Chapter 2

Suddenly a muffled wumph could be heard that broke the eerie night silence. Chambers blanched. He was looking at a fragmentation grenade in his foxhole! He scrambled out with his M16 rifle out and dived into the foliage. A series of whumphs could be heard and the rest of Chambers' unit followed Chambers' actions. They were searching all around for the source of the grenade launchers, and suddenly, Whitney saw them. A medium sized force was seen on the rocky outcrop just hours where Whitney had been before. Chambers signalled wordlessly to the rest of his team to lay flat under the cover of the foliage. Now that the men on the outcrop couldn't see them, they started firing at random with AK-47 assault rifles. He then whispered to his team

"Ok guys, we're backed into a corner, we need to take out those rebels," breathed Chambers, "Whitney we'll give u cover, while you take them out one by one. Got it?"

"Yessir!" whispered Whitney.

"On my signal…" mouthed Chambers. This was going to be a very difficult move to pull off. Chambers hoped that the rebels would take the bait.

"NOW!" yelled Chambers. At that moment all hell broke loose. Chambers and the rest of his team burst out of the foliage in an attempt to lay suppressive fire to the men on the rocks above. The attempt worked. All the rebels on the ledge hit the ground or dove behind a rock. One of them fell from the ledge in an attempt to escape the barrage of gunfire. What resulted next was a sickening crack as the rebel broke his neck. Whitney however had taken out his Beretta sniper rifle and was picking off the rebels slowly, but surely. Bang! Thud. Bang! Thud. These sounds were repeated over and over until finally, the rebels retreated. Like wraiths, they slunk off into the night; probably back to their base camp. Chambers breathed a sigh of relief. He clapped Whitney on the back.

"Good job Sergeant!" said Chambers.

"Thank you sir" replied Whitney. Whitney had taken out about a dozen of them out. Chambers then ordered his team to get into the ATV and follow the rebels, hopefully back to their main base. He did a quick headcount as each member of his platoon. Everyone was there… except one. He must have miscounted, but he wanted to make sure just in case he was wrong. He decided to go with what he liked to call the yell count. This procedure involved him calling out 'One!' and then in order of rank, the next man would call out 'Two!' and so on, consecutively, quick and sharp. Chambers started off the count:

"One!"

"Two!"

"Three!"

"Four!"

"Five!"

"Six!"

"Seven!"

"Eight!"

There was a brief silence, before:

"Ten!"

"Eleven!"

"Twelve!"

"Number Nine?" called out Chambers. But Nine did not reply.

"Conquistador?", hollered Arnie. But still, nothing but silence.

"RODRIGUEZ?" screamed Chambers. Beckham swore behind him. Chambers ignored him, as something caught his eye just behind where Beckham was standing, just in the clearing. A sand coloured stone in the middle of green foliage? Chambers started to approach the stone slowly, then sped up to a jog. Upon closer inspection, it was some sort of synthetic item with some design. Chambers sprinted towards it and picked it up. It was a sand coloured beret, with a badge on the front. The badge had a distinguishable design on the front- a dagger with wings. This was the signature logo of the ASAS. On the back the beret was a custom design, sewn into the fabric. It was a Spanish helmet, belonging to a soldier in the Medieval era. A helmet belonging to a conquistador. Oh no Chambers breathed. Conquistador… There was nothing for it, they had to continue. Whitney came along side Chambers.

"Where's Conquistador, Captain?" asked Whitney tentatively.

"He's…gone" whispered Chambers hoarsely.

"If he's dead, then where's his body?" Chambers froze. Whitney was right. If Rodriquez was dead, then where was his body? It wasn't anywhere in sight. Chambers started to think.

"Captain?" said Whitney. Chambers suddenly had a brainwave.

"Bond, grab the GPS locator from the Samsonite case. Then try to locate Conquistador's body."

"Yessir" replied Whitney.

Around five minutes later, Whitney's GPS Locater beeped. Chambers rushed over to him. According to the Locater, Conquistador's body was in a location two miles to the North-West. Also, the Locator showed Conquistador's vitals as-

"Unconscious, but still alive," said Whitney, "The co-ordinates for the location of his body match the exact co-ordinates of where the rebel main base is".

"Excellent news Sergeant," exclaimed Chambers, "Ok continue with the original plan. Be on the lookout for any sentries". The team continued North West, whipping through the dense foliage. Soon, they broke out into a massive clearing. Chambers ordered Dingo to stop the ATV. Everyone got out and pushed it into the jungle so it would be unseen. Then Chambers proceeded to go prone, a term here which means to lay flat on your belly, and the rest of the team followed suit. Then they all slowly crawled forwards. Eventually, Whitney could make out a set of buildings through the fog. Whitney signalled this to Chambers and they stealthily got up and crouch-ran closer, until they could see a wall. They all ducked behind it. Arnie then got out a small periscope and looked around the corner. He reported a large gathering of soldiers near the centre of the compound. The team quickly crouch-ran again to the next building and hid behind it. Now they were literally around the corner form the congregation. Beckham then pulled out two of the ASAS's signature weapon- nitrogen grenades. These grenades, when detonated, would explode supercooled liquid nitrogen into the air. Now since nitrogen exists naturally as a gas, in order to turn it into a liquid, meant it would be extremely cold, well below freezing temperature. When something very cold comes into contact with another object that is not as cold, that object contracts due to the sudden cold. The average human body temperature is approximately 37 degrees Celsius. This temperature is considerably higher than that of liquid nitrogen. If liquid nitrogen came into contact with any exposed part of the human body, two things will happen. One: the skin will immediately be frozen and die, therefore causing immense pain to the victim. Two: the frozen skin, or any other exposed flesh will contract and basically fall off from the bones. All up, this makes a very gruesome and painful death. And now, Beckham is about to throw two of them into the middle of a crowd. Beckham pressed the blue button which allows the user 5 seconds to take cover. Then he hurled both of them into the crowd. Everyone, except those in the crowd, hid behind the buildings.

5…

4…

3…

At this point, the crowd had noticed that two balls of metal had landed in the middle of their gathering.

2…

Then they crowded around it. One person picked both of them up, one in each hand. He looked at it very carefully.

1…

He realised four seconds too late what it was, before-

BOOM! BOOM!

Two simultaneous explosions of supercooled liquid nitrogen exploded out of their shells. Almost immediately, the hideous screams of men in complete agony could have been heard a mile away. Soon, Chambers could hear the cracking of the bricks of the building he and his team were taking cover behind. Chambers kept hidden until the screams of the dying died down. Then he calmly strode through the bodies, trying very hard not to look at the mutilated bodies of the fallen. Suddenly, a hand grabbed his ankle, causing him to pause, and look down. Chambers nearly wanted to throw up. He was looking at the face, or what was left of a face, of a middle aged Indonesian rebel. From the decorations on his shirt, Chambers recognised him as the leader. Chambers yanked his ankle away, knelt down, and drove his palm into his nose, driving his nose into his brain. The rebel died instantaneously.

Chambers continued to walk towards the centre of the base. In the centre was a heavily fortified bunker. Chambers motioned for the rest of his unit to surround the area.

"I'm going to hazard a guess here, Sir, but I'm guessing that this is the prison."

"Say, you might just be right there, Sergeant." Chambers called for Caveman. With a nod, Caveman walked up brusquely to the door of the bunker and planted some charges around the frame. He then connected the charge to a remote, and dove behind a small wall. Everyone else followed suit. Caveman pressed the button, and almost instantaneously, there was a sharp boom, before the various sounds of falling shrapnel. A haze of smoke covered the remains of the doorway. Chambers motioned silently for his team to move in.