| Technology Of The Brotherhood Of Nod |
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COMPUTER ASSISTED BIOLOGICALLY AUGMENTED LIFEFORM The Computer Assisted Biologically Augmented Lifeform ('''CABAL''') is an Artificial Intelligence used by Nod. Although gender-neutral being an artificial entity, CABAL is always portrayed as male in both virtual appearance and voice. His purpose is twofold: it acts as a Console interface between battlefield soldiers and their commander, and collates Intelligence and devises Strategy of its own. He also knows how to translate the Tacitus, an object which holds all recorded knowledge of Tiberium , compiled by the Scrin. His function is parallel to GDI 's EVA , but is superior; CABAL truly has a Mind of his own and can act independently. EVA at best gives logically-formulated advice, having no will of its own. CABAL's Personality is that of the stereotypical "Insane AI" present in many Science Fiction stories. In ''Tiberian Sun'' there are hints of this, he 'praises' the Firestorm defence at GDI's Hammerfest base ("The systems are impenetrable. There are no weak points. The technology is without flaw.") and then immediately points out an opportunity to trick someone with security authorization into shutting it down ("The human element, as always, is riddled with imperfection."). His behaviour however, is that of a no-nonsense professional, and showed little to no warnings of turning into the omni-malevolent Villain in ''Firestorm''. The only exception known is the mission statement of one of Nod's early missions. CABAL then remarks that the said mission is important "to my...! Your... movement". In the ''Firestorm'' expansion, he shows his true colours. CABAL's master plan forms the backbone of the game's initial missions, manipulating both GDI and Nod into helping him carry out his plans ("Humans, as ever, are easily herded"). His personality finally manifests, occasionally using Poetic speech ("Consider this the overture to my symphony."), mocking people ("WARNING! Inferior tactics detected."), maintaining a heavy dose of Sarcasm ("Oh by the way, missile launch detected."), speaking in a highly- Patronizing tone ("Awaiting ''you'', human."), and having an air of superiority and arrogance (In other words, he has a very low opinion of people). The "Insane AI" persona is complete in the last missions for both GDI and Nod; every once in a while he can be heard laughing maniacally. It should be noted that his virtual appearance changes from the game to the expansion set. In the original, he is just barely a reddish-orange face maintaining a sinister appearance; a hardly-seen mouth, sharp and accented features around the eyes, and similarly-coloured pupils, iris and sclera. His new appearance in the expansion set is shown above; a blue head with fully-animated Orbital Shells for eyes. Origin CABAL's origin is unknown (Speculation places it to be Scrin technology). It was first acquired by the , Nod agents rehoused CABAL's core in Egypt. CABAL assisted Kane loyalists in the overthrow of the Global Defense Initiative 's puppet Nod leader General Hassan. CABAL's earliest known appearance, at the end of the First Tiberium War, was also at about the same time construction of the large Scrin ship seen in the Second was finished. Additionally in ''Renegade'', within walking distance of the Temple housing CABAL is a crashed alien saucer, the door logo a triangle composed of three smaller ones. In ''Firestorm'', CABAL's core is animated as a similarly-composed Pyramid ; seen from the sides, the resemblance is uncanny. Game Involvement During the Second Tiberium War, CABAL was used as Nod's AI and Kane's right-hand man. After the war, GDI forces stationed at the defeated Cairo base deactivated and disassembled the CABAL core, which was recovered by Nod's Black Hand forces. Upon reactivation, it immediately begins putting its plan into place. This results in the assassination of Tratos, the seizure of the Tacitus, the recovery of the Tacitus' secondary component, the collapse of Nod's Inner Circle, the intentional capture of a piece of CABAL by GDI, and so on. It was able to do all this without anyone's knowledge of the overall plan up to the point it openly severed contact with all involved parties, and revealed that it had built up a personal Cyborg army. This lead to the unholy alliance between Nod and GDI to destroy CABAL which was successful. GDI received the Tacitus and Nod declared victory against the "single greatest threat to the survival of the Brotherhood". After the final defeat of CABAL and his cyborg army, the ending shows Kane's body hooked into the CABAL interface and being kept alive in a Cryogenic tube with Life Support systems while recovering from his