A note: Dear readers, I failed you! I so totally planned to release this chapter over the weekend but suddenly it's tuesday! I am devastated and consider quitting my job to be able to stick to a more reliable, weekly update routine. Currently I am stuck somewhere in chapter 14 with the whole aliens distractions and some extensive shooting. It's possible I flooded the storyline with too many crossover storylines. Whelp, what can you do? There is always the possibility for the distracting characters to die a horrible death when they are not in the current focus of the story ... I only mention this as a fair warning to all those twisted storyline characters that are just waiting for the right moment to jump into the actual story from their parking slots. Like the total shithead of Minister of Magic Bladdermole - you have been warned! I as a responsible author of worldclass Fanfiction with now 25! followers will not tolerate much more of this inconsiderate Quiddich fixation of the Ministry. What's wrong with those guys?
~o~
Chapter 7: Plans and distractions
Harry sat in the Pub dining room and was currently trying to vent his considerable ire by chomping down some breakfast cereals with as much force as possible. Beside him were the crumpled remains of Alabastors letter.
The Unspeakables had taken war heroes and petrified them to fight against their leniency-produced dark lords whenever they saw it fit. And when after some years the M.A.S Field had reduced the number of Wizards enough so that the dark lords became similar rarer, they had more or less forgotten about the hero-program and their storage of knights of the light.
A few weeks after Harry's last petrification, Luna had caused too much trouble because the Unspeakables did not awake him back. They had taken her into the Ministry under false pretense, obliviated her and had made her a tool of oppression. They had obliviated her over and over again after each mission, telling her whoever they wanted gone was the murder of her beloved Harry Potter and only hours later the victim died a bizarre death, like trying to eat living mandrakes or experimenting what would happen if one activated two portkeys in opposite directions at the same time.
In the end when Luna had become too scarred and traumatized to be obliviated again they had just put her away in petrification as well to be forgotten and never return. She had been living 40 years after Harrys petrification and killed more than three hundred people, dark lords, politicians of the opposition, inconvenient ex-wifes and even Wizards who would not give up their befriended house-elves for the greater good of the M.A.S. Field. All this under the false cover story to get revenge for Harry or find who took him or any other story they could get away with, making their obliviated victim a puppet of their cruel whims. They had even given her a secret name, the Black Sun and sent her on missions for other states or wealthy individuals.
The tattoo on Harrys head that prevented that the M.A. could delete inconvenient knowledge from his consciousness had began to constantly smoke, so many of the dirtiest laundry that the Unspeakables would want to be forgotten forever had been written in the letter. It had turned his already dark, image of the magic government over to complete furry and opposition.
Just then the door was thrown open and Alabastor Moony - now wearing some dirty old jeans and a much too small open sports jacket with nothing else beyond - entered the pub, in the middle of a group of some drunken Wizards.
"For Fucks sake Harry, I would have never guessed that you could get arrested when you go outside without some clothing! You people are strange! When you are a robot they would for sure put you into recalibration when you would walk around in some clothes on you that you found in a dumpster. But wearing this garbage here as a human it is considered the bare minimum except when you are standing on sand. I tried to get an exact definition of "prudent" behavior from the coppers but they kept laughing and just handed me this stuff." He gave a small thumbs up to the drunken Wizards who had not yet figured out how to sit on the barstools.
Although being royally pissed, Harry had to smile that his robot friend had gotten himself in trouble, maybe with a little help from his side because he let him leave wandering around naked without telling him.
"We should go over to Gringotts, I guess I can convince the Goblins to help us against these alien soldiers and I really need to vent my anger."
"And I might have a plan to help us against the alien robots and the ships and maybe if we put both things together we might not even have to be there when the shit hits the fan."
"The fights that happen without you are the best fights!" Harry confirmed.
"While the Goblins and the Wizards are busy to make their lives miserable we might be able to sneak into the Ministry, find your petrified girlfriend and maybe there are more blokes like you in their cupboards."
"To set the Goblins against the Wizards just like that will cause too much bloodshed for my taste. The Goblins are not having enough protection against the Wizards wands." Harry mused.
After a small pause they said in unison. "We have to get hold of more of these uniforms."
After another pause of feral grins they both followed up in unison again: "I have a plan."
.
