Line #221 FanFic/TiberiumWars


1	->''"We forge futures out of pain and grief, Commander. The computers and the communications officers and the [=EVAs=] and the displays only serve to isolate us so we can be inhuman. We're monsters, son. Cold, mechanical, rational monsters, and the only way we win is by being colder, more mechanical, and more rational than the next monster moving his little pieces on the screen. That's how war has been fought since Stalin rolled into the Allies a century ago. You point, you click, and they die. It's how it works."''
2	-->-- '''Colonel Nick "Havoc" Parker''', ''Chapter XVIII''
3
4	[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin As its name indicates]], ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3654039/1/Tiberium_Wars Tiberium Wars]]'' is a {{Novelization}} of ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberiumWars'' by Creator/{{Peptuck}}, the same author behind ''Fanfic/{{Forward\|Peptuck}}'' and ''Fanfic/{{Renegade}}''. The fanfic was written in direct response to the official novelization. As would be expected, it follows the actual game's plot fairly closely, though it takes a highly in-depth look at the ''Tiberium'' universe, and creates numerous characters to populate the otherwise faceless armies of the Global Defense Initiative and the Brotherhood of Nod, as well as exploring the respective factions' technology, history, and mindset. Established characters are used (with some of them even getting their own extra subplots) as well as original characters filling in the roles of infantrymen, tankers, pilots, and the [[NonEntityGeneral faceless commanders]].
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6	The fic is notable for its brutal, stark, and explicit vision of the endless war being waged between GDI and Nod, with heavy emphasis on realistic military operations and the chaotic and merciless nature of war. Combat is meticulously described, and the war itself is savage, violent, and often senseless. At the same time, though, neither GDI nor Nod are depicted as monsters, and a number of both sympathetic and despicable characters are portrayed. The author admits that he places more emphasis on GDI, having hinted that he considers them to be the series' true "good guys."
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8	The author himself has stated that he was heavily inspired by Creator/DanAbnett's ''Literature/GauntsGhosts'' series, as well as ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' in general. Other inspirations include nonfiction works like ''Literature/GenerationKill'' and ''House To House: A Soldier's Memoir''. As the fic is based on the military and warfare, expect to see lots of MilitaryAndWarfareTropes.
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10	The series is also ''very'' quotable, as the sheer number of excerpts that have been quoted on Website/ThisVeryWiki prove.
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12	----
13	!!Provides Examples Of:
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15	* [[ActionFilmQuietdramaScene Action Fic Quiet Drama Scene]]: Despite the brutal action and depiction of war, some of the best scenes are quiet moments where soldiers or officers talk about their experiences and personal pain.
16	* ActionGirl: Multiple across the series; a number of GDI soldiers are mentioned as being female, but none of them are major characters (save [[spoiler: Sandra Telfair during her escape]]), while several prominent Nod women (Lieutenant Cristos, Corporal Marona, and Sergeant Marisol) are no slouches.
17	* AffablyEvil: Rawne notes that [[spoiler: LEGION]] is most certainly this.
18	* AIIsACrapshoot: The GDI Firehawk squadrons have EAA units, a sort of squad-wide networked AI that helps them with targeting, operations, and coordination. The AI units for each squad become erratic when Firehawks are switched out of a particular squad and new aircraft are brought in without the [=EAAs=] on the older machines being wiped.
19	** Generally-speaking, though, AI is ''not'' a crapshoot in the setting; EVA units are extremely reliable, apparently due to safeguards since CABAL's rebellion. The fact that EVA units don't seem to have either personality or identity beyond their functions seems to help.
20	* AmusingInjuries: Kane finds [[spoiler: his people banging their shins against consoles in the dim light of his facilities]] to be endlessly amusing.
21	* AnyoneCanDie: The author kills off several [[CharacterDevelopment well-developed]] viewpoint characters. Given his insistence in portraying war as realistically as possible, this is not a surprise.
22	* ArmorIsUseless: Subverted somewhat. Against GDI body armor, lightly armed Nod militants have to aim for weak points, though more well-equipped troops have no problem taking them out. Against Zone Trooper or Black Hand armor... well... if you're ''really'' lucky, you might get a lucky shot on their optics and throw off their aim a bit. Otherwise, anti-tank weapons work.
23	* AttackAttackAttack: Notably averted in Chapter Sixteen, when [[spoiler: the Mammoth Tanks arrive.]] Rawne withdraws his forces, knowing they don't have the firepower to go toe-to-toe with them.
24	* AttemptedRape: In chapter 14, a Nod militant attempts to [[spoiler: rape Sandra Telfair. She fights him off long enough for Brother-Captain Allen to arrive and beat the would-be rapist to death.]]
25	* AuthorTract
26	** The author has a boiling hatred for the official novelization; although this never explicitly enters WriterOnBoard territory, he does let his rage flow full-force in many of the afterwords for his chapters.
27	** He's also made it clear he has a great dislike for [[HumongousMecha humanoid walkers]] like the Titan, Wolverine, and Avatar, and that he has no qualms about using his story to decry them.
28	** There are also some much more subtle jabs and pokes in the story, such as some commentary on the interaction between the media and the military, and a general impression of WarIsHell.
29	** Also, rape is bad. [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil Really bad.]] As in, [[EvenEvilHasStandards Kane authorizes summary execution of anyone caught sexually assaulting civilians or prisoners of war.]]
