Hey all, another chapter of the Dawn of Honor out. Wow, this is quick, right? Anyway, thank you for the review , GinnyLover. I wasn't planning to go that direction, but after some serious thought, I decided: why not? My story arc can handle it, and we know little enough about the early days of colonization in Honor's universe I think I can get away with saying such-and-so-on happened, without David getting pissed at me. The only thing I'm wondering is if, after, say, chapter 20 or 25 of this story arc - assuming I can get that far - I should skip that time period and jump forward 500 years, or just write a whole sequel. Give me your thoughts.
As usual- I own NOTHING!!!
Chapter 14 - The Beaches
The transports blinked into a nimbus of broken - more to the point, utterly shattered - wards and kicked in the broomjets and disillusionment charms, skidding quitely, invisibly across the sky. The controllers at Heathrow Airport pitched a fit when their radar domes told them of the sudden appearance of the craft - for there was no spell on the craft to protect them from radar waves - but agents of Her Majesty's Government quietly stepped in and claimed a training excercise of experimental aircraft.
The formation ghosted towards Merlins Keep, a bustling Wizard-Muggle town on the line between Britain proper (on the map) and Wales. The uniqueness of the town was that every single Muggle there - and there were many, in fact - knew of the existence of magic. They didn't spread the word around, as most of them were family members of the magical folk that lived there. Those that weren't - well, they were the type to keep to themselves, anyway.
All about the town was decidedly normal, except for one, small problem - Voldemort had chosen it to be the headquarters of the United Kingdom's contingent of Death Eaters.
The town itself was not dark, but as it sat - secluded, relatively unknown - it was a very, very attractive place for a military person to set up shop - and keep hold of it.
One thing that had bugged hell out of the entire of the Alliance was just how the Death Eater's ranks had grown so hugely. The answer, as it turned out, was simple: Voldemort was winning. Huge numbers of half-bloods and quarter bloods and so forth joined up just so that they wouldn't be on the losing side of the fight. And, as people continued to join, still more decided, and still more thought about it. One would think that recent months' events would have discouraged this kind of thought, but, no. They all thought it was just luck - for the Death Eaters played their games close to the chest, keeping the information on the massive technological superiority of the Alliance out of general knowledge.
And, even that was slowly changing.
The half-bloods and less - or slightly more - were not arrogant, as their Pureblood counterparts were. And more intelligent, by an un-inbred mile. It was from them that innovation of the DE's own came.
Phoenix One, closing in on Merlins Keep-
Harry poked his head into the right-side viewing bubble of his Phoenix , trying to see through the low cloud-cover at their first target. They had been flying for an hour and a half, already.
After a few minutes of trying, he finally gave up and sat back in the jump seat with a sigh. Ginny, sitting next to him, wrapped her arm around him. "Nervous?" she asked, softly.
"A little. I'm just a little twitchy. We're back home, but not home, y'know? And then, of course, there's Moldyshorts and his Death Nibblers..." He said, adding the last as a weak attempt at humor - and it was treated as such, getting a weak groan and a punch in the arm from Ginny. He grinned."That really was bad, wasn't it?"
"Understatement of the century, Harry." She said, snuggling into him."I wonder if the Burrow's still standing. I rather doubt it... would be nice, all the same." she said, and Harry nodded.
"Yeah. I guess we'll have the chance to find out, at some point." he said, and they lapsed into silence for ten minutes, before attention lights flashed an angry crimson above them , and everyone in the bay stood up, some of them looking sleep-ruffled - or snog-ruffled, in Ron and Hermione's case - and straightened themselves out, and the racking of bolts and the sharp clacks of magazines and drums from some of them and the shhk-shhk of rifles' charging levers - and they did just that, connecting the magic-saturated liquid stored in the stock of the weapon to the short, stubby mass-produced wand that was the core of the weapon, so that it would not have to rely on the caster for purpose or energy - filled the bay.
The former low murmur of pilot's chatter on the headsets went abruptly silent as they switched to a different channel so they could talk as much as neccessary without interrupting the ground-troops' communications. Dull thuds echoed against the hull of the craft, and Harry touched his earpiece. "Carmen, what's going on?" he inquired.
"Some sort of flak, sir." Came the voice of Carmen Ibanez, their pilot. "Nothing's coming even really close, but tell everyone to hold tight back there - the other pilots are doing the same, and we're about to make these birds do thingsthey were never meant to."
