Battle Lines

Chapter 3: Dunkerque.

19 Mar 03: Hogwarts AFB.

0610 hours.

By the time Fred and Katie arrived at the briefing theatre it was almost full. They found seats next to the three ex-Beater Squadron pilots. When they had taken their seats the door to the room hissed shut. Fred felt his ears pop as the room pressurised. Group Captain Madden stepped up to the podium. As he did so two corporals in MP's uniforms walked around the room, sweeping it for bugs, when they pronounced it clear Madden started to talk.

'Ok, let's not beat around the bush,' he said.

Behind him a screen sprang to life with a view of the French coastline.

'You were all at the briefing yesterday, so you know the situation with Beauxbatons. You will also know that our troops with a number of civilians are making their way toward the French coast. They have hit it here, at Dunkerque.'

The display zoomed in on a section of coastline, resolving itself into a tactical map.

'Those of you of muggle descent will probably see history repeating itself.'

There was a murmur from around the room.

The Group Captain went on. 'Transport ships, LCAC's, wave piercers and other craft have been meeting the evacuees there and bringing them back to England. The transports have been moving in this area...'

A wide green band appeared stretching from the French coastline to the British.

'...from one side of the channel to the other. The two squadrons that were defending the evacuees have been all but wiped out. It will be the job of the newly formed Red Squadron and Bludger Squadron from London to take over and keep any fighters off the transports' backs. You will be flying a patrol around the area at approximately ten thousand feet.'

Two groups of three green broomsticks appeared on the map with lines running from them around the transport area.

Madden continued, 'Squadron Leader Chang will be in command of the fighter groups.'

Another set of green symbols lit up, silhouettes of chimera gunships.

'We have reports from some ground units of guerrillas preying on the people fleeing the main land. To counter this, the Chimera gunships from Bolt Squadron will fly inland patrols over the arriving refugees. They will be flying low and slow, any Death Eater ground forces in the area are to be eliminated with extreme prejudice. Do not let any more of our Death Eater friends reach the refugees.'

The map zoomed out, and moved further inland to another set of silhouettes, these were of the Muggle produced A-10 Thunderbolt II's, known to their pilots as "Warthogs".

'The final stage of the plan is given over to the A-10's from the eighty first tactical fighter wing. As you know the majority of our forces are engaged east of Dunkerque. More enemy forces are moving in as we speak; so the A-10's are going to give them something to think about. Two columns of enemy troops are moving in from the north-east, the A-10's will be attacking these targets. You will be loaded out with Mavericks and CBU's. You know what to do, give 'em hell boys. Good luck, may she ride with you today. Dismissed!'

* * *

Fred and the others, dressed in their flight gear entered the hangar bay; it was like entering another world. Built into the cliff below Hogwarts, massive camouflage blast doors concealed it from prying eyes. However, today the doors were drawn back, leaving one end of the hangar open, looking out across the lake. A chilly wind whipped through the massive space and the usual pre-mission tension was almost tangible. Service men and women made final minute adjustments to brooms and wands. Weapons engineers were fitting the pods containing explosive ordinance under the stubby winglets of the Chimeras.

Standing high among the crowds of people stood twelve A-10's, mechanics feeding the milk carton sized ammunition into their guns. The A-10 "Warthog" was a tank buster. These had had their undercarriage strengthened to withstand catapult takeoffs from Hogwarts. Ugly as all hell the warthog was built around the twenty-two foot long GAU-8 rotary barrelled cannon. Capable of firing a thirty millimetre depleted uranium round more than ten thousand feet that gun was a tank crew's worst nightmare come true. Not only could it fire the armour piercing rounds but it could also fire high explosive rounds, spitting them out at a rate of almost 4200 rounds a minute. Loaded onto eight of its eleven hard-points was a mix of cluster bombs and maverick anti-tank missiles on triple rail mountings. Long-range fuel tanks and an electronic warfare pod took up the other three points. Next to the brooms it was awe-inspiring.

