Disclaimer: I am not Timothy Zahn or J.K. Rowling.
Enter the Ford Anglia, arriving on the Battle of Nimbus.
Ron notices the broom explosion.
Ron. Harry. Got a broom explosion. I'm going to go check it out.
As the Anglia moves forward, the Ministry brooms, as well as the Ministry cruiser Nurmengard, appear.
Harry returns to the cockpit.
Harry. What's going on?
Ron. We just walked into a Ministry attack. Got a Ministry cruiser behind us. There's another one over to starboard, looks like some other brooms with them.
Harry. They've got the region bottled up. I make it five Ministry cruisers and something over twenty smaller broomships.
Ron. At least we know now why they hit Avalon and the others. They wanted to pull enough brooms here to make an attack worth their while.
Neville's Voice. [over the transmitter] Emergency. Ministry brooms in orbit-dock area. All brooms to battle stations.
Harry. That sounded like Neville. [into transmitter] Neville? That you?
Neville's Voice. [over the transmitter] Harry? We've got trouble here - at least forty Ministry brooms and fifty truncated-cone-shaped things I've never seen before . . . I hope you've brought a couple wings of brooms with you. We're going to be a little pressed here.
Harry. [into the transmitter] I'm afraid it's just Ron and me and the Anglia. But we're on our way.
Neville's Voice. [over the transmitter] Make it fast.
Harry. [to Ron] Is there any way to get me into my Firebolt?
Ron. [shakes his head] Not fast enough. We're going to have to drop it here and go in alone.
Harry nods and rises.
Harry. I'd better make sure Dean and the droids are strapped in and then get up into the gun well.
Ron. Take the top one.
As Harry heads over to the gun well and Ron ponders about the identity of the Ministry's mysterious new brooms, Grindelwald and Ogden stand on the bridge of Nurmengard, watching the battle.
Ogden. All brooms, commence attack. Full engagement. Maintain position and status. [to Grindelwald] All brooms report engaged, sir.
Grindelwald, having noticed the Anglia, does not respond.
Admiral?
Grindelwald. That was them, Captain. That car straight ahead. That was the Ford Anglia. And it was towing an Firebolt broomstick behind it.
Ogden frowns out the viewport, where he too sees the Anglia.
Ogden. Yes, sir. Cloak Leader reports a successful breakout, and that the command section of the broom is making its escape to the periphery. They're encountering some resistance from escort vehicles and a squadron of Firebolts. But the general response has so far been weak and diffuse.
Grindelwald. [sighs] That will change. Remind him not to push his envelope too far, or to waste excessive time in choosing his targets. Also that the spacetrooper mole miners should concentrate on selkie cruisers. They're likely to have the largest number of defenders aboard. And inform him that the Ford Anglia is on its way in.
Ogden. Yes, sir. [glances over at Grindelwald] You don't think . . . Potter?
Grindelwald. We'll know soon. And if so, Aberforth Dumbledore will have a great deal to answer for, a great deal.
Outside Nurmengard, Rogue Squadron engages the Ministry brooms. Commander Longbottom contacts Rogue Five Gondoline Oliphant, as her Firebolt is nicked by a Ministry broom.
Neville. [into transmitter] Watch it, Rogue Five. We've picked up a tail.
Gondoline. I noticed. Pincer?
Neville. On my mark.
As a selkie cruiser moves forward, Neville and Gondoline move underneath it.
Now.
As a Ministry broom follows them, Neville and Gondoline split up. When the Ministry broom hesitates about which Firebolt to go after, the Rogues take advantage of this. Gondoline fires on the broom. It explodes.
Nice shooting.
In the middle of their fight, Neville and Gondoline suddenly notice they have separated themselves from the battle.
Gondoline. We seem to be out of it, Rogue Leader.
Neville. Easy enough to fix.
Neville and Gondoline fly back into the main battle area. Noticing one of the mole miners, Neville pauses.
Hang on a minute. I want to check this out.
As Neville moves toward the mole miner, the selkie cruiser fires on his Firebolt, which elicits a cry of shock from Gondoline.
Stay back. I'm hit, but not bad.
Gondoline. They fired on you.
Neville. Yeah, I know. [aside] Why did they fire on me? Unless . . . [to Gondoline] Rogue Five, I need a fast sensor scan. Where are the rest of those cone things?
Gondoline. Hang on, I'll check. Scope shows . . . I don't find more than about fifteen of them. Nearest one's ten kilometers away, bearing one-one-eight mark four.
Neville. [aside] Fifty flew out of that wrecked broom, not fifteen. Where are the others? Let's take a look.
Neville notices a mole miner, escorted by Ministry brooms, headed for the selkie cruiser.
[to Gondoline] Let's see if we can take them before they notice us.
However, as the two Rogues approach, the Ministry brooms turn on them.
Take the two on the right, Rogue Five. I'll take the others.
Gondoline. Copy.
Neville takes a hit from the Ministry brooms, but his enemies are driven off by the Anglia, fired by Harry and Ron.