30	*** This can also fall under depicting war realistically: it's an awesome way to get caught with your pants down, make new enemies, and generally encourage the enemy to fight to the death. You have to start hitting [[EpicFail angering all the gods,]] [[GodOfEvil including the evil ones,]] to come up with a single StupidEvil act that's ''more'' stupid.
31	* BadassCreed: Chapter Seventeen has one from a Mammoth Tank crewman:
32	-->''Yea verily, though I charge through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, for I am driving a house-sized mass of "fuck you."''
33	** Chapter Nineteen has a more solemn one for the Black Hand:
34	-->''We have sworn our lives in the service of the Brotherhood.''
35	-->''In Brotherhood, we are all equal.''
36	-->''Within our Brotherhood, we are united.''
37	-->''Within unity, we are victorious.''
38	-->''By attaining unity, we strive for peace.''
39	-->''With our lives, we sacrifice to bring peace to the Brotherhood.''
40	-->''Through our lives, we bring power to the Brotherhood. With power, the Brotherhood brings peace.''
41	-->''Peace through power.''
42	-->''In the name of Kane.''
43	* BadVibrations: Zig Zagged. The earth rumbling as Mammoth tanks approach is most ''definitely'' this for Nod, for [[TheCavalry GDI on the other hand]].
44	* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Averted in the case of Private Marona, an attractive young Nod soldier who [[spoiler: has her face ''shredded'' by shrapnel from a grenade, destroying her eyes and doing a lot of damage elsewhere in the process.]]
45	** Captain Burke of the Forgotten is another example of this being strongly averted. She is described as probably being attractive in her youth, but her face is scarred, tiberium crystals are growing out of her face, and she's been "weathered" by long years living in a Yellow Zone and fighting Nod.
46	* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: Nod's forces firmly believe that [=GDI=] will torture their captured Brothers and rape their Sisters, so when they are forced to fall back and leave their immobile wounded behind, one of their captains personally executes each and every invalid. [=GDI=] sees this as Nod denying them intelligence and prisoners.
47	* BigDamnHeroes: the GDI Marine Corps gets one when they save 4th battalion from a massive Nod counterattack.
48	** [[spoiler: Havoc does this for Sandra Telfair]] in Chapter Sixteen.
49	** [[ColdSniper Sergeant Havers]] [[spoiler: saves Colt from a Nod commando with a well-timed shot]] in Chapter sixteen.
50	** The [[spoiler: Mammoth Tanks]] in Chapter 17 qualify in '''all''' senses of the word big.
51	* BloodKnight: Lieutenant Wallace, who seems to enjoy killing Nod simply for the sake of killing Nod.
52	** Colonel Parker makes it clear that the main reason he joined up with Karrde's task force as an "advisor" is because he's there to kill Nod troops.
53	** Justine Marisol is almost like an opposite number on the Nod side; when offered a chance to sit out of a battle once her Shadow Team's objective was completed, her response was to go right back in, because she was "bored."
54	* BondOneLiner: In the second chapter, [[ColdSniper Sergeant Havers]] sights and shoots a Nod militiaman who is about to smoke a cigarette. As the enemy soldier dies, Havers muses that ''"That thing was going to kill him anyway."''
55	** Also, in chapter 9, Corporal Colt is knocked down by a Nod militant screaming "Die oppressor!". After shooting him in the neck? "No."
56	* BoomHeadshot: The only reliable way for a GDI infantryman to even slow down a Black Hand soldier is to shoot out his helmet's combat optics.
57	** Both averted and played straight by [[ColdSniper Sgt. Joshua Havers]] who sometimes takes the time to line up a shot, but will usually just shoot whatever body-part falls under his crosshairs first. Not that a headshot is all that important to a .50-caliber discarding-sabot round fired from a [[SniperRifle scoped]] ''[[{{BFG}} RAILGUN]]''.
58	* BringMyBrownPants: In Chapter Sixteen, Corporal [[IncrediblyLamePun Bowles]] voids himself when [[spoiler: he realizes he's being shot at by Mammoth Tanks.]]
59	* BunnyEarsLawyer: Lt. Kirce James comes off as very self-important, overly serious and dramatic, but Karrde figured it didn't matter as she does her job incredibly well. I mean, what else can you say about a person who gets you such support as an Ion Cannon, the marines, [[spoiler:a thousand Mammoth Tanks]] on short notice?
60	** For that last account, Karrde jokingly tells Lt. James that he could use a couple of divisions reinforcement of artillery and armors for the Battle of Washington D.C. and wholly expects her to recognize the joke. She apparently doesn't.
61	* CannonFodder: The Nod militants' main job is to tie up enemy troops.
62	* TheChainsOfCommanding
63	-->''As they rumbled off to battle, Alexander Karrde let the noise and the chaos slip away. He found a chair, and dropped down into it. He leaned back, closed his eyes, and his hands trembled.''
64	** Brother-Captain Alvarez of the Black Hand is characterized by something similar, having been deeply affected by [[spoiler: executing his own wounded]] while withdrawing from Washington. In contrast, Commander Rawne is notable for ''not'' being affected by the deaths of his troops, if only because he refuses to get close to them in order to remain detached.
65	** Commander Rawne is beginning to feel this in the latest chapter.
66	* CharactersDroppingLikeFlies: Characters die. A ''lot''. And many of those deaths are very shitty, sudden, and, overall, realistic. In fact, one of the few truly dramatic deaths ([[spoiler: Lieutenant Wallace's]]} ends up being ''subverted.''
