First Tiberium War

Background
The First Tiberium War was the global conflict waged between the United Nations Global Defense Initiative (GDI) and the Brotherhood of Nod. The war began in 1999 and ended in a GDI victory three years later. The advent of Tiberium harvesting technology and the subsequent rise of Nod as a global political and economic superpower, as well as the formation of GDI, were the primary catalysts of the conflict. Tiberium granted these two organizations the ability to rapidly acquire a huge amount of wealth, allowing them to quickly expand their forces.

GDI's goal was to find a solution to the crisis brought the world by the proliferation of Tiberium and to destroy the Brotherhood of Nod which they considered to be a terrorist organisation and had linked them rightly or otherwise to terrorist activities in Slovenia and Austria.

Nod's goal was to use the world's Tiberium in order to reshape it; as well as the complete destruction of GDI; which was an impediment to this goal. Or at the very least, place Nod onto a much larger world scale for preparations for the future. Their leader Kane believed that to do this, Nod would have to manipulate mass media and public opinion, both through propaganda and hacks (e.g. Netwarriors) who were eventually used to hack into the GDI networks and by turning the GDI ion cannon against civilians they believed they could make GDI lose their financial backing and smear their reputation, thus allowing Nod to win the war.

GDI was a force used by the United Nations to uphold and enforce their world order. Existing as far back as the 1950s, they were at first a covert black op organization, forced to go public after a failed assassination attempt on Saddam Hussein. Their primary objectives were controlling and harvesting the world's tiberium supplies and destroying the Brotherhood.

Nod had originally been a secret society with unknown and secretive goals and claimed ancient origins that had been involved in the Soviet Union. The arrival of Tiberium however had catapulted Nod onto a much larger stage competing directly with the GDI for world power till at one point nearly the whole world that was not aligned to GDI was aligned to them. Their primary objectives were controlling and harvesting the world's tiberium supplies and utilising it's true potential, including for human augmentation.

Before the war begun, Nod was already an economic power. With their intricate knowledge of Tiberium, Nod countries at one point gained most of the world's Tiberium assets: 49 percent of the world's supply, leading GDI countries in control of only about a quarter of the Tiberium the world had to offer. This was in part due to superior Tiberium harvesting technology being developed by Nod. With this much Tiberium derived wealth at his disposal, Kane, leader of the Brotherhood, made a crucial decision.

His organization would openly contend with the GDI on political, media and military fronts. Although the Brotherhood had been extremely successful in utilizing such tactics before, the scale of this venture was unlike any operation before. Nod begun to consolidate control over it's territory and build up its military. Nod supporters begun regular military operations in Niger and Gabon in Africa and the nations of Eastern Europe west of Russia with only a few exceptions such as Ukraine.

After a series of high profile urban bombings (including the Grain Trade Center in Vienna, which was the 17th target) and following reports of terrorist activities in Slovenia, the United Nations Security Committee entered a close session and gave permission for GDI to engage Nod openly.

GDI Campaign for Europe
Initially most of continental Western Europe, with the exception of Switzerland, Denmark and possibly Spain and Portugal declared in favour of the GDI and GDI began their European campaign with an amphibious assault on Nod Estonia.

Having gained a beachhead in Estonia, GDI forces would then launch an extensive assault on a Nod Tiberium Refinery in Estonia, driving Nod forces from the country and securing it for GDI.

GDI forces would proceed to destroy Nod SAM sites in Latvia, freeing GDI air power to be deployed against the Nod forces in the region. They were thus able to secure Latvia and Lithuania for the GDI. The commander of the GDI forces James Solomon however now had to make a crucial decision, whether to move the bulk of his forces through Nod Belarus in order to eventually aid Ukraine against the Nod assault or whether to move them into Nod Poland instead in order to help outmanoeuvre the Nod onslaught on Germany.

