KANE'S WRATH: Third Tiberium War (2nd March 2047 to December 2047)

By David Peter Ehrlich

"I want you to have the privilege of starting the Third Tiberium War, the War to end all Wars,...Go Ahead, My Son! Push the button! Inscribe your place in history with the blood of GDI!" Thus said the Messiah Kane to the mysterious NOD Commander who became a member of his Inner Circle. With the destruction of the GDSS Philadelphia during the Annual Energy Summit by the Brotherhood of NOD, Kane started the most destructive conflict between the Global Defence Initiative and his Followers. As the war raged from the White House to Europe and Australia the Alien Scrin would also launch their invasion of Earth revealing the secrets of the Tacitus. Even as Kane was engineering the Liquid Tiberium Bomb the fate of Temple Prime in Sarajevo was sealed. This is the story of the Third Tiberium War between the two Superpowers and the seeming defeat of Kane in 2047. But what appeared to be the result of this War was just an elusion.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tablo Publishing
• Release date: Oct 12, 2022
• ISBN: 9781685835583

Book preview

Chapter 2 LEGION & The RIO Insurrection

Bloviate. That is what General Marcion liked to do best. And he was certainly very good at it. When receiving the news from Major Nick 'Havoc' Parker, the Chief of the Counter-espionage Black OPS Directorate based at Langley in Virginia, that Anton Slavic was indeed dead, the General exclaimed to his senior staff inside the Australian mega-fortress, Destiny has come to crown us, all our brothers and sisters in the Black Hand, with a momentous victory over the usurper. The heretic, Anton Slavik, is no more. Our heroic comrade has sacrificed his life for the greater good. Now we can move forward to a new sunrise and a renewed revitalisation of the entire Brotherhood, not just our Black Hand, but all our Militant Militia across the globe, our Air Force and our Navy. Now we shall carefully make preparations, plans, consolidate our power, nurture our Tiberium resources and galvanise our morale to bring the fight in the coming months and years to the corrupt and perverted Global Defence Initiative!

General Marcion turned to his Chief of Staff, a Major General, and said, Assemble our brothers and sisters in the Grand Hall of the Immaculate Scorpion! I wish to address our troops. And broadcast my address to the rest of the army outside. I want everyone to hear what I have to say. All must be enlightened by my visions of the future, my preordained destiny and scared duty to lead the Brotherhood to ultimate victory! Yes! My Prelate! I shall gather the faithful, all the disciples, the rank and file and the officer corps. Your address shall be heard on loudspeakers throughout the fortress and beamed to all our bases in the Australian cities.

The speech took place in the Pyramid-like Black Hand Temple constructed in the exact centre of the 2 mile by 2 mile inner fortifications of the massive base. The Temple towered to 1,500 feet high and was ringed by 200 Obelisk of Light defence lasers. The Grand Hall measured 1,500 feet wide by 1,000 feet in depth. An assembly arena of one and half million square feet. A vast hall of 34.43 acres. The floor was white marble. The four sides of the rectangular hall were adorned with twelve Corinthian columns plated in 18 carat gold. The dais at the front measured 120 feet in width and was 80 feet in elevation above the marble floor. Atop the dais was a magnificently decorated pulpit made of solid silver with microphones. The pulpit was illustrated with engraved scorpions and the symbols of the chamfered triangle of the Brotherhood. General Marcion waited for the Black Hand cadre to file inside the Immaculate Hall of the Scorpion. Fifty thousand troops lined up in ranks that were 700 men and women in depth. The self-proclaimed Prelate and leader of the Brotherhood walked majestically to the silver pulpit. Each step, one foot in front of the other, was like a pompous ballet of physical self-aggrandizement. As he walked he swayed his shoulders from side to side in an extroverted swagger of supreme egomaniacal self-worship. Marcion wore black armour and a red embossed NOD scorpion necklace hung from around his neck with a solid gold chain. He wore a bright red cape that stretched from his shoulders to the heels of his brilliantly shining black knee high boots. The cape had a design on its back that showed a classic flamethrower unit which was the signature weapon of the elite storm troopers. Also embossed in red and black on his chest armour Marcion sported the image of the scorched outstretched human hand. Thus fifty thousand inside and another ninety thousand soldiers listened to the loudspeakers outside in that vast circular mega-fortress with a diameter of 12 miles.

