… well, that was enough to keep most of the idiots in line.
Only they still argued for hours if not days and the Warchiefs very desperately didn't want to present this information since they were going to be called to stand at witnesses… and that meant listening to more hours of bickering and shouting. The occasional bloody scuffle, a thrown shoe, a thrown bench… all in the daily sessions that marked the Sol parliament.
No, it was not something they were looking forward to at all.
After Activation 1193 - Origin Universe
After Insertion 1154 - Cultivation Universe
Millennium 166-32M - 40k Universe
AD 2025 - C Red Alert/Generals - Rise of the Reds Universe
Most of the trouble that the Generals had been anticipating never eventuated. Catherine had "words" with the right people, those people being very clearly what looked to be the politicians and the bureaucrats who were very much behind the idea of invading the Scrin. What was different was the way in which the action was going to be portrayed to the public. It was not a war of aggression so much as a war of retaliation.
Humanity would have its vengeance on the damned aliens for trying to attack them in two universes. For the public that was already indoctrinated to believe whatever the government said, it was very unlikely that they were going to say or do anything against the establishment. The very idea of them doing so was absurd, the fact of the matter being that they were very much loyal little soldiers. The governments (with generous application of NOD) had managed their interests in such a manner that there was a vested interest in them continuing to do so. They had not been led astray so far and were as a result very willing to go along with these plans for an intergalactic war.
Which in itself was strange enough for many of the Warchiefs to consider what exactly was going on. Then came the realisation that NOD had likely planned this all along. Making their governments the way that they were in order for this very moment to come to pass. NOD… NOD knew what they were doing and it was certainly very terrifying when it came down to it. To have planned all of this from the beginning, to have set them against each other from the onset of their existence. To think that they had so very little agency, that everything had been set from the beginning… it was galling.
The Warchiefs could only grit their teeth and keep going. The fact that NOD had done all of this was irrelevant, they were going to need to do it regardless, it was for the future of the human race.
It was galling but it was true. To have someone else directing the future of your race was bad, the fact that they were right about it even more so. The urge to just… do something that said "you're wrong" was overwhelming. The urge to just say "this way is better" contrary to any and all proof was overwhelming. To be able to beat NOD at something was just overwhelming. Still… they were professionals and they would do their jobs.
Which in this case was to build a structure as forwarded by NOD's engineering team. A structure that they called a Threshold. It was a massive thing, resembling an enormous coil that stretched all the way up into the atmosphere. The fact that they were building it on Mars only made it appear larger, what with there being nothing around to detract from its height. That and the fact that it was several kilometers wide, wide enough that an entire army group could hide inside of it and never be discovered.
Mars had been terraformed as of recently, able to support a livable but thin atmosphere, enough at least that the next phase of the plan wouldn't kill all of them at least.
As for what it was meant to be in the first place, well, NOD had said something along the lines of it being a device that would allow for them to warp straight into the heart of the Scrin and to strike them from the inside. That each device was a tool that had been designed by the Scrin themselves as a means to allow for them to transport all the Tiberium they were harvesting to a central hub without anything time lost between. They were essentially very large funnels for all the Tiberium in the worlds that they needed brought through.
The Scrin needed a very literal constant supply of the Tiberium (what they called Ichor) in order survive, their bodies having evolved to revolve around Tiberium itself, a fact that when explained made quite a bit of sense. Why else would they be seeding entire worlds with Tiberium in the first place? If they were dependent on it, then they were going to be willing to kill and destroy native life forms in order to grow more of the Tiberium.
As for the why's exactly… well, that was something else that they didn't really understand, NOD merely gave them the information and left them to it. The motivations for the Scrin to do such heavy modifications to their own bodies with Tiberium was not explained to them.
It was why therefore that the sudden appearance of what looked like… Catherine? In their main meeting auditorium had the representatives of humanity confused. These were the people who ran the governments, who ran the military, who ran the everything, people who very literally held the world in their hands.
Catherine was here and it was likely not for anything good… she was probably going to invite them to do something insane and there was going to be vast amounts of death and destruction as was the norm whenever she became involved in something.
Hopefully, they would be safe.
"Good morning Representatives and people! I am here to for a very important reason. So important in fact that I have personally come here. Yes. Me. The great Catherine. Now. Please follow me, we have things that need doing and a world that needs burning. Wait, no to that last part, no world burning on the schedule for today, that's next week... possibly. Ok, let's get going. Follow me!" And with that, Catherine disappeared. Only for her to reappear, or rather it was they who had reappeared, all of them apparently being teleported along with Catherine into what looked to be a massive room of some kind.
It was the kind of place that quite definitely looked to be a gathering hall of some sort.
As for Catherine, she was standing on a podium, elevated above the representatives who found themselves in some very comfortable seats. They didn't have arm rests and the like, but they were certainly interesting enough to be considered for purchase if they could find the same. Or not, they didn't want their guests to be comfortable enough to stay, that would just be foolish.
"You are questioning why you are here. That is normal. That is expected. I fully understand. Yes, I do. Why is why we will not have an explanation session where things are explained! Your curiosity will be satiated, we do not wish for you to end up like the cat after all. That would defeat the purpose of having you around! Now then. Please clap in the talking person. Her name is Sofija and she will take over the everything." Catherine said before she disappeared off to somewhere… again. Only this time they weren't following.
Instead, a rather attractive but plain young woman walked up to the Podium and smiled at them as she stood there. The ideal secretary person, that was the general consensus in their minds.
"Good evening. I am Sofija, I am here to begin the explanation as to the questions that are no doubt plaguing you. Notably the question about why it is we have the Threshold schematics, and why it is exactly that we have been guiding humanity from our first overt actions in 1965." She said smiling at them as she did so. It was a very disarming smile, the kind of smile that they were very wary of, this woman was dangerous, much more so than that of her more… flighty leader.
"To start, we can safely say that Catherine and her personal retinue are all immortal, truly immortal that is. Even when their bodies are destroyed totally, they will still come back, we are… rather resilient that way.
"As for why it is we knew about the Scrin, well we have had a few run ins with them in the past, how far into the past is a different concern. Just safe to say that we have known the Scrin would be arriving for a few decades prior to our emergence.
