The storage room was silent, save for the low droning hum of the server rooms on the floors beneath. The room was tucked away in a low maintenance area of the facility, on the upper levels. No personnel patrolled on this level. There were no security cameras or motion sensors. Robotic security units only patrolled through every 15 minutes or so. In one corner of the room, near the ceiling, there was an air-vent just large enough for a person to fit through. The brief trip through the ventilation system, from the roof to this particular vent, did have a few motion sensors, but these were easily circumvented. The room was perfect as an entry point.

One by one, the screws holding the vent cover in place fell to the floor. To a casual observer, it would appear they were falling of their own accord. But if one looked closely, one would see a tiny white glyph appearing around each one, and rotating to unscrew it. As the last screw came loose, the vent cover slipped and fell from the opening. A white-gloved hand slipped out and grabbed the cover, then delicately pulled it back into the duct. A figure slipped out of the duct, clad in the same white as her gloves, and landed on the floor without the slightest sound. Her outfit was sleek, form-fitting, and covered her entire body, save for a slit for her eyes in the white balaclava. She stood, scanned the room, then tapped her earpiece.

"I'm in," She said.

"Good work, Winter," Said the voice on the other end, "Proceed to server room 3, on level 4. Remember, it's two floors below you."

Winter crept over to the door to the room, cracked it open, and peaked out. The coast looked clear. She slipped out of the room and hugged one wall as she moved.

"Winter, don't forget," Her earpiece said, "Stealth is paramount. If you're detected, they'll cut outside network connections immediately."

"Isn't the data we're after stored here?" Winter whispered, "We don't need to access the network."

"The idea is to make them think we accessed the network so that they don't know what we stole."

"Well, stealth isn't really my specialty, General."

"You're an Atlas Specialist. Everything is your specialty. And don't call me General."

"Yes sir, General Ironwood, sir."

Winter reached the door to the staircase. Carefully pushing in the bar, she cracked the door open. She heard movement below. Guards chatting idly. She waited for the right moment to move. After a few seconds, she heard a door open, then close, and then the staircase was silent. She slipped out onto the sixth floor stairwell and carefully shut the door behind her. She snuck down the stairs, ears peeled for any sounds. She reached the fifth floor doorway, and gave it a cautious stare as she slipped past.

"How do the skies look?" She asked.

"Nothing out of the ordinary. Standard air patrols," Ironwood reported, "The new stealth system works well. Focus on your objective."

"Well, you're my way out of here," Winter said, "Hate it when my ride is late."

"Don't worry, I'm not leaving without you."

Winter reached the door on the fourth floor. She carefully pushed it open and stepped through. She took a second to align the appearance of the hallway with the layout of the building she'd memorized. Then, she snuck forward in the direction of the server room. A right, a left, and another right, and she'd be there. The only risk along the way was a break room that was sure to have guards in it. Any of them could step out into the hall.

As she rounded the corner, she was surprised to see that the break room had a window that opened to the hallway. Gritting her teeth, she crept towards it, hugging the wall. Getting on her hands and knees, she crawled beneath the window. Her breath caught in her throat as she heard laughter from within the room. Some guard telling an anecdote or finishing a crude joke. Taking a deep breath, she slipped past the - mercifully closed- door and hurriedly moved around the next corner. She saw the door to the server room. It was a big, metal, heavy-looking door. It seemed barely thinner than the wall it was a part of. There was a small number pad next to the door, the buttons glowing a soft blue.

"I've reached the room," Winter reported, "Let's hope this works."

She held out a scroll, positioning it just under the panel. She activated the security decryption software and waited for it to work. A progress bar slowly crossed the screen. Winter nervously looked up and down the hall. The progress bar halted for just a second before completing, before displaying the numbers 91305. Winter entered the code into the number pad. The door beeped, and swung open inward. Winter stepped inside, and the door swung shut behind her.

"I'm in the server room, General." She said.

"Good work," Ironwood said, "You're looking for tower J2."

Winter snuck over the the server tower labelled J2. She pulled an adaptor cable from a pouch on her waist and plugged it into her scroll, than into the tower. Tapping on the screen, she began navigating through the system, looking for file storage.

"There's a lot here," She whispered, "Personnel files, logistics information... wait, here. Sir, there's data here on every black project they're working on."

"We don't have time," Ironwood said, "Get what we came for, then upload the file."

"Alright, here it is. Project Harbinger. Downloading." Winter reported.

The download completed, and Winter quickly worked to upload the file. The file was a program that would, after a delay, trigger a detectable breach of the military network. Just as Winter was about to hit the upload button, an alarm began blaring in the room.

"Uh oh," Winter said.

"What just happened?" Ironwood demanded, "There was supposed to be a time delay so you could get out!"