By way of background information and back-history, the childhood of Marcion was one of religious zealotry and extreme poverty. He was born sometime at the beginning of 1988 before the formation of the GDI in a small, stinking, lice-ridden village in the Congo. His mother was a 16 year old peasant slut who had allowed herself to be impregnated by a local warlord chieftain after he had overrun the village. The girl watched as her own parents were brutally decapitated at the same time that she was raped. Marcion's mother died when he was 9 years old in 1997. By then the Tiberium infestation, which had taken root in most of Africa, turned the Congo into either vast Red Zones or Yellow Zones. During the first war the Brotherhood sent religious monks across the continent to convert and to recruit the young for service in the NOD military machine. A Grand Confessor discovered Marcion in 2011 and saw great potential in the young man. Joining first as an Acolyte, Marcion quickly climbed the ranks of the Brotherhood and became a Confessor and then a Grand Confessor. Remembering his father and what he had done to his village as related to him by his mother, he sent out a militant militia NOD force and exterminated the warlord. As a teenager in the jungles of Africa he survived by hunting baboons and orang-utans. He found the protein of their meat delicious and it helped him to build a massive physique. Marcion stood six feet six inches tall, weighed 235 lbs and was rippling with muscles. Expressing greater interest in the NOD religious doctrine he asked and was granted a position as leading monk in the movement. During the second war he was appointed leader of the religious wing of the Brotherhood. All through this period his army of monks would root out any backsliders, naysayers, laggards or heretical dissidents for exemplary public execution. Marcion's favourite method of immolation was breaking these men and women on the wheel and then disembowelling them slowly by the use of plastic suction tubes that were inserted inside their intestines. Often they were put slowly to death while being forced to watch their wives and/or children brutally raped and burnt at the stake. His work was so thorough that he came to the attention of Kane towards the end of the second war. Kane was disgusted and did not approve of his barbaric methods and removed him as religious leader and demoted him to the rank of mere Brother (Sergeant). From this point onwards, as he saw the rise of Generals like Marzaq, Eamonn and Anton Slavik he was seething with jealousy and hell bent on revenge. He wanted to murder Slavik especially, because he believed that only he, Marcion, could be the true Prelate of the Black Hand. It is estimated that Marcion murdered over 2,000 civilians and executed some 350 NOD heretics while in power. After the NOD defeat in the second war many in the Black Hand had fondly reminisced about his exploits and salivated for his return. After 2030 the Black Hand split, as previously described. The strategic reserves in Central America and Europe remained loyal to Anton Slavik after the Inner Circle was butchered by CABAL cyborgs. But the bulk of the cadre, some 70% of the total field strength of the Black Hand, went over, en masse, to support Marcion. Seeing that his position and his bases in north and central Africa were too exposed to attack from Anton Slavik's forces in Europe and the Ukraine, he assembled a vast armada of 1,300 merchant ships and 100 frigates and sailed to Australia which, as an island continent, was the perfect defensive position and ideal to create multiple super-bases. The Australian Army, a mere 58,000 strong was quickly annihilated and the population was herded into slavery to work in the NOD military factories or used as Tiberium farmers, for the continent was crawling with Tiberium and almost entirely within the Red Zone. Only the coastal fringe along cities like Sydney and Melbourne held out as Blue Zones and Yellow Zones. Marcion also used the Australian population, especially women and children, sending them to NOD ReGenesis Laboratories where all types of mutation experiments were preformed upon them in the search for the next step in human evolution. It was estimated that three million women and children died horrific deaths in these highly questionable and unethical experiments. When one of his officers remarked, General! I can't abide the stench of death anymore. The bodies are piled up and we don't know where to dispose of them? In reply, Marcion said, I shall alleviate the discomfort to your olfactory senses by having you impaled on a stake high enough above the field of carcasses so that you smell nothing while you die slowly! The officer was then taken away for impalement. Marcion was no mere monk nor was he simply satisfied in ordering his Black Hand cadre into battle. He relished the savage hurly burly of blood and combat at a personal and visceral level. Wading into battle with his flamethrower unit during the second war and with skirmishes against the Forgotten tribes, he was an inspiration to his troops. The Purifier Walker was developed as an inspiration to his battle bravado and esprit de corps. After a pitched urban battle between NOD and GDI forces in the second war when Marcion cleared GDI trenches using his flamethrower the military technology and engineering branch of NOD decided to build gigantic walking humanoid avatars spouting flames with a subliminal neuronal messaging system that interfaced with human brainwaves to inspire NOD troops nearby. The obsession of the Black Hand with fire and pyrotechnics made the flamethrower their signature weapon. The expertise garnered with these devices allowed them to be upgraded further with super combustible petro-jelly and fuel efficient sheets of self-igniting napalm which created havoc with organic tissues as the jelly like substance would melt and cling to human flesh and dissolve any body armour. The Purifier should not be confused with the Avatar even though their construction was virtually identical. Both were gigantic walkers 65 feet high and each weighed 198 tons. Unlike the Avatar the Purifier does not need to stop or turn its steel torso to use the flamethrower weapon. The ignition of the plasma petro-jelly napalm is automatically set once any enemy comes within its radius. However it lacks the ability to upgrade itself with components from enemy or allied units which the Avatar is capable of. When deciding which is more potent as a weapon system, the Avatar, with its stealth generator packs, additional laser cannon and subliminal messaging to nearby friendly troops comes out on top. The only weapons capable of defeating the Avatar would be the GDI Mammoth tank (yet to be developed) and a squad of commandoes that would have to get close enough and be quick enough to bring the walker down. One more advancement attributable to Marcion was the development of the Scorpion tank at the beginning of the second war. Marcion wrote religious texts as well. His primary Magnus Opus was on NOD religious fanatics whom he praised and exalted. Any members of the Brotherhood that did not share the full zealous venom of his religious beliefs would be singled out for derision and chastisement while he was the religious leader of the movement.