What followed was something that Harry had never done in his whole life: They discussed a detailed strategy and came up with a really good and executable plan that did not involve Harry to go into the midst and kill someone or sacrifice himself. Most noteworthy of it was that they came up with it BEFORE they were in the midst of things. Fluffy was really good in coming up with plans and alternate strategies they could follow when something would not go according to plan A.
Harry felt a little dumb after their planning session and was thinking about how much he would have needed the support of Fluffy in his first fights against Voldishorts. First they would have beaten every piece of knowledge out of frickin Dumbledose. Harry smiled when he imagined how they would have put an Abrahams tank into good use during Voldishits little ressurection session in the graveyard of Little Hangleton. A well placed canister shot from 3 kilometers away in the middle of the night. Volidifucker and Pettigrew would have needed years to pick up all their pieces.
~.~
Step one: Goblin Pawns and Kings
They stepped into a niche to get out of view and Fluffy tried out his second transformation form for the first time. He twisted his hands together and morphed into an obviously young and single headed version of Fluffy the Monster Dog that Hagrid had once placed in front of the chamber of secret. The result was still a black dog half a head taller than Harry.
"You definitely look too cute, can you do the eye thing that you used in front of the Wizengamot and stop wagging that tail?"
"Ok boss, intimidation mode engaged." Fluffys eyes suddenly shone with a bright white light. "Would you have guessed that this is labeled 'Night Mode' in the service menu?"
"Whoa! Your voice is in total contrast to your monster puppy look. You sound like giant with a bad throat infection. Together with the eyes I would say you qualify as the the Puppy of Doom." Harry chuckled.
"I like the title 'Puppy of Doom', I think it fits with my altogether easygoing personality and underlines my intellectual superiority. Do you really think that the Goblins will like me more in this form than as Alabastor Moony?"
"Ragnok is used to all sorts of shit coming from me - he will guess that we are bulshitting him the moment he sees you. But Goblins in general strive for power over other beings which is one of the reasons they dislike Wizards who like the exact same - and the Wizards have power over them. The Goblins have lost each and every rebellion or uprising of the last 9 centuries, and now they are banned from using wands and condemned to only live in their banks and underground dwellings and nowhere else. They really despise us Wizards because we are no warriors, I might be the exception to the rule because of the Petrov incident here at Gringotts and all my other fighting stuff. When they see me with my new puppy of doom it's just a confirmation that nobody, not even the Wizards should fuck with me. Which puts them on the same level as the Wizards - only that the Wizards are cowards and Goblins are respectful." Harry chuckled a little.
"Harry, I believe you are insulting Goblins when you go ironic like that. Please remember that this is more like a sales pitch when we are there. I am just your dog imitator - err - intimidator dog?" Fluffy growled in his deep monster-dog voice.
.
Indeed the Gringotts guards were giving Harry a very light bow when they made their entrance into the hall, while Harry was dragging his empty stormtrooper armor behind him.
"Ragnok, I have a deal for you and the Goblins!"
Ten minutes later they were standing in front of the Goblin King Ragnark the Silversmith. Harry had shrunken the armor into Goblin size and the King was feeling the material with intense intrest and great expertise. Just some seconds before Harry had demonstrated the shielding properties by shooting a cutting curse at him while wearing it. The King still seemed to be a little shaken but he had taken the whole situation with more humor than Fluffy would have thought.
"It feels like a Keramic - Mithril compound, see here there are hundreds of microscopic metallic conductors embedded in the middle layer." Ragnok and Ragnark were both fuzzing over the armor. Both were obviously in the armorers nerds heaven.
"I can feel it in my Fingertips. The material is magically passive but is actively conducting electricity, not like our armors. Our armor is using active runes that strengthen it against physical impacts but interaction with Wizard magic tends to short circuit them. The Mithril in the compound is building an electromagnetic countering layer when a spell comes near and the energy is spread around the whole thing, exiting on the opposite point. I bet this would even channel an Avadra Kedavra around the wearer." They both looked questioningly towards Harry.
"Don't ask me guys, I might know more about Avadra Kedavra from personal experiences like everybody else, but I am more an expert on the receiving end of it. Since an Avadra Kedavra can be diffused by physical objects, I believe you should be secure inside. Still I was able to shot one of them with a combination spell, that went through the armor like nothing. But be assured I am the only Wizard who can do this and the aftermath is really messy." Harry patted Fluffys head while saying this, making his dark Dog of Doom growel dangerously and sniffing his feet.