"Are we human? Yes, we are, so much as you can be when your entire body is that of a human's. We have no foreign DNA at all, and it will remain that way until it changes.
"Why are we guiding humanity? We are doing so since we would like to see the Scrin destroyed and humanity to not destroy itself. That would be counterproductive.
"What are our goals regarding humanity? They are benign. We do not seek anything other than the elevation of humanity from the state that it is already in.
"Why do we have such a technological advantage? We understand how humanity ends to work.
"Why do we have such an indepth understanding of Scrin technology? We have uncovered this device in the Jungles of South America. It is called the Tacitus and it serves as a means by which to access the entirety of the Scrin's data network, or internet as you would call it, including all the classified information, the blueprints, the schematics and more.
"The importance of this as you can imagine boils down to the fact that the Scrin are now wide open to us and we can surgically strike at every one of their weak points with ease.
"What is this device doing on Earth in the first place? It was created by high ranking Scrin who grew disillusioned with the way that the Scrin were killing countless people in order to harvest their Tiberium in the first place and wanted to create a resistance that would allow them to resist the majority easier. The problem of course, came from the fact that they shared the same weaknesses and could not design or create weapons that would target them without first making themselves very vulnerable in the process. And so they were defeated... but in a final act, they sent the Tacitus out into the galaxy to our world as a last ditch resort to find a race that would be able to defeat the Scrin.
"As to why we have kept its existence a secret from the rest of the world is because you were not quite ready for access to it as of yet, unfettered access at any rate. We have been curating your access by feeding technologies to you so that you would be able to develop your own understanding of the technology, to allow you to innovate instead of merely copying and pasting.
"As to what it is we plan for you to do when waging war against the Scrin? We wish for you to crush the Scrin and then to take their place in the galaxy. Humanity will be strong and able to resist all the other empires that were willing to prey on humanity in the first place.
"How will we do that? A simple surgical strike with Catalyst weapons into the center of the Scrin's Ichor Hub, the chain reaction will spread out to every single Scrin that is currently connected to the Hub and destroy them at the same time. It will require a strike team to be assembled to force their way to the central Hub within the 30 minute time limit after which the entire Hub will shut down and render the operation meaningless and opening us up to a counter-attack. The attack must be swift and brutal for it to work, NOD will lead the attack, you will make up a portion of the reinforcements. The Scrin are able to detect anything coming into the Hub, an attack is the only option.
"What will happen afterwards? Humanity will use the same Portals that the Scrin have been using, and the Tacitus will provide the coordinates to allow for humanity to spread out and assume the same territory that the Scrin have. Our technological superiority will hold the line for now as our numbers are made up.
"Questions?"
After Activation 1193 - Origin Universe
After Insertion 1154 - Cultivation Universe
Millennium 166-32M - 40k Universe
AD 2025 - C Red Alert/Generals - Rise of the Reds Universe
The war to begin and end all wars.
That was what they were calling the strike against the Scrin that was being planned.
There were hundreds of thousands of them right now, more arriving by the hour. All meeting in this place, all of them ready to die and take as many Scrin as possible with them. NOD was out in force now for the first time since the initial invasion of the Tiberium Universe. Bringing with them what looked to be countless vehicles, infantry and walkers.
As for the Coalition, they were deploying the massive armoured behemoths that had resulted when someone had decided to merge an Overlord and a Sentinel into a single tank while also giving it a Microwave weapon. A monstrosity that would be able to destroy anything and everything with its dual 220mm cannons, the laser systems installed on pintle mounts, or the central microwave cannon.
Thousands of them were ready to drive their way into the Scrin, ready to crush them beneath their treads, to see them demolished in the face of their fire, to see the enemy torn to literal little pieces as they moved forward. The Scrin were not ready, they were very much not ready for what was coming for them.
For the infantry, each of them were wearing their own Exosuits, fully enclosed against the atmosphere. There wasn't going to be any of that ridiculous death by a thousand Tiberium cuts here. That or the fact that what was on the other side was an entirely poisonous atmosphere if what they had heard was correct.
Which meant that double checking all the seals on their suits was a necessity, they didn't want to be torn apart because of a leak after all. Void Ops in a nutshell now that they thought about it.
For personal armament, each and every one of them was to be armed with a sonic weapon, the kind that fired little rocket propelled speakers that played a frequency that was fine tuned to cause Tiberium to shatter. Crippling the Scrin who were extremely reliant on the Tiberium that was infused with their bodies. Or at least what they thought were the Scrin, the real ones probably weren't some kind of mutant ant thing… creature… thing.
The NOD troopers being as insane as they were, were armed with Catalyst weapons. A "Bolter" as it was called the fired little rocket propelled grenades with Catalyst warheads and a diamond-like penetrator tip. They would burrow deep inside then detonate, a single warhead able to take out an entire Scrin walker on its own if it got through the shields, and then the Scrin close to it if they were touching, the smaller warhead meaning the ability to propagate was less than that of the larger weapons, but perfectly adequate for anything infantry sized and if it was bigger… then more rockets were needed… naturally.
The problem of course, came from the fact that every single NOD soldier was armed with one or a smaller version, if they got in close enough, they were going to be killing themselves off in the resulting explosions.
What was worse was the fact that their walkers were armed with massive Catalyst warheads in their shells, it was as if NOD just wanted everyone to die with them. Which given NOD… was not a far fetched thought actually.
Still, their orders had not included the death of all of their allies and so they would be going first and the more… safety conscious Coalition would be heading in straight after. The reinforcements after that being a mix of the two.
The objective of this mission was very simple when it came down to it.
They were going to be escorting a Convoy of massive Catalyst Warheads, each of them capable of chain-reacting an entire planet's worth of Tiberium and then several times that. Each of these would be placed in a specific pattern around the main conduit through which all the Tiberium in the Scrin's harvesting operation flowed. The conduit both took in Tiberium as well as distributed it to every single Scrin that wasn't in an exploration fleet.