You could hear a pin drop in the Grand Hall of the Immaculate Scorpion even though fifty thousand men and women were standing at attention within its walls. General Marcion slowly grabbed the solid silver pulpit with both hands and shouted, My brethren! My sisters in our sacred Brotherhood! The usurper! Anton Slavik is dead! A tremendous roar erupted from the troops followed immediately by silence. I am also vindicated by the defeat of that infernal and meddling artificial intelligence! CABAL has been destroyed. We have all made great sacrifices in the last four years since the end of the second war. I know that many of you grieve silently for the loss of our prophet, Kane. I too, initially, believed his One Vision and One Purpose. Yet Kane has lost his path. His vision is no longer the destiny that the Brotherhood needs. For centuries we have existed in the shadows, behind the scenes of world history but always manipulating the most cataclysmic events using puppets and stooges to do our work so that the movement would remain undetected until it was the right time. We have influenced great conquerors like Alexander the Great, Attila, Genghis Khan, Charlemagne and Napoleon. Secret Brotherhood interlopers have lived through the centuries often influencing these titans of history and manipulating their actions. But now I tell you this, 'There was given to him a mouth speaking great lies and blasphemies. And his name was Kane!' The Messiah that we thought we had until now has been a false idol. A soothsayer of no consequence. A leader that has proven to be inept and depraved in his actions which have had catastrophic consequences for our Brotherhood. Two wars already lost! The First Tiberium War. And four years ago defeat in the Second War. It is a debacle of epic proportions that Kane has foisted upon us with his malignant orders that resulted only in chaos and loss of reputation. Always trying to shift the blame upon his subordinates. Deflecting the absurdity of his military strategies and when surprised that they have ended in disaster blaming everybody except himself, the author of these catastrophes. I was blamed. I was unjustly chastised. I was made a patsy by Kane. Why? You ask? Because I was merely doing my job as religious leader of the movement. My methods were disapproved of by Kane. So I was sacrificed by him to abject oblivion! But now I am back! (another deafening roar filled the Grand Hall as fifty thousand fists beat their armour covered chests). "I was following the tried and tested methods of previous religious orders in rooting out and purifying the infected elements in our movement. In doing so I followed the doctrines and methods of the Grand Inquisitor Torquemada and the Holy Spanish Inquisition. Lessons learned by these masters of investigation and religious puritanical purity and dedication are lessons that we should carry with us for life, to enrich the future living symbiosis that is the ancient Brotherhood. Many in that time of the Spanish inquisitors were themselves secret members of NOD. Our agent provocateurs were everywhere in history. Shaping the future of the earth. Now I! Marcion! Your leader! Your Prelate! Your guiding father! Bring light to the lost and hope to the hopeless! I bring the promise of peace through war. Peace through power. I reveal to you the prophecy of Tiberium and its inestimable power! I say to you that you should wake up from your delusions! Your misconceptions and the idiotic self-delusional alternate universes that you had until now believed in. That was the fault of Kane. Kane was a coward! He was a traitor and an inept cognitively impaired madman! He was a coward who long ago, centuries before our time, lost his faith and his vision for the green substance. The violent demise of Kane was due to his lies and blasphemies and he will be brought down to the pit of Hell and there will stare at him all those inner and outer demons of the pit and ask; 'Can this be the one who shook the earth and the Kingdoms of the World?' Kane has been excommunicated by me. For I am the supreme ecclesiastical power! I am both temporal and spiritual and I say unto you that Kane is cast out from the Brotherhood! He is non persona grata! A grotesque pariah. I Marcion am the gold standard of the movement. Trust in me. Follow me. Obey me in everything for I know what is best for you my brothers and sisters!" Marcion paused for a moment. There was no deafening roar from the troops as he expected. Instead, suddenly, there were subdued murmurs from some of the soldiers. Whispering could be heard from one set of lips to another across the vast hall. The Black Hand was wavering. Some agreed with the bombastic proclamations but many still had their doubts even though nobody dared to voice any opposition. Marcion was taken aback and decided to change the tune of his bloviating speech towards the extermination of the splinter factions in Europe and Africa. For the General was determined to bring all Brotherhood forces worldwide under his absolute control and command.

