Battle Lines

Chapter 15: The Last Castle

11 May 03: Forward Trench Lines - Hogwarts

2100h

Harry sat huddled in the bottom of the trench, munching on the last of the M&Ms from his MRE. The enemy artillery barrage had been constant form the last hour. Just an hour, it had seemed like days. Days of the cacophonic noise of heavy artillery, both outbound and inbound; days of shaking earth and crumbling dirt. Abruptly the noise stopped. Harry crammed the last of the chocolate into his mouth, leaving the packet where if lay, securing his helmet more securely on his head he then picked up his G-36. Checking that there was a fresh bomb in the launcher, Harry carefully stood up. A hundred meters away stood the tree line, the distance between him and it covered by the scorched earth of the kill zone. Other marines were carefully getting to their feet, scanning the tree line.

Fwhoom...

A bright light shot up out of the forest, floating toward the earth on a parachute.

Star shell.

'Everyone! Battle positions!'

The tree line erupted with gunfire. Tracers slammed into the marines' positions, kicking up all manner of shit where they hit the ground. The cough of mortar fire started up. Shells slammed into the sides of the trench, shrapnel whistling over the heads of those inside. Above the noise Harry heard the revving of engines. He poked his head up above the trench, just in time to see around two dozen motocross bikes roar out from the tree line. Each one ridden by a Muggle troop, screaming its head off. The bikes crossed the kill zone quickly. The first one hit the Union lines.

KABOOM!

The man, or what had once been a man, exploded. Blasting through the razor wire, leaving an open gaping hole in the defensive position. Another one hit the trenches further down, exploding on impact.

Harry saw what was happening. 'They're fucking kamikazes! Take them down! NOW!'

Gunfire erupted form the Union trenches, zeroing in on the bikers. Those that were hit exploded where they fell. Tearing the earth apart and spraying metal shrapnel from the bikes. More tracers streamed forth from the battlements on the walls as the big .50 cal guns opened up; raining fire and destruction from above. Harry swiped the empty mag from his rifle, ramming a fresh one into place.

BOOM!

Another mortar shell slammed into the trench. Harry went flying, coming to a crashing halt next to Ginny. The Gunnery Sergeant was loosing grenades and bullets with ferocious rapidity. As Harry watched both her mags went dry at the same time. In the one clean movement she cleared her OICW, then rammed new mags into the weapon. More troops were emerging from the trees firing wildly with their AK-47 assault rifles. Regular line troops, zombies, mere shells of humans, all emotions and soul suppressed by powerful control spells. There was a roar from above and magical energy pounded the union forces. Harry whipped his gun up, jamming down the trigger as the enemy fat screamed over him.

KABOOM!

Harry watched in amazement as the enemy fighter lurched sideways in the air as a spear of bright blue light hit it. Above the base the Fortresses were in motion, anti-fighter energy turrets already in action. A veritable hailstorm of bullets erupted form the flanks of the big craft, hammering into the enemy. The elation was short lived. At that very moment a massive shaft of scarlet red energy slammed into the ground, just outside the trench lines, sweeping toward the castle's defenders. Other beams joined it, annihilating everything in their paths. The enemy's armada had arrived.

'Braniac!' yelled Harry over the din. 'Get on the blower to Command. We need air support right away!'

Come on Nat, help us out here.

* * *

Lieutenant Commander Jordan stood on the bridge of her Fortress, a grim expression on her face. In front of her she could see the enemy formations; an entire battle group; almost forty craft. As she watched more shafts of energy slammed into her lines. The lines she had been assigned to protect, and she was powerless to do anything. The Fort could engage ground targets, or fighters, but the big aircraft had never been outfitted to attack its own kind. White smoke trails soared past her view port as the SAM batteries on the roof of Hogwarts opened up. The missiles hit the formations. One of the enemy craft peeled away, flames streaming from a gaping hole in its flank; one down, too many more to go.

She turned to her Comms Officer. 'Get on the radio to Command. We need reinforcements.'

'Already there ma'am.' replied the Comms. 'They've scrambled a squadron of Typhoons from down south. ETA to missile range is twenty minutes.'

Jordan looked grimly out the view port. As she watched more energy slammed into the defensive lines. They had to hold for twenty minutes; at this rate it would all be over in twenty minutes. If there was just something she could...

'Helm! Bring us five degrees port, engines all ahead full! Fire control; hand the air to ground cannons over to my console.'

'Affirm that ma'am.'