"To build something like this we would need years of experimentation and a lot of muggle technology. What would you want from us for this?"
"Ahh, I have a proposition that would benefit us both, but before that I have to ask something. What is Mithril and how much can you deliver?"
The Goblins looked at each other, then eyed the armor with obvious longing in their eyes. The King gave a sign that made all the Goblin warriors leave the room at once, so that only the four of them were left.
The King took Harrys hand and a Goblin negotiation spell bound itself around their hands and arms. "Will you give us this armor?"
"Yes, if you tell me what Mithril is and provide me with a good chunk of it." Harry answered, although Fluffy flashed him an angry look.
"Agreed, but it might not be what you are looking for. Will you help us acquire more of these armors, even if we could use them to protect us against Wizards in a fight with them?"
"Yes, up to a certain amount I will help you to get more armors and even shrink them for you, under three conditions.
Firstly, you must help me to get rid of this alien dark lord. I had to take an magic oath that I must help to make him leave or loose my life. It will greatly help if we steal as many armors as we can, but it might come to fights with the stormtroopers or even with the battleship. Your people will not have to defend Muggles or Wizards but you might get targeted by the dark spacelord if we screw up.
I will keep the major share of armors myself and all of their weapons and ships because I want to avoid another bloody war from your people, justified as it might be."
"Agreed, under the condition that you will not give any weapons to the Wizards either." The Goblin King added.
"Agreed under the limitation of wizards on earth.
Secondly, after I am free of my oath to the Wizengamot, you must help me to free as many elves as possible from the M.A.S. Field wardstones. The Armors will help you to get at them, because you cannot be obliviated inthem by the active wards"
The both Goblins exchanged a look like some schoolchildren that were caught in the chemistry lab. "OK, consider it done." came from Ragnark, while Ragnok was coughing nervously.
"Thirdly, together we will strive to open up a Gringotts branch next to the Potter Moon Manor with the goal to open up another Diagonal Alley there. You might colonize and peacefully trade with the Muggles and Wizards there and hopefully on all other planets and colonies and you will strive to build a peaceful relationship with the people and creatures there. I will regard this oath broken if it is discovered that you are working towards a war with Muggles or Wizards or other sentient earth species unprovoked."
"Agreed, under one additional condition. You, Harry Potter will help the Goblins to escape the ban from free settlement on earth and everywhere else, even if it might go against the statue of secrecy."
"Agreed, as far as it is in my possibilities without endangering the life or the wellbeing of myself or those I care for."
The grin on the face of the Goblin King nearly split his face in halves. "Well said Harry Potter, you drive a hard bargain, we have a deal!" The spell between them flashed and Ragnok roared. "Bring us some Firewhiskey, we have interesting times ahead!"
.
When they left Gringotts late in the evening Harry had to lean heavily on Fluffy who was conveniently lighting the way towards the leaky cauldron with these shining eyes of him.
"I think - Hips! - that we should try to slip those soldiers some firewhiskey and see what happens when they burp in their helmets - whatdayathink?" Harry babbled drunkenly.
"Did you know that you can pee in the armor without having to open it?"
"Yep, figured that out myshelf." Harry stated proudly.
"Did you discover that you can drink from the straw in the helmet?" Fluffy asked.
"Yeah, tastes a little stale but I gueshed it has those nutriamins init?"
"Nope, it's more because it reprocesses your urine and feces into the water that you drink."
Harry had stopped walking, bent forward breathing heavily.
"Urhgg, I think you are a really, really bad, bad dog!"
~..~
Preparations
"Harry, wakey wakey! Oh it feels so good seeing you suffer, I think we should get married. Come on Old Chap, move your wrinkly ass out of your stinky bunk you old fart. Hmmm, this feels good god as well, I think this feely update that is currently under development still needs a lot of fine tuning. I am sorry Harry, we must get divorced, I don't feel the same way for you like I did when I entered the room any more." Alabaster Moony was pacing up and down in front of Harry's bed in his room above the Leaky Cauldron while Harry's head tried to get a hold of what his friend was babbling about and his other head was busy having a hangover. Oh he hated the firewhiskey hangovers.
