Battle Lines

Chapter 13: Dirty Deeds

10 May 03: Hogwarts AFB - J.O.'s quarters.

1730h

Nat sat in her used ACES II ejector seat and squinted at the screen of her computer. In Fred's inability to get Wade's info back to her, she had pulled the extended histories of the pure bloods from her list from the base mainframe, and was now painstakingly combing through the massive amount of data accumulated. Most of it was useless; if she had wanted to know what scores Greg Bull had gotten in his sixth year, the stuff would have been great. However, she didn't want that kind of information. A knock on the door made her look up.

'Hello?'

'It's Fred, can I come in?'

'Sure, but first state your name, rank, service number and what you had for breakfast.'

'Flight Lieutenant Fred Weasley; AWM two-four-five-five-three; bacon and eggs.'

With that he stepped into the room.

'Just returning your precious drives.'

'About freakin' time. What took you so long?'

Fred looked at her in puzzlement. 'I had to look through the stuff on them.'

'You could just have put the data on your computer.'

Fred looked surprised. 'Really, you can do that?'

Nat sighed, sometimes, for all their power, wizards could be pretty stupid.

'Yes sir. You can do that.'

'Oh.'

Suddenly, it clicked on Nat what was different about Fred. She looked him up and down, taking in the dress whites, medals, polished patent leather shoes and pointed wizard's hat held in one hand.

'Hey nice outfit, why so flashy?'

'Aren't you going to the dance?' said Fred. 'I thought, being a female, you'd already be getting ready, what with only and hour and a half to go. That's why I knocked first, make sure you were decent.'

Nat glanced conspicuously at her watch and then back up at Fred.

'Oh dear.' she said sarcastically. 'Only and hour and a half to go. I am in such a freaking panic. You should bugger off and stop trying to be funny sir.'

'Thanks Boone, I'll keep that in mind.' Returned Fred, scowling at her. 'One other thing. When you originally gave me the drives; after I left I saw Bull disappearing at speed up the corridor; just thought you'd like to know. See you later.'

'Have fun.'

There was a click as Fred closed the door behind him. Nat looked at the two drives he had left behind, then again at her watch. She probably should do something toward getting ready, at least check that her uniform was ironed. She walked back toward the sleeping quarters and rifled through her hanging space. All cleaned and ironed, boots; unpolished.

Bugger.

Nat pulled out the set of high boots that she wore with her SD uniform and set off to find her polishing kit.

* * *

10 May 03: "Station X", Bletchley Park - England

1745

Specialist Sarah Dumas sat at her console, looking at the coded message that had been intercepted. The message had been copied and the owl carrying it sent on its way. Now Sarah ran the message through different filters and breakers on her computer. Short and plump, Sarah had never had the best social skills ever, but she was a brilliant code-breaker while still a private in the Union her superiors had recognized that brilliance; she had been promoted to specialist and attached to Bletchley Park, the legendary Station X. She could hardly believe her luck. Station X was the hub of Intelligence, once the centre of the effort to break the ENIGMA code during World War Two; it now served the Union. Sarah looked at what she had come up with. A short message, unusual for Death Eaters who tended to write long messages, expounding the greatness of their Lord and their own achievements, but his one was short.

"Snake, the Dragon has landed, Dragon's Head now active."

Sarah shrugged. Who knew what it meant. She sent the file, along with the course the owl had been flying on to assessment, let someone else figure out what it meant.

* * *

10 May 03 - Hogwarts AFB - JO's quarters.

1840h

Nat Boone did up the last button on her jacket and surveyed the general effect in the mirror. Witches and wizards were allowed to wear a robe instead of the jacket. However, being of Muggle descent, Nat had never felt particularly comfortable wearing a robe and tended to avoid the things whenever possible. She picked her officer's cap (another choice of her own rather than wearing the tall witch's hat) up off her bed, setting it at a rakish angle on her head and slipped on her sunglasses.

Not bad, not bad at all.

The effect was just what she wanted. Not dress whites, but SD uniform. Light blue shirt with royal blue tie. Over that, the royal blue jacket with her rank embroidered onto the sleeve in gold. Royal blue trousers tucked into the tops of her newly polished black patent leather boots that ended just below her knees and FN Five-seveN slung by her side. As an after thought she grabbed her wand and shoved it into the top of her left boot.

Rachel was already out in the lounge, setting her high witch's hat straight on her head. She also wore the robe that Nat had avoided.

