//------------------------------// // Chapter 4: Retaliation // Story: Tiberian Sunset (Cancelled) // by AuremUmbra //------------------------------// Chapter 4: Retaliation Sunset led a small team along a canyon. Her team consisted of the cyborg commando, two attack cycles, four cyborgs and two attack buggies. Her mission was to rescue a commander imprisoned by Hassan. The commander was loyal to Hassan, but he had found Hassan’s drive to fight other Nod factions over GDI to be off-putting and against the ideals of Nod. So he disobeyed Hassan to lead an attack on a small GDI force in Nod territory. She was to rescue him so that he could help them defeat Hassan and then fight back against GDI. Slavik was already starting his attack on Hassan’s main base; to defeat and capture Hassan. Sunset had studied the terrain of the surrounding area and what they knew about Hassan’s forces in it. There were two bases in the area. One was a small base with a refinery, the second was a large base with a construction yard, war factory – where vehicles are produced – and the small prison complex that the commander is imprisoned in. The large base had two entrances, the main entrance was heavily guarded with walls, laser turrets and guards. The second entrance was in the back across a bridge and was unguarded when they were briefed. The back entrance did pass through the small base, however. The small base, on the other hand, had several entrances. One passed right in front of the gates of the main base, a second was the back entrance from the main base. A third was through a tunnel and then up a hill. And the fourth was from around the back. The fourth entrance would require causing a landslide down a cliff side. It would be easy as the cliff was already unstable and might collapse by itself. This entrance leads past the small base straight to the bridge leading to the main base. This entrance was the path Sunset planned on taking as it left them with the element of surprise. Unfortunately, from where they were it was a long path to get there and it required moving through the tunnel, up a hill, through a town and then back down off the hill before they got to the cliff. She continued through the ravine until she saw a path through the cliff face on their right. It was a small gap between the cliffs but it was wide enough for them all to pass through. She moved towards the cliff before the gap and motioned for her forces to follow. She moved to the edge of the cliff and peered around the corner. There were two of Hassan’s light infantry crouched on her side of a sandbag wall. They were shooting at something on the other side. Sunset shot the closer one through the back of the head and quickly shot the other one in the chest. She moved back to her forces, then she heard it. The sound of engines. But not any kind of engines. Orca engines. GDI was nearby. She growled and looked to the sky. She saw a badly damaged orca bomber. It had risen from where she had killed Hassan’s forces. It flew towards the north, towards the town and the enemy bases. She heard the sound of bombs. The orca bomber kept flying north. She growled again. She felt guilty, disgusted even, for saving the enemies life. It had flown over the town. She might have been responsible – indirectly – for the deaths of innocent civilians. She regained her composure and led her troops down the path. The cyborg commando used his plasma cannon to put a large hole in the sandbag wall so that their forces could get past easier. She led her forces into the tunnel. Near the end she sent two cyborgs to scout the other side, to be safe. They found no enemies but they did find signs of wreckage and explosives. The wreckage was that of a tick-tank loyal to Hassan. A tick-tank is a tank that can burrow the majority of itself underground. This makes it unable to move but much harder to destroy. She led her forces in formation up the hill and into the town. Luckily, the town was undamaged and the people in it – while terrified – were unharmed. There were no enemy forces in the town and she led her troops down the hill on the other side. She kept her forces away from the damaged cliff side and had one of the attack bikes cause it to collapse by shooting it with a rocket. They climbed up the resulting slope and turned right towards the bridge; the small base was to their left. They came across the bridge. It was destroyed; the middle section of the bridge was completely missing. She walked into the engineer’s hut next to the bridge. Inside were a large number of machines. Most of which she only vaguely knew how they worked. She silently thanked the engineers who taught her about electronics and machinery and got to work. She powered on the computer and used it to order the large number of machines to fix the bridge as quickly as possible. The machines repaired the bridge quite quickly; it only took about twenty minutes for it to be stable enough to cross. They crossed the bridge, carefully, two cyborgs leading the group across. A tank shell ripped through one of the cyborgs legs, tearing it off. The cyborg fell to the ground and crawled towards the tick-tank. Sunset dove behind a concrete wall. The cyborg commando walked towards the tank firing its plasma cannon. The attack cycles drove towards it firing their missiles. The attack buggies drove further into the base and tore apart the enemy infantry with their raider cannons (powerful roof mounted anti infantry guns). The cyborgs charged into the base firing their arm mounted chain guns at the enemy infantry and light vehicles. Sunset shot her laser rifle at the enemy rocket infantry, as they were they greatest threat that she could remove quickly. The cyborg commando had destroyed the first tick-tank and tore apart a second. An enemy attack buggy tried to run him over; he grabbed the buggy with his left hand and kicked it. The cockpit caved in crushing the driver. The cyborg commando threw the attack buggy at the enemy Hand of Nod nearby. The attack buggy wreck blocked the main entrance to the Hand of Nod, preventing many enemy soldiers from joining the battle. The cyborg commando then went about the base systematically destroying the enemy structures and laser turrets. Sunset’s other forces were finishing off the base’s guards. Sunset ran into the prison complex. She