The Moon Shall Never Have Them

The Moon Shall Never Have Them is the ninth and final Allied mission of Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3.

Background
Now knowing that the Soviet Union had indeed abandoned the Allies at Tokyo and instead planned a devastating attack on major Allied cities, the Allies still managed to stop the Soviet plans at Havana in Cuba. Everything Dr. Gregor Zelinsky said to Field Marshal Bingham in regards to Premier Cherdenko's manipulation of time to save the Soviet Union from defeat was true, and Bingham felt the time was right to "make the Soviets pay for their lies and betrayal".

Allied intelligence revealed the majority of the Soviet forces, as well as Cherdenko and General Krukov, were stationed at Leningrad to protect the Peter and Paul Fortress. Cherdenko had the fortress converted into a shuttle launch facility to transport himself to the Moon. Destroying the fortress was necessary if the Allies wanted to arrest Cherdenko and Krukov and charge them for war crimes. To achieve this, Bingham sent his best field commander and Warren Fuller to assault Leningrad.

Micro-Siege
An advance guard of Apollo Fighters and Cryocopters attempted to fly over the southern plateau of the city, but were shot down by Soviet forces. Fortunately, the guard bought the Allies enough time to send in their main forces.

At the beginning of the battle, the Allies shrank several MCVs by using Cryocopters to get them quickly behind Soviet lines. When that rather risky move was successfully done, the Allies Chronoed in Mirage tanks to help clear the area from Soviet forces. The tanks quickly began engaging the Soviets, burning infantry with their spectrum cannons and employing their camouflage and gap generators to confuse the Soviets further.

As the Allies got closer to the Construction Yard, the Soviets quickly positioned several Apocalypse Tanks and turned on their magnetic harpoons. As the mirage tanks closed in, the tanks desperately began drawing in the Allied tanks and shredding them with the grinder at the front of the vehicle. Fortunately, the other Allied tanks quickly adjusted fire to destroy the tanks before they could totally grind up the victims.

With the last line of defensive units out of the way, the mirage tanks quickly shifted attention to the Soviet structures, destroying the Construction Yard and the nearby Flak Cannons and eliminating the Soviet presence from the plateau.

That done, Premier Cherdenko revealed his final, somewhat insane, plan.

The Allies were faced with a race against time (50 minutes on Easy difficulty, 30 on Normal, 20 on Hard) to destroy the fortress before the Premier’s shuttle was launched from it.

Fall of the Iron Curtain


The Soviet Premier's fortress in the middle of the island was protected by seven Iron Curtains and his elite guard, which were protected by the Iron Curtains too. Because of that, the Allied Commander had to focus on taking down those Iron Curtains. Warren decided to take the western three devices, while the Unknown Commander decided on the eastern three.

The first one was protected by War Factories and many vehicles. The Allies sent Guardian Tanks and Mirage Tanks to counter the horde of vehicles. In an ensuing tank battle between Allied Guardian and Soviet Hammer tanks, the Iron Curtain was destroyed, along with some of the Factories. The Allies then captured the remaining the Soviet War Factories and the battle lab to prevent the Soviets from deploying more Apocalypse tanks. The Allies, proceed with the next plan to destroy the Soviets, activating the Mirage Tanks’ GAP Generators while having some Apocalypse Tanks and Bullfrogs escorting to the next target.

The second curtain was surrounded by garrisons of Flak Troopers and Conscripts, but heavy bombardment from Athena Cannons utterly destroyed those garrisons and the Flak Troopers were killed. The Iron Curtain was then obliterated from space with a laser.

The third Iron Curtain was guarded by some ground troops, including a single Apocalypse tank, and MiGs from several Airfields. Using a blast from the Proton Collider to destroy the Airfields and the guards, this cleared the way for bombers to level the third curtain.

The western Iron Curtain bases were set up in a similar way, enabling Commander Warren to progress almost as fast as the Commander on the eastern side, which would help in moving to the final Iron Curtain. One of the Iron Curtains were protected heavily with Apocalypse Tanks so instead of doing a frontal assault, Spies bribed the Apocalypse Tanks and the Apocalypse Tanks begin serving the Allies by firing their Drakon vehicles, on the Soviet bases and destroying the Iron Curtain. The Allied army marched on and destroyed the remaining Soviet bases.

The Vacuum Imploder
As soon as the third Iron Curtain was destroyed by the Allied Commander, Soviet Commander Krukov brought a Vacuum Imploder online, planning to destroy the Allied base. Through luck and cunning, Warren had just destroyed his third curtain, which enabled the Allies to perform a pincer move, crushing the base, killing Natasha (seemingly, although this was never officially confirmed), and destroying the final Iron Curtain and the Vacuum Imploder before it could fire.

