The interactive Tiberian Sun forums story!

[Squid Empire]

Sorry for the crappy title, if anyone has any better suggestions please say so!

 

In this thread I will be posting chapters to a story we'll write. After each chapter everyone will be invited to give suggestions on where the story should go. I'll take the most popular suggestion (or failing that just whichever one I like the best ) and continue the story from there. To begin with we travel to the frigid north of Europe, specifically to a small Finnish town where Nod has secreted away a large base.

 

Due to votes this story takes place in the Tiberian Sun universe primarily from the perspective of Nod leaders. I'm going to try to keep it away from the events actually in any of the games in order to afford more creative freedom.

 

Without further delay, here's chapter 1!

 

 

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On a blighted earth free at last from mawkish distractions a god walked amongst men. His name was Kane.

In the decades Tiberium had begun spreading across this planet, the forces representing the old world’s power, taking the moniker GDI, had retreated to the poles - vacating the planet even; while Kane had been gathering support from the disaffected. At first focusing on the third world, since the second world begun he had grown enormously in presence and power. And so as Gaia dies Kane lives, and his followers spread like the crystals they are borne from.

Daring commanders rise and fall on both sides, only the proliferation of exotic radiation and toxic heavy metal is a certainty, however, this profusion directly aided the promulgation of Kane’s Brotherhood of Nod.

As permanent emerald twilight closed in, the human dynamics in turn accelerated in their desperation and violence. McNeil... Slavic… heroes of their consortiums, but these take more than a hero to maintain.

 

Northern Europe, winter, 2030. As in all chemical interactions, energy is required in the form of heat for Tiberium to oxidise its surroundings. The colder parts of the world have thus proved resistant to the spread of Tiberium, and the dimming husks of cities and infrastructure still dot the frigid landscapes. The city of Kemijärvi enjoyed a brief period of extremely rapid growth in the past few years before GDI finally evacuated it. Now it is a manmade mountain, covered in snow. But the heart of this city lives, for Kane has decreed it so.

Beneath the blotchy white sheet of snow, pierced by poles and trees, lies a Nod Sanctum. Built from the ruins of the buried city, utilising a factionwide affection for tunneling, the Sanctum has many purposes. It is home to five thousand fanatics, one hundred specialists of various conviction, and three inner circle members.

Petrov Var, Audrey Snow, Sinon Ekman.

 

These three leaders were appointed by no accident, and each is there in order to pursue their own tasks at their own discretion.

Petrov, a man who gives off no immediate intimidation, until one takes a pause to study his eyes. They were the eyes of a killer, of a man whose soul has been utterly evacuated from his heart. Petrov was almost inevitably a previous ultra pious member of the Black Hand, the years he spent there gifted him many abilities. The least of which was not his ‘transcendance’, for Petrov was a natural shiner and the left of his body glistened with embedded Tiberium. His mission in Kemijärvi being the defence of the Sanctum, and the removal of any GDI forces he might suspect.

Audrey caught Kane’s own eye indirectly, he watched with amusement as her power of manipulation and steadfast, selfless belief turned all who knew her into loyalists. Tall, developed, and confident to the point of arrogance, her eyes sparkled with chaotic intelligence. Her reasons for her actions were a source of base rumour, but whatever they were they appeared to be compelling. She was in charge of base unity and cult, and propaganda.

Sinon was unlike any other Nod man. Small, balding with a trim moustache, and meek, he had been recruited immediately into Kane’s inner circle. Any possible murmurs of confusion were shattered by Kane’s own words “Sinon is trusted and valuable brother.” It was clear to the inner circle why he was there. Sinon had been a nuclear and theoretical physicist, he grew up in a world free from Tiberium, completed his studies in a world barely aware of the stuff, and even wrote an article on the curious properties of this substance before it had become a problem. His destiny brought him to Ignacio Mobius’s laboratory where he worked for a time, even becoming a part of GDI in full.

His family was announced dead about this time, due to an accident in evacuating Stockholm. What occurred next in his life is unknown, but he was found wandering a yellow zone near Madrid and brought before Nod leaders higher and higher up the chain of command until he met Kane. Shrewd, loyal, and intelligent, Sinon was employed to oversee research efforts and to help lead and grow Nod’s teams of engineers. As Nod’s expert on Tiberium his presence in Kemijärvi was for research into the spreading patterns of the substance, and to lead salvage efforts of the ruins. These three comprised the leadership of this Sanctum and those below knew their place.

