Clad in Steel

by Kevin McLaughlin

  Owen jerked his controls to the left. He’d almost bumped into her suit as she retreated from a pair of Bugs. He turned and joined his machine gun fire to hers. Their collective fire burned the enemy to bits.

  “Sorry,” Owen replied.

  “Don’t be sorry, be good. Head in the game,” Kowal said. Then she was moving again, heading forward to support Roberts.

  She was impressive. One hell of a fighter, maybe the best on their team. Fast, steady, and brave, she was always scoring the best of the lot of them. Owen was impressed. He’d have been even more impressed if she wasn’t still busting their balls about working harder, but in a way that was good, too.

  “Contact left,” Thompson said. “No eyes on, but it’s showing on my radar.”

  Owen turned his Armor to face the incoming signals. He spotted them at once and froze in place.

  They were Naga.

  There must have been a dozen of them, bounding over the field toward him. Each one carried a rifle raised to shoot. In seconds they’d hit the exposed flank of the Armor unit and tear them to shreds.

  The memory of the Naga he’d killed flashed through Owen’s mind again, rage pulsing like a furnace blast through him. “Naga on our flank, wheeling to engage.”

  It would feel good to take some of them down. The Bugs were fine. It was the Naga he hated.

  “Negative, McInness! Naga are green for this exercise,” Roberts said. “Mac! You hear me?”

  The message reached Owen’s radio, but he wasn’t listening. He dropped targeting crosshairs on the nearest Naga and prepared to send a burst of lead into it. This would be like mowing the lawn.

  Something slammed into him from the right, knocking his weapons out of alignment. His aim was screwed up. The burst of bullets slammed into the soil a few feet in front of him. Turning to face whatever this new threat was, Owen was stunned to see another Armor unit in front of him. It was Roberts.

  A ping on a private channel came in. “Mac. What the absolute hell? You almost got a green on green there. Friendly fire would fail us on this mission,” Roberts said.

  The words snapped Owen back. He flushed, embarrassed. “Shit. Sorry. I forgot they were green. I’m good.”

  “Get it together,” Roberts said. “We need you out there.”

  “I’m with you,” Owen said.

  He strode forward, staying right at Roberts’ side as they marched. The Naga joined their line, and together they forced back the enemy. The Bugs tried to breach the line more than once, but every time withering fire blasted them back.

  Roberts almost went down. Owen stepped gently behind him to prevent the fall, supporting his Armor’s weight with his own. Off to their right, Kowal and Thompson burned down their own share of the enemy.

  Then it was over. There were no more red dots to eliminate. Owen shut down his guns, the whine as their rotating cylinder slowly came to a stop the only sound he could hear at first. But then came the cheering.

  “We did it!” Kowal said.

  “Take that, suckers!” Thompson replied.

  Roberts broke into the channel. “Good work, all. Let’s check the other squads, see if they need assistance.”

  Owen glanced over at the rest of their platoon. The line held against the Bugs, but where his team had support from VR Naga, the other squads had not. More than a few Armor units were on their ground, the VR system showing smoke rising from their ruined forms.

  Was his squad the only one that had zero casualties? Owen checked the board. It was. They’d done it — not only beaten the mission but from the looks of it they had the best score, too. He glanced over at the virtual Naga a moment before they winked out. His stupidity had almost cost them that win. If he’d fired on the Naga that would have dumped them to the bottom of the list. Roberts stopped him just in time.

  James was right. It was better, but he had a lot of work left to do. He popped open his canopy and spotted General Hereford and Captain Pahwel coming over.

  “Well done, all of you,” Hereford said. “Especially First Squad.”

  Pahwel looked like he’d eaten raw eggs mixed with his lemons this time, but he nodded. “First scored best, followed by second and third. Fourth, you have some work to do. Not only did you fail to react quickly enough, but you also lost half your units during the fight.”

  “Sorry, sir.” That was Jefferson, the big black guy in charge of Fourth. “We’re working on it. Won’t happen again.”

  Pahwel’s face softened. “I know it won’t. You’re frankly all doing well. This level of training should have been reserved for another week or more. However...”

