OpSEC.

The Operations for Security, Espionage and Containment.

These are dispatches of the Paraline Empire, handpicked and chosen to get the best of the best. These special soldiers are sent out in groups of four, performing high-risk missions that could either force the tide of war to their favor, or make them lose it all.

"Role call."

"Sandstone, here." A voice called out from the back of the transport.

"Edmund, here." Another voice, this time, closer to me.

"Jade, here." Another one, right next to me.

"Spectre, here." I called out, holding my rifle as I checked equipment and ammunition.

"Okay, OpSEC. You are being sent out to an outpost in Absolute. It had never caught our attention before, but recently, one of our platoon had disappeared whilst patrolling it." A voice spoke through my earpiece. "Your objective is to infiltrate that outpost, and bring our soldiers back. If they're already dead, find out who did it. I have a lot of faith in you, OpSEC. Do not let me down."

The door opened, causing the cold winter wind to blow inside the VTOL. "Go, go!" The pilot said, signaling us to go out of the craft.

We stood up, and ran outside, into the cold, freezing north. We turn around, and watched as the VTOL took off, and flew away.

Sandstone, the leading officer of this group, looked around, and pointed at a far away building, barely seen from a distance. "Okay! We need to walk through this intensifying blizzard, and infiltrate that outpost!" He had to scream, in order for us to hear him. "Understood!?"

"Sir, yes sir!" We shouted back. Causing him to nod in agreement.

"Alright, let's go!" He said, as he struggled to move forwards as each step he took, his foot went deep into the snow.

We struggled for an hour, battling the gushing winds and keeping our balance, as we tried to keep a steady speed towards the outpost.

"Look lively men, we're almost near the building!" Sandstone said, keeping a steady balance as he pushed against the wind.

We pushed for another half an hour, before we saw splotches of colored snow. It was rare at first, but as we got closer and closer, it started to get a lot more common.

Before we even knew it, everything was now covered with varying colors. Jade knelt down, and touched some of the colored snow. As his hand made contact with it, it instantly melted. A goo of colored water now sat on Jade's glove. "Weird." He wiped it on Edmund's back, unknowingly. Instead of running down his suit, it just stayed there. "Very odd."

It was then, the winds were finally in our favor. It was still windy, reducing vision up to five feet, but it was less strong than before. We actually went faster than before, and after fifteen minutes, we had finally arrived.

We were stopped dead in our tracks by a large dome, littered with pentagonal patterns. "Come on." Sandstone said, tapping on the dome. He sighed, and looked around. "How the hell are we going to get past this?"

"According to intelligence, this is called a 'Kinetic Dome', placed to protect important bases from attack." Jade spoke, notifying Sandstone. "It also says here, that each dome has a weak spot, which that the enemy also uses as a 'doorway' to get inside the dome."

He looked at the dome. "We just got to know where to find it."

"That's like finding a needle from a haystack!" Edmund said, staring at the giant dome.

"Found it." Sandstone said, kneeling down on the ground, pressing down a certain part of the dome.

"Spectre, come here! And bring the metal claw!" I nodded, and took a metal device strapped to me. I held it like someone would hold a hose, and went to the weak spot. "On three, push as hard as you can!" He said, grabbing the claw. "One! Two! Three!" We pushed together, making the claw pierce through the barrier. The claw opened, and caused a disruption field, opening a small pathway for us to barely fit through.

"Quick, before someone sees us!" One by one, we fit through the hole. The last one in, Edmund, grabbed the claw and pulled it in. He slung it to his shoulder, and followed us.

We went near a building, and hugged the wall. Sandstone looked around the corner, and pulled back swiftly. "Someone's coming."

They all crouched down, but I stood up. I took my rifle, attached a suppressor to it, and aimed. We waited for the guy to show up.

As the enemy passed by, I pulled the trigger. He fell down, and the others dragged his body, and hid it under the snow. "Nice shot." Sandstone spoke, as he covered the remaining few parts that lay bare.

We moved, and proceeded to the large building on the west side of the base. We never encountered many more enemy soldiers as we got to that point.

Suddenly, the alarms went off. Sirens were blaring, and red lights were flickering. "We have been breached! All agents, evacuate as soon as possible!"

"We were seen!?" Jade said anxiously, his eyes moving around wildly.

"Stand down. Let's wait for the enemy agents to fully evacuate." Sandstone said, and we waited. It didn't take long, after five minutes, the base was empty. We stood up, and went inside.

"It seems odd that a heavily armed base like this would have to evacuate their soldiers for just four people." Edmund said, as he looked around the building.

"Yes.. Odd." Sandstone said, looking at the files that were left by the enemy. He took a large brown folder and opened it. "File A6C4-B…"

Pictures of weird humans with colored tentacles for their hair, and black rings around their eyes.

"They have been attacking us for years with brute force. We just don't know when will they-" The ground then shook.

Sandstone looked around. "I think I know why they evacuated the base."

"Why?" Jade asked.

We then heard a large metal object slam into the floor. Footsteps were heard, headed towards us.

"We're not alone."

Author's Comments:

(This is not part of the bet.)

I just wanted to make a story that tells how and why did Inklings invade Paraline.

I don't know why, maybe because of boredom.