With the airports secured and the skies reclaimed, Thomas Green knew that a physical victory wasn't enough—he needed a symbolic one. To restore the morale of the Union's citizens and solidify his claim over the continent, the Recapture of the Australian Senate Hall became the priority.
The operation began with thunder from above. A coordinated strike by Albatross heavy bombers hammered the Steel Talons' forward base, turning their perimeter into a graveyard of twisted girders and slag. Before the smoke even cleared, a Viper Fangs MCV rumbled onto the ruins of the GDI site and deployed.
In a display of the Union's industrial superiority, a new base rose where the GDI's had fallen. The GUI constructed their unique Power Plants—units that appeared deceptively primitive but generated immense wattage. Once the Tiberium Fusion Generator upgrades were installed, the plants began to hum with a blinding blue light, providing the near-limitless energy needed for the final push. Barracks, Assault Vehicle Factories, and Avia Factories were erected in record time, churning out a fresh wave of white-and-blue steel.
The battle for the capital was a masterclass in the Viper Fangs' specialties: covert speed and surgical tactics. While GDI expected a head-on slugfest, the GUI exploited every weakness in the Steel Talons' rigid structure. Using high-altitude reconnaissance from the reclaimed Airfields, the Union identified the Talons' hidden supply depots and reinforcement routes.
A series of precision air strikes and rapid-response Coyote raids systematically severed the GDI's logistics. Because GDI's Titan and Wolverine units were significantly more expensive to maintain and repair, the Steel Talons quickly found their coffers empty. The GUI's control of the surrounding Tiberium fields ensured that every crystal harvested in the sector went to the Union's war machine, leaving the GDI commander to watch his credit reserves bottom out.
The GDI Commander hissed as his defensive turrets powered down one by one due to lack of funds.
Without the credits to repair their defenses or call in fresh walkers, the Steel Talons were helpless when the GUI launched the direct assault. A wall of Jaguars and Mammoth Artillery pulverized the remaining GDI barricades, clearing a path for the Viper Fang Riflemen to storm the steps of the Senate Hall.
By dawn, the blue-and-white flag was hoisted over the grand dome. The seat of Australian power was back in GUI hands, and the Steel Talons were forced into a humiliating retreat, leaving behind the wreckage of an "old school" army that had been outspent and outplayed by the future.
******
With the Senate Hall reclaimed and the Union's flag snapping in the wind, the Viper Fangs moved to sever the Steel Talons' remaining lifeline. One of the GUI's captured frontier cities had been converted into a massive logistics hub, filled with GDI ammunition crates, fuel cells, and spare walker parts.
To dismantle this fortress, Thomas Green didn't send a battalion. He sent a ghost.
The GUI Commando descended into the city's shadows like a wraith. Clad in a lightweight, agile exoskeleton that enhanced his speed and silenced his footsteps, he was the Union's ultimate hitman. His primary tool was a multipurpose rifle—a masterwork of engineering that fired silent, high-velocity rounds and deployed toxic puffer discs. These discs, when triggered, released a tasteless, odourless gas that silenced sentries before they could reach for their comms.
The Steel Talons, arrogant in their heavy armour, had left their internal security thin. They relied on their Titans at the gates, never imagining a single man could bypass their perimeter without specialized cloaking technology.
Using the grappling hook integrated into his arm, the Commando scaled the white-stone walls with predatory grace. He moved through the rafters of the supply depots, systematically eliminating every officer and technician. He didn't just kill; he sabotaged. He loosened fuel valves, frayed electrical conduits, and placed micro-charges on walker power cores.
One by one, the personnel were neutralized in the dark. When the Commando moved to the vehicle bays, he didn't trigger an alarm. Instead, he made the destruction look like a series of cascading technical failures. A fuel leak "accidentally" ignited; a Wolverine's reactor "malfunctioned" and went critical.
By the time the sun began to rise, the supply hub was a graveyard of smouldering wreckage and silent halls. Every GDI unit in the city had been defeated, and yet, not a single distress signal had been sent. The Steel Talons outside the city waited for supplies that would never come, completely unaware that their entire logistics wing had been dismantled by a man they didn't even know existed.
The Commando stood on a high spire, looking down at the silent ruin, before retracting his grappling hook and vanishing into the morning mist.
******
The Australian Outback was no longer just a wasteland; it was a front line of clashing civilizations. While the Viper Fangs had successfully reclaimed their stolen cities, the Steel Talons remained a jagged threat, anchored in a massive, fortified base just beyond the GUI's borders. Colonel Jackson had dug in, surrounding his Construction Yard with a forest of Guard Towers and railgun-toting Titans.
Thomas Green knew a conventional push would be a slaughter. He needed his trump cards.
The GUI base rose with mechanical speed. This time, the industrial hum was deeper. Specialized facilities began harvesting raw Tiberium and fusing it into the high-yield, eco-friendly Uranum fuel cells. The Viper Fangs were granted immediate access to the Wasp hangar, but the true heavy hitters—Project Mole and Project Leviathan—were still in the final stages of R&D.
The desert floor erupted in a symphony of fire. The GUI deployed its elite trio: Porcupines created a dome of anti-air and anti-infantry lead, shredding GDI Hammerheads and Grenadiers. Mammoth Artillery hammered the GDI fortifications from miles away, their Uranum-enriched shells creating shockwaves that buckled Titan armor. In the gaps, the Chameleons moved as invisible predators, their stealth fields allowing them to bypass GDI Wolverine patrols and pick off Repair Drones.
The Steel Talons pushed back with raw, iron fury. Wave after wave of walkers slammed into the GUI perimeter, but the Viper Fangs held, fueled by the limitless energy of their Tiberium-fusion generators.
Deep within the Prototype Factory, the countdown hit zero. The ground began to vibrate with a low-frequency hum that made the sand dance.
Thomas Green stood, his silhouette cast against the monitors.