"Do we have any champagne?" Han asked Qi Jiguang, during the ongoing celebration.

"Not yet sir. But a couple men are on their way back from the local liquor store with some now sir." Qi Jiguang said.

Han was mostly just looking forward to popping the cork out of a bottle and seeing it splash all over the place, like he had seen in movies. Han didn't even know if he would like the taste of the stuff. Alcohol had been forbidden on the Red Tide installation, and so not so much as a drop had ever crossed the lips of any of the Red Tide soldiers.

The Red Tide soldiers had seen plenty of movies though. Movies from all around the world. This had been so that they could understand the culture of various countries around the world. China viewed the U.S. as its biggest threat in the world, and so most of the movies they had watched were from the U.S. Other western countries were viewed as threats as well, but not as big as the U.S.

This had actually played an important role in Han wanting to start the attacks from the U.S. He knew that many countries around the world viewed the U.S. as a threat. In fact the world seemed to be split into two factions; there were countries who viewed the U.S. as the major threat and there were countries who viewed China/Russia as the major threat.

Han had planned to use this to his advantage. He planned to use Russian and Chinese nuclear weapons to target western countries or those countries which aligned themselves politically with the west, and U.S. nuclear weapons to target eastern countries or those who aligned with the east. In the confusion he figured a full on nuclear war would begin. But even if it didn't, he had access to enough nukes to start a nuclear winter anyhow.

Han heard the door open and looked over. He had guards manning the door out of paranoia and they were still there doing their job. The men entering were carrying several bottles of champagne. This champagne was courtesy of the Chinese government, since the government had provided them with access to a large amount of funds. The idea of course was that they would use these funds on undercover missions of the governments choosing. Han had other ideas.

The government had also provided them with incredibly high quality fake identification cards. These were good enough to fool any AI system in the world. This had proven to be quite useful for Han's plans. And to ensure the Chinese government didn't ruin those plans, Han had his best programmers put up an AI firewall, built from scratch. The government was unable to override the system and revoke either the fake identification or the monetary funds.

Han had planned out just about every scenario he could think of. But this well founded plan had been decimated by Qi Lian and the existence of a heretofore unknown American force. It was of no consequence now though, Han would finally be rid of both soon.

"Qi Jiguang, could you send a couple of new guards to replace these ones? I want everyone to have a chance to take part in the celebration." Han asked.

"Absolutely sir." Qi Jiguang responded.

Just then Han heard another set of people at the door. He again watched closely, but the guards opened the door and to his relief it was another set of Red Tide soldiers making their way in. At this point there were several dozen members who had managed to make it to the Fort Tilden bomb shelter. And others had been filtering into the Plattsburgh bomb shelter as well regularly checking in with Han as they did so.

The window was now closing on the time to start launching nuclear weapons. Han looked at his watch and realized that the 20 minutes he had set as a hard limit had nearly passed.

"You came in from Plattsburgh?" Han asked the soldiers.

"Yes sir, we arrived and started heading here at about the time the battle was commencing. In fact we heard some explosions there." A female soldier explained.

"Qi Jiguang have we heard anything from the Plattsburgh attack?" Han wondered.

"No sir, but I have them scanning the communicators of each soldier who was involved in the attack right now." Qi Jiguang replied.

"OK, let me know if you hear anything, I am curious." Han ordered.

Han proceeded to walk around the room, shaking hands and sharing smiles with each soldier. There were enough of them their now to make it a crowded place. This was not of too much concern though. The soldiers were used to being in tight quarters, and there were other buildings on Fort Tilden that they could occupy if need be. Now Han looked down again at his watch. The 20 minutes were up, it was time to begin the attacks.

"Hold on, quiet down everyone please." Han yelled.

The room nearly immediately fell into complete silence.

"Congratulations and thanks to you all, for you have helped me to accomplish this great mission. We will now proceed with the launch as the time has come. We must ensure the deaths of our enemy, and this may lead to the sacrifice of some of our fellow soldiers. As unfortunate as that is, this will be the dawning of a new age, and the rising of the Red Tide!" Han said before being interrupted by cheers.

"We will observe a moment of silence for those who have fallen today, making this day to come to pass." Han ordered, and the room once again fell into silence.

"We got ahold of one of our soldiers sir. She said it was a complete and utter slaughter. She doesn't think that we were able to kill Qi Lian." Qi Jiguang whispered into Han's ear.

Han began to feel a bit of panic. He had hoped, even believed, that Qi Lian was dead.

"Start the launch now!" Han ordered.

The people at the makeshift control center began typing on their keyboards, setting up the launch coordinates as planned.

"Make sure to include Peru New York on your list of target sites. That is close enough to Plattsburgh that it should allow us to take out Qi Lian, but far enough away that it shouldn't hurt our soldiers sheltered there." Han said to his crew.

Then Han thought he heard a noise.

"What is that noise, do you hear it?" Han asked of his guards at the door.

One of the guards opened the door without a word. He couldn't see anything but he heard the noise which appeared to be getting louder. Then he saw what it was, slammed the door shut and jumped out of the way while shouting "incoming!"