Clad In Steel
Kevin McLaughlin
Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Other Books by Kevin McLaughlin
Afterword
About the Author
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One
The day when Earth’s people first became aware of life outside our solar system was a rude awakening to every soul living on the planet.
Fires flashed through the sky. It felt like the entire world was coming to an end, and that might well be true. One of humanity’s worst fears was realized. Not alone in the universe after all, and what we’d encountered was hostile. Three massive Naga ships came against Earth, and the power of human militaries was insufficient to stop them. The aliens sent missiles tearing through the atmosphere, burning entire cities to the ground in fiery explosions. Ash darkened the sky.
For the most part, Miami, Florida was spared.
None of the missiles struck near enough to damage the city. But even as TVs were sending the first reports that somehow, humans had hit back and badly hurt one Naga ship, that ship was tilting out of orbit. It drifted at first and then fell, more rapidly each second, toward the bottom of the gravity well it was helpless to resist.
Fighters streamed down alongside their doomed mothership. Shuttles and escape pods launched clear while the Naga who remained aboard struggled to save their vessel. They managed to restore enough power to prevent a catastrophic impact. Instead of striking the ocean with enough force to completely shatter the ship, the Naga battle-cruiser slowed its descent enough to survive.
A wave of water displaced by the ship’s crash washed into Miami with the force of a small tsunami. But the city was built to survive hurricanes. The water struck and then receded, leaving the buildings mostly intact.
Cadet Owen McInness was with his family when it all went down. He was just about at the end of his leave. Before long he’d be back at school, getting ready for a career in the Air Force. Or ideally, in space. That had been his dream since he’d been a small child: somehow, to voyage into space and see humanity make a place for itself out there.
“The water is running back out to sea,” Owen said, peering out a window.
“Thank god,” his mother replied.
“Must have missed us. Whatever it was hit the ocean instead,” his father added. Then a sharp whining noise rose. Owen’s dad jumped up, alarmed. “Get away from the window!”
Owen didn’t hesitate. When his father used that tone, there was danger coming. He dove clear, hitting the deck just as a small plane shot past their apartment building, close enough to rattle the windows.
No, that wasn’t a plane. He caught a glimpse of plumes of fire burning from behind it and saw the strange lines of its structure. That was an alien spacecraft. A small one, some sort of fighter-plane. Owen low-crawled back to the window in time to see two more alien craft join the first. They strafed buildings near the beach, blasting them apart.
Building a beach-head, a place where more of them could come ashore safely. They were systematically destroying whole blocks. How long until they reached his apartment? Owen did some math in his head. They had a few minutes at most.
“We’ve got to get out of here!” Owen cried.
His father nodded and went into the bedroom, returning with a heavy pistol. “Time to go. We’ve got to move.”
Sonic booms rattled the building again. Owen spared a moment to check what was going on. This time the fighter craft flying overhead were familiar F-32 fighters. Air Force machines of war. They fell on the alien ships, firing missiles and guns into the enemy. One alien fighter exploded completely. The rest tore skyward to face the new threat.
“Son, come on!” Owen’s father called.
He dashed from the window, glancing back as he joined his family. Owen wanted to see the fight play out, but they weren’t safe in this place. Their best chance was to get clear of the battle zone while they still could. Power was out, so they had to race down the stairs. They weren’t the only people with that idea, either. A flood of human beings fled down the steps in a wave, pouring out onto the street. Every building nearby was the same, people shouting and screaming as they fled their homes, running inland away from the invaders.
Someone shoved into Owen from behind. He stumbled and almost went down. His father’s steady hand on his shoulder kept him upright.
“You all right?” his father asked.
Owen just nodded a reply, his lips tight. They had to move fast!
Then the battle in the sky above them seemed to reach a crescendo. Explosions went off almost directly overhead. Debris rained down on the street. Small, hot shards of metal tore into fleeing refugees. Larger chunks rained down as well. Owen recognized one. It was the fuselage of an F-32, or most of one, anyway. Were the defenders losing the fight? He looked skyward, hoping to see something of the battle.
A quick glance was all he needed. One of the alien ships had lined up on their position. It was coming in toward them all, getting ready to strafe or bomb them. Owen grabbed his parents and hauled them off into the shadow of a nearby building. “This way!”
They saw the danger and ran with him. Blasts of energy tore up the concrete behind them as the fighter shot into the crowd of terrified humans. Then an explosion ripped through the air with enough force that it threw Owen and his parents to the ground. He glanced up, saw the alien fighter in flames, falling. It tore into the pavement where his family stood moments before, ripping up a gouge in the street. Finally, it stopped moving.
Until the cockpit of the craft popped open, spilling a nightmare out.