injuries sustained at the end of the war. Several other humans are being kept alive in similar tubes, presumably for CABAL's cyborg production to continue. The screen continually splices between CABAL and Kane, both referring to Kane's plan with their disjointed individual voices. Suddenly only CABAL's voice can be heard and it is very clear what is said ("''Our'' directives must be reassessed"). Concept art by a concept artist (whose site is now closed) had created pictures of a ''CABAL Trooper'', ''CABAL Puppet Master'' and ''CABAL Asymmetrical Hybrid'' to name a few. CABAL's units seemed to be the result of cyborg technology taken to extremes. Instead of complementing the human body, the robotic attachments serve to control it (for example - the Puppet Master's eyes were sewn shut and his legs had been attached to his back). See section below for further details. Perhaps the earliest appearance or reference to CABAL in the Command & Conquer timeline takes place on the final level of . While infiltrating Kane's temple in Sarajevo , one can hear clips of a male Nod EVA unit malfunctioning. While most of these are simply amusing ("Intruder Alert. Alert Cancelled. Intruder Alert. Alert Cancelled. Intruder Alert. Intruder Cancelled. All intruders please report to the detention center," and "Attention: There's no business like show business. Don't throw stones in glass houses without proper protection. That is all.") One of them clearly says "Computer Assisted Biologically Augmented Lifeform damaged. Please shut down all non-essential operations." CABAL is voiced by Milton James. Tiberian Twilight concept art The Concept Art described in this section would have served as the design basis for CABAL's army in Twilight, the next instalment of the Tiberian game series. They originally existed as an online gallery on the personal site of a Westwood artist, but was told to take them down and complied. In addition, his site is now closed indefinitely for renovations. Fortunately, a number of fans managed to save the twenty-or-so images before they were pulled, and they can now be found on various Command & Conquer fan sites. Most of the designs have abandoned traditional Wheel ed and Caterpillar Track ed Locomotion in favour of legs, hovering, or flying; it seems the goal is to make them as unfamiliar and High-tech as possible in appearance. Many of the units have a more organic feel thanks to Bionics -minded design, borrowing features from Fiddler Crab s, the Lernaean Hydra , Spider Crab s, Wasp s, Cockroach es, Flower s, Flies , T-Rex , and so on. In addition, stereotypically-designed wholly-mechanical Robot s also exist; random visible components, exposed internals, angular body parts, fragmented external shells, etcetera etcetera. The cyborgs are now Lovecraftian , their original humanoid design warped into a variety of grotesque Cybernetic housings, adorned with excess mechanical limbs and Tentacle s. The human components bear signs of horrific Surgery and Amputation , coupled with Prosthetics to replace intentionally-crippled body parts. There are even two Mecha . The first has a left Hammer arm and two right manipulator arms, each powerful enough to lift a tank. In the art, it is depicted as about to put one in its mouth. The second is about to stomp on a vehicle, and bears huge lower arms. Of note is its onboard locomotive system; it appears to be driven by Electroactive Polymers instead of traditional means such as Electric Motor s and Hydraulic Machinery . DIVINATION Divination refers to the process of controlled tiberium Mutation conducted by the Brotherhood Of Nod , especially by Dr. Petrova, apparently based partly on Josef Mengele 's horrific Nazi experiments during World War II . Divination recipients
PROJECT REGENESIS Project ReGenesis was a program centered around using Tiberium -assisted Genetic Engineering and early Cybernetics technology in order to create Supersoldier s. It used information gained from the research of Dr. Ignatio Mobius to mutate captured civilians, Global Defense Initiative soldiers and Nod volunteers. It was shut down by GDI and all remnants destroyed with Kane's temple. In Command & Conquer: Renegade, Dr. Ignatio Mobius and his daughter, Sydney Mobius, are captured and forced to undergo "Treatment" by Doctor Elena Petrova, a former GDI researcher who joined the Brotherhood of Nod. Petrova called ReGenesis the route to perfection of the human race, and to that end underwent the process herself. Havok eventually rescued Sydney from within the Temple of Nod in which she was being held, after he had eliminated Petrova. Sydney then reprogrammed the temple's Nuke to detonate inside the silo once the timer counted off. |
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