First Tiberium War

The First Tiberium War was the global conflict waged between the United Nations Global Defense Initiative (GDI) and the Brotherhood of Nod. The war began in 1999 and ended in a GDI victory three years later. The advent of Tiberium harvesting technology and the subsequent rise of Nod as a global political and economic superpower, as well as the formation of GDI, were the primary catalysts of the conflict. Tiberium granted these two organizations the ability to rapidly acquire a huge amount of wealth, allowing them to quickly expand their forces.

GDI was a force used by the United Nations to uphold and enforce their world order. Existing as far back as the 1950s, they were at first a covert black op organization, forced to go public after their failed assassination attempt on Saddam Hussein. Their primary objectives were controlling and harvesting the world's tiberium supplies and destroying the Brotherhood. GDI's goal was to find a solution to the crisis brought the world by the proliferation of Tiberium and to destroy the Brotherhood of Nod which they considered to be a terrorist organisation and had linked rightly or otherwise to terrorist activities in Slovenia and Austria.

Nod had originally been a secret society with unknown and secretive goals and claimed ancient origins that had been involved in the Soviet Union. The arrival of Tiberium however had catapulted Nod onto a much larger stage competing directly with the GDI for world power till at one point nearly the whole world that was not aligned to GDI was aligned to them. Their primary objectives were controlling and harvesting the world's tiberium supplies and utilising it's true potential, including for human augmentation. As such their goal was to use the world's Tiberium in order to reshape it; as well as the complete destruction of GDI; which was an impediment to this goal. Or at the very least, place Nod onto a much larger world scale for preparations for the future. Their leader Kane believed that to do this, Nod would have to manipulate mass media and public opinion, both through propaganda and hacks (e.g. Netwarriors) while keeping the GDI from being able to do the same.

Background
Before the war begun, Nod was already an economic power. With their intricate knowledge of Tiberium, Nod countries at one point gained most of the world's Tiberium assets: 49 percent of the world's supply, leading GDI countries in control of only about a quarter of the Tiberium the world had to offer. This was in part due to superior Tiberium harvesting technology being developed by Nod. With this much Tiberium derived wealth at Nod's disposal, Kane, leader of the Brotherhood, made a crucial decision.

His organization would openly contend with the GDI on political, media and military fronts. Although the Brotherhood had been extremely successful in utilizing such tactics before, the scale of this venture was unlike any operation before. Nod begun to consolidate control over it's territory and build up its military. Nod supporters begun regular military operations in Niger and Gabon in Africa and the nations of Eastern Europe west of Russia with only a few exceptions such as Ukraine.

After a series of high profile urban bombings (including the Grain Trade Center in Vienna, which was the 17th target) and following reports of terrorist activities in Slovenia, the United Nations Security Committee entered a closed session and gave permission for GDI to engage Nod openly.

Nod Campaign for Africa


Nod's actions on a global scale were becoming increasingly aggressive and their anti-west rhetoric earned them many followers, especially among the impoverished populace in Africa. Their supporters intially gained control of Niger and Gabon moving swiftly into Libya and in order to secure their influence and prevent fragmentation of their territory, the Brotherhood removed some local warlords, chieftains and local leaders with real or suspected GDI sympathies, including Nikoomba, a petty Libyan tribal leader.

This allowed them to consolidate their power and establish forward attack posts in Egypt, which helped them take the country from GDI.

With Egypt taken, Nod would attack Sudanese GDI prisons, liberating Nod prisoners who helped them to gain control over neutral Sudan, some of them being local leaders with some influence there.

Having secured Sudan Nod began aiding Nod supporters against the GDI supporters in neutral Chad (during the Mao civil war) while making an example of certain GDI friendly villages (such as one near Oum Hadjer). In this manner Nod gained control over Chad.

At this point Kane's personal commander led an assault through neutral Algeria aiming to outmaneuver the GDI before they could complete their own invasion of neutral Kenya and move on into Niger, part of the core of Nod's African domain. Thanks to a rising Nod commander's attack through Mali on GDI Mauritania, home to many key GDI airbases in the region this manuevre was massively successful and Nod gained control of nearly all of Western Africa rapidly.