"I didn't upload it, sir!" Winter said, "Shit! They detected the data access! They know what I just stole."

"Get out of there, right now." Ironwood ordered.

Winter unplugged the scroll, pocketed it, and ran to the door. There was another number pad on the inside. She punched in the code. The pad flashed red. Winter gritted her teeth. She could here movement outside- the security team gathering and preparing to breach. Winter drew her sword from its sheath. She jumped up above the door and stabbed the sword into the wall. Hanging against the wall, she waited for the door to open.

"It would be really great if you guys were hesitant about opening fire in here." She whispered.

The door flew open, and a group of four AK-250 androids charged into the room. They scanned the room, sweeping the server towers with their rifles. Before they had a chance to look up, Winter dropped down to meet them. With a flurry of slashes, she took all four of them to pieces before her feet hit the ground. She looked out the door at the two guards covering the door. They took a moment to stare in surprise as the 250s crumbled around her. Winter burst forward, spun, and slashed the rifle of the guard on the left in half, simultaneously chopping the other guard in the neck with her free hand. She kicked the disarmed guard in the chest, sending him flying back into another guard. The guard she'd struck was gasping for breath. She grabbed him by the arm, and repelled off the wall opposite the door to get around him, twisting his arm behind his back. She put her sword to his throat, and held him close to her. The others all levelled their weapons at her. She backed up slowly, fully aware she was backing away from her escape route.

Behind her more 250s charged around the corner. The Atlesian Knight 250s were a gaudy, intimidating design, covered in black armour, with glowing red eyes. Winter pulled her sword away from the guard's neck, put her foot to his back, and flipped backwards. She created a black glyph in the air that she passed through, shooting her towards the droids with sudden speed. She hit the little switch on her sword as she flew, deploying her second, smaller sword from within the larger one. She spun in the air, becoming a whirlwind of blades as she met the droids. Arms, legs, and heads of metal were cleaved off as Winter flew through the group. She took advantage of her momentum and hit the ground running. She dashed around the corner and was sprinting down the next hall.

"Gonna need a new extraction point," She reported, "The south-side landing pad."

"I'll be there," Ironwood reported, "Security all over this place is going nuts. Stealth or no stealth, they'll find me soon."

As Winter sprinted, the door down the hall in front of her burst open, and more guards piled out. Winter clicked her swords back together, and sheathed the weapon. She turned her sprint into a slide, grabbing one of the guards by the ankle as she reached them. He was yanked clean off his feet and yelled in surprise before slamming into the ground. Winter popped up, chopping the guard on her left in his side, and elbowing the third in the temple. The fourth raised his rifle at her. She grabbed it, twisted it out of his hands, and thrust the butt of it into the face of the guard on the left. The guard who's rifle she'd taken threw out a punch. She caught his fist, yanked it towards her, then punched his elbow out of its socket. The guard she'd elbowed had recovered, and attempted to aim his side arm at her. She grabbed his wrist, twisted the barrel away from herself, then grabbed him by the head, and brought it down onto her knee. The first guard was still trying to get back up. She swung around, brought up her leg, and axe-kicked him. He stopped trying to get up.

The south-side landing pad of the building was designed for bullheads. It extended out from the third floor. However, there was a window on the fourth floor that overlooked it. Winter sprinted down the hall to the south side of the building, and dove through the window, kicking through the glass effortlessly. She flipped and landed, glass shards falling like snow around her. She looked up and scanned the sky. It was a dark, late-autumn night, with few stars to be seen through the thick clouds. A few bullheads were flying about, searchlights scanning the area. Winter wasn't looking for those ones. She caught a glimpse of a slight shimmer in the air overhead. A bullhead suddenly seemed to appear in mid-air, as its cloak deactivated. It swung around and came to a hover just off the edge of the landing pad.

"Miss Schnee, your limo has arrived," Ironwood said, through the earpiece.

Winter grinned and dashed forward, onto the landing pad. She was halfway across when the bullhead suddenly lurched away.

"Heads up!" Ironwood shouted.

Winter barely had time to look up to see a massive shape dropping down from above her. The massive form of a spider-droid slammed down onto the pad in front of her, knocking her backwards. As she tumbled back, she twisted and landed onto her feet again. The spider-droid turned to face her, priming its weapons. Winter drew her sword.

"You're gonna have to get past that thing and make a jump!" Ironwood said, "Aerial interceptors are inbound! There's no time to fight it!"

A missile pod popped up from the back of the spider-droid and turned towards Ironwood's bullhead. A cluster of mini-missiles fired out of it, straight at the aircraft.

"Oh, shit!" Ironwood shouted, thrusting the bullhead forward.

