18: 20
Joseon Naval Base, South Korea
Mei slowly sneaked around from behind the building and went through a small alley to find the main compound in front of her. She quickly hid behind a pile of anchor rope and raised her head to look forward.
Her eyes widened at what she saw. The compound was filled with soldiers, with full gear, waiting for deployment. All of them were wearing camos, and they had a new logo on their sleeves, under the South Korean flag. The logo showed a red eagle spreading its wings in front of the rising sun and a black shield under it.
Mei whispered, "Watcher 0-4, you seeing this?"
A male voice came through her earpiece: "I am. They're definitely planning an attack. Now get to it, fast. Take some pictures and get out of there."
"On it. But first…"
Mei sneaked through behind the logistics crates and anchor ropes towards the dock. Near the dock, she sneaked to an oil reservoir and took out a small, pen-sized C4 charge. She planted the charge on the oil reservoir just towards the floor.
After setting up the charge, Mei walked along the outer edges of the compound, using the rain to mask her presence, and got to a small one-story building. It had a metal staircase on the outer wall of the building, leading to the roof. She quietly climbed the staircase and got on the roof. After looking around and making sure that she wasn't spotted, she whispered, "ARIA, go to photo mode."
ARIA's voice came through her earpiece: "Yes, Captain."
Mei started looking around and blinking. Every time she blinked, ARIA took a picture with her head cam. After taking pictures of everything, she whispered, "Send them to the base. Time to leave."
Just as she was about to get down from the rooftop, she stopped in her tracks. A guard was patrolling the area with his K-9 dog, and they were coming towards the building. Mei quickly dived down and hid behind the railing. As the guard came closer, she prayed that she wouldn't get found out.
Just as the guard was about to cross the building, suddenly the dog started to bark violently. The guard tried to pull on the dog's leash to stop the dog from running away, but he failed as the leash broke and the dog ran towards the metal stairs.
It quickly climbed up the stairs and jumped on Mei, trying to attack her. Mei's heart skipped a beat the moment she saw the dog jump on her, but she quickly put her left arm in front of her to save herself. The dog bit into her arm. Thanks to the kevlar and nano-fibre composites her diving suit was made of, the dog's teeth failed to pierce the suit, but the pressure was enough to make her feel immense pain.
The dog shook his head violently while biting into her arm, trying to tear her hand off. Mei controlled her pain, took out her knife from the holster with her right hand, and stabbed the dog in the neck from its right and pulled the knife out. The dog whimpered in pain for a split second as blood sprinkled out of the hole created by Mei's knife before its lifeless body collapsed on Mei.
Mei quickly pushed the dog off of herself and got up. By that time, the guard had reached the rooftop. The guard saw Mei and tried to radio in for backup. But before he could, Mei lunged at him at full speed and stabbed him in the stomach while using her left hand to silence him.
As she saw light leaving the guard's eyes, she pulled out the knife slowly and laid the guard's dead body down next to the dead dog. She whispered, "huh. Why do I have to do this?"
She then jumped off of the rooftop and started running towards the barrier from where she had infiltrated in. Just as she turned the corner to the road right next to the barrier wall, a barrage of bullets riddled the area.
Mei quickly dodged the bullets and hid behind the corner again. She peeked and saw a bunch of soldiers standing in the middle of the road with their rifles aimed in her direction. In front of them was a man from whose uniform Mei determined that he might be the one in charge. Mei thought to herself, "Shite. Should've been more careful."
She tried to turn back and run but stopped in her tracks again as she saw another bunch of soldiers coming from that side.
The man yelled in Korean, "포위됐어. 포기하고 나오렴. 아, 당신은 한국어를 모르는 것 같아요. (You're surrounded. Give up and come out. Oh, I think you don't know korean)"
The man then said in Japanese, "包囲されている. 諦めて出て来い. (You're surrounded. Give up and come out.)"
Mei clicked her tongue, sheathed her knife and got out with her hands up. She got closer to the man and said in fluent korean, "난 한국어 알아, 멍청아 (I know Korean, you dimwit.)"
The man smiled sarcastically and said, "네? 당신은요? 헬멧을 벗어. 네가 누군지 한번 보자... (Oh? Do you? Take off the helmet. Let's see who you are.)"
As he saw Mei hesitating, he yelled, "내 말 안 들리냐? 헬멧 벗어. 안 그러면 네 시체에서 헬멧을 벗겨 주겠다. (Do you not hear me? Take off the helmet, or we will take it off of your dead body.)"
Mei replied in a stern voice, "아니, 넌 내 얼굴을 절대 볼 수 없을 거야. 아리아, 그 전하를 날려버려. (No. You'll never see my face. ARIA, blow the charge.)"
In a second, the base shook as the C4 charge attached to the oil reservoir exploded. The main charge was small, but it ignited the oil in the reservoir, turning the small C4 explosion into a massive fiery explosion.
Everyone's attention shifted to the explosion, and Mei used that to her advantage. She quickly jumped and climbed the wall. And before they could follow, she jumped into the water. She pulled on her diving gear while staying underwater and swam behind a big rock sticking out of the water. She put on the gear and swam away while staying underwater, escaping the searchlights. The korean leader jumped up to the wall hurriedly and tried to look for her but he failed.