Our magnificent fortress that we have constructed here in the centre of this Australian continent will be a springboard to gather our strength and resolve. To develop our over the horizon capabilities. To bring military technology to a new level of destructive excellence against our enemies in the perverted, imperialistic military obscenity that is the Global Defence Initiative. I can assure you that with or without Kane, who is no longer fit or proper to guide us, our enemies are doomed. But first we must crush the splinter factions in the Brotherhood that have duped the bulk of the Brotherhood to follow them in Europe, Russia, Asia and Africa. Those traitors that sit now in Temple Prime in Sarajevo and the rebuilt Temple in Cairo. But do not underestimate their power. They possess the vast bulk of our submarines and sailors. These heretics dominate both the western and eastern Mediterranean. Their land forces are formidable. Of the seven armies worldwide, of which we here in Australia are but one, the Black Hand Corps, they have the other six field formations. This cannot be tolerated! We must plan for an attack! We must gird ourselves in the years ahead to sally forth from this island bastion and bring the fight to those detractors who misguidedly followed Anton Slavik. I speak of Generals Kilian Qatar and Alexa Kovacs and also that talented but misguided Brotherhood warrior who has become known as The Legendary Insurgent. For another hour Marcion continued to pontificate at length as to his plans and dreams to reunify the Brotherhood under his sole and absolute command.

In the last week of 2034, back in Sarajevo and Cairo, it was left to the opposing NOD factions to pick up the pieces after Anton Slavik's death. Colonel Oxanna Kristos was sitting at Slavik's vast mahogany desk. She had her head in her hands and her eyes were closed. In front of her were photographs of their demised leader. Many of the pictures were taken before and during the second war. It showed Slavik giving speeches to large numbers of Brotherhood troops, other snapshots of him handing out humanitarian aid to the civilians all across Europe and Africa. The official NOD photographer and movie director had followed Slavik wherever he went. There were terabytes of hard drives containing full length movies of him at huge hospital facilities that the Brotherhood had set up in the major European cities like Berlin, Copenhagen, Warsaw, Prague, Hanover, Salzburg, Vienna, Budapest, Timisoara, Zagreb, Sarajevo, Mostar, Pristina, Sofia, Athens and countless more cities that were within NOD's ambit of control and under its military administration. The Brotherhood had gone to great lengths to alleviate the suffering of those infected by Tiberium infestation. Unofficially they aided and worked with The Forgotten tribes for this purpose. Since the assassination of Slavik the surviving leadership was hard pressed to keep the various factions and splinter groups of the Brotherhood under unified command. With Kane continuing his healing process in the subterranean bunker in the CABAL stasis tubes it was left to a handful of what was left of the Inner Circle to try to hold together the movement. South America was hard to control as GDI influence was increasing there as each month past by. The Honduras bases and those in Mexico were the main centres of military power. The huge populations of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Chile were growing restless. Vast slums or Favela's, also spelled ‘favella’, were springing up in Brazil. Favela is a shantytown located within or on the outskirts of the country's large cities, especially Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. A favela typically comes into being when squatters occupy vacant land at the edge of a city and construct shanties of salvaged or stolen materials. After the second war it was estimated that about 60% of the militant militia deserted and went back to their families. These men and women were mostly in the underprivileged economic class. Once brave soldiers for NOD they were now rootless, hungry, angry and bitter slum dwellers. Crime was rampant. The weapons that they had been given by the Brotherhood were now turned against the ruling elite of those South American countries. The NOD military machine was no longer in control. The forces that were left were holed up and ensconced inside their bases and barracks. They dared not mount any military operation for two reasons. The leadership in Sarajevo was unwilling to commit them until the time would come for Kane to reassert himself. That time was still far off. The second reason was that many local commanders simply refused to obey directives from the NOD High Command. The situation in Rio de Janeiro was particularly bad as the General in charge there had broken away from Europe and aligned himself with Marcion in Australia. As each month and year passed after 2034 more and more defections were taking place. Some units claimed total independence while others followed General Marcion's Black Hand. The Global Defence Initiative took full advantage of this chaos by fomenting riots and local revolutions in Brazil and elsewhere on the South American continent.