Which naturally meant that if they did their job correctly, then the Scrin as a race would be annihilated in a single moment, that being when the massive explosions went off and doomed the entire Scrin race to a rapid and agonizing death as they literally exploded from the inside out.
The problem with this plan was that it was a plan that was heavily reliant on the fact that they were travelling up one of the conduit's conveyor tubes. It being designed to process Liquid Tiberium. Which naturally meant that the minute the "Overlord" detected that they were inside the Ichor Hub in the first place, they were going to be attacked from all sides in a matter of seconds. The Ichor Hub was the most heavily defended facility in the entire Scrin empire due to its importance to the Scrin as it was the only thing that was keeping them alive when it came down to it.
Warp Portals would be able to call in every single unit in the Scrin arsenal from the Motherships with their massive beam cannons that could bounce between individuals and buildings, to the tiny little Scrin infantry-equivalent units. Every single one of them coming through and ready to engage the human forces as they pushed their cargo up the 2 kilometer tube.
2 kilometers meant that they needed to push a kilometer in 15 minutes, a pace that was difficult when one was under attack, when they were under attack while also escorting a massive hover-truck? Well, that was another concern entirely.
For that reason NOD would be leading the attack, they would use their weapons to inflict as much damage as possible while also soaking up as many of the casualties as possible.
The tube would have the top of it retracted to allow for ready access of the Scrin to them with their weapons, which meant that they in turn, were vulnerable. Catalyst weapons had not before ever been deployed against the Scrin and for the time being they had the advantage. With the Scrin not knowing what would be happening to them, it would be therefore natural if they were going to fall apart and effectively die when NOD made their entrance… after suffering massive casualties from the sheer number of units being readied against them on the other side.
The Threshold as it was known was about 2 kilometers wide, which naturally meant that they were going to need to fill it entirely with their own units in order to prevent the Scrin from warping their own units onto it.
At the same time having that many units would increase their survivability, what with the Scrin not being able to target each and every one of them at the same time.
The Threshold, titled 19 for some reason was ready for them to advance through. The massive army groups were all waiting outside, their forces ready to push in at the slightest of orders. Each knew that this was likely a suicide mission given what was going to be arrayed against them, that and the fact that the bombs had to detonate before the 30 minute mark from when the Overlord began the emergency shut down of the Ichor Hub. If they weren't out of the portal in that time, then the bombs would detonate regardless and they would be caught in the resultant explosion, one that would make what happened in Saudi Arabia look as if it were a firecracker given how violently it would go off.
Last minute checks were being carried out, orders were being reaffirmed, soldiers were making sure that they were hugging and kissing the right people goodbye, the formations were being checked, everything being double checked again, double the kisses.
The wills were being written out, the last minute diary entries, the fuel gauges being tapped with nervous fingers, the rifles being cleaned, the straps being tightened so that their balls (if they had any) were bulging in front. There was going to be nothing that could go wrong here.
Soldiers were calling for their squadmates to check if they were missing anything, them doing the same from a checklist that had been handed out previously. Nothing could be allowed to go wrong, not when it possibly involved them exploding into many thousands of little pieces to a giant alien force in the sky.
Last prayers were said, massive group gatherings based on religious where multiple priests presided before they too grabbed their weapons and prepared to join in, these weren't "human" after all.
There had been a slatted 1 million troops for this attack, 2 million had been requisitioned. This attack had to succeed at all costs or else humanity would be destroyed was the message being repeated throughout the camps.
For NOD it was a different story, for them, it was the moment of their ascension. In accomplishing this mission it would be them who helped mankind take the first of the final steps to ascension, the first step to greatness. It would be them that ensured that humanity would be all that it could possibly be.
There were no last words, there was no heartfelt farewell, for this was their time, this was for them a chance for joyous celebration. They would be doing what they had been promised since the time of Catherine, since they had been first indoctrinated.
This was their time.
And so it was that the word went down the line, the reinforcements had arrived, their numbers full. 15 minutes until they would attack. 15 minutes until they walked through the Threshold and into the beating heart of the Scrin Empire, ready to deal it a blow that would see it destroyed forever.
At the head was the Trio, Catherine's personal Warchiefs, Hannah her Left Hand and Catherine herself at the head. They would lead their armies in, lead them into the Maw that was the Ichor Hub, and they would return covered in glory and divinity so was the hope of the NOD forces.
A deep breath.
Time.
The engines revved, the soldiers rose to their feet, the wheels began to turn, the tracks began to trundle, the pistons hissed, and the first of the troopers led by Catherine entered the Threshold.
There was a severe overcompensation of Charge vehicles, early ten times as that was necessary, in the event that one was destroyed the mission would not be a catastrophic failure. They would be heading down the center of the column that was the combined might of the armies, their drivers all NOD, all ready to die. They would not be leaving their vehicles, they would die with them, victory or death.
None were afraid for Catherine had vouched for them, their souls were slated to join her in the ascension when they died.
Catherine walked forward, holding a massive hand cannon of some kind that was quite definitely not a Bolter in her hand, a sword in her left. Like a swashbuckling rogue instead of the head of an army was the thoughts of those who followed her in.
The maelstrom that was the Threshold seemed to pause momentarily as Catherine made her way inside, as if it were unsure, as if it were afraid.
It should have been.
Behind Catherine marched an army of NOD troopers, all of them ready to die, all of them clad in the greatest set of armour that NOD had to offer, Power Armour they called it, each suit capable of resisting a ridiculous amount of damage.
Intermingled with them marched the massive walkers, each one a simple cockpit with a set of 4 220mm cannons on their backs, a simple cannon rack on a set of legs. Each and every one of them ready to tear into the massive capital ships that was the Scrin fleet. Others still were carrying multiple mounts of 35mm gatling cannons, ready to spew Catalytic death at the Scrin who closed in to strike at them from the air.
Alongside all of this were vehicles with weapons that had no discernable use, exotic weaponry of some kind likely knowing NOD.
It was like a conveyor of death. The Coalition marching forward as the NOD armies were swallowed whole by the Threshold.
