Veridian Empire War Council
Aerithal, 10th Solara, 2834 AE
The Veridian Empire was restless, troubled by the absence of one of its most valuable agents, Lilith. She had been sent to Thalindor to gather information about the city's movements after their attack, but her return was a week overdue.
Within the war room of the Veridian Empire’s castle, General Kraven, a battle-hardened veteran of many campaigns, addressed the assembled generals. "It's been far too long since we've heard from Lilith. We cannot afford to wait any longer. We need that intel, and need it NOW! She’s been gone more than a week now, so who knows if she’s alive. If not, we can just use our necromancers to bring her back to spill what she learned."
The room was quiet, only one other General deciding to speak up. “I doubt she would have let anyone get anywhere close enough to her, let alone see her. She’s the Empire’s best spy and assassin, so there shouldn’t be any worries about that.”
General Kraven sighed, deciding on the best course of action. “Then I believe we should arrange for her retrieval.” he said, looking around the room at each of the nodding Generals. They all seemed to agree, seeing as how much information Lilith could now be holding.
One of the other Generals spoke up. “Uh, I’m not sure if you’re aware, but there seems to be a rising power that looks to be allied with Thalindor. I’m certain they won’t be a problem for us, but I suggest we send a rather large group. Maybe we could subjugate these newcomers?”
General Kraven nodded, taking in the information about the rising power near Thalindor. "Agreed. We shall send a large enough force, more than should be needed to handle any newcomers. If they dare challenge the might of the Veridian Empire, they will quickly learn their place."
As the meeting was concluded, the preparations were being made. General Kraven gathered a force large enough to take over a small town, consisting of around 50 soldiers. The soldiers were all completely subservient to General Kraven, seeing him as the emperor’s will made manifest. Each soldier armed with a sword, shield, and protective metal armour.
At the command of General Kraven, each soldier followed him unquestioningly. They began their rather short journey to Thalindor, not knowing of the already established HQ that resides outside of the walls of the city.
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Road to Thalindor
2 Hours Later:
As the Veridian Empire's forces drew closer to the city, they couldn't help but notice the newly established base nearby. The strange black and red buildings and advanced technology stuck out like a sore thumb.
"They look well-equipped," another soldier remarked as he observed the distant base through his spyglass. "Our empire will crush them like the insects they are."
General Kraven nodded with a sly, confident smile. "Indeed, this shall be a swift and easy victory for the empire."
As they approached the Brotherhood's base, a soldier from the Veridian Empire's force raised a flag of their empire’s insignia. The soldier boldly called out, "We are the Veridian Empire! We have come to retrieve one of our agents, Lilith! Surrender her immediately, and we may spare your lives!"
From deep within the base, armed figures emerged, each clad in black and red armour, equipped with M16 Mk. II Assault Rifles. They formed a defensive line, and a figure stepped forward to represent the Brotherhood. He wore a crimson beret and a large coat adorned with many medals.
"In the name of Kane!" the Brotherhood representative called out, "We will not yield to intruders. You are in Brotherhood territory. This land belongs to Nod." the tag on the man’s chest… It looked like a name tag, but was too distant and small to make out its contents.
The man began to talk into something that looked like an Aetherlink before alarms began blaring all over the base.
“OFFENSIVE FORMATIONS! GET READY FOR BATTLE!”
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Brotherhood occupied territory, Thalindor outskirts.
“Why now…” Victor thought to himself. He had a suspicion that the Veridians would eventually come looking for Lilith, but with this many people? His mind began to wander, his attention focusing more on the thought of who Lilith really is. If a large force like the one sent was dispatched, she must be important.
Victor called through his radio, “Technicians, activate laser turret defence system. Show these fools that they will be the ones to surrender.”
“Affirmative, sir.” the technicians replied, soon after the sound of mechanical whirring could be heard coming from the direction of the Veridian forces.
In the ground, triangular doors began quickly opening, the slender form of the laser turrets rising quickly out of the hole and unfolding, revealing a long barrel. Each turret rose one after the other in quick succession.