Harry. All clear, Neville. You damaged?
Neville. I'm fine, Harry. Thanks.
Ron. Look. There it goes, over by the broomship. It's one of Dean's mole miners, all right.
Harry. I see it. What's it doing out here?
Neville. I saw one stuck onto the selkie cruiser back there. Looks like this one's trying to do the same thing. I don't know why.
Ron. Whatever it's doing, let's stop it.
Neville. Right.
As Harry, Ron, and Neville watch, one of the mole miners attaches itself to a selkie cruiser, eliciting a blast of light.
Harry. What was that?
Neville. I don't know. It looked too bright for laser fire.
Ron. It was a plasma jet. Right on top of the bridge emergency escape hatch. That's what they wanted the mole miners for. They're using them to burn through the hulls . . . [curses] Harry. We got it backwards. They're not here to wreck the fleet. They're here to steal it.
Harry. [aside] And suddenly all the pieces fall into place. The mole miners, the undermanned and underdefended selkie cruisers we were forced to press into shipping service, the Ministry effort is making very little effort . . . and a selkie cruiser just fired on Neville's Firebolt. [to Ron] We've got to stop them.
Ron. Good thinking. How?
Harry. Is there any way we can get aboard them ourselves? Dean said the mole miners were two-man brooms. The Ministry can't possibly have packed more than four or five Hit Wizards in each one of them.
Neville. The way those broomships are manned at the moment, four Hit Wizards would be plenty.
Harry. Yes, but I could take them.
Ron. On all fifty brooms? Besides, you blast a hatch open to vacuum and you'll have pressure bulkheads closing all over the broom. Take you forever to even get to the bridge.
Harry. [sighs] Then we have to disable them. Knock out their engines or control systems or something. If they get out to the perimeter and those Ministry cruisers, we'll never see them again.
Ron. Oh, we'll see them again, pointed straight back at us. You're right. Disabling as many as we can is our best shot. We're never going to stop all fifty, though.
Neville. We don't have fifty to stop, at least not yet. There are still twelve mole miners that haven't attached themselves to brooms.
Ron. Good. Let's take them out first. You got vectors on them?
Neville. Feeding your computer now.
Ron. Okay, okay. Here we go.
The Anglia moves in that direction.
Harry. Get on the comm and tell Nimbus Control what's happening. Tell them not to let any brooms out of the orbit-dock area.
Harry. Right.
Harry moves to contact Nimbus Control, then frowns.
Ron? You all right?
Ron. Huh? Sure. Why?
Harry. I don't know. You seemed to change.
Ron. I had half a grip on some idea. But it's gone now. Come on. Make that call. I want you back on the quads when we get there.
Harry contacts Nimbus Control and informs them of the problem.
Harry. [to Ron and Neville] They thank us for the information. But they say they don't have anything to spare at the moment to help us.
Ron. Probably don't. Okay, I see two Ministry brooms running escort. Neville, you and Rogue Five take them out while Harry and I hit the mole miner.
Neville. Got it.
Neville and Gondoline move off to meet the Ministry brooms.
Ron. Harry. Try to blow it apart instead of disintegrating it. Let's see how many people the Ministry has got stuffed inside.
Harry. Got it.
Focusing in on one of the mole miners, Harry fires. As he does so, a Hit Wizard suddenly exits the mole miner.
What . . . ?
Ron. It's a spacetrooper, a Hit Wizard in zero-gee armor. Hang on.
Ron swerves out of the way, but not before the Hit Wizard fires on them.
Neville. Ron, Harry. Are you all right?
Ron. Yeah, for now. You get the Ministry brooms?
Neville. Yes. I think the mole miner's still underway, though.
Ron. Well, then, blast it. Nothing cute. Just blow it apart. But watch out for that spacetrooper. He's using miniature proton torpedoes or something. I'm trying to draw him away. I don't know if he'll fall for it.
Neville. He's not. He's staying right on top of the mole miner. They're heading for a passenger liner. It looks like they'll make it, too.
Ron. [curses] Probably got a few regular Hit Wizard buddies still in there. All right, I guess we do this the hard way. [to Harry] Hang on, Harry. We're going to ram him.
Harry. We're what?
Ron drives the Anglia toward the Hit Wizard and the mole miner.
Ron. Get ready.
At the last second, Ron drops out of the Hit Wizard's line of fire.
Neville. Stop.
Neville fires at the mole miner, and it explodes.
Good shot. There you go, hotshot. Enjoy your view of the battle.
Harry. [with realization] He was listening in on our channel. You just wanted to decoy him into moving away from the mole miner.
Ron. You got it. I figured he'd tap in. Hit Wizards always do when they can . . .
Harry senses something's wrong.
Harry. What is it?
Ron. I don't know. There's something about this whole thing that keeps poking at me, but I can't figure out what it is. Never mind. Our hotshot spacetrooper will keep for now. Let's go hit some more mole miners.
Exit all.
