Elias was finishing a bland bowl of preserved oats in the HQ mess while perusing the system menu when he came across something... new.
[Command Mode - Eagle View Interface]
Would you like to initiate tutorial?
He paused, spoon halfway to his mouth.
"Wait… what the hell is that?"
The system took that as tacite approval to proceed.
'Eagle View allows remote management of all Command & Conquer assets in real-time. Supreme Commander may issue construction orders, unit commands, and strategic planning from any location with minimal signal disruption. Visual relay is projected through satellite simulation interface. Tactile feedback enabled.'
Elias blinked.
He lowered his spoon and set the bowl aside.
"So you're telling me I can control my entire base… remotely?"
'Affirmative. Range: Global. Latency: Negligible. Warning: Environmental interference and line-of-sight obstructions may affect certain actions in hostile regions.'
He stood up, heart suddenly pounding with excitement.
"Activate interface. Show me Eagle View."
The air shimmered.
Then the world transformed.
A top-down projection unfurled before him like a living map.
The mountain base appeared in full color, miniature figures representing the Refinery and its lone Ore Miner crawling dutifully along its looping route.
Tooltips blinked with status icons—resources, queues, idle units.
It was exactly like the command screen in the old games.
Only real.
There even was fog of war, where he couldnt tell what was going on outside the visual range of his lone ore truck, but getting up and walking over to a window he looked out in a different direction from the ore truck and the map illuminated with everything he could see clearing away the fog.
He reached out instinctively, brushing a hovering marker.
A new panel opened beside it—Refinery stats, repair toggles, route adjustments.
It worked.
It all worked.
Elias was no longer shackled to the mountain.
He didn't need to hide and wait for spring.
He could go, leave the base behind to develop slowly while he prepared other things in the city, or took a tour of the world.
That same evening, Elias stood at the edge of the HQ's hidden valley, his long coat whipping in the wind as he looked down the path toward the lower trails.
Snow still blanketed the wilderness, but it was navigable now—risky, not suicidal.
His course was set before him, thanks to hearing from the locals even in winter the trip even by foot would only take him around six or seven days, and thanks to the supplies in the HQ he could easily create a basic survival pack and while he might be a bit cold at night, it would be highly unlikely that he'd die from the environmental factors.
And even then, his planned route to the capital of Podgorica, would have him pass through three villages he could take up board at to warm his bones if needed.
He'd leave by dawn.
Let the Ore refinery workers continue to dig.
Let the refinery run idle.
Let the Barracks complete in silence while the system trained his first soldiers who'd be the core foundation of his base.
And he?
He would enter the political heart of Montenegro like a wandering academic, seeking opportunity in the cracks of history, living frugally while trying to acquire gems, and jewels cheaply in the markets to fuel his credit growth.
~
The next morning, Elias looked back once at the concealed bunker, now faintly disguised under snow and foliage.
To the untrained eye, it was nothing but a rock formation and a rusting cabin shell.
But underneath?
A heartbeat of revolution.
He began his journey south with a steady pace.
The snow was slow going, but the road was clear.
He avoided wagons and passersby as best he could, choosing silence over curiosity, observation over chatter.
He spent his nights at roadside inns when he could afford it by means of bartering some of his preserved goods, or on the forests edge buried under RA blankets when he couldn't.
Through it all, the system followed him, his own personal wilson as a travel companion.
At night, he activated Eagle View, hovering above his HQ like a god on a leash.
[Credit Reserve: 28]
[Refinery Efficiency: 12%]
[Barracks Status: 54% Constructed]
Progress.
Painfully slow.
But steady.
And now, he had options.
With the barracks being constructed the mining operation was now saving up the funds required to enlist their first units to populate the now deserted HQ.
He'd have another 7 months to develop his forces before having to decide whether to test them in the crucible of war when the Russian Empire made its move across the Danubian river.
By the fourth day of travel, he reached the outskirts of Cetinje, the capital nestled between the rocky folds of Lovćen mountain.
Unlike the hamlets he passed before, the city buzzed with a nervous energy—markets chattered, soldiers patrolled with antique rifles though remarking this he had to bite his tongue from saying it aloud since these were antiques in this time period, and noble carriages passed by, marking the difference between peasants and power.
Elias blended in as a student from Kotor, speaking in the polished dialect he'd mimicked in the village, also using a few other european languages as well for good measure since, thanks to the system he found as the Supreme Commander he was integrated with all the language packs from Earth seeing as how he was most likely going to be needing to speak to and possibly even rule over numerous cultures on his path to performing the goal he had touted before.
His clothes were simple but clean, his demeanor quiet, inquisitive, and above all, forgettable.
He rented a room above a printer's shop in a quiet district—a small attic with a window that overlooked the main boulevard.
Perfect for observation.
Perfect for control.
That night, he stood before the window, the glow of a candle flickering beside him, as he summoned Eagle View once more.
From this tiny room, overlooking a cobbled street in a city of would-be kings and crumbling thrones, Elias Kaine watched as his barracks finally completed construction.
Barracks Operational.
Infantry Units Available: [Rifleman, Engineer, Field Medic, Trench Infantry.]
Training Queue:
1 Engineer - In Progress (1:00 Remaining)
5 Riflemen - Not Enough Funds
The first step.
He hadn't laid a finger on the site in days.
But his faction was growing, one pixelated command at a time.
Soon, that Engineer would be real—flesh and blood, thoughts and loyalty, ready to start performing construction around the base, using the dug up rock and soil from the Ore Refinery crew to create better camoflage and defensive berms or hills from which to fight upon as the final stand.
Once he'd created enough of them he could summon some of them up to join him in the capital or to spread out and extend the reach of his eyes across the nation.