Victor called out to the assailants, “This is your last chance. I keep the girl, you walk away, and you live. You try anything funny, you’ll have front row seats to your own demise.”
The Veridian soldiers hesitated, looking at each other, then to the turrets. Each of them confused as to what exactly the laser turrets were. It was then that General Kraven gave his orders.
“DO NOT BREAK FORMATION! WE WILL ADVANCE AND SHOW THESE BARBARIANS THE TRUE MIGHT OF THE VERIDIAN EMPIRE!” he shouted, his voice ringing out through the air like a fog horn.
The Veridian soldiers all began to charge toward the gate of the base, headed by Kraven. Each of them held their shields in front of them, anticipating volleys of arrows to come flying from in front of their charge.
Seeing that the soldiers weren’t going to back down any time soon, Victor gave the order to activate the turrets’ “Kill on Sight” protocol. As they approached the gate, the laser turrets activated, and a bright crimson beam of energy lashed, instantly striking the leading Veridian soldier. The destructive energy effortlessly tore through his shield, armour and flesh, causing him to disintegrate into ash within seconds. The smell of burning flesh and a horrifying scream filled the air.
All that was left was a pile of ash and bone.
Despite the shock and confusion, Kraven managed to rally his forces. "Hold the line! Do not falter! We will overwhelm them!" he shouted, his voice quivering with unease. He’d never had this happen before. Usually it was an easy job to take care of what they deem to be barbarians, but this was different.
The group of soldiers were visibly shaken, some of them now audibly crying at the sight of the once proud soldier. Kraven once again ordering the soldiers to stay in formation.
“We will NOT lose to these lowly prats. We are the Veridian Empire, and we know no fear!” Kraven yelled, motivating some of the soldiers, them letting out loud war cries and charging toward the closed gate and laser turrets, sword and shield in hand.
The laser turrets, their aim locked onto each of the approaching Veridian forces, continued to fire, one after the other. With each beam, another Veridian soldier met the same fate as the last. Armour, shields, and flesh offered little protection against the relentless onslaught of weaponised photons, leaving behind only piles of ash and bones in their places.
Kraven, now frozen in shock, watched on as his men were being vaporised one after the other. Wave after wave charged towards the gates, yet none got anywhere close. He wondered to himself, just who were these new players?
“S-Soldiers… Retreat! We can’t win against this.” he said, his ego now in tatters as he and the rest of the soldiers began to flee from the carnage into the nearby forest. As they withdrew, the lasers kept at their barrage, beams of concentrated light reducing the retreating assailants to piles of smouldering ash.
Victor watched through the external security cameras on his PDA. Seeing them run scared made him laugh.
“Too easy.” he said, putting the PDA in his pocket and sighing. Luna looked up at Victor in both confusion and nervousness. She had been in many battles against soldiers from the Veridian Empire, and most battles ended in a bloodbath. The fact the soldiers turned tail and ran amazed her.
Victor began to walk back into the makeshift HQ building, but was suddenly stopped by a loud explosion. The tree-line shook as a shockwave deformed the air around it. Victor looked in the direction of the explosion confused. It was then that the trees began falling in the direction of the base.
“The fuck’s going on here?” he shouted to one of the soldiers atop a guard tower.
“Uh, sir… You might want to come and take a look.” the soldier replied, ushering Victor to his position. Victor obliged, walking to the tower and climbing atop it. The soldier handed Victor a pair of binoculars.
Looking through the binoculars, Victor was left stumped at what he was seeing.
“What?” he said, utterly confused. “Where the fuck did that Tick Tank come from?”
The soldier shrugged, Victor handing him back the binoculars before descending the tower’s ladders and making his way toward the gate. As he neared the gate, it lowered into the ground. Through the gate came not one, but three brand new Tick Tanks.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
From one of the tanks, an individual popped his head out of the driver’s cockpit hatch. He looked at Victor and saluted.
“Sir, your reinforcements have arrived.” the driver said proudly, a hint of excitement in his eyes. “We picked off a couple of stragglers back there, but we managed to get one alive. Looks high ranking from the way he’s dressed. Want us to bring him out?”
