Covert Operation

Elsewhere, ruined skyscrapers crawled with vines. Below, the streets were cold and empty, and fragments of broken glass littered the line of stores. The stores were in an utter mess; clearly, they had been plundered.

A piece of yellowed newspaper from who knows what year danced about on the streets, carried by the faint wind.

Moonlight filtered through the thick cloud of dust to lend the city some of its luster—the city's only source of light.

This was an abandoned city. It had once belonged to a great nation, but even this great nation no longer existed, and its people had moved to other places. The living conditions here were so poor that even wanderers avoided this place.

Countless other cities had been similarly abandoned over the last few decades of change. As soon as the people left though, these forsaken jungles of concrete and steel became flourishing grounds for vegetation.

According to Han Xiao's intel, the Germinal Organization had three bases within Stardragon territory. One of them was located here. The nation's top brass had been both shocked and angered to learn of the presence of Germinal bases in the country. Within 24 hours, troops had been dispatched from the nearest military bases to attack.

Currently, the city was being bombarded. Over a dozen armored military vehicles had entered the city, and the sound of gunfire and cannon fire was incessant. Screams filled the night.

However, the surface battle was just a diversion.

3 covert ops agents had been tasked to infiltrate the base. They'd just arrived at a side entrance.

Li Yalin was an agent with level 4 clearance. A beautiful, young woman with extremely fair skin, she wore a yellow hoodie on top of black compression tights that accentuated her sexy, nose-bleed-inducing body. She had an athletic build.

Li Yalin held her hands up in the air as she stretched her back, demonstrating impressive flexibility in the beautifully arced, well-proportioned body of hers. She was clearly the most carefree and energetic of the trio.

She stopped chewing on her bubblegum to complain, "I was finally able to take a break because of my leader's injury, but they call me back so suddenly for an emergency mission. Are agents not humans?"

Lambert continued to polish his dagger silently. Lambert was the 'ace' of a top-secret, unofficial squad during his time in the military, and he had been secretly transferred to the Covert Ops Department after his 'discharge'. He wore a military-style uniform, and on top of the dozen or so daggers strapped across his waist, there was a black sniper rifle across his back.

"This… this mission… seems to be very important," stammered Li Yao, a 1.7 meters tall man who looked extremely young. He was the hacker of this three man cell, and carried a bag filled with the team's tools. He was in the midst of hacking the door. It didn't take him too long.

The trio exchanged glances before entering.

Li Yalin led the front while Lambert took the rear. They hacked through numerous high tech gates effortlessly as they made their way to the server room.

The Germinal Organization was very careful with its information. Once a base was compromised, they would cut off its access to their network, delete all traces of data, and activate an EMP blast to destroy the hardware. Hence, they had always remained elusive to the Six Nations – until Han Xiao arrived.

The trio swiftly arrived at Basement 2, where the server room was located. Suddenly, Lin Yao, who was monitoring the hacked feed, began to exclaim, "There are guards approaching from behind the…"

Before he could finish his sentence, a team of guards appeared in their sights!

Li Yalin was the quickest to react. She burst forward so quickly that the guards weren't even able to draw their guns in time. Leaping gracefully into the air, Lin Ya Lin performed a mid-air split to kick the front two guards in their heads, snapping their necks instantly.

Her power was just as impressive as her flexibility.

She landed on her hands and used them as a pivot to spin her entire body. Her legs began to glow yellow as she extended them while spinning, easily sweeping through the crowd of guards.

"Pugilist!"

The last remaining guard was about to call for reinforcements when a streak of silver flashed across the corridor. A dagger pierced his throat, ending his life.

Lin Ya Lin and Lambert had effortlessly eliminated the fully-equipped squad of guards.

Suddenly, the lights in the corridor turned red as sirens began to wail.

"We've been discovered! There is a large number of guards heading towards us. The base is being locked down!" exclaimed Lin Yao.

"Hurry up and hack the server room's doors!"

"I'm already on it! I need at least three minutes, but the guards will arrive in less than a minute! I can't bypass the firewall in such a short time. Sor-sorry…" replied a profusely sweating Lin Yao as he frantically typed away at an unbelievable speed.

Very soon, they could hear the sound of footsteps coming from both ends of the corridor. There was no place to hide in the corridor. Although Li Yalin and Lambert were confident of killing their way out, the mission seemed like a lost cause.

"Oh right! Didn't they give us some new equipment‽" recalled Li Yalin suddenly. She hastily retrieved a long black case from Lin Yao's bag and opened it to reveal a metallic mechanical arm.

The Lightweight Mechanical Arm!

"How is this thing supposed to be used? Did you guys read the manual?"

"Slide your left arm through it and activate it with your thumb!" replied Lin Yao hastily. "I don't know if it will explode though… I mean, it is the Research Department…"

It was well known throughout Division 13 that anything the Research Department produced was risky to use.

"We don't have a choice!" Li Yalin gritted her teeth as she slid her hand into the mechanical arm.

The mechanical arm started to whirl!

"I'm fine!" she rejoiced, a look of amazement on her face.

She smashed the mechanical arm into the steel door and discovered to her surprise that it had caused a huge dent, so she continued to throw punches at it.

Twenty seconds later, right as the guards arrived, the door was blasted open.

The trio hurriedly entered the room.

"That was close."

Li Yao immediately got to work. Digital lockdown was 57% complete. If he were fast enough, he would not only be able to make a backup of the base's data, but also use its access to hack directly into Germinal Organization's vaults.

With the room acting as a fort, Lin Ya Lin and Lambert were able to put their fearsome combat abilities to full use.

Li Yan Lin glowed with a yellow aura as she swiftly and gracefully dispatched of the invading guards with a metal baton on top of the Lightweight Mechanical Arm. Her blows were so powerful that they shattered the guards' bones through their bullet-proof armor.

Meanwhile, Lambert was throwing his daggers out from inside the room. They rebounded to find their marks with frightening accuracy.

The pair was causing a massive number of casualties. Although the guards numbered over a hundred, they were unable to do anything.

Suddenly, the network access and power supply were cut off, and the whole place turned dark.

"Charge out!" yelled Li Yalin.

Lambert and Lin Yao followed closely as they battled their way out.

Screams filled the base.

When they finally escaped, Lin Yao collapsed feebly to the ground, still shaking in fear. Li Yalin and Lambert seemed accustomed to the sight.

Li Yalin fiddled around with the Lightweight Mechanic Arm. She had grown fond of it.

"I wonder who invented this mechanical arm. Could it be that Luo Xuan?" she wondered aloud.

"Who knows, but I did hear that he is slated to join covert-ops. It's possible," conjectured Lin Yao as Li Yan Lin gazed lovingly upon it.