The big Rolls Royce turbofans roared, propelling Jordan's vessel forward. On the screen attached to her command chair a view looking from the fire control turret for the ATG weapons appeared. In the forward view port the enemy formations grew larger.

'Sensors, read off the range to the enemy Forts. Fire Control, hold until we're right in among them; clear?'

Affirmatives poured back from the stations. Jordan pulled back on the joystick attached to the arm of her chair, bringing the cannons to maximum elevation, then set them into the charging cycle. The whine of the armament filled the bridge, below the Fortress massive blue balls of energy would be building up on the cannons' ends.

'Enemy leads five hundred metres and closing!'

Jordan watched the targeting reticule on her screen. 'Helm, bring us up, two degrees.'

'Roger.'

Jordan dropped the reticule over the lead Fortress.

'Four hundred metres!'

'Ma'am, weapons are at full charge.'

'Three hundred metres.'

'Two hundred and fifty.'

'Ma'am. Air to ground armament is redlining...'

Alarms started to blare, red light filling the bridge.

'Two hundred metres.'

'...if you don't shut them off or fire we'll melt down!'

'One hundred and fifty metres!'

'Ma'am!'

The alarms took on a new sense of urgency.

'One hundred metres!'

'Ma'am. WE ARE GOING TO MELT DOWN!'

'Fifty metres and closing!'

'Forty metres!'

'Thirty!'

Jordan looked at the screen one last time. 'OPEN FIRE!'

KABLOOM!

The lower guns opened up. Bright electric blue shafts of light, each the size of a freight train, roared from the two turrets. Terra-joules of magical energy slammed into the enemy. The Fort caught Jordan's broadside square in the guts; armament made to annihilate bunkers sliced through metal armor like a scalpel through fat, erupting out the enemy's opposite flank. The Fort exploded, billowing outwards in a mass of metal and fire. The Union ship juddered as it took fire from anti-fighter armament.

'DAMAGE REPORT!'

'We're fine ma'am. Just scrapes and grazes.'

'HELM! Bring us around! Fire Control, take one of the turrets, leave the other slaved to me! Fire alternately, we'll hit them harder!'

'Roger wilco!' replied the Fire Control operator, a massive grin spitting his face. 'Lets blow them all to hell.'

The Union Fortress heeled over, coming back to face the enemy again.

* * *

Nat sprinted down into the hanger bay; pulling on her gloves as she did so. For a change her wingman was right behind. Next to go was her helmet, the alarms and sirens were obliterated by the thunderous roar as an A-10 wing pair were shot down their catapults, harness coming away as they blasted out of the hanger. Nat raced past the LAC holding out her broom.

'UP!'

The broom suddenly came under its own power, lifting in her hands. Nat scrambled aboard and kicked in the emergency war power. The broom accelerated, Nat hanging in white knuckles, straining against the G-forces.

'Twelve you there?'

'Roger that Eleven, I'm getting used to your flying style. Ballistic.'

The two brooms roared out of the hanger. Nat immediately pulled vertical, swooping up the face of the cliff above her then rolling out over the school, burning for the forward trench lines. Ahead she could see a pitched battle in progress. The Union fighters were putting up a tenacious defence of their positions, facing wave after wave of enemy soldiers as the Forts rained fire from above. She scanned her sensors. A massive blob of red indicated the enemy Fortresses, a single green dot in among them. She turned her mind back to the battle at hand. Somewhere down there was Harry and right in front of her was a fat, attacking "down there". Nat lined the enemy up in her crosshairs and fired. Streams of magical energy erupted from the broom's emitter tip. Her first shot flew wide. The fat rolled away, desperately trying to avoid her fire; her second shot nailed it right in the rear. Flaming and trailing smoke the fat hammered into the ground.

* * *

Harry saw the enemy hit the deck. Seconds later two brooms screamed low over his head.

Hooray for the cavalry!

He turned his mind back to the present. Tracers and magical fire roared over his head, slamming into the wall behind. More of the darkies, enemy troops, erupted form the tree line racing across the kill zone. Harry whipped his rifle up, nailing one in the head. It went down, the body convulsing on the ground. The Union soldiers were getting desperate now, during the last wave the darkies had entered the trenches and had only just been repelled.

BOOM!

A gigantic explosion knocked Harry off his feet, showering him with rock and debris. Rumbling out of the tree line were the enemy's main battle tanks. Another shell whistled over his head, exploding against the wall of Hogwarts.

'FALL BACK!'