Victor stood in place for a few seconds before replying. “Yes, bring him out and let me see him.”
As he finished his order, a soldier approached the gate, carrying a man with two missing legs and one missing arm, moaning in pain. It was General Kraven, though in quite a sorry state. Kraven’s head turned to look at Victor, his eyes filled with utter contempt.
“Well, look at you. Tried to attack us and got your asses handed to you.” Victor laughed, Kraven mustering up the strength to spit at Victor. “Just don’t know when to back down, do you?”
“Filthy barbarians. You’re only prolonging the inevitable.” Kraven said in a raspy voice. He was losing a lot of blood fast, the wounds where his legs and arm used to be dripping blood like a leaky kitchen tap. “You look human enough to me… Why must you side with those inferiors?”
“Inferiors?” Victor let out a menacing chuckle. “Oh we have our reasons. Don’t you worry your little head.”
Victor ordered the soldier to take Kraven to the infirmary for treatment. The blood loss seemed to be negligible, seeing as he was still conscious and aware enough to talk. Having taken many GDI prisoners in much worse condition than Kraven over the years, Victor had no doubt that Kraven would be fine. Though most of the prisoners were either executed, used for experiments, or used by CABAL for cyborg production, Victor knew that none of those would be a good idea in this case. Seeing as how this was a brand new world to them, it would be a good idea to use him as either leverage, or to extract information about the Veridian Empire from him.
Luna looked at Victor while he was deep in thought, herself pondering the implications of what just happened. She knew that the Veridian Empire wouldn’t take this sitting down. They never do. If anyone either goes missing or is found KIA, there is often the wrath of the entire military brought down on the one that sought harm to the Empire.
“Hey Luna, what do you know about that guy that my subordinate was carrying?” Victor asked Luna, her ears perking up. She knew exactly who he was, thanks to her many encounters with his men.
“That’s General Kraven. He’s rather high up in the Veridian military.” she said, a hint of unease in her voice. Victor simply nodded.
“Good leverage indeed…”
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5 Hours Later:
The construction efforts were still fully under way, the after-effects of the recent battle having worn off. In the time between the battle and now, a Carryall had dropped off a Mole. The Mole was a gargantuan tunnel boring machine, being able to reach speeds of up to 50mph thanks to the Brotherhood’s advanced boring technology. This was to allow for the beginning of the Brotherhood’s underground tunnel network in this world. On earth, Nod’s tunnel network was almost globe-spanning, having tunnels to almost every major Brotherhood occupied city in the world. This meant that logistics were quick and safe to transport. Having to rely on Carryalls posed not only a safety risk, but also a major problem with construction speed.
It took around 16 hours to make a complete round trip for one Carryall, though with heavy cargo, it could be a lot longer. The tunnel networks allowed for super fast transportation of supplies and troops to wherever they needed to be.
Having finally begun the excavation efforts, half of the base’s engineers were reassigned to oversee the creation of the tunnel network leading back to Bosnia. General Slavik had ordered the construction of the tunnel network in order to safely travel to the base established outside Thalindor in the Montauk.
The rest of the engineers were still busy at work constructing the main HQ building, along with SAM emplacements, a War factory, Hand of Nod, and the two main Obelisks of Light. After the attack earlier in the day, Victor ordered for the Obelisks to be constructed as soon as possible. Thanks to having power plants on site, the defences would be able to be powered without issue.
As the construction efforts were still underway, Victor sat in the temporary HQ’s infirmary, keeping a constant eye on General Kraven, who was the last survivor of the earlier attack. His bleeding was stopped and wounds dressed. Now laid in a bed in the infirmary, he had just awoken from being put under for surgery. Because of the potential information he could be harbouring, Victor made sure that he was treated well.
Kraven sat up, delirious. His back against the backboard of the hospital bed, he looked around the room. It looked nothing like any medical ward in the Empire. It was bright and sanitary, not a speck of dirt in sight. This calmed him somewhat, seeing as though he was still alive and able to fight another day.
“Huh?” he muttered, trying to move his left arm to itch his nose. He couldn’t feel anything moving, so decided to look. Where his arm used to be was now nothing more than a small stump that stopped just below his shoulder.
