The Obelisk of Light

• Designation: DS-7 (Defence Structure)
• Affiliation: Nod
• Role: Heavy base defence
• Launch date: 2074
• Class: Defence
• Armament: Class VII “Anubis” military Laser Turret (100kW)
• Type: Defence Structure
• Speed: N/A

Background

The Obelisk of Light has long been the symbol of the ‘Peace Through Power’ brotherhood. Standing twenty metres tall and topped with a red crystal, this black monolith serves to protect Noddi facilities from armoured vehicle attacks. The obelisk has been continuously upgraded throughout its long and distinguished history, culminating in the TW3-era “Isis” iteration, capable of cutting through Mammoth Tanks as effectively as it is against infantry. Combined with the Nod’s laser cannons, its range and firing distance make the “Isis” Obelisk the deadliest defensive structure of the Third Tiberium War.

Despite its overwhelming firepower, the Obelisk has always suffered from one weakness: its inability to engage airborne targets. Interference with the targeting sensors, difficulties with refraction tables and the issue of atmospheric conditions have rendered this powerful Laser Turret ineffective against aircraft. Although attempts have been made over recent decades to rectify these issues, many scientists have concluded that this was impossible without significantly reducing the beam’s power.

This vulnerability to aircraft led to the gradual phasing out of the Obelisks in the late 2060s with the advent of advanced stratospheric transport craft. Whilst the Obelisks could crush any ground-based offensive whilst the Venoms protected them against the Orcas and Firehawks, the new vessels, such as the Kodiak cruiser, can evade the Obelisk’s deadly Laser Turret and bombard the structure from the sky. As separatist attacks on the TCN intensified in 2070, Nod commanders, both separatists and loyalists, began replacing their Obelisks with cheaper and more versatile Flame Columns, and the Obelisk seemed destined for the scrap heap… until a Nod leader, Henry Liu, uncovered a 40-year-old GDI secret.

Liu had been posing as a TCN Worker for nearly a decade, gathering intelligence on his GDI employers and on the separatists who had nearly killed him in a raid a few years earlier. In 2072, he was charged with repairing a GDI storage facility that had been damaged in a separatist attack. After some investigation, Liu discovered that the storage facility had been a laboratory for the Echo programme, a secret GDI project aimed at replicating and upgrading Nod’s weaponry. Their main subject of study was a 40-year-old artefact from Central Africa – a functional Obelisk of Darkness.

This relic from the Second Tiberium War is the only known Obelisk capable of precisely targeting and destroying enemy aircraft, and the Inner Circle knew that this technology had to be acquired by the Brotherhood. Fully aware that any kind of attack would spell the end of his alliance with the GDI, Kane personally dispatched a lone agent, codenamed ‘White Lady’, to infiltrate the facility and retrieve all the project data without the GDI suspecting Kane’s involvement. Shortly afterwards, the GDI reported that one of its facilities had been overrun by separatist forces and destroyed. Curiously, no distress call was ever received from the facility and, even more bizarrely, no bodies were found amongst the rubble. The GDI dispatched several teams to the vicinity to locate the separatists responsible, but none were found in the area.

Two years later, Nod unveiled the new Class VII ‘Anubis’ Laser Turret, fully capable of firing upwards at large vessels. With its greatest weakness rectified, the ‘Anubis’ Obelisk achieves what its predecessors could not – total supremacy on both the ground and in the air.

Battlefield Specifications

Lesson learnt The Obelisk of Light is no longer an easy target for enemy aircraft; with its ability to attack aerial units, the Obelisk can now defend itself against a wide variety of threats, from bombers to aircraft. Furthermore, the new “Anubis” Laser Turret is easily the most powerful weapon in Nod’s arsenal, specifically designed to pierce the heavy armour of powerful ships, tanks and Crawlers. This power comes at a price, however: the Obelisk has lost its ability to target infantry.A new way to boost firepower The ability to attack aircraft is not the only improvement over the previous model. Borrowing from laser cannon technology, the Obelisk is equipped with a secondary system that can fire at nearby Obelisks, increasing their range and firepower. Unlike the Beam Cannon, this secondary system is completely independent and does not interfere with the Obelisk’s main weapon, which can continue to fire as normal. This turns the network of Obelisks into a killing field for any unit reckless enough to attack.Wipe them out

The Anubis Laser Turret is extremely powerful, but has a relatively slow rate of fire, leaving the monolith vulnerable to large swarms of smaller units. Although most Obelisks are protected by infantry or other defensive structures, the introduction of Crawlers and mobile warfare has led some to deploy isolated or unsupported Obelisks. To provide these obelisks with some protection against massive enemy attacks, Nod commanders can replace the focusing crystal with a specially designed prism crystal that allows the Laser Turret to strike nearby enemy troops. However, this crystal is not standard; it requires slightly more energy than usual to power and takes some time to upgrade.