After Activation 1193 - Origin Universe
After Insertion 1154 - Cultivation Universe
Millennium 166-32M - 40k Universe
AD 2025 - C Red Alert/Generals - Rise of the Reds Universe
Fiona Bradley looked upon the greatest amount of destruction and death that she had ever seen in her life.
It was… terrifying in a word. It was impossible for her to describe in such a way that made coherent sense when it came down to it. All of it was… just… just… something.
If she could explain on a small level that had happened then it would be the way that the new Seno-Lords were cracking with flame, their massive bulks, each of them several times as high as she was burned with an eerie flame, silence, there being no sound in the vacuum that they were in. Each of the massive vehicles that had been destroyed had been pushed to the side of the Highway of Death as Fiona had dubbed it.
Those on the outskirts were pushed off the massive path that they were on, falling into the depths below, those that were in the center were routed around, or placed on either side of the massive Charge vehicles, a way to provide a kind of defensive wall with their smoking wrecks.
The behemoths were not some kind of weak and vulnerable little (big) targets, rather they were something else entirely. Each of them turning their massive turrets, each the size of a ship's cannon instead of that of a tank, each of them thundering as they fired. There was no sound, but she could certainly feel it as the Highway under her feet trembled with the awesome power that was the report of a 220mm cannon. The targets they were aiming at did not get out the other side in one piece either, each and every one of them that were hit exploded in gouts of fire and debris, the craft falling out of the sky, the tanks that were being elevated on little platforms simply being torn apart by the massive shells. There was no explosion, they were just too small and puny for the warheads to detonate, rather each shell went through multiple tanks before they detonated against a structure somewhere inside the Hub.
The Hub itself looking like a vast globe of some kind, the inside of a fruit, the twisting veins of Liquid Tiberium stretched all over the interior, numerous little jutting platforms with structures on them, refineries, barracks, whatever could possibly be there. The Highway of Death was merely just one little platform heading to the Conduit, a massive tube that ran from the top of the sphere all the way to the bottom, a glowing, beating, green heart.
The Highway was not in fact, a single road, but one that stretched from warp-portal to the next, little stretches of road that twisted through the entire Hub, itself a mess of little roads, all stopping and starting for some unknown purpose. The floating little island that they initially rode in on floating in the rough middle, the actual distance being hundreds of kilometers away.
The thousands of Seno-Lords were firing on a constant repeat, the cannons doing their work, but the microwave emitters on top with their laser and microwave antennae were able to simply melt those that they were aimed at. Not as dramatic certainly, but it certainly was effective as the millions of interceptors swarming about over their heads simply stopped working and fell from the sky. Each sweep of the microwaves destroying entire swathes of the little buggers.
That wasn't all, however, the might of the Coalition's missile systems were being fired off from the entrance of the Highway, the Soviet systems being rolled in to fire their massive ballistic missiles at distant targets before rolling back out. The vast size of the Ichor Hub allowing for the use of smaller nuclear weapons, the constant flashes of light that splashed over the advancing forces being on that resembled a club more than a battlefield.
For the NOD side, it was different entirely, them using their Catalyst weapons to devastating effect. Firing into the massive swarms of Interceptors and watching as the green explosions rippled through the cloud, sending the entire mass to the ground. The massive Walkers with their cannons were tearing into the enormous Scrin ships in the sky, them laying down the fire on the advancing army with their beams of death, one that was able to bounce between multiple tanks and soldiers so long as it kept firing.
One sweep was able to kill several thousand troops with ease. After the first sweep however, NOD had begun prioritising them and even now there were the massive rings that marked the "Motherships" burning and falling out of the sky as each of the Walker's main cannons boomed.
It was not all fun and games as the Walkers were tall enough that the Scrin were able to target them down with little trouble, coming out of the sky on suicide runs as they made passes as the gargantuan Walkers, slamming into the legs, toppling each of the giants over.
Each was kicked out of the way by other Walkers, NOD displaying their characteristic disregard for their wounded or their dead.
As for the infantry, it was like walking through hell. The constant stream of Plasma as it rained from the enemy ships and attack craft, the aircraft, the artillery, all of it splashing into the Highway, breaching suits and killing those within. Those that were lucky died instantly, those that were not tended to burn to death or suffocate in the vacuum.
Each of them was looking to the sky, firing their weapons up at the sky, trying to ward off the alien attack craft like the biggest fireworks display ever conceived by man.
The Catalyst craft were making their way down the center, each one mounting a Warp Portal that ensured everything that was aimed at them went through into the void of Space outside of Mars, the massive bulk of each vehicle in part due to the generator needed to support such a system. They would be turned off at the Conduit, the most vulnerable part of the operation as the portals worked both ways.
Fiona for her part was pushing her way up to the front, the edge of the advance that was the NOD line that even now was fraying, the tens of thousands of soldiers dying every minute to the mass of Scrin ground vehicles and infantry being the only reason that they were advancing in the first place.
Without the infantry to push their way through, the Catalyst craft would not be able to reach the objective, their generators could be overloaded after all. Fiona would be doing her part to reinforce the line, knowing that she was probably going to die but deciding that this wasn't so bad. Dying in the one operation that was guaranteed to be in the history books?
Not so bad for a Bradley. She hadn't reached the rank of General unfortunately, but she was going to get her name written down, even if it was only in an obscure memorial somewhere.
As she got closer to the the front, the incoming fire from the sides and the ground grew in intensity, the Scrin fighting back with everything they had. It didn't matter however, the humans needed to get through and they needed to do it now.
The message had come through to all of their headsets a few minutes ago, the emergency shutdown procedures were initiating, giving them half an hour to get the Catalyst craft to the Conduit. A problem when they were only three quarters of the way there with the Scrin resistance only growing more intense with every meter gained.
Fiona ducked down as yet further fire arced over her head, slamming into the Crusader Mk 5 behind her, gutting it in an instant, the tank dropping onto the Highway, inert, the crew likely dead.
Not pausing to ponder the fact that 5 men just died, Fiona pushed forward, they needed to get up and they needed to do it now.
She was a fighter and so long as they got the Catalyst craft to the Conduit before the 30 minute marker, then she would have the possibility of getting out of this one alive.
A story for the grandchildren most certainly.
