A/N- Here's chapter 8, sorry for the wait.
Chapter 8- Traitor's Shadows
IC Era 6 year 14, May 8, Wizarding Britain
In just over a year, Lily Potter's private army had grown exponentially and had long since become known as the 'Red Lightning', a nickname that her private army made official, taking it as a source of pride. It even managed to assemble a small, motley fleet and airforce, anchored by the 12km long warship she'd managed to steal from the now non-existent Foxjager Command which was christened as the 'Mother's Touch'. They had gone after the Outer Heaven warlords, pirates and renegade commanders from the Empire and, as a result, were able to firmly establish themselves in several lands in The Magic Spewed Lands and The Conjured Lands.
Several days earlier, Lily and her private army received reports of disappearances and unusual activity occurring in Wizarding Britain. The reports stated that whoever was behind the disappearances was working with Gromgor. It seemed there were traitors in Wizarding Britain.
On the 8th of May, Lily and several soldiers had tracked some suspicious activity to an abandoned building in the middle of nowhere in the countryside of Britain.
They infiltrated the building via a hidden cellar, which appeared to contain unusual amounts of foods, metals and organic matter. They were unable to determine what the organic matter was, save that it was sealed in airtight glass containers, especially as it was too dark to see.
"What is happening here, Boss?" One of the soldiers following Lily asked quietly.
"I'm not sure. Let's move on. We might be able to get the answers we need then." Lily told the soldier in an equally quiet tone. Lily cast Lumos and they moved through the maze of corridors, still unsure of what the purpose of the materials behind them were.
Eluding or silencing guards on their way forward, Lily and the soldiers accompanying her began to feel dread and fear as they heard the rumble of machinery and the sizzle of metal being welded. In one container they found a number of small arms including submachine guns, machine guns, rifles and pistols and in another container, they found a number of Bazookas and Bazooka type weapons like the Panzerschreck, PIAT and disposable weapons like the Panzerfaust. It explained the metals they had previously found but not the food and organic materials. They knew that there was more to this secret facility and they had to keep searching. They moved forward, removing any troublesome patrols hindering their progress. They then came to a blast door, which had also been soundproofed and they found it suspicious. Lily unlocked the door with her wand and the door began to open.
The sight before Lily and her soldiers shocked and horrified them. For Lily, it brought back memories of Outer Heaven and the horrific practices they previously and she assumed that they still undertook. In a massive chamber, workers manufactured everything from pistols to massive tanks and artillery pieces which were made in highly efficient fashion. Elsewhere in the chamber, pregnant women, hooked up to IV lines, were chained up and made to give birth every few minutes or hours like clockwork. They gave birth to Orcs and humans and the new-borns would be inspected by men in sterile white overalls.
"Now we know what the food and organic matter is for." One of Lily's soldiers remarked.
"It still doesn't tell us the entire story though. I suggest we move on, before we're detected." Lily said before backing out of the chamber with her soldiers following.
They came across another blast door and found another chamber. This time, instead of factories and breeding stalls, it was a chamber dedicated to training and parading. It all seemed interconnected to at least a few other chambers as new soldiers were regularly walking through a number of doorways. Orc officers and Human mercenaries instructed the new soldiers regardless of whether they were children or adults in all aspects of combat and warfare including CQC, firearms training and tactics. It reminded Lily of some science fiction films she'd been shown sometime after her resurrection.
"What the hell is going on here?" one of her soldiers asked in bewilderment.
"It's a build up for war." Lily realised. "This has been over a decade in the making."
"It seems that we've just come across one facility among many. This is a growing army and they need a lot of space." Another one of Lily's soldiers said as he read an inscription, cut into a metal wall.
"There has to be a traitor in the Wizengamot, there's no they couldn't have noticed this." Lily said, alarm growing within her.
As the group moved away from the training chamber, a pair of guards came across them. The guards reacted immediately and shot dead one of Lily's soldiers on the spot then took cover and called for reinforcements. Lily and her remaining soldiers instinctively grasped the situation and ran further into the base as guards cut off their way back to the entrance. Bullets whizzed past them as more guards coalesced in an effort to either capture them or cut them down. Lily shielded them while her soldiers fired back at their pursuers although they increasingly found themselves running out of ways to escape. Sirens blared loudly as more of the secret base was alerted to the presence of Lily and her team of soldiers. Eventually, Lily and her soldiers were corned into a storage area where escape seemed impossible and within it contained machinery, hundreds or thousands of barrels of fuel, chemicals and other fluids as well as several cargo containers filled with raw metals. Like many of the other chambers, Blast doors were located at the entrance of the storage area. In an effort to buy some time, Lily shut the Blast doors and broke the controls that allowed them to open.