  He glanced over at General Hereford and coughed. The general stepped forward.

  “We’ve had an emergency. A Naga ship was attacked by Bugs while trying to reach this system. They almost made it, but now they’re in deep shit. The Bugs have boarded and taken the engine room. If they win the bridge, too, the Bugs can take the ship anywhere they want. If they leave the Sol system, they’ll be able to tell the rest of the Bugs where Earth is.”

  Owen swallowed hard. He’d seen vids of the battle over the Naga homeworld. A massive Bug fleet had battled against everything the Naga could throw at it, plus Earth’s finest ships. They’d defeated the Bugs, but only just. If that force came to Earth?

  “I am sure you all understand why this must be prevented at all costs. A squad of you trainees will be dispatched aboard the Lynx to rendezvous with the Naga vessel and support her crew until the Constitution arrives with more reinforcements,” Hereford said. “And it looks like Second Squad had the best score. Any objections, Captain Pahwel?”

  Pahwel stared directly at Owen, his face blank. The close call in the exercise hadn’t been missed, then. They’d seen it. But Hereford wanted to send him anyway? Why? Owen understood Pahwel’s reluctance. He’d almost screwed up once. How could the captain be sure he wouldn’t do it again?

  But he wouldn’t. Owen promised himself that. He had this thing under control now. When he saw real Naga, live ones, he’d be ready for it.

  Just keep saying that, he thought to himself, and maybe that will make it come true. Part of him wasn’t at all sure he could handle this mission. That frightened piece wanted him to beg off. Owen knew that if he raised his hand and asked to be taken off the team that Pahwel would do so gladly.

  But he didn’t know if he could live with himself if he let his teammates go into battle while he stayed safe at home.

  “No objections, sir,” Pahwel said, looking away from Owen at last. “We want the best for this.”

  “Good. Lynx is landing right now,” Hereford said. “Armaments with live ammo are waiting on board. Move out.”

  Twenty

  There was a blast of light that felt like it was coming from behind his retinas as the Lynx burst back into real space on the other side of the wormhole. Owen had heard about wormhole drive travel. He knew something about how it worked. But it was one thing to read about it and entirely another to live it!

  “Whoa,” Owen said. He felt dizzy and a little sick. Was every transition like that? He had nothing to compare the experience against.

  “McInness, you up?” Captain Pahwel growled over the radio.

  “Yes, sir,” Owen replied. He checked his status board. All green. His Armor was fully ready for combat. “I’m good to go.”

  The rest of the squad sounded off their own readiness. Casiano replied last, but soon he too had made his way down from the cockpit and powered up his Armor.

  All the recruits sounded nervous to Owen. Hell if he was going to admit it to anyone, but he felt tense himself. They had precisely two combat-experienced operators in the squad. The rest of the team were brand new to using their mechs. So much could go wrong on this op that it was scary to even contemplate it.

  “All right. Casiano and I are on point. The rest of you, follow us out. Mind your lanes of fire. We don’t want no green on green here, you get me?” Pahwel said.

  He was answered with a
chorus of ‘yes, sir,’ which he responded to with a grunt. Then the rear hatch of the Lynx lowered, and Owen got his first look at where they were.

  The ship had actually jumped inside the Naga battle-cruiser. That was a hell of a feat. How they’d calculated the jump so precisely, he had no idea. Nor did Owen want to contemplate what would have happened if they’d screwed it up. The Lynx was settling down to the deck of a massive hangar. Squadrons of Naga fighters formed a pair of lines along the deck. The Lynx settled down right between them.

  Owen swallowed hard. He knew those fighters well. Memories of the assault on Miami came back unbidden, but they lacked some of the sting they once had. He silently thanked James for the help.

  Casiano and Pahwel were moving. Then Nichols rolled down the ramp, followed by Thompson. After that, it was his turn. Owen activated the leg motors just as he’d been trained, letting the practice on Earth take over. He strolled down the ramp and pivoted his guns outward to track on a hallway to the left.

