The Final Battle

The Battle at Ground Zero occurred in the dried-up remnants of the Tiber River, the site where the first Tiberium was found on Earth. It involved GDI, Nod and the Scrin. The battle was the final showdown of the Third Tiberium War, and there are documented reports that a liquid Tiberium bomb was authorized for use by Acting Director Boyle. The remaining forces of Nod appeared there to prevent the thwarting of Kane's plans by GDI, while the Scrin were protecting their Relay Node. GDI claimed victory, driving the Scrin off-world, although they were unable to halt the plans of the Brotherhood.

Background
By this point in the war, GDI and Nod had both driven deep into the Italian Red zone. The main objective of GDI was to stop the construction of the Scrin's Threshold towers, while Nod was concentrating on capturing one for themselves. GDI's best battle commander had successfully destroyed a threshold in Rome, and other GDI commanders managed to follow that example. Soon, only one tower, in what used to be the Mediterranean, was left standing.

The Commander was redirected to Ground Zero, where Lt. Sandra Telfair of InOps revealed Futuretech Labs' latest breakthrough; all alien units were recieving some sort of Tiberium radiation from the Relay Node at Ground Zero. Shortly thereafter, the Commander was contacted by Director Redmond Boyle, who was holed up in Reykjavik. Boyle claimed that a conventional attack against the relay node would be a useless gesture, instead, Boyle revealed that he had commissioned a Liquid Tiberium Bomb from materials confiscated from Sarajevo. Boyle was convinced that the bomb would be the only way to achieve victory, and that Lt. General Granger would oppose this simply due to politcal disagreements with Boyle. With this knowledge, the Commander began his mission to clean this area from all heretics and aliens no matter the cost....

The Opposition
The Commander faced opposition not only from the Scrin, desperate to save themselves, but from Nod. The Nod forces at Ground Zero were likely deployed to ensure the survival of the Scrin long enough for the final Threshold to be completed. Both enemy armies were large, and the odds were certainly against the Commander.

The Battle
"I want you to resist using that Tiberium Bomb."
 * Granger

GDI faced not only large armies of Nod and Scrin units, but also their weapons of mass destruction. Nod fielded a nuclear-equipped Temple of Nod, while the Scrin had both a Rift Generator and a Mothership in the vicinity.

However, despite the common cause of the Nod and Scrin forces, they were not united. The commander managed to play this to his advantage. By destroying the disruption towers cloaking the Nod base, the Mothership was diverted to fight the Brotherhood. Meanwhile, GDI also managed to hijack another enemy superweapon.

The commander then recieved a pair of transmissions from the two GDI leaders whose power struggle he had witnessed since the war's start. General Granger had found out about Boyle's plan, and reminded the commander that a liquid Tiberium explosion in the world's largest Red Zone would be even more cataclysmic than the Sarajevo Explosion. Also, Granger was emphatic that using the bomb would make GDI dependent upon Tiberium, an extremely dangerous precedent. Boyle responded by pointing out that it was their duty to the GDI public to end the invasion as quickly as possible. The commander would fail every living human if he did not use every available resource. The liquid Tiberium bomb was then made available for use...

Defeating Nod
Being the mortal enemy of GDI ever since the past 2 Tiberium Wars, the Brotherhood of Nod was a difficult foe that the GDI Commander faced. The Brotherhood built a Temple of Nod in the center of the map and also sent Stealth Tanks, Black Hands and Avatars against the GDI Commander's forces. GDI forces countered the first wave with everything they have, including Predator Tanks, but casualties were high.

Nod forces sent the second wave of Black Hands against the GDI base, but their legions got destroyed by Commandoes and APCs.

The Brotherhood sent Vertigo Bombers at the GDI Base, but the Firehawks countered them by continuing to fire their missiles at the Bombers, making them crash into the Canyon.

GDI prepared the Mammoth tanks to level the Nod Base and after a huge battle the Brotherhood retreated.

Defeating the aliens
After the Brotherhood retreated from the area the Scrin did an all out assault against GDI. They sent Annihilator Tripods, Devourer tanks, Planetary assault Carriers, Stormriders and Devastator Warships after the GDI Strike force but the GDI countered them with Firehawks, Orcas, Mammoth 27s and even the toughest GDI infantry but casualties were serious. The Planetary assault Carriers, Devastators and Stormriders crashed into the Tiberium Glaciers, Annihilators were swarmed with Zone Troopers and the Shock troopers stood no chance against Commandos. The Mammoth 27 Tanks waited till the Juggernauts cleared the Base Defenses before storming the Scrin Base. At the Tiber River Bed someone commented about going to be difficult getting infantry through that Blue Tiberium so they ordered an Ion Cannon beam to destroy the Relay Node. To this end, 8 Ion Cannon beams were seen circling the Relay Node, all of those beams moved to the center and finally, one big Ion beam destroyed the Relay Node, denying the Scrin of their much-vital Tiberium radiation.

Aftermath
"In a stunning victory earlier today, GDI finally defeated the invaders."
 * William Frank, announcing the GDI's victory over the Scrin

Once the Relay Node was destroyed, Scrin units worldwide fell to pieces. GDI had secured victory over an enemy unlike anything they had ever faced. Nod had managed to hold the Tower in the Mediterranean, but InOps were convinced that it was completely harmless. Silence, for now, reigns on the battle-ravaged Earth...

Years later, however, that silence will be broken on 2052, as LEGION, Nod's experimental combat AI, reactivates itself to awaken the hidden cyborg army, known as the Marked of Kane, as an end to retrieve the Tacitus from GDI possession.

Behind the Scenes
There are two ways the war can end: If the commander uses the Tiberium Bomb to destroy the Relay Node, he will end TWIII quicker, but the explosion in the Red Zone will deal worse damage than the Sarajevo one did. If he decides not to and destroys it the conventional way or with an Ion Cannon, Redmond Boyle, in the end, will be threatened with war crimes charges and forced to resign.