Water gushed around a corner up ahead and almost immediately covered their boots. He thought about asking Lang for other options on how to get out, for just a split second, but he knew such indecision could end them as quickly as making the wrong one.
"Keep moving!" he boomed.
He could feel the weight of the water pushing against his feet, and his already exhausted legs were feeling like lead weights trying to drag him down. He struggled on, telling himself he wasn't willing to die down there. As a marine, he knew the situation could occur, and that he might go down with a ship, but he never really thought for one moment it would ever be a possibility.
"Left, left here!"
Taylor followed Lang, took the bend, and found a Mech facing the way they were heading. He didn't even hesitate to fire a burst into its back without breaking stride. The Mech's body splashed into the water as he passed by.
"How many of those fuckers did you have aboard?" Silva asked.
Lang didn't respond. He was clearly feeling more than a little sheepish that he'd been a part of it all. They reached a stairway, and water was already flowing down at quite a rate.
"How do we even know we're still on the surface?"
Taylor didn't reply to Parker’s question; he had no good answer. Instead, he leapt onto the stairs and stormed up them. He made it up two flights before looking back to Lang.
"How much further?"
"Not far now. The escape pods are just around the corner."
Taylor carried on as Lang pointed the way to go. A few bodies swept past them as the water levels were reaching their knees. Debris crashed into his boots and greaves. They took the bend and were met by a line of shuttle doors, each a metre wide.
"No, no!" cried Lang.
Each one of the doors had a thick glass window at the centre and was full with water where the pods had been launched. Every single one was gone.
"Lang, are these the only ones we can use?"
Lang collapsed down onto his knees weeping, but Taylor hauled him back to his feet.
"Concentrate, Sergeant!"
He shook his head. "None that we can reach quickly."
Taylor looked around to the others. They were all waiting for him to come up with a solution.
"I'm not going down with this ship," he stated, "How deep do you reckon we are?"
Jones shrugged. "How the hell can we tell?"
"We haven't been here long. There’s still plenty of air and structural integrity from what I've seen."
"Now you're just living on hopes and prays," Rains joined in.
"Yeah, well what else do we have? Ain't no one coming to our rescue. Seal your helmets. We're going for a swim."
Parker shook her head.
"Even if we have got enough air, we open that, and the pressure could kill us instantly."
"And we stay in here, we're dead anyway. I'll take my chances out there. Masks down!"
They quickly responded as he raised his rifle to take aim at one of the pod doors. A second later, he fired a burst at two of the clamps. The door prised open and was launched off its frame by the forces of water gushing in. Taylor turned and looked to Parker; the water had reached his waist. It was their best chance, and they both knew it, but that didn't make it any less terrifying.
They all watched and waited as the water rose up to their masks and then above the doorway. Taylor did not say a word as he activated his boosters and pushed off for the exit. He knew the others would follow without a command. He could not see a thing through the water and only continued to drive upwards, using his arms to swim a little faster. A display light flashed inside his helmet, and he knew exactly what it meant; he was running out of air.
The water was getting lighter and clearer, and suddenly he burst out onto the surface. The warm rays of the sun sitting high in the sky met him. He clicked back the mask on his helmet and breathed in the air with relief; his comrades arose beside him. Parker appeared just a few metres away and swam over to him, wrapping her arms around him.
"We did it!"
"Yeah, we're alive, but for how long?" he said, looking out around them.
Debris lay scattered across the ocean, and they looked up at dozens of alien ships entering the atmosphere overhead.
"Not again, how can this happen again?" pleaded Eli.
"Erdogan, that bastard. We will never know peace while he still draws breath."
Chapter 2
Taylor was looking at the Mappad on his arm, which told him they were a little over a thousand klicks from the Florida coastline.
Believe it when I see it, he thought.
Mitch hadn't been stateside in a long while now, and last time he had, it hardly felt like home. He looked up to see his comrades looked as weary as he did. More than twenty of them were sitting atop one of the many pieces of debris from the Nassau. It looked like one of the double skinned interior walls and at least had good buoyancy.
"Reckon anyone is coming for us, Mitch?" asked Parker.
It was the question on everyone's mind.
"I've tried every channel I can, can't reach a soul."
"Can't be easy to miss a battleship plummeting to Earth," Eddie grinned.
"On any other day you'd be right. But today, who's counting how many ships have entered the atmosphere? It's chaos everywhere."
"Well, you're a beacon of hope."
As Parker said it, they heard a roar of engines in the sky and looked up half expecting to see Mech forces descending upon them. Taylor lifted his hand to shield his eyes from the sun's rays and squinted to make them out. He stood up and gripped his rifle with his other hand, but he quickly recognised they were not of alien construction. One of the ships descended to just two metres above the water, and a lower hull door opened, revealing Captain King in the entrance.
"Looks like you need a ride?"
Taylor couldn't believe their luck, though he knew deep down it wasn't luck at all. He had good people he could depend on.
"Your timing is impeccable."
"Well whatta ya know, takes the Rangers to save leathernecks from the wet stuff. Don't ever think you'll be living this one down."
Taylor smiled in response and could not help but take it in good spirits, after having been left adrift on the ocean. He looked around to at King's other ships hauling crew from the water. He took a running jump and leapt up into the doorway with the Captain.
"What are your orders, Colonel?" he asked.
He looked overhead to see three huge enemy craft looming over them and heading west for the east coast of the United States. He looked back across the open ocean to the east and thought of the friends they had left there, but he knew what he had to do.
"Too long have we fought on foreign soil; good old US of A needs us, whether she knows it or not. Set a course for Quantico. We're heading home."
"Quantico?" King asked.
"Last I knew it's where General White was. We ain't exactly on best terms, but he's as good as any place to start. Contact them once we're en route to alert them of our arrival."
"Comms are jammed. We've got a few klicks range and that's about all."
"Well that's fucking great. Nice to know some things never change."
As Sergeant Lang came aboard, King looked out at the other crew of the Nassau still lying stranded at sea in life pods and various other pieces of debris.
"What about them? We can't take many more."
Taylor looked out and could see a ship's silhouette in the distance.
"Make a fly past of whatever that vessel is, and alert them to the crewmembers that need recovering."
"And if they don't want to get involved? Can't even see if it's one of ours from here, could just as well be civilian."