A sudden howl from the fenced off section of the hangar made Fred turn; two PC-9 "Raven" forward air control planes, on loan from the RAAF were just being fired from their electro-magnetic catapults. They would be over the battlefield before anyone, loitering thousands of feet up spotting enemy troops and formations or flying low to give pinpoint target assessment and location to the artillery and other ground units.

Fred and Katie were beginning to make their way toward where their brooms were being looked after when a shout from behind made them turn around again. Hurrying toward them was Oliver Wood, Quidditch captain turned Chimera pilot with Alicia Spinnet, his WSO close on his heels.

'Fred, Katie.' he said, sounding slightly out of breath, 'Cho just told me to find you, wants a word with you before you head out.'

Fred sighed, 'Wood, I mean Sir, with all due respect, how many times do I have to tell you, you don't need to do all the running around like this, you can send someone else to do it.'

'Sorry Fred, but Cho sent me to do it special like.'

'Don't apologise to me Mr Squadron Leader Sir, I'm a lower rank than you, remember?' said Fred, grinning.

'Leave the poor bloke alone.' piped up Alicia. 'He's got a squadron to lead.'

'Yeah,' said Fred grinning even more, 'and you're behind him all the way. Anyway, good luck on the mission you two.'

'Same to you, Cho's out in the passage.'

They watched the chimera crew leave. Then turned back toward the door they had come from.

'He's hopeless isn't he?' said Katie, a solemn expression on her face.

'Once a captain, always a captain.' said Fred, putting on his straightest "I'm a professional" face. 'I wonder if he drew his squadron a little diagram with lots of little crosses and arrows on it? "This is it. The big one..."'

'Ooh, harsh.'

Cho was waiting in the corridor for them. When John arrived, half a minute later, she spoke.

'I got you lot here just to ask you to keep an eye on the new pilots.' she said quietly. 'I haven't seen them fly much and don't know how good they are. I've got young Boone on my wing so, John, if you could look out for the Chaser Squadron guys that'd be great. Fred and Katie keep and eye on the two from Beater Squadron and help out John; any questions? No? You can go.'

Katie, John and Fred walked back through the door. A roar and wash of hot jet exhaust heralded the exit of a pair of A-10's. Fred turned to watch them. Thundering along with the catapults, dipping slightly as they left the hangar, then lumbering into a right hand turn, gaining speed and tucking their landing gear away as they did so. Two more were already being attached to the catapult. Ground crew removed the last of the florescent orange covers from various sensors and antennas and took away the ladders from the two planes. The pilots gave a final thumbs up, closed their canopies, the ground crew moved away. The roar of jet engines filled the hangar bay, exhausts hammering against the blast deflectors. One of the ground crew crouched down, one leg forward, one back, like a sprinter about to start a race and flung his arm forward. The A-10's roared down the line and they too were thundering away into the early morning sky.

The rest of Red Squadron were already on their brooms when Fred and Katie turned up. Fred took his broom from a waiting LAC and looked it over.

'How is she?' he asked.

'She's in tip top shape Sir.' said the LAC. 'Best me and the boys can make her.'

'Thank you,' said Fred, 'much appreciated.'

'No worries Sir.'

Fred left the broom hanging in mid air, pulled on his gloves, sealing them around the cuffs of his jacket and pulled on his helmet, leaving the visor up for the time being and climbed onto his broom. He ran his eyes over the systems readout in front of him, pulled down his visor and flicked his comm. over to an open channel.

'This is Seek, I mean Red Ten to Hogwarts Control, requesting comm. check.'

The reply came back. 'This is Hogwarts Control to Red Ten, receiving you loud and clear, signal strength is niner point five.'

'Roger that Hogwarts control, thanks, Red Ten out.'

Cho's voice cut across the airwaves. 'This is Leader to Red Squadron, we are clear to move. Get clear of the hangar and form up out side.'

Fred watched as, suiting motions to words, Cho's broom lifted and headed for the hangar entrance, her wingman following her out. Fred kicked into the air, Katie following. They levelled out around five meters above the deck and glided forward. Around him, the rest of the Reds did the same. As soon as he was outside the hangar Fred moved his flight into a one mile orbit of Hogwarts. He dropped in behind and to the right of Cho's One Flight. Ahead and below them ran the Chimera gunships. With one final check from Hogwarts control, they turned east toward Dunkerque.