"Ouuargh, stobbit, gottadrink somthing." Harry slouched over to get himself a glass of water, while Fluffy continued venting his emotional roller coaster and gesticulated with flailing arms.
A carafe of water and a cleansing spell later, Harry had a working mind and a regular throbbing head, like one should have after drinking a little. He mused a bit about his habit of drinking every time when he was with the Goblins. Still some details of the previous day were hazy, but the magic of the negotiations spell provided him with a clear memory of the conditions of the deal he had made with the Goblin King. It was armor hunting time.
"Alabastor, remind me of our masterplan from yesterday and can you please tell me why you are crying?"
"It's beautiful isn't it?" His robotdogfriend had found a mirror and ogled his teeths in it.
"Can you please stop whatever you are currently doing and try to tell me what we are planning to do to get as many of those Trooper armors as possible, and more important keep the weapons from the Goblins?"
"Shush Honey, it will be over soon. No more speaking now." Alabastor laid his finger on Harry's lips and then he froze. Harry was a little freaked when he moved away from his friend and Alabastor fell over, completely rigid with the most stupid grin frozen on his face.
"Hey, it wasn't me this time! You are still wearing the magic proof armor under your transfiguration."
After some unfruitful attempts to waken him up, Harry levitated the unconscious, transfigured robot onto his bed and went down to get a breakfast since he could not fathom anything to do to help him. Every ten minutes he had a look out of the entrance of the Leaky Cauldron to see whether there was a replacement like the last times he had fried his friend, but no one showed up. So he decided to go alone and hunt down some Stormtrooper armors for morning exercise. The imposing bulk of the Imperial Battleship was still parked over half of London, so there should be some around.
.
The first one was easy with Harry's special overlapping spell, but the result was really smelly and the poor guy had for sure at least ten broken bones. He shrunk the armor, stunned him and left him propped against the statue of Charles the first while being hidden under his invisibility cloak.
After that the Stormtroopers seemed to have been warned, since he could not get one alone. He saw some ziping around on their air-bikes but they were all in pairs.
Around dinner time he was lucky, a group of twenty soldiers came down to retrieve their wounded and naked comrade. They stood around one of the transport ships and one of them had his helmet removed. Maybe they were waiting for a medic.
Harry imperioed the guy without the helmet and commanded him to tell his comrades to take of their helmets as well. It was successful, a field stunner dropped the whole group in one shot. Harry revived the first one, imperioed him again, just for good measure and made him help to strip his comrades and gather all weapons. The were just done shrinking and packing the stuff when another vessel hovered above them. The new Stormtroopers jumped down from almost 10 Meters above, combat ready and Harry decided to better leave the scene by apparating away. He had to check on his rigid robot anyways.
Only then he remembered that he had forgotten to obliviate the imperioed soldier,so he hoped that the imperator did either not know about mind magics so that he could get a clue what happened or that he was still knocked out from his close encounter with the backslash of the M.A. two days ago.
.
His robot-friend was awake and back in his overly branded black Stormtrooper uniform when Harry entered his room in the Leaky Cauldron.
"What was that about? I think I did the drinking yesterday evening - but you blacked out on me this morning."
"Hi Harry, yeah, that was weird. It was a weapon test that went awfully wrong - or right - depends on the perspective. We are working on a solution to drive the imperator away since he arrived. This morning I received a virus from my hive core, that would run on the hardware of the aliens that I was wanting to try out during our armor hunt today. But the thing is really super aggressive and installed itself directly in the armor system when the transmission was received, and then it worked out to morph itself into my own systems that were connected through your transformation spell into Alabastors form somehow. It is provoking irrational actions and leaves the computers that are running the thing in a state of utter confusion without giving it an opportunity to process its internal security check routines. It spread so fast that it came so close to jump into my own core layer that I canceled the interaction and rebooted myself and the armor. It can do that as a counter to exactly this kind of attacks but it takes a while to clean the system.
All in all I would say that we should not try this out because it would infect everything, not only the alien technology but ours as well. We will be able to improve the thing based on this testrun in a couple of hours. The isolation of earth and the double isolation of the Wizarding world is offering a unique opportunity to happily nuke away with this bizarre piece of software without provoking a digital Armageddon through the solar system.