67	* ChekhovsGun: Those Reckoners Havoc captures early on in the story? [[spoiler: They're used to destroy an Avatar and allow Havoc's rag-tag band of irregulars to retake the White House.]]
68	* ChurchMilitant: The Brotherhood of Nod, in spades. Doubly so for the Black Hand.
69	* ClusterFBomb: Colonel Creden of the GDI 2nd Heavy Armored, a British officer who has a ''ridiculously'' foul mouth.
70	-->''" . . . and I don't give a damn about the fucking collateral damage. I've got three million people to my arse who are going to be eating out Kane's crotch if we don't stop Nod, so blow the fuckers to shit and toss the rest."''
71	** Corporal Peterson, as well.
72	-->''"Look, I'm just saying we've got this gigantic, trillion-dollar ion cannon array in orbit, tanks the size of fucking houses, supersonic jet fighters that can hit the stratosphere, and these crazy-calculus advanced proto-world-conquering super AIs, and here we are in out fucking recon with our fucking super cloak-piercing sensors and radar array and guided missile launchers and auto-loading mortars, and for some mystical, unfathomable reason, we don't fucking have working, fucking, AC! This is bullshit of the biggest, bisioniest order."''
73	* ColdSniper: Sergeant "Simo" Havers and his spotter, Corporal Terrence.
74	* ColonelBadass: Colonel Nick "Havoc" Parker, who [[RetiredBadass comes back out of retirement]].
75	* CombatBreakdown: The armor battle in Chapter Twenty becomes one of these, starting at a relatively short distance (about half a kilometer) and rapidly becoming an extremely close and vicious brawl in vehicle terms (less than one hundred meters).
76	* {{Crossover}}: Sort of - basically, it's ''Command and Conquer'' InTheStyleOf ''Literature/GauntsGhosts'', with a bunch of diverse world-building elements taken from wherever feels appropriate (such as the Black Hand as [[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} Space Marines]], and various units from the ''Kane's Wrath'' expansion appearing despite it being the story of ''Tiberium Wars''). Oh, and when Havok shows up, everything becomes an action film.
77	** There is a hint to [[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert Red Alert]] in the game's intelligence files, but otherwise the ''Tiberium'' and ''Red Alert'' subseries were separated around the time the ''Tiberian'' branch became the ''Tiberium'' branch. This fanfic, on the other hand, in an offhand mention makes clear that something very much like the original Red Alert ''did'' happen.
78	* CurbStompBattle: The intial invasion of the US Eastern Seaboard initially goes this way for Nod, who have sufficient numbers to steamroll any resistance.
79	** The battle for Langley AFB gradually becomes this for Nod, as Karrde's troops come close to being overwhelmed and outnumbered... and then the Marines show up. See BigDamnHeroes above.
80	** The battle for the Pentagon becomes this for GDI when the [[TankGoodness Mammoths]] show up.
81	* CyberneticsEatYourSoul: Avatar pilots are implanted with large numbers of cybernetics, and their continuous contact with the AI in their vehicles results in them being more coldly logical than most humans.
82	* {{Cyborg}}: A number of characters are cybernetically augmented. Karrde has a single electronic eye that replaced one he lost in the Rio Uprising, Sergeant Marona has both of her eyes replaced due to shrapnel wounds, and Nick "Havoc" Parker is heavily augmented due to his age and long experience as a commando. Avatar pilots, as note above, are heavily augmented as well. Nod in general features a lot of cybernetic bits in their troops, as well as tiberium-based bio-augmentation.
83	* ADayInTheLimelight: The series often showcases individual soldiers with bit parts for brief periods to catch their perspectives on things before shifting back to the more prominent characters. Of course, with AnyoneCanDie in full swing, this leads to....
84	** ADeathInTheLimelight: [[spoiler: Gutierrez, Sergeant Bendis,]] and [[spoiler: subverted with Lieutenant Wallace.]]
85	* DeadFic: Hasn't updated since 2012.
86	* DeathFromAbove: Anytime [[NominalImportance a named character]] gets into an aircraft's cockpit, something on the ground dies ''hard''.
87	** Chapter Sixteen has a six-paragraph segment that consists of nothing but aircraft blowing the crap out of Nod troops and vehicles on the ground.
88	** Chapter Seventeen has the CBU-1007, a smart cluster bomb that dispenses a mixture of high explosive bomblets and white phosphorous incendiaries. It is described as "God scooped up a bucket of hell, took a piss in it, and then poured it down over the men below."
89	** Chapter Twenty-Two has an inversion; Vertigo bombers are loaded with huge numbers of fire-suppressant canisters to stop [[spoiler: Rawne's firestorm in the dead Amazon River Basin from sweeping over his own troops.]]
90	** In Chapter Twenty-Three there's a GDI UsefulNotes/WildWeasel mission involving a group of Firehawks that use their stratosphere boosters to fly ''over'' Nod radar coverage and then come straight down on the SAM control bunkers. It is explicitly described as "playing Zeus."
91	* DestinationDefenestration: Brother-Captain Allen's preferred method of summary execution.
92	* DiesWideOpen: Averted in Chapter Sixteen.
93	* DodgeTheBullet: Cristos does this in Chapter Sixteen. Lampshaded by [[spoiler: Gutierrez]].
94	* DoomTroops: ''Tiberium Wars'' presents the [[WarriorMonk Black Hand]] as these; when a GDI infantry squad encounters a squad, the corporal in command completely flips out in terror at the sight. Later on, when a Black hand unit ambushes a GDI convoy, the mere ''sight'' of the Hands is enough to terrify a GDI officer into paralysis.
