Title: On the Bounce
Author: Knife Hand
Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated
Spoilers: All Harry Potter Books/Movies excepting the epilogue.
Rating: MA
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Starship Troopers.
Summary: After the end of the Second Wizarding War, Harry decides that he is done with the Wizarding World, and Hermione goes with him. Welcome to the Mobile Infantry. Crossover with Starship Troopers Book. AU
Harry, Hermione and Alyssa were sitting in a bar on the main strip of Sanctuary. It was nine days after the Avalon had returned to Sanctuary and the three of them, as the highest ranking MI Survivors, had spent the entire nine days in debriefing with three MI Colonels, one of them M Class. The questions, and the enforced separation that went along with the debrief were now over.
"So, what do you think they will do with us now?" Alyssa asked. "The Wildlings and Maji are basically dead."
"Reassignment, maybe." Harry said with a shrug.
"Official orders won't be cut until tomorrow." A voice said.
The three turned to see the M Class Colonel from the debriefing, Colonel Han Li, sitting down at the table with them.
"Colonel." All three said at the same time and made to rise before the Colonel waved them to sit.
"Sergeant McGonagall, you will be receiving a promotion and will be assigned to a Combat Team as Platoon Sergeant." Colonel Li began. "Corporal Potter, you will be sent to first to the advanced Scout training course, and then to Elite Combat School."
"General Bodyguard School?" Harry asked quietly.
"You're breaking these two up? Seriously?" Alyssa asked, incredulous. "Harry Potter and Hermione Granger, and you're breaking them up? They are…."
"We are well aware of who they are, Sergeant." Colonel Li interrupted. "Corporal Granger is going to Officer Candidate School. On the safe assumption that Corporal Granger passes OCS, Corporal Potter will be assigned to her Platoon."
"OCS?" Hermione said, surprised.
"Yes, Captain Wildman recommended you for it. Even if the incident on Mantrax had not occurred you would still be going to OCS." Colonel Li replied. "I must be going. Enjoy your evening."
Officer Candidate School was designed to be almost impossibly hard. Mornings were just like Basic, with parade and combat drills, while the afternoons were the more academic side of being an Officer and "Gentleman". Hermione was the only M Class in OCS and was bunked with three other female candidates, one from Earth, France to be specific, and the other two from Colonies, and they had a civilian servant to make their beds, clean their clothes and do all the little chores any Boot graduate could do perfectly to provide the candidates time to do everything else.
Wake up early, five hours under the Sergeants playing Private in the morning, lunch, six five hours of academic classes in the evening and then another two to five hours doing homework and assignments in the evening. In short, while every other Candidate was seriously wondering why they had ever made the bonehead decision to go for Officer, Hermione was in heaven. Within twenty-four hours of arriving at OCS, Hermione had begun tutoring all three of her bunkmates in different subjects and within two days Hermione was teaching Mathematics. By the end of the first week, she was also teaching Chemistry, Asymmetric Warfare Tactics and Classical History of Warfare. When the Commandant had seen her lesson plans for Asymmetric Warfare Tactics and Classical History of Warfare he had nodded and called in his Civilian Secretary to make a copy. Those lesson plans would become the required lesson plans for those classes going forward.
Hermione sat in her dorm room working on a History and Moral Philosophy essay. While a mandatory class, H&MP did not have exams and the homework did not contribute to your final grade, instead the pass or fail was based solely on the Professor's opinion on if you were worthy to become an Officer, or even stay in the MI. 'Fail' History and Moral Philosophy and you may not end up going back to your unit, as would happen if you failed any other class, instead you may get a discharge as 'Unsuitable' for service and be sent back to Civilian life, regardless of how good your combat record or last performance review.
Hermione loved the arguments that occurred in the class, there had been some long and involved ones. The instructor had, to Hermione's mind, the delightful habit of accepting alternative arguments but only after overwhelming evidence, usually in the form of a PHD length essays with full supporting references, though he did demand the Cadets admit they were wrong if the evidence proved such. The essay she was working on had not technically been assigned to her, but Hermione had objected to the viewpoints of both the Instructor and the other Cadet who had argued the point.
Harry crouched behind the small boulder, holding his breath as he heard movement. Softly creeping, he moved towards the sound and slipped an eye out from behind cover. There were three of them, separated but in a loose formation. In a quick motion, he stepped out and took the last one, slipping a hand over the figures mouth and pulled him behind the boulder. Ten more minutes and two more quick moves the remaining figures were down.
"Exercise is over." A voice sounded from above.
"I thought you said these guys were good." Harry said, standing up from his hidden location, surprising the instructors who were expecting him to be at a point six feet away.
The training was done in a simulated environment, without Powered Armour, with Harry on one side and, originally, twelve of the best of the Advanced Scout School graduates on the other. It had been the exercise for Harry to avoid the twelve graduates but instead Harry had gone on the offensive and taken out all the other Scouts instead.
"And why are you here as a student instead of an Instructor?" one of the Instructors asked.
"Colonel Li's orders." Harry replied with a grunt.
Two of the Instructors groaned at that. Another one of Li's recruits.
Alyssa dropped her kit bag in her bunk in the Camelot and then began to wander the troop deck, taking stock of her new Platoon, Stevens Sentinels. The Platoon was a solid combat team and Lieutenant Louis Stevens was one of the most experienced Platoon Leaders in the MI, especially in Fifth Battalion. He was so experienced he was due to retire in two months. Alyssa did not think that was a coincidence.
After checking out the Armoury and the kitchens, finding the Armoury in good shape and the cook not as talented as Harry, she called a meeting of the Section Leaders, Section Seconds and Squad Leaders. After introducing herself she got to the business of learning the status of the Platoon. Alyssa had already had a briefing from Lieutenant Stevens about Sentinels but often the NCO's had a different perspective and sometimes knew more than the Lieutenant. With the Sentinels, like with most well run combat teams like the Wildlings had been, what the Lieutenant had said and what the NCO's were saying were in alignment, but not the perfect match up of a rehearsed story.
Alyssa made mental notes on strengths and weaknesses of the Squads and Sections, but did not make any suggestions or orders for improvements. Stevens ran things his way and when he retired the new Lieutenant would run things their way, but Alyssa would be in a position to advise the new Lieutenant. Perhaps more than most Platoon Sergeants if what she suspected was true.
Luna stood over the table of star charts that showed Federation controlled Space and the outer regions beyond Federation control. Mantrax, where the death of the Wildlings and Maji had occurred, was on the outer edge of Federation Space.
There were thirty other Intel Officers looking at the problem of this new species, and all of them agreed that the attack would come on a strait line vector and be reaching for some vital military or industrial target, though they were split as to which target and which vector.
Luna was the sole voice of opposition to this school of thought. The others were thinking like they were facing a Human opponent who had both the same Military Tradition and knowledge that the Officers had. To Luna's mind, as Mantrax was First Contact, the insect like Aliens would know as little about Humans and the Federation knew about them.
Luna's own theory was based on her father's passion of Magical Creatures and her own Magi-Zoology readings. These Aliens were like insects, so she looked at the habits of Insects. Not in combat, but in Colony Expansion. Mantrax had been a new colony and from the Alein's perspective they had been trying to protect the Hive. The way insects select new colonies is nothing even remotely like Human Military Strategy.
Using her theory, Luna made the request to have three sorties of MI and Fleet to go into a completely different sector than the other Intel Officers were even considering. Given her current favour for the intel boon, though military disaster, that was Mantrax and the talk of a possible promotion, she may even get the sorties she requested.
TBC…