EDA DATA ARCHIVES
INPUT PASSWORD:**********
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PROCESSING...
PASWORD ACCEPTED
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WELCOME COMMANDER, TO THE EQUS DEFENSIVE ALLIANCE DATA ARCHIVES
PLEASE INPUT SEARCH QUERY: TIBERIUM
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PROCESSING
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RESULTS FOUND, ACCESS LEVEL CONFIRMED, DISPLAYING DATA FILES ON TIBERIUM.
Tiberium is a self replicating mineral filled crystal which was introduced to this planet by the entity known as LEGION. Tiberium leeches minerals within the ground and stores it in the visible crystals above ground. This and Tiberium's ability to grow on its own make it an ideal reasource for modern industrial demands as it can be harvested and then refined for maximum mineral extraction with minimal effort. However the leeching process renders the area around which the Tiberium grows insuitable for farmland, and the Tiberium itself releases a radiation that is toxic to most forms of biological life.
EDA has as a result determined to eradicate or at least contain the spread of Tiberium across the planet, however these efforts are constantly hampered by The Marked Legion, followers of the entity LEGION. The Marked often hamper EDA's attempts at Tiberium containment and attempt to spread Tiberium across the planet, usually through violent terrorist bombing attacks.
As a result of the Tiberium infestation EDA has classified the world into three types of "zones."
Blue zones contain no Tiberium infestation, however only 36.4% of the worlds population live within these areas. These make up 26.8% of the planets above water surface.
Yellow zones have been contaminated by Tiberium but still support life, most of the worlds population, 63.6%, live within these areas. These make up 57.3% of the planet's surface.
Red zones are too contaminated for non mutated life, ion storms and tiberium overwhelm these areas, they make up 15.9% of the planets surface.
End file.
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THANK YOU FOR ACCESSING EDA ARCHIVES, IF YOU WISH TO ADD MORE, PLEASE SPEAK TO A MEMBER OF THE EDA RESEARCH DEPARTMENT.
Y-5
6:20 AM
31/07/1171
EDA MILITARY BASE/LISTENING POST
DESIGNATION, Z-ZONE
PING
PING
PING
Swift Sight sighed as the line made another sweep and the incessant PING went off again from one of the many monitors in the room. Sight threw a glance up at the clock, still another 40 minutes until the shift change, 39 minutes too many in her book. She brought her attention back to the screen in front of her as yet another sweep turned up blank. Z-Zone outpost was rumored to be so named because it saw no action, no activity, of course that was a ridiculous notion, however so far Z-Zone had lived up to the trooper named backstory. In all of her full seven months she'd been here nothing had ever happened, except for the occasional visceroid, but she didn't get to even do anything about that, just log the time and date and then let the Railer guns do their thing.
Sight leaned back on her chair, deciding to count the bolts in the ceiling instead, she was pretty sure it was 53, but who knows, she might have missed one the last time she'd counted. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed Sansri appeared to be counting the ceiling bolts too, good, maybe they could compare notes. Sansri was a Zebra mare, slightly smaller than Swift, but then most Zebras where a bit small anyway, she didn't wear her mane much, just let it fall off to the side. Swift herself was an earth pony mare with a light blue coat and pale yellow mane, her cutie mark was a magnifying glass over some sort of parchment list (she could never figure out was was written on that list, too small), which, along with her name, had landed her in monitoring duty, watching scanners all day as they went PING, and PING and PING.
The listening room wasn't much special either, it was a small circular room with glass windows all around providing a view of the surrounding landscape, there weren't even that many monitors either, just some radar screens, some camera screens, and even a few other screens displaying data about weather and stuff. Sight never paid attention to those screens, she was on radar and camera duty, in front of both Sight and Sansri where a few buttons and joysticks, for controlling camera's, making announcement and most importantly, two big red button's, one for the alarm and one for the distress signal.
She'd only ever gotten to touch the alarm button, for drills, the distress signal button, which was much bigger than the alarm button, she'd never got to press that, she'd been tempted to in some of her more bored moments but decided against it. The EDA took false alarms very seriously, stating that such things provided opportunities for the Marked and that it placed troops in a state of laziness for actual distress signals.
Z-Zone was one of the Equs Defensive Alliance's many listening posts in the Yellow Zones, used to look out for signs of Marked Legion activity and provide early warning to the Blue Zones. Z-Zone was decent in terms of defences, it had some Railer turrets, some Talon guns, Beam turrets and nice strong walls. No Flare cannons though, since they apparently where too valuable to use on a simple listening post, but Sight comforted herself with the fact that this outpost got a squad of Recon troops as well as the standard five squad contingent. Though those Recon troops didn't always make her feel very comfortable, they tended to be rather creepy.
