The Almighty Ring

Waiting for the missiles to drop was akin to sitting in a classroom, listening to the teacher mumbling about nonsensical topics that you had no interest in. The few minutes of waiting felt like a year.

Everyone was waiting nervously for the missiles to enter China’s atmosphere, and when it did, the sky lit up like fireworks.

“Open fire!” cried commanders in every operating base. Anti Missiles were launched immediately, targeting the American’s ICBMs and stealth fighter jets.

The alien machine was activated and adjusted to aim for the skies. The electronic buzz whirled loudly before firing concentrated light beams that took down the fighter jets first since they were flying at a lower altitude.

These fighter jets were lethal as they were carrying nuclear bombs, but they were of lower threat than the large ICBM missiles higher in the air. Compared to the ICBMs, fighter jets were fast but easier to target and take down. Every American jet that entered China’s airspace were destroyed in a few shots.

“Commander! All 17 fighter jets were shot down before the package could be delivered!” cried an operator.

“Impossible! They are stealth, for god’s sake!” the commander gasped. He snorted immediately and the proud expression returned to his face.

“Didn’t you guarantee me that these fighters could never be detected?!” he barked at the operator.

The reason the commander was so agitated was because the operator had requested permission to sortie those stealth jets and had even promised that those fighter jets would never be detected and could deliver their payload easily. Now that all the stealth jets were destroyed before they could even enter the enemy’s airspace, the commander took it out on the operator since there were extremely expensive compared to ICBMs!

The stealth fighter jets that were sortied and destroyed were special. They were classified as bomber planes, but of a different level. Due to their extreme cost and maintenance cost, there were only a total of 22 in America. One was inoperable due to an engine mishap while the other 21 fighter jets were kept and cared for as if they were American treasures. Alas, 17 were launched and destroyed in the most spectacular manner. The remaining four that were still in the base got lucky.

“Commander! There’s no worries. We might have lost the front liners but we still hundreds of ICBMs in the air!” said the operator as he wiped away the sweat on his forehead. The man was nervous for a second but calmed down as he realized that the fighter jets were just an appetizer compared to the hundreds of ICBMs!

After the fighter jets were taken down, the night sky calmed down and the dust settled. However, in mere seconds, the sky cracked and the ICBMs had entered China’s airspace. As soon as these missiles entered the atmosphere, they were immediately intercepted and destroyed!

“Change of plans. Program the missiles to release the warheads before they enter the atmosphere!”

Unlike military commanders, Mutants were able to sense something was wrong and made quick changes to their attack plan before all of their missiles were destroyed. Mutants were unlike politicians, who did not understand how to fight and how to react when the enemies deployed a counter tactic. All politicians cared about was to get their hands on the bigger stick and worry about who to fight after.

After the script on the missiles were changed, the missiles then immediately released their warheads from the main rocket before entering the atmosphere. Unlike conventional ICBMs, these ICBMs contained not one, but as many as 10 nuclear warheads in a single rocket. These nuclear warheads split up while entering the atmosphere, making it harder for China to intercept them all.

There were at least 108 bases with Terminal High Altitude Area Defense Turrets installed. Even with such a staggering amount, the defense system was still unable to intercept thousands of nuclear warheads!

“Calculate the warhead projection. Focus on only those that are falling into densely populated areas. The others that are heading into the mountains can be ignored!” ordered the Defense Secretary of America to all commanders throughout the land that had launched their own ICBMs.

Theoretically speaking, a nuclear detonation in the outskirts would still affect the city and even further out. However, Jiang Fei had already predicted that if there was a nuclear threat coming into China. As the final countermeasure, he had given Han Tianyu the ultimate nuclear deterrent—the Anti-Fission Device!

As the name defines its purpose, the Anti-Fission Device stops the fission process from happening right in the warheads. Without fission, the radioactive materials would not be able to unleash their devastating destructive powers. Once activated, the nuclear material would be stabilized, or in layman’s term, bricked. At most, these warheads would cause minor damage overall when they land in China. There were bound to be casualties. It was expected since a football sized metal container could make a meter wide crater. Imagine it striking a building or a tree. All the military needed to make sure was to clear them before they hit major cities and other densely populated places.

“Good job! The warheads will be detonating in China!” cried the higher-ups of the Mutant Brotherhood, cheering prematurely. They were celebrating since of all the ICBMs were launched, only one-third was able to make it beyond the atmosphere and enter China’s airspace. For better or worse, they had considered it as a win.

However, after a few minutes, someone checked the satellite readings and discovered that something was wrong.

“Sir! I am not picking up any radioactive signal coming from China!” cried the operator. At that moment, the cheering stopped, followed by a tense atmosphere that cause everyone to return to their seats. The E.T.A of the bomb detonation had long passed its due and they were supposed to pick up radiation spikes all across China. However, according to their readings, the warheads merely landed on the ground, quiet, unmoving.

“Hmm? What’s going on outside? Is it raining?”

“I have no idea. Weather forecast are useless anyways. No one can really predict the weather with 100% accuracy.”

Not long after the lights went off, the citizens of China that were awake had decided to spend the night outside their house due to the heat. When they were relaxing in their gazebo, they heard impacts on the roof, akin to rain drops. They did not know was those drops were tiny fragments of missiles that were destroyed by China! Many had thought that rain was coming since explosion in the skies was making light but not sound as the explosion was happening way beyond the atmosphere.

Compared to the cities where the people were relaxing, people in the countryside were having the time of their lives.

“Come quick! It’s meteorite!”

“Where! I wanna see it!”

Warheads that were rendered inert dropped into rice fields and farms. Naturally, the sudden incursion disturbed the wildlife that was sleeping and made a huge fuss. People were alerted and rushed to the site only to see a steaming metal ball within a large crater.

The fragments and inactive warheads landed all across China sparsely. Not more than two dropped in the city and even less in villages in the countryside. Hence, no one would even think that these things were nuclear warheads.

However, before the villagers could even try and touch it, authorities showed up quickly and picked them up. These inactive warheads would not explode but the nuclear materials inside the warheads were still dangerous to humans. It was best to collect them and store it away.

Hundreds of ICBMs were launched and thousands of nuclear warheads had entered and landed in China. Yet… nothing was going on. Not even panic on the news. It was… as if… nothing had happened. That made everyone in the Mutant Brotherhood high table scared and panicked.

“Should we launch a second strike?” one of the cabinet members asked.

“…”

No one dared to answer and while they were trying to think of a way, China was preparing their reply.

In conventional nuclear warfare, it was common for the country being attacked to sent their own nuclear bombs at the attacker. However, using nuclear as a means of counterattack was too violent and merciless to the millions of innocent citizens. There was still one way to attack, and that was to use the powerful alien tech super submarine that was still in the South China Sea!

“Commander Nie, we have received the counterattack order!” said one of the operators to Nie Shilong.

“Finally! I’ve been waiting for this!” Nie Shilong bellowed as he clenched his fist. Even though he had thoroughly destroyed the American Naval fleet, Nie Shilong had always thought that the vessel could do more than chasing away enemies.