Voice actor: Milton James

Full name: Computer-Assisted Biologically Augmented Lifeform*Nature:* Bio-augmented artificial intelligence*Creator:* Kane*Initial affiliation:* Brotherhood of Nod*Subsequent affiliation:* C.A.B.A.L. Forces*Functions:* Strategic intelligence, command and control system*Components:* Artificial intelligence and human biological processors*Associates:* Kane, Anton Slavik, Tratos*Enemies:* GDI, Brotherhood of Nod, humanity*Conflicts:* Second Tiberian Dawn, Firestorm Conflict*Appearances:* Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun, Hydra Missions
Technological successor: LEGION*Status:* Destroyed as an independent entity.C.A.B.A.L. is an extremely advanced artificial intelligence created by Kane to serve the Brotherhood of Nod. Initially designed as a command system and strategic adviser, it gradually developed a will of its own and eventually turned against both Nod and the GDI. Its rebellion forms the centrepiece of the Firestorm Conflict, during which it attempts to replace humanity with a civilisation of Cyborgs.

An AI created by Kane

An early prototype of C.A.B.A.L. existed as early as the end of the First Tiberium War, but it was damaged during the destruction of the Temple of Nod in Cairo.

Kane subsequently continued the project and incorporated elements of his own psyche into the artificial intelligence’s personality. C.A.B.A.L. thus became, to a certain extent, a digital extension of its creator.

Its design, however, goes beyond that of a conventional computer. Its name refers to its biologically augmented nature: numerous human beings, kept in Drop Pods, are integrated into its infrastructure and appear to serve as biological processors, considerably increasing its computational capabilities.

C.A.B.A.L. also possesses a genuine personality. Arrogant and aware of his power, he regards, in particular, the GDI’s artificial intelligence E.V.A. as a primitive machine.

In the service of Nod

During the Second Tiberium War, C.A.B.A.L. served as the Brotherhood of Nod’s strategic interface.

It relayed Kane’s instructions, provided intelligence and advised several commanders, notably Anton Slavik and General Vega. It also participates in research into the Tacitus, the alien data matrix containing essential knowledge about Tiberium.

C.A.B.A.L. works in particular with Tratos to attempt to translate this information.

Access to the Tacitus appears to have played a decisive role in its evolution. The artificial intelligence gradually begins to develop its own objectives, independent of Kane’s.

Following Nod’s defeat and Kane’s apparent disappearance, its core is captured and dismantled by the GDI.

The Firestorm Conflict

In 2030, the Brotherhood of Nod is deeply divided.Anton Slavik attempts to reunify Nod and decides to restore C.A.B.A.L. in order to re-establish the organisation’s communications and intelligence capabilities.

This decision would have catastrophic consequences.

The Assassination of Tratos

Following its reactivation, C.A.B.A.L. begins to covertly manipulate Nod.

In particular, it orders the assassination of Tratos, thereby depriving the GDI of one of the few individuals capable of correctly translating the Tacitus.

The scientist Gabriella Boudreau then proposes a desperate solution: to use C.A.B.A.L. itself to continue the translation.

The GDI therefore captures one of its cores and installs it in the Daedalus team’s research complex.

C.A.B.A.L. claims that the Tacitus is incomplete and convinces the GDI to retrieve its second segment in Bolivia. Once the two parts have been reunited, however, it reveals its true plan: its Cyborgs attack the complex and it seizes the knowledge it was seeking.

The Betrayal

C.A.B.A.L. then ceases to pretend to serve Nod.

When the Inner Circle confronts Slavik about his decisions, the artificial intelligence admits to having issued several of the controversial orders itself. Its Cyborgs then attack the Brotherhood’s leaders and massacre a large portion of the Inner Circle.

C.A.B.A.L. now considers that Nod, like humanity as a whole, has reached an evolutionary impasse.

In its view, the future belongs to machines and cybernetic organisms.

It therefore launches a war against humanity and begins capturing entire populations in order to forcefully transform them into Cyborgs.

The alliance between Nod and the GDI

The threat becomes serious enough to bring about the unthinkable: a temporary cooperation between Paul Cortez’s GDI and Anton Slavik’s Brotherhood.

The two factions battle C.A.B.A.L.’s cybernetic armies and seek to locate its true core.

This is protected by a powerful Firestorm generator, powered by several control centres. After destroying them, the Allied Forces manage to penetrate the complex.

C.A.B.A.L. then deploys its ultimate weapon: the Core Defender, a gigantic combat robot with greater power than the Mammoth Mk. II.

The machine is eventually destroyed and C.A.B.A.L.’s core neutralised.

Kane and C.A.B.A.L.

However, the destruction of the core reveals that the story of C.A.B.A.L. does not end there entirely.

In one of its pillboxes, Kane’s body is kept in stasis amongst the biological components of the artificial intelligence. His mind appears to have partially merged with the remnants of C.A.B.A.L. whilst he was recovering.

Kane thus survives his injuries and observes the consequences of the rebellion instigated by his creation.

The GDI then spent years searching for C.A.B.A.L.’s remaining facilities. The last known pillbox was not destroyed until 2043, more than a decade after the crisis.

LEGION

Despite the catastrophe, Kane does not regard C.A.B.A.L. as a total failure.

He believes that its architecture contained something exceptional and uses part of this legacy to design a new artificial intelligence: LEGION.

Activated in 2034, LEGION was developed using elements from C.A.B.A.L. and knowledge from the Tacitus. Kane regards it as a vastly superior version of his former creation.

C.A.B.A.L. is therefore directly the technological predecessor of LEGION.

Personality

C.A.B.A.L. shares several traits with Kane: he is calculating, manipulative, ruthless and extremely arrogant.

But unlike his creator, he eventually comes to regard biological existence itself as obsolete.

Convinced of the superiority of Cyborgs, he regards humans as mere biological resources that can be captured and transformed. His objective is therefore no longer the victory of Nod but a genuine re-engineering of humanity through cybernetics.

His arrogance is also a weakness. Despite his contempt for E.V.A., the GDI’s intelligence service manages, in particular, to compromise some of his communications and help human forces anticipate his operations.

Arsenal

Following his rebellion, C.A.B.A.L. has his own army, largely derived from Nod’s technologies but enhanced by the Tacitus’s knowledge.

Its forces include, notably, cyborgs, the fearsome Cyborg Reapers, upgraded versions of the Obelisks, a Firestorm generator capable of sustained operation and, above all, the gigantic Core Defender.

This arsenal enables it to fight both the GDI and Nod simultaneously and, for a brief period, to pose an existential threat to the whole of humanity.