The wizards in the trenches had already set spell allowing the troops to run up the walls outside Hogwarts. Now a veritable stream of Union troops was climbing to the top of the battlements. Harry whipped the sixty-six from where it was stored in his webbing, sliding the tubes apart.

Click.

FWHOOOSH!

Harry jammed his finger down on the firing stud, the rocket roared out of the launcher.

KABOOM! BOOM!

Harry and Hermione's shots hit the enemy tank at exactly the same time. The tank exploded the turret being torn out of the hull. Harry could see the bodies of the crew being thrown clear of the vehicle, collapsing like rag dolls as they hit the ground.

Phoom.

Harry pulled the trigger attached to the M203 grenade launcher slung under the barrel of his G-36. Without even looking to see if it hit he rammed a new bomb into the launcher. To his left he saw Samson marshalling his troops up the walls. Tracer fire slammed into those climbing, bodies falling away as they died. Above them the .50 cals doggedly returned fire, tracers filling the night's sky.

BOOM!

A tank round exploded against the wall, sending men and rock flying; the limp bodies of the dead falling to the ground in a grisly rain. Harry pulled out his second sixty-six and slid the tubes apart. He swung round, to find himself looking straight down the barrel of one of the tank's guns!

KABOOM!

The tank exploded in an absolutely gigantic fireball. There was an ear shattering roar as one of the A-10 close air support planes thundered overhead, not fifty feet off the ground, gun still spinning and missile racks down a round. Harry slid the sixty-six back together again and hooked it back into his webbing.

Boom. fwheeeeEEEEEEE! KABOOM!

Harry leapt out of the trench, just as the tank round slammed into its rear wall. The trench collapsed inwards, right where he had been standing not five seconds before. Harry ran.

Reaching the wall he jumped, slamming into it, scrambling up the vertical face on all fours; magical traction stopping him from falling off. Tracers slammed into the rock next to him, showering him with red hot rock fragments. Harry reached the top, tumbling over onto the parapet just as another volley of gunfire tore into the rock. Wizards were frantically dropping the spells on the rock, turning it again into a sheer, unscaleable wall.

* * *

Nat screamed through the turn, tightly hanging onto the tail of her target. Fire streamed back at her form the fat's rear turret. She fired again and the fat jinxed, this pilot was good. The enemy straightened up, making a beeline for its own Fortresses. Magical energy streamed toward her from the Fort's guns. In the midst of it she could see the bright blue flashes of the Union ships, jucking it out. Nat, abandoning her quarry, flicked her broom into a tight snap roll, coming out facing straight down and hit the power. She entered a steep dive, enemy fire flashing around her. She drove for the hard deck, leveling out just above the trees, screaming away form the enemy fire. Chatter filled the airwaves.

'Bolt Four; Fox three! Fox three!'

'Bolt Three; Fox three! Fox three!'

'I can't shake him! I'm gonna die out here!'

'Hang in there Five. We're coming for you.'

'On you six! ON YOUR SIX!'

'This is Phoenix Six, taken heavy fire, bailing out!'

'Samantha!'

Nat heard Fred's scream. She scanned the sky for him, but couldn't find him among the melee.

Fleur's voice cut through the battle. 'This is Command...'

How can she be so FUCKING calm!

'...all air units, keep close to the base. Chimeras lend fire support to the ground units. RAF Typhoons are inbound to deal with the Forts, ETA momentarily.'

* * *

Wing Commander Gregory Parker's Eurofighter Typhoon thundered through the sky at over twice the speed of sound. Long ramjet powered Meteor missiles hung form its wings. Parker keyed the radio.

'This is Fighting Fox Lead, all flights report in.'

'Blue Leader, standing by.'

'Red Leader, standing by.'

'Gold Leader, Dakka, dakka, dakka, KABOOM!'

Parker smiled to himself, Green leader was Flight Lieutenant Scott; Parker and he had been friends since flight screening.

'Roger that, thirty seconds to firing range. Arm Meteors. When we get there wait for lock and fire, it will take at least two missiles to take down each Fort. Your targets are pre-assigned so you don't have an excuse to screw up.'

Parker watched the range count down on his HUD.

'Fire! Fox Leader! Missiles away!'

Four Meteor missiles dropped from the underside of each plane, rocket boosters igniting, accelerating them to a speed for the ramjets to kick in.

Reports of locks and launches streamed in. On his radar Parker could see the missiles flying away, a wall of metal and explosives. He watched in satisfaction as his birds screamed toward the enemy.

And once again the RAF saves the day...

