Hard Choices

Hard Choices was the third GDI mission in and served as the final tutorial for the player before deciding which side to pair up with. Commander Parker had to protect both Kane and Evelyn Rios from being killed by the Nod Separatists.

Briefing
After securing the TCN nodes outside of New Adana, General Riggs briefed Commander Parker to offer protection to both Kane and Rios at the Scrin Tower Research Center from the Separatists. Given the tense political climate surrounding the TCN and the GDI-Nod alliance, Riggs instructed Parker to reinforce the defenses surrounding the facility until Colonel James can arrive with reinforcements. However it was not before Parker came down with a blackout from his optical implants.

Defending the facility
As part of the tutorial Sgt. Nash instructed Parker to deploy the Support Crawler near the facility, which its defenses already suffering damage from the Separatist forces. Parker used the Repair support power to repair the entrenched defenses while the Crawler flew its way to the facility. After holding out for a short time, Colonel James arrived at the battlefield with her own Offense Crawler and pushed the Separatists from the facility as well as away from Rios and Kane.

Routing out the Separatists
With the Separatists on the run, James took to the offensive with Parker supporting her forces with the Spanner support unit. Determining where they were coming from, James attacked the Nod tunnel networks to the northwest of the facility. With support from the Firehawk airstrikes the network entrances were destroyed.

James then sent Parker to eliminate any remaining Separatist units in the area while James guards the networks in case Nod reinforcements arrived. Parker was granted to produce Orca Mk Vs from his Support Crawler, before he had it 'decommissioned' to be replaced with a Defense Crawler. Parker sent his Orcas to scout the area and quickly found the remnant Separatist force attacking the sonic fence at the southwest corner of the facility. With no anti-air ordinance, the Separatists were quickly eliminated, and GDI soon secured the area. Rios contacted Parker and thanked him in the name of the GDI Council for ensuring her safety.

Aftermath
As Parker headed towards the debriefing Kane contacted him via Parker's implants. Noting his adept leadership Kane asked the commander to side with the Brotherhood of Nod, to leave the ignorance of GDI and learn the truth of the war and his optical implants.

Colonel James however intervenes and pleads with the commander to not let Kane corrupt his principles and morals of the GDI soldier. Not trusting Kane, she promises that she and Parker will "put an end to this insanity". Kane is not dissuaded but lets Parker decide who to fight for - GDI extremists led by James or Kane's Brotherhood of Nod.