Title: Defender's Path
Author: Knife Hand
Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated
Spoilers: Phantom Menace for Star Wars. New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi are all ignored. At least the first three or four Harry Potter Books, there will be some changes.
Rating: M
Disclaimer: Don't own em, if I did, I would be worth millions.
Summary: When an accident occurs with a potions experiment, Harry and Hermione wake up in a strange place, but that is not all that is different. Set in Seventh Year, Cross with Star Wars.
" " denotes speech, ' ' denotes thought.
AN: There is no correlation between the HP Verse Timeline and the SW Verse Timeline. Time does move faster in SW than HP but each storyline is told semi independently. The placement in the story had no significant meaning.
AN2: No, the Susan Bones that is Minister for Magic is not the one that went through Hogwarts with the gang. It is her Mother.
"Transit to normal space in 10 seconds." One of the cruiser pilots announced.
Admiral Keltra stood on the bridge of the Cruiser with Jedi Knights Potter and Granger, ready for the transition.
"Transitioning." The crewmember called.
"Flight Commander Swoop, Launch the CAP." Hermione ordered over the intercom.
"Yes General." The CAG replied.
A squadron of ARC-170's flew out of the fighter bay, did a fly-by past the bridge and began their patrol around the flotilla.
"Brilliant idea, General Granger." Janna Keltra said. "Makes me wonder why we did not start doing these Combat Air Patrols years ago."
The Flotilla had exited Hyperspace in the outer reaches of the system, quickly forming up into a spearhead formation with two squadrons flying CAP.
"Scanners, report." The Admiral ordered.
"Detecting a blockade of six Separatist ships." The scanner operator replied.
"Put it on main Holo." Harry ordered.
The main holoterminal showed an image of the planet with the six blockading ships in a cluster above the capital city, which was also the main industrial centre for the planet.
"Can you detect satellites?" Hermione asked.
"Umm. I'm not sure." The operator said.
"Search for focused radio transmissions either from the ships or the planet." Harry suggested.
"Got it. There are four satellites, but none seem to be communicating with the enemy ships. Displaying now."
Four more icons showed up around the planet. One was obviously nothing more than an interstellar communications relay station, located almost amongst the enemy ships. The second seemed to be a surveillance satellite that was focused on a large, volcanic mountain range in mid northern latitudes on almost the same longitude as the Capitol. The third was a deep space telescope above the southern pole, looking towards the Galactic Core. The last one seemed to be a local communications satellite in high orbit approximately forty-five degrees off the Capitol above the equator, crating a bounce link to the second major population centre, where most of the agriculture was centred that was a quarter of the way around the planet from the Capitol.
"Amazing." Hermione exclaimed. "Almost three quarters of the planet is not under surveillance. I'm betting they don't even send fighter patrols to the other side of the planet."
"We can use the gravitational silhouettes of the outer planets to mask our approach." Janna added.
"Just keep scanning the dark side of the two moons to ensure they have not got bases to cover those blind spots." Harry added.
"It's almost as if they simply expect us to jump out of Hyperspace directly in front of them and charge strait into battle." Hermione said, shaking her head.
"All ships to silent running. No radios, short range communications only." The Admiral ordered. "Helm, take us in. And keep us behind the outer planets."
Had anyone, Republic or Separatist, been there to see the landing operations they would have been stunned at the audacity and precision displayed.
The three Battle Cruisers had made their final course corrections while hidden behind the outer moon, and then had approached the dark side of the planet, the opposite side to the Separatist blockade, on a ballistic trajectory. Once on the dark side of the planet, the Cruisers did not slow or change course as one would expect. Instead they simply opened their bay doors and a veritable armada of smaller ships emerged. Six squadrons of ARC-170 heavy fighters, nine squadrons of the smaller V-19 fighters over a thousand attack gunships, dozens and dozens of larger 50 man transports and a single Jedi Starfighter. These smaller ships quickly manoeuvred into formation and began their decent into the planet's gravity well.
The three Battle Cruisers continued on their ballistic trajectory until they were in the shadow of one of the inner planets, the only action the performed on this final leg was to launch a small probe, which floated off their course before setting up a stationary position. The only function of this probe was to relay narrow beam transmissions from the planet to the now hidden Cruisers, again by extremely narrow beam. A one way communications link for when the 332nd needed space based assistance or extraction.
It would be weeks before the Separatists would realise that there was Republic forces operating on the planet, believing that the earliest activities of the Legion were the work of local insurgents. They would never figure out exactly how the 332nd had managed to bypass the blockade.
