Tiberian Frontier

White.

Everything was white.

Vega woke to the sound of McNeil’s voice directing the forces not drawn through the rift. Getting up he looked around, the whiteness he noticed before was snow. There was a deep coating of snow on the ground, and he could see it was still snowing. The MCV was still in its half-deployed state, and was surprisingly upright. He could see forces scattered around the area, the crushed APC was nowhere to be found and it was likely buried and frozen. He was somewhat grateful for that, it was bad enough that they were dumped who knows where by something that by all rights should have killed them. Having some of his men hose out a crushed APC filled with the remains of their fellow soldiers (or worse: civilian technicians) would only serve to lower morale further, and the rush from discovering they were all still alive would only last so long.

“Commander, this is Vega,” He said through his radio “we’ve somehow survived the Scrin wormhole, and are somewhere covered in snow. The only casualties are a single APC and its passengers.”

There was silence on the other end of the radio, as both McNeil and Gallagher doubtlessly reacted with shock that troops had survived a devastating weapon that had killed so many others.

“Well Gallagher it seems your priorities have changed,” an unfamiliar voice broke in “you are now to capture that rift generator.”

“Commander?” Vega questioned, he wasn’t sure about the newcomer even if it was an encrypted GDI channel.

“I believe he’s referring to you McNeil.”  The mystery guest suggested.

“Vega I am placing you and any forces on the other side of the rift under this man’s command, his name is classified so he is only referred to as "The Commander"”McNeil said tersely “Though I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t try to order troops under *my** command.*” Obviously this last part was addressing the mystery commander, and with that he switched to a different channel.

“noted.” Came the late reply. “So Vega, I assume you’d like a way to differentiate me and McNeil. My real name has been classified, but you can call me Firestorm.”

Vega’s mind flew to the infamous Firestorm crisis, NOD’s rogue AI, CABAL had attempted to destroy both the GDI and NOD. Only a shaky truce between the two had let them defeat CABAL and his army of cyborgs.

“I’ve been put in charge of you and yours because central command decided I was good at dealing with extraordinary circumstances , by all rights I should have left with the 3rd.” That surprised Vega

“You were the Commander of the 3rd?” he asked

“Yes, and before you ask you and Gallagher had nothing to do with it. If, and when, GDI released recordings from the 3rd it would have been a PR nightmare. Even if it was never officially released somebody would have gotten hold of it, and worst case scenario given it to NOD for propaganda.”

“What do you mean sir?” Vega was completely confused by this. “The 3rd always had casualties below projected numbers.”

“That may be true, but most of the casualties were completely preventable: idiots missing the order to fall back, greenies driving in front of an Obelisk before we took out the power grid.” Vega cringed at this last one; the distinctive Obelisk of Light was NOD’s signature defense weapon. It was a massive pointed metal structure, curving toward the ground slightly the top fired a powerful laser that could cut through the armor of a Mammoth tank. Every recruit had it pounded into them to never approach one of the intimidating towers, they were supposed to wait for air support to knock it out but every once in awhile there was always some greenie who thought he was invincible.

“Due to my loose command method the 3rd was where they sent problem soldiers, and it turned out its own kind of commandos. Every soldier who was able to survive their first few ops came out a brilliant fighting machine, in the situations they were in it was either listen to what I say when I said it or die. None of my soldiers were expendable, but to anyone watching the videos that wasn’t apparent. War may have its casualties, but nobody wants GDIUP throwing away the lives of their soldiers.” Vega noticed he pronounced it as “giddy-up” which was rare among the higher ranks in GDI.

“I see your men are waking up captain, you should probably see about organizing them and establishing a base.”

Looking around, Vega noticed Firestorm was right. “Sir how did you know my men were waking up?” he asked.

“EVA’s patching me through your helmet video feeds; there isn’t any kind of satellite surveillance around you, so for now all you can see is all I can see.”

With that explanation Vega began the process of organizing his men to create an orderly base.

“Vega, I think you should know that EVA isn’t picking up any tiberium radiation.”

“Sir are you saying that there’s no tiberium here?”

“First: yes, second: please don’t begin every sentence to me with “sir”, it gets annoying and I’m uncomfortable with this much formality.”

“I’m not sure I can do that.”

“Fine, but just as a quick favor: can you take off your helmet and take a deep breath for me?"