BEEP
Sight's ear twitched as she quickly turned her gaze back to the radar, it was fading now but...
BEEP
Yep, there it was, a single signature in the middle of sector 19, Sight switched her gaze to the camera screens, quickly shuffling through to camera 19. "Probably just another visceroid." The camera went fuzzy for a sec before clearing out to provide a view of, nothing. Sight frowned and checked the radar again, still in sector 19, she flicked her gaze back to the screen, but camera saw nothing, moving it about somewhat there still nothing to be seen. Just a small patch of Tiberium, and then some barren land.
"Hey, Sansri, come over here for second." The Zebra turned her head to see Sight waving her to Sight's desk. Swift Sight was definitely worried at this point, it was probably a glitch but those Marked guys did have some invisibility things, right?
Sansri spun around in her chair before trotting over to Swift Sight, who was continuing to search about furiously for something on the cameras, the signature had now moved to sector 28, but that camera wasn't showing anything either. By the time Sansri got to her the signal had moved up to sector 26. The Zebra asked the obvious when she arrived, "what is it Sight?"
Sight ignored her for a second still shifting her view from camera to camera, before realizing that Sansri was here now. She threw a quick glance back at Sansri, who was watching the camera screens curiously, wondering what Sight was looking for. "Check it out, the radar says something's out there but I can't see it through any of the cameras." Sansri frowned and turned her gaze to the radar screen, seeing the dot moving on to sector 46, right next to the base.
"Weird, what do you think it is?"
"I don't know, but don't those Marked guys have some pretty fancy invisibility technology? It might be them."
Sansri frowned at this, while Sight went back to the screen, worry eating at her chest, as she became more and more certain it was some kind of Legion move, the dot had stopped now, just outside the base, but the camera's still showed nothing. Sight made up her mind, "I'm calling the Recon squad, get them to check it out."
Sansri jolted her head back for a moment, "are you sure? You know what'll happen if this really is nothing."
Sight just shook her head, and reached over for the intercom button, before all she knew was darkness.
"Sansri" watched as the Sight went limp, she didn't even have time to be shocked, quick and efficient, like always. She pulled Sight's corpse back into the chair, before flicking back the blade from the base of Sights skull. The now limp corpse was then engulfed in a light green aura as "Sansri" slowly walked over to the nearby closet, speaking lowly as she went.
"X7, your equipment is faulty, the radar detected your presence, i had to neutralize the observer early, make sure you check your equipment next time." A quiet low almost buzzing voice responded nearly immediately.
"Apologies X3, it will not happen again."
X3 nodded to herself as she opened the upper storage room, shoving Swift Sight's corpse inside along with the zebra corpse already lying inside. After a quick visual scan to make sure no one was looking, X3 strolled back to the desk, and opened up the keyboard.
"There are three guards in watch posts along the wall, as well as another five in the courtyard, eliminate those within the towers first, then await further instructions."
"Understood."
X3's hooves flew across the keyboard, quietly tapping away as X team got to work, bringing up blueprints for the structure while flicking through cameras displaying the courtyard, it was a cold dawn outside, the sun was just beginning to rise but with its high walls no-one inside the post could benefit from its warmth. The remaining EDA troopers inside the courtyard where gathered up around a large heater in the middle of the yard.
"X12, deploy shredder grenade, wipe them out. X17, is the jammer in place?"
"Yes, no radio transmissions possible within the area aside from our own."
"Very well then, I shall begin silent lock down."
"This is X12, targets neutralized, no sound."
"Very good, I have unlocked the main door, none of the EDA troops appear to have noticed the lock down, there is a recon team in hallway 16, X7, X9 and X12, deal with them, The rest of you, split up into teams of two and deal with the remaining squads, use phase grenades, the rest of the squads are in the other sleeping halls."
The main and hallway doors opened up as the members of X team silently filed through, stealth gear still active, and quietly split off for different hallways.
X7 crept along the halls, mind focused and ears sharp, the Recon team was the greatest threat to X team, after all the Recon Core had been developed specifically to counter the Wraith Walkers. X7's eyes scanned the walls, watching for any possible sensors or traps as he made his way to hallway 16, he didn't doubt X3's work, but it never hurt to be careful. X3 had done well, disabling the alarm systems while still locking down all the doors she didn't want open. It was a standard procedure with overrunning EDA outposts but it was always satisfying to see it work.
