Siege of Temple Prime

The closing battle of the first stage of the Third Tiberium War occured exactly where the closing battle of the First Tiberium War happened, at Sarajevo.

History
Although Sarajevo had been secured by GDI since the close of the First Tiberium War, cutbacks following the Firestorm Crisis had led to military personnel being removed from Eastern Europe, allowing Nod's influence to take root once again. At Sarajevo, an abnormally massive and durable Nod Temple; Temple Prime, was constructed atop the ruins of the original Temple of Nod that had been Kane's command center at the end of the First Tiberium War. Command centers similar in architecture to Temple Prime had been set up in other Nod strongholds, such as Ayers Rock.

The construction of this Temple progressed at an astounding rate, and with utmost secrecy. Temple Prime was completed shortly before the Third Tiberium War, and is where Kane ordered a legendary commander to attack Goddard Space Center. Following the opening stages of the war, Kane ordered the components for a Liquid Tiberium Bomb, held at labs worldwide, to be shipped to Sarajevo for construction. Shortly after the destruction of Nod's WMDs in Egypt, GDI learned of Temple Prime, and immediately began advancing into Eastern Europe. Kane called all Nod reinforcements, including those being sent to aid Kilian Qatar, back to Temple Prime.

Initial Skirmish
GDI advanced from the South, as a large Tiberium Glacier had grown North of Sarajevo, forming an impassable boundry. A large force besieged the Temple, hoping to stop the transit of the remaining Liquid Tiberium Bomb components. However, a brilliant Nod commander, after retrieving the last of the components from Slovenia, managed to slip the cargo past GDI patrols. The Commander was then put in charge of all the resources and defences of Temple Prime. Nod and GDI forces battled inconclusively for a while, until the Nod reinforcements arrived and bombed the GDI base; leveling it.

GDI's General Granger would later remark that far too many assets were wasted attempting the original assault on the Temple (the existence of the Temple was still not confirmed to the GDI public during that phase, however) but Redmond Boyle expressed the need for a renewed attack.

Betrayal
Before the Temple's defenders could celebrate, the new arrivals set up two bases to the Southeast and Southwest, and began to demand the surrender of Temple Prime. Intelligence officer Ajay had suspected that Kilian was behind this. The Commander, a Kane loyalist, dug in and prepared to kill his own brothers. After a difficult battle, all of the infidel Nod forces were exterminated. Kane was understandably upset at the treachery of some of his followers, and ordered the Commander to go to Australia and 'salvage what he could' from Kilian's forces.

Recent Intel
Recent intelligence suggests that rather than General Qatar ordering the attack, the AI LEGION, under command of Alexa Kovacs struck Temple Prime. This was done to discredit General Qatar, whom Kovacs distrusted. LEGION also had a Saboteur steal the design data for the Ion disruption towers in order to further discredit Qatar. With the help of a commando, the Saboteur hijacked an Attack bike and escaped Temple Prime with the plans.

Later Encounters
"Now you are annoying me commander. If you dare to lay siege on this most holy of all temples known I will personally have you hunted down and slaughter you like a swan in a water."
 * Kane

Following the initial failure at Temple Prime, GDI attempted to mount successive attacks; however, casualties were high, and Temple Prime was now more fortified than ever, its walls brimming with immense firepower. GDI attempted to use the Ion Cannon, which had just come back online, in order to destroy Temple Prime as it's predecessor had been during the First Tiberium War, but Nod had constructed special Ion Disruption Towers, which made hitting Temple Prime with an Ion Beam impossible.

To General Jack Granger's dismay, GDI Director Redmond Boyle was set on defeating Nod at the Temple, in order to rally the press. Fresh from the destruction of Nod's Cairo ICBM facility, GDI's best field commander was sent to Eastern Europe. After pushing through Croatia and destroying Nod stockpiles in Albania, he reached Sarajevo several days after his Nod counterpart had made his escape. The Commander was tasked with capturing Temple Prime before the Liquid Tiberium Bomb could be used.

Setting up a base, the Commander began a long, costly battle against the entrenched Brotherhood members. The Commander managed to breach the giant citadel walls of the Temple, allowing his army to begin destroying Nod's Ion Disruptors. As GDI forces slowly pushed through Temple Prime's defences, Nod forces gambled on a desperate ace-in-the-hole. A smaller temple nearby Temple Prime began fueling a tactical Nuclear warhead; the last of Nod's Nuclear weapons. The GDI commander managed to destroy the launch facility, along with the final Ion Disruptor and an Avatar Warmech. As GDI forces prepared to dig in to force Kane out of Temple Prime's main building, new orders arrived. Against the advice of General Granger, Director Boyle ordered the use of the Ion Cannon. Nod forces could only pray for deliverance as the orbital weapon moved into position.

Immediate Aftermath
The Ion Cannon tore through the main building, eliminating it. However, it also detonated Kane's Liquid Tiberium Device. The blast yield was roughly 2 Gigatons, sending massive amounts of lethal radiation into the air. Even miles away, Tiberium crystals began exploding. Within minutes, nearly all of Yellow Zone Y-2, once the hub of Nod activity, was wiped out. Millions of civilians, GDI, and Nod forces died.

Eastern Europe became a Red Zone.

Later Effects
Initially, though the cost was enormous, GDI leaders, especially Director Boyle, considered the battle a victory. Kane's reign of terror had once again appeared to be over, and one of Nod's most important territories was a Red Zone wasteland.

Nod forces across the world were dismayed. Kilian Qatar had proclaimed herself in command of Nod; many senior officers cynically noted that the destruction of Sarajevo seemed to benefit her, though most grudgingly accepted Kane's earlier judgement.

However, the blast had an effect that nobody could have forseen; humanity made it's first contact with an alien species. This did not go well, as the Scrin immediately started aggressive action against both GDI and Nod, pushing military forces around the world to the brink of destruction and wreaking havoc on unprepared civilians.

In the end, what transpired at Temple Prime was revealed to have been the deliberate plan of one man; Kane. He had escaped Temple Prime and went into hiding, however, once Kilian Qatar allied with GDI to fight the Scrin, he revealed himself. After the Commander destroyed the GDI presence in Australia with stolen nuclear missiles and captured Qatar's command center at Ayers Rock, Kane had Kilian executed for the alleged role she played at the Temple Insurrection. He revealed to the Commander, his new second-in-command, that Temple Prime was bait. He never intended for Nod to defeat GDI, he simply needed to provoke them. From the Tacitus, Kane knew a Liquid Tiberium Explosion would lure the Scrin to Earth; however, Nod lacked any detonator powerful enough to trigger the necessary blast. The opening of the War was merely to goad GDI to use the Ion Cannon on Temple Prime, as it was the only thing Kane believed would suffice. With the Scrin on Earth, the final stage of his plan began, and he sent his commander to Italy, on a campaign to capture a Scrin Threshold Tower and the "key" to one of those towers.