Battle of the Italian Hills

The Battle of the Italian Hills was a Nod operation to capture the Scrin Nerve Center in the Italian Hills. Despite heavy resistance from the aliens, the Nod Commander successfully raided the base and captured the Nerve Center, along with the alien Extractors and crippling their aerial fleet in Italy.

Background
In order to enter the Scrin Threshold towers, Kane needed to capture the access codes. Without the codes could he not fulfil his goal of Ascension. Kane acted on the information gleaned from the Tacitus that the codes are stored in the aliens' relay nodes and sent his second-in-command to retrieve them.

Nod insertion
With most of the Nod forces deployed to protect the towers from GDI attack, a small team led by a commando were inserted near a derelict Nod crane and Tiberium spike. When a saboteur doubted Kane's motives, the commando shot him in the back. The Nod commander then began building his base of operations, capturing the Tiberium spike for extra credit and building up his base defenses only after constructing an MCV from their war factory, in the likelihood of the Scrin attempting to repel Nod from the area. Apart from capturing the nerve center the commander is advised to capture three Alien Extractors and destroy the Gravity Stabilisers supplying most of the Scrin aerial forces.

The onslaught
The Scrin soon detected Nod's presence and began sending waves of forces to destroy the Nod party, from the alien buzzers to Devastator warships to their dreaded Annihilator Tripods. To make matters worse the Tripods and the warships have a plasma shield thanks to their Stasis Chamber. However the Nod forces held out, eventually turning the tide by obliterating the Gravity Stabilisers with a nuclear missile and the Stasis Chamber. The catalyst missile also helped Nod even the odds. During the battle, GDI zone troopers dropped into the area but they were cut down by the scouting Nod Venoms.

Nod attack
Whilst building up their forces to blast their way to the Nerve Center, the Nod stealth tanks conducted their classical hit-and-run attacks on vulnerable alien positions. This cleared the way for the Nod forces to blast their way to the Nerve Center, capturing and protecting the Extractors along the way. After the last line of defence consisting of a Devastor Warship and three squads of shock troopers were removed, a Saboteur was able to enter the Nerve Center and transfer the access codes to Kane.

Aftermath
Kane is now one step closer in capturing a Threshold tower. However GDI has intensified their attacks in the push to destroy the towers so time was running out for the Brotherhood.