After Activation 1178 - Origin Universe
After Insertion 1139 - Cultivation Universe
Millennium 151-32M - 40k Universe
AD 2010 - C Red Alert/Generals - Rise of the Reds Universe
The research was coming along rather well when it came to dealing with such things as Tiberium. Their facilities were pumping out as much Tiberium as was needed, making loads of the stuff, of creating what they had discovered to be "Liquid Tiberium", a super efficient slurry that made the most of the Tiberium as a resource.
As for what they were doing with the stuff, well they were going to be using it as a means of storing enough Tiberium that it was going to be useful in corralling the many different sources into one plant. A means for hyper efficient conversion and a shortening of the supply chain, something that would always be useful for future expansions.
As for the research into Tiberium, well, with the best minds being collected into a single entity by the personnel of NOD, they had found a way to influence the growth of the stuff. Sound played a large role as well as that of heat and directed electromagnetic waves. It required the precise positioning and deployment of a beam to a certain calculated angle of each crystal growth over 5 centimeters in size while also bombarding it with a constant level of heat in order that the surface of the Tiberium reached 80 degrees centigrade. Once these conditions were met the crystals would actually shrink in size, making the entire process ridiculously easy to control the rate of growth as the opposite applied when trying to grow it larger.
The difficulty came from the hardware and software needed to ensure that it worked, computers that were many times as powerful as in the Tiberium universe, software that allowed for the efficient use of such hardware and cheap enough that it could be deposited in towers across the globe. It worked and it was going to be used for everything that it could be used for. Namely the controlling of the Tiberium so that it didn't spread into the civilian zones. That would only result in deaths and contaminations.
The researchers over at NOD had found a way to produce lifeforms using the liquid Tiberium. A means of injecting into people over a prolonged period of time to create what was essentially supersoldiers.
The problem being the high fatality rate and the manner in which many of them lost all independent thought over time. A problem that had to be addressed before they deployed them across the planet, those without independent thought were nothing but a liability when it came to situations out of their control. Something that NOD wanted to avoid at all costs when many of its operations were behind enemy lines where "out of their control" was almost the definition of all of them.
The Tiberium was making itself useful and with the ability to control it, came the lessening of the fears that the people of the NTU universe expressed when it came to the proliferation of Tiberium into their universe.
Things were going well, of course, the subjugation of the populations of the world had turned out as expected, then recognizing the greatness of the Coalition's method of governance, while NOD provided the hammer with which the people were herded into the direction of coalition doctrine. Anything was better than NOD and if NOD was to pick them up for a lack of enthusiasm… well, that was their own fault.
And so it was that things were going rather… nicely for the Coalition and for NOD, the NTU forces. Things were not falling apart and the conquest had been rendered… easy in a word.
Which was why it all went wrong. Very terribly wrong.
For Kane like all bald men was a terrible human being that wanted vengeance on the world for his lack of hair. He was going to punish humanity for daring to demonstrate a lack of caring when it came to things such as male pattern baldness and he finally had the tool with which to do it. A tool that was taken from a temple in Bolivia, it was called the Tacitus and had provided for him all the answers he had to his questions. Or rather it would, when he decoded the damned thing. It was a gift he was sure, a sign that it was him that was the true leader of NOD, not some psychopathic woman.
It had taken years, years of waiting, more waiting on top of the countless years he had already waited (unlikely) and he was nearing the end of his patience. Which was when a partial translation was found and he discovered exactly what it was that he needed to do. Yes.
The technology was already there, the means by which to bring about the ascension of the human race was at hand. In order to do so he had created CABAL from the scavenged and smuggled computer cores coming out of the occupation zones from those still loyal to the NOD cause. By taking willing subjects to be interfaced with the device, he had created the perfect AI, one that would change as needed, one based on his own mind so that it would be loyal and cunning. It was perfect and it was going to be what was needed to interface with the Tacitus and provide for Kane his path to victory.
It was with trepidation therefore that he read the news, it was not what he had thought. Ascension would require a path through the portals that an alien race called the Scrin would provide. A portal that would allow him to ascend, that is if the first option did not work. A first option that required of him a great deal of work and effort. How they could be attracted was not yet available for his viewing, CABAL had not yet decoded that far into the Tacitus.
Or did it.
By transforming the entire human race by seeding Tiberium into the atmosphere, he would be able to lead them to a new world, a new life, one that was infinitely better than what they were faced with here on earth, scrabbling in the dust while the great empires in space explored the stars, claiming what should have been humanity's by right. They would ascend as a race, they would ascend into the stars and they would claim their place in the wider galaxy. Humanity would evolve and it would be through his efforts. As for the intruders, they would be forced back, forced out of this universe and back to their own, Kane was not a merciful God and he would enact his revenge and what a revenge it would be.
