I awake from a nightmare. What it was I don't know. I guess it was part of Recker's subconscious. A whisper gained my attention.
"Yo, Recker. You were thrashing about. Bad dream?" A marine asks.
"Yeah. You good Jess?" I ask the marine.
"Yeah. Irish swam by earlier, didn't want to wake you. But he probably wanted to talk. Peace." He says, bidding me farewell as I leave.
"Peace, Jess." I reply. I walk toward the med bay. I meet Pac close by, and we help Hannah get in to help Jin Jie. After that, we continue to the lower deck to meet Irish. As we get to him, we discuss the next mission. After a small talk, we head up to meet Garrison for debrief. On our way, the alarms sound, making us rush topside. Once we arrive, we stop in our tracks. The Titan was on fire, slowly sinking.
"Where the fuck is Tombstone?" Garrison calls out, interrupting our thoughts.
"We're here, what is it?" I reply.
"Sergeant Recker, bring your men. With me." He says, moving off with us in tow. We are briefed in the deployment room. "The clock is ticking on the Titan. I need eyes on-board before she's lost forever to the deep blue. There's a number of variables at play, we don't know who attacked them or if they'll be back. We can't afford any surprises."
"Tombstone won't let you down." Irish says.
"Sergeant Recker. Agent Kovic's taking the reins. You'll obey his orders as if they're my own." Garrison says. Before Irish was able to complain, I covered his mouth with my gloved hand, shaking my head solemnly. "Setting the Valkyrie in a defensive posture one click east of the Titan. Agent Kovic, muster your Squad." Garrison leaves us with our Squad Leader.
"We search the titan for intel and survivors. Gear up. Weapons and re-breathers." Kovic orders us. I grab my HK, now with a heavy barrel instead of silencer, a re-breather and my lightsaber. "What is that cylinder?" Kovic asks me.
"You will find out. For now, all you need to know is it will help free survivors that may be trapped." I say cryptically. After we were all geared up, we moved off to a RHIB boat. As the second in command, I was to pilot the boat. Once we were within 500 meters of the Titan, we began to circle around to find an opening. Before long, we found it.
"I've seen that damage before. Chinese anti-ship missile. Drive through Recker." Kovic says. I drive through and park the boat. Once we unload, Kovic briefs us further. "Listen up. The Titan was out of range of the Shanghai EMP blast. She has several hours of report data gathered–stuff we never saw. That's why we're here."
"We'd better move fast." Pac quips in. We crawl along a small passage to move deeper into the ship.
"Let's push on! Move up." Kovic says. As we jump down, the ship lurches.
"Oh, shit. Kovic, you got an exit strategy if this thing rolls over?" Irish asks, concerned.
"She will slide off the reef at some point. When that happens we'd better be out of here–with the voyage recorder." Kovic replies, still not having answered the question, since he didn't have one.
"Not exactly an exit strategy, is it?" Irish asks rhetorically.
"Watch your step. We're on C deck and we're headed for the damage control central. Look for hatch G-46. That hatch leads to a route all the way through." Kovic orders. After a short walk, I locate the hatch and we open it. It lead to water, which we had to swim through. Once through the flooded area, we go through a door, and move towards the sound of banging. After opening another door, we find survivors trapped under grating on the floor, with the water rising.
"Hang on." I say, taking my lightsaber and igniting it. "Move back, because this will cut through you like butter." I say, as I then cut through the floor, allowing the survivors to get out. "Irish, take them back to the RHIB and get them onto the Valkyrie, but be careful." I say, while Kovic, Pac and I continue forward. In the next room we searched, we collected the Data Recorder. Before we opened the next door, we heard voices. I signalled Kovic to prep a flashbang, and as soon as I kicked the door open, he threw it, blinding the enemy soldiers, allowing us to easily dispatch them. As we quickened our pace, the carrier began to move. As we opened a door, the ship broke in two, with one half lifting above us, for gravity to bring it back down. We all jumped down, rolling to absorb the impact. Taking out my HK417, I zero in on the hostiles by the Helicopter, eliminating the grenadier and his ally. I take out my PLD and mark out the positions of all enemies, allowing us to dispatch them all swiftly.
"There's an attack boat down there!" Kovic calls to us.
"What? We're stealing boats now?" Irish asks.
"It's our only way off this fucking thing!" Kovic counters. "Come on, jump ship! We got our exit!" We all jump into the Freezing Ocean, and swim to board the boat. I take the helm and plot our course back to the Valkyrie.
"I hope Irish made it back alright!" I call back. As hostile boats attempt to destroy us, I take aim with the cannon, firing and destroying them. As we near the ship, an enemy Helo tries to take us out, but with a well placed shot at its cockpit, it goes down. As I steer us into the Well Deck of the Valkyrie, the doors close, scraping the engine of the boat and flipping it on its side.
As I exit our escape vessel, the sound of gunfire sounds through the deck. Thankfully, other marines were there to aid us, thus overwhelming the enemy invaders swiftly. One of the marines gives us an update of what's happening and that the command bridge fell silent ten minutes ago. Among those marines was Irish, who then re-joined us. As we moved towards the med bay, we encountered hostile choppers, which we quickly dispatched with RPG's. We pushed on to the aircraft hanger, eliminating enemy forces holding within.
Once we reached the med bay, Hannah was dealing with her own 'friends', which she dealt with on her own. After Kovic spoke with her, we moved to the runway, which was being overrun. We contacted one of the turret pilots and he dealt with the Helicopter reinforcements as we dealt with those on the ground. Once we reached the ladder that lead to the bridge, Kovic and I cleared it, with Kovic taking point on the ladder. As he climbed though, an enemy Helo fired its rockets, throwing us back to the ground, severely injuring Kovic. As several Helo's attempt to deploy troops, I become enraged, using the force to crush all the choppers and throw them into the ocean. We then turn our attention back to Kovic.
"Shit!" I say.
"Motherfucker!" Kovic agrees. "It's probably all in there. Take it. Garrison has the codes." He hands the Data Recorder to Irish. "Chang… Chang's gonna hunt you. You'll be in the center of it all. Make sure he lives. Marines. You tell Garrison he has to trust her." Kovic speaks about Jin Jie and Hannah. "Recker! Recker, you take the lead. Go. GO!" He says with his final breath.
"Fuck Kovic, you always wanted to go out in a fight." I murmur to myself. "Come on. We gotta get to the bridge." I say. As we move up, we encounter less and less enemy forces. When we reach the bridge, I simply throw them out of the windows, as Hannah gets Garrison. We were later informed by Garrison that the Data Recorder we collected confirmed that Pacific Central Command was destroyed, meaning that if there were any more ships of the fleet, they would be blind, just like us.
A/N – Didn't know how to have a proper ending for this mission, so we will just have it like this. Other than that, Nut Out.