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.
"The Trade Federation's ships are retreating. The Genossion's have scatted." Master Kanobe said to the gathering of about thirty Jedi Knights and Masters.
"Makes good tactical sense." Harry said as he entered, removing his combat helmet and running his hand through his hair. "If we leave a light force garrisoning behind, then they will regroup and launch a counter offensive."
Hermione had entered with Harry and they had two Clone Troopers from their strike force.
"On the other hand." Hermione added, "If we leave a heavy force they go underground and fight Gorilla style. Hit and run attacks, sabotage, but if we move in force they melt away."
"What makes you think that we are going to leave a force behind at all?" One of the other Jedi asked.
"You must be joking?" Hermione snapped, her hard expression made even more intimidating by her scar and the tan and black combat paint covering her face. "Firstly they kidnapped two Jedi and a Republic Senator and tried to execute them. Secondly, what the hell do you think all those droids were for, playing patty cake? If we abandon Genossis within two weeks, the Separatists will be back and use the planet as a staging base for attacks on this entire sector."
"And you know this from your vast decades of experience, Granger?" one of the older Jedi Knights said snidely.
"I know this from two years of combat missions." Hermione replied. "How many combat operations have you run, Weston?"
"Rush." Harry said. "What's your opinion?"
"Who is Rush?" Anakin asked.
Rush stepped forward, removing his Clone Trooper helmet.
"General Granger's assessment is accurate. We can not afford to loose Genossis, but we also can not afford to commit too many troops here unless the Separatists exploit other sectors." Rush said.
"Thank you, Rush." Hermione said. "I volunteer to command the garrison force."
"Given the recent events, I think more than one Jedi will be needed to handle this issue." Master Windu said.
"I will stay too." Harry said.
"Agreed." Mace said.
Harry called a halt to the patrol. Thrust was right by his side, the rents in his armour from that first action had been repaired, but they had been repaired in red, so it looked like three bloody slashes in his armour. Over the last two months the other troopers who had stayed behind on Genossis had copied Thrust's armour, so they were all now repaired in red, making it much easier to tell the clones apart based on the rents on their armour.
"Almost." Harry Whispered.
The one hundred clones spread out, ready to duck into cover. The parched brown rugged environment seemed desolate. Harry removed the water bottle from his belt and took a sip, adjusting his open-faced helmet.
"Contact." Someone called, having seen the telltale trickle of falling small stones that they had learnt preceded an attack.
The clones took cover, covering all the approaches. Five hundred Bugs emerged, converging on the troopers. The troopers fired on the onrushing natives, their blasters, with a more rapid rate of fire, cut down many of the bugs but the shear weight of numbers bore down on the clones. Another three hundred bugs were approaching in a second wave.
"Spring it." Harry ordered into his radio.
The Genossions thought that they were ambushing the clones, but now the counter ambush was sprung. Another two hundred clones popped up from concealed foxholes behind the first wave of bugs. Fifty were facing out to attack the second wave while the rest fired in on the first wave in a devastating cross fire.
"Looks like we got all of them here." Thrust said, firing at a wounded bug coming in on a suicide run.
"Mione. Stage two." Harry ordered, his bullpup blaster firing in one hand and his lightsabre, with only one of the blades activated, slicing a bug in half in the other.
"Go, Go, Go." Hermione shouted her voice muffled through the mask she wore.
A second later she stepped out of the assault Lander. Of course, given the fact that the ship was at ten thousand feet, she fell quickly, as did the troopers in hers and the ten other assault craft who followed her out. The aerial strike force body planed down to the battle zone, manoeuvring their way into an effective formation. At a few hundred feet, Hermione gave the order.
"Pull 'em."
Most Clone trooper units, where aerial operations are required would use jet pack equipped troopers. This of course has one major drawback. Noise. Parachutes on the other hand are extremely quite, and given that the bugs had never fought another race that could fly, they generally did not look up in combat. That is why Hermione's one hundred and fifty airborne troopers were able to cause devastating casualties among the bugs by shooting down on them from under the canopies of the parachutes. The second force of bugs moved away from the descending force, unwittingly being forced into the kill zone that the original patrol and the ground ambush force was creating, having driven the remnants of the first bug force into the same kill zone and having set up an inner perimeter.
Hermione's boots hit the ground and she rolled, slapping the quick release and stepping clear of the parachute harness in one smooth movement, then was in among the bugs, a lightsabre in each hand and her bullpup blaster hanging from a strap from her vest. Most of the clones were not smooth in getting out of their parachute harnesses, but managed and started blasting away, the ones closest to the bugs opting for pistols and combat knives over their long barrelled blasters.
"Rush. Take the left hand side." Hermione ordered. "Talon, take the right."
Harry and Hermione stood on the field of battle, both breathing hard from the just finished battle.
"General Granger or General Potter, this is the cruiser Enduring Justice, please respond." The call came over the radio.
"Enduring Justice. This is General Potter, receiving over." Harry replied.
"General. We have your replacement detachment, lead by General Jankal, and orders to transport you and your troopers to Courasant for debriefing and re-deployment."
"Copy, Enduring Justice. Over and out." Harry replied.
"Typical. Only get relieved once we take out the resistance." Hermione said.
"Thrust. Call in the extraction teams."
"Yes, Sir."
Jedi Knight Jankal marched off the Republic Cruiser at the head of his six thousand troopers, all of them resplendent in their pure white armour. When he saw the reception he as shocked, not that he let it show. He had been told that he was replacing a force of six thousand clone troopers left behind after the original battle. What he saw was vastly different that what he expected.
Marshalled on the field were just over two and a half thousand troopers, and almost a third of them were wounded, although at first glace they all appeared to be wounded. Every single clone trooper had what looked like bloody claw marks, long scratches and rents in their armour, making it seem a miracle that any of them were standing, let alone standing smartly at attention. On second inspection one could see it was simply different areas of their armour painted red, but the edges were disturbingly realistic.
The two Jedi Knights were also not what he expected. Neither was dressed in traditional Jedi robes, or even the traditional pants, shirt and vest with shoulder and wrist guards that some Jedi had adopted since the start of the war. Their sandhy coloured pants had a number of pockets sown into the legs. Attached at their waists, in addition to their lightsabers, were water bottles, combat knives, blaster pistols and an array of other items. Their vests were not the nice, snug Jedi style vests, instead they were bulky things, again with lots of bulging pockets, that somehow supported a short, effective looking blaster. Under one arm they both held an almost pot like helmet.
"Well met, Jankal. I'm Harry Potter, this is Hermione Granger." The male Jedi said.
"Well met. I have orders from the Jedi Council to take over the Garrison operations of this planet." Jankal replied nervously.
Harry nodded to Hermione, who walked back to the Troopers.
"Thrust. Let's get moving." She yelled at a clone who had a number of red scars on his armour, most predominantly three parallel running down the front of his chest plate.
"We stand relieved. As of oh-eight-hundred this morning, the last active resistance cells have been neutralised. The Queens and Generals of the remaining hives have accepted the Republic's presence and have vowed to fight against the Separatists should they return, but are unwilling to commit troops to off world campaigns."
"I was under the impression that there were six thousand troopers stationed here." Jankal said, as he watched the veteran troopers board the Cruiser.
"Actually it was originally closer to nine thousand." Harry replied.
"So what happened?" Jankal blurted out.
"It's been a long two months."
With that Harry turned away to marshal his remaining troops for transport off the planet.
TBC…