  That was when he saw them. A cluster of Naga stood there. No, four stood while two more lay on the deck, wounded. Owen reacted without thinking. He twisted his Armor, bringing both main guns to bear on the Naga. “Contact!”

  Owen moved his hand toward the fire control. He armed his weapons. One flick of a finger and he would pour hot death into these Naga. The idea felt so right that he could taste it. The only thing which stayed his hand was that the Naga weren’t moving. They didn’t raise their own weapons at him. Why not?

  “McInness, stand the hell down!” Pahwel’s voice finally broke through the fog of anger clouding his hearing.

  Owen shook his head, trying to clear it. Shit, these Naga weren’t enemy combatants. This was part of the crew they were coming to rescue. It was the Bugs they had to stop. He reached up and shut down his guns then began to pivot away from the Naga. “Sorry-”

  Before he could finish either the pivot or the statement, his Armor shut down entirely.

  There was nothing but darkness around him. Owen couldn’t see or hear anything at all except his own breath. What happened? Was there an attack? Some sort of weapon had shut down all his systems? He spent a panicked moment searching for the emergency release handle before he found it and pulled. The canopy popped open, lifting away from him.

  Pahwel’s angry face stared back at him. The captain’s canopy was also open, and he looked ready to tear Owen a new one. “Damn it, McInness. I said to stand down. I told them it was a bad idea to bring you on this mission. Can’t be trusted for shit.”

  “Sir, I’m sorry. I was standing down,” Owen said. “It won’t happen again, sir.”

  “Damned right it won’t. I’ve activated the command override on your Armor,” Pahwel said. The lights in Owen’s cockpit came on again, but his controls were still dead. His Armor backed its way into the rear bay of the Lynx again.

  “Sir?” Owen asked, confused.

  “You’re grounded. And when we get back to Earth, I’m making sure you never wear a uniform again, at least not for anything better than ‘janitor.’ You’ve screwed up for the last time, McInness,” Pahwel said. “Stay with the Lynx. You’ll have three Naga with you as well, the wounded and one to tend to them.”

  The lighting inside Owen’s Armor shut down again once he was inside the Lynx. His radio was active, but nothing else worked. “You’re leaving me alone with three Naga in a ship full of Bugs, with an inactive Armor?”

  That was crazy. He had no way to defend himself! If the Bugs attacked, or the Naga tried anything, he’d be helpless. Owen fiddled with the controls, trying to get the Armor to come back to life, but nothing worked.

  “Can’t trust you with an active one, clearly. Stay off coms unless you have an emergency. The real soldiers have work to do,” Pahwel said.

  “Sir, are you sure we want to go out there without every fighter we have?” Casiano said.

  Good old Mateo! Owen held back a smile. At least someone was supporting him.

  Then Thompson added, “McInness is a bit of an ass, but he’s good, sir.”

  “This isn’t a debate team,” Pahwel said. His voice was stone cold and brooked no argument. Owen’s hopes crashed. “I expect my orders to be followed.”

  Both men replied with a rapid “Yes, sir.”

  Then Pahwel turned and led the rest of the squad away from the Lynx. Three of the Naga went with them. The Lynx’s loading ramp slowly raised back up against the ship, cutting off his view of the rest of the team.

  The other three Naga were already in the Lynx’s rear compartment alongside his Armor. Owen swallowed hard. Shut the canopy and live with the darkness, or risk dealing with several Naga? He reached for the canopy lid to shut it, then withdrew his hand. He’d leave it open, for now at least.

  He eyed the Naga carefully. One of the wounded was sitting up, a claw pressed to his side. The other was unconscious. The third was tending to the unconscious one, injecting something into his neck.

  They were everything his memory had told him. All three had reptilian scales covering them, at least the parts their body armor revealed. Their fingers were tipped with wicked claws, and each mouth was filled with razor-sharp teeth. That face and form had haunted his nightmares for most of a year. Somehow Owen knew he would find a way to confront the Naga again, but he’d never imagined it would be like this.

