Captain Wolf was a career officer in the Royal Navy. All his adult life had been devoted to the Royal Armed Service, and when, at the age of 22 he'd been transferred to the Imperial Service, he'd thought the opportunities to have multiplied. In that time, however, he'd seen almost every sort of horror this new world offered. He'd seen fellow soldiers killed by spell fire of every type. He'd watched giants stomp on live men and Dementors apply the Kiss to his friends.

Never, in his life, however, had he seen the absolute darkness that lay within his superior's eyes as they snapped open.

The very sight of Harry's eyes made Wolf flinch and back away suddenly, releasing the general. It was as if the very abyss was in Harry's eyes.

"Captain," came the soft, yet chilling voice of Harry as he regarded the sight before him.

Despite himself, the captain felt himself stutter as he replied, "Y-Yes, sir?"

Harry pointed at a specific point on the enemy ships' holographic projections. "Have every battery available aim at these specific points on the enemy airships on my mark," he ordered calmly.

Wolf squinted at the projection but couldn't make out the significance of the targets. "What are they aiming at, sir?" he asked, confused.

The temperature in the room fell sharply as Harry asked icily, "Are you doubting my orders, captain?"

While Wolf had previously been able to stand up to Harry, this new personality of his terrified him to the very core. He therefore shook his head quickly and typed in the target coordinates in the computer, relaying them to each firing corridor.

Harry nodded approvingly as he watched, with an icy disposition, as Wolf finished relaying his orders. "Good. Now, I want the starboard batteries to hit these locations," he pointed to several antennae on the ships, "after having fired their initial round. Have the port side batteries, however, hold their fire after the initial burst."

Wolf nodded somewhat shakily and signalled for a random technician to relay the orders.

Harry nodded, pleased. "Good. After the starboard batteries have finished firing, I want the Retaliation to be brought up close to the closest ship left floating. Have us close in so that our port side batteries can get a clear shot at their starboard hull."

"Yes, sir."

"After we release the full power of our port side, I want this airship to engage the fourth ship as per standard disabling practice. I'm sure that, while larger, their ships are proportionately less stable than ours and their systems should be brought down easier. Then, have troop transports ready to board."

Wolf nodded silently at this. Harry gave him a cold, searching look before turning to a passing technician. "What time is it?"

"Five thirty, sir."

Harry nodded. "Very well. Captain, relay to all appropriate fire corridors: open fire."

"Yes, sir."

Neville briefly heard a beeping noise from behind him as he ordered his men to adjust their targets. The square-jawed Imperial officer turned to see a technician say something in his headset before glancing up at Neville and giving him a thumbs up.

Neville needed no telling twice. He immediately turned to his men and roared, "FIRE!"

Quickly covering his ears, Neville watched as every cannon in his corridor suddenly jolted back as the massive projectiles within them spat out of the circular metallic tubes, fire and unexploded gunpowder in its wake.

Harry observed with satisfaction as the projectiles raced down the sky and eventually found their targets.

As he'd predicted, the ships he was facing were quickly and shoddily built. While air-worthy, they had been practically thrown together in a desperate effort to out-gun the Empire.

They'd failed to take into account Harry, however.

Thus, the young Potter heir watched with satisfaction as his cannons hit the enemy's large, frightfully exposed jamming antennae.

"Our sensors are back up again!" shouted a technician. All around him, Harry heard several similar calls.

Giving Wolf a superior smirk, Harry turned his attention to Hawthorne. "Mr. Hawthorne, accelerate to attack speed and bring us down to their level," he ordered.

"Aye, sir!"

Harry now turned to the communications officer once more. "Issue the order to the starboard batteries. I want every available cannon to fire on their pre-designated location!"

"Aye, sir!"

Harry now turned to Wolf and extended an inviting hand towards the older man. "Come, captain, and let us watch how history is made."

The battle was terrifying in its beauty.

Gleaming from the newly risen sun's rays, the dagger-nosed Retaliation roared down the skies, slicing through its cloud cover, and flew right into the enemy's back.

Amidst cries of "FIRE!" and "Give it to 'em, boys!", the British Assault Ship let loose thousands of projectiles against the enemy airships.

First, as per Harry's orders, the ship furthest on the starboard side was hit hard on its starboard side, causing it to suddenly lose power on that side's turbines. This caused the ship to tilt right as the portside turbine kept going.