And what did you do on this beautiful morning, Harry?"
"I got us 21 armors and only one stinks. On the other hand I think the Troopers are aware that someone is acting against them. First they doubled patrols and then they began to show up in droves only."
"Could you shrink to fit some and bring about ten to my fellow AIs on the moon so that we could begin to tattoo the Wizards and analyse the technology that inhibits magic. One of them will go to the scientists of the moon as well, so that they will not feel excluded. After all I am a diplomat on a peace mission."
"We can hand 10 pieces over some to the Goblins, use the Floo from the Bank to go over to Grimmauld Place and get the rest of the armors to the Moon. We could be back for coffee and Ice Cream at Fortescue in an hour?"
The robot stared at Harry and nodded slowly. "I still have the impression that you are not aware enough of the enormity and importance that surrounds a trip to the moon in under an hour. It's really frustrating for us scientific beings." The robot said while morphing back into the form of Fluffy, Harrys favorite monster dog, ready for a trip to the Goblins.
.
An hour, an Ice Cream and an apparation later they stood in front of their personal Tie Fighter again.
"Are you sure you can get us aboard?" asked Harry, his voice indicating more than doubt.
"Five hours ago we cracked the encryption of the communication protocols of the droids, the ships and the clone warriors. After that we concentrated on the development of the virus toolkit. We used more or less the complete computing power of the space population and AIs to achieve this. I don't know whether you can imagine how much this is but 20 billion people stopped trading shares, getting updated asteroid predictions, no computer games or scientific simulations etc for 38 hours - I don't want to pay the electricity bill for this. We still could not crack any weapon encryption because we do not have enough samples but we could build a method for resetting and registering the equipment. The robots and utilities that comes out of the alien factories from now on are registering itself with a proxy code so that we can take over control at any time and they are spreading the new protocol to all other devices.
In the end we have begun to take over the systems on the battlecruiser three hours ago. I guess in about an hour it will be obvious for the alien commander that an attack is happening and we will see some reactions."
While explaining this, Fluffy, now in the form of the black, overly branded stormtrooper, had climbed into the alien fighter craft. When he started to remotely activate the systems Harry hurriedly flung himself into the pilot seat to avoid that Fluffy would take all the fun for himself.
~...~
Alien abduction
"Before you ask, the Battlecruiser is full of automated systems and we have already control over more than 50% of them and nearly all of the communication systems now. They are seeing us as a regular patrol ship." The robot lectured. Harry had transfigured the robots stormtrooper armor back to the original white color but was planning to make him look like a walking orange as soon as possible.
Harry flew their ship through the main shuttle bay that was bustling with movement while he was looking for a nice parking spot next to one of the larger transport ships.
"Those ships are really large. There must be space for hundreds of Spacetroopers aboard. Look over there, I think they are planning to load a legion or two on that one, they are already gathering in front of it. Let's take it and we shake the Troopers a little until they vomit into their helmets, then I can stupefy them in droves." Harry had already landed his Tie Fighter behind the loading ramp.
"I believe I can help you with the troopers without the vomiting. Let's get to it."
Harry used his invisibility cloak but Fluffy marched confidently in plain view up the ramp. When inside, one of the crew came running towards them and Fluffy shouted "Security, we are checking for a communication attack, hand me your helmet for inspection immediately."
The baffled crewmen removed his helmet and was promptly stunned by Harry from under his cloak. After that they used the command channel to tell the amassed Stormtroopers outside that they would have to remove their helmets and hand over their weapons for a security check procedure.
And indeed the soldiers began to shuffle in a long row into the ship, where Harry had conjured a conveyor belt on which they were placing their helmets and phaser blasters. The conveyor transported everything into a spare storage room that quickly began to fill up. Right at the start an officer in a grayish armor who had asked questions had been imperioed by Harry and now stood around as an decorative element and contributed to subdue the incoming troopers by looking official.
An hour later more than a thousand stormtroopers had entered the transporter and sat placidly in their compartments, while Fluffy had achieved full control over the ship and called the piloting crew via the internal communication system. They laid the their helmets on Harry's conveyor belt and were stunned by him with a field stunner.