95	* DoubleTap: After stabbing [[spoiler: an Acolyte]] in the throat, Havoc shoots him in the head for good measure. He has good reason to, though, Nod troops have a tendency to pop stims and continue fighting after being clinically dead.
96	* TheDreaded: The Black Hand have a tendency to inspire reflexive terror in any GDI soldiers they meet, and for good reason.
97	** Commandos on both sides are seen as this. Fullerton's work in Chapter Twenty-three is nothing short of terrifying, as is the Nod Commando in Chapters Fifteen and Sixteen. And the minute Kane finds out that Havoc is back in the field, he gives an order to have all units be on the alert for a GDI Commando behind their lines - acknowledging that he still sees Havoc as just as much of a threat as he did two wars ago.
98	** Mammoth Tanks, The reaction of Nod soldiers facing them and their first arrival on the battlefield is complete and utter terror.
99	* DynamicEntry: Brother-Captain Allen, [[spoiler: while preventing Grigorovich's rape attempt on Sandra Telfair.]]
100	* EarthIsABattlefield: Especially once Nod gets going.
101	* EliteMooks: In between the CannonFodder Nod militia and the {{Power Armor}}ed Black Hands are Nod's "professional" soldiers: troops equipped with standardized armor, helmets, and generally laser weapons. They appear from time-to-time in the series, are the ones operating vehicles and artillery, and play a major role in the second act of the story. According to WordOfGod, their uniforms are essentially lighter versions of the armor worn by Nod's light infantry in Tiberian Sun; semi-official fanartwork [[http://Ranfield.deviantart.com/art/Tiberium-Wars-Nod-Infantryman-293102623 here]] gives them a DoomTroops vibe.
102	* ElitesAreMoreGlamorous: Played with. perspectives shift between both elite troops and regular infantrymen, especially on the Nod side of things, though focus is more often than not on Black Hand troops.
103	* EncyclopediaExposita: At the end of certain chapters, there will be excerpts from {{Fictional Document}}s that explain various elements of the author's view of the ''Tiberium'' universe. Subjects range from GDI infantry organization to Tiberium-based economics to analysis of Nod's power structure.
104	* EnemyExchangeProgram: {{Defied}}. A soldier from the Brotherhood of Nod is reprimanded for not properly checking an incoming convoy. The soldier's reasoning is that the convoy's vehicles are the models the Brotherhood employs. However, he doesn't think either DressingAsTheEnemy or this trope could possibly be in play, [[TooDumbToLive so he and his checkpoint get blasted by a car bomb]].
105	* EnergyWeapon: Nod uses them quite extensively, and the Black Hand mix up laser weapons with their flamethrowers - even the flame troopers carry laser pistols for close-quarters work where they can't set everything they see on fire.
106	* {{Epigraph}}: Each chapter opens with a quote, usually from an in-universe source. However, the prologue opens with a famous quote from the ''Literature/StarshipTroopers'' novel about necessary military force.
107	* EvenEvilHasStandards: The Brotherhood of Nod may be loose on the rules of war, but certain crimes such as rape are classified as "Crimes Against the Messiah" and are punished by summary execution.
108	** In Chapter Sixteen, Lieutenant Cristos comments to herself that she believes Nod has "some semblance of a moral code," unlike her perception of GDI.
109	* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: Major Douche. Called that by his junior officers because he doesn't have a nametag on his uniform.
110	* EvilIsNotWellLit: [[spoiler:Invoked by Kane, because he finds people stumbling around in the dark funny.]]
111	* EyepatchOfPower: Commander Karrde lost his eye during a battle sometime between the Second and Third Tiberium War, and replaced it with an artificial one. [[spoiler: WordOfGod from the author on Spacebattles.com is that it was lost during the Rio Uprising in ''Kane's Wrath'', which involved both Commander Rawne and LEGION. The Rio bit has entered the fic proper as of Chapter Eighteen, and LEGION in Nineteen.]]
112	* EyeScream: Private Marona's eyes being shredded by shrapnel.
113	* FantasticRacism: Regular humans ("blunts") and mutants ("shiners"). Captain Burke is willing to look past this, however, and work with GDI.
114	* FeelNoPain: Anyone under the effect of Nod combat stims.
115	* FixFic: It was written almost entirely because the author thought the official novelization was hot garbage.
116	* FluffyTheTerrible: A vehicle version. Colonel Creden gave his Mammoth-27--which ''everyone'' considers a sheer monster of tank--the name of ''Plaited Daisies.''
117	* FunWithAcronyms: The 22nd Special Operations Battalion, aka 22nd SOB.
118	* TheFutureIsNoir: Hilariously lampshaded when it turns out that [[spoiler: Kane keeps the lighting low because he thinks people banging their shins on the furniture is funny.]]
119	* GenreShift: The specialty of the 'fic is portraying war as realistically and terribly as possible... with the exception of the parts of the story involving Havoc, who seems to be [[BoisterousBruiser enjoying himself immensely]] and somehow emits a [[RealityWarper reality-warping aura]] that allows him to behave as if he was in a Schwarzenegger or Stallone 'flick. This is justified because hell, he's ''Havoc'', and by the [[RuleOfCool Rule of Awesome]].
120	* {{Gorn}}: Happens from time to time, where the author seems to take a little too much enthusiasm in describing just how brutal the combat really is.