Same uniform, completely different look.

'You ready to go.'

Rachel looked over at her. 'Yep.'

'Right, lets go find the others.'

* * *

10 May 03: "Station X", Bletchley Park - England

1755h

Susan Dumas looked at the new message on her desk, just decoded.

"Snake, this is Dragon's Head. The Dragon's Body is now arriving.

Have sent Claw to the sow. Eye is letting them in."

'Stranger and stranger,' Susan said to herself.

She sent the file up to Assessment. There it was picked up by one Josh Hutchinson. Josh had been an analyst since before the outbreak of the war and was considered one of the best in the business. He quickly scanned the message, then put it next to one he had received earlier.

Interesting.

On his monitor he brought up a map of the British Isles. Working quickly he entered the course that the owl carrying the message had been flying and the GPS reference of where it had been intercepted. A red line appeared on the map, right next to the one that he had drawn earlier for the other message. He went for the phone and was quickly on to his boss.

'Uh sir. It's Hutchinson here. I was wondering if you could do me a favor.'

'Go ahead.' The Boss's return was cautious. Hutchinson had been known to come up with some critical things, but had also led a lot of wild goose chases.

'I was wondering if you could get onto Space Command and see if they can get some shots of Scotland, along the line I'm about to give you, one hundred kilometer offset each side.'

'That's a pretty big favor Hutchinson.'

'Please sir, I think it might be important.'

'You always think it might be important, but I'll se what I can do. Hold on a second.'

There was a click and the tinny sound of hold music. After about five minutes The Boss came back on.

'Hutchinson, you still there?'

'Yes sir.'

'You were lucky, they've got a spy sat going over on that track in about forty minutes, they'll see what they can do.'

'Thank you sir.'

* * *

10 May 03: Hogwarts AFB - Officer's lines.

1805h

Nat and Rachel rounded the corner to find Phannan and Aaron already waiting for them. Both had also gone with the SD uniform, Phannan also keeping his flat officer's cap.

'Damn Nat.' said Phannan looking her up and down. 'You look like recruitment poster material.'

'Shut up Phannan,' returned Nat, 'you know you won't get anywhere.'

'Oh, thanks.' piped up Rachel. 'Just ignore me then.'

'He was just too speechless,' said Aaron, jabbing Phannan in the ribs.

'Bullshit he was.'

Nat saw a good moment to step in. 'So, who are we waiting on?'

Aaron turned to her. 'Fred and that American bloke.'

'What Rogers?'

'That's the one.'

"That American" arrived around thirty seconds later, eyes scanning the little group, stopping for a split second on Nat and Rachel.

'Evening all.'

'Evening Ensign.'

'Now we're just waiting on Fred.' said Phannan looking around. 'I wonder what's taking him so long.'

At that very moment Fred stepped around the corner, Samantha Rheinburg on his arm. Both were in full dress whites.

Her grinned sheepishly at them. 'Evening guys.'

Phannan's eyes lit up.

'Evening Fred, took you sweet freaking time.' He then leaned close to Sam and whispered loudly in her ear. 'Be warned, he snores. Just ask Boone.'

Samantha leaned away, not quite knowing how to take that.

'Shut the fuck up Phannan.' retorted Nat. 'If anyone knows if Fred snores it's you.'

'Hey, will you two stop slandering my good name.'

'What good name? Come on, we're late.'

It took them ten minutes to reach the main hangar of Hogwarts. They stopped outside the main door and looked in.

'It looks kind of plain for a party,' stated Rachel.

She was right. From what could be seen the Eighty-First hadn't gone to much trouble with their morale boosting exercise. There was a long line of trestle tables piled with food in the middle of the floor and a bandstand also seemed to have been placed at random in the large hangar. People stood around eating and talking, but not much else.

'Oh well, we came this far,' said Nat. She stepped through the door...

...into an entirely different world.

Nat stopped dead in her tracks. As soon as she had stepped through the doorway the hangar had changed. Fred and Samantha stepped through, and almost crashed into her.

'Whoa. Looks like they got Flitwick down here.'

