The burly commando saunters down the porn-lined hallway of the accommodation block, a can of Red Bull in his hand.
"Final thoughts while we rock out pre-job?" asks his Australian comrade holding the camera.
The commando stops, leans over, and props his elbow on a shelf. Through the green and black camouflage paint smeared on his face, his eyes lock on the camera.
"I believe we're going to get the quota," he says calmly.
"Woo!" cheers another commando behind him as two others holler in the background. "The quota! The quota must be met," says the soldier holding the camera.
It is late 2012, and the Taliban enemy shows no sign of wavering. Unlike the Australian commandos, the Taliban insurgents do not adhere to the laws of armed conflict.
They wear no uniforms and hide among civilians. It seems no matter how many of their fighters are killed on the battlefield, more emerge to take their place.
Heavy toll
In the 11 years of conflict to this point, the Taliban have already taken a heavy toll on the Australians. During this rotation, the 39th Australian will die in Afghanistan.
By the time Australian special forces leave Afghanistan a year later, special forces soldiers will account for about half of all Australian casualties.
On this rotation, the men of the 2nd Commando Regiment have been targeting one of the main weapons used by the Taliban to fund its insurgency – opium.
Together with the United States Drug Enforcement Administration and soldiers from Afghanistan's National Interdiction Unit, they have hit drug lab after drug lab.
On one mission, they torch more than a tonne of Taliban opium.
In the video obtained by ABC Investigations, these commandos are once again preparing to head outside the wire on another dangerous mission and capture their preparations on camera for posterity.
Neither the platoon commander nor any officers appear to be present.
After his first interview, the commando holding the camera continues down the gloomy hallway of the accommodation block.
"What's going to go tonight? Ready for 'Operation Final Job'?" he asks a comrade who is getting ready in his room.
"There's going to be some f***ing killing going on," the soldier replies softly.
The cameraman returns to the hall and spots a new interviewee.
"We need primary kill team. What's going to go down tonight?"
"We've got a quota of 10. The quota is 10," he tells the cameraman.
"Will we meet the quota?"
"Yes."
Another commando emerges from his room and into the camera's focus.
"Are we going to hit the quota tonight, big guy?"
"F*** yeah," replies his mate. "I'm going to kill a few dogs too!"
The video lasts a minute and a half and ends with the cameraman turning the lens on himself.
"Final job. Signing out. We're going to hit the quota."
In all, there are a dozen mentions of a quota, or hitting the quota, or meeting the quota, in just 90 seconds.
So, what is the quota?
ABC Investigations spoke to former commandos who deployed to Afghanistan.
One says he has never heard the term, is disappointed to hear any mention of it in the unit, and suggests it could be "guys trying to prove themselves".
Others raised questions about whether it could refer to a kill count.
A former senior officer on that rotation told ABC Investigations that any talk about a quota should have been "a trigger straight away" to stamp it out.
"You can't even talk like that, frankly," the former officer said.
"That would be unacceptable to even joke about it. It's just not on."
Glenn Kolomeitz deployed as an Australian Defence Force legal officer to Afghanistan as part of the Special Operations Task Group. It was his job to counsel Australia's SAS and commandos in the rules of engagement and law of armed conflict.
"I don't for a moment believe they're talking about some sort of kill quota, not genuinely talking about that," Mr Kolomeitz says.
While Kolomeitz holds the commandos in high esteem, he acknowledges that the "quota" video isn't a good look.
"That wasn't consistent with the 2 Commando that I knew, and that I hold in such high regard," he said.
Unlike their elite colleagues in the Special Air Service Regiment (SAS), the commandos emerged largely unscathed from the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force's inquiry into alleged war crimes led by Army Reserve Major General and NSW Supreme Court Judge Paul Brereton.
But this video raises serious questions about their behaviour in Afghanistan.
The Brereton Inquiry had previously cited one case — understood to involve the SAS, not the commandos — in which a unit in Afghanistan was allegedly driven to shoot prisoners to add to its kill count.
"A tally board total, and a desire to take it from 18 to 20 appears linked to the deaths of two prisoners who were shot following an explosive entry into a compound that didn't result in the expected outcome," the report states.
A former commando has previously claimed that kill counts were a measure of success for special forces.
ABC Investigations asked Defence about kill counts.
"The Australian Defence Force does not use enemy casualty numbers as a measure of performance, success or effectiveness, including during operations in Afghanistan," a Defence spokesperson said.
"The publicly released version of the Afghanistan Inquiry report briefly mentions 'catch and release, and the kill count' as one of the factors the presence of which may have contributed to an environment in which deviant behaviour [in the SAS] could take place and not be recognised."
People seen ducking for cover as soldier fires from chopper
ABC Investigations has obtained hours of footage never seen publicly of commando operations in Afghanistan over 2011 and 2012.
One video is a highlights reel of the 2012 deployment edited and set to music by some of the commandos themselves.
In several sections a soldier can be seen firing his assault rifle from a moving helicopter at what appear to be unarmed civilians in residential compounds.
In one of the clips, an Afghan man can be seen ducking and trying to find cover as the commando fires his weapon from the helicopter above.
Former military legal officer Glenn Kolomeitz believes the incident should be investigated.
"It didn't appear that [the Afghan] was engaging that helicopter. He appeared to be ducking from the dust and debris flying around him in that compound."
"All ADF members are required to comply with the relevant Rules of Engagement (ROE)," Defence said in a statement.
"Defence cannot discuss ROE for operational security reasons."
Commandos watch as Afghan soldier beats man
Another video shows a commando patrol detaining some Afghans near a residential compound.
The Australians had found a two-way radio, and with the help of their Afghan partner force they demand to know who it belongs to.
Armed with a stick, an Afghan soldier is seen beating one of the detained men who is cowering on the ground while Australian commandos watch on.
Invoking the name of Allah, the Afghan swears the radio is not his and that he's just a farmer.
"This is the truth, look at my hands," he says.
The beating continues and the man can be heard whimpering with each blow.
The commandos continue to watch and say nothing.
"I've never seen that before," says Mr Kolomeitz.
"The Afghan on the ground, even if he was an insurgent, he's clearly out of the fight.
"And he's now being mistreated … and there is an obligation on the Australians to do something about it.
"If that bloke wasn't an insurgent beforehand, I suspect he certainly would be afterwards."
Defence told the ABC: "Australia's mission in Afghanistan was to support the Afghan government to help contain the threat of international terrorism, and in doing so support the development of a capable and sustainable Afghan defence force."
