[ WP ] Aliens have invaded the Earth 's oceans , ignoring land-based human civilization .

Scientists generally preferred the exploration of space to the explorations of the ocean depths. It is perfectly understandable, even from a layman's point of view: while only the 4 % of the depths were explored, the general consensus was that there was nothing peculiar to look for. Sure, hundreds of thousands of species were out there, waiting to be discovered, but you'd still get a new type of fish or a mollusk, nothing more. There were enough photos of giant squids to satisfy the scientific curiosity of mankind. On the contrary, while the chances of finding the extraterrestrial life were extremely slim, the importance of such a discovery, no matter how likely it was, far outweighed anything we could find beneath the waves. Ask yourself this: would rather be a coal miner for your whole life, or risk it all to join the gold rush and find your ticket to a better life? 
 
 The most ironic thing though was that the most likely candidates for housing life forms in our solar system were the planets and satellites that had an ocean of their own. Most of those oceans were theoretical and hidden beneath dozens of kilometers of ice... but the chance was there. `` After all'' - scientists speculated - `` life on our planet came to the surface from the ocean, hence the oceans are cradles of life''. That logic was not unreasonable and not without its own convenience: after all, we had no access to other stars yet, and most of the bodies in our solar system were inhospitable irradiated cold rocks. So the alien subterranean oceans were not only the best option, they were our only bet. 
 
 There were many candidates nearby. Europa, Jupiter's icy satellite, was one of the most well-known entries on the list, and if not for the insane levels of radiation that its `` partner'' emited our unmanned missions would already be there. Ganymede, another Jupiter's satellite - the only one with the male's name, actually, - was another potential candidate, and, unlike Europe, he was in `` the green zone'', outside of Jupiter's reach. 
 
 Titan, the largest satellite of Saturn, sported a whole system of liquid lakes and seas right on his surface despite being extremely cold - the temperature there rarely went above -180 C. An, of course, the most likely candidate, the brother of Titan - Enceladus. A small icy world that had a surprising amount of thermal energy inside of it. So much, in fact, that its underground ocean of liquid salty water would sometimes break through its icy shell out into space in a form of spectacular geysers. 
 
 That meant a few things for scientists. First: there was an ocean underneath the Enceladus ocean, not a theoretical one, but as real as our own. Second: it was a water ocean, which meant that the water was warm enough to stay liquid - and possibly to even house complex life. And third, the most important thing: parts of that ocean would sometimes erupt and fly into space, never to return. 
 
 So when a piece of Enceladus's ice the size of Beijing landed in the Pacific, the scientists finally took their eyes off the sky and turned them to the depth, all of them uttering the same two words: `` Holy Shit''. 
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