Chronosphere (Red Alert 2)

The Chronosphere was a mass teleportation device developed by the Allies during the Second World War. An improved version was used to decisively end the Third World War and was used further until the end of the Psychic Dominator Crisis. Albert Einstein was a notable contributor to the Chronosphere's design.

Background
The Chronosphere continued to be improved by Albert Einstein at his Black Forest laboratory. The device could move much more mass spread over a wider area. In addition, the Chrono Vortex and personnel teleportation problems were eliminated. However, it still could not directly teleport infantry.

Spin-off technology manifested in the Chrono Legionnaire and the Chrono miner.

History
Both the Soviets and the Allies were impressed by the Chronosphere and its powers, but due to the various drawbacks it had (chrono vortex, loss of personnel in transport vehicles) Einstein decided to recreate it from scratch to make it even more powerful and remove the errors that made it almost a "danger" to be used during the precedent war.

Third World War (first iteration)
When the Soviets invaded the U.S. at the beginning of the Third World War, the project of the new Chronosphere was not yet started and could not help the Allies in the war against the Soviets. However, Einstein began working in secret at his lab in the Black Forest, Germany, for a new Chronosphere. Additionally Einstein developed other technologies for the Allies, such as Prism towers, Prism tanks, Mirage tanks and the ultimate Allied superweapon, the Weather Control Device, which was used in Operation: Chrono Storm.

However, at one point the Soviets discovered of Einstein's experiments and, knowing that the Chronosphere was one of the things that made the Allies win the Second World War, decided to launch a full-scale assault on Germany by sending in three assault forces to wipe out all Allied presence in the area and eliminating Einstein. An Allied commander personally took care of the defense of Einstein's lab and forced the Soviets to retreat.

Shortly afterwards, Einstein finally finished working on the new Chronosphere device. However, there was a problem. The Allies understood that invading the USSR like in the precedent war would be very costly in terms of funds and manpower, and decided to launch a Chrono invasion directly on Moscow to end the war quickly. But in order to do so, the Chronosphere had to be deployed in a precise location. Einstein took some time to find it - it was a small island in the Florida Keys, which was extremely close to a Soviet ally: Cuba. The same commander who saved Einstein in Germany took care of the operation. The worst had yet to happen, as the Allies found out Cuba had three nuclear silos that were prepared to fire at the United States, but Premier Romanov decided to use them on the small Allied base to destroy the Chronosphere. Before the strongest missiles were loaded in the silos, the Allied commander managed to teleport forces right behind them, ending the nuclear threat.

With the Chronosphere safe and ready for use, the Allies launched a surprise chrono invasion on Moscow, teleporting troops in the middle of the city to establish a base and capture the Kremlin, where Romanov was commanding his forces. The Allied commander was also authorised to build a Chronosphere in the area and the Weather Control Device that devastated Soviet forces in the city. With the help of these two weapons, the Kremlin were surrounded and Romanov was captured.

Alternate fate
The Soviet Union has emerged victorious over the Allies. After their failed attempt to develop a Weather Control Device in the US Virgin Islands, effective Allied resistance to Soviet supremacy was limited to Alaska. With the defeat of Yuri and the reunification of the USSR under the new Premier, the Soviets were ready to turn their undivided attention to this one remaining obstacle to the ultimate triumph of communism in the world.

Files recovered from a hidden archive in the Kremlin gave the location of an Allied Chronosphere in Point Hope, Alaska, which allowed the Allies to strike anywhere on the planet. The location of this last Chronosphere device was the Allies' best kept secret - it was all they had left. Nevertheless, Yuri somehow managed to locate it, but failed to inform the rest of the Soviet army.

The Soviet commander defeated all Allied forces in the area and destroyed the Chronosphere with a nuclear strike, removing the last obstacle from winning the war.

Third World War (second iteration)
After the Third World War, the Chronosphere remained untouched in the Allied arsenal, as it was believed to be an almost perfect weapon. With the Soviet Union defeated, it seemed for the Allies that there was no longer need to utilize it, but they were wrong.



When Yuri emerged with his own army and gave an ultimatum to President Dugan, explaining his plan to conquer the world using his Psychic Dominators, the President ordered an air strike to the Psychic Dominator located on Alcatraz Island. The airstrike failed to destroy the Dominator but damaged the nuclear reactor, preventing the device from coming online. The situation was still critical, as the other Dominators were activated and the world would have soon fell under his control. The Allies quickly called Einstein, who had a plan to stop Yuri. He heavily retro-modified one of the Chronospheres in San Francisco: instead of moving mass through space, this modified Chronosphere moved it through time, acting effectively as a time machine.

