Snow quietly fell in the night. The silence it created was deep and all consuming. The giant flakes floated down on fickle air currents and created strange shadows from the light of the moon. The silence was suddenly broken by a series of staccato whooshes. The change from the previous silence to the new alien sound was almost deafening by contrast, but in reality was no louder than a hard wind rushing through the trees. As the sound grew, the outlines of three shapes appeared in the sky out of the darkness.

At the exact moment the three figures reached twenty feet from the ground their aerial insertion exo-suits generated short bursts of powerful thrust to slow their plummeting descent into a manageable landing speed. In seconds all three were on the ground and disengaging from their landing gear.

The first motioned to the others to conceal the exo-suits and then join him along the tree line. The two moved as one and began covering everything over with pine branches and snow. The crunch of their boots on the snow was almost indistinguishable in the deafening emptiness of the snowfall. The leader had moved to a tree and crouched next to it with weapon raised to his shoulder. His head scanned back and forth into the dark forest.

The other two, completed their task and rejoined their leader. They crouched behind trees five meters to his left and right. With a slight flick of his hand the team glided forward and dissolved into the forest.

…

Two men walked along the edge of the tree line nearest to the compound's main gate. One stopped and patted the other on the back as he looked out toward the light coming from the compound. There was an open expanse of ground fifty meters wide that led up to the compound. A paved road was twenty five meters to his right and led to the front gate. The entire facility was surrounded by a glowing silver fence and a fifty meter standoff field around the fence's perimeter. The compound itself consisted of four buildings. One was the motor pool and maintenance bay. There were multiple armored trucks with mounts for crew served weapons parked neatly in a line. The second building was the administrative building. It's slate gray look made it almost vanish into the falling snow. The third was the barracks with a command center attached. The building that always drew everyone's eyes though was the last one, the mansion. The mansion was to the southwest of the compound and looked out over a cliff onto a beautiful mountainous valley. The way the snow caressed the elegant architecture of the mansion made it look as if the snow was dancing on the idyllic building.

"What are you thinking about, Decker?" Valiton inquired.

Decker shook his head. "Nothing. Just spacing out looking at the snow fall I guess."

"It is beautiful… and dizzying." Valiton conceded. He reached up and adjusted his hat to cover his ears that had been peeking out from the bottom. Decker nodded and closed his mouth looking about as snowflakes landed on his sleeves. Both men fell into silence as they turned and continued their patrol along the tree line.

Decker stepped past a large tree with windblown snow covering one side. He strode past some wispy underbrush when he ground his boots to a halt. The snow on the ground to his left had been disturbed. There were some leaves that had been sprinkled on top of the snow. Decker motioned to Valiton. "Hey look at this."

Valiton jogged over to where Decker was standing and leaned in. There were leaves spread about the snow and fanned out from one central point. A boot print.

Both men launched their weapons up to their shoulders. Standing back to back they scanned their heads back and forth. All was quiet. Decker took a few tentative steps forward toward the large tree. He whipped his weapon around the tree and aimed at the space right behind. Nothing. Valiton coughed in the background.

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"No one here! Looks like someone was hiding here at one point though." Decker turned around.

He was alone.

"Valiton?"

Decker took a few steps back toward the tree. His eyes flitting back and forth his breath coming in tremulous gasps.

From right over his shoulder he heard. "No one was there, because I'm here."

…

Wess stood looking out upon the dark landscape that constantly moved and flowed like a swirling white river through the air. The compound was to his back and when he looked down he could see his well-defined shadow stretching before him. He glanced back to check on the other man with him on duty.

"Huh… asleep as always." he muttered under his breath. Wess took a few steps forward and out from under the protection of the overhang. He clutched the strap of his rifle as it swung with each stride. His boots made a muted crunch on the snow. Wess let out a short contented sigh as he looked up into the sky and let snowflakes fall on his face. He then turned to his right and began walking back to his chair in the gatehouse. Just before he sat down he stopped. His knee half bent and his hand still resting on the seat. He narrowed his eyes and cocked his head slightly.