He was right; the hanger would have to have been the work of a skilled charms master. It now resembled the inside of a World War Two bomber hangar. The trestle tables and band stand were now up against the "walls". Nat spun round. Behind her, where the wall should have been were massive rolling doors, wide open. A full moon lit a grassy airfield and parked on it were rows of B-17F "Flying Fortress" bombers and a number of P-51B "Mustang" fighters. Nat looked back into the "hangar". At the back was a small door through which she could see a brilliant view over the lake. But the biggest surprise was right in front of her, draped in the colours of the squadrons of the Union was another B-17F. The bomber itself wore the olive drab of the USAAF Eighth Air Force, the Mighty Eighth. Nat then noticed something else about the bomber. One of its engines had a black and yellow check pattern painted on it.

'It's the Belle.'

Fred looked at her in puzzlement. 'The what?'

'The Memphis Belle. I assume you haven't seen the movie.'

Fred shook his head. 'No, I haven't.'

The rest of the group had now entered and were gazing around them in wonderment. Nat looked sadly at them, a collection of robes and wizard's hats.

'Hmm, looks like I was the only one to come appropriately attired for the occasion.'

Behind her the band struck up Glenn Miller's "In The Mood".

'May I have this dance?'

Nat spun around, to see Harry Potter standing behind her in the Marine equivalent of SDs.

Rachel jabbed her in the ribs. 'Go on.'

* * *

10 May 03: "Station X", Bletchley Park, England

1900h

Josh Hutchinson sat twiddling his thumbs at the workstation.

Bing! You've got mail.

He opened his inbox. There were his photos from the spy satellite. He jumped on them like an alcoholic to a beer after a month going teetotal. He opened the first frame.

Nothing.

Second frame.

Nothing.

Third frame.

Nothing.

It was only then that Josh realized that there were well over three hundred frames. He had never told anyone what resolution he wanted.

Bugger.

Josh sat back and opened up a program that would scan the pictures, picking out abnormalities. It only took a few minutes to come up with something. Josh opened up the picture and his blood ran cold. He was on the phone again.

'Sir! This is Hutchinson! I think you should get down here right away sir...yes it is important!'

Josh's boss was down within five minutes.

'Ok Hutchinson, this had better be good.'

'Look at this sir.' said Josh, pointing to his screen.

The colour drained from his boss's face. There on the screen were landing barges, tanks disappearing under camouflage illusions, troops, stores, ordinance, artillery and Forts...

'It's an invasion force sir.'

* * *

10 May 03: Hogwarts AFB - Main hangar

1910h

Nat stood near the trestle tables, idly chatting with Harry and Hermione. Fred wandered over to them.

'Hi Harry, Hermione, Nat. How's things?'

'Not bad,' answered Harry.

'Hey, where's dear Sammy?' said Nat.

Fred scowled at her. 'She had to go use the can. Actually I just came over here to let you know that I saw Bull sneak off just be fore Sam had to go.'

'Really...'

Abruptly the music stopped. The group turned as one to see Group Captain Madden walking up to the mike.

'That is so no a good thing.'

Madden spoke. 'Ladies and gentlemen. All active pilots are to report to the main briefing room immediately. We are now at safe base echo. War has come to the home front. We are now...'

He never finished the sentence, because at that moment the wall exploded...

KABOOM!

Shrapnel and debris flew into the members of the Hogwarts garrison, cutting them down where they stood. Those who dived for cover were the lucky ones. Nat hit the deck drawing her Five-seveN as she did so. Harry was beside her, desert eagle drawn.

'WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED!'

'I think we were attacked!'

'I guessed that bit!'

Nat looked over the top of their overturned trestle table. The bulbous prow of a Death Eater Assault Barge now stood among the debris. To her right Hermione was feverishly setting charms to reinforce their barricade.

CRASH!

The Barge's front swung down, smashing into the floor of the hanger, sending up a new cloud of dust. Then they were there; shock troops; the Death Eaters' elite Muggle guards. Normal line troops that had been removed from the front and then given the Dementor's kiss. With no soul to worry about dieing, boosted with potions and spells and with a good controller behind them they were an unstoppable fighting force, and no more human than the average rock. They exited the barge, AK-74 assault rifles held high. Two more of their number stood at the top of the ramp, each holding a rotary-barreled minigun, covering their comrades.

BRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

The miniguns opened up with brutal efficiency. Those Union fighters still without cover were ripped to shreds by a wave of super-machinegun fire.

Nat popped up over her makeshift barricade, blasting an approaching shock troop twice in the head. It crashed to the ground. Nat ducked behind the barricade just as another wave of fire crashed into her barricade. A young marine beside her wasn't so lucky, the fire hit him and his head exploded like a can of tomato soup, spattering Nat with blood and brains.