The GDI had installed nuclear devices in Nigeria, Benin and the Ivory Coast in order to 'influence' local leaders there and ensure their loyalty to the GDI, so Nod forces launched daring raids on Nigerian, Beninese and Ivorian GDI bases in order to aquire their detonators. With these nukes thus rendered useless to the GDI, Nod forces were able to secure those leaders surrender or defection and gain control over the three countries.

Nod forces would then proceed into neutral Central Africa and they raided a GDI base there to steal an advanced ORCA Assault Craft and attack a nearby village. Being based at a GDI base Nod were able to easily frame the GDI for the attack, turning Central Africa against the GDI. They would also destroy some villages in now GDI occupied Gabon and Cameroon because these villages were overly close to some rich Tiberium deposits they had claimed and Kane believed that they would spread Tiberium related illnesses if they were allowed to remain. Having eradicated these villages Nod was able to safely extract enough Tiberium to drive the GDI from Gabon and Cameroon and restore Nod rule.

At this point, Nod commander Seth was personally executed by Kane. He had tried to dispatch numerous troops to the USA on a suicide mission to attack and destroy the Pentagon in hopes of eliminating the two Nod commanders he had placed in charge of them. However, his plans were found out by Kane and Seth was executed and the troops recalled. Kane also took command of Seth's forces, including over the Nod commanders that Seth tried to eliminate.

Post-Seth
Shortly after Seth's execution by Kane a poorly equipped force of Nod advanced into neutral Zaire which was at the time being invaded by GDI forces and by making use of two abandoned GDI outposts there and captured weaponry they destroyed the invading GDI forces and secured control of that nation for Nod.

GDI naval power however took it's toll on Nod forces. Sending fleets of armoured gunboats up the Nile and destroying Egyptian Nod bases they were able to regain control of Egypt. At a key point along the Nile Nod forces moved in from Sudan and Libya with the aim of rebuilding their base to regain control of the Nile and thus over Egypt. While they were successful in this endeavor, large segments of the Egyptian population had come out in support of the new regime installed by the returning GDI forces and as ordered Nod forces showed no mercy to these elements.

With the GDI threat in Egypt repulsed, Nod forces were free to launch an extensive southwards offensive against the remaining GDI controlled nations in Africa. GDI had two secret research facilities within their bases in Angola and Tanzania respectively working on the Ion Cannon and on their new Mammoth Tank. Nod forces were to raze these facilities to the ground and kill key GDI scientists before they could be evacuated. Afterwards Angola and Tanzania fell swiftly into Nod hands.

Yet despite their victories over GDI forces in Africa, things were not all well for the Brotherhood. Two presumably secret Nod research facilities in GDI Namibia and Mozambique had been discovered by GDI forces and captured. These research facilities held within them the prototypes and plans of the Brotherhood's new weapon, the Stealth tank which had been named Ezekial's Wheel by Kane. Nod forces were not only able to recapture these facilities and safely retrieve these plans and prototypes but they were also able to decisively defeat GDI forces as well and gain control of Namibia and Mozambique for the Brotherhood.

But then it turned out that Nod had destroyed the research facilities too late, not only were their forces now facing Mammoth Tanks but the GDI's terrible new orbital Ion Cannon was now complete. While Nod forces had found the Mammoth Tank far from invincible, they had no way of hurting the Ion Cannon. So they devised a different scheme, instead of trying to harm the Ion Cannon they would steal the GDI access codes for the Ion Cannon and hack into the weapon's control systems. Fortunately for Nod, the GDI had an open link to the Ion Cannon within a advanced communications center inside a GDI base in Botswana and Nod forces succeeded in their plan.

Nod had finally gained control of all of Africa, with the sole exception of South Africa (and Lesotho). Seth had an idea, not only would Nod forces expel all GDI forces in South Africa but they would also build in South Africa a new African Temple of Nod complete with nuclear weaponry like it's European equivilant. With nowhere left to retreat to within Africa GDI the remaining GDI forces were wiped out to a man in this final battle for control of Africa and South Africa, once a key center of GDI power in Africa finally became the seat of Nod's new African temple.

Conclusion
With control over Africa secured for the time being the Brotherhood's netwarriors were set by Kane to the task of making use of the stolen GDI pass codes to hack into the Ion Cannon.