121	* GreenRocks: ''The'' most horrifying substance known to exist, Tiberium.
122	* GreyAndGrayMorality: Neither GDI nor Nod are represented as angels, nor are they overwhelmingly villainous. Atrocities, brutality, compassion, and mercy occur with troops on both sides.
123	* GrimDark: Shouldn't come as any surprise, considering the source material, but this fic is notable for making the ''Tiberium'' setting DarkerAndEdgier, and doing it well.
124	* GunPorn: Considering the author's love of guns and the military, this comes as no surprise.
125	* GunshipRescue: GDI Hammerhead gunships when the GDI Marines save the 4th Battalion.
126	* HandsomeLech: Commander Rawne is an unabashed skirt-chaser, and at one point he [[spoiler: promotes an attractive female soldier who was wounded in battle to his personal guard, and gives her improved eye implants to replace the damage she suffered to her own. It is implied the only reason he did this is because she's cute.]] Later on, [[spoiler: Kilian Qatar "bribes" Rawne by giving him a billet in a mostly-female Hand of Nod.]] Rawne is ''very'' appreciative.
127	** Rawne's lechiness is traceable even in the first chapter:
128	-->'''Rawne''': "I will admit that even I managed to notice the troops massing here."
129	-->'''Alvarez''': "You only noticed there were many more Sisters present than normal."
130	** The latest chapter even shows him the morning after with an Avatar pilot, and he mentally describes the differences between her and other women he's bedded, i.e. her softness and the sensitivity of her skin around her implants, and how he finds her mechanically-logical yet sarcastic nature charming.
131	* HeroOfAnotherStory: Colonel Franklin of the Pentagon Guards, Major Norman of Talon Squadron, and Major Hagen of Skull Squadron.
132	* HeterosexualLifePartners: Rawne and Alvarez, who have a bit of a bromance going on.
133	* HeWhoFightsMonsters: Havoc's words of wisdom from Chapter 18. The last part is LeaningOnTheFourthWall a bit.
134	-->We forge futures out of pain and grief, Commander. The computers and the communications officers and the [=EVAs=] and the displays only serve to isolate us so we can be inhuman. We're monsters, son. Cold, mechanical, rational monsters, and the only way we win is by being colder, more mechanical, and more rational than the next monster moving his little pieces on the screen. That's how war has been fought since [[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert Stalin rolled into the Allies a century ago]]. You point, you click, and they die. It's how it works.
135	* HoldTheLine: The defense of the Pentagon.
136	* HollywoodTactics: Generally averted; in fact, the author takes pains to make sure realistic tactics are used for the most part. In some cases Nod does use frontal wave assaults, but these are deliberate attacks intended to tie up GDI defenders.
137	* {{Homage}}: Peptuck has directly admitted to modelling Shadow actions after his ''VideoGame/{{Crysis}}'' play.
138	* HumongousMecha: Nod Avatars. Despite the author being vocal in thinking bipedal walkers are impractical, they're portrayed as terrifyingly powerful.
139	* {{Hypocrite}}: Both the GDI and Nod, to various degrees.
140	** Rawne calls the GDI hypocrites for claiming to hate Tiberium despite still using it for everything. Of course, this opinion is colored by his religious reverence of Tiberium. A better example is how GDI claims to be a bastion of civilization and life, when the Blue Zones consist of the smallest segment of the planet and they care little for what happens in the Yellow Zones. This has left the people in the Yellow Zones easy prey for Nod radicalization.
141	** Nod preaches peace, but also the brutal murder of anyone they can't recruit or control. If they were willing to ally with GDI (which happened in the heavily-panned ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianTwilight''), they could guide Earth into a golden age, but they're more interested in killing anyone who won't listen to their "truth." This likely has to do with the fact that Kane doesn't actually care about his own doctrine; he's just preaching what will allow him to accomplish his goals.
142	* IDidWhatIHadToDo: Brother-Captain Alvarez [[spoiler: executing his own wounded.]]
143	* ImmuneToBullets: Black Hand troopers are practically invulnerable to most GDI weapons; even headshots with anything less than a railgun just piss them off.
144	* ImprobableAimingSkills: Cristos, a Nod commando, manages to shoot the fuse off a ''thrown grenade''.
145	* InvisibilityCloak: Nod Shadows use a man-portable version. The technology also thermal emissions, but the onboard computers have difficulty keeping up with any movements that aren't "preprogrammed" into the suit, meaning that Shadows have to be very slow or very precise in their movements.
146	* TheJuggernaut: Mammoth Tanks. The first scene involving them practically casts them as Godzilla in a Kaiju movie, with Nod as the massively outmatched Godzilla Defense Force. Indeed, not ''one'' reference of a Mammoth tank going down is made during the defense of the Pentagon, even when going up against Avatars. Later on, it's mentioned that a heavy anti-tank ambush from Nod took out '''a''' Mammoth, and a bombing mission cost another three.
147	* KillItWithFire: Standard operating procedure for the Black Hand.
148	-->''Their work was quick and efficient. Tongues of blazing fire leapt from their weapons' nozzles, white-hot fury engulfing the building. Allen's men divided up the front of the four-story building into individual areas of responsibility, and they put quick jets of fire into each window and doorway they saw. Glass melted, paint blistered, and ceramic wept orange tears as it melted under their wrath.''
149	-->''He thought he heard screaming, but over the roar of the flames, he couldn't be sure.''