GDI Campaign for Europe: Had Solomon invaded Belarus
Moving into Nod Belarus GDI forces under the command of James Solomon retrieved stolen nuclear rods from a Nod base there. At the same time two smaller forces moved into Poland, retrieving more stolen GDI nuclear rods from another base and more significantly siezing control of the town of Bialystok in Poland and defending it against the Nod counterattack. This event would then be used by Nod supporters to create the Bialystok scandal. With control over Belarus secured they moved to reinforce neutral Ukraine which was under Nod attack. Reinforcing a besieged base in Ukraine there they were able to enlist Ukraine in the GDI and their mutual counter-attack swiftly drove Nod forces from Ukraine.

Launching a commando raid on a key Nod airbase there, GDI forces were then able to advance into the Czech Republic and drive Nod forces from that nation.

However, things had taken a turn for the worse for GDI, when reports created by a Nod and spread by the WWN reporter Greg Burdette convinced the United Nations that GDI had massacred the population of the Polish town of Bailystok on suspicion of them being 'Tiberium Smugglers.' The UN immediately began an investigation and cut GDI's funding, but even so, a GDI commander managed to stop a Nod counterattack on a poorly defended outpost in Nod Austria near Salzburg and destroy the Nod base supplying the attacks. At the same time another GDI commander defended Dr Mobius in Slovakia against a Nod onslaught. Dr Mobius had arrived with the invading GDI forces in Slovakia and established a hospital there to aid victims of Tiberium poisoning among the local population in a bid to win their support for GDI and had naturally become a key target for Nod forces. When news of Mobius's hospital spread, the Slovakian people abandoned Nod and GDI was able to secure the area.

Having secured Slovakia and Hungary GDI forces decided to make use of their naval supremacy over Nod to send relatively small, armoured and heavily armed gunboats up the rivers Danube and Tisza hoping to destroy strategic Nod bases there. In preparation for this ground forces had destroyed the Nod defensive turrets along the river, but Kane had already preempted GDI's move. Nod workers had installed an Obelisk of Light, the Brotherhood's deadly new defensive weapon along the river. As soon as the gunboats arrived near the base they were swiftly obliterated by the terrible power of these new weapons. GDI was forced to change their plan and use their ground forces instead to launch assaults on the bases. While the cost was higher than it would have been had the original plan worked, GDI forces were able to sieze the bases at both locations despite the awesome power of Nod's obelisks of light. With both rivers under GDI control, GDI forces were able to drive Nod forces out of Hungary and secure it for GDI.

It was at this point that the Białystok scandal finally came to an end and UN funding to the GDI was restored. While it could be argued that the funding cut wasn't that devastating to an organisation at that point funded by Tiberium and was more of a political and ideological blow, it did allow them to purchase a number of the new Orca attack helicopters for their European Campaign. With the aid of these helicopters they were able to successfully advance into Nod Romania and Slovenia and drive Nod forces out of these countries.

Greece had formerly been aligned to the GDI but had withdrawn from supporting them with the outbreak of the Bialystok scandal. After remaining neutral for some time, Greece eventually fell under Nod control whether by diplomatic, political or violent means. GDI forces were to launch an amphibious invasion on Greece using their naval power. At the same time they had placed a key agent who was codenamed Delphi in Greece and though Delphi they had gathered much information about the Brotherhood, it's biological research facilities and it's forces. GDI forces were able to locate this agent and extract him. With the help of his information they were able to swiftly regain control of Greece and drive out Nod forces.

As GDI forces advanced into Bulgaria and Albania though, the Nod counter-atack proved to be fierce. As they had done in Slovakia, GDI set up a hospital for victims of Tiberium poisoning in each of the countries which also doubled up as a research center. Dr Mobius himself led one hospital while the other was led by another key GDI scientist. Understanding their importance the Nod counter-attack closed in, intending to destroy the hospitals and to kill these key scientists. Due to the proliferation of Nod SAM sites in the region however, GDI was initially unable to evacuate the scientists by helicopter as they had planned, so GDI forces launched an offensive to destroy all the SAM sites in the vicinity and with those SAM sites destroyed the scientists were finally able to be rescued. They were moved to another safer location and by continuing their work of curing Tiberium sickness and so swaying the people to the GDI cause Nod forces were finally driven out of Bulgaria and Albania.