The Naga was taller than a man. It had a head like that of a dinosaur and clawed hands. This one’s scales had a greenish tinge to them, although it covered most of its body with silvery armor. It carried a huge rifle in its arms. The alien staggered as it stumbled down from its wrecked ship. Then it crouched, bringing its weapon up at the ready. One of the F-32s flew by overhead. The Naga’s rifle spat bolts of energy at the fighter. One punched through its wing, sending the plane spiraling out of control to crash into a nearby building.
The Naga snarled at its fallen foe, rising to take in its whereabouts. Before it could advance on the helpless humans around it, though, a booming sound went off next to Owen. The alien staggered back, almost falling over. Owen’s father stood there, pistol in a firm grip. He aimed and fired again. This time, the lizard-like alien went down.
“Not so terrible that old Ruger can’t take care of them,” the elder McInness muttered. He advanced on the alien. Owen followed a few steps behind.
But it wasn’t dead, just wounded. The Naga rolled sideways, bringing its rifle up. Before Owen’s father could react, it shot him square in the chest. He flew backward, the pistol rattling loose from his hands and skittering across the brok
en ground. Evan McInness was dead before he hit the ground.
Owen dove for cover. He knew his father was gone. There was no way he’d lived through that much damage. He had to survive, had to keep his mother alive. He turned to face her and shouted, “Run for it!”
But she didn’t. She screamed her husband’s name and ran to his side. The Naga just saw another human running toward it and fired again. Owen’s mother fell just short of reaching his father’s body.
Tears streamed down his face. They were both still and dead, just a few feet away from him. Nothing he could do would save them. A furious rage built up in his chest. It felt like he would explode from the sensation like it was too much anger for his skin to hold it all in. Nothing he could do. He’d been helpless.
But his father’s pistol had fallen only a few feet away.
Owen’s rage found a new direction. He wouldn’t be helpless, not then or ever again. He reached for the pistol. Grabbing the smooth metal of the weapon in his hand, he whirled and rose. Owen’s hands came together with grace from long hours of practice. He dropped the sights over the alien’s upper body and fired.
It jolted back from the shot, but Owen knew better than to stop. Even as the alien tried to bring its rifle to bear against him, Owen fired twice more. The round slammed into the alien, blasting it backward. Somehow the thing managed to stay on its feet.
Owen screamed an inarticulate cry of rage at the Naga, pouring all his hate and fury into the roar. He fired again and again, blasting the reptilian body over and over until he heard the pistol click empty in his hands.
The Naga staggered and fell face-first into the street.
It wasn’t enough. The entire world had receded around him. The only thing that mattered to Owen was the damned alien. He walked up to it and snatched up its rifle. It took him only a few seconds to figure out the firing mechanism. Then he fired the weapon three times into the Naga’s head. He didn’t stop until he was absolutely sure his parents’ killer was dead.
Emptiness overtook him. Still carrying the alien weapon, he made his way back to where his parents had fallen. They were both there, arms outstretched like they were reaching for each other but never able to touch. That wouldn’t do. Tears blurring his vision, Owen moved his mother’s body so that she lay next to his father. They’d loved each other so much in life. At least this way, they could be together in death.
It was six hours before emergency services were able to go through the damaged Miami waterfront. The battle was over. In orbit the forces of humanity, led by the starship Satori, had managed the impossible, defeating all three Naga warships. On Earth, human militaries had killed or forced the surrender of those Naga which had managed to get to the surface. The battle was over.
But not for Owen. He wondered if it ever would be, for him, because the rage hadn’t faded away with the death of the invader. It lingered in his heart, and he didn’t know if he could ever kill enough alien enemies to make it go away.
Two
He’d always wanted to go into space more than anything, but after that day it wasn’t about adventure anymore. Not for Owen. In all the months since the attack, he’d been driven to do whatever he could to get out there, so that he could stop the aliens from hurting anyone else the way his family had been slaughtered. It wasn’t a dream anymore. It was a vendetta.
The Air Force Academy was his ticket, a tool to arrive at the destination he wanted. No, not everyone who graduated was getting into the newly formed Space Force. But enough were that he had a shot. All he had to do was excel, so he’d driven his nose to the grindstone, pushing himself to become the best he possibly could.
But all that was undone, now.
He knew it even before he was called in front of the Commandant for sentencing. After what he’d done, he figured he might as well have taken the folder full of three and a half years of accolades and struck a match to it. There was no way he’d be at the head of the class when it came time to pick assignments.
Maybe in time, he could find another way. If he worked hard, he could win back such a positive service record that they’d let him transfer between branches. It wasn’t unheard of, but the thought of more time wasted was galling. Worse still that it was his own fault.