Suddenly the towering doors to Slavik's command and control room were swung open by four guards and General Kilian Qatar entered the vast operating centre. What are you doing? Colonel Kristos? Oxanna slowly lifted her head out of her hands and sank back into the ornate black and red leather chair. A beautiful golden chamfered triangle with a curled scorpion inside was painted into the leather. The back of the chair was so high that her head reached only halfway up the furniture. The desk before her was piled with dossiers, military reports, computer hard drives and various flickering holographic images that showed real-time troop movements, logistics, ammunition caches, airfields, barracks, nuclear silos, Tiberium harvesting factories and second and third generation military factories as well as all the surviving ReGenesis Laboratories. The Colonel replied, What can we do, now that Anton is dead? Kilian scoffed, There is plenty that we can do. Sitting around mopping is not one of them. Do you miss him? she asked Kilian. "Of course I do. As I know you do. I understand that you and Anton shared many intimate memories. Many moments that were private between the two of you. Of course this is unknown to everyone and remains a secret between us. Often the military professional duty can become transformed into a deeper personal commitment. I understand this. I do not judge. But we must press forward with our vision and our purpose. That destiny that Kane has made clear to us. That he will make clearer when his healing process has been completed. For I have absolute faith in the new creation that our Prophet is fashioning out of the ashes of CABAL. Kane through LEGION will guide our paths. The years ahead will prove me right. Oxanna asked, And what about the treacherous heretic, General Marcion? Kilian answered, He too will be dealt with. In good time. When the alignment of the stars of destiny have orbited to their apogee. But not by me or us here in the High Command. That decision belongs only to Kane. Yes. I understand. In any case, we do not have sufficient forces to assault the Australian continent. Especially our navy and submarine forces are not up to the task. Kilian ordered, All of these materials. All of these personal records must be preserved for posterity. They are the legacy that Anton Slavik has left for us. I can see that his Manifesto is there, she pointed to a 940 page book on the desk, And his photographs, his medals and all the paraphernalia of his command. They must all be put on display in the sacred vestibule of Temple Prime. I agree with you. And that is what I am doing here. I am trying to sort everything out so that each word, each page and each image of General Slavik will be readily accessible and provide the inspiration and the unshakeable will personified in his legacy that will be the guiding star for all our new and future recruits to the Brotherhood."