"Right, everyone, look for a way out of here. We won't have long." Lily ordered and her soldiers immediately got to work in searching for an escape route.
True to Lily's words, on the other side of the Blast door, the guards regrouped and assembled cutting equipment after failing to open the Blast doors using the control panel. They were itching for a firefight as they checked their ammo, gathered smoke and fragmentation grenades and even managed to manoeuvre a 15cm sIG 33 (schweres Infanterie Geschütz 33) into position at the entrance of the storage area. They all stood to attention when the Base's Commander arrived. "Attention men, the Boss has arrived. You are all to stand down for the time being until he gives the go-ahead to proceed with their destruction." The Base Commander informed his men with authority. He then added with some haste, "Cutting teams are to continue their efforts to get through the Blast doors." The cutting teams reacted with enthusiasm but the rest of the guards groaned at the forced delay. Their groans were silenced as the 'Boss' walked up to the Blast doors in dark, grey robes lined in white, gold and green trim. He was accompanied by a small, wheezing and conniving Night Goblin, who was holding a communications device similar to a tablet.
About half an hour later, Lily and her soldiers had finished searching for an escape route and had found an improbable one; a conveyor belt whose destination couldn't be seen. For the last ten minutes, Lily and her soldiers had moved heaven and earth to shield their escape route with a couple of the cargo containers and they carefully prepared firing positions using the other containers and the storage area's machinery. Their preparations were complete just in time as the guards had finally finished cutting through the Blast doors. Lily readied her wand while her soldiers readied their guns, anticipating a rush of enemies. They were surprised therefore when the Base Commander came through one of the holes in the doors under a white flag, accompanied by two of his lieutenants.
"Lily Potter, I presume?" The Base Commander asked with slight uncertainty.
"Yeah, what do you want?" Lily replied dismissively.
"It isn't what I want but my Boss wishes to speak with you. If it wasn't for him, I would've had no hesitations in capturing you and wiping out your team. We already killed one of them after all." The Base Commander said to Lily tauntingly but also with evident frustration in his voice. He and his two lieutenants stepped aside as the 'Boss' came through with his Night Goblin companion.
Lily's jaw almost dropped as she recognised the man in the dark, grey robes with the white, gold and green trim. "You! You're responsible for all this?"
"This and a whole lot more. You know, it was impressive that you managed to reflect my own stunner and those of two Aurors back at us all those years ago... and with little effort as well." the 'Boss' replied as though he was seeing an old friend again.
"Mr Roshford, I knew you were a pitiful man back then but why would you do this?" Lily asked as she felt her heart breaking for the Wizarding World and the prisoners and child soldiers held here and elsewhere.
"Oh Mrs Potter, I've been gearing up for this for decades. I was but a child when he found me..." Mr Roshford began before being interrupted.
"He?" Lily asked in confusion, which was quickly cleared up for her by the man opposite her.
"Samgon Gobsger, who else?" He replied sharply, in a manner like he felt she was an idiot. "My parents were members of the Church of Samgon. They helped run many other organisations such as The Heaven's Student Club and The Cult of the New Orc Gods. Anyway, as I was saying, my parents were members of the Church of Samgon and when he found me, we were forever grateful to meet him. My parents helped smuggle information to Samgon as well as rare materials known only to exist in the Wizarding World. One day, my parents arranged for me to have a playdate with some of Samgon's children. They must have known what was going to happen to them that day as when Samgon took me back home, Aurors had been guarding the house and there'd been signs of a huge fight. Your son arrested my parents and they'd been brought before the Wizengamot. They were executed shortly after a trial of only fifteen minutes."
"So, all this is because you have a grudge against my son?" Lily asked Mr Roshford, who rolled his eyes at her.
"Hardly." Mr Roshford replied dismissively. "It was, and still is, a war. My parents were caught up in it and I can't blame him for that. I can blame him for Samgon's death though and the near destruction of his dream however."