 

07:28: Kemijärvi Sanctum, main entrance. A silent red kalxon spun, casting bloody light onto the snow and mud piled against the steel entrance door. A brief groan of machinery broke the calm before the door jolted into action, splitting down the horizontal center. The two half drifted apart to the tortured tones of overtaxed servos before shuddering to a halt. The dark, windy outside began gently flowing into the dimly lit entrance hall, before the roar of engines blasted outside. The cold steel of the buggies, headlights bobbing wildly, rushed out into the atmosphere of a toxic morning, while the door protested at being made to close again. It was unusual for Nod forces to be leaving the base so late in the morning. But this wasn’t a normal patrol.

 

 

 

Moving onward:

One of the three leaders of the Sanctuary is on a mission, but who is it and what are they doing?

[Nodlied]

Mr. Ekman is on a mission to recover to recover a detonator from a crashed GDI Dropship that was supposed to be demolished at Hammerfest. The detonator was originally used in a cold-war era nuclear device that had just recently been uncovered in Russia. GDI transported it by train to Moscow from where it was supposed to be airlifted to Hammerfest. On the way, an ion storm struck and forced the dropship to make a landing, however, the landing was unsuccessful and therefore, the craft crashed.

[AZ-Stalker]

To ease people's concerns a bit and help out anyone who doesn't have time to write their segment which could get cast away if it doesn't make the cut, I'd advise any suggestion giving approach to be viable. Including random ideas, feature lists, plain notes, full paragraphs and anything that contributes.

A neat scene would be for the buggy patrol to run into a line of dug-in deployed tick tanks that have seemingly frozen over at an outer defense perimeter. Due to a low amount of troops that far out, the ticks could have been abandoned for some reason. Later, once you show the reader the gun, he'll expect it to be fired at some point, per popular saying. Which is where the frozen tick tank line can come to play later on in some form - lets say they get hijacked by a nomad shiner group with a particular agenda, or some defecting Nod forces heat them up and use them to keep the sanctum forces within the inner defense line while they set up shop on the outskirts. Maybe there's a particular tiberium formation-like artifact of interest somewhere in some caverns below.

I'm also sure Squid's on top of reorganizing the first post whenever a new chapter gets finalized. Use of spoilers is a great option to keep it clean.

Additionally, for another huge TS fan story, you can draw inspiration from this old thing which actually connected itself quite nicely and unexpectedly into a certain TS mission as its conclusion.

[Squid Empire]

AZ's right about not posting something huge. Simple ideas even in dot points are perfectly ideal!

[Squid Empire]

Okay well thanks DH... I guess. I should make is clear I'm looking for short suggestions - ideally ideas like Nodlied posted. While it's nice you put so much effort into this I'm afraid I'm going to have to disregard most of what you posted. I have another chapter in the works but I'm also in mid-semester exam block (fun!) so it might be a few more days before I post anything.

[Squid Empire]

After a longer wait then half life 3, here's chapter two!

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Already it seemed they had been driving for weeks. The frigid outside remained a featureless white, and the steady roar of the engines persevered. Of course it was better that the GDI ship had crashed so far from the Sanctum, but it meant that the small team Ekman had at his disposal was on its own: no reinforcements would be coming. Ekman was not an action hero. His hands grimly gripped the roll bar above his seat as the buggy shuddered across rocks and snow. His driver’s face meanwhile was fixed in a solid grin, eyes darting back and forth, as he pushed the buggy to it’s limits. The buggy radio clicked on “This is McInnis, Sir we’ve got a few vehicles ahead, I believe they’re ours, they’re not responding on any known frequency though over”

Ekman snatched the radio; “Halt all units!”

Shredded snow flew through the sky as the buggies all slammed to a halt. Ekman and a collection of infantry lept out and ran over to the lead buggy. The air was calm and was beginning to heat up and the horizon was receding. Corporal Lloyd from McInnis’s buggy was waiting for them when they caught up to the lead buggy. “Where are they?” Ekman called out. Lloyd pointed over the nearby embankment. Pulling his binoculars Ekman began scanning the area.