General Kilian Qatar was a strong and highly intelligent woman. Her childhood was spent in France and Germany. She was tall, blonde and blue-eyed. Mesmerizingly beautiful, with a figure that touched upon anatomical perfection. Like a statuesque Goddess. She commanded with élan vital. She had real panache. Like the helmet plume worn by cavalrymen she went into battle with reckless courage and total commitment. The victor of many complex tactical battles she was an expert, second only to Kane himself, in coordinating infantry, artillery, tanks and air power to achieve devastating victories over the GDI enemy. Often these were achieved despite a two to one or three to one, numerical superiority by GDI forces. She would always answer when questioned by other officers and men as to the reasons and rationale for her continued perseverance with the movement during the darkest periods of the NOD Reunification wars and the Interregnum Period (2034-2047) that she struggled without faltering, with a conviction that was unshakeable, "My faith is strong. I believe in the Brotherhood! This was her affirmation cry to all and sundry. The opening salvo of the third war was to be her sole creation which Kane adopted and approved. The difference between Alexa Kovacs and Kilian was that the latter did not believe that Kane was a God. She knew that even the Prophet was not infallible. That even the ageless Messiah could and did make mistakes. Kilian was tireless and methodical in everything she did. For her, logistical organisation and training was the key to the future success of the movement. I believe that Kane will make his intentions known to us soon. In the meantime we must consolidate our forces. We are disunited at the moment. Splinter factions have broken off in the Far East, southern Africa and South America. Especially Brazil. I am hard pressed holding on to eastern Europe. Colonel Kristos asked, I haven't heard from the NOD Commander for a couple of weeks? Do you have his situation report (SitRep) for last month? Kilian Qatar answered in the negative and then asked, Where is the Chief of Military Intelligence? Kristos talked into the advanced intercom system and computer interface. Send Major General Ajay to the command centre. General Qatar wants to speak to him." From the period 2029 to 2034 Ajay had quickly risen up the rank structure. When the war with CABAL was at its ferocious pinnacle of intensity he was a Major whom Anton Slavik heavily counted on for information regarding the fragments of the Tacitus and the elusive and ever shifting whereabouts of CABAL's true central core. A year before Slavik's assassination the leader had promoted him to Colonel. Kilian then raised him to the General Staff High Command of NOD and made him a two star general and Chief of G2 military intelligence. Ajay's network of spies, confidential informants, saboteurs and suicide bombers infiltrated, like a spider's web, every unit, every faction (friendly or unfriendly) of the movements many splinter groups and more importantly he had sleeper cells inside the United States. These operatives were GDI officers who had been 'turned' to conspire with NOD. They were the marginalised rank and file of the enemy military who had been treated badly, passed up for promotion or otherwise insulted or vilified by the entrenched 'backstabbing' culture of perverted nepotism that oiled the GDI military machine. Just like the bottomless 'swamp' of clueless, self-pandering, palm-licking, grovelling sycophants, career opportunists and hypocritical politicians that strangled the Washington D.C. political landscape, the combination of military/political corruption and endless flip-flopping policies of reckless stupidity dominated the organisational milieu of the enemy superpower. The only organisation that exceeded, in gross criminal negligence and abject malignancy, the GDI hierarchy and their political puppet masters was the farce of the United Nations.

