Page 57 of Trigger Discipline

CHAPTER

It all happened so fast. One moment they were standing on the roof, puzzling through the appearance of a second ship, and the next, everything was moving.

The first explosion was dangerously close. It rattled Gabriel’s feet out from under him as he dropped to the ground. Gritting his teeth against the pain, he pushed himself up and grabbed the first person his fingers closed around. Scott squawked as he dragged him back into the station.

“Get inside!”

Gabriel wasn’t sure how, but the barrier had come down. Whatever was holding back the second ship’s firepower was now gone; their ordinance was hitting the ground. From his shaky visuals, he could see the balls break apart like buckshot, falling to the ground with an electric snap. If there was nothing to conduct the electricity, it fizzled short.

The effects weren’t quite as devastating as the molten metal from the Handlers, but it was still bad. Especially when the first ship started returning fire. An all-out war had broken through the previous silence, and they were caught in the middle.

He was the last through the door, bolting it behind him for whatever protection that gave them. Falling down the stairs, he took a deep breath. The air was stagnant with old sweat and fear. Scott was snarling at the roof as if the aliens could see him.

“What the hell is going on?” Phin snapped, hand on his gun, Tommy pressed between him and the wall. Gabriel didn’t know if that was intentional or accidental.

Scoot was still glaring at the ceiling. “They’re shooting at each other.”

He was right. The second ship didn’t target any ground targets until they started firing back at them. All their fire was concentrated on the ship. None of that made sense. Why would a second force attack the same place the first had already conquered?

Unless…

He looked towards the darkened window. “This was never about us.”

The group was staring at him like he’d lost his mind.

He turned to Phin. “What’s the first thing you’d do if you had to fight in unfamiliar territory?”

“I’d clear the area. Make sure there were no—” he trailed off, understanding dawning. “Make sure there were no native hostiles.”

Tommy inhaled shakily. “You’re saying they never cared about us at all?”

“I don’t think this is an invasion. I think this is a battlefield.”

Scott’s eyes looked like they were going to bug out of his head. His messy dark hair was falling in front of bruised eyes. He looked so achingly young. His entire platoon had been killed for nothing. For the land they were standing on. Had they not picked up arms, they might still be alive.

That was a heavy thing to realize.

“It’s why it stopped chasing us.” Phin squeezed the stockof his gun so hard it squeaked. “Back in the ambulance. I thought it was weird that they didn’t chase us more than a couple of blocks. But it’s because they weren’t interested in us at all.”

Washington, DC, and all the people in it were justcollateral damage.

Gabriel felt his stomach drop and he braced himself on the wall to steady himself.

Phin was talking. His mouth running while he pieced things together—why the barrier was down, why their energy source might be damaged, why the second aliens used electricity. Gabriel couldn’t hear it.

The blood was rushing in his ears. He failed. He came here to help, to fight back, to protect his country and her people, but they didn’t even see him as a threat.They were nothing more than a bug on their alien windshield.

Aliens who had decided to drag their battle to Earth. Was this even real? Were they just playing? Like a game of paintball, they chose a battlefield and then settled in— damn the locals! Was every city suffering like this?

And oh god, he’d let Blake go out into that. He sent men, he sentBlake,into that. He pressed his fucking handgun into his hand and?—

Visions of exploding, electrical ordinance flashed behind his eyes.

He was choking back his failure. It wasn’t right; as their commander, he should be rallying his men. With the barrier down, they could leave. But he couldn’t focus. The arguing in the background and his radio crackling on his chest meant nothing. Just white noise?—

Gabriel jerked, ripping his radio handset off his plate carrier and pressing it to his lips as if that would help.

Garbled static hissed across the line. The room fell silent as they all stared down at the black plastic.