Harry grimaced and strapped in tight, knowing the bruises that would come were infinitely preferable to being tossed around like a marble in a jar. He advised everyone to do the same, and the instant compliance was pure sign of Carmen's famous - or infamous, depending on your viewpoint - flying. It's not that she wasn't good - oh no, she was the best, or they'd have been paste long ago - but, she was a crazy flier.
True to form, and to her word, Carmen slung the craft in a tight barrel roll, diving toward the earth with broomjets screaming. The twin stave-cannons on the nose belched massive Reductor spells, and Harry was quite positive that Avery Johnson, their craft's main gunner, was giving someone one hell of a bad day.
The booming thuds lessened somewhat, and Harry was about to sigh in relief when a particularly loud one was followed by the distinct sensation that up and down were arguing about who was where, and left and right were about to join the party. It didn't feel uncontrolled, so they weren't hit, but to Harry, it definitely felt like rehearsal for dropping out of the sky.
The sensation abruptly stopped and was momentarily replaced by the feeling that Harry's stomach was in his ankles. This, too, stopped, but he could still hear distant thuds, and the still-present crump-crump-crump of the staves' overpowered blasts. Static crackled for a moment before Carmen came on the air. "Everyone still with me back there?" she asked.
Harry looked around. Most of them looked like him, alright but shaken up. Some, though, had turned an interesting shade of green. Still others had already released their straps and had cracked the right bay door open and were introducing the countryside to their own version of warfare - carpet puking.
He tapped his headset."More or less."
He could hear her low chuckle."Well, the newbies have to experience one of my performances sometime. Of course they're not going to react well."
"These aren't newbies."
"Really? Well then. I guess they'll just have to get over it, hmm? Alright, coming up on landing zone, the Pathfinders have laid orange smoke." She reported, then clicked off-circuit.
They set down well behind the main contingent, and well before it. Ginny gave Harry a peck on the cheek, then called her team out and they found a spot to set their two mortars up in. Hermione and Sarah gathered their equipment and ghosted away from the LZ, melting into the landscape to find a place to set up.
Echo walked up to Harry."So, Harry. What do you think that flak was?" he asked. Harry shrugged.
"Damned if I know. I think we're going to find out, but right now, I'm not too worried. With pilots like Carmen, we're not likely to have trouble with mere flak, yeah?"
Meanwhile, the rest of the troopers spread out, scouting the town stealthily, noting any suspicious activity - and most importantly, the flak guns, which still boomed with basso croomp-croomp sounds.
As the main body of the attack began to appear overhead - no need for disillusionment spells now, at the last moment - Harry and Echo and their teams re-boarded the transport, leaving behind a guard for Ginny and her mortarpeople. Both port and starboard bay doors remained open this time, so they all grabbed onto the overhead grab bars as they soared through the open air at two hundred and ten kilometers per hour. They swooped low over the town, frightened inhabitants fleeing to the relative safety of basements, while the flak guns adjusted the angle of their guns. Then the thought hit Harry - they have radar!
He keyed the all-frequencies button on his headset."Alliance troops, this is Phoenix One. Be advised, the Nibblers have muggle radar. Flak accuracy will improve as you get closer to ground level. Use caution, people." he said, before switching back to ground comms.
He leaned out the side as the hail of curses from Death Eaters below began, and four of the troopers in the bay risked being tossed out as they sprinted to the side guns, two to a side, strapping themselves in and raining hexes and curses back at them. They continued moving for the center of town.
As they got closer, Harry noticed a strange commotion. Looking down and to the east a bit, he could see Death Eaters trying to force their way into a house - trying to find cover, probably - and being unable to, finally resorting to cursing it off the hinges. As soon as it was down, a large bronze round shield soared through the air at neck height, with disastrous consequences for the Death Eaters in its' path. From behind this disc of death stepped a raven-haired teen with a glittering sword, her right hand holding it while her left held a black wand, using both to devastating effect upon the would-be intruders.
As the transport passed above, she stopped to wave a moment, before a disarming spell relieved her of wand and weapon. But rather than deter her, she simply made a straight tossing motion, casting the Death Eaters away from her. Picking up her sword, shield, and wand, she retreated back into the house as the Phoenix passed out of range, descending toward the town-hall-turned-Death-Eater-fortress in the center of town.
Harry was deep in thought until Ron shook his shoulder."Hey mate, let's go!" he said, gesturing to the fast approaching ground. Harry shook himself, and shouldered his weapon. "Alright, here goes."
A\N: Hey folks! There you go! I hope you were entertained by this chapter. Yesh, yesh, no Honor in this one. But her role in this story has yet to come.