"We have to start the ship shortly, or we will raise attention, the boarding took to long already. It was planned that these Troopers should go through London and execute everyone they could get a hold on, so the imperator is aware that something is happening and he decided to act." The robot paused and seemed to listen to something only he could hear.
"Harry, the Battleship has launched two rockets, one will hit Birmingham in just a few seconds. We could not yet break the communication codes to the rockets, I am sorry, I cannot prevent this. The other roket is on its way to the moon. We believe that there is no way to intercept it, but we will try. It will get there in about 20 Minutes if it's continually accelerating with 45g like right now. The cities and stations on the earthside will be getting warned and they will try to evacuate people or bring them as deep underground as possible. They have procedures for asteroid impacts that might help."
Harry had a grimm expression on his face, an expression that showed the long experience with war and death that never leaves a soldier that had seen battles and were going into their next one. His voice had dropped noticeably when he began to speak.
"The Fucker! I will get him for this! If I can manage I will get him for this more than once! I will …" an idea had apparently slow-struck Harry and it made its way slowly to his face where it bloomed into an expression that Fluffy later described as the scary evil prankster face.
"Or we might kick his ass more than once today. Do you know from where exactly the rockets have been launched?" Harry had already ordered the imperioed officer to get out of his armor and was busy dressing up.
"Yes this part of the ship system is already compromised, only the weapon systems themselves are harder to crack." Fluffy helped him to change. The robot knew not to ask too many questions because the probable answer would be "magic" anyways.
Harry was searching in the bottomless pouch and came back with a time turner that he slung over the robots and his head in a swift motion. "Not more than two hours, I guess or we might be the reason who set this whole clustefuck in motion." With that Harry rammed the helmet onto his head and gave the time turner two twists. They vanished.
.
The corridor was dark when they appeared but the automatic lighting switched on when Harry lifted the time turner from their heads.
"Can you access the communication and controls already?" Harry asked.
"Holy shit! Time Travel! Honestly I thought nothing would surprise me any more.
At the current time we only have access to doors, some communication, most of the maintenance droids - the virus is spreading since half an hour only.
Did we really time travel? For fucks sake, THIS is the new most bizarre experience in my Harry Potter records." The robot shook his head as he cautiously touched the wall.
"Oh look! No spontaneous subatomic chain-fusion reaction that annihilates the whole universe when things from two timelines interact. I just proved a whole department of theoretical physicists wrong! They will be wanting my head for that!" The robot shook his head again. "Are there any rules that we should follow to avoid to destroy the cosmos, awake ancient goods or stuff you deal with on a daily basis?"
"Don't create obvious paradoxes, don't get too close to your other self in your past and be sneaky in general," Harry listed, "and don't get killed."
"Ohhh it is so good that Magic has all these really exact and super logic terms and conditions written down with something so mundane like TIME TRAVELING!
What would happen if I cross one of these laws? Cosmic explosion or getting spanked really badly by Fate itself? I am ready to accept anything from you in this state." The robot really sounded sarcastic and more than a little frustrated.
"Paradoxes tend to create closed loops. I met that Russian overfucker who traveled back in time to try and spring a trap on me, only for him to accidentally and most stupidly shoot up his own cupboard where he had stored his time turner before. The moment the time turner was destroyed in his past his time traveling self just froze in place and after I waited for some hours he simply vanished from my timeline. Meanwhile I had casted so many spells and charms and runes on him that if by any coincidence he would return to a regular time flow somehow he would leave a very ugly exploding mess behind.
Getting too close to yourself makes you vomit." Harry was sure that if the helmet of his disguised robot would have had a mouth it would have hit the floor just now.
"Hey, don't let me down now! No short-circuiting during time travel! Honestly, it's only two hours, we have one hour before we even enter this ship. Time enough to go and find these rockets, do something and get back aboard to see us leave. Two hours is nothing! Time traveling beyond more than 24 hours is the really risky thing since even the slightest interferences stack up to do paradoxes beyond believe." Harry poked his robot friend until it shuddered and got a grip on itself.
"Leaving aside the logical impossibility of all this," the robot made an all encompassing gesture, "I have a plan."