* * *

Natalie Boone scanned a nervous eye over her board, everything seemed good. Ahead and to her left flew Cho Chang, Red Squadron's commander, at least she would be flying with the best. Again she checked everything, this was only her third action and she had been lucky to get away from the last one alive.

'This is Red Lead, squadron report in.' Cho's voice jerked Nat out of her thoughts.

She looked down, damn; they were already over the channel. Spread out below her was an absolute armada of vessels, everything from massive naval destroyers to tiny two man sailing dinghies. It seemed as though the entire population of England had taken to the water.

'Red Two, are you there?'

'Uh, sorry, Red Two reporting in,' Nat said into the radio.

Similar reports sounded in. Nat reached forward, flicking a switch disengaging the heading hold gyro. With a gloved hand she flicked another switch, in front of her the HUD swam into focus. Hundreds of red dots immediately appeared on her sensor board, Jesus H Christ she thought, they're everywhere.

'There, lankies, twelve o'clock, same altitude as us.'

Nat looked forward; straining her eyes, "lanky" was pilot slang for a Death Eater on a broomstick.

'This is Lead, one head to head, then break by pairs and engage.'

Natalie grimaced; she hated going head to head, for the simple reason that, out of all combat manuvers it was the one most likely to get you killed. She dropped her crosshairs over one of the lead fighters; around her the squadron opened up on the enemy formation, Natalie along with them. A second later the blasts from the enemy arrived, filling the air with fire. Through the mayhem Natalie saw her target explode in a cloud of ionised gas, confirmed kill.

Her elation was cut off as a scream followed by an explosion filled her ears, lead settled in her stomach as she realised there would be another empty bunk tonight. Then they were past and pulling around in a desperate attempt to get behind the enemy. Nat followed Cho around, hanging back and watching her six. A Death Eater slid in front of her, and snapped off a shot at Cho. Nat immediately saw that he was a green pilot, greener than her, situational awareness way down and intent on his target he hadn't even noticed her. She gave him the rudest awakening he was ever likely to get. Her shot clipped his tail, sending the broom into an uncontrolled spiral dive into the ground. Nat again pulled up behind her leader. Cho she noted was smoking, not badly, but smoking. Above them the fight was hairballing. Two figures, painted green by the IFF, shot out of the fray, closely perused by four enemy lankies.

'I can't shake them!'

'Hang in there Five, we're coming for you.'

Cho and Nat entered a steep ascent, putting them on the tails of those so eager to vaporize their squad mates. Cho accelerated, sideslipping between the two rearmost Death Eaters as easily as if she was parking a car. Her first shot missed but the second was bang on target. Nat's shot caught up with the second pilot as Cho was snapping around to line up another enemy. Without even slowing down Nat powered through the debris cloud, almost colliding with another enemy on the other side. Without even thinking she brought her foot down delivering a ringing blow to the side of the Death Eater's head. Disoriented by the hit he was easy prey for Cho, who had already lined him up. The final bandit broke and dived for the clouds, disappearing into a near perfect example of a cumulus cloud.

'Nice shooting Two,' Cho's voice broke through the comm as they turned toward the thick of the fight.

* * *

Below them, near the ground, Oliver Wood was in his own personal hell. Tracers flew past his head as he lined up for another run on the enemy position. Above him a Death Eater screamed down out of the clouds. Alicia, sitting behind him whipped the turreted weaponry around and up, sending a rapid stream of magical energy up at the descending lanky. The stream of fire caught the Death Eater and set his cloak afire. It distracted the wizard just long enough for the ground to rush up and introduce itself. Oliver swept over the enemy troops, releasing two "explosive bludgers" as he did so.