150	** PFC Cale Winters notes that his white phosphorous grenades are actually able to cut clean through the combat stims and actually hurt Nod troops, if only a little.
151	** Flame tanks. The description of the flame tanks in action is ''chilling.''
152	-->''White-hot flames lanced out in a ragged, conical spread, washing over the entire group of soldiers. Brick and asphalt were melted and smoothed into steaming glass. Armor simply sloughed off in an instant, liquefied and spreading out in glowing pools of molten plastic and ceramic. Flesh was incinerated outright, the soldiers not even having time to scream before the fires reduced them to ash. Flashes of light came as the Zone Troopers' power packs cooked off and exploded like demolition charges.''
153	* KillSat: GDI's iconic Ion Cannon, which gets a near SceneryPorn-esque description the first time it fires.
154	* [[SwordAndGun Knife And Gun]]: Colonel Havoc carries a [=GS21=] submachinegun and a heavy knife in Chapter 23 while "hunting" Nod soldiers inside the pumping station.
155	%%* ManlyTears: Karrde in Chapter Seventeen.
156	* MeaningfulName: Corporal Damon Goodman, who, surprise, turns out to be a decent guy. [[spoiler: Sandra Telfair ends up killing him while escaping, though not without it affecting her.]]
157	* MercyKill: A strange example in Chapter Seventeen, where [[spoiler: Brother-Captain Alvarez executes his own wounded troops at the White House because he believes that they will be tortured and raped by GDI if captured.]]
158	* MinovskyPhysics: Tiberium, as a whole, which is a departure from how it has been handled in the actual series.
159	* MoodWhiplash: Annual Black Hand Taco Fiesta.
160	--> ''[[spoiler: It was a Ragnarok in a bottle. Judgment Day in a can. A little slice of the Four Horsemen charging in with horns sounding and seals breaking, of Fenrir snapping his jaws shut on the world, of the universe kicking Bahamut in the crotch to cause the world to tip into the cosmic seas.]]''
161	* MookHorrorShow: The poor Noddies on the receiving end of a GDI Commando.
162	** Another group of poor Noddies up against Mammoth tanks with nothing larger than a Scorpion.
163	%%* MoreDakka: Oh, yeah.
164	* TheMutiny: [[spoiler: Rawne assembles and executes one against Brother-General Dego when he decides that they cannot hold their position but Dego will not agree to order a withdrawal.]]
165	%%* NewMeat: PFC Cale Winters.
166	* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Brother-Captain Allen proceeds to [[spoiler: beat the tar out of Grigorovich after the latter attempts to rape Telfair; quoting rules from the Nod handbook while doing so (and causing some pretty severe damage to the room they're in). Then he throws him out a window.]]
167	** The Nod invasion itself can be considered one of these, too.
168	** The fight between [[spoiler: Gutierrez and Cristos]] in Chapter Sixteen, too.
169	* NoOneGetsLeftBehind: An exceptionally brutal example in Chapter Seventeen, where Brother-Captain Alvarez holds his position at the White House to allow Nod troops to evacuate to safety and to receive wounded. His position is eventually overrun, and he [[spoiler: executes the remaining wounded]] to keep them from being captured by GDI.
170	* NotQuiteDead: [[spoiler: Lieutenant Wallace]]
171	* OhCrap: both sides, quite often. Corporal Colt has a particularly potent one when he spots the Black Hand.
172	** Apparently, GDI training instills a deep fear of the Black Hand in every soldier. Considering how the Black Hand are portrayed, it's not surprising.
173	** Nod soldiers have this reaction when they first catch sight of Mammoth Tanks.
174	* OneManArmy: Commandos, on both sides. The Nod commando in Washington was able to use stealth and rapid-firing lasers to cut apart entire platoons of GDI troops; the only way Colt survived tangling with her was by leading her outside, where a sniper team blew her head off. Colonel Nick Parker, despite being a very old man, is still a terror in combat (he kills a [[spoiler: Black hand Acolyte in close combat with just a knife]]!) A "modern" GDI commando appears in Chapter 23, and lives up to the name, slaughtering dozens of Nod soldiers singlehandedly.
175	* PaintingTheMedium: The sheer feeling of terror and seemingly unstoppable nature of the Mammoth Tanks turns the narrative into borderline PurpleProse, which reaches full-on Ragnarok imagery once they go head-to-head with the bulk of Nod's Avatars in Washington.
176	* PercussiveMaintenance: At one point a GDI officer conducts "field repairs" on a malfunctioning monitor by kicking it until it works.
177	* PersonAsVerb:
178	-->''They swept the outside, making sure there were no surprises, and policed the dropped weapons in case one of the broken bodies "decided to go [[Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail Black Knight on us]]," as Wallace said. The Corporal had no idea what he was talking about, and the older officer quietly bemoaned the loss of the classics.''
179	* PetTheDog: Rawne gets one when he opts to push up Private Marona's eye implants to top priority, and gives her an upgrade so she can return to active duty instead of being stuck in a rear posting.
180	** Brother-Captain Allen gets one when he [[spoiler: prevents Grigorovich from raping Sandra Telfair]].
181	** Corporal Damon Goodman is one big PetTheDog for all of Nod. Shame that [[spoiler: he gets his throat cut a few minutes later.]]
182	* PlotTumor: The author has admitted that these creep in from time to time, with side stories about individual groups of soldiers rising up to take up major narrative roles, such as the skirmishes involving Mitchell Colt, or [[spoiler: Sandra Telfair being captured by the Black Hand.]]