An explosion blossomed ahead of him. That wasn't right; the Meteors shouldn't have reached the enemy yet. Parker glanced down at his radar display. The missile indicators were winking out in front of his eyes; and on the far left of the screen, a cloud of red dots. He brought up a query on the new contacts.

'IFF status hostile.' Bitchin' Betty never brought good news. 'signature indicates Su-27.'

Deedle, deedle, deedle, deedle...

'Warning, radar lock...' deedle '...warning, radar lock...'

'ALRIGHT ALREADY! Foxes, hang on, this is going to get interesting!'

With that parker rolled inverted, heading for the deck as the Su-27's descended on them.

* * *

Harry crouched behind the battlements of the wall, tracers pummeling the rock behind him. Ginny was behind the next piece of cover over, OICW abandoned and SPW out and ready. There was a crack as a scaling ladder hit the wall. Suddenly Ginny was up and firing. Pointing her weapon down the ladder, and letting rip, kicking the ladder away then diving for cover as another volley of gunfire screamed past her head; she ended up next to Harry.

'Gin, are you crazy! You could have gotten yourself killed.'

'They weren't shooting at us.'

'How do you know that?'

'A crack means it's far away, a zing means its close...'

ZING!

'See, now they're shooting at us.'

'You're mental. Fucking mental!'

KABOOM!

Harry whipped around. There, just down the wall the bright red beam form one of the Forts slammed into the defensive wall, tearing it apart, leaving a massive rent all the way to the ground.

'MARINES! DEFEND THE WALL!'

Harry looked toward the gap; the enemy would be pouring through any second.

'Ginny, are we being shot at?'

Crack!

'Nope.'

Harry was up and running, toward the gap in the wall. Odd objects attract fire; Harry was an odd object. Tracers slammed into the stone around him, shrapnel exploded out, embedding itself in his body armor. Harry dived, slamming into the ground and sliding along on his breast plate just as another tank round slammed into the wall. Red hot rock whizzed over his head, cutting down those in its path. Ginny slammed into the rock beside him.

'And you call me insane!'

'Shut the fuck up.'

The enemy was streaming through the gap, a human wave intent on destruction. Ginny fired down into the mass of flesh, gun whirring, a trail of red marking where her shots had gone.

Phom. BOOM!

Harry's grenade flew from the launcher, slamming into the ground. The clear circle cut by the explosion was quickly filled, new enemies taking the place of the fallen. The first giant appeared in the gap, swinging a massive club. Suddenly red explosions swept across its chest. Harry glanced the other way to see a BF-20 striding past, guns whirring. More of the enemy infantry was cut down as waves of hyper machinegun fire ripped into them. A ragged cheer was raised by the embattled troops on the wall. The elation didn't last for long.

KABOOM!

The mech was thrown over backwards the tank round entered its cockpit, exploding in a grisly mess of metal and body parts.

Harry spoke into his mike, setting it for broad spectrum broadcast. 'All units, fall back to the upper trench lines! We can't hold here!'

* * *

Nat rolled inverted, pulling away as enemy fire stitched her behind, missing by inches. The Forts were almost on the school now, right where she was engaged. An absolute hailstorm of fire assailed her from the enemy's fixed emplacements. Targets were not on her agenda, survival ruled all. Her broom shuddered as magical energy slammed into its rear end, turning it into a blazing inferno.

'Phoenix Twelve, bailing out!'

Nat leapt clear of her doomed stick. She scrabbled frantically for her wand, less than a thousand feet of altitude didn't give much fall time. Her hands fell on it; wrenching it out of the pocket she cast a levitation spell, slowing her fall.

Whump!

Nat landed heavily. The material under her feet wasn't earth, it was metal. She looked around, turrets, metal, more turrets. She had landed close to the enemy. Right on top of a Fortress!

Ok, you've landed on a large enemy war machine. What to do? The sensible thing would be to get off.

Fuck sensible.

Nat dropped to her knees, drawing her Five-seveN she placed it on the deck beside her, the pointed her wand at the hull.

'Seviatum.'

The bright blue blade appeared; it made short work of the hull plating.

Clang!

The plating fell away into the fell away. Nat picked up her Five-seveN the swung herself into the hole, landing lightly in the corridor below. She pulled off her helmet, throwing it out of the hole she had left, no use to her now. Nat crept silently along the corridor, gun held in a strong two handed grip. Round the next bend was a troop, manning one of the exterior guns.

BLAM! BLAM!

Clunk.

It dropped to the ground, blood seeping from the two holes in its head. Nat continued on down the corridor. Up the next ladder she came to a door a quick look confirmed that it was the bridge. Nat's boot met the door, it slammed open, the rest of her body following it through, gun up.