They left the transport ship comparatively unnoticed. Everyone who saw them seemed to respect Harry's grey armor. Harry marched on as if he owned the place, getting directions from his robot in Stormtrooper armor who followed him via the now working communication connection in their helmets. Their act of importance was supported by the fact that all doors opened to them when they got near.
"Security inspection!" Harry shouted when they finally entered the weapons bay. He loved his new role and shouted as much as possible to anyone who came too close. He had inspected more than 20 helmets on their way already, several of the heavy battle drones, one slick and super shiny space vessel and some other rooms when they got lost for a couple of minutes, one of them an armor storage. Harry's bottomless pouch was full to the brim with loot. Sadly the weapons bay was fully automated and no one was available for another round of Harry's spontaneous inspection.
One the other hand this gave them ample time to prepare their operation "Tiny Hammer", creatively named by one Mr. Harry Potter, or as he referred to himself Commander Chaos.
"Harry, I think you have way too much fun doing this. We are trying to avoid the annihilation of two major cities and the deaths of thousands if not millions of people." Fluffy said.
"Yes we are, which should give us a certain positive vibe my young apprentice. And see here, I am already done shrinking the warheads. You will understand all this when you get older, Robin. Now let's get back to our Batmobile or should we place some itching powder in the imperators helmet first?" Harry tapped his chin pondering.
"Can you shrink a complete rocket from the storage over there, I would like to have it analysed once I have access to my core AI again." Fluffy nodded over to the storage and Harry shrinked two of them and stuck them onto the back of Fluffys armor. Fashionwise this gave the robot-trooper an even better intimidating look.
"Ok, can you sabotage the machinery somehow so that it cannot launch more than these two rockets?" Harry asked.
"Yes, I sealed the feeding lane for the warheads and vented the cores of the fusion drives. It would take at least a day or more to activate one of them again I guess. Until then the rockets will be very very slow. But there are more and other weapons and more compartments like this, so I think we will need to tackle this from another vector."
"Well said my dear apprentice, but for now let's mingle with the folks, I have some more shouting to do on our way back," Harry quipped. But just at that moment the machinery around them started to load the two freshly defused rockets in the launch tubes.
"Hmm maybe we should just apparate over and I do the shouting some other time." Harry mused, not willing to get out of his good mood.
.
One hijacked alien intruder vessel, some hundred stolen armors and dumping lot of naked people next to an active volcano in Island later, Harry and his robot were waiting for the report of the rocket impact on the Moon. It was a little anticlimactic when Fluffy announced that it had impacted with almost 0,2% of Lightspeed and left a new crater of almost 200 Meters radius on the already crater ridden surface of the Moon. Only one building was destroyed and nobody was injured. But the Moon population had made sure that the impact looked like a lot more damage had been done. The dust cloud they had blown up would obscure the view of the crater for days and the surrounding structures had switched off all outside lightsources to give the impression of a heavy strike.
In Birmingham there had been deaths.
The impact of the defused but still very fast missile on a summer market had caused 3 dead, 20 injured and a lot of negative attention towards the Stormtroopers and the alien dark lord. Even before the impact on the Moon there were the first battles between Muggles and Stormtroopers in the surroundings of the Battlecruiser in London. The heavy Phaser Canons of the Battlecruiser seemed to have a limited range in the earth atmosphere, so there soon was a lot of underground travel of families evacuating away from the Battleship and muggle soldiers traveling to it.
Harry and Fluffy were busy shrinking armors to Goblin size and packing them into the bottomless pouch while they watched the battle to unfold on the monitors of Harry's newest addition to his growing collection of magic proof transportation things. They had climbed into an earth orbit with their imperial troop transport ship.
~oo~
Here begins the interactive part of the story:
If the number of followers of this story is uneven at the next time I publish the next chapter (weekend, remember?) The galactic overlord will die a gruesome but nevertheless entertaining death, featuring a magic guitar and a rubber chicken. If the number is even it will be the most disappointing and nonsurprising death, much later in this story, like weeks away! Maybe something like "And then the white phoenix made the Imperator see his many wrongdoings and then he cried himself to death, alone under the vast emptyness of the unblinking stars, floating in space, alone, unforgiven ..." Or something! The same goes if I see any people trying to cheat by removing their following of the story to keep the total number of followers to their liking. I will monitor this very closely, everytime I sneak away to go to the restroom.