  Fear tightened his belly. They were ruthless killers, the scourge of whole star systems. Why Earth was bothering to allow them to pretend some sort of alliance, Owen had no idea. They’d simply turn on humans again the first chance they got. The Bugs were an enemy, but the Naga were, too.

  “How many more ships are coming?” asked the wounded Naga who was sitting up.

  Owen was surprised to hear the words in English coming from its snout. The accent was terrible, each syllable ground out painfully, but he could understand it well enough. They had translation software which would turn the Naga tongue into English and vice verse, but this Naga could speak his language. When had it learned English? How?

  “Just this one,” Owen replied, startled into answering.

  The Naga shook his head. “Is not good. Should be more. Charline? Dan? Satori?”

  Was he asking after Colonel Foster? Her first name was Charline. The last word, Owen knew. The starship Satori was famous. He figured everyone on Earth had heard of it by then. Owen shook his head. “No, the Satori is away on another mission. We’re what Earth had handy to send.”

  The Naga closed his eyes and leaned back against the wall, hissing out a slow breath. “Hope is enough.”

  “It’s just a few Bugs, right?” Owen asked.

  “Bugs, as you say. Is ‘Kkiktchikut’ in our tongue,” the Naga said. “Means ‘death,’ because they are death in bodies.”

  Owen went cold. “How many are there on board your ship?”

  “Too many,” the Naga replied.

  Twenty-One

  Owen listened to the radio chatter as his unit went on without him. Pahwel managed to link up with another group of Naga. Reinforced, they made their way toward the aft of the ship, where the engine rooms were. Owen went over his memories of Naga battlecruisers. He couldn’t recall every detail, and with his computer down he couldn’t look it up. But he knew there were two key places to control: the bridge and the engines. They were placed at opposite ends of the ship.

  That made Naga vessels hard to capture, which was working in their favor. From what he heard over the radio, the Naga had held on to the bridge so far, but there was no communication from the engines. That was bad news. If the Bugs were in there, they could sabotage the ship, even blow it up. Pahwel brought his entire force down the main corridor which ran through the battlecruiser like a spine.

  The wounded Naga he’d spoken to was standing again and had taken to pacing. The other conscious Naga said something to him, and he growled a harsh response. Probably he was being told to rest and replied with whatever the Naga version of ‘go to hell’ was. Owen grinned at the thought.
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  “How did you learn English?” Owen asked.

  The Naga looked up at him. “From Dan. Was my prisoner once. Now is friend. He and I have fought alongside each other. I am Garul.”

  “I’m Owen.”

  “Is famous human warrior?” Garul asked.

  Owen thought he must be starting to get a little of the Naga body language, because he was certain Garul was messing with him. “No, not really.”

  The thought of himself as a warrior brought his mind back to the first time he’d had to use a weapon. The emotions around that brief firefight in Miami were still a swirl. Less intense than they’d once been, but still enough to throw him off balance. Owen took a breath and waited for the feelings to subside some.

  “Must have courage to come out here, anyway,” Garul said. He stared at Owen. “Why your commander leave you behind?”

  Owen blushed scarlet. “Because I aimed my weapons at you.”

  Garul cocked his head sideways. “But you didn’t fire them. I am not upset by this.”

  Owen thought about how close he’d come to shooting Garul and the other Naga. He felt ashamed of his actions. Pahwel was right; he had no place on this mission. He dropped his gaze away from Garul. If the Naga knew the truth, he wouldn’t trust him, either.

  “I almost did, though. When I saw you, I wanted to shoot,” Owen admitted.

  “But you didn’t,” Garul said. He stepped closer, seeming more interested by the moment. “I want to understand humans better. Why did you want to shoot? You were here to help us, yes?”

  “Because you killed my parents!” Owen shouted.

  “Me?” Garul asked.

  Owen blinked. “No, not you personally. A Naga did.”

  “Ah.” Garul blinked back at him. He looked deep into Owen’s eyes. “I think I see. You were there and could not save them.”

  “Yes,” Owen replied, looking away. He reached up to press the button which would close his canopy. Better darkness than this complete baring of his soul to an utter stranger.

  “How did you live?” Garul asked.