His first instinct was to say yes sir but seeing as it was asked as a favor, he simply took off his helmet. Taking a deep breath he noticed the expected crisp feeling from the cold, but the air felt clean. There was no heavy taint of tiberium hanging in the air; the feeling of the air itself sticking to his lungs like some kind of noxious sludge was entirely absent. It was then that the reality of what the commander had said fully registered; the idea of a world without tiberium had been seen as nothing but a pipe dream back home. Now faced with actually being on such a world, the great breath he had taken suddenly erupted from his mouth in great peals of laughter as tears streamed down his face. Now that he was finally experiencing everything that GDI stood for, the idea of finally reaching that ideal seemed so much more possible.

Vega was on his knees, breathing deeply in the first truly fresh air of his life.

“Well Vega if you’re finished with your catharsis, you might want to put your helmet back on. You’ve got moisture on your face, and that’ll be a bitch if it freezes.” Firestorm’s voice said from his wrist unit. His tone was as if nothing had happened, and the soldiers continued setting up the base. As they lowered the last piece of a barracks onto its frame, the nano-assemblers contained in the edges of the piece went to work combining it with the rest of the structure. Getting up, Vega replaced his helmet.

“I’m switching both of our frequencies to talk with McNeil; I don’t want to have to repeat anything.” There was a click as the frequencies switched, followed by the sounds of gunfire.

“Commander I’m not sure we can hit the generator before it’s charged again, the aliens have us deadlocked here.” Gallagher’s strained voice said over the radio.

“There isn’t any air support in the area captain, you’ll have to make it work.” McNeil replied.

“Damnit” Gallagher muttered, their GD-4s had been able to cut down the alien infantry sent their way but they were useless against the vehicles. Not even the mini-railgun attachment could make much of a difference, their Mammoth tank was pinned behind a building across the street from them, and their Shatterers were too lightly armored to risk coming out of cover.

“You people could have just asked me if you needed some help.” The mystery commander’s voice startled her, she still wasn’t sure whether to trust him and McNeil hadn’t seemed that fond of him from what she could tell.

“I like your timing kid,” McNeil responded bemusedly. “By all means go ahead.”  There was a click as the mystery man changed frequencies.

While she was waiting Gallagher noticed the Mammoth edge out and turn its turret, it fired out of a single railgun through the building and tore open one of the aliens suppressing her and her companions. It quickly backed further behind the building as the aliens focused on it. Suddenly there were a pair of sonic booms as the distinctive shapes of two Firehawks soared overhead. She bitterly noticed that they were traveling too fast to drop munitions, when she heard a piercing whine as two Hammerhead gunships flew into view. The four ball turrets mounted on their wings rotated quickly, as the twin linked Vulcan cannons on each turret opened fire on the aliens. The 20mm HEIAP rounds reducing the alien vehicles to nothing but husks in mere seconds, their organic insides quickly incinerated by the heat of the flames. As the Hammerheads flew away the Commander switched back to their frequency.

“Those Firehawks should have taken out their power and bought you some extra time, EVA what is the status of the rift generator?”

“Rift generator has ceased charging commander.”

"Well that's your cue, I did my part."

Gallagher still wasn't sure whether she trusted this new commander but she definitely liked his methods, she quickly organized her forces and advanced towards the Scrin base.

"Commander McNeil, if you weren't aware of any aircraft in the area then how was commander Firestorm able to provide air support?" Vega asked while arranging the construction of an armory.

"Firestorm eh?" McNeil responded "Taken to naming yourself after your old taskforce have you? After the Firestorm crisis GDI realized that they had a great commander on their hands, not one to waste resources they put him behind the scenes on the search for CABAL bunkers. However he quickly got bored with that."

"It was the sheer monotony of it, I was starting to get antsy.

"Yes well, since the Steel Talons were already formed and were semi-autonomous they let him serve with them."

"That was actually pretty fun, but they were too focused on building new tech instead of keeping the good stuff. There's a reason the whole damn military isn't the R&D department. Obsessed with walkers too.

"So they decided to give him his own forces pulled from the Firestorm taskforce, and give him some patrols and policing missions."

"Which was at least mildly interesting, and after TW3 started I was given command of the 3rd. Now about why i'm here, you said that GDI didn't like to waste resources. Engineers from the 3rd have the most experience working with Scrin technology, we liked to capture their structures rather than simply destroy them. Most of the soldiers and engineers from the 3rd were transferred to other divisions, you should ask for volunteers. The first to offer will almost definitely be transfers." With that advice Firestorm switched back to the original frequency.

"Alright Vega, I want you to assemble two teams of three Zone Troopers to scout the area. Don't build defensive towers, the only thing you'd be able to set them to is anything without an IFF tag and I don't want you perforating any curious locals that happen to stop by. You're better off sticking to patrols and using the materials on something else for now."

"Yes sir." Vega responded as he assembled the scouting teams.