Tacitus

"It is fundamental to our cause, the key to Ascension, for it holds power and wisdom far beyond anything ever before imagined by Man."

- Kane

The Tacitus is an ancient and extraterrestrial data matrix that played a prominent role during the Tiberium Wars between GDI and Nod. Both factions used the Tacitus' data to improve their technology and understanding of Tiberium and control of the device was highly sought after. It formed the basis of the Brotherhood's ideology.

It originally consisted of two segments, one being present in the thousands-of-years-old Temple of the Tacitus in Bolivia.

Tratos the Translator

 * Main article: Second Tiberium War

"The Tacitus is the source, Slavik. Its Tiberium secrets can make or break empires. Find it."

- Kane to Anton Slavik.

The Forgotten acquired the Tacitus prior to the Second Tiberium War and their leader, Tratos, learned to translate it. The mutants hoped to find some way to reverse their mutations. Tratos and the device ultimately fell into Nod hands. Kane tricked the Forgotten leader into aiding CABAL translate the device for Nod's designs. Tratos later regretted cooperating with Nod; he realized too late the translated data was being used to create Tiberium weapons, lifeforms, all aimed toward Nod's final goal of creating a Tiberium world. GDI initially refused to believe the existence of the device despite gaining the Forgotten as allies. Any remaining doubts about its existence were dispelled at the end of the war when GDI recovered the device from the Nod Pyramid in Cairo. GDI regarded information regarding the Tacitus as highly classified.

Alternate History
After his public return Kane ordered Commander Anton Slavik to deliver a Nod high-technology ship to Cairo. The ship held the Tacitus and other technologies useful to Nod and was stored in a subterranean hanger. However, General Vega reached the hanger first and took the ship for a personal endeavour in South America. However, Vega was unable to control it and the ship crashed. Slavik arrived to find the ship abandoned and the Tacitus missing.

Restoring the Tacitus

 * Main article: Firestorm Crisis



Although the war was won Tiberium contamination was reaching critical levels. The Daedalus Team believed the Tacitus to be the best approach to acquiring the necessary knowledge to fight Tiberium. The device and Kane's accumulated notes and data were scheduled to be shipped immediately to the Daedalus Research Complex where Tratos could continue translation. The Tacitus was loaded onto Kodiak at Cairo but the ship was destroyed by an ion storm in flight. This coincided with the beginning of the Firestorm Crisis. As one of its first duties, General Paul Cortez ordered the emergency Firestorm Taskforce to recover the Tacitus. GDI did not locate Kane's store of translated data.

Tratos was assassinated by Nod on CABAL's orders before receiving the Tacitus and translation proceeded slowly. Doctor Gabriella Boudreau estimated Tratos' death put the project years behind schedule, when it was estimated the atmosphere would be toxic to humans within a year. The doctor proposed to use CABAL as a substitute translator; the Nod AI helped Tratos translate the Tacitus for Kane.

The Firestorm Taskforce captured CABAL core in Germany. This was to the AI's design. It knew translation efforts were crippled because the device was physically incomplete. Nod had failed to retrieve the missing segment and it hoped GDI would be more successful. CABAL convinced GDI to retrieve the missing segment after revealing the nature of the problem. The AI even pinpointed the segment's location in northern Bolivia for the Firestorm Taskforce. The segment was sequestered in a complex of ancient step pyramids occupied by a small religious group. A GDI archaeologist deciphered the pyramid hieroglyphs to determine which one the segment was stored in. CABAL took the completed device and unleashed its cyborgs on GDI.

Ironically, the Tacitus was, in turn, stolen from CABAL by the Forgotten. The AI used Nod forces to recover the device for it. The Brotherhood's Inner Circle frew increasingly uneasy with the AI's independence, including its unilateral recovery of the Tacitus and assassination of Tratos. CABAL finally broke with Nod when the Inner Circle threatened to deactivate it.

The Tacitus was retrieved by GDI from a CABAL core at the end of the Firestorm Crisis. While Doctor Boudreau made a series of breakthroughs on the whole GDI continued to struggle with interfacing with the Tacitus and data recovery remained slow.

Signs and Portents
Between the Second and Third Tiberium Wars Nod recaptured the Tacitus at least once, with GDI recovering and storing it for a time at the Cheyenne Mountain Complex. The device was in GDI's possession come the Third Tiberium War.

In the interwar period, further GDI Tacitus research uncovered references to the Scrin and their future invasion. Unbeknownst to GDI the Scrin were a key factor in Kane's strategy for the Third Tiberium War.

Even with the Tacitus primarily in GDI's hands, a secretly restored Kane was not totally without the device's services. Tacitus shards aided him during the creation of LEGION, CABAL's successor.

Third Tiberium War

 * Main article: Third Tiberium War

Tacitus translation was the responsibility of GDI InOps when the Scrin invaded Earth. They noted the structure of Scrin data transmissions was patterned on the data structure found in the Tacitus, but were significantly different such that it was unlikely the Scrin were the exact originators of the device. Decryption programs similar to those found in the Tacitus were used to interface with and capture Annihilator Tripods.

Nod located the Tacitus' in China as GDI prepared to transport it away by sea. ON Kane's behest, LEGION intercepted and captured the land convoy carrying the device. The AI was maliciously shut down by Abbess Alexa Kovacs before it could interface with the Tacitus

The Key to Ascension
GDI subsequently recaptured the Tacitus and shipped it to a fortified facility in the Rocky Mountains. The device's condition was deteriorating and the probability of destroying it increased with every test. Kane was disturbed by the development, and feared GDI may have damaged it beyond repair, but chose to wait until LEGION reactivated in 2052. Nod was much reduced as a result of the Third Tiberium War. The forces needed to assault the Tacitus facility was found in the Marked of Kane. LEGION recovered the Tacitus and interfaced with it.

Salvation
Kane displayed a device resembling the Tacitus to GDI in 2062.

Continuity
Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars claimed GDI confiscated the Tacitus from Nod in 2028. According to Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun the Second Tiberium War occurred in 2030 and during which GDI claimed to have no knowledge of the device.

Behind the Scenes
Westwood Studios originally developed two origins for the device. "We had also developed two completely different origins for the Tacitus, and since both stories leveraged that origin, I'm trying to remember what each included. One was centered around the Tacitus being a soul-prison for the leader of the martian force that fought against the Scrin (they knew how to beat the Scrin, but discovered it too late) while the Earth was still primordial, and the other was centered around the Scrin rebels stealing the "bible" of the Scrin -- which may or may not have been written by them in the first place -- and the Scrin Primal's crusade to recover it. Both were interesting and had some cool reveals."

- Adam "Ishmael" Isgreen has spoken