'FUCK!'

'This is bad. This is really, really bad.'

Nat popped back up again, just in time to see a set of spiked boots surging toward her. She dropped just as two Shockies vaulted over the barricade. Nat tracked one, pumping metal into it from her pistol. The troop hit the ground, its legs gave way and the body crashed to the deck. But the shock troop wasn't stopping. It whipped the 74 around, just as Nat emptied her last two rounds into its head. Hermione had her wand leveled on the other troop.

'Stupefy!'

A bright red beam of light slammed into the enemy, who didn't even miss a beat. The AK came up, and Harry's bullet entered its skull.

'Ok kids!' yelled Braniac. 'Magic doesn't work!'

With that she sheathed her wand and pulled out her own weapon, a Heckler and Koch USP "Match". Nat was over at the corpse of her own Shockie, removing its Kalashnikov and spare mags. She removed the current magazine from the rifle and checked inside it, plenty of ammo left. A new figure vaulted the barricade, just as another wave of gun fire ripped into the table. Nat whipped up her AK just as Ginny Weasley came to a crashing halt in front of her.

'Shit man, I nearly shot you!'

'Good thing for me you didn't.'

Ginny was back on her feet, brandishing a MP-7 machine pistol in one hand, and moved toward the barricade, Nat following close behind.

'Ok Harry!' yelled Ginny above the gun fire. 'Any brilliant ideas?'

'Nope, all out! We need bigger guns!'

Ginny popped up, spraying fire from her MP-7 across the hanger. Within seconds she was back under the cover of the barrier.

'Ok.' said the Sergeant. 'I think I know what to do, I'm going to need covering fire from you shortly.'

'What are you going to do?'

'I'm going to get us a bigger gun.'

Nat removed the mag from her rifle and slammed a new one into place; as she did so she saw Ginny draw a long evil looking sword from somewhere about her person.

'Ok, when I say.'

Ginny readied herself, her katana held in one hand, MP-7 in the other.

'NOW!' With that the Sergeant vaulted over the top of the barricade, charging toward the Assault Barge. Nat, Harry, Fred and Hermione all leapt to their feet as one, Fred now wielding the other AK-74. Nat jammed her trigger down, blasting away at her enemies. The enemy was forced to dive for cover as the four put down a withering volume of fire.

* * *

Ginny was in her own little world, sprinting toward the open front of the Barge. Enemy fire assailed her, kicking up sparks on the floor. She whipped her gun around, sending fire back at the shock troops. Then she was clanging up the ramp of the Barge. Her katana sliced through the air, one of the minigun wielding shock troop, dropped, head rolling from its shoulders. The second one went down as she emptied her mag into its skull. Ginny dropped her gun and sword, heading toward one of the abandoned miniguns. She bent down and hefted the thing up, holding it at hip height.

Oh, yeah. Time to do some SERIOUS damage.

She pointed the big gun at the largest concentration of shock troops and pulled the trigger...

* * *

Nat went dry and dropped behind the barricade. She dropped the empty clip from her gun.

BRRRRRRRRRRRR!

The sound of the minigun started back up again, Ginny had reached her target. There was a thump from her right. Nat looked up, just in time to see four shock troops rounding the end of the barricade, leveling their guns at its occupants. Nat did the only thing she could, she leapt backwards...

Straight through the wall of the hangar!

Gunfire streamed through after her, peppering the ground. Nat rolled away avoiding it.

She looked up at the grey mass now in front of her.

Of course, the walls were just an illusion.

Suddenly the grey parted and a Shockie stepped through. Nat hit it with a sidekick, sending its gun flying. She was up, and lashed out with a savage right hook, the shock troop was too fast. It caught her hand, the kneed her brutally in the stomach. Nat doubled over, winded. The enemy lashed out again, its kick sending her flying across the hanger. She rolled onto her feet, ignoring the pain in her gut. The Shockie came inexorably on. It swung again, Nat ducked under the blow, but the troop was ready, its other fist came round. Nat dropped again, landing on her arse. She lashed out with another kick. It connected with the enemy's knee. The troop collapsed, Nat lashed out again but the enemy rolled out of the way, drawing a knife as it did so. It lunged, forcing Nat to retreat further. Now it was the enemy's turn to attack. It kicked out, cutting Nat's feet out from under her, another kick followed, sending Nat rolling toward the A-10's parked on the other side of the hanger. The enemy's foot hammered into Nat again sending her crashing into one of the ammo carts for the A-10's guns. Nat lay panting next to the cart and looked toward where the enemy was advancing; then she saw it, lying under the cart, a stray round from the A-10's cannon. She slipped her arm in under the cart, reaching for the shell. She looked at her opponent closing in for the kill.