'NO BODY MOVE OR I'LL BLOW YOUR FUCKING BRAINS OUT!'

The Death Eater on the bridge slowly turned to her.

'Get on the ground! Now!'

'You'll never take us...'

BLAM! BLAM!

The man's body hit the ground with a meaty thud.

'Anyone else?'

The bridge crew were frozen to their seats. No-one dared move.

'Give the main gun to me. Now!'

A man Nat assumed was the Fire Control Officer reached a shaky finger toward his control panel, flipping a series of switches; a view from the main cannon slid into focus. Nat located the controls and, keeping one eye on the crew, lowered the crosshairs over another dark wizard Fortress.

She squeezed the trigger.

* * *

Smoke filled Jordan's bridge. The Fire Controller sat slumped over his panel, blood gushing from his throat. Wind whistled through numerous cracks in the view port. The Engineering Officer looked up form his console.

'We've lost starboard engines ma'am, took a direct hit. Port engines running at sixty four percent.'

Jordan looked up from her view screen, taking in the ruined bridge.

'Take them off line, magical power only now. Helm, plot us a course out of here. We'll do no-one any good if we die here today.'

She looked out the view port, to see an enemy Fortress aiming its gun right at her. As if in slow motion red energy collected at its tip. Jordan waited for the end...

KA-BLOOM!

The Fortress exploded, metal hull plates shooting into the void. Jordan watched in amazement as the red beam of light closed down. She traced it back to where it had originated, the enemy Fortress that had just saved her life.

I don't know who you are, but I owe you a drink.

'Helm?'

'Escape vector plotted, following now.'

Jordan reached for the comm. 'Hogwarts Command, this is Lieutenant Commander Jordan of the Fleet Air Wing. We have sustained heavy damage and are unable to assist anymore. We're pulling out. Good luck and Godspeed Command.'

The reply came back. 'Same to you Fleet, same to you.'

The Fortress lumbered out of the engagement zone, trailing smoke and fire. More smoke trails sped past it, traveling in the opposite direction. Jordan watched as the enemy Forts began to explode. Parker's missiles had arrived.

* * *

Nat's Fortress shuddered mightily as the Meteor missiles slammed into it. Nat felt the big vessel lurch and begin to slip sideways, falling toward the ground. Nat unclipped her crash webbing.

Time to get out.

Raising her Five-seveN Nat blasted the forward view port out of the bridge, beginning her run as she did so. The bridge crew, seeing she was distracted, started to draw wands, but it was too late. In one fluid movement Nat leapt out of the shattered frame, swinging herself around and firing back into the bridge. One crew member fell as Nat sailed out into empty space.

Natalie fell.

Moving quickly she drew her wand she cast the same levitation spell she had used before.

Dammit. Shot down twice in one day!

She it the ground hard, rolling along on the churned up grass. She looked up, the Fortress was still descending, right on top of her!

She ran. Nat guessed she had about five seconds. Ahead was a massive firefight as the Union troops retreated to the upper trench lines. A firefight like that was almost certain death, she looked up again, the Fortress was still descending; certain death.

Fuck.

Nat sprinted away.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One.

* * *

KABOOM!

Harry glanced around as the massive aerostat came crashing to the ground. It hit, and crumpled as armor and structure gave way. Then it exploded. Metal plates, shrapnel, and nameless internals flew everywhere, giving him just one more problem to add to his already massive list. The two hundred meters from wall to lines had seemed like a good idea at the time; give them plenty of time to kill the enemy. But that had been based on an orderly retreat; this one was anything but. Now that buffer zone had become a killing field. Marines and troops fell like flies as they dashed toward their own lines. Their fifty cals had been turned against them, now they were being cut down by what had been their own fire. Harry could hear his heart beating in his ears. They were almost there. Bullets thudded into the ground around him, kicking up dirt and mud.

Almost there.

The Marine running beside him, went down, head evaporating in a cloud of blood.

Almost there.

Another troop went down, body convulsing in the throes of death.

KABOOM!

The tanks had made it through the gap. Shells began to add to his little piece of hell. Tracers were flying both ways, the few in the trenches covering their retreating comrades. The troops split up, running through pre-assigned gaps in the razor wire, pulling them closed behind them. Harry was the last through.

Fhwwweeeeeeee!

Harry threw himself forward, tackling Ginny linebacker style, sending them both tumbling into the trench just as the shell exploded behind them.