Obelisk of Light (Tiberian Twilight)

The DS-7 Obelisk of Light was a defensive emplacement used by the Brotherhood of Nod's Defense Class by the time of the Fourth Tiberium War.

History
The Obelisk of Light had always been the ideal of the Brotherhood's strength through technology. The first design dated to the outset of the First Tiberium War where they proved to be a deadly defensive emplacement for Nod. Another iteration of the device remained in effect by the Second Tiberium War where CABAL used the weapons to protect himself during the Firestorm Crisis. In fact, the AI went even further and developed a much more improved as well as powerful Obelisk of Darkness. In the aftermath of the incident, the Brotherhood continued its refining of the technology and created the Isis Class VII Military Laser. These new Obelisks of Light saw use during the Third Tiberium War where they demonstrated much more improved capabilities such as being charged by Beam Cannons.

Despite the fearsome nature of these weapons, one of the key weaknesses of the Obelisk was its lack of anti-air capabilities. This meant that aerial assaults often were capable of destroying the weapons though despite this being the case; the Brotherhood had managed to operate the devices for the numerous conflicts. However, after the Third Tiberium War, the Global Defense Initiative began to invest heavily in powerful stratospheric transports as well as aerial capital ships. This meant that the Obelisks were useless against these powerful weapon platforms and often faced destruction. This eventually led to consideration in phasing out the Obelisks of Light in favor of better as well as more cheaper alternative in the 2060's. As such, Flame Columns were developed to serve in an anti-infantry capacity and the long service of the Obelisk was seemingly coming to an end.

However, a breakthrough emerged when a Nod spy in the Tiberium Construction Network known as Henry Liu made a shocking discovery during his work. The operative uncovered a secret GDI installation run by Echo; a research group tasked with the study of advanced Nod technology. What Liu discovered was a functional Obelisk of Darkness that dated forty years ago during the Second Tiberium War. Once he reported to the Brotherhood Loyalists, a covert strike force was assembled and Kane dispatched the White Lady to lead the raid. Attacking the storage facility, the Nod forces were successful in retrieving the artifact and making it appear as if it was the result of Nod Separatists. This meant that there was no evidence of the crime for GDI to witness and left the Loyalists as well as Kane seemingly innocent of the act. Two years after the retrieval operation, the Brotherhood began fielding their new and improved DS-7 Obelisk of Light in 2074 which possessed an Anubis Class VII Military Laser had anti-air capabilities and restored the fearsome reputation of the weapon in the eyes of Nod.

Overview
Similar to previous generations of the technology, the Defense Structure 7 Obelisk possessed a powerful laser weapon capable of destroying heavily armored targets. Classed for Heavy Base Defense, it was heavily reinforced in order to protect it from enemy attacks. It also possessed the new "Anubis" class beam which was far superior to the previous "Isis" class as not only was it capable of damaging thick armor but could target flying aircraft. However, the targeting system meant that this new series of Obelisk lost the sweeping laser effect of its ancestors and thus could not kill multiple enemy infantry as it used to accomplish. An improvement of the previous charging technology used in the "Isis" class which involved Beam Cannons was also introduced into the DS-7 Obelisk as multiple of these emplacements were capable of channeling their energy into a prime Obelisk thus providing it with much more power. The devastating attacks of these charged assaults was even capable of destroying enemy Crawler's after only a few attacks.

Certain Nod commanders were also capable of replacing the focusing crystal of these Obelisks with a prism crystal. This discharged the laser blast so that it could splinter and strike multiple targets. The improvement was designed to help support the emplacement if placed alone and without support though it was not a standard feature of the weapon. This was due to the fact that the prism crystals drew more power than normal and the upgrade process took some time to complete. Furthermore, like its previous versions, the DS-7 Obelisk of Light took time to charge for its attack which gave it a slow rate of fire.

External Link

 * Nod Obelisk of Light