Fiona grinned as she made it up, the fire here being so savage, so brutal that the front was merely a constant flashing of white as the plasma from the Scrin slammed into the NOD front runners. Even from her position, 20 meters behind, she could feel the heat as it washed over her from the intensity of the Scrin bombardment. The NOD troops merely marching forward, uncaring of their dead, replacing them as dismembered legs and arms were kicked off the road lest someone trip on them.
She chuckled, this was certainly not what she had signed up for.
Overhead the Walkers boomed, their shells slamming into the Scrin front-line, the chain-reactions tearing out massive gouges in their defensive line. Thousands of Scrin units died with every single shell that impacted the line. Only they simply reinforced and warped in more and more units to replace those that had been lost, the Scrin not giving up. They were being pushed back, inch by inch, but they were not going to be giving up, not until they were all destroyed at the very least.
Fiona didn't head to the front that was suicide and suicide was for the NOD troopers. Rather she was just behind the front and watching the rear-lines. The Scrin had been warping units on top of them, suicide units that needed to be put down fast or they would take down the valuable Walkers or possibly even the Catalyst craft themselves.
There.
Fiona spied a rift in the air above the AA Walker that was standing tall, warding off attack runs by Interceptors and Scrin attack craft. Lifting her rifle to her shoulder, she pulled the trigger, pre-empting its arrival. When the thing did arrive, it would do so greeted by a stream of crackling death if Fiona had anything to say about it.
It died, falling apart as the Tiberium that allowed it to function in the first place disintegrated.
Now to take up a guarding position, keep her at the front where she would get the accolades, kill a few Scrin and if she died, it would be the quick kind.
Fiona looked behind her, the Catalyst craft were all moving into position. They had 10 minutes left and the Scrin had finally been pushed out. They were still being attacked, but the Scrin were not firing at the Catalyst craft, the danger of hitting the Conduit itself being too high she guessed.
The positions around it were still being strafed and the NOD troopers were fending off multiple warp ins a second, the Scrin just dropping a non-stop rain of units onto their heads. The Scrin were getting desperate if them dropping gigantic walkers on the NOD soldiers… sideways... was any indication.
Anything and everything to get NOD out of the area, no matter the cost.
Only it looked like it wasn't going to be working at this rate, the last of the Catalyst craft was in position and soon would begin the countdown. NOD always did love to be dramatic.
"All Coalition forces, the Catalyst bombs are in position. Evacuate the Hub. I say again! Evacuate the Hub!" Came the shout over her radio.
She started slightly, that was fast.
Turning she was about to mention order when the NOD trooper closest to her pushed her towards the Threshold portal. What? Turning back she could see them shaking their heads at her as the realisation came crashing in.
The Catalyst craft couldn't stay here undefended, they needed someone to hold off the Scrin. But if the Coalition was retreating… then NOD needed to hold.
Fiona knew that somewhere deep down she understood that this was going to happen on some level. Only… this wasn't what she had expected at all, rather this wasn't something she wanted at all.
Sacrificing what must have been a million NOD, and knowing it was going to happen from the very start… Fiona sighed. She was a shitty person, that was not in doubt.
Still, she wanted to live and she was going to make the most of the opportunity presented to her.
Fiona nodded to them and turned around. From there it was a matter of running, she didn't know how long the NOD troopers would hold off the detonations, and she wasn't going to err on the side of optimistic. Even as she looked there were soldiers grabbing onto tanks, armoured vehicles, and Walkers as they themselves pulled out of the area.
Fiona realised quite quickly that if she didn't grab one, she would be left behind in what was a gap in the human lines, one that the Scrin were going to exploit and warp in their own units to fill that gap.
Putting it all into her legs, she moved. Faster. The Stalker APC was just there. Dammit.
She was about to fall down when hands grabbed her, the others hanging on for dear life pulling her up. From there it was a matter of watching as the Stalker reversed back through the Highway of Death, swerving to avoid wrecks, to avoid piles of bodies, the soldiers on board and the main gun firing constantly at the sky to ward off any Scrin. They were leaving behind those that were too wounded to walk, too wounded to grab hold of any vehicles. It was terrible… but they had no other choices, not with the Scrin on their heels.
They weren't being attacked as vigorously as before, the Scrin having likely decided to ignore the retreating forces and engage NOD instead. Smart.
Too late, they had accomplished their mission and Catalyst craft would detonate, the only question was whether or not they would still be inside when it did.
They kept going, the 2 kilometer journey seeming to be an endless one. One that just kept going and going.
Time dilated and Fiona felt as if she had been in here for years before they crossed the other side.
On the last vehicle through.
What happened next would be played all over the screens of the world. The NOD forces being engulfed in a tide of green flame as a truly titanic explosion rocked the Conduit, the green flame rippling through the massive pipes that connected the Conduit to the multiple pipes that connected to other thresholds, all of them draining Tiberium from worlds to feed the Scrin, the worlds themselves torn apart by the explosions. Underneath, hidden from view was the ripple heading out through portals straight into the Scrin Empire, the purified Liquid Tiberium touching each and every household, destroying them in a chain reaction as cities, ships, worlds burnt green for an instant before there was nothing left but ash and corpses.
In a single moment the newcomers to the galactic scene had wiped out the Scrin, they were a lesser Empire true, but they were still an empire. The only survivors being those on the mining ships, those on the prolonged patrols, those that were isolated from the network. Most of them would go on to starve to death without the Tiberium to sustain them. They who opened up a portal at a later date would find humanity waiting to finish them off.
Three Quarters of the 2 million had been killed, but their sacrifice would ensure that humanity would take its place in the stars as was destined.
Humanity would go on to colonize the worlds that made up what used to be the Scrin Empire, taking all of it for their own, guided as ever by the immortal NOD, Catherine and her retinue somehow coming back from that to make a speech the next day.
And with that, the interest of the Minds waned and the search for new and interesting worlds began anew.