183	* PoweredArmor: GDI's Zone Troopers and Nod's Black Hand. GDI commandos also wear a very powerful version, with strength-enhancing technology and armor resistant to small arms to the point that a Nod soldier can empty his entire rifle at point blank into said commando's chest and do nothing at all.
184	* ThePowerOfHate: Non-supernatural version. Nod soldiers are taught to hate GDI blindly, because they're more useful to Kane that way. Several chapters, especially from the viewpoint of low-ranking Nod troopers, emphasize how they are pushing aside their pain and fear by focusing on their hatred.
185	* PrettyLittleHeadshots: Averted; nearly every shot to the head thus far has resulted in a massive mess.
186	* PunchClockVillain: The Nod soldiers range from bloodthirsty fanatics fighting for the ChurchMilitant to ordinary, decent soldiers and everything in between.
187	* PunctuatedPounding: Brother-Captain Allen loudly and clearly explains to one of his victims every single offense he is guilty of while mutilating the man's face on a wall.
188	* RefugeInAudacity: In Chapter 15, the [[spoiler: suicidal Zone Trooper charge]]. The Nod troops are literally ''stunned'' into holding fire for a moment.
189	** Peptuck has obviously read retired USMC NCO William S. Frisbee Jr.'s essay on psychological warfare.
190	* RetiredBadass: Colonel Nick "Havoc" Parker.
191	-->''He may have been officially retired, in his seventies, and twenty percent of him was replaced with cybernetics, but Colonel Nick "Havoc" Parker was still quite capable of waging war.''
192	* RightHandVersusLeftHand: The story explores the conflict between Redmond Boyle and General Malcolm Granger, indicating that both of them are to a degree, equally right.
193	* ScaryDogmaticAliens: Only a slight hint at the Scrin's presence thus far, but that slight hint is pretty chilling.
194	* SceneryGorn: The author decries the violence and destruction with lengthy, multi-paragraph relish. The battle between [[spoiler: the Mammoth Tanks and the Avatars outside the Pentagon]] deliberately uses imagery evocative of clashing gods and TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.
195	* SelfDeprecation: The description of Juggernauts in action also includes a bit of the author poking fun at himself for his admitted hatred of HumongousMecha.
196	%%* SemperFi: the GDI Marine Corps.
197	* ShipTease: There's been a little bit between Commander Karrde and both Lieutenants [[TheWoobie Telfair]] and [[BunnyEarsLawyer James]], and also a bit between Commander Rawne and Killian Qatar.
198	* [[ShootingSuperman Shooting a Mammoth 27]]: Nod militants try to destroy a Mammoth tank with their assault rifles and machine guns, it's described as being as effective as "Trying to dickbox the Mammoth to death".
199	* ShoutOut: Has its own [[ShoutOut/TiberiumWars page]].
200	* ShownTheirWork: the author sometimes goes out of his way to show an understanding of military tactics and firearms, with particular emphasis on small-unit tactics.
201	** Especially command and unit structure, going so far as to have a separate document to track ''everyone'' in the story.
202	* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsCynicism: Strongly cynical. It does depict a war, after all. Hell, the ''very first words'' in the prologue are the famous quote from Creator/RobertAHeinlein claiming how force is necessary to guarantee survival. The quote is a subversion/commentary on such attitudes in-universe, as the fanfic itself is about Tiberium War ''Three'', the extraordinary amount of violence in the previous two having indeed achieved little.
203	* TheSpartanWay: Subverted; the document at the end of Chapter Twenty-Three explains that the reason why the GDI commando program has a "22% fatality rate and 98% washout rate" is because people make the mistake of assuming that commandos are trained in the traditional manner. Commando "training" is simply the fact that you're even in the commando program to begin with. There's only two ways out of the commando program once you join: you leave and go back to the regular military ("washing out") or you die in combat and that people criticizing/praising the "brutality" of the "training" are misrepresenting it for their own ends.
204	* StateSec: True to the games, the fic portrays the Brotherhood of Nod's [[WarriorMonk Black Hand]] as this. They're a separate army that operates under its own command structure, answering only to Kane. One of the [[FictionalDocument GDI intelligence reports]] states that Black Hand units are dispatched to troubled areas with civil unrest to reestablish order, among other things, and Black Hand officers of significantly lower rank are able to overrule high-ranking Nod officers.
205	* TakeThat: The author is...''vocal''...about his hatred for the official novelization, and includes a few choice jabs at the book. At one point Havoc pulls off a shot with a handgun at long range that deliberately mocks a similar scene in the book.
206	-->''The Nod biker was a hundred meters away, with a dozen Nod soldiers between him and the man by Nigel's bike. A normal soldier, straight out of boot on his first day, would never have made that kind of shot with a pistol. Even an experienced target shooter might find it difficult.''\
207	''But that was why they called him "Havoc."''
208	** The author also admits he ''hates'' HumongousMecha, and goes on a couple of rants about them.
209	* TankGoodness: Nod Scorpions, GDI Predators, and, by some of the late chapters, [[spoiler: Mammoth Tanks. A ''thousand'' Mammoth tanks.]]
210	* TemptingFate
211	-->''Everything was going according to plan, and it would take an act of God to stop this advance.''
212	* ThatsAnOrder: Battle Commander Karrde has to pretty much say this when confronting the Colonel of the Pentagon Guards, who is quietly refusing to respect his rank because he is younger and less experienced.
