Any resemblance between this thread and any Westwood games is purely intentional. Yoda, Yoda, Yoda about copyright."What do you mean?"
Sharon noticed that as the old man kept talking, the others waved at them and left. With her enhanced earing, Sharon could almost swear that she heard a Gaian snort. She sighed and prepared herself for yet another session of Uchronic politics.
"...and this is where the Flaming Cross comes in. They wish to seize an eventual failore of the Men in Gray's plan to implant a theocracy in this plane."
Sharon only half-listened to the Gaian Elder as he explained what Antoine already told her, but he got her full attention again when he named these other people.
"Flaming Cross? Who's them?"
"Well, it's not their real name. They use it when they want to estabilish their rule using a Christian canon."
"The... Christian States of America you have here? are those their work?"
"Precisely. But, alas, their control has been somewhat less than strict, and now the American continent has retreated into isolationism. Since there doesn't seem to be any quick way for them to change this, they decided to strike a deadly blow to the Old Continents -- which will turn out to the other side of the sea for help afterwards."
"Wait a second. But then they're supposed to HELP the MiG's with this one, right?"
"And so they seem to do, according to our information. But from the readings we had, they also may have an alternate plan."
"And I suppose you expect me to go and stop THAT, too."
"Well... all of our people on this alt are trying to preserve as much as we can of this continent's wildlife. Basically, we're evacuating the lifeforms that are unique to this plane in hope of sparing them from the ecological catastrophe that will happen if the Leviathan is destroyed."
"Eco... like, the nuclear engin will explode?" Jim! You BASTARD! Going to let me blow myself to bits?
"No. Worse than that. The engine core contains a Tiberium crystal which must NOT be released!"
"A WHAT?"
" Let me show you, child. We have no time for a scientifical explanation."
Sharon let her jaw drop in awe as a sort of 3D image formed in the shell's water as the Elder touched her forehead. The twitching of her tail disturbed the image slightly, but she could clearly see a green crystal. She saw it fall into a patch of sand -- and grow, and multiply. The image blurred and reshaped into a ruining city -- the crystals having overrun int, extracting silicon and metals from everything to perpetuate themselves. A lonely being was crawling along a Tiberium-infested alley, two or three remaining trees dying as their sustenance was eaten from the inside-out. The scene zoomed to the Tiberium-sprinkled visceroid horror in the midst of all that desolation. Sharon could distinguish a human face.
Horrified, she splashed her tail and deleted the vision.
"But this... this is inhuman! Who would ever--"
"It already happened. Twice. Tiberium is a sort of very simple lifeform... or a very complex crystalline structure, if you want. It's like an environmental virus. Sure, the raw metals it holds can be harvested from the ground using special vehicles for jsut about free; sure, its presence brought its foster homes new breakthroughs in terms of energy and genetic engineering; but at what price. The Cycle of Life was altered permanently by this unearthy parasite. And those... those fools want to unleash it on this already ravaged world, just to ensure the supremacy of their pet nation!"
"So? Either we have Stalin taking over the world, a nuclear holocaust, or this... cool."
The Elder closed his eyes for a moment. "Oh, excellent" he said to nobody in particular. "The Node to Atlantica is open."
Fri Sep 24 17:46:05 1999
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