Chapter 198: the great himalayan ranges

With their military enhanced night vision goggles, the soldiers of Squad 6 could see this mind-blowing sight as clear as day. Clark had a stunned expression on his face, as he took in this astonishing work of nature.

Though he already saw it before when he browsed on the internet, seeing the real live developed version of the crest of the Great Himalayas of southern Asia, he was still stunned speechless.

From his current location, he could see through the other high peaks that rambled about domineeringly like towers, to the highest one towering above all, the revered Mount Everest.

“The Goddess Mother of the World!!”

He could not control himself on seeing nature’s formidable majesty in display, as he blurted out the common Tibetan name that this behemoth made from nature was called by the locals.

Countless peaks that were filled at various parts and the summit with ice, covered most of his sight, forming a large mountain massive with the Everest as the focal point of this tectonic action in the Great Himalayas.

Dozens, if not hundreds of spiky giant ices stuck out at its barely visible peak, overlapping with the night sky to form a very intimidating sight in the darkness. They looked like technological weapons of war, instead of something formed by nature.

Glaciers covered most of the slopes through which a path could be forged upwards, making it seem like an ancient godly ice giant.

Up close like this, Clark could see the multiple layers of rocks that folded back on themselves to form the mountain. The biting cold of this region was already hitting him hard, despite his thick black clothes.

The Everest was shaped like a three-sided pyramid, and he could see its enormous contours from his position. Though he wanted to take time to admire this amazing sight like a tourist, he knew his priorities.

The Spartan army already provided him with a complete strategic blueprint on how to climb these peaks, so he was not clueless. He just had to improvise on the spot to any unexpected situations, that is why he was made the leader.

Through the blueprints that were given to him, he had a lot of options, but he decided on taking the Khumbu icefalls path.

Taking any of the other paths that were more established throughout the years was too risky, as they did not want to be discovered by the locals. This mission was too important to risk botching it just to avoid a little difficulty.

This was not Spartan territory, not even the old Nepal and Chinese territory again, this was the territory of one of the rare countries with high-grade military strength, Mariana.

Though their journey would have been far smoother if they asked the locals for help, Clark was not ready to do that because of the mission’s confidentiality. As soldiers, they could scale this wonder of nature themselves.

After taking time to observe the cold region all over again and again, he finally confirmed that this was the real mountain Everest. It was at this moment that he turned to meet the drivers.

“Gadot, I’m grateful for your service throughout the night. Thank you”.

“No need Major, it’s our pleasure to have the privilege of driving you here. Good luck on your endeavors Major, we are going now, it’s not easy to escape a country like Mariana’s detection measures for long”.

“Ok, your work here is already done. You can go”.

Clark exhaled, making cold mist seep out from his mouth on seeing the cars go back into their stealth mode. He rubbed his hands together, trying to adapt to the extreme cold as he finally turned to his soldiers.

“Soldiers, we are finally here. Our main job now is to climb to an altitude that will make us disappear from the local’s surveillance equipment before the day brightens”.

Saying this, he inclined his head a bit to look at his wristwatch. “It’s already 2:10 am, I want us to fulfill our first goal in the next few hours”.

“Ok, boys, move…, move!! Bring out your equipment, it’s time for climbing, shake away the cold”.

With that, the soldiers went to work as they quickly opened their bags to bring out their equipment.

As the others did this, 2 of the soldiers went back a little while bringing out some exotic gadgets. They quickly activated them, causing a strong jamming field to materialize.

After this, they all heaved sighs of relief, as this would ensure that they remain hidden from surveillance longer.

All the soldiers moved synergistically like a well-oiled machine, as the 2 seconds in commands of the squad gave them instructions which they followed to the book.

In less than 5 minutes, they were finally ready to climb.

“I hope you all wore your exotic military boots”. Clark quickly asked again for confirmation.

“Yes sir!”

After getting the answer that he wanted, he took the lead and started moving forward in the direction of the Khumbu icefalls.

Exotic boots were among the mission gadgets that the Spartan army provided to the soldiers for the mission. This could not be avoided, as it was essential equipment for their climbing.

It took them another 7 minutes of walking before they finally came before the intimidatingly wide Khumbu glacier icefalls.

On getting there, Clark did not tarry as he took the lead immediately. He held his climbing equipment tighter, covered his head with the hood that followed his black vest before jumping at the rock surface.

