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.
Harry noticed a special flashing light in what appeared to be a panel of flashing lights on the wall. He was sitting at the desk in his quarters, dressed only in a pair of cargo pants, going over the routine paperwork running a military Squad.
"Argh. It's too early for this." He moaned to no one.
"I'll do the wards then, shall I?" Hermione replied sarcastically, as she rose from the bed, wrapping the bed sheet around her naked body.
After that first operation with both of their squads six months ago, they had pretended to form a fast friendship and then four months ago had began a 'new relationship', and had gotten private couples quarters three months ago.
Hermione was both putting on clothes and setting up the anti-eavesdropping wards simultaneously while Harry put on a shirt and retrieved one of their Jedi Holographic Communications devices.
Doing a quick double check that everything appeared in order, Harry activated the com unit, and they were greeted with the image of Master Yoda.
"Master Yoda." Hermione Greeted. "What is the emergency?"
Both of them were in deep cover so only carefully scheduled and coded reports were made and no direct contact unless there was an extreme emergency.
"Over, your missions are. On route to you, I am. Be there in twelve hours, I will be." Yoda said.
"We're being pulled out? Why?" Harry asked.
They had both put in two and a half years into this operation to bring down the biggest criminal organisation in known space.
"Master Kanobe, Padawan Skywalker and Senator Amidala, captured they have been by Count Duku on Geniossis. Leading rescue party, Master Windu is. Come you must to Kamino. Retrieve a clone army we must to ensure rescue of Kanobe, Skywalker and the Senator. In twelve hours, in orbit you must be. Retrieve you we shall."
"And our mission?" Hermione asked. "We are close to full entry into inner circle."
"Information you have, to me send. Pass to reliable security, we shall. Leave quietly if possible." Yoda ordered.
"Affirmative. Message received. See you in twelve hours." Harry replied.
Harry and Hermione began to get their gear together, both their hidden Jedi equipment and their military equipment, including their issued assault blasters. Twelve hours later their stolen shuttle met up with Yoda's starship which was back into Hyper drive in under ten minutes. Sergeant Dursley and Sergeant Evans were not missed until reveille the following day, but by then the base had more pressing matters than two AWOL Sergeants.
Three assault landers barely touched down, the forty passengers all disembarking quickly and efficiently, every single one with blasters sweeping to cover any possible ambush. The figures all quickly sprinted into cover behind a series of boulders in the, for the moment, deserted gulley.
Thirty-eight of the soldiers were equipped with the gleaming white armour and long barrelled blasters of the Clone Troopers, their faces all hidden behind the fully enclosed Mandalorian style helmets. The other two were very different. They were dressed in tan coloured fatigues, designed to blend into the surrounding rock. Over the fatigues they wore combat jackets, which contained synthetic composite trauma plates. Their helmets did not enclose the face, which were obscured by combat paint, but did provide neck protection and their much shorter; bullpup style blasters swept the scene faster than the Clone Troopers longer weapons.
"Leapfrog advance." Harry ordered. "First Squad advance."
Harry and nineteen of the clone troopers advanced to the next set of boulders that would provide cover while Hermione and the remaining Clone Troopers covered them.
The majority of the Clones were attacking Count Duku's Droids out on the plain, while Master Yoda was taking a second team to rescue Anakin, Senator Amidala and the other Jedi in the Arena. Yoda had tasked Jedi Knights (and thus Generals in the eyes of the Clone Troopers) Potter and Granger and their hand picked team to hit a major Logistical and Support bunker for Duku's forces. This was by no means the enemy's Command and Control centre, which was to heavily fortified for anything but a full scale assault, but if they could take this bunker, it would severely limit the information the enemy command would have available.
Harry hit cover alongside his squad, and heard Hermione order her team to advance. He scanned both the gulley and the sky, remembering the briefing that the Geionssions can fly. A scatter of rocks tumbled down the gulley's side. Wind whispered through the rocks. Hermione's team hit cover and Harry was about to order the advance.
