First Tiberium War

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.

Kane's goal was to conquer the world 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. 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 turn the GDI ion cannon against civilians while framing GDI) they could make GDI lose their financial backing and smear their reputation, thus allowing them to be eliminated more easily, leaving Nod the sole global superpower.

GDI was a force used by the United Nations to uphold and enforce their New 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.

Background
Before the war begun, Nod was already an economic power. With their intricate knowledge of Tiberium, they gained most of the world's Tiberium assets: 49 percent of the world's supply, leading GDI 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 engage 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 seize territory and build up its military. After a series of high profile urban bombings (including the Grain Trade Center in Vienna, which was the 17th target), 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.

Following the terrorist attacks in Slovenia, the United Nations Security Committee entered a close session and gave permission to GDI to engage Nod openly.

Nod Campaign for Africa
Nod's actions were becoming increasingly hostile and their anti-west rhetoric earned them many followers, especially among the impoverished populace in Africa. In order to estabilish 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 attacked Sudanese GDI prisons releasing key leaders loyal to Nod, liberating Nod POWs and aiding Nod supporters against GDI in Chad (during the Mao civil war) while making an example of certain GDI friendly villages (Oum Hadjer). In this manner Nod gained control over neutral Chad and Sudan.

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

Having installed a nuclear device in Nigeria following their successful invasion of this neutral nation in order to 'influence' local leaders and ensure their loyalty to GDI, Nod forces launched a daring raid on a Nigerian GDI base in order to aquire it's detonator. With this nuke thus rendered useless to GDI, Nod forces were able to secure those leaders aid in order to gain control over Nigeria. It can be surmised that from the elaborate nature by which the nuke was installed beforehand with a detonator rather than simply being dropped from a plane when required the GDI intended to be able to frame 'Nod terrorists'.

Nod forces would then proceed into neutral Central Africa and raiding a GDI base there steal an advanced Orca helicopter and attack a nearby village. Because the helicopter was based at a GDI base they were able to easily frame the GDI from the attack, turning Central Africa against the GDI and into the arms of Nod.

At this point, Nod commander Seth was personally executed by Kane for high treason. He tried to dispatch numerous troops to the USA in order to attack and destroy the Pentagon, in hopes of performing a coup d'état in the Brotherhood and deposing Kane and the resourceful commander. However, his plans were found out by Kane, Seth was executed and troops recalled.

In Europe, GDI began with an amphibious assault against Nod positions in Estonia. Through the use of the MCV, GDI managed to deploy enough infantry to secure the beachhead. Gunboats contributed by neutralizing some of the Nod shore defenses, such as the turrets. Fortunately, Nod defenses were rather light.

Although Nod counterattacked, GDI was able to press the assault and conquer the small Nod base, despite the presence in the enemy base of a refinery, whose appearance in the area had gone unnoticed by GDI intelligence. However, a second MCV had to be brought in to press the assault on Nod forces in Estonia.

GDI Campaign for Europe
In Europe GDI initially managed to seize a number of Nod bases due to their advantage in armor and numbers. However, things took a turn for the worse for GDI, when fabricated reports done by Nod and spread by the WWN reporter Greg Burdette convinced the United Nations that GDI had massacred an entire town full of innocent civilians on suspicion of them being 'Tiberium Smugglers.' The UN immediately began an investigation and cut GDI's funding, but even so, a young GDI commander named James Solomon managed to stop a Nod counterattack on a poorly defended outpost and destroy the Nod base supplying the attacks.

Later on, with funding restored (thanks to general Mark Sheppard's persuasion skills and the public revelation that the "massacre" was a fabrication by Nod), GDI began a full campaign to wipe out the Brotherhood in Europe, deploying forces to eliminate Nod bases and commando raids to weaken their hold on the continent. Eventually, however, they had to rescue Dr. Mobius, the world's greatest scientist in regards to Tiberium, from a Nod onslaught. After conducting a second amphibious assault and rescuing their agent Delphi who was stationed in Greece, they believed they had found out the whereabouts of Kane himself.

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.

In Africa, Kane built up his forces and attempted to eliminate key threats, such as a group of Mammoth tanks that had been deployed to Africa. Immediately prior to his attack on GDI's fortress of South Africa, he attempted to take control of the Ion Cannon by capturing one of GDI's advanced communications centers. The plan succeeded, but GDI managed to isolate the Orbital Defense Matrix at the last moment, before it could be used against GDI.

He then turned his attention - and the vast resources of Nod - towards eliminating GDI's last bastion of strength, in South Africa. Nod's forces raced into the area and, backed by the power of the Temple of Nod and its nuclear weaponry, destroyed all GDI forces in that area.

The first Temple of Nod was erected at the site and became the hub of Nod communications. The second one was constructed shortly afterwards in Cairo. Kane, meanwhile, traveled to Europe to inspect Tiberium research that was being performed there, and oversee the construction of the third, largest and most important Temple of Nod in Sarajevo.

However, he underestimated Solomon, who destroyed the Tiberium research facility that Kane had supposedly been visiting. In reality, Kane had already left the Tiberium research facility, and headed to the newly completed Temple in Sarajevo, in order to prepare the Nod forces and the freshly acquired ballistic missiles.

Operation: Destroy The Bastard was put into motion.

While Kane was preparing for this final battle, GDI forces destroyed an important supply convoy that was heading to the Sarajevo Temple, and in the aftermath, tracked down Nod's base and Kane's location. Although evenly matched, GDI used superior tactics to strip away the defenses from around Nod's last bastion. Solomon's teams fought the last lines of defense for 72 hours before deciding to call in for an Ion Cannon strike, whose blast incinerated Kane and levelled the temple, as evidenced by recovered CCTV records. Kane's remains were never found.

In the light of such stunning success, the UN quickly reversed its tune, and applauded the brave warriors of GDI. Nod, meanwhile, was thrown into chaos as some of the surviving commanders began to grab whatever power they could. GDI was able to sweep through the disorganized Nod forces in Africa following that pivotal battle, assisted by the general chaos in the Nod lines. Wherever they could be found, Nod was hunted down. The South African Temple was occupied by GDI forces in short order, after another Nod faction broke down its defenses.

Maps
Maps the First Tiberium War

Effect
The First Tiberium War had the effect of catapulting Nod and GDI to the world stage. It also 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, South America 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 due to disrupted tiberium harvesting.

In the long run, the war set the stage for the developed world coalescing under GDI control, while the Nod splinter factions began a brutal war for control of the organization. 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.

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.