Bam!! His multi-purpose boots quickly lighted with a blue glow, to show its activation as his legs came into contact with the rock.

On hitting it, a magnetic field was let out in conjunction with a metal like a nail by the boot, enabling his leg to stick to the rock.

With that done, he finally started waving his climbing sickle-like equipment to scale the large rock. Using one swing at a time with a step, his figure slowly ascended higher.

The soldiers below him did not hesitate either, as they all quickly followed after his footsteps. Taking their comrades above them as focal points, they all scaled the rock in tandem understanding.

Just like that, Clark’s mission squad easily started scaling the Khumbu icefalls that were originally a headache-inducing region for the mountain men of the 21st century.

In just a little over an hour of climbing, the 6th squad finally started disappearing from sight when looked at from the base of the mountain range.

The first goal of their mission to enter without being detected was easily done successfully, through the meticulous instructions of their leader.

They were lucky too, as anything could happen in the mountain that could have impeded their advancement despite how low ranged, they currently were. Impediments like an avalanche and a lot of others.

…

As the soldiers slowly disappeared, the tranquility of the night gradually returned, making it seem like nothing happened.

Somewhere else in the base of the mountain, in a hidden underground military bunker, a group of soldiers gathered, looking at the red dots that were on their projected screen with different expressions on their faces.

“What do you think they came for? This is the 7th unanimous military group that came to climb the mountain in the last 3 days, and they all came at night without bothering to seek the local’s help”. The youth who sat before the bunker’s main computer spoke out.

“I don’t know...”

“To me, it seems that there’s a big fish to catch. We better mobilize our forces also; we cannot let any goodies in our region fall into foreigner’s hands”.

“I agree with Joe, I concur”.

“I also concur”.

“I concur…”

After they all said what they wanted and concurred within themselves, the blonde-haired youth who started the conversation, who also seemed to be the computer operator finally turned to their leader there.

“Captain, what’s your say on this?”

“…”

“Ahem…, Captain, you’re sleeping on duty again”. The nerdy youth said with a raised but helpless voice this time, making the faces of the other soldiers become weird”.

“Hmm, you said what? Who told you that I was sleeping? It seems you can’t see again, is that how you will monitor our borders? Nonsense!!”.

As the Captain blurted this out, he raised his hands to remove the black veil that he used to cover his face in a unique pattern that made it cross his lips to his cheeks.

“Ok, fill me in again. I did not hear as I was busy thinking about the consequences and repercussions of the discovery. You know that I need to report to the higher-ups later”.

Not buying into his straight face lie, the youth continued. “You just wiped your drool, right? Don’t think I don’t know when you do it, I already figured you out”.

The middle-aged Captain sighed on hearing this as he spoke out again, this time in a helpless tone.

“I knew I would regret it; I should have held my nerves and rejected your father. Nepotism is really bad, now see where it landed me, with such an unruly and stubborn brat as an assistant”.

“You’re just a bad leader, uncle.”.

“…” “Never mind, tell me what happened”.

Seeing the uncle and cousin bickering like this, the other soldiers around stood rigidly like statues and made sure to seal their mouths. Only their eyes and faces were twitching rapidly like android ring tones.

“It’s like this. We just caught heat signatures of another secret force that…”

After the youth explained everything to his uncle, the Captain fell silent as he internalized all the information that was just dumped into his still sleepy head. He was feeling sleepy again, but he forced himself to analyze it.

“Hmmm, these guys are really becoming more daring. Do they think that they are the owners of this territory? Do they think we are blind? I’ll show them this time”.

“You, the short guy there. Yes…, you goddammit, go and get me my equipment and a standard climbing equipment”.

“Yes…, yes sir”. With that, the short soldier quickly scurried away.

“What are you doing uncle?”

“What do you think? Use your head to think for once brat, I’m going after them, of course. Do they take me as a farmer? I’ll teach this group a lesson”.

“Don’t you think we should inform the higher-ups first?” One of the soldiers at the corner cautiously butted in and asked”.

“What? I’m a Captain. Are you underestimating me?”

“No sir…”. The soldier quickly shrank back.

“Uncle, stop showing off. No matter what you do and how strongly you behave, we already know you as a lazy Captain”. The blonde youth quickly butted in again.

“A lazy superior, that’s what you ar…”

“Get lost!”

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