"Explosive Bludger" wasn't their actual name, but that was what everyone called them, because that's pretty much what they were. Looking like the bludgers used in Quidditch they could be rigged to lock aspects of brooms, ground targets, whatever. They could also be fired dumb fire. However, unlike the usual sporting bludgers that were made of metal or leather, these were packed with RDX and packed one hell of a punch.

Oliver pulled into a near vertical climb and rolled over inverted in preparation to dive again.

KABLOOM!

Behind him and Alicia the two bludgers hit, throwing shrapnel and debris everywhere, two massive explosions rent the air, their orange and red flowers blossoming. The concussion wave and heat hit Oliver like a hammer, but that happened every time. Now there were a few less people to shoot at him and his allies. Oliver looked around for his wingman, but couldn't see them anywhere.

'This is Raven-eye Two to Bolt Lead...' Oliver listened; he was being talked to.

'... enemy troops sighted three miles east of your position, you are free to engage, be warned, there are friendlies in the area.'

Oliver brought up the directional indicator on his HUD and banked to follow it. By the time they got within about half a mile of the target it was pretty easy to find, they just had to follow the tracers and spells in. Oliver sideslipped past; behind him Alicia swung her guns around, scything fire through the enemy dugout.

'Glad to see the cavalry could make it, I think we owe you a drink!'

Oliver gave a thin smile. 'Happy to oblige, who do I get the drink off?'

'Marine Recon Seven.'

Ah thought Oliver that was Harry's unit.

Again he pulled up, snapping the Chimera inverted, Alicia still tracking the enemy.

'They're tough barstards aren't the Sir!' yelled Alicia as she ripped off another burst.

'To right!' Oliver replied.

He jinxed again as something went past making a sound akin to that of a partridge. He slammed his foot down on the rudder pedals skidding the nose around bringing his main weaponry to bear. He fired off two blasts before accelerating away. More energy lanced up from below.

'Recon Seven, this is Bolt Lead, I think we got their attention, you want to go and finish it off?'

A double click answered him letting him know that he was under stood. It was the preference of the Union to take enemy troops alive. This was because the ground pounders were usually just Muggles, under the control of one or two Death Eaters who would accompany them.

Alicia fired off another burst to keep the enemy's attention as below them the Marines erupted from their positions, P-90s up and ready. Oliver made another pass. Alicia, sitting behind him set down a pattern of suppressing fire as the Marines charged across the open ground. Oliver saw something out of the corner of his eye.

Oh Jesus.

He watched in horror as, out of Alicia's field of view two enemy soldiers popped up.

'Alicia! Seven o'clock low!'

Too late.

Two marines went down in a hail of gunfire before Alicia swung around and annihilated their aggressors. By now the rest of the Marines were all over the enemy, most of whom were on the ground, hands behind their heads, their Death Eater minders having Disapparated.

Lieutenant Granger's voice came over the comm, calm and controlled. 'This is Marine Recon Seven requesting extraction for two casualties and six prisoners.'

The FAC was quick to respond. 'This is Raven-eye Lead, MedEvac have been dispatched, awaiting you position.'

Again the reply came back. 'Roger that Raven-eye, transmitting our LocStat now.'

'Copy Recon Seven, Bolt, stay with them until the Blackhawk arrives, Raven-eye out.'

Oliver healed over and began to fly a tight racecourse pattern, low over where the marines were.

Oliver cranked the comm. right down so it wouldn't transmit more than a few hundred meters. 'This is Bolt Lead to Marine Recon Seven. Request update, what the hell is happening down there?'

Again Granger's voice crackled over the comm. 'We've got six Muggle POWs; all of them are still under the Imperious curse, or something like it. Weasley and Watt are down, both wounded.'

Oliver swore to himself. 'Which Weasley?'

'Female.'

'Roger that,' Oliver swore to himself again at having to baby sit the ground pounders was not what he wanted to be doing.

* * *

Around five thousand feet above him, Natalie Boone didn't even have breath left to swear.

' !' she said as another blast passed her head. 'Lead where are you!'

Cho's frantic reply came over the comm. 'Sorry Two, I'm kinda tied up here.'