General Ajay entered the command centre a few minutes later and Kilian asked, Where is the Commander at the moment? He answered that their valued member of the de facto Inner Circle was currently in Rio de Janeiro and was soon to reconnoitre the city of São Paulo. What is he doing there? asked Kilian. There is growing unrest all across the South American continent and especially in Brazil's major cities. I am sorry to inform you that our local commander there has broken with the Brotherhood and set up his own military fiefdom. He took nearly 70,000 militant militia with him who have thus deserted. The Commander is penetrating the city of Rio de Janeiro in disguise and covertly for intelligence gathering. He is protected by 150 elite commandos and other suicide assets also in disguise as ragged beggars, pimps, gangsters, narcotraffickers and homeless vagabonds. The female members of the elite cadre have also adorned the proper attire to appear as wanton sluts and prostitutes. They have blended into the human soup of filth and squalor that infests that metropolis like a cancer. His goal is to gauge the extent of the insurrection. However the last time I spoke to him over the secure CommsLink he advised that the vast majority of the poverty racked population in the favela do not support the renegade commander. Kilian was livid, Who is this officer? Ajay answered that he was a Brigadier by the name of Kronos Gratian. This despicable traitor will have to be dealt with. Keep me informed of all developments. And tell the Commander I want to speak to him next time he contacts High Command through the encrypted CommsLink. Will do! General! Now what is the position of the Russian Federation vis-à-vis the Brotherhood since the death of Slavik? It has remained largely unchanged Kilian. The status quo has been maintained with the Russian political oligarchy. In fact I can report that their tacit cooperation with the movement continues to grow and stabilise to new and higher levels of military cooperation. Much of our raw military equipment is purchased from Russian factories and then heavily modified for battle according to NOD military doctrine. We depend most of all on the continued purchase of patrol frigates and especially submarines like the Yasen class nuclear ICBM launch platform. These naval assets are vital for any future world conflict with the GDI. Colonel Kristos was wading through the piles of dossiers that Slavik had left on his huge desk. Trying to get some order for compiling all the material and data into a new supercomputer that had been built and set up on the 3rd underground level below the Temple. The designs for this technological advance had been bequeathed by LEGION through Kane when the prophet had first emerged from the stasis tubes prior to Slavik's murder. The new mainframe had the computing power of one million PetaFlops [One PetaFlop equalling one thousand million million floating point operations per second]. Looking up from the desk, Kristos asked, But what about the status of the Ukraine and Belorussia? Ajay answered as he nodded and looked to Kilian, Yes. That is the only bone of contention with the Russian dictatorship. Sooner or later they will find an excuse to forcibly reacquire both regions from the Brotherhood. At the moment we have the 7th Militant Militia Army holding down the Belorussian region and the 4th Army is securing the Ukraine. We have vast Tiberium harvesting facilities and factories that purify and concentrate the green crystals into blue crystalline lattice which we use and which is absolutely vital to our weapons grade raw material supply. All of these installations are located inside the Ukraine and Belorussia. All the second generation walkers, Banshee fighters and Vertigo Bombers are constructed from these refined blue crystals. We have, in addition, here in Serbia, Romania and Moldavia an additional 65,000 Black Hand elite in 3 Divisions as a strategic reserve just in case the Russians unexpectedly try something. But gathering from my spies and informants and also the deserters from the Russian Army that we have carefully and meticulously tortured and interrogated, G2 does have a confidence level which is high, that no immediate threat from the annexationist mania and putridly selfish and nationalistic desires for these territories are yet evident in the Vodka swilling Russian swineherd. Good! said Killian as another NOD officer entered the command room and handed her a golden coloured dossier with the names and ranks of the newly commissioned officer graduates from the Brotherhood Military Academy in Cairo. Some 7,000 new junior officers' details and records were contained therein. Now what about China? asked Colonel Kristos. Now, Major General Ajay's face lost a shade of its colour and his complexion became noticeably paler. He paused and gathered the reams of paper and computer documents that were contained in his black leather briefcase. The degenerate Mongoloid Chinese Communist rat-scum are another matter all together General Kilian Qatar! Ajay took a deep breath before continuing, This pernicious and devilishly cunning race of slant-eyed jackals are a very serious threat to the Brotherhood. Extreme caution is advised. Kilian and Kristos stopped sifting through the vast reams of documents that represented Anton Slavik's sacred legacy and the inestimable contribution that he had made to the advancement of the Brotherhood, his countless personal sacrifices and his exhaustive dedication to duty. Oxanna had been very close to Slavik. About a year before his murder, while they were sharing an intimate moment over drinks in the sumptuously appointed Officer's Mess which was on the Mezzanine Level of Sarajevo's Temple Prime she asked, Tell me Anton? Why is it that you never married? I understand, of course, that you would never, could never, ask me to be your wife. It would set a precedent contrary to the ethics and the tradition of the senior officer corps. Fraternisation should not be held in plain view as a par de course for the normal behaviour of brother and sister officers, especially in the upper echelons of leadership where we preside. For setting the bar as high as possible, maintaining the decorum and the inviolability of the top leadership is absolutely essential to preserving the morale and the integrity of all those junior officers, NCO's and enlisted men and women who serve under our sole accountability. Slavik took a sip of whisky and nodded, "I agree with you Oxanna. Believe me when I tell you that my feelings for you are strong but my duty to the movement is even stronger. Your gallant rescue just moments before General Hassan was to execute me is a debt that can never be repaid. And of course we all have needs, both emotional and physical. Sometimes we must surrender to these passions, even as we have done on a few occasions in the past since I have known you. When you first graduated as a 2nd Lieutenant from the NOD Military Academy in Zagreb. It was then that I saw great potential in you. Of course you were beautiful. Intelligent and dedicated. I could have asked you to marry me then and there. But I remember the death of my parents at the hands of the GDI before the end of the first war. My uncle told me when I was older that I should avenge the deaths of my mother and father. It was from that moment that I swore that I would discard forever the pleasures of a private and married life. That I would put on the uniform of the Brotherhood of NOD. That I would never take off that uniform while the movement still struggled for absolute supremacy, both military and economic/political, on this planet. That is why I have never asked anyone to marry me. But if things had been different and we were living in a Bizarro world, you would be the first and only woman that I would