213	* ThatsNoMoon: That's no building, it's a Mammoth tank.
214	* TookALevelInBadass: Sandra Telfair goes from [[spoiler:surrendering without a fight]] to [[spoiler:slitting a man's throat, gunning down a few more, and blinding a Black Hand to escape]]. However, it's presented in an extremely plausible way, given the circumstances.
215	* UnexpectedGenreChange: Chapter 11 has a sudden shift to focusing on Firehawk pilots and an air-to-air battle with Nod Venoms.
216	%%* UnflinchingWalk: Havoc does one of these after killing a Nod Avatar.
217	* UnusualUserInterface: Nod Avatars work with a sort of mind/machine interface that involves the pilot being closely linked to the Avatar and the AI controlling it. As a result, the pilot effectively shares his mind with a machine intelligence, and controls the Avatar as an extension of his own body.
218	** Vertigos have something similar; the pilots' eyelids are held open by their helmet and are kept hydrated by an in-helmet system, so he can process information faster. Also, the "Combat Computer" (aka "Comcom") used by GDI Battle Commanders is a wrist-mounted device with a holographic interface that transmits data directly to the user's retina via laser.
219	* UrbanWarfare: The majority of the action in the first act of the series involves this.
220	* TheVerse: This story, according to WordOfGod and the periodic ContinuityNod, takes place in the same universe as ''Fanfic/{{Renegade}}'' and its SharedUniverse.
221	%%* WarFic: Of course.
222	* WarIsHell: GDI troops covered in dirt and grime, men bleeding out while looking for limbs, Nod soldiers wading through rivers of excrement (with one man even getting [[{{Squick}} some of it into a fresh bullet wound]]!), soldiers being burnt alive, a soldier remarking that they found one too many left hands while clearing a bombed-out bunker, and one ''extremely'' chilling pre-chapter quote about a GDI trooper seeing a young girl missing both her legs...
223	-->''"There was a little girl. Maybe, eight years old? I dunno. She'd lost both her legs. Just kept staring at them. Little stumps, cauterized by fire somehow. A little girl, all alone, looking at where her legs were, not understanding anything. Just . . . staring. Blank little eyes. Staring."''
224	** At one point, Kane even casually remarks that a million people have died ''before the end of the first day of the war.''
225	*** That's a million ''on each side,'' plus ''several times'' as many civilians.
226	*** And three weeks into the war, GDI has managed to fill an entire stadium with three hundred ''thousand'' body bags from the casualties around Washington DC alone.
227	** The death of [[spoiler: Corporal Goodman]] seems to be a deliberate play to this. His death is fundamentally disturbing, as not moments before [[spoiler: he was feeding Sandra Telfair, and apologizing to her for the rape attempt on her by his squadmate. And then she's forced to cut his throat to escape.]]
228	*** There's also the fact that the story didn't shy away from the danger of female [=POWs=] being raped, to the point that the Brotherhood actually authorizes summary execution of anyone caught in the act.
229	** Chapter Sixteen shows what its like to be on the receiving end of a [[spoiler: Mammoth Tank]] assault. Its about as hellish and terrifying as one can imagine.
230	** Brother-Captain Alvarez [[spoiler: executing his own wounded because he believes they will be tortured and raped by GDI troops if captured]] is one of the most stark examples of just how cruel war can really be.
231	** It's lampshaded to Karrde that that is what war is "You point, you click, they die", which makes sense given that it's based on a game after all.
232	* WarriorMonk: The Black Hand, a pious brotherhood of elite soldiers with the equipment and dedication to stride through firefights without wavering. They also seem to display more chivalry than the average Nod fanatic, but are no less devoted to [[DarkMessiah Kane]] for it. Making them ''Command & Conquer'''s equivalent to [[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} Space Marines]] is both [[FridgeBrilliance obvious]] and awesome.
233	* TheWarRoom: numerous; the Nod and GDI officers spend just about all their time being shuffled from one war room to the next.
234	** The wrist computer that Karrde carries seems to be a mobile version of this, letting him shuffle units around no matter where he is.
235	* WeHaveBecomeComplacent: Colonel Parker's assessment at the beginning of the first chapter, coupled with a bit of HumansAreMorons.
236	* WeHaveReserves: It's sort of Nod's hat, but when Kane looks at the casualty estimates (as they don't have concrete numbers yet) and sees that Nod will have already suffered over a million casualties in the first 24 hours of combat, he deems the number acceptable.
237	-->''Commander Logan Rawne leaned back in his chair, watching his chess pieces advance. He had lost countless troops and vehicles thus far, but he had a glut of resources on hand. He cared nothing for his losses; he knew any true Brother or Sister would give his or her life gladly for the cause.''
238	* TheWomenAreSafeWithUs: Well they're safe with the [[ChurchMilitant Black Hand]], at any rate.
239	* WorthyOpponent: Kane sees GDI, and Colonel Havoc specifically, as interesting opponents to match his wits against. This contrasts with what he teaches Nod, about how GDI are nothing but infidels who need to be purged from the world.
240	* YourHeadAsplode: Rather frequent, whenever a laser beam or sniper round hits someone in the head.
241	* YouShallNotPass: Lieutenant Wallace and the remains of his Zone Trooper squad [[spoiler: hold off the Nod forces for several minutes so the rest of their battalion can evacuate to the Pentagon. It works, but the squad is virtually annihilated.]]
242

Context FanFic / TiberiumWars