From the command bridge, Harry and his crew watched as the targeted ship rammed right into its ally. The two ships had numerous explosions go off along their hulls, before finally going down in flames into the mountains.

Inside the fire corridors, where the event was being transmitted by live feed, cheering erupted as they scored their first two kills.

Amidst the cheering on his bridge, Harry smiled coldly as he watched the two ships go down. He then swept out an arm and ordered, "All ahead full! Get us up close to that third ship! Fire on my command!" he barked.

Shouts of "Aye, sir!" erupted as orders were relayed and carried out.

The Retaliation moved rapidly as Hawthorne had the engine power increased. The enemy, however, had finally recovered and Harry could see several small objects dive from underneath the ship.

"Dragons incoming! Activate the SRA batteries!" he ordered.

"Aye, sir! Activating SRA batteries!"

"Fire up the shields! Prepare to receive incoming fire!"

"Shields up!"

Just in time, too, Harry noted, as the sky before them lit up as the enemy's weapons hit the magically-created shield. Both ships were now firing everything they had at Harry's ship, and Harry could see masses of dragons coming up at them. Harry frowned.

'How in the world did they acquire so many dragons?' he thought. 'Even Charlie had trouble finding candidates for the Retaliation…how did they get so many?'

Despite the chilling thought, Harry kept his mind on the enemy ships. He could see the dragons scoring several hits on his ship's hull, as did their respective riders.

"Status!" he barked.

"Mostly glancing shots, sir! Two or three serious ones, though."

"How serious?"

"Fires have broken out on the upper deck in the same vicinity where some of the shots melted through the metal."

"A team has been dispatched to contain the fires and hull breach."

Harry nodded. "Get the fires cleared up and report any casualties quickly."

"Aye, sir!"

Harry now pointed at the ships ahead. "I want full upper-deck battery fire on the ship on the right. Tell them to pierce those shields and aim straight for the spiral structure at the front of the ship."

"Aye, sir!"

Harry now turned to Wolf. "Call the hangars. Tell the pilots to get ready to fly on my command."

Wolf saluted quickly as he turned to relay the orders.

Harry now turned to the shield technician. "On my command, drop the shields."

Nearly everyone froze at that and turned to look at Harry.

"Excuse me, sir?" asked a shocked Wolf.

Harry glared at his captain but decided to explain, this time around. "Despite being engineered in such a way that they would allow our rounds to go through them unhindered, captain, our shields nonetheless reduce the overall potency of our rounds' power due to its heavy magical field. By dropping them, we can allow our shots to be delivered at full power, and allow our fighters to scramble just as we provide a suitable distraction."

"Distrac—?"

"The third ship, captain. We're blowing it up."

And blow it up they did.

The deactivation of the Retaliation's shields took the enemy completely by surprise, so not a single shot was fired on their end as the massive ship turned to expose its starboard side. They even kept their guns quiet as the entire starboard battery complement opened fire in one spectacular broadside that, now being night, completely lit up the sky.

The enormous amount of firepower poured into the attack completely overloaded the enemy's shields, causing them to fall after the first hundred rounds. The subsequent four hundred, however, completely tore apart the third ship.

And, in the confusion, Harry's fighters all scrambled to join in on the (now) slaughter that was occurring outside.

Determined to show up the ship's Navy and Army crew, the pilots who'd been recruited from the Air Service quickly put their minds to hunting down dragons, and did so with gusto.

From his position at the command deck, Harry watched with an eerie smile as the Dark fleet was crushed. He then turned to Wolf, who was supervising the raising of the shields.

"Are the transports ready?" asked Harry. Wolf turned to nod.

"They are, sir."

"Good. Have my personal transport ready as well. I will be joining the attack."

"Is that wise, sir?"

"Wiser than questioning my orders, captain."

"Yes, sir."

Harry gave a quick nod before turning on his heel and marching over to the lift. Before he reached it, however, he turned and nodded to Wolf. "You have the deck, mister Wolf," he announced. With that, the young general got into the tube-like lift and was soon away towards the hangar.

Wolf, for his part, sighed and shrugged to himself before turning to his crew. "Alright, people, order the disabling shots."

"Aye, aye, captain!"