Amid the remains of a small forest he spotted it, a small group of three red painted Tick Tanks. All three were in deployment, oriented upward. Ekman remained looking at the tanks. There was no movement, but he spotted some signs of struggle; discarded weapons, some small craters. Ekman put the binoculars down. “Sir? There’s no one there, should we move on?”
“No Corporal. Which of you men have anti-tank launchers?” One of the soldier stepped forward and shouldered a large rocket launcher.
“Destroy those tanks soldier.” The soldier quickly aimed and released the rocket, which spiralled lazily off into the distance. A resounding thud followed as the Tick Tanks were obliterated in a hail of slush and metal. “We can’t have our units falling into enemy hands. All hands return to your vehicles, we have a dropship to inspect.” The soldiers ran back to their buggies, Sinon focused and distant. Roaring back to life the buggies toar onwards, not much further now.

 

The soldier groaned and blinked his eyes. He was alive! His breath echoed in his helmet, muffling the sounds outside. He held it, and heard fire. Attempting to get up he felt pressure on his stomach. Rising to an elbow he saw he was pinned down by some rent metal debris. He shifted it off and held his breath again. Gritting his teeth he struggled to stand. Crying out in pain he finally stood, and cried out again. Tears welling in his eyes he felt his shirt was damp, and raised his hands to his visor. Coated in blood, he blinked hard and looked around himself. Gravity had done a thorough job, the dropship lay in useless pieces around him. He also saw a few of his crewmates. They were undoubtedly dead. He felt his armour over. It was torn and shredded, he found his wound too; a knife sized piece of shrapnel on a shallow angle embedded in his collarbone. He tapped his helmet, no EVA. He was in this alone. Gritting his teeth once more, he decided he’d have to scavenge any medical supplies left intact. He took a tentative step forward and winced as his shin cried out in pain. Another step and he came face to face with a… rifle? “Oh kill him already” and then a shot. The soldier fell limp, and the Nod team exchanged a few chuckles. Ekman ignored them and scanned the debris. Hardly anything remained intact. McInnis strode up beside him. “Sir, it might be a good time to tell us what we’re looking for.”
“Very well sargent. Gather round men!” The soldiers formed a circle around Ekman, who stepped atop the recently dead GDI soldier. “We’re here because this is the remains of the GDI Europa Dropship. Europa was carrying something important from history, a museum piece Kane himself is interested in acquiring; a old Soviet nuclear detonator which we believe is still active, and which we know operates active nuclear warheads. Too bad for GDI Europa here an ion storm ruined their plans. This is all of no concern to you though. What you’re looking for is a small metal briefcase, maybe chained to one of these men.” He kicked the body below him for effect;
“Now get looking.”

The soldiers fanned out, and began kicking the debris around, searching for a metal briefcase. Ekman motioned McInnis to follow him and headed towards the largest piece of debris. The two arrived at the twisted hunk of GDI-brown metal, which revealed itself to be the cockpit. “Sargent what downed this craft was an Ion storm right?”
“Yes sir?”
“Well we don’t want that to happen to us, so I want you to report our success back to the sanctum, and then immediately ready the buggies to return.”
“Sir, but what if we don’t find th-”
“I already have it.” Ekman raised the case from behind the hunk of metal he was standing at. “Scientific objects are always stored in the fore emergency oxygen tanks. I had the troops move out just in case any other GDI men survived. Now go send that message.”

“Right away sir!”
McInnis jogged back to the parked buggies while Ekman surveyed the case. It was old all right, covered in scratches and grazes. He could make out some writing on top, in cyrillic. A sudden gust of wind made him look up again. He saw a group of his men running towards him. Before he could react his earpiece exploded: “Sir! Sir! The situation has changed!”

 

 

 

What's changed? Is it good or bad? Maybe something happened back at base?

[AZ-Stalker]

I really like the instant switch over to a GDI point of view only to make an "oh shit!" moment where it abruptly ends with the soldier's death just as you start thinking of him surviving and doing something interesting. Caught me by surprise!