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Downloading data "Tiberium".

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In the world of the future, the main source of income is Tiberium. Named for the Tiber River in Italy where the first meteor hit, this substance leaches heavy metals from the soil, making it more valuable than gold. Tiberium grows as it leaches these metals, and crystals of Tiberium form on the surface, where it can be easily harvested. Tiberium seems to come in different forms, the green, blue and purple varieties, each with a different value.

However, Tiberium has a dark side. As Tiberium leaches metals from surrounding ground, the crystals emit deadly spores. These spores have the ability to cause severe respiratory problems in all animals, killing many and mutating what they cannot kill. And the Tiberium fields are just the tip of the iceberg. Tiberium often creates large underground networks of crystals, which are nearly impossible to harvest but can quickly mutate plant matter as well as springing up new crystals where the spores cannot reach.

Tiberium Trees are at the center of most Tiberium fields. Tiberium Trees, also known as "Blossom Trees" spread spores much more quickly than Tiberium itself. These trees are formed when Tiberium mutates plant matter into a spore-producing Tiberium lifeform. Tiberium Trees have been reported by witnesses to be effectively "immortal", surviving even nuclear missile strikes. Fortunately, no other types of Tiberium lifeforms show this trait.

Tiberium Mushrooms are "evolved" Tiberium Trees, called this because of the spore-producing umbrellas they produce, giving them a mushroom-like shape. Tiberium Mushrooms create much more deadly spores than Tiberium Trees. These spores do not produce green Tiberium like Tiberium Trees, but instead they produce blue Tiberium, which is more volatile than green Tiberium, but is much more valuable. Blue Tiberium stores the leached heavy metals in it to such a concentration that they become very unstable, and the right amount of force can cause a chain reaction as the Tiberium explodes. Should that happen, it is unlikely the Tiberium Mushroom will survive the blast. The detonation of the Tiberium will cause a "devolution" effect, forcing the Tiberium Mushroom to revert to its former state.

But, if such an event does not occur, the Tiberium Mushroom will "evolve" further into a Tiberium Pine. Tiberium Pines are generally Tiberium Mushrooms with several layers of spore-producing umbrellas, each one above smaller than the one below. Tiberium Pines spawn even more destructive spores than Tiberium Mushrooms. These spores produce the granddaddy of all Tiberium, purple Tiberium. Purple Tiberium contains such high concentrations of metals that a single truckload of purple Tiberium is worth an entire field of green Tiberium. These concentrations are so volatile that the ignition of a purple Tiberium field can create a mushroom cloud, produced only by nuclear weapons and the world's most destructive conventional weapons. Such a scenario will likely fell the Tiberium Pine, forcing it to "devolve" directly to a Tiberium Tree.

Your harvesters need not always take Tiberium from the ground. Tiberium can be found in storage containers ready for shipping on the battlefield. These containers are destroyable, and their destruction will cause Tiberium gas to be released, killing infantry and possibly damaging vehicles. Tiberium can also be found in research centers and werehouses, but the destruction of these sources will be disastrous for any units inside a 200-foot radius of the building. These sources should be considered valuable, but dangerous.

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