After Activation 1193 - Origin Universe
After Insertion 1154 - Cultivation Universe
Millennium 166-32M - 40k Universe
The Beast as it would be known in the future arrived on the world of Ullanor in a sudden burst of energy, of power. The massive beasts, each the size of a gargant wiped out the population of the world and began to prepare for their attack on Terra itself. An attack that would see Terra destroyed, crushed even. A revenge against the Imperium of Man for the grievous defeat that had been delivered at the hand of the Emperor during the Great Crusade. It was here that the massive Orks who had ruled their technological empire were destroyed and the world colonized by the humans.
They would be getting their revenge and the attack had been so swift that there was nobody that could have left out a plea for help. Not that it mattered, each of them crackled with so much Waaagh(!) energy that they were able to effectively silence any astropathic messages.
The massive Orks had left, prepared to wage war most foul when they realised that not all was as it seemed.
The Beast after all, was not a natural construct. It would be impossible for a natural living Ork to grow this powerful after a mere 1500 years after all. No, it was something else, a contingency plan one might call it.
The Beast was not something that had emerged naturally, rather it was created by the Ork Mekboyz of the Gorro empire, the six of them being locked in a Warp-fold for 1500 years, during which time they were fed a constant supply of Waaagh(!) energy by transmitters that had been constructed on the walls of their fold, or rather prison. The 6 of them held in separate cages, constantly hearing each other, constantly roaring at each other, ever in conflict.
It wasn't until they reached half the size that they were today that they developed enough of an intelligence that they were able to talk and reason with one another, able to develop their personalities, able to agree that they weren't going to fight each other since that would be a waste of a good Ork.
They knew that they had been placed in here, but the fog that was their memories forbade them from remembering much else. Being a mere boyz was not something that encouraged the mental faculties needed for long term memory, rather the constant and ever present desire to fight, to eat, to shit, dominating their minds.
At the same time, they knew that when they emerged from the Warp-Fold, they were going to be extraordinarily powerful, it was their right and it was what they had been programmed to be like. They understood this at a fundamental level, they knew that when it came down to it, they were going to be the most powerful Orks to have ever existed. The fact that they were Orks, and the fact that they had been preprogrammed by some kind of race was something outside of their control, and something that needed to be investigated.
But for now… well, it did not matter. They were going to be crushing the humans, destroying their little civilization, retaking their glory, and rebuilding the Ork empire, taking over the entirety of the galaxy. They were the Orks and they were going to be employing their minds for this one.
There wasn't going to be any stupid mistakes because an Ork forgot the keycodes that they needed to complete an operation, or that they forgot they needed to pull the pins on grenades before throwing them.
And so the 1500 years passed and when they were abruptly dumped out of the Warp, it was on Gorro that they had emerged. It was on Gorro that it would all begin. An abandoned husk of rusting metal.
Only… it didn't quite work out that way. The Mekboy of the 6 of them had found scraps that he could construct things from, but there was not enough for them to do what was needed, there wasn't enough to even build them a space ship. All of it had been scavenged at some point or the other and they were very literally stuck using scraps, not even proper scraps, but pathetic little rusting pieces of junk scraps.
For the Beasts themselves, all they knew that there was an Ullanor somewhere, a planet that was in another Ork Empire but the Warlord who ruled it was a regular Warlord, not like the Mekboyz that had ruled Gorro. Perhaps he would still be there and they would be able to head on over and… take over.
The Orks were massive beacons of Waaagh(!) energy, every single one of them radiating the stuff, or rather they generated it, the fact that they had so much of the energy meaning that when it came down to it, it was now an unlimited source of energy. Interesting. Perhaps trying this with a squiggoth would be a good idea.
The fact that they were radiating the energy had the effect of rallying many Orks to their side, those travelling through the Warp searching for raids, those just joyriding, those that weren't even planning on doing anything in the first place, just getting from place to place.
All of these were drawn to them through the Warp, emerging over the husk of Gorro instead of their original locations, the sheer size of the Beasts ensuring that they were automatically loyal. There was nothing that could compete, the nearest sized Ork was quite literally a fraction of the height.
Using these Orks and gathering the needed materials for the Beast Mekboyz' project, the Beasts got to building themselves armour, a means to make themselves as intimidating as possible. From there it would be a simple matter of teleporting themselves to the world of Ullanor, taking it from the Warlord if it was under Ork control, or simply crushing all resistance if it was not. They didn't care, either way, Ullanor would be under Beast control by the end of the day. That much was certain, they would not allow for any other outcome.
The Orks that had been drawn to follow them would be joining them, all of them docile and leeching a small part of the Beasts' intelligence from them through their shared connection with the Waaagh(!).
The teleportation to Ullanor had occurred as planned, which was a given of course, the Mekboyz' intelligence was many times that of his uncultured brethren… that and they had not spent 1500 years inside of a Warp prison, the ideas for what he wanted to build smashing into his skull at every opportunity. He was so damned smart that he had counted every single second that they had been stuck in the damned prison, even when he was talking to the other Beasts.
He was going to build the biggest and the best frakking… thing ever. And it would be the best Gork damned thing to ever be built, Mork be damned.
But first.
Ullanor.
The Orks appeared out of what appeared to be nowhere and it was very apparent that there were no more Orks here. The whole massive human civilization on the planet cluing them into the fact that… not all was as it seemed.
It wasn't as if they really needed a reason to start smashing and killing, but seeing the humans, the ones who had put them through that fate in which they had suffered for 1500 years, was enough to send the Beasts into a frenzy. Each of them had appeared on a different pole of the planet, all of them ready, all of them angry.
They dove forward and whilst they were wearing armour but had no weapons, their arms were large enough to simply crush all who stood in their way, the Beasts very simply sweeping their way through Hab blocks with their prodigious strength, tearing apart flesh and armour, ending the lives of hundreds if not thousands with every sweep. Picking up and throwing the Hab blocks themselves, crushing the puny little humans like the squishy bags of flesh that they were.
Roaring at the sky, they roared their defiance and prepared themselves to take the rest of the planet. Spreading out the Waaagh(!) energy as widely as possible, concentrating it on themselves, the Beasts began to call for more Orks even as they smashed apart the humans that lived on the world of Ullanor, daring to do so, as if they owned the planet. There would be no mercy, they were Orks and it would have been foolish to expect it in the first place.