"Hey did you see something!?" Wess motioned back to his fellow gate guard. The man did not respond other than to open is mouth and let out a soft snort of a snore. "Freddie! Wake up! I thought I saw something move on the edge of the forest."

The other man yawned and stretched, bringing his arms up above his head. "What are you complaining about now?"

"Get the thermal binoculars."

"But__"

"I want to check on something! Get the binos." Wess shook his hand backward while still peering into the dark.

"Fine… fine. But, honestly Wess, you worry__" His sentence interrupted by another yawn. "__too much." He finished. "Nothing is out there." Freddie plopped the binoculars into Wess's upturned hand and stumbled back to his guard chair.

Wess placed the binoculars to his face and peered out. He scanned back and forth, then jerked to a stop.

"See I told you__"

"Stop talking! I'm trying to see if there is anything out there and you are distracting me." Wess barked. Wess's face not once moving from the binoculars.

"Well?! Wess! What are you seeing?!"

"It looked like something was moving toward us…" He brought the binoculars half way up to his face, stared out into the swirling whiteness, then brought his hand down. "It must have just been the storm."

As Wess turned around and deposited the binoculars on the table in the guard shack he pulled his jacket tight around himself and shivered. "It is so mother loving cold." He brought his hands up to his mouth and blew a few deep breaths into them.

Snow coalesced around a black clad figure as he materialized out of the darkness right behind Wess.

…

Connors, the desk sergeant, sat at his desk in the barracks looking over personnel reports. He stared at the blue projection in front of him and pointed his finger to the top right corner. The file on the screen shrunk and collapsed to a tab at the bottom of the screen. The sergeant scratched his head and let out a long ragged sigh, looked straight up at the ceiling then back at the screen. After a few minutes staring at the screen he leaned back and touched a spot just behind the lobe of his left ear. "Wess! Freddie! You guys still awake? Staring at these files is putting me into a coma I can tell you that much. I have to imagine gate duty is at least a little more exciting."

He removed his finger from behind his ear and leaned back in his chair. The sergeant picked at a spot on his uniform and glanced back at the screen. He reached back behind his ear again. "Hey guys are you really sleeping?… Come on guys, you know the rule. One of you has to be awake."

Connors reached his hand up and pointed to an icon on the screen. It enlarged to reveal multiple live camera feeds. He swept his hand along and rotated through the multiple angles and shots around the compound. He finally landed on one titled Front Gate. "Let's see what these jokers are up to now."

He leaned back in his chair and began to stroke his chin. His lips began to draw very tightly into a thin line and his eyebrows began to scrunch together. "What in the sleeze is going on" The screen showed nobody in the gatehouse.

Connors pointed his finger again at another icon on the screen and a large map overlay exploded into view. The gatehouse showed two silver dots present in the gatehouse. When he looked toward the live video feed there was no one there. He glanced at the feed of the motor pool and saw two men walking on a patrol. From there he compared it to the map overlay and sure enough there were two silver dots moving along the motor pool.

There were two silver dots along the tree line nearest to the gatehouse with the names Decker and Valiton hovering over them. "Hey Decker and Valiton! Can you go check on the gate house? I think Wess and Freddie may have left their post, but I am getting mixed readings from the map overlay force tracker."

Connors wiped his forehead with the back of his palm and clicked his fingernails against the desk in front of him. "Valiton and Decker, respond!" He shouted. Silence fell upon the room as the echoing shout dissipated. Connors flicked his hand back to the screen to reveal the motor pool live feed. The two men that had been walking along the front were no longer on the screen. The only thing visible was a black silhouette dissolving into the shadows near the armored trucks. Connors stood, knocking over his chair, and launched his gaze to the map overlay. There were two silver dots on the map in the motor pool. He raked his hands through his hair and looked from side to side. Connors looked to the holstered handgun on his hip and moved to the door. He placed one hand on the door as he drew his sidearm. In one smooth motion he pulled open the door and rushed out into the night.

…