With some apparent casualties the netwarriors were successful. Although GDI was soon able to regain control over the Ion Cannon, using it to aid their European forces and eventually to destroy the European Temple of Nod and apparently kill Seth, Nod were able to use the Ion Cannon to destroy a particular famous landmark in a chosen key GDI aligned country. The choice of which landmark to destroy was given by Kane himself to the commander that led Nod forces to victory in South Africa. The options determined as suitable for Ion Cannon demolition, were the White House in the USA, the Houses of Parliament in Britain, the Paris Tower in France and the Bradenburg Gate in Germany.

What long term effect if any this had is unknown. It is plausible that by embarrassing the GDI in exposing the ease with which the GDI's orbital defense system, at that point consisting solely of the Ion Cannon could be taken over by 'terrorists', Nod discontinued or at least checked the further expansion of the GDI orbital defense system so that it would not be a decisively unstoppable weapon against Nod during the Second Tiberium War.

GDI Campaign
Initially most of continental Western Europe, with the exception of Switzerland, Denmark and possibly Spain and Portugal declared in favour of the GDI and GDI began their European campaign with an amphibious assault on Nod Estonia.

Having gained a beachhead in Estonia, GDI forces would then launch an extensive assault on a Nod Tiberium Refinery in Estonia, driving Nod forces from the country and securing it for GDI.

GDI forces would proceed to destroy Nod SAM sites in Latvia, freeing GDI air power to be deployed against the Nod forces in the region. They were thus able to secure Latvia and Lithuania for the GDI. Following Mark Jamison Sheppard's departure to the UN, the provisional commander of the GDI forces in Latvia, James Solomon had to make a crucial decision, whether to move the bulk of his forces through Nod Belarus in order to eventually aid Ukraine against the Nod assault or whether to move them into Nod Poland instead in order to outmaneuver the Nod onslaught on Germany.

Had Solomon invaded Belarus
Moving into Nod Belarus GDI forces under the command of James Solomon retrieved stolen nuclear rods from a Nod base there. At the same time two smaller forces moved into Poland, retrieving more stolen GDI nuclear rods from another base and more significantly gaining control of the town of Bialystok in Poland and defending it against the Nod counterattack. This event would then be used by Nod supporters to create the Bialystok scandal.

With control over Belarus secured they moved to reinforce neutral Ukraine which was under Nod attack. Reinforcing a besieged base in Ukraine there they were able to enlist Ukraine into the GDI and their mutual counter-attack swiftly drove the invading Nod forces from Ukraine.

Had Solomon invaded Poland
As GDI forces moved in Poland they aided the rebellious city of Bialystok against an attempt by Nod to regain control of it and retrieved a set of nuclear rods from a base there. Meanwhile a small force of GDI forces moved into Ukraine and regained a second group of rods from a second base but they did not proceed further. Their invasion of Poland however would be used by Nod supporting media to create the Bialystok scandal.

Nod forces advancing from Denmark, Austria and Poland had however conquered the entirety of Germany. But by advancing from Poland and reinforcing two bases in Germany, the GDI was able to deal a decisive defeat to Nod forces.

The Bialystok scandal


Launching a commando raid on a key Nod airbase there, GDI forces were then able to advance into the Czech Republic and drive Nod forces from that nation.

However, things had taken a turn for the worse for GDI, when reports created by a Nod and spread by the WWN reporter Greg Burdette convinced the United Nations that GDI had massacred the population of the Polish town of Bailystok on suspicion of them being 'Tiberium smugglers.' The UN immediately began an investigation and cut GDI's funding, but even so, a GDI commander managed to stop a Nod counterattack on a poorly defended outpost in Nod Austria near Salzburg and destroy the Nod base supplying the attacks. At the same time another GDI commander defended Ignatio Mobius in Slovakia against a Nod onslaught. Ignatio Mobius had arrived with the invading GDI forces in Slovakia and established a hospital there to aid victims of Tiberium poisoning among the local population in a bid to win their support for GDI and had naturally become a key target for Nod forces. When news of Mobius's hospital spread, the Slovakian people abandoned Nod and GDI was able to secure the area.

