The year was 2025; it was my second year in the Navy SEALS when all hell started breaking loose. It was like something straight from a science fiction movie, all the training we went through couldn’t prepare us for what happened. But before I tell you that story let me start from the beginning. My name is Private Ryan Smith, my friends call me Rock. I am a part of the strongest fighting force in the world, the Navy SEALS. I was a part of SEAL Team Six, there were four of us in the squad all lead by Commander Daniel Shepherd, and we all called him Danny for short. Then there was the toughest person I have ever met, Sargent James Axelson, we called him Axe. He took on a whole squad of Taliban back in 2016 on his own, with only a few grenades, his m16, and 600 .223 rounds. He was a real legend. Then there was our Medic, Specialist Nathan Matthews, we called him Patch for obvious reasons. That was the crew, Axe, Patch, Danny and me. Little did we know what the future had in store for us. The attack began in the early hours of March 22nd, 2025, in Manhattan, New York. “Rock! Wake your ass up! Manhattan is under attack and their sending us in. We’re debriefing in the conference room in fifteen minutes” said Patch, he had a look in his eyes of pure terror.
“I’ll be right up, who’s attacking us?” I was staring directly at him. “Nothing I’ve ever seen.” He was shaking his head, then he walked out without saying another word. His reply confused me, who or what is attacking? I was up and ready in 7 minutes on the dot. Then I made my way to the conference room, ready for anything. I walked in and seen my whole team staring at the television. “there you are rock, take a look” Danny pointed at the screen. The news was on
“… we are still unclear where it came from, to those just tuning in Manhattan has entered a state of emergency, New York has been attacked by an unknown creature… This just in our helicopter has a visual of the creature” They were showing the helicopter camera. The helicopter was flying around it when the creature threw a chunk of concrete at the aircraft. “oh god” Danny shut the television off. “ok boys, HQ send orders for us to drop in and neutralize the threat, we are using a sticky plasmic explosives. These bad boys weigh a good 45 pounds, they will stick to the target, the only trouble is getting close enough to stick them on.”
Danny was pacing back and forth. “We will drop in the centre of Manhattan. We will plant the bomb and get to the evac site within 40 minutes. Are there any questions?” everyone raised their hand, including me. “Patch?” said Danny “Why can’t the airforce drop a bomb on the damn thing?” he had a look of confusion on his face. “HQ wants to take back Manhattan with the least amount of damage and civilian casualties.” I put my hand down because that was my exact question. “Axe?” said Danny, pointing at James. “When do we get this show on the road?” Axe had a smirk on his face. I swear that guy was out of his mind, he had balls of steel. We all kind of chuckled.”0600, so get geared up, we’ll go over where we will be dropping in the craft. Understood?” “HOOYAH!” we all got up and saluted. “let’s get this bastard!” We all started to jog to the barracks to get our equipment. My heart was racing, I was nervous as hell. Despite being nervous, I was pissed off. First the World Trade Centre, now all of Manhattan is in ruins. It looked like someone dropped a goddamn nuke on the place.
I was one of the first people ready. I ran onto the ramp of the AC-130 and sat down in the hanger of the craft. Two minutes later the rest of my team was sitting with me, along with SEAL Team Bravo, we didn’t know the guys too well but they were SEALS, and SEALS are family. There were four of them in SEAL Team Bravo. Then to our surprise, General Franklin Alimar walked up the ramp with such charisma you could sense his power. We all jumped to our feet and saluted. “At ease soldiers” he said while nodding in our direction. We all sat down and gave him our full attention. “I would not ask you to do this unless I had complete faith in your ability to succeed. It won’t be an easy task, but I have full confidence in all of you. Make your country proud soldiers, may god be with you all.” then he walked out of the craft and Commander Danny flipped the switch to close the ramp. “You heard him boys, do this for your country!” yelled Danny raising his fist in the air, “HOOYAH!” we took off, patiently waiting for the red light to come on. “Ok boys prepare to jump” Danny said while checking his parachute. I was scared as hell, I could die here. This sudden realization gave me a boost of adrenaline. “Here everyone take these, there’s so much smoke we won’t be able to see each other after the jump.” He handed us all a red flare. I was first in line when the back opened up. This is it. The red light came on and I sparked my flare and jumped out the back, followed by my brothers. I could see the chaos this monster caused from the air. Then I saw it. It made my heart stop.
I reached for the bomb that was securely strapped onto my chest and starting falling in the direction of the beast. I was getting closer and closer to it. I was about two football fields away from it when I released my parachute. This is it. I flipped the switch on the bomb and seen the green light start flashing. I was 20 feet from it, but it was too busy smashing a building up. Here I go. I landed on its back, it had scales that were huge compared to me. I stuck the bomb on and realized I had no way down. I ran from its back to its tail and slid down, but I ended up falling about 15 feet and broke my left leg. The rest of my team successfully planted their bombs and were coming down after me. “your leg is messed up bro!” said Patch. They starting pulling me away when I noticed the beast staring at us. “oh no” I said. Then it roared, it was the loudest thing I’ve ever heard. “Run boys! I’ll detonate it from here!” I wanted them to survive and get to safety, I was dead weight and the monster was coming our way. “we can leave you!” said Axe. He picked me up and starting jogging. It was right behind us, coming closer and closer. Suddenly a light pole fell and landed on Danny right behind us. His legs were crushed. “just go! I’ll detonate the bombs! Tell Marie I love her” there was blood coming out of his mouth. “we can’t leave you!” yelled Patch “That was an order! Go!”. We turned around and started running, that was the hardest thing we’ve ever done. We never leave a SEAL behind but we had to follow our Commanders orders. We ran down into the subway tunnels. We got to the tracks and heard the bombs explode. We knew he was gone, we all kept quiet and ran down the track to get to the evac site. After 25 minutes of running we got to the street we we’re supposed to meet the chopper at. There it was. Sitting there with the side doors open, we ran and got in. The pilot took off as soon as the last SEAL got in. We later learned we had successfully neutralized the target, but at a cost. Danny was dead. I’ll never forget him, he was the bravest man I had ever met. I told his wife Marie what Danny had asked me to tell her. I told her Danny was a hero. Danny saved Manhattan, and he saved us. I’ll be forever thankful.