Nat ducked as another blast whistled past. She, leant forward and flipped her broom end for end til she was facing the way she had come. Still inverted she lined up her assailant and fired. Nat's shot hit him square in the torso, vaporizing him instantly. Nat looked around for Cho. From what she could see the fight had dissolved into series of one on one's.

'Lead what is your position,' said Natalie over the comm.

The reply shot back distorted by the comm. 'F....ed if I know Two, I'm not .....ing much of a chance to ........ that ...... of thing at ............ent.'

* * *

Fleur Delacour stood in the command bunker buried deep under Hogwarts. She looked anxiously at the 3D tactical layout in front of her. As she watched the last of the amphibious transports left the French coastline, so, now Europe truly belonged to Voldemort.

She spoke into the mike that hung down one side of her face. 'This is control to all units, the last evacuees have left the mainland, you are clear for extraction. Marine units, transports are on their way, Recons Seven, Eleven and Twenty are to leave with their prisoners. Air units, pick a ground unit and cover their extraction then get the hell out of there. Control, out.'

Affirmatives started to come back to her through the lines.

* * *

Natalie Boone, Red Two, swung in on those chasing her leader. Sliding in from the side her first shot missed her target wide but forced him to break off his attack. She set her sights on the other assailant. Another shot from the Death Eater's wand flew past Nat's wildly jinxing wingman. Nat's next shot caught him, blowing his head clean off his shoulders a moment before the broom disintegrated sending what remained of its rider curving downward. Natalie looked back to where Cho was flying, just in time to see the lanky that had broken off before swing around, firing a volley of shots that took the tail off Cho's ride. The crippled stick began a ballistic trajectory toward the ground.

'This is Red Leader.' Cho's voice said, her fear plain through the comm. 'Taken heavy damage, bailing out, Red Nine, take command.'

With that Cho leapt clear of the doomed Nimbus casting a levitation spell to take her to the ground. Out of the corner of her eye Natalie saw another lanky lining up for an easy kill shot on the hapless pilot.

Oh no you don't.

Nat swung around onto his tail firing a volley of shots, all of which went wide. But the hunter had become the hunted. Sensing his position her target rolled inverted and dived away. Nat followed him down in a near vertical dive. She lay flat on her stick as on her HUD the airspeed indicator climbed past five-fifty knots. Her target was pulling away. Swearing to herself Nat reached out flicking a switch that engaged the broom's emergency war power. She couldn't keep that up for long before the stick would tear itself apart. On her HUD the ASI crept through six hundred knots. As they neared the ground her target pulled up, dipping between two hills. Nat followed him in, the G-forces pressing her onto the broom. She levelled out as the enemy rounded a bend in the valley up ahead. Nat swore again as she hurtled through the valley, her broom bare feet off the ground. She crested another hill she found herself above the beaches of Dunkerque. Ahead of her the lanky was making a beeline for the convoy of transport vessels. Below her Nat's broom began to vibrate, she'd been trying to hold the war power to long. With no other choice Nat pointed her wand in the general direction of her enemy and jammed down the trigger, magical energy streamed out of the wand. By shear luck one of her blasts hit the Death Eater sending him into a smoky spiral toward the ocean. Nat killed the war power but her broom was no in a good state.

Damn.

'This is Red Two to, Le...' Nat cut herself short. '...to Red Nine, experiencing mechanical difficulties, returning to base.'

'Roger that Red Two.' came Fred's voice. 'What happened to lead, I can't raise her?'

'She.' Natalie's voice caught in her throat. 'She had to bail out, Sir; she says you're in command now.'

* * *

Cho's landing had been rough but she hadn't broken anything, except her wand. She sat on the ground and looked at the small and almost useless map of Europe she had in her escape kit. A rustling noise in front of her made her look up. Cho's hand dropped to her side looking for her wand, broken, Cho started to make up new swearwords. Instead she brought out the Colt "Detective Special" revolver that all the broom squadron pilots were issued with and pointed it at the bush.

'Who goes there?'

A man with one silver arm stepped out of the bushes; he was the last thing Cho saw before the stun spell hit her from behind.