Agent Delphi had revealed the apparant location of Kane, he was overseeing research at a Nod Bioresearch facility in Serbia/Yugoslavia. At the same time GDI had regained control of the Ion Cannon from Nod hackers and it was once again available to aid GDI forces. With the help of the Ion Cannon GDI forces were able to level the Bioresearch facility to ground and apparantly kill Kane. At the same time Nod forces would flee eastern Serbia going west.

But Kane it seemed was a far harder to kill than that. It became clear to the GDI that he had left the facility some time before it's destruction. At the same time Nod forces were continuing their fullscale retreat towards Bosnia. Pursuing GDI were to destroy an entire convoy of Nod vehicles before they could escape to join the rest of the Nod forces in Bosnia. GDI forces would swiftly gain control of Nod Serbia/Yugoslavia

Nod's remaining European forces had at this point moved into the vicinity of Nod's nuclear armed European Temple of Nod in Bosnia for their last stand. Within the temple it was believed by both sides was Kane himself. GDI forces would launch an offensive on the temple, in the teeth of it's nuclear weaponry. Having already launched an offensive and damaged the Temple, the GDI's Ion Cannon sent an ion beam into the now damaged Temple and obliterated it. At the same time GDI were to destroy Nod forces in the area to a man, gaining control of Bosnia, the last European nation openly loyal to Nod. It was falsely believed by Nod and GDI alike that Kane had died in the blast. In reality Kane had gone into hiding, only to reemerge at the start the Second Tiberium War

GDI Campaign for Europe: Conclusion
How did Kane manage to fool so many people on both sides into believing that he was dead? This is not known.

It is possible however that Kane, understanding his position in Europe was unwinnable went into hiding while secretly leaving his body-double to impersonate him; in this manner Nod and GDI alike were tricked. Why he did this is also not known, it was probably for numerous reasons.

Likely he understood that even though he controlled the whole of Africa, GDI would in time consolidate it's control as a centralised militery and political power over Europe and North America against which Nod Africa would be inevitably defeated in a protracted drawn out conflict. But with his apparant death GDI power would lose it's focus and would not be able to use the threat of Nod to truly unite the power of all the countries that had supported it in the First Tiberium War or had fallen to it's armies.

Though the Brotherhood of Nod would itself disintegrate, Kane would become a martyr to all it's splinters and at a specific time of his choosing and simply by revealing himself as alive unify all those splinters again into a single cohesive organisation as happened at the start of the Second Tiberium War.

Also by appearing to be in Europe alongside his followers in resisting the GDI onslaught, he could inspire Nod forces to resist more fiercely in Europe, tying down GDI forces in Europe and preventing them from reinforcing their African forces until Nod had complete control over Africa.

Nod Campaign for Africa
Nod's actions on a global scale were becoming increasingly aggressive and their anti-west rhetoric earned them many followers, especially among the impoverished populace in Africa. Their supporters intially gained control of Niger and Gabon moving swiftly into Libya and in order to secure their influence and prevent fragmentation of their territory, the Brotherhood removed some local warlords, chieftains and local leaders with real or suspected GDI sympathies, including Nikoomba, a petty Libyan tribal leader.

This allowed them to consolidate their power and estabilish forward attack posts in Egypt, which helped them take the country from GDI.

With Egypt taken, Nod would attack Sudanese GDI prisons, liberating Nod prisoners who helped them to gain control over neutral Sudan, some of them presumably being local leaders with some influence there.

Having secured Sudan Nod began aiding Nod supporters against the GDI supporters in neutral Chad (during the Mao civil war) while making an example of certain GDI friendly villages (Oum Hadjer). In this manner Nod gained control over Chad.

At this point Kane's personal commander led an assault through neutral Algeria aiming to outmanuevre the GDI before they could complete their own invasion of neutral Kenya and move on into Niger, part of the core of Nod's African domain. Thanks to a rising Nod commander's attack through Mali on GDI Mauritania, home to many key GDI airbases in the region this manuevre was massively successful and Nod gained control of nearly all of Western Africa rapidly.