The missiles just barely missed the bullhead. They remained in cluster formation and began to arc around, locked onto their target. Meanwhile, the spider-droid fired its main plasma cannon at Winter. She dodged to one side as the tarmac exploded. Thrusting forward, she slashed one of its legs, to no effect. The droid was a new model, and heavily armoured. It backed away from her and brought its cannon around.

The cluster of missiles streaked back towards the bullhead. Ironwood looked between the missiles and building to one side and realized he didn't have time to move. Bursting up from the pilot seat, he dove to the passenger bay, where the doors on both side were wide open. He drew his revolver and fired on the incoming mini-missiles, picking each one out of the air. The bullhead lurched slightly as its auto-pilot took control. Ironwood turned and took aim at the spider-droid on the landing pad below him. The spider-droid fired at Winter. She leapt straight up, rebounding off a glyph to maintain height. This time the plasma cannon's shot struck the side of the building, blowing up a massive chunk of the wall. Winter redirected herself in mid-air, shooting down at the spider-droid and slashing at its cannon. A machine gun turret deployed from its side and fired. Winter jumped back, deflecting the shots with her sword, and landing back on the tarmac. The entire plasma cannon began transforming into a lighter, faster heavy machine gun. Instead of aiming at Winter, it swung around took aim at the bullhead. Ironwood fired down at it, to no effect.

Winter and Ironwood met eyes for a moment. The rotary cannons of the droid began to spin up. Winter charged, leapt at the droid, and landed on top of it. She stabbed her sword down into one of its optical sensors. With her other hand, she reached into her pocket and pulled out her scroll. She threw it as hard as she could at Ironwood. Ironwood snatched it out of the air, and looked down at her.

"Just, go!" Winter said, "I'll be fine!"

Ironwood nodded. He dashed back to the controls, switched them back to manual, and slammed the thruster forward. The bullhead shot away from the facility. The spider-droid opened fire, and a handful of 20mm slugs struck the back of the aircraft as it sped into the distance.

Winter withdrew her sword, and jumped off the droid. She landed on the tarmac, and looked up to see guards pouring out of the building, training their weapons on her. The spider-droid swung around and levelled its machine gun at her. Winter sighed, and tossed her sword to the ground. She reached up, and pulled the balaclava from her head, letting her hair fall down around her face. She smiled, and raised her arms, in as much of a shrug as a surrender.

The leader of the guards was dressed in black. His hair was shaved on one side and spiked on the other. He didn't have a gun, instead he was wearing a pair of combat gauntlets, that looked to have mini-rocket thrusters built into them. His uniform indicated he held the rank of Colonel. He walked up to Winter, a grin on his face that was a mix of casual and cruel.

"Atlas Specialist Winter Schnee," Winter stated, "ID number 15-"

The Colonel cut her off by punching her in the side of the head, knocking her to the ground. Winter cried out in pain, and clutched her head.

"Under Atlas Military Protocol 47-32, you are required to contact-"

"Shut up." The Colonel ordered, kicking her in the face, and knocking her out.

The other guards gathered around her, weapons still at the ready, expecting her to jump back up. She laid still on the ground, unconscious.

"Take her to Schnee." The Colonel ordered.

Former General James Ironwood slammed his fist down on the control panel of the bullhead. The aircraft rocketed away from the facility, and from Winter. Rubbing a hand through his beard, James' mind wandered to all the things that could happen to Winter in captivity. He looked at the co-pilot's seat, where Winter had sat when they flew in. Now it was just her scroll laying there. Ironwood rubbed his eyes and shook his head. He'd made tough calls all throughout his career. It wasn't the first time somebody had to be left behind. But it always hurt.

He saw that he had gotten far enough to not worry about interception by enemy aircraft. He switched on the auto-pilot and sat back in his seat. He looked down at the scroll, which now held the intel they'd come for. He slammed his fist into the control panel again. Then, he pulled out his own scroll. He tapped in the number of his contact. He stared at the number as he waited for an answer.

"Well, hello hello," Came the voice of his contact, "How did it go? Did you get the intel?"

"Security was tighter than we anticipated," Ironwood said, "Winter was... captured. I had to leave her behind."

"I didn't ask about Winter, I asked if you got the intel." The contact said.

Ironwood grunted in anger.

"We got it," He said, "She had to throw it to me when she-"

"That's great news! Now the odds are immeasurably against us instead of completely hopelessly."

"They detected Winter accessing the data," Ironwood said, "If they know what she took, they'll know we're trying to stop it."

"So we have to hurry the plan up a bit, and also recruit more help because you lost your best soldier."

"...Yeah," Ironwood said, "That about sums it up. Who can we get to help?"

"Oh, let's see," The contact said, chuckling, "I might have a few ideas. What's Winter's sister doing these days?"