"Can you believe this, Puke?” Gallagher’s angry voice came over the radio.
“Don’t call me that,” Vega instinctively responded “What exactly are you bitching about now Gallagher?”
“We’ve gone from stopping an alien invasion to cleanup work,” she said heatedly “shouldn’t we get some kind of recognition?”
“We’re the lucky ones here,” he replied “The 3rd helped us on that op and they were disbanded. Besides, wasn’t it your idea to take all the credit?”
“I didn’t expect the tibeheads to actually give us all the credit! You had just as much part in that as I did.”
Vega cringed at that, he was only slightly joking at the time but he never wanted to cost anyone their job. “What happened to their commander anyway?” he asked
“Cut the chatter.” Interrupted McNeil “Gallagher is the only one on cleanup here, Vega your job is to set up a forward base to provide a foothold in case these reports of Scrin activity are true.”
Vega looked over at his forces: 3 Mammoth Mk.3 tanks, 6 Guardian APCs loaded with soldiers, 3 Titan anti-vehicle walkers, 4 Wolverine anti-personnel walkers, 3 Slingshot mobile AA platforms, 16 Zone Troopers, 4 Shatterers, and an MCV to set up the base.
“Sir I’m not sure I’m comfortable working with these Steel Talons-“started Vega
“Your concern is noted captain, but these boys are some of the best fighters we have.” McNeil interrupted “I am aware that some in GDI view them as extremists but I respect them, and I would expect you to as well.”
“Rift generator detected.” The feminine voice of EVA broke in over the two soldiers
“Vega hold your position, EVA what are its power levels?”
Vega ordered his men to stop while EVA reported on the alien super weapon.
“Power levels at 99 percent”
“Vega you need to get the fuck out of there NOW!”
Vega started to order a retreat when he noticed a wormhole open to his left at the rear of the formation.
“Rift generator activated.” Came EVA’s somewhat redundant alert.
The Mammoth tank closest to it was sucked in while the others were saved by their bulk. In an effort to save itself the MCV had begun to deploy, but the rift caught it in the middle of this transition and in its unbalanced state it was sucked in as well. On its way through it managed to crush an APC, the zone troopers on the other side of the formation who would normally be safe instinctively attempted to help but ran within the pull of the wormhole. The lightweight wolverines were pulled through easily, and 2 Titans were unbalanced and dragged through unceremoniously. The Shatterers and Slingshots were betrayed by their HoverTech, the devices providing lift from the ground suddenly aiding the rift in pulling them towards itself. The crushed APC and its intact counterparts were drawn in and Vega, who had lowered himself to the ground to minimize pull, suddenly found himself without anything between himself and the rift. Gallagher’s voice was the last thing he heard before he was pulled into the rift.
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.
The Zone Troopers grumbled amongst each other as they trudged through the snow
“We’re in the ass end of nowhere, and Vega has us scouting for signs of locals!” complained the one on the right “This is complete horseshit, who the fuck would live here!?”
“Calm down Morales,” The trooper in the middle replied, "besides people still live in Greenland."
“That’s only because it’s a blue zone.” Morales shot back. "Even Ti-rock has the sense to stay out of there."
“You realize the orders to scout actually came from the Commander right?” the left trooper reminded them.
“Yeah but he didn’t say we were the ones that had to do it.”
“Hey, those look like railroad tracks.” Center said, pointing into the distance.
“We haven’t used wooden ties in years, more evidence of no Tiberium contamination.” Firestorm’s voice broke in, causing the troopers to jump.
“Um, sir?” Left started nervously “How long have you been listening?”
“Oh I just decided to listen in on the scout teams; I wouldn’t want to miss anything important. Personally I think Captain Vega carried out my orders quite well. Major Hodges, what do you have to report?”
“Sir, we've found some railroad tracks and what appears to be a station roughly 400 meters from our outpost. We are currently awaiting reports from the rest of the scouting teams.”
“Good, you make excellent scouts. I’ll make sure to recommend you for more missions.”
“MOTHERFU-“Morales started
“Thank you sir!" Left interrupted
there was a palpable silence before Firestorm could be heard chuckling
“Could you warn me before you piss off the Commander?”Left whined
“Could you warn me before you try to brown-nose the Commander!?”
“Morales! Poole! Shut up and get your asses headed back, you can have your slapfight later.” Hodges interrupted
Firestorm had already left those three to their bickering, he simply listened and let the tone of their voices alone tell him if anything was going wrong. Moving on to the other team's visual feed he was confronted with quite the strange sight.
"Private, can you tell me what exactly I'm looking at?"
"It appears to be a city sir."
“Could you see the inhabitants?”
“Yes sir, they all seemed vaguely horse-like.”
“The term you’re looking for is equine.”
“Sir, all of the structures appear to be made of some kind of crystal.”
“EVA, I thought you said you couldn't detect any Tiberium?”
“These crystals are not giving off any known form of radiation commander, and do not display the growth patterns of Tiberium.”
“Hm, alright. Have any of the locals seen you?”
“We’ve gotten a few curious glances our way, but they didn’t seem too bothered.”
“If you define running inside the nearest shelter as not too bothered.”
“Nobody’s shot at us”
“Fair point, go ahead and head back. We’ve built a Hammerhead for some early warning and it looks like there’s a snowstorm headed your way.”
“Yes sir, should we be worried?”
“It’s a snowstorm, not an ion storm.”
The train’s brakes hissed loudly as it came to a stop at the station, and five brightly colored ponies stepped onto the platform. A particular lavender unicorn seemed remarkably giddy as she exited the train; however her mood paled in comparison to the hyperactive pink bundle of pent-up energy that bounced cheerfully after her.
“
