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 Ascension Conflict.

History
The Obelisk of Light has always been a symbol of the Brotherhood's power. 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 Conflict. In fact, the AI went even further and developed the much improved CABAL Obelisk and Obelisk of Darkness. In the aftermath of the incident, the Brotherhood continued its refining of the technology and created the 'Isis' Laser. These new Obelisks of Light saw use during the Third Tiberium War where they demonstrated much more improved capabilities such as being capable of 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 essentially meant that aerial assaults were capable of destroying the strutures unharmed. Despite this being the case; the Brotherhood had continued to use the Obelisk of Light, since its destructive power was unmatched by any defensive structure the Brotherhood possessed. However, after the Third Tiberium War, the Global Defense Initiative began to invest heavily in powerful stratospheric transports, as well as aerial capital ships. The Obelisks were useless against these powerful weapon platforms and could be easily reduced to rubble by them. This eventually led Nod to consider phasing out the Obelisks of Light in favor of a cheaper and more versatile alternative. As such, the Flame Column was developed to replace the Obelisk 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 known as Henry Liu who was posing as a GDI Tiberium Control Network worker made a shocking discovery during his work. The operative uncovered a secret GDI installation that was the home of Echo; a research project tasked with the study of advanced Nod technology. What Liu discovered was a functional Obelisk of Darkness that dated back forty years ago to the Second Tiberium War. Once he reported to the Brotherhood Loyalists, a plan was drawn up and Kane dispatched the White Lady to acquire the technology covertly. The White Lady was successful in retrieving the artifact and making it appear as if it was the work of Nod Separatists. No evidence of what actually happened was left behind and allowed the Loyalists as well as Kane to appear to have nothing to do with the incident. 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 with anti-air capabilities, and thereby 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 with only a few strikes.

Certain Nod commanders were also capable of upgrading the focusing crystal of these Obelisks with a prism crystal. This discharged the laser blast so that it could splinter and strike multiple targets, making up for the lack of a sweeping beam. 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 much 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 resulted in a slow rate of fire.

Trivia

 * The Prism upgrade adds a bigger focusing crystal to the obelisk to increase power. But in real life, a bigger crystal would just dissipate the laser into smaller useless beams, essentially turning it into a big disco ball.