By afternoon,the sunshine had been shoved aside by a torrent of rain and clouds, making it hell to walk down the hillside and back to base camp; me and two other men walked, trying our best to stay upright, while moving as fast as we can, though the thick, wet mud that clung to our boots ddin't make it any easier.

The palace defenses had gone off. Our only guess was that somehow we'd been spotted. The question at hand, was, how?

We wore suits that kept us insulated if the weather turned cold, but at the same time kept our body heat hidden from any therml imaging device, and the coloring of the uniforms, paired with the mud on our faces kept us well camoflauged in the greenery of the area. Our radio channel was on a private military line and well encrypted, we were certain it couldn't be intercepted by anyone.

The man behind me slips, almost knocking me down with him, "You alright?" I ask, but he brushes my help away irritably.

The two I was with were twins, opposites of each other and I guess I should've realized the nicer one was ahead.

"Incoming!" the one ahead of us calls and we drop down, ducking as a sticcato of machine gun fire ewchoes off the hilside and rings through the air.

"Keep low but keep moving," I speak to the lower rank beside me as the firing halts briefly, he just grunts in acknowledgment. 

We dont get too much farther from where we'd dropped when a single shot goes off, followed by a brief grunt and then silence.

I look back to the other twin beside me, and guess by the look in his eyes that he knows that, that was his brother's last sound.