found only a few guards, who she quickly killed. She found the prison’s control centre and used it to release all of the prisoners; they were the commander and his forces who had been captured. The prisoners ran to the prisons armoury and retrieved their weapons which had been confiscated from them. They then ran outside to join Sunset’s troops destroying the enemy base. She found the commander and told him of the rescue mission and Slavik’s attack on Hassan’s main base. He used the base’s communications building – which had been left standing but cleared of enemy forces – to arrange for several of his troops that had escaped capture to join Slavik’s force and for a harpy – a helicopter gunship – to pick him up to take him back to his main force. Sunset then inspected her troops. One of the attack buggies and an attack cycle were destroyed, the other two were damaged but otherwise fine. Several of the escaped prisoners were wounded and a few were dead; the wounded were being treated in the prison’s medical facility as there was no other medical facility left in the base. The cyborg commando had little damage beyond scrapes and dents in his armour. And three of the cyborgs were missing limbs: one was missing a leg, one was missing both legs, and the third was missing its chain gun arm; it was wielding a rifle in its left hand. The fourth cyborg was unharmed. Sunset called for extraction and shortly four subterranean APCs arrived to take them away. The attack cycle and buggy drove back down the road and out of sight; they were returning into the tunnel system. The rescued prisoners and the damaged cyborgs climbed into three of the APCs, Sunset helped the injured in. Sunset, the cyborg commando and the undamaged cyborg climbed into the last APC once the others had left. They were going to join Slavik in his attack on Hassan’s main base. The rest of the APCs were taking the people inside for medical attention. CABAL informed Sunset of the situation as they travelled. Slavik had built a base just outside of Hassan’s and had captured one of Hassan’s small support bases and destroyed the other. There were several paths to Hassan’s base. Across a destroyed bridge with the engineer’s hut on Hassan’s side, across a bridge then through a heavily fortified gate with many defences, or through a long winding ravine that eventually led to a way to climb up to the base. Slavik was planning to cross the destroyed bridge, he just needed to get an engineer onto the other side. The APC surfaced inside Slavik’s base. An engineer and several rocket infantry climbed in, joining Sunset. The APC then submerged again. It tunnelled to the other side of the bridge. Sunset and the cyborg commando were the first out. Followed shortly by the cyborg, the rocket infantry and then the engineer. Sunset shot several of the enemy infantry before they could respond and the cyborg commando destroyed two attack buggies. The APC went back underground. The engineer entered the hut and started to repair the bridge. The rocket infantry were shooting at several attack cycles, the cyborg commando was destroying several laser turrets around that section of the base. Sunset ran into the enemy Hand of Nod nearby and quickly cut through the enemy guards. She planted explosives on several of the support columns and left the building. She then used the remote detonator and the roof fell down, completely destroying everything above ground causing the remaining enemies inside to be trapped in the underground section. She looked around. The area of the base they were in was in ruins and the bridge was repaired. The engineer had repaired the bridge in less than five minutes. Slavik’s main force drove into the ruins. It consisted mostly of tick-tanks and a large number of attack buggies and attack cycles as well. There were a few cyborgs; only about a dozen. They marched through the destroyed section of the base, towards a gate. The tick-tanks tore it apart with their cannons and they drove through. Slavik’s voice came over her communication system, “Sunset, I need you and the cyborg commando to capture Hassan alive if he stays in the temple.” A soldier ran up to Sunset holding a powerful tranquilliser rifle and gave it to her. “Consider it done,” she said. She slung the tranquilliser rifle over her back and swiftly marched to the broken gate. She could hear the sounds of gunfire from around the hill but every building she could see was destroyed and every living person and working vehicle was one of theirs. She barely had to wait ten seconds for the cyborg commando to join her. He also carried a tranquilliser rifle slung over his back. It rested next to his flamethrower. They moved towards the sound of gunfire. There wasn’t much left when they arrived. There were several of their tanks firing at a few laser turrets and several more tanks destroying a construction yard and war factory. Their destination, a pyramid that was re-purposed into a command centre and temple by the Brotherhood, rested on top of a hill nearby. The last vestige of the enemy resistance was fighting on top of the hill. Several rocket infantry, tick-tanks, attack buggies and attack cycles were in front of the temple firing down the hill at Slavik’s forces. But they were being destroyed. Sunset fired her laser rifle up the hill and killed several of the enemy infantry. The cyborg commando fired his plasma rifle at a clustered group of attack cycles and they all went up in flames. This turned the battle into a slaughter as the morale of the enemy broke and many tried to run or surrender. Slavik’s forces drove or ran up the hill and killed the few of the enemies that did not surrender. As Sunset and the cyborg commando were about to enter the pyramid, a harpy emerged from underneath it and flew away from the temple. Sunset drew her tranquilliser rifle. A subterranean APC emerged in the harpy’s path and out came several rocket infantry. They fired at the harpy. It was badly damaged but survived and managed to land. Hassan emerged from the harpy and Sunset shot her tranquilliser rifle at him. She hit him in the back. Hassan stumbled from the force. Straightened back up, wobbled, and collapsed. The rocket infantry approached him carefully. They checked if he was really unconscious – which he was – and then carried him back to the APC.