"Contact. Ten o'clock high." Harry shouted, spotting the first of Genossion Warriors flying over the gulley.
Hermione put up her hand calling a halt just short of the branching corridor. The strike team had infiltrated the bunker and then the two squads had separated. Harry's squad was going after the communications room, while Hermione's team was going after the information processing centre.
"Come on. Let's go." One of the Clones whispered.
"Don't be in such a rush." Hermione said. "Have patience."
"Yes, 486. Have patience." Another said sarcastically.
Hermione turned, her glare evident even through her combat paint. She checked around the corner and saw that the Genossion security patrol had passed. She then signalled for them to proceed, and gave the emphatic hand signal for silence.
"Sir, all the charges are planted." One of the Clones reports, getting a nod from Harry.
"Set the timers and let's get moving." Harry ordered.
The clones all fell in and they moved out of the communications room. As they moved through a storage room near the Communications centre, the door at the far end opened and a group of Genossion Bugs came through the door.
"Cover." Harry shouted.
Harry and the clones dropped down behind the crates, except for one Clone who was thrown backwards by a Bug's sonic weapon, his internal organs liquefied. The clones started firing back causing the Bugs to either continually dodge or take cover themselves.
"Squad One to Squad Two." Harry said over his tactical radio.
"One, this is Two. Go." Hermione's voice came back through his earpiece.
"Primary objective achieved, but we are pinned down." Harry replied.
Hermione and her team approached the Information Processing Centre. Off the corridor, right near the door to the IPC, a door opened into a security room.
"Rush. Take five men into the security room. Clean it out quietly then when we breach, you enter through the Security room."
There was complete silence, and more than a little confusion, among the Clones for a few seconds.
"486, I think she's talking to you." One of the clones said, nudging the clone that Hermione scolded earlier.
Hermione turned around, looking hard at the clones.
"It isn't 486 anymore. My name's Rush." Rush said. "928, 643, 246, 863, with me."
"When do we get names?" 246 complained.
"When you earn them." Rush replied. "Or when the General gives you one."
Rush and his group slung their blasters and drew their knives, crouching as they swept into the security room. A minute later one popped his head back out to give the OK signal.
"Breaching team." Hermione ordered.
The Clones lined up along the walls. Hermione four back on one side. The Breaching charges were attached to the door. The charges went off, and the first trooper in each line through a fragmentation grenade into the Information Centre and ducked back into the corridor. The grenades went off and the troops moved in. Rush's team catching the occupants of the room in a deadly crossfire with the main team.
"We need to break this." The Clone next to Harry said. "A good thrust down the centre."
Seven of the clones were down. Around half of the Bugs were also down. Harry popped up and shot off a burst over the top of the crate.
"Alright. Sergeant Thrust. Take a team down the centre. I'll flank left." Harry ordered.
"Thrust. I like that." The Clone said.
Thrust ordered several troopers and led them strait down the centre of the room. One of the clones went down in the assault. The Bugs concentrated on the assault. Thrust got close enough to use his knife but went down under the claws of one of the Bugs, just before Harry was able to shoot the offending Bug.
"Thrust, are you alive?" One clone asked.
"Yeah." Thrust replied. "Sorry Sir. The damn Bug got close."
There was a big rent in Thrust's armour.
"You fit to move?" Harry asked.
"Yes Sir."
The two teams met up on their way out and encountered a final group of Bugs just before reaching the extraction point. The teams turned and began a fighting retreat.
"Thrust, get to the birds and co-ordinate their cover fire." Harry ordered.
"Rush. Go with him." Hermione added. "I want them to put missiles into the overhang on my command."
"So General Potter gave you a name?" Rush asked as he ran along with Thrust.
"Yeah. I suggested a thrust attack, so he named me that. How did you get Rush?"
"Guess." Rush said, which got a laugh from Thrust.
Ten minutes later the overhead was rubble, crushing most of the Bugs and blocking the fire of the rest, and the three extraction gunships were on their way towards the main assembly area, where the majority of the Clone Army was mopping up the Driods.
TBC…