X9 suddenly jerked her head to the right, X7's gaze following the direction to see hallway 16, its main door a gaping hole. Though X9 was invisible to most sensors, Wraith Walker armour incorporated advanced sensors which displayed the surrounding in raw ultraviolet, which only Changeling eyes could pick up, it was through this that the Wraith Walkers maintained their expert coordination, training and instinct only took one so far.
X7 flicked his own head to indicate for X12, before following X9 into the hallway. The Hallway itself had no lights, a curiously common occurrence among recon teams, all it did was hinder their own vision when they were unassisted. Flicking through vision modes X7 could see that the recon team had yet to notice the lock down, all twelve of them where inside their bunks,completely unsuspecting of what was to come.
X7 felt a savage grin cross his features behind his helmet, before quickly quenching the feeling, emotions only ever got in the way of a mission. He settled for the two middle rooms while X9 took those at the front and X12 the ones at the back. X7 reached back into his armour, pulling out two phase grenades, tossing one each into the doors, where the phase grenades lived up to their names and simply phased through the door. The grenades went off with quiet booms, forcing X7 to temporarily shut down his more advanced sensors for fear that they would deafen him, then flickering back to see the results. All lifeforms within the rooms had been incinerated, and from the look of it the same had gone with X12 and X9.
"This is X7, recon team eliminated, no casualties."
"Negative X7, the EDA computer still detects one living recon team signature."
"What?"
Suddenly a loud crackling echoed through the hall and X7's armour informed him that X9 had been shot, X7 didn't stick around to see how or where from, he activated his phase mode and dived straight through one of the doorways. Throwing a quick glance around the room X7 noticed that in this room the two lifeforms had been in the same bunk, realization struck X7 and he cursed himself for his incompetence, two failures in one mission would net him an inspection. He was interrupted from his inner cursing by the voice of X12.
"This is X12, the hostile has taken up position at the end of the hallway, X7 do you have enough power to outflank him?" X7 checked his power levels, that phasing had severely reduced his power output, still, running the calculations he figured he'd have just enough power to get through the walls between him and the hostile, but he'd have lost nearly all remaining power afterwards. Still if the recon trooper was distracted down the hallway he might slip by.
"X7 here, if you distract them I can probably get past the enemy."
"Understood X7, laying down covering fire."
X7 re-engaged phase mode and, wings buzzing, phased his was through the walls between him and the hallway the recon trooper was waiting in. Switching again to infra-red he noticed with relief the Recon trooper continuing to fire back down the hallway at X12, completely unsuspecting of X7. Gut clenching as he went through wall after wall, X7 prepared his weapons, two machine pistols unlocking from the armour at his fore hooves and flicking forwards. X7 dived out of the wall, the Recon soldier had its back to him and didn't seemed to even know he was there until X7 unloaded his weapons into the recon troopers back.
The Recon trooper toppled forwards out into the hallway, where X12 pummelled him with even more rounds, ensuring the kill with what X7 couldn't help but feel may have been overkill.
"Hostile eliminated, any more signatures X3?"
"Negative, X team this is X3, all enemy signatures neutralized, objective complete, lifting lock down, X4, inform headquarters of mission success. The rest of you, clear out any bodies and equipment you find." X7 winced at that, the only bodies on this facility would be the ones removed by X3, and the corpses of X9 and the Recon trooper. Shaking it off, X7 made his way over to the Recon trooper as X12 came down the hall to collect X9. X7 noted that the recon trooper had been a changeling, which along with its lack of helmet probably explained is inaccuracy during its fire fight with X12 and how it missed X7. A Thestral with its night vision would have had a much easier time dealing with X7 and X12, and could very well have killed them both.
X7 picked up the recon trooper corpse and shoved it into one of the empty bunks, before tossing another phase grenade inside and closing the door. Nodding to X12 as he passed her carrying X9's body, he buzzed his way back through the base heading up to the observation bridge.
The EDA outpost was rather barren in decoration, just plain grey walls and simple overhead lights all along the hallway, EDA outposts and indeed, all EDA military structures where built for efficiency above all else, and eschewed most forms of luxury, it was a process X7 could understand, if not appreciate.