The Beasts took great pleasure in tearing apart the Triumph, the structure in the center of what looked to be a massive flat space, one that was likely used as a victory parade after their destruction of the Ork empires.
They dared, make a mockery of the Orks?
The Mekboy Beast had an idea that just spoke of the deliciousness of it. To make this very planet itself a weapon to destroy the humans with. Using the world of Ullanor to take revenge on those that had stolen it in the first place. Coming in and striking at the humans with the very world itself. The idea itself coming from Gorro.
Simply hollow the planet out, build in their technology, turn the entire world into a weapon and then pulverize and crush the enemies of the new Ork empire. It was going to be the biggest Ork empire, and it was going to be the strongest and the smartest. Which made sense, of course, it was the Beasts that were leading it, of course, it was the best.
Ullanor was theirs, and now they were going to need to secure the sector and build themselves up. Build themselves to the great strengths that were needed if they were going to defeat the Imperium as it was known. It was large and if they sent their ships across, then there was nothing that could be done, they would be destroyed before they could even retaliate. What could they do? Throw rocks at them?
No, they had to buy time, build up their weapons, build up their fleet, build up their might, then they would be able to do what was necessary, what was demanded of them by their 1500 years of punishment.
Each and every one of them would rest at nothing until they managed to destroy the Imperium.
The Freighter Arctarius of the merchant fleet, was heading towards Ullanor as part of a regularly scheduled trip that took place once every year or so. The ship loaded up with large amounts of luxuries, ready to trade with the people of Ullanor that was itself a tourist attraction of epic proportions.
It was the site of the final battle that the Emperor led personally during the Great Crusade after all. Millions of pilgrims flocked to it each year, each and every one of them wanted to see where it was that the Emperor of Mankind had personally stood, had personally given his speech, where the Primarchs had been gathered as friends for perhaps the last time ever.
It was here therefore that the constant stream of passenger liners and the like made their destination, it was a little off the Warp-Lanes, but it was still close enough that a little dip into the Warp wasn't going to be an issue, the exposure far too brief for it to be a concern for Daemonic attack.
As the Arctarius dropped out of the Warp however, what greeted it was not a Space Station that was full of life and a convoy of ships that were waiting for permission to dock. Rather what they got was a stream of SOS beacons, beacons warning them away from the system as well as countless carcasses of burnt out wrecks, the ships falling apart, their inner fires long spent.
The Arctarius did not spend time in the system and immediately accelerated out, narrowly dodging the beam of Plasma that nearly cored it, likely the same attack that destroyed the passenger liners.
The ship continued to accelerate and to dodge, each second a race against time as it tried to recharge the Warp Drive contained inside the aft of the ship.
The ship that emerged at Segmentum command station a week later was one that was missing half of the fore section, vast sections of it burned and unsalvageable, carrying a message that shocked Segmentum command to the core.
Orks had taken the Ullanor system and they were building what looked to be truly massive fleet of craft.
A response was to be dispatched at once. The full might of Segmentum command.
After Activation 1193 - Origin Universe
After Insertion 1154 - Cultivation Universe
Millennium 166-32M - 40k Universe
Ensign Niklas was an Armsman. Which meant that he was one of those who was dedicated to defending the Eternal Regret, a Cruiser deployed as part of the Battlegroup to Ullanor. They were headed to Ullanor to retake it from the Ork, to destroy the Ork battlefleet in the area, crush the Ork presence and then leave.
For Niklas it didn't matter so much what happened on the ground, rather he was a sailor who was stationed almost exclusively on this vessel. Or rather exclusively, but he could be moved elsewhere hence the almost disclaimer. He had been born here, after all, his parents two of the Armsmen of the ship and thus he had been raised for the role.
He had trained with the standard navel shotgun, the stubber, the combat knife, and had even put down a few uprisings on the ship in his youth. There had been nothing for a few years now, but since the Eternal Regret did use slaves as was standard upon Imperial ships, there was going to be the inevitable uprising very soon. It was a matter of time.
It tended to not happen in combat, the way everyone was relying on the ship to keep them alive meant not attacking the gun crews that were firing the cannons, the cannons that were going to be keeping the enemy away from them. To do so would be the height of stupidity and he wasn't sure there was anyone that really qualified as that stupid. He was still a sailor after all and he knew these things. An Armsman that didn't know of the possible signs of unrest and allowed it to ferment beneath his ignorant gaze was one that tended to be shot for failure.
As for Niklas, he had been good enough to pick out the leaders of the unrest and had them disposed of before they could become problems. He wasn't going to be tempting fate by having the possibility of them being innocent dissuading him from ending them. He wanted to live and if that meant he had to end them now, well it was going to be what he did.
As for the right now, things were different enough that he was worried.
They were heading into a massive Ork fleet by all reports, the Escort ships that had gone in first to scout had reported that it was a fleet that numbered in the hundreds, dozens of them Battleship or bigger in size.
Reinforcements had arrived from the other Segmentums and the Adeptus Astartes had even lent their Strike Cruisers and Battle Barges to the assault. This was the largest concentration of ships in the entirety of the history of the Imperium excluding the Horus Heresy.
The fact that they were Orks was what worried Niklas because Orks were very well known for the fact that they loved to board the ships of those they fought against. Boarding actions that were going to require him to dig in and defend against Orks. Massive Orks that took up as much space as a Space Marine, which meant most of the corridors.
He had boarded a few Ork ships as part of exercises in which he had to retrieve information or something of the like, finding Orks inside of their ships had been terrifying then, it was going to be terrifying now. The shotgun barely slowed it down, you needed to aim for the head and fire constantly until it finally went down, until a pellet went and ricocheted around in the skull and tore apart its brain matter. Anything else and the damned thing would just keep coming at you, keep pushing up, keep trying to get in close enough for it to swing either its massive cleaver or whatever weapon it had, or in the other hand to fire its stubber which hit hard… but was about as accurate as a newborn with a shotgun on full automatic.