“Wh-WHAT THE FUCK!?” he cried out, absolutely panic-stricken. He began hyperventilating at the sight, his eyes and head darting around the room out of worry. He tried to move his legs to get out of bed, but noticed he wasn’t moving at all.
“M-M-MY LEGS!” he cried once more, now even more terrified. As if it were a nightmare, he began screaming for help. What were once his legs, now stumps of cauterized flesh cut off just shy of his torso.
Victor decided he had seen enough and opened the door to the room. As he entered, Kraven shot his head toward Victor, staring at him. His once proud warrior spirit was now broken and shattered, leaving behind nothing more than a scared little boy that had lost all fight.
“Well, looks like they managed to scrape whatever was left of you back together.” Victor said coldly, Kraven staring into Victor’s eyes. “So, you’re General Kraven, right? Well, since we spared you, I thought I’d ask you some questions,” Victor paused and gave Kraven another look before he was cut off.
“Y-You… You did this… Just who are you people?” Kraven said, his voice shaking harder than a small dog in winter.
“Us? We’re nothing more than servants of Kane. We carry out his will for the betterment of mankind.” Victor stated proudly. Kraven shuddered, wondering who this ‘Kane’ he mentioned was.
"What do you want with me? What is the purpose of this... brutality?" Kraven stammered, still trying to find his breath after hyperventilating.
“What we want? Well, I’m sure you’ll see in due time.” Victor said in a sly tone. He didn’t want Kraven to know just yet, as it could jeopardize his plans to use him later.
Kraven, still trying to process his situation, managed to collect his thoughts and focus on his main concern, the reason he was sent on this mission to begin with. "Is... Is Lilith safe?" he demanded, his voice shaking. "What have you done to her?"
“Lilith…” Victor mused. “Lilith is doing just fine. In fact, she’s doing so well that she’s become of great interest to us thanks to her resistance to Tiberium.”
Kraven's brow furrowed in confusion. "Tiberium? What are you talking about?"
“That is nothing of your concern. What should concern you right now is what we want to know” Victor told Kraven, cracking his knuckles while looking down at him.
Out of nowhere, the infirmary door burst open, a soldier standing at the door beckoning for Victor. “Sir! You’re needed at the holding cells NOW.” he shouted. Victor looked back at Kraven and sighed.
“I guess it will have to wait. I’ll have some of my men take a look at you and see what can be done about your missing limbs.” Victor said before walking out of the room, leaving Kraven alone to his own thoughts again.
…
Victor and the soldier ran down the hall, entering the observation room. Looking through the window, Lilith was sat on her bed looking at the floor. Her once bright red fur had turned to a dark black, green crystals now growing out of her back.
“I had an inkling this could happen” Victor said, realising that her transformation was complete. Lilith looked up at Victor through the window, tears streaming down her face.
“I’m a monster…” she weeped. Her will was completely broken, all semblance of of her previous self lost to the sands of time.
“Oh, I wouldn’t say that…” Victor said, walking through the door and closing it behind him. He decided to sit down on the bed next to Lilith.
“Why…” she sniffled. “What even happened to me?”
“Oh Lilith…” Victor said, exhaling. “You’ll get over it.”
“How? Just look at me. I’m a monster now. Nobody will look at me the same again.” she said, tears still flowing down her cheeks as she talked. “I can’t go back looking like this…”
“Then why not stay with us? I think you’ll find that we’re more alike than you think.” Victor said, looking directly into her eyes. Lilith cocked her head to the side a little, not sure of what he meant.
“Here. Let me show you.” Victor said, deciding to stand up. He removed his dress uniform’s jacket and shirt, leaving him bare-chested. Lilith looked at him shocked. All across his chest and abdomen lay long green scars. His chiselled physique covered in glowing green veins.
Victor ran his hand across his abdomen, recounting his days back during the First Tiberium War. Lilith watched on in curiosity and shock, not knowing how to feel. This was a first time a man had ever done anything so daring in front of her.