X7 made a quiet half-salute as X1 and X6 flew past down the hallway, before emerging into the observation room. X3 was putting on her full stealth suit, having worn a minimalistic version in order to assume her disguise. X7 simply waited with the other remaining members of X team next to the window where he could see the compound and surrounding area. Z-Zone had been well placed, it was sitting on a slight hill with nothing but barren land surrounding and the ruins of some old village in the distance. The hill was high enough to provide and elevated view but flat enough that between it and the near barren landscape no-one could sneak up on the base without being spotted visually should electronic sensors be disabled.
Unless they where invisible that is.
"X team, to attention."
X7 was snapped out of his musings by X3 turning around to address the team.
"The outpost is ours, despite some difficulties, we've lost X9, but EDA is none the wiser, you will now take up standard search patterns, scour this structure for anything of use, then take up standard patrol patterns. The next inspection isn't due for another three weeks but we don't want everything to be ruined just because someone in EDA wanted to shake up the schedule."
X team nodded and marched their way out of the control room, but just as he was leaving X3 spoke up again. "Not you X7, I need to speak to you." X7 felt that familiar clenching feeling in his chest, before quashing it again, this was going to happen, whatever he wished otherwise. X7 turned around sharply, seeing X3 staring right back at him through her own helmet.
"Yes X3?"
X3 seemed to sigh beneath her helmet, before responding to X7. "X7, your failure placed the mission at risk, but the mission managed to be a success regardless, however, don't let it happen again, or I'll have to recommend you for recycling." X7 didn't react physically, however that familiar feeling of dread welling up in his gut returned.
"Understood. Is there anything else X3?"
"Negative, dismissed X7."
Rover tapped his paw against the command chair, a low growl in his throat. The nearby aides and officers wincing at the sound, Rover had a notoriously bad temper when he was waiting, which one might point out was odd given the amount of waiting he did on the job, but they kept to their own tasks, after all Rover had an even worse temper when he thought others weren't doing their jobs. The command room inside the mobile command vehicle was a large one, as befitted LEGION's top commander. It was lit only by a single white light on the roof and a series of red lights scattered about blinking from monitors and even just lining the walls.
The monitors themselves where arranged in a large U shape with the screens facing inwards and the command chair sitting in the middle of said U shape, giving Rover a clear view of what was going on with his subordinates. Two enlightened stood guard at the back of the room, their large hulking forms providing very good incentive for the officers to work as hard as they could, but for the moment there was very little to do. As a result most of the officers just read through reports again or even randomly tapped buttons on their consoles, after all appearances had to be kept.
Then one of the monitors of the communications officers monitor blinked twice, catching Rovers attention and causing the earth pony monitoring the device to sweat nervously with Rovers unwanted attention. He gulped to clear his throat before speaking, "message from X team sir." Rover nodded quickly to himself and lost his growling, much to the relief of the officers.
"And?"
The pony took a deep breath. "X team has completed its objective, the base is under their control and EDA is none the wiser."
Rover leaned back into his chair, growl completely gone, replaced with a savage, toothy grin. He turned his head to the officers in front of him, "Send word to LEGION that Z-Zone tower is ours, and that we're moving in now, and tell the rest of our forces to start moving in now."
The screens along the front and sides of the command room peeled back to show windows as the command vehicle began moving forwards. Rover scanned across the open plain and began to chuckle, sending a chill of anticipation up the spines of his officers. Across the plains and Tiberium fields, long columns of Scorpion tanks, Raider trucks, Reckoners and Mantid artillery trucks stretched about, flame mechs and MCV's scuttling about the mass. Above large Basilisks and Salamanders hovered overhead while flights of Venoms, Banshee's, and Vertigos swooped between them. And all across the ground swarming in-between the mechs and tanks rushed militants, centurions and cyborgs, a truly grand army right under EDA's nose.
For 14 years The Marked Legion had prepared for this, 14 years of staying in the shadows, of building up their strength. 14 years of EDA flaunting its power, of EDA dominating and oppressing the Yellow zones from the safety of their clean and stable blue zones. Now the Marked Legion was going to bring that stability and power down to its knees, now 39 long years of oppression and dominance where about to be avenged. Yes, now was a good time to be in the Legion.
Author's Note
I imagine these scorpion tanks to look something like this
In fact I imagine alot of LEGION's troops and forces to look like the stuff this guy draws, seriously he has awesome Nod designs.
Seriously, screw Tiberum Twilight, Nod looked ridiculous in that game (with a few exceptions).
PS. I'm Australian so the date goes Day/Month/Year