The collar of Owen’s dress uniform was scratchy at his throat. A bead of sweat formed on his forehead, slowly sliding down. He didn’t make a move to alleviate either discomfort, keeping his body still as a statue in the position of attention while he waited for the three men seated behind the table to pronounce their verdict and the penalty he would pay.
They each wore a dress uniform as well. Courts-martial were formal affairs. Their faces were stoic masks, none of them giving away a hint of what they had in store for him. It went without saying that he would be punished. Owen tried to brace himself, unsure just how bad it would be.
“Cadet McInness, you were accused of causing serious bodily injury to another cadet. You have pled guilty to this charge,” Commandant Nielsen said. He was seated in the center of the board, directing the proceedings. “Do you have anything else you wish to add to your case at this time?”
Owen replied, his throat dry with stress. “No, sir.”
He’d already had a chance to explain the mitigating circumstances. All three men on the board had read the entire report from the investigation into the incident. There wasn’t much else he could add that they didn’t already know.
“While we applaud your defense of a fellow cadet, your methods were extreme. We cannot condone the level of violence you committed,” Nielsen said.
Owen winced. “I understand, sir.”
“Do you, cadet? I don’t think you’ve heard the latest news,” Nielsen said. “Cadet Durham remains in critical condition. The surgery failed. Assuming he recovers at all, it’s unlikely he will ever walk again.”
Owen’s jaw dropped. He hadn’t heard any news about Durham at all. He’d been sequestered during the entire proceeding. No one would tell him anything. Owen knew he’d hurt the other cadet. He’d been trying to hurt him. But he figured a little time in the hospital and Durham would be fine. He was paralyzed?
He felt cold horror slip down his spine. This was way worse than he’d had any idea it could be. “I didn’t know, sir. I hadn’t meant to hurt him that badly.”
“But you did,” Nielsen’s words were iced steel. “I’ve seen the video, McInness. You lost your temper. You’ve been warned about controlling your anger before.”
More than once. Owen felt that rage boil inside him at Nielsen’s words. It was always there, waiting to pour out of him at a moment’s notice. It made him strong, fast, dedicated… But when he lost control, it was never pretty.
Nielsen picked up a folder full of papers. “I have the stack of incident reports to prove it. But son, you went way past all that, this time. Do you understand that this board could order you imprisoned on a felony charge?”
Owen swallowed hard. Leavenworth wasn’t supposed to be a fun place. “Yes, sir.”
What else could he say? Sure, Durham was asking for it. He’d picked on Cadet Evans incessantly for months, always keeping it just quiet enough that he never got punished. Evans was a good kid and refused to rat on him. He was always just ‘falling down the stairs.’
Owen warned Durham off, more than once. He was ignored. Worse, he waited until Owen was the only other person around and then gave Evans a good, hard shove down the stairs. His cry of pain cut like a knife, and Owen lost control. The rage spilled out like he was back there in Miami all over again. He laid into Durham with everything he had. A couple of punches to his face, two jabs into his ribs, and the other cadet was on the ropes.
The fight was over at that point. Owen had already taught the necessary lesson, and he knew he should have ended it there. But he was still furious. The rage was too big to control, too much to hold back. He landed more blows. Durham rocked back on his heels. Owen could still see it clear as day in his memory, and he’d seen the replay of t
he tape from a watching video camera during the investigation. The look of hot rage the video showed on his face shook him to the core. That hadn’t been the face of the person he thought he was or the man he wanted to be.
More blows landed. Durham begged Owen to stop, but he didn’t. Then Durham slipped back and fell down the stairs, tumbling down the same route he’d pushed Evans. Even that might have been seen as poetic justice, but his fall was faster and harder. It ended abruptly at the landing, his head cracking against the wall with a meaty thud. Owen followed him down, expecting him to get back to his feet, ready to beat some more sense into him.
But he didn’t get back up.
“You called for medical services. That probably saved his life,” Nielsen went on. “Because of that, the board has elected to not issue a criminal penalty against you.”
Owen sagged a little in relief. No prison. Thank god. Guilt wracked him a moment later. Maybe he deserved jail time.
“But this was not a case of self-defense, nor even a case of defending another cadet. This was revenge that got out of hand,” Nielsen said. “You have exhibited behavior unbecoming of an Air Force officer.”
Those were very precise words. He might not be going to prison, but he wasn’t going to get a slap on the wrist either. Owen braced himself as best he could. Whatever was coming next, he’d earned it. Nielsen was right. His anger had gotten the better of him, and a man had paid the price. Now, it was his turn.
“Cadet McInness, it is the decision of this court that you be administratively discharged from the Air Force, effective immediately.”
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