Come on, reach just a little further.

The enemy was only eight feet away.

Come on.

Six feet.

Come on!

Four feet.

Two feet.

Nat's hand clamped onto the round.

One foot.

Nat rose to her feet, the 30mm round held in her hand.

'Have some extra ammo motherfucker.'

With that she swung her arm around and rammed the round through glass eyepiece of the shock troop's combat mask. The enemy collapsed as several pounds of depleted uranium entered its brain.

Nat stood over the corpse, breathing heavily. From the direction of the false hanger came the sound of gunfire.

Time to finish this.

Nat removed her jacket and tie, then took the spare mags from the dead Shockie, wedging them in her belt, then she walked over and picked up her AK, ramming a new mag into it as she did so; then turned to the open end of the hanger.

* * *

Ginny Weasley blasted away with the big minigun, setting down a devastating field of fire. The shock troops dived for cover again behind makeshift barricades. This was good. Ginny leveled the gun again a squeezed the trigger.

BRRRRRRzzzzzzzzzzzz.

No more sounds of rounds being expelled, no flame, no ammo left. Ginny looked at the big gun now revolving uselessly in her hands. Not good. The enemy also heard the noise cease. They popped up from behind their cover and opened fire. Ginny roared with pain as two 5.45mm rounds entered her leg, she went down screaming.

* * *

Harry popped up from behind his barricade and loosed another volley with his stolen AK-74. Then he heard it, or rather, didn't hear it; a disturbing lack of sound. He looked toward the Barge just in time to see Ginny go down in a hail of gunfire.

'Uh Kids! We're in trouble!'

The enemy charged.

* * *

Nat edged around the back of the false hanger, toward where the landed Assault Barge stood, half inside the rubble of the outer wall it had come through. She approached cautiously, gun up. There was no movement. Approaching the side Nat hauled herself up onto the top of the big vehicle, there were no entrances.

Oh well, one bit of roof is as good as another.

Nat dropped to her knees and drew her wand.

'Seviatum'

The characteristic blue needle of the spell extended from her wand and she set to work cutting herself an entrance. The Assault Barge was basically an Aerial Fortress with its main armament removed and hollowed out to give space for troops. However, it still retained its cousin's heavy armor and some defensive armament. The seviatum spell however, made short work of the metal hull plating. Nat swung herself inside, quickly leveling her AK and scanning the area. It looked like she had come down in a side corridor.

Ok, if I was a controller, where would I be?

As far away from the action as possible.

Nat headed toward the back of the Barge where the corridor went right. Nat peeked around the corner; there was only one guard, a single Shockie outside a door.

I bet their controller is in there.

The guard never knew what hit it. Nat's two shots ripped through its helmet, dropping it. Nat charged in, she hit the door with a strong side kick, shattering the lock. The dark wizard inside spun around from where he had been directing his forces. Nat's first burst ripped his chair to shreds. The man dogged sideways, wand at the ready.

'Stupefy!'

Nat whirled sideways as the spell roared past her head. Her next shot slammed into the Death Eater's leg and he went down, rolling under the desk. There was a sharp crack as the wounded enemy Disapparated.

* * *

Harry popped up again as the enemy charged toward him, ducking under cover as they came, all in synch, all as one, one deadly wave of flesh.

'We're dead.'

He loosed off another burst, and the enemy's tactics went to hell. Some ducked when others didn't, some just stood out in the open, doing nothing. The two marines and one pilot removed them from their stupor with brutal efficiency.

* * *

Ginny Weasley lay on the ground, looking up at the shock troop towering over her, watching it level an AK-74 at her head. She closed her eyes and waited for the end.

It didn't come. Ginny opened one eye, then the other. The Shockie was just standing there doing nothing. Very, very cautiously Ginny reached toward where her katana was lying. Her fingers grasped the grip. She swung it around, slicing the troop off at the knees, the rolled up on her feet and rammed the sword into its head. The enemy hadn't responded once.

All over the hangar bay the enemy was freezing, their tactics falling apart.

All over the hangar bay the enemy was being dispatched by the fighters of the Union.