Niklas took a deep breath. Orks boarding the Eternal Regret were going to be terrifying but the alternative was also terrifying. The one where he would be ordered to board the Ork vessels alongside other Armsmen, take the ship and kill any Orks on the way. They were going to die in droves and he really hoped the Regiments that were deploying as well, or even the Astartes themselves would take that particular duty.
He had no desire to die, not now, not before he managed to get himself a promotion. He didn't want to be an Armsman for his whole life, being a Sergeant-At-Arms was his goal, to be in charge of a squad of Armsmen.
That however required that he be alive, something that was not going to happen if he got himself chopped into little pieces by an angry Ork.
Niklas cursed his luck and closed his eyes, desperately praying for something to save him from this fate.
That and he was busy checking his suit. It was armoured with thin plates of plasteel which would keep him moderately safe. What was more important was the rest of the suit that was of a heavy duty cloth layered over that of a sheet of non-porous plastic, a means to keep him pressurized so that he could breathe in the Void just outside of the Eternal Regret.
If the Orks did board, and they were stupid enough to use explosives inside of the ship, then at the very least he wasn't guaranteed to die as he was sucked out into space. That was a plus he considered, the whole not dying instantly. Only that required for his suit to be fully pressurized and sealed, which meant checking the gauges on his chest. A task made difficult by the helmet he wore, a one size fits all design, which meant it was naturally too big for him.
Niklas sighed and tapped the leg of the Armsman to his left, gesturing for him to check Niklas' pressure gauge. A thumbs up and Niklas breathed a sigh of relief. He wasn't going to be dying to the Void today.
Next was his safety line. It was a cord of Plasteel with a hook on it that connected to the thin rail that descended from the ceiling of the corridors of the ship. Connected to it, they wouldn't be pulled out by the Void in case something did happen, and it would keep them on their feet in case there was a shock of some kind. The tether was strong enough to survive the sudden decompression and the force of that… hopefully. He had never tested it personally and it was certainly… old… and frayed.
The line could be disconnected with a press of a button which made it easy to pull the dead out from in front, but it also served to keep them there as mobile cover. They were not so ready to disregard the only thing that they had to count as cover in the confines of the corridors of the ship, the corpses of those who had gone before them.
Niklas shook his head at that morbid thought. He really hoped that he wouldn't be used like that. When he died he was going to be processed into a nutrient paste anyway, but he hoped that he would be intact going into the processor.
All of his equipment was checked, now was the waiting, waiting for the order to come down, the one that said for him to defend against a boarding, or the one that said to prepare to initiate a boarding.
Waiting. Sleeping. Waiting.
Fights between ships tended to take time measuring in days and weeks, longer depending on the sizes of the fleets involved. One this large would take at the very least a few weeks and during that time he was going to be living inside of this suit. At least inside the preparation chambers, his waste was able to be processed. It certainly made life that much more bearable… even if it was an indignity that he could afford to do without. Finding a lavatory station in the middle of a battle would be difficult, that was for certain.
"Prepare to defend against Boarding! Prepare to defend against Boarding! Section A1-F9, decks 35-53." Came the voice over the Vox-caster and Niklas groaned audibly as did everyone else in the chamber.
Fighting against pirates of the human kind they could do, it was their job to do so after all. It was the fighting the Orks part that had them all very worried since these were frakking Orks.
Still, he had a duty to his fellow Armsmen, to his ship, to the Imperium. He would be heading out and fighting, there wasn't going to be a weak link in his position, he would make sure of that.
As the squad marched out led by their Sergeant-At-Arms, Niklas taking up a position in the center, he considered the possibility that the Orks wouldn't be breaching where they were. After all, there were many different decks that the Orks could board, they didn't have to board where he was right?
He knew that the possibility was slim, unless there was a ridiculous number of boarding craft, but he felt that perhaps he would be proven wrong and that they were indeed going to be boarding on his position. Because that was how the world worked, he was sure of it.
Eyes open, Niklas raised his head and marched through the ship, ignoring the frightened crewmen and the slaves. If there was a boarding action here then they were all going to die regardless, he wasn't going to waste his time worrying about them. He had more important things to worry about. Like not dying to the Orks when they came crashing through the side of the ship.
Reaching the preparatory Chamber near their zone of protection, the squad trooped in and waited. When the standby order went out, it did not mean that boarding was imminent in a time sense, but in an Imperial Navy sense. It would take roughly a few hours to a few days for them to arrive and Niklas decided that he might as well make himself comfortable as he waited.
Or as comfortable as he could be sitting inside a chair that had a straight back. This was certainly not irritating at all.
Niklas stared at the glowing circle that marked the penetration of the Ork boarding craft as it cut its way into the ship. The craft being one of the small ones judging by the size of the hole, which meant that hopefully there would only be a few Orks on board it.
Hopefully.
The disc of ship's hull was ejected and the Orks stroke in, roaring as they did so. Each one massive, the height of a Space Marine with the bulk of an Ogryn, each one grunting and waving their weapons in their hands.
The Sergeant at Arms gave the order and they fired in unison. Shotguns blasting away as the firing lines emptied their magazines at the Orks, the mass of pellets slamming into the first one, rendering its flesh from the bone, forcing it back.
The element of surprise was on their side and the Ork died, toppling over as was right. The problem came from the fact that there were more of them, and they now knew something was shooting at them.
And they needed to reload.
A problem that manifested itself as the Orks turned and began to roar as they ran at the Armsmen. The firing line continued to fire as the 20 meter gap became 10, became 5. The Orks dropping, one, two, three, but not enough. Just one was enough to disembowel all of them if it got lucky.
Niklas dove to the ground as the last Ork smashed into the firing line, the screams of his fellow Armsmen entering his ears as it chomped its way through armour and flesh, the cleaver tearing apart flesh, its stubber finding its mark. As for Niklas, he was about to employ a trick he had learnt a while back. Grabbing his combat knife's hilt, he climbed onto the Ork's back and rammed it into the beast's ear, wriggling it around inside the thing's brain.
As it died, it toppled over, crushing those still caught underneath it.
Niklas stood up breathing heavily before picking up his shotgun again and turning around to face whatever it was coming.
Weeks of this were in store for the Armsmen of the ship.