But first he had to convince the President of the US to agree to his plan for it was the US that had the Ion Cannon Satellite that was necessary for his plan to succeed. He would not tell the man exactly what it was that was going to happen should he carry out the plan, but that was necessary. The man wouldn't know what it was that was going to happen, just that it would strike a crippling blow to the forces of the NTU and allow for them to carry out their own counter invasion.
Kane grinned, yes, this was the moment in which he would have revenge on the world and force them to join him in ascension.
86#0990 was waiting patiently. As she always did, just sitting and waiting. Always with the waiting. She was always inside of this room, always waiting.
Her mission was nearly at an end which was good, she might even be allowed to die soon. That was good. It was not often that she was given hope.
0990 was a NOD operative, the NTU NOD, the proper and real NOD. That was a given, it was after all the only real NOD, the imposters were merely borrowing the name until they were all wiped out and shown exactly why it was a bad idea to impersonate your betters.
As to what she was doing exactly, she was an assassin, waiting for Kane to fulfill his destiny before striking at him from behind and ending his life.
Permanently.
The man had finally decoded the little glowing ball, had finally used the AI to unravel its mysteries and was now heading off to implement the first stage of the ascension plan. All in all, it was just as Catherine had planned it. How Catherine could see the future 0990 didn't know, she just knew that she had a job to do and that job was to make sure that Kane never left this facility again after the incident.
It was just a matter of waiting. Her stomach had been replaced with a tank that allowed her to produce the energy needed to survive, her small backpack at the rear able to replicate the materials needed to fix her muscles and the like that were as she stood here... deteriorating. They had been replaced with synthetic tissue, her bones with ones made from a plastic of some kind. She was not too sure as to the exact manner in which it happened, but she was very sure that it worked, she hadn't been discovered after all. Though it might just be the stealth suit that she wore.
Either way, she was inside of Kane's deepest and darkest base. Ready and waiting. Always with the waiting.
Kane had returned 0990 was pleased to note. Deep inside of the NOD base where she was waiting. Where she was ready… and waiting. Ready.
He was looking very happy, presumably what he wanted had come true in some manner or another, likely involving much death and suffering and anger. It was Kane and he was evil, or maybe he was just delusional, 0990 was not a psychiatrist, she wasn't qualified to give a definitive answer. She did know he was rather sad however, the poor man didn't have hair.
He had become more deranged over the last few months… years… his mind falling apart as his raving about Catherine grew more pronounced in volume and hatred. He would die for that alone, one did not insult Catherine in front of NOD.
Regardless he was here now and he was smiling and laughing.
"It is about to happen!" He shouted, the robot AI creepy face thing just looked at him and asked.
"What is happening?" It asked, the voice creepy as the AI itself.
"The Ion Satellite is going up and it shall strike at the Liquid Tiberium holding plant underneath their base in what used to be Saudi Arabia," Kane replied, his face twisted into some kind of happy smile.
As someone who had seen Kane do all manner of strange things while waiting for the opportunity to kill him, she was very much used to these moments of insanity. Perhaps it was expected of cult leaders to be strange? Either way, she didn't mind much, he was Kane, he was weird, it was known.
"Bring it up on the main screen CABAL! Let us enjoy this magnificence together!" He shouted, waving his hand dramatically at her end of the hall. That was rather irritating, she would need to move now, move muscles that hadn't been moved in what felt like months, but was actually weeks.
She gave a mental sigh and walked to the left so that her shape wouldn't disrupt the projector and give away her presence.
"Now. Let us watch!" He shouted and 0990 watched with him.
How very interesting. Not. Was this what weird people did with their free time?
It showed a large round thing, probably the earth. Then there was a beam of blue that shot down and hit something. Then there was a massive explosion that had a shockwave that went around the world and there was Tiberium going up or something. She didn't know what, but it was green, lots of green. Just what was he trying to do?
"Something is stirring out at the end of the Solar System," Said CABAL.
"What? What could be happening?"
"It is the Scrin. Our calculations were wrong, it appears that they have been activated by the explosion and are heading in this direction." CABAL said.
Kane stood there flabbergasted.
Well, no time like the present.
0990 walked forward, unsheathed her knife and shoved it into the unsuspecting Kane's skull, all the way to the back and a little wriggle to turn it all into mush.
"KANE!" Shouted Cabal.
0990 ignored it. Picking up the Tacitus she activated the device embedded into her left hand, a portal to the home universe, a room specially prepared for the Tacitus. It disappeared through it, ignoring the screams of an enraged CABAL, 0990 picked up Kane's body and walked further into the hallway. A hallway that contained the many different bodies that CABAL used to boost its computing power and provide the personalities of its faces.
Activating the final Protocol, 0990 stood and smiled.
As the chemicals in what used to be her organs interacted with her blood, the resultant chemical reaction was enough to create a truly powerful bomb... if there was a spark.
A spark that came as her heart stopped from the blood poisoning and the automated emergency systems tried to shock her heart into starting again.
Only it detonated the bomb that was her body.
The explosion destroyed CABAL, the body of Kane and 0990's body.
A mission completed.