The command meeting was ad-hoc, the ten Senior Legion officers standing around as the troopers set up the camp among the forested area. The two Jedi Generals, both dressed in forest BDU's, along with the eight highest ranking Clone Officers in the Legion, only one of which was a transferred Clone who was easily identified by his mostly white armour, only relived by the Legion marking on his shoulder and a long marking at his left flank where he had been grazed by a Clanker shot.
"Captain Punisher, Captain 564, you two start setting up defensive emplacements." Harry ordered. "Punisher, make sure that there are overlapping heavy weapons covering the major approaches. 564, make good use of the terrain."
"Yes, Sir." 564 replied while Punisher, the Captain of the Heavy Weapons Company, merely grunted.
"Thrust, you and Crash work on duty rosters and training schedules. We don't expect a lot of activity but I don't want the troops to get lax." Hermione added. "Flight Commander Swoop, you and I will be organising the Air Corp, setting up ready squads and organising the concealment of the Birds. Rush, you and Captain Talon will need to survey the local area for lookout locations."
"And what about me?" Captain Stalker asked, his voice just loud enough to hear but in no way deferential.
"We will be on a two week long patrol." Harry said. "We will take fifty troopers and head North-East to the settlement some of the pilots reported during the landings. I want troopers who did well in the jungle training and have high close combat scores. Lieutenant Backstab. Sprint. 609, that rookie 1833. Give me as good a mix of Veterans, Transfers and Rookies as you can."
"Right." Stalker replied.
Harry signalled a stop and crouched as Stalker and Backstab made their way up to him from their positions. Harry pulled a water bottle out of his combat webbing and took a long drink. They were still a distance from the target village. Stalker and Backstab crouched around him and removed their helmets. Like the rest of the clones in the recon party, both had their armour camouflaged by dappled patterns of different mud and dirt to help them blend in, rather than stand out in their white and red armour. Surprisingly it had been 1833 who had first suggested it, earning him the name of Dapple.
Even with their helmets off, Stalker and Backstab were two very different clones. Stalker was a quiet and self contained commander, the kind who rarely offered opinions or issued vocal orders, but everyone listened when he did, even Major Rush and Colonel Thrust. Stalker had almost his hair clipped close and moved with the slow, patience of a hunter stalking his prey.
Backstab was much quicker and more fluid in his movements, able to dart from cover to cover and sneak up behind very quickly. His hair was kept in a short ponytail and he had a tattoo covering the left side of his face of a vine with a leaf for every close kill he had made with his knife. The tattoo had twelve leaves and two flowers, indicating kills where the enemy had not even seen him.
"We are about two kilometres from the target." Harry said. "What's your take on the team?"
"Adequate." Stalker replied, with a slight nod.
"Yeah, they're shaping up fine." Backstab said. "Dapple's a bit eager at time, but then so is 1465, 986 and even Sprint's been a bit fired up. Give the rookies and transfers a bit of time to settle and a few fire fights and they'll be fine."
"Or dead." Stalker grunted.
"Pessimist." Harry replied with a smile.
The three of them knew Stalker was a realist not a pessimist, the problem was that they were rarely in situations with positive prospects.
"Suggestions for the approach?" Harry asked, respecting both officer's abilities and opinions.
"Depends." Backstab said. "You going to do one of you're little tricks?"
"Which one?" Harry replied.
"Either" Backstab said with a grin, knowing that Harry's 'Tricks' were something only the Legion's two Generals could do.
"Not planning on it. The Troopers need to learn to operate without that kind of assistance, in case General Granger or myself are not there." Harry replied.
"Gully. Treeline." Stalker said.
"Sounds about right." Backstab replied. "Half in through the Gully to the South, they get cover and a close look at the southern sector. The other half on the treeline to the North-East. It's a bit further away that I would like but it has good elevated position and is dense enough to hide the team. Plus with scopes we should be able to get enough intel."
Harry simply nodded. That had been his read on the situation as well.
"Stalker, you take the treeline. Backstab, you'll be with me in the Gully." Harry ordered. "And make sure Sprint is with us in the Gully. I have a feeling we may need him."
The two Clone Officers simply nodded, re-donned their helmets and left to organise the troops. Harry adjusted his open face helmet, checked with a mirror that his camouflage face paint had not run, adjusted his grip on his bullpup blaster and began the advance towards the village.
TBC…