“It’s been just over 40 years since then…” he said in a sigh. Lilith’s eyes widened as he said that. Victor sat back down next to Lilith, who had now stopped crying. She looked at him as he closed his eye and began to talk.
“Back during the First Tiberium War, we were in a pretty sorry state. GDI was pushing us further and further out of our own territories, and carried out an Ion Cannon strike on Temple Prime, taking Kane out with it. We all thought him lost, so the brotherhood began to splinter. Though it was chaos, important steps toward a certain project commissioned by Kane himself were still underway, under the guidance of the Black Hand.” Victor got up and grabbed a bottle of water from his jacket pocket, sat back down and took a sip. He offered Lilith a sip, her happily partaking.
“Where was I…” He continued, “Ah, right. So the project was one of the top priorities at the time, being one of the most important things we had ever done. Project ReGenesis. Divination. The goal was to usher in the next step of human evolution through Tiberium. From the very beginning, Kane saw the potential that Tiberium has. As you can probably guess, I was one of the few which partook in the project and survived, keeping my sanity. Usually the process would send people crazy, but I guess I was one of the lucky ones.”
Victor took a deep breath, finishing his story. Lilith stared at Victor, her eyes looking all round his body. “I-Is that why your eye…” she asked. Victor looked at her and lifted his eye patch. In place of an eye sat a large spherical shard of Tiberium.
“That was one of the only drawbacks. Lost an eye but gained so much more” Victor said, pulling out a packet of cigarettes and a lighter from his trouser pocket. He lit one and began to smoke it. “So now I guess we’re kinda in the same boat. Mutants.”
Lilith took a minute to process the whole explanation. A project focused on a next stage in evolution through Tiberium? She looked at her hands as she thought about that word again. Tiberium. She remembered in her dream something about it. The green crystals and the strange building. She began to cough as the smoke from Victors cigarette began to build in the room, the half naked man still sat beside her. She blushed slightly, seeing as she hadn’t been this close to a man before.
“So you’re not a monster. If you were, you’d not have that brain of yours still.” Victor said, patting her on the head. “So, I’ve given you my story. Mind telling me more about yourself, the people you worked for and what they wanted?”
"I've never heard anything like this before," Lilith admitted, her voice still wavering from her earlier tears. "I was just a spy, sent to gather information, not to become... this." She gestured towards her mutated form.
She took a deep breath and began to speak, "I was raised and trained in the Veridian Empire. Since I was a pup, I was taught the arts of espionage, infiltration, and combat. All the training over my childhood made me the best spy the Empire had ever seen."
Victor looked at her in curiosity. Her face began to light up after thinking back to her earlier days. Her face then began to turn sour the further she went on.
"But that's enough of my history," she said quickly, her discomfort evident in her eyes. "It's not something I like to talk about." She began to close herself off from her surroundings. She never liked to talk about her past, it being something she is neither proud of nor pleasant to think about.
Sensing her discomfort, Victor shifted the conversation in a more reassuring direction. "I understand," Victor said gently. "It's alright, Lilith. You don't have to talk about it if you don't feel comfortable, I understand. We all have our pasts, and sometimes they're not easy to discuss. I know that more than most."
Lilith looked at the cold concrete floor, deep in thought. She thought about her future, now she had become something completely different to what she was before.
“I don’t know what to do now. If you were to release me, I doubt the Empire would be very accepting of what I am now. I’m a freak. They’d probably kill me on sight…”
“Oh, don’t you worry. I’m sure we could offer you some form of employment. Working with us has its benefits, and I’m sure these benefits will be mutual.” Victor told her, the ears on her head pointing to attention. She lifted her head and grabbed Victor’s arms.
“R-Really? Your Brotherhood would be fine with someone like me?” She said, giddily. After seeing the power of the Brotherhood through the cell window, she began to respect them more and more. Realising that she would have no choice of returning back to the Empire, she decided that it would be in her own best interest to join Victor.
“Sure we will. In fact, we’ve always helped mutants. Many of the people in our homeland are mutants. And I believe that Kane would be more than happy to have someone from this world on our team.” Victor told the now excited fox girl. Her tail was rapidly swinging side to side.