Discovering the device, Yuri quickly ordered his forces to destroy it, but heavy resistance allowed the Allies to capture various civilian power plants in the city to power the time machine up and go back in time, when the Third World War was just beginning. The Chronosphere was also used various times during the new war against Yuri, with the most notable occasion being the assault on Yuri's last stronghold in Antarctica, where combined Allied and Soviet forces defeated Yuri and destroyed the last remaining Psychic Dominator. Once again, the Chronosphere was what made the Allies win the war.

Alternate fate
After going back in time, the Soviets sniped the first device and Einstein's laboratory in the Black Forest to prevent what would cause their downfall. The Chronosphere is thus absent in the rest of the campaign, even at the end of the war.

Third World War (third iteration)
Even though Einstein was removed from time by the Soviets, the Chronosphere somehow remained in the Allied arsenal of the new Third World War. It was developed by FutureTech instead of Albert Einstein, with the help of some of Einstein's work made before Cherdenko killed him in 1927.

Game effect
The Chronosphere may move any ground and/or sea units in a 3x3 square area. While it is somewhat tricky to target the teleporting effect, it is still possible to teleport the maximum of 9 units to a clear location. Unlike the Iron Curtain device, the Chronosphere is a powerful offensive weapon as well: teleporting a sea unit onto land (or vice versa) destroys the unit at the destination, unless the unit is amphibious.

Chronoshifting infantry, including commandos, is lethal. This property can be used to eliminate large groups of infantry or threatening commandos in an instant. However, infantry units using Chrono technology to move while inside a transport will survive, and will be instantly transported to the location instead of dying.

Units may not be teleported onto impassable terrain like cliffs, buildings or an area overpopulated by terrain objects (such as trees and lamp posts), as they will instantly explode as they arrive. This can be used offensively, by teleporting enemy units to water, for example (or even ships to ground, in both cases, instantly destroying them).

A game bug will constantly allow a computer-controlled enemy to teleport its tanks atop each other if the teleport destination is a cramped area, meaning that a single field on the map will be occupied by 3-4 tanks at the same time. Strangely, the game still differentiates between the 3-4 tanks, so a single shot on one will not damage all of them at once.

Teleportation bug
In an unpatched installation of Red Alert 2 (v1.000), attempting to teleport a unit immediately as it emerges from the War Factory will cause a glitch. If it is a ground unit, it will leave the factory in the normal way, but transparent, immobile and invulnerable. If it is an air unit, it will leave the factory as a ground unit would (and not through opening the roof of the factory), also transparent, immobile and invulnerable. The overall effect is similar to that of a Chrono Legionnaire's weapon (the unit freezes in time and is partially out of spacetime), with the important difference that it does not erase the unit after a cost-dependent time. In a game with the Short game option turned off, this means the player cannot lose because one or more of his units are indestructible.

This immobilized unit blocks the ground exit of the factory, and the next units that are produced by that War Factory remain inside the building. Interestingly, even air units, which normally leave through opening the unblocked roof, remain inside. By selling the War Factory, only the first unit produced after the immobilized unit remains in the building's place. If it is a Kirov Airship, it stays on the ground until ordered to move away - this is a rare occasion, other than in campaign missions like Polar Storm, when a landed Kirov can be seen. This Kirov then can be teleported normally. However, it also remains on the ground (and vulnerable to ground weapons) until ordered to move after teleportation. Use of Iron Curtain may solve this problem.

Cameos
Pre-release cameos, in order: structure alpha, weapon alpha 1, weapon alpha 2, structure beta, weapon beta. In order: English, French, German, Korean, Chinese. Top row is structure, bottom row is weapon.

Trivia

 * Most AIs intend to use Chronosphere with their own tanks against defenseless Power Plants, no matter how many there are (or focus only on a Nuclear Reactor if it isn't protected by Walls.) for any assaults, especially with key structure destruction. This group consists of 4 Grizzly Tanks, 1 Mirage Tank and 1 Prism Tank.
 * Chrono Legionnaires, Chrono Commandos and Chrono Ivans are immune to Chronoshift side effect, thus, they can be teleported without any harm. On the other hand, the only way to kill them using Chronosphere is to teleport them to water or some impassable terrain.