The GDI had installed nuclear devices in Nigeria, Benin and the Ivory Coast in order to 'influence' local leaders there and ensure their loyalty to the GDI, so Nod forces launched daring raids on Nigerian, Beninese and Ivorian GDI bases in order to aquire their detonators. With these nukes thus rendered useless to the GDI, Nod forces were able to secure those leaders aid in order to gain control over the three countries. It can be surmised that from the elaborate nature by which the nukes were installed beforehand with detonators rather than simply being dropped from planes as required the GDI intended to be able to frame 'Nod terrorists' should they have decided to use any of them.

Nod forces would then proceed into neutral Central Africa and they raided a GDI base there to steal an advanced Orca attack helicopter and attack a nearby village. Because this helicopter was based at a GDI base they were able to easily frame the GDI for the attack, turning Central Africa against the GDI and into the arms of Nod. They would also attack some villages in now GDI occupied Gabon and Camaroon because these villages were overly close to some rich Tiberium deposits they had claimed and Kane believed that they would spread Tiberium related illnesses to Nod extraction workers if they were allowed to remain. Having eradicated these villages Nod was able to safely extract enough Tiberium to drive the GDI from Gabon and Camaroon and restore Nod rule there.

At this point, Nod commander Seth was personally executed by Kane. He had tried to dispatch numerous troops to the USA on a suicide mission to attack and destroy the Pentagon in hopes of eliminating the subordinate but rising commander he placed in charge of them. However, his plans were found out by Kane, Seth was executed and the troops recalled. Kane also took command of Seth's forces, including over that rising Nod commander.

Nod Campaign for Africa: Post-Seth
Shortly after Seth's execution by Kane a poorly equipped force of Nod advanced into neutral Zaire which was at the time being invaded by GDI forces and by making use of two abandoned GDI outposts there they were able to use captured GDI weaponry and equipment to destroy the invading GDI forces and secure control of that nation for Nod. GDI naval power however took it's toll on Nod forces. Sending fleets of armoured gunboats up the Nile and destroying Egyptian Nod bases they were able to regain control of Egypt. At two points along the Nile Nod forces  moved in from Sudan and Libya with the aim of rebuilding their bases to regain control of the Nile and thus over Egypt. While they were successful in this endeavor, large segmants of the Egyptian population had come out in support of the new regime installed by the returning GDI forces. According to orders Nod forces were to show no mercy to those elements of the Egyptian population and they were to massacre them in a great bloodbath.

With the GDI threat in Egypt repulsed Nod forces were free to launch an extensive southwards offensive against the remaining GDI controlled nations in Africa. GDI had two secret research facilities within their bases in Angola and Tanzania respectively working on the Ion Cannon and on the new Mammoth Tank. Nod forces were to raze these facilities to the ground and kill key GDI scientists before they could be evacuated. Afterwards Angola and Tanzania fell swiftly into Nod hands.

Yet despite their victories over GDI forces in Africa, things were not all well for the Brotherhood. Two presumably secret Nod research facilities in GDI Namibia and Mozambique had been discovered by GDI forces and captured. These research facilities held within them the prototypes and plans of the Brotherhood's new weapon, the Stealth tank which had been named Ezekial's Wheel by Kane. Nod forces were not only able to recapture these facilities and safely retrieve these plans and prototypes but they were also able to decisively defeat GDI forces as well and gain control of Namibia and Mozambique for the Brotherhood.

But it turned out that Nod had destroyed the research facilities in Angola and Tanzania too late, not only were their forces facing Mammoth Tanks but their terrible new orbital Ion Cannon was now complete. While Nod forces had found the Mammoth Tank far from invincible, they had no way of hurting the Ion Cannon. So they devised a different scheme, instead of trying to harm the Ion Cannon they would steal the GDI access codes for the Ion Cannon and hack into the weapon's control systems. Fortunately for Nod, the GDI had an open link to the Ion Cannon within a advanced communications center inside a GDI base in Botswana. So Nod forces launched an assault on the base, gaining control of this link and retrieving the pass codes for the Ion Cannon for later use. With their ability to coordinate their forces terminated with the loss of this communications center, GDI forces were soon driven out of Botswana and Nod took control of the country.

