Chapter 13 - The end of battle

The crimson horizon of the Australian Outback ignited as the two armies collided. The Steel Talons, a wall of iron and railguns, marched forward in a tight, disciplined formation, their Titans and Wolverines shaking the earth. Facing them was the full might of the Viper Fangs, a sea of white-and-blue steel moving with the cold precision of a predator.

Release the Trinity, let them see the end of their era.

The battle became a showcase of the Union's superior science. The Wasps dived from the clouds, their corrosive chemical mists turning the Steel Talons' reinforced armor into brittle glass. Walkers that could normally withstand a Mammoth tank's shell were suddenly being shredded by standard rifle fire as their integrity collapsed.

Then came the Mole. The ground beneath the GDI front line erupted as the subterranean assault vehicle breached the surface. Much like a GDI Rig, the Mole deployed instantly into a fortified Battle Base, but its ability to move underground allowed it to bypass the Steel Talons' heavy artillery range entirely. It surfaced in the heart of their formation, its automated turrets raking the exposed rear hulls of the Titans.

But it was the sky that held the ultimate terror. The Leviathan, a colossal aerial juggernaut, descended through the ion clouds. It acted as a mobile fortress, its high-tracking cannons swatting GDI Hammerheads out of the air with clinical ease. Then, the Leviathan's primary bay opened.

A Tactical Uranum Missile streaked downward. It struck the center of the Steel Talon base with the force of ten suns, a blinding flash of white light that vaporized the Construction Yard and turned the surrounding walkers into molten slag. There was no radiation, no poison—just absolute, clean destruction.

Within minutes, the Steel Talon base was a smoking wreck. The "iron giants" of GDI had been dismantled by a force they couldn't outgun, outmove, or outthink. The battle ended in a total GUI victory, the white-and-blue flag standing tall over the ruins of the Outback.

******

In the shadowed silence of his command crawler, Kane watched the satellite playback of the Leviathan's strike. For the first time in years, the Prophet looked truly impressed.

Such efficiency... such clean, beautiful power, Thomas Green is not just a builder, LEGION. He is an artist of war. Every movement of that Leviathan was a verse in a hymn I have been trying to write for decades.

Kane turned away from the screen, his mind already calculating how to integrate the 'Mole' and 'Leviathan' concepts into his own grand design. The Union had won the day, but they had also given the Prophet exactly what he wanted: a vision of the future he would soon make his own.

******

The smoke from the Australian Outback had barely cleared before the political fallout began to ripple through the Blue Zones. On the surface, the Steel Talons had suffered a crushing tactical defeat—their walkers were scrap, and their pride was wounded. However, within the secure bunkers of GDI High Command, their status was higher than ever.

The mission was not a total failure.

Reviewing the massive amounts of data salvaged by the Steel Talon survivors.

Because of their sacrifice, we have the first full combat telemetry of the Leviathan, the Mole, and the Uranum warheads. We finally know what we are fighting.

The GDI Council officially elevated the status of the Steel Talons, rebranding the defeat as a "heroic reconnaissance in force." Funding was diverted from standard peacekeeping units back into the heavy-walker programs. GDI wasn't retreating; they were recalibrating for a war against a peer-level superpower.

******

But while the military and the Global Council tried to spin the narrative, the public reaction was far different. On the streets of New Adana and the pristine arcologies of the European Blue Zone, the civilian population watched the leaked footage of the GUI cities and the devastating power of the Leviathan.

The Global Council's claim that the GUI was a "terrorist rogue state" began to fall on deaf ears. People looked at the gleaming, terraformed paradise in the Red Zone and then back at their own struggling economies and the ever-encroaching Tiberium.

"Why are we fighting them? They cured the Red Zone, and we sent walkers to burn it down." This was the question whispered in every cafe and transit hub.

For the first time, a wave of pity washed over the GDI military. The common citizen didn't blame the soldiers; they blamed the "foolish" civilian leaders of the Global Council. To the public, GDI was being dragged into a bloody, unnecessary mess by out-of-touch politicians who were more interested in maintaining their monopoly on power than in saving the planet.

They sent the Talons to die for a border that shouldn't even exist. The Global Council is fighting the future because they aren't the ones who built it.

As protests began to spark in the Blue Zones, the GUI stood silent and victorious. Thomas Green had not only won the battle of steel—he was winning the battle for the hearts of the very people the GDI was supposed to protect.

******

The W3N News Network intro flared to life once more, but the usual high-energy graphics had been replaced by a somber, minimalist aesthetic. William Frank appeared on the screen, sitting between Cassandra Blair and Greg Burdette. The tension was thick, reflecting a world struggling to process the images of a GDI legion being dismantled in a matter of hours.

William Frank began, his voice level and devoid of the usual patriotic bravado.

Good evening, the dust in the Australian Outback has settled, revealing a tactical landscape that few believed possible. Today, the world witnessed a direct military engagement between the Global Defense Initiative and the Global Union Initiative.

Behind him, footage of the Leviathan descending through the clouds played on a loop, followed by images of the Steel Talon walkers standing frozen in the streets.

While the Global Council has labeled this a police action against a rogue state, the reality on the ground suggests something far more complex. This was not a skirmish with terrorists or cultists. This was a clash between two sovereign powers—a rivalry between two distinct visions of governance.

Cassandra Blair leaned forward, her tone analytical.

To many observers, the GDI was simply the unfortunate piece moved across a board they didn't control. They were deployed by the Global Council to enforce a monopoly on a world that is clearly outgrowing the old borders. In this chess match between the Council and Thomas Green's administration, the GDI soldiers were caught in the crossfire of a political pride they did not create.

Greg Burdette nodded, his expression grim.

There is no glory in this report, only the reality of the cost. The GUI has proven it can hold its own, and GDI has proven its soldiers will fight until the end. But the consensus among the public tonight is a sense of collective exhaustion. The people are beginning to see this not as a battle of good versus evil, but as a tragic rivalry where GDI were simply the unlucky souls tasked with fighting a future that had already arrived.

The broadcast ended without the usual stirring anthem. It was a cold, objective look at a planet divided—a world where the old guard and the new architects were locked in a stalemate, and the military was the only one paying the price for the stalemate.