Casualties were very high for both sides in the attack. The Soviets had well-coordinated defenses, with Tesla Coils defending the two bridges leading into the Soviet base, while Flak Cannons and MiGs covered the sky. Dreadnoughts were docked in the canals, prepared to pound the Allies as they advanced.

Soviet Apocalypse and Tesla tanks rolled out to meet the Allies' assault. However, the Allies had brought Athena Cannons and Mirage Tanks to the party, along with the full might of the Allied air force. Vindicators made bombing runs on the Soviet armored divisions, while Apollo and MiGs tore each other, down to shreds in the skies above.

Century Bombers made bombing runs on the Dreadnoughts in the canals, removing them from the battle. Eventually, the combined arms of the Allies overwhelmed the Soviet defenders, and the Iron Curtains and the Vacuum Imploder were destroyed.

One Final Siege
Now, as the Iron Curtains were down, the fortress was still heavily defended by numerous Soviet units, such as Tesla Tanks, MiGs, Kirovs, Desolator Bombers, V4 rocket launchers and Apocalypse Tanks, to name a few. In addition, the fortress was heavily armoured and, as such, very hard to destroy. Nonetheless, the Allies had their Proton Colliders ready to fire, which resulted in a devastating effect on the island-fortress.

Krukov sent a final Apocalypse tank battalion in an attempt to kill Warren but was destroyed by a Mirage Ambush and a Century Bombing Run by the Commander.

With most of the defenses destroyed, the MiGs and Kirovs shot down from the sky, and troops ready to be chronoed onto the island, a final bombing run was performed to clean the field in front of the fortress. The Allied Commanders used the Chronosphere to send their best units, which included several Athena Cannons and Mirage Tanks, to the island. Once there, the Mirage Tanks destroyed the final roaming Soviet units, while the Athena Cannons colored the spaceship to pieces, resulting in a spectacular strike which leveled the entire castle and the spaceship with it.

Aftermath
BCN made headlines, that both Premier Cherdenko and General Krukov are imprisoned in a cryoprison to stop them from escaping and starting war again. In London, Bingham tells the Commander that it was excellent that Soviet forces had surrendered, but a new war will be coming soon and Eva McKenna invites the Allied Commander to his date with Tanya, in the process.

But that was merely a prologue of yet another bloody chapter of human history and the beginning of the Allies' worries in this new age, as the Tatsu-led puppet government in Japan is about to be besieged by the remaining shogunate, namely Kenji Tenzai, Shinzo Nagama and Takara Sato. Meanwhile, Tatsu has plans for the Soviets and Allies - plans that can very well mean Imperial independence.

The tremor within after-war Allies also surfaces in the form of FutureTech under the ambitious hand of EU president Rupert Thornley. Armed with the full arsenal of democracy and willing to be relentless against any possible threats, fears and suspicions have been raised as the once-greatest contributor of peace might have become the new warmonger. The difference between "victory" and "liberty" was never depended on who won the war, but how to win the war.

What's more, reports of a "Soviet Underground" were starting to spread, showing that the Soviet Union's far from defeated. And as if that is not enough, one of the Empire's bioweapons, for reasons yet to be known, is about to tear the entire Shiro Psychic Research Facility apart from the inside once more...

The Uprising has begun.

Walkthrough
The first part is deploying the Allied MCVs to two locations. Be sure to take a wide path to the target, around the Ore Mines, to avoid being crushed by patrolling Hammer Tanks, while keeping an eye on the timer indicating when the shrink effect will wear off. The target location is indicated by flares that appear one by one in a circle as the timer ticks down, with an objective marker in the centre. This is also where your chrono reinforcements will arrive.

The next part involves using Mirage Tanks to destroy the Soviets. Beware: losing even one will make the mission harder. Destroy the Hammer Tanks and Apocalypse Tanks first, then the Soviet base. Beware of the Apocalypse Tanks using their special magnetic harpoon ability to drag your tanks towards them and grind them to shreds.

The next part involves building up an army to counter the Soviets. The new weapon for the player is the Proton Collider. Use it to destroy the Soviet bases. Note that Warren will also build one and each time it is ready to fire, you can have him target an Iron Curtain with it and this can be done in tandem with your own Proton Collider to deal even more damage.

Remember that land supremacy is the Soviets’ specialty. Send in Mirage tanks and escort the Engineers to capture the Soviet tank base and build a Soviet MCV. Combine Soviet weaponry with Allied weaponry to make the mission easier.

Destroying all seven Iron Curtains is the only way to make the Launch platform vulnerable. After three of them get destroyed, Krukov will arrive with a Vacuum Imploder and some Tesla and Apocalypse tanks.

Once the Iron Curtains are all destroyed the Launch platform on the island is vulnerable but the island is guarded by Tesla Tanks, V4s, Migs and Kirovs. Use the Chronosphere to teleport the Mirage tanks and destroy it before the Premier can escape.