Nod had finally gained control of all of Africa, with the exception of South Africa (and Lesotho). Seth had an idea, not only would Nod forces expel all GDI forces in South Africa but they would also build in South Africa a new African Temple of Nod complete with nuclear weaponry like it's European equivilant. With nowhere left to retreat to within Africa GDI the remaining GDI forces were wiped out to a man in this final battle for control of Africa and South Africa once a key center of GDI power in Africa became finally the seat of Nod's new African temple.

Nod Campaign for Africa: Conclusion
With control over Africa secured for the time being the Brotherhood's netwarriors were set by Kane to the task of making use of the stolen GDI pass codes to hack into the Ion Cannon.

With some apparent casualties the netwarriors were successful. Although GDI was soon able to regain control over the Ion Cannon, using it to aid their European forces and eventually to destroy the European Temple of Nod and apparantly kill Seth they were able to use the Ion Cannon to destroy a particular famous landmark in a chosen key GDI aligned country. The choice of which landmark to destroy was given by Kane himself to the commander that led Nod forces to victory in South Africa. The options determined as suitable for Ion Cannon demolition, were the White House in the USA, the Houses of Parliament in Britain, the Eifell Tower in France and the Bradenburg Gate in Germany.

What long term effect if any this had is unknown. It is plausible that by embarassing the GDI in exposing the ease with which the GDI's orbital defense system, at that point consisting solely of the Ion Cannon could be taken over by 'terrorists', Nod discontinued or at least checked the further expansion of the GDI orbital defense system so that it was an decisively unstoppable weapon against Nod during the Second Tiberium War.

Aftermath
As GDI succeeded in Europe, Captain Nick Parker took part in a battle in Mexico to rid prisoners and civilians of Nod indoctrination, one of the few, if not the only, battles that took place outside Africa and Europe. Commanding GDI forces in the area were Captain Duncan (army forces), Captain Soanso (Naval forces), and General Adam Locke. The operation was a decisive success despite early GDI losses and may have kept the war from spreading into Central America.

The First Tiberium War ended with the GDI forces decisively victorious in Europe while Nod forces were victorious in Africa to a similar degree. On a larger scale however, the GDI victory had proven more decisive as it had seen the destruction of the Temple of Nod and Kane's apparant death. As this led to the apparant collapse of Nod as a coherant unified global organisation and the GDI survived as such despite Nod's African victory the First Tiberium War is generally considered a GDI victory overall.

The First Tiberium War had the effect of establishing Nod and GDI on the world stage as it forced countries worldwide to unite either under GDI or Nod's banners. However, its most lasting consequence was that it established how important Tiberium was, since none of the spectacular successes gained by either Nod or GDI would have been possible without this resource.

Furthermore, a large portion of Africa and Europe were devastated by the war, and there were massive casualties on both sides as well as among the civilian population, both due to the war as well as massive tiberium poisoning as a result of disrupted tiberium harvesting. Both sides frequently invaded countries that had declared themselves neutral with many governments being forcibly deposed by the supporters and armies of both Nod and GDI in the process of the conflict. This doubtlessly led to many seething resentments against both sides that reemerged during the course of the Second Tiberium War.

In the long run, the war set the stage for the developed world coalescing under GDI influence, while Nod splinter factions began a brutal war for control of the organization within those areas of the developing world still aligned to Nod such as in Africa. It was not until almost thirty years later; when the toxic spread of Tiberium had begun to truly devastate the world, destroyed major countries and Nod was reunified, that the Second Tiberium War began.

Maps
Maps the First Tiberium War

Major Events

 * Attack on Mauritania
 * Mao civil war
 * Sudanese prison break
 * Delphi's rescue operation
 * Bialystok scandal
 * Battle for Sarajevo the final battle which ended the war.