A Monument to Madness

A Monument to Madness is the sixth mission of the Allied campaign in Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3.

Background
With the liberation of Gibraltar and the destruction of the Floating fortress in the North Sea, the alliance between the Allies and the Soviet Union appeared to be successful. However, Field Marshal Bingham suddenly received an emergency transmission from Premier Cherdenko, who angrily stated that he won't stand for the Allies' "treachery".

It appeared that one of the Allies' relay satellites was targeted right at Moscow, its source being a command post located in the Mount Rushmore monument, one that the Allies have no record of. Bingham quickly tried to contact President Howard T. Ackerman, the only Allied leader against the alliance with the Soviets due to his staunch anti-communism views. But the President merely commented that Bingham could "thank [him] later when this is all over" before cutting off the transmission. Knowing that allowing Ackerman to destroy Moscow would cause the deaths of countless civilians and a catastrophic retaliation from the Soviets, the Allies were forced to eliminate the mad President.

Events
Special Agent Tanya, as well as several engineers and spies under the command of the Allied Commander and Commander Warren Fuller respectively, were sent in to destroy the communications tower at a forward outpost near Mount Rushmore. Tanya eliminated the attack dogs defending the outpost, allowing one of the spies to sneak into the outpost's power plant, disabling the Multigunner turrets defending the outpost. With the base defenses down, Tanya quickly wiped out the outpost and destroyed the comm tower, preventing Ackerman from transmitting the launch codes remotely.

At the monument itself, the bust of Roosevelt cracked open to reveal a massive intercontinental laser, poised to fire at Moscow. Though the communication tower was destroyed, the weapon could still be fired, though Ackerman would have to enter the firebase close to the weapon itself.

An MCV was deployed at the previous site of the outpost, and several more engineers, commanded by Warren, reactivated an abandoned base nearby. However, Ackerman soon attacked the bases with Multigunner IFVs, Riptide ACVs, Guardian Tanks and squadrons of Vindicators. In response, the Allied high command authorized the Allied Commander to construct Mirage tanks and Spectrum towers. Several loyalist Mirage tanks, which had been stationed here all along, were also transferred to the Allied Commander.

As Ackerman approached the monument, he activated several Head Control Centers, which caused the busts of Jefferson, Lincoln and Washington to transform into long range laser platforms, capable of vaporizing battle tanks with ease. The control centers are not accessible by land, so the Allied Commander ordered Century Bombers to airdrop engineers near them, allowing them to disable the laser statues.

With the laser monuments disabled, loyalist Allied forces finally managed to push through the Rushmore firebase's defenses, destroying the firebase before President Ackerman could reach it.



Unable to fire his super weapon without the firebase, Ackerman Chronoshifted his limousine to an airport south of the Mount Rushmore monuments, and his personal helicopter, quickly flew in and dropped off five Javelin soldiers to cover his escape. Boarding the helicopter, the President attempted to flee the area. However, the Allied Commander shot down the helicopter, and the mad President was killed.

Aftermath


After Ackerman's death, the Vice-President of the United States succeeded as president, and the Allies began preparing for their joint offensive on Empire soil with the Soviets. The prevention of the weapon being fired saved the lives of a huge number of civilians in Moscow and peace looked to remain between the Allies and Soviets, for now, allowing them to focus once again on toppling the Empire.

However, the damage had been done - the incident had eroded the Soviets’ trust in the Allies and the unlikely alliance was under strain. Unbeknownst to the Allies, the Soviets set out on their secret agenda to exact revenge on the Allies for nearly destroying the Russian capital.

Walkthrough
Attempting to freeze Ackerman's limousine with Cryocopters is highly inadvisable, since Ackerman will attempt to shoot down the Cryocopters with Apollo fighters, and their falling wreckage may destroy the frozen limo, instantly failing the mission. The safest strategy is to slow Ackerman's limo using only the Cryoshot protocol, and focus on destroying the Rushmore firebase. The new unit for the mission is the Mirage tanks and the Spectrum Tower defenses. The only way to deal with the Rushmore lasers is to paradrop engineers as the control centers cannot be reached by ground units.

The western entrance to the Rushmore base is the best route of attack. Destroy the Spectrum towers with bombers and the Multigunner turret with tanks. Once all of the power plants are destroyed, the firebase would be wide open for an attack.

After the firebase is destroyed get mirage tanks or vindicators to stop Ackerman before he escapes.

Trivia

 * Ackerman’s forces are coloured purple. This is in line with other characters in the Red Alert universe associated with treachery (Vladimir and Yuri in Red Alert 2, Krukov and Cherdenko in the Soviet campaign of Red Alert 3).
 * Ackerman’s actions mark the first time in the Red Alert universe a character affiliated with the Allies goes rogue and turns against the player.
 * There is a rare glitch when Ackerman's limo goes off the road, into the battlefield, climb up into his base then climb up a steep mountain, falls down from the mountain and then get stuck under the bust of Roosevelt. It is weird that his limo could climb a mountain without a strain and when it falls, it receives no damage at all. When this happens, the player can have unlimited time to destroy the firebase.
 * After the destruction of the firebase, Ackerman can be immediately killed before he can board Marine One, which completes the mission as normal. This is most easily done by freezing Ackerman's limo before he Chronoshifts away and using the Surgical Strike protocol on it.
 * If a building is constructed on the bottom left corner of the map before the Mirage tanks are given player control, the Mirage tanks may be forced to move elsewhere, momentarily revealing their true nature.