"What do you mean, near destruction of his dream?"
"Even you are by no doubts aware that the empire of Outer Heaven is splintering but there are those of us willing to make sure that the dream is realised. My partner can confirm this." Mr Roshford said, his voice dripping with silky, poisonous intent.
The Night Goblin moved forward and raised the tablet-like communications device and Lily looked on in righteous anger. "Hello Lily Potter. It sure has been a while since we last met." Gromgor Grimhide spoke from the other end of the communication. "As you can see, our plans are have reached an advanced stage. You cannot intervene." He then said with a confident growl.
"You don't know what the hell I'm capable of, Gromgor." Lily spat back defiantly.
"Oh Lily Potter, you forget I was around during your resurrection. I know you very well and what you can do. I also know that you're capable of helping me, even if you don't know it." Gromgor replied with absolute confidence.
"What?" Lily asked in horror and confusion.
"Do remember Foxjager Command?" Gromgor asked Lily. Lily was dumbfounded and remained silent after the question, allowing Gromgor to continue speaking. "Your actions allowed me to take over its territory and remove a troublesome thorn from my side and the best part is, you did it without any manipulation on my part."
"I'll be coming for you. I promise you." Lily said with a low growl after letting Gromgor's revelation sink in.
"I'm sure you will. You know, I'll be waiting." Gromgor said to Lily with a mocking chuckle. He then addressed Mr Roshford, "Marcuus, my friend. Deal with them as you see fit." The screen then turned off and the Night Goblin left with the device, leaving Mr Roshford to deal with Lily.
"If you surrender, Mrs Potter, I can assure you that you and your comrades will be very well treated." Mr Roshford said pleadingly.
"And if we don't?" Lily asked simply.
"Then you and your comrades will be subjected to extreme torture and you will all experience a fate worse than death." Mr Roshford told them, his tone changing from pleading to threatening.
"Well, in that case, I can say one thing to you." Lily said, her tone becoming increasingly cocky.
"What is that?" Mr Roshford asked, unsure of where the conversation was heading.
"You've never gone through the pain of giving birth. Once a woman's gone through that, torture seems remarkably bearable." She replied before firing off a sudden flurry of stunners, disarming charms and exploding hexes at Mr Roshford, who swatted them aside with ease. Mr Roshford then retreated through the gaps along with the Base Commander and his Lieutenants. Swarms of guards then poured through the gaps in the Blast doors firing at Lily and her soldiers. "Retreat, through the conveyor belt!" Lily ordered, shielding her team as best she could. Her soldiers moved to the conveyor belt, firing at the guards as they moved. Lily was the last one to get on the conveyor belt and she caused many barrels to fall onto the swarming guards with a blasting hex. With another blasting hex, she caused some of the guards to be doused in flames as some barrels exploded.
As Lily and her team rode the conveyor belt to its final destination, they were fired upon by more guards. They replied by shooting down many guards and even destroying equipment with grenades. It was frenetic but the conveyor belt deposited Lily and her team outside.
Over the loudspeakers, Mr Roshford addressed Lily, "Given the situation at the moment, I'd say we're both traitors to the Wizenmagot. Only of us has a kiss on sight order on us though."
"That son of a bitch." Lily swore loudly.
Before the guards could reengage them, Lily's team entered a pair of heavily armed, open topped vehicles which Lily then turned into a pair of Portkeys, allowing her team to reach safety. She then entered an empty tank and turned that into a portkey as well, allowing her to reach safety too.
A short while later, after the chaos had died down, Marcuus Roshford spoke with Gromgor, "Gromgor, they escaped. They turned a few vehicles into Portkeys. They cannot stop our plans though; they know not what it is."
"She'll make moves to counter any moves we might make but she'll stretch her band of rebels thin though. Pull the wool over their eyes for a little while longer while my forces get into position. Accelerate all your programs, we will have our power." Gromgor ordered Mr Roshford before ending the call.
Mr Roshford sat still for a few minutes before giving out new instructions for his own private army through a radio in the Base Commander's office, "Seek out the prisoners, the refugees and the dispossessed; they will all come to us. They will bear witness as the storm comes to all!"
A/N- I hope you've enjoyed this chapter and please review.
A/A/N- There are references to Orc Empire I as well as some of favourite movies. See if you can guess them all.