Kim Bo-geun never expected that the last time he had dinner with his youngest sister would be the last he would ever see of her.

The night before he was deployed with his unit to Gimpo, he had had the rare opportunity to spend some time with the baby of the family. His other sister was unfortunately occupied in Busan at the time, and had been unable to join them. None of them had expected things to go wrong like this.

What am I going to tell Ji-won? Frustrated, Bo-geun reread the encrypted message one of his fellows from another unit had sent. It remained the same as the first time he read it, five minutes ago.

34^th Recon MIA, signal black. Unknown bogey sighted after red star cluster. Complete SNAFU, all hands on deck. Expect recall Spartan.

Yewon’s unit missing after a distress signal, and a threat that warranted the recall of the Spartan elite of the Marine Corps? As one of the remaining Spartans left alive after the war, Bo-geun couldn’t wait to immediately fly back to Gyeongju to look for his sister.

She couldn’t be dead. She just couldn’t. Bo-geun’s fist slammed into the wall of his bunk cell. He needed to be there now, not here where he couldn’t do anything but worry.

As if on cue, the signal to assemble started blaring, and the young Marine Lieutenant practically leaped in response. He ended up being the first on scene, and hated every second wasted before their briefing.

The briefing did not make him feel better at all.

The grainy image of a gigantic serpent in the air was enough to give everyone pause. Already the nearest forces stationed in the area had engaged the bogey, but apparently the air force were all grounded as their instrumentation failed within a certain radius of the monster. The hardened electronics in the tanks fared somewhat better, and artillery was invaluable from range, but they needed boots on the ground to track the bogey after their missiles had apparently wounded the creature. The bogey had vanished suddenly into the hills around Gyeongju, and the entire battlefield was still a minefield of unknown threats.

Distance readings had picked up unknown energy wavelengths causing the interference that had scrambled unshielded electronics, and the Geiger readings were completely off the charts. Only volunteers were allowed to enter the area due to the unknown nature of the energy field, as they could not risk sending large number of troops into potentially hazardous territory.

Bo-geun didn’t even hesitate before volunteering. That was his sister in there. He would walk through fire for her.

He managed to make a call to Ji-won before he left. He did not enjoy the conversation. First she screamed at him for volunteering, then told him to bring their baby sister back safe. He promised somberly, and then quietly sent another encrypted message to her, complete with a stealthily recorded footage of the briefing he had just attended. He did not know if he would make it back alive, and someone deserved to know. Ji-won was a researcher at KOBIC, if anyone had the connections to investigate the incident, she did.

Brother and sister did not stop to consider that Yewon could already be dead. They would not allow it. Bo-geun knew he should know better as a career soldier, but his heart could not accept it. He would either bring her back or die trying.

OPERATION SNAKEHUNT

161500IJUN20

STATUS: TOP SECRET (EYES ONLY)

[FILE ATTACHED] [VIDEO ATTACHED]

[REQUEST LOG]

[DECRYPTING PASSWORD]

[ACCESS FAILED]

[ACCESS DENIED]

[SYSTEM LOCKDOWN HAZARD LEVEL ONE]

[TRACE STARTED]

[TRACE FAILED]

[ALL USER LOGOUT]

[SYSTEM SHUTDOWN]

“Failed?”

“Security is tougher than expected.”

“We need to know what we’re up against.”

“Give me some time.”

“Fine, but we don’t have much left.”

"Do you think we can do it? Bring her back?"

"Only if we find out what this thing does."

"...I'll do my best."