Having secured Slovakia and Hungary, GDI forces decided to make use of their naval supremacy over Nod to send relatively small, armoured and heavily armed gunboats up the river Danube hoping to destroy strategic Nod bases there. In preparation for this ground forces had destroyed the Nod defensive turrets along the river, but Kane had already preempted GDI's move. Nod workers had installed an Obelisk of Light, the Brotherhood's deadly new defensive weapon along the river. As soon as the gunboats arrived at the base they were swiftly obliterated by the terrible power of these new weapons. The GDI were forced to change their plan and use their ground forces instead to launch a ground assault on the base. While the cost was higher than it would have been had the original plan worked, GDI forces were able to sieze the river base despite the awesome power of Nod's Obelisk of Light. With the river Danube under GDI control, GDI forces were able to drive Nod forces out of Hungary and secure it for the GDI.

GDI offensive continues
It was at this point that the Białystok scandal finally came to an end and UN funding to the GDI was restored. While it could be argued that the funding cut wasn't that devastating to an organisation at that point funded by Tiberium and was more of a political and ideological blow, it did allow them to purchase a number of the new ORCA Assault Craft for their European Campaign. With the aid of these helicopters they were able to successfully advance into Nod Romania and Slovenia and drive Nod forces out of these countries.

Greece had formerly been aligned to the GDI but had withdrawn its support as a result of the Bialystok scandal. After remaining neutral for some time, Greece eventually fell under Nod control. GDI forces were to launch an amphibious invasion against Greece using their naval power. At the same time they had placed a key agent who was codenamed Delphi in Greece and through Delphi GDI gathered vital information about the Brotherhood, its biological research facilities and its forces. GDI forces were able to locate this agent and extract him. With the help of his information they were able to swiftly regain control of Greece and drive out Nod forces.

As GDI forces advanced into Bulgaria and Albania though, the Nod counter-atack proved to be fierce. As they had done in Slovakia, GDI set up a hospital for victims of Tiberium poisoning in each of the countries which also doubled up as a research center. Ignatio Mobius himself led one hospital while the other was led by another key GDI scientist. Understanding their importance the Nod counter-attack closed in, intending to destroy the hospitals and to kill these key scientists. Due to the proliferation of Nod SAM sites in the region however, GDI was initially unable to evacuate the scientists by helicopter as they had planned, so GDI forces launched an offensive to destroy all the SAM sites in the vicinity and with those SAM site destroyed the scientists were finally able to be rescued. They were moved to another safer location and by continuing their work of curing Tiberium sickness and so swaying the people to the GDI cause Nod forces were finally driven out of Bulgaria and Albania.

Hunting down Kane
Agent Delphi had revealed the apparent location of Kane, he was overseeing research at a Nod Bioresearch facility in Yugoslavia. At the same time GDI had regained control of the Ion Cannon from Nod hackers and it was once again available to aid GDI forces. With the help of the Ion Cannon GDI forces were able to level the Bioresearch facility to ground and apparently kill Kane. At the same time Nod forces would flee eastern Yugoslavia going west.

But Kane it seemed was a far harder to kill than that. It became clear to the GDI that he had left the facility some time before it's destruction. At the same time Nod forces were continuing their fullscale retreat towards Bosnia. Pursuing GDI forces in Yugoslavia were to destroy an entire convoy of Nod vehicles before they could escape to join the rest of the Nod forces in Bosnia and GDI forces would swiftly gain control of Nod Serbia/Yugoslavia as Nod forces retreated.

Nod's remaining European forces had at this point moved into the vicinity of Nod's nuclear armed European Temple of Nod in Bosnia for their last stand. Within the temple it was believed by both sides, was Kane himself. GDI forces would launch an offensive on the temple, in the teeth of it's nuclear weaponry. Having already launched an offensive and damaged the Temple, the GDI's Ion Cannon sent an ion beam into the now damaged Temple and obliterated it. At the same time the GDI were to destroy Nod forces in the vicinity to a man, gaining control of Bosnia, the last European nation openly loyal to Nod. While it was falsely believed by Nod and GDI alike that Kane had died in the blast, in reality Kane had gone into hiding, only to re-emerge at the start the Second Tiberium War.

Conclusion
How did Kane manage to fool so many people on both sides into believing that he was dead? This is not known for certain.

It is possible however that Kane, understanding his position in Europe was unwinnable went into hiding while secretly ordering his body-double to impersonate him; in this manner Nod and GDI alike were tricked. Why he did this is also not known, though it was probably for numerous reasons.

He likely understood that even though he controlled the whole of Africa, GDI would in time consolidate it's control as a centralised military and political power over Europe and North America against which Nod Africa would be inevitably defeated in a protracted drawn out conflict. But with his apparant death GDI power would lose it's focus and would not be able to use the threat of Nod to truly unite the power of all the countries that had supported it in the First Tiberium War or had fallen to it's armies.

Though the Brotherhood of Nod would itself disintegrate, Kane would become a martyr to all Nod splinter factions and at a specific time of his choosing and simply by revealing himself as alive he could unify all those splinters again into a single cohesive organization under his control as would happen at the start of the Second Tiberium War.

Additionally by appearing to be in Europe alongside his followers in resisting the GDI onslaught, he could inspire Nod forces to resist more fiercely in Europe, tying down GDI forces in Europe and preventing them from reinforcing their African forces until Nod had secured complete control over Africa.

Aftermath


The First Tiberium War saw great a great cost borne by civilians and civilian buildings. As GDI succeeded in Europe, Captain Nick Parker took part in a battle in Mexico to rid prisoners and civilians of Nod indoctrination, one of the few, if not the only, battles that took place outside Africa and Europe. Commanding GDI forces in the area were Captain Duncan (army forces), Captain Soanso (Naval forces), and General Adam Locke. The operation was a decisive success despite early GDI losses and may have kept the war from spreading into Central America.

The First Tiberium War ended with the GDI forces decisively victorious in Europe while Nod forces were victorious in Africa to a similar degree. On a larger scale however, the GDI victory had proven more decisive as it had seen the destruction of the Temple of Nod and Kane's apparent death. As this led to the apparent collapse of Nod as a coherent unified global organization and since GDI survived as such despite Nod's African victory the First Tiberium War is generally considered a GDI victory.

The First Tiberium War had the effect of establishing Nod and GDI on the world stage as it forced countries worldwide to unite either under GDI or Nod's banners. However, its most lasting consequence was that it established how important Tiberium was, since none of the spectacular successes gained by either Nod or GDI would have been possible without this resource.

Furthermore, a large portion of Africa and Europe were devastated by the war, and there were massive casualties on both sides as well as among the civilian population, both due to the war and from massive Tiberium poisoning as a result of disrupted Tiberium harvesting caused by it. Both sides frequently invaded countries that had declared themselves neutral with many governments both democratic and despotic being forcibly deposed by the supporters and armies of both Nod and the GDI during the process of the conflict. This doubtlessly led to many seething resentments against both sides which would reemerge during the course of the Second Tiberium War.

Though Nod would splinter upon Kane's apparent death, during the 30 years of relative peace between the end of the First Tiberium War and the Second Tiberium War, General Hassan of Egypt would eventually assume control of Nod's remaining possessions in Africa rising to de-facto leadership over the whole of Nod at least in part through his media channel the Nod News Network broadcasting out of Benghazi, Libya.

While maintaining an openly Anti-GDI and pro-Nod stance and inciting a certain level of unrest and low-level warfare against the GDI, General Hassan was in secret collaborating with the GDI and was prepared to imprison or execute leaders who threatened to escalate the undeclared war beyond levels considered acceptable to General Hassan (and the GDI).

The GDI would eventually recover from the damage done to it in the war by Nod, eventually constructing an orbital command and weapons station the Philadelphia and expanding it's core forces to the extent of rendering national governments largely irrelevant by the start of the Second Tiberium War, at which point only the forces of the General Hassan controlled Brotherhood of Nod could possibly contend with it in a conventional war. National governments would never again be as important to the GDI or Nod as they were in the First Tiberium War.

Major Events

 * Attack on Mauritania
 * Mao civil war
 * Sudanese prison break
 * Delphi's rescue operation
 * Bialystok scandal
 * Battle for Sarajevo the final battle which ended the war.