The Lightsaber
By: Tellemicus Sundance
#20: First Contact
Forbidden Forest
April 8, 1996
The eerie silence of the Forbidden Forest was broken by a strange, deafening thrumming sound. The collection of twenty Aurors on broomsticks, whose job had been to scout out the Centaur village and search for any potential ambushes and unknown dangers, had quickly noticed this strange noise as they neared the edge of the forest that bordered Hogwarts and were starting to spread out to begin their search patterns. This noise quickly drew them up short, uncertain what it was. Uncertainty in the Wizarding World was something akin to a prelude to a disaster, a calm before the storm, because it means that something mysterious and usually bad is about to happen or appear.
Just as the Auror captain was about to issue orders to his scouts to locate the source of the noise that actually sounded forebodingly similar to a Muggle aeroplane-craft (which had absolutely no business being in the Forbidden Forest!), a dark shape rose up over the trees just ahead them. The black thing was about a hundred meters away and very strangely shaped, almost insectoid with a flat face that had six glowing red eyes. Set into its jaw were a five distinctive 'fangs' that were arrayed quite unnaturally, four of them were paired together and pointed to opposing sides almost like whiskers while the remaining one pointed low and forward. Nestled under and slightly behind its face, there was a large cluster of some funnels and tubes that none of the purebloods or even halfbloods recognized. What was this thing and why was it coming straight at them?
Barking out orders, the Captain quickly decided to deal with this metallic creature the same way Wizards have always dealt with the new and unusual: kill it and send to the Unspeakable to be dissected at a later date. That being the case, the Aurors were fast to spread out, hoping to surround and bludgeon the thing with spell barrages. The creature, hissing and growling from the large glowing thing in its underbelly, drew to a stop with surprising ease and grace as the smaller, faster, and more numerous Wizards started circling it. Eventually, inevitably, the first spell was thrown. While the aim was true and the power of the spell was respectable, the creature suffered no noticeable damage as the spell hit a translucent, blue glowing sphere that had sprung to life around it.
While the Wizards were gawking in surprise and disbelief, the creature took that attack as the signal to retaliate. Those strangely angled fangs swung and moved into new positions and opened fire with loud cracking pops of machinegun fire. The surprise and fast response of this type of retaliation caught the Wizards flatfooted for a few moments too long, which had deadly results as six of them were hit by the bullets, two of them falling to their deaths and three killed outright from the shots.
Scared and angry, the Wizards reorganized and kept flying, trying to stay out of the guns' fields of fire. This was made even more difficult since the machineguns were mounted into swivels for higher arcs of fire and the creature was able to spin and rotate almost on a needle, tracking its targets relatively easily. Three of the Aurors collected together and unleashed a large wave of fire upon the thing. Though the fire was able to bypass that infuriating glowing shield, it did next to no damage beyond blackening the hull.
After they did that, the thing turned towards them. But rather than fire its guns at them, the funnels and tubes underneath its body burst to life. A series of small rockets shot forward at incredible speeds, several of them striking the Wizards before they could react and detonating explosively. Continuing its spin as the flames and corpses and body remains of the trio fell from the sky, more of those little rockets shot out, most missing their intended targets as the Wizards frantically tried to evade, most of the rockets were hitting the forest and trees with equal destructive force. In this chaos, the original twenty scouts that Minister Fudge had sent ahead were very quickly reduced to five in less than three minutes of fighting.
It wasn't until one of the Wizards suddenly got an idea that the battle took a decisive turn. Seeing how none of their spells could get through its shield, and yet its own physical weapons could do so, the Wizard had conjured and launched a large boulder straight at the beast. The boulder struck true, hitting it just behind the face, crushing the delicate electronic components contained therein and almost ripping it in two pieces. The thing went into a wild spin, all of its weapons firing uncontrollably as it tumbled out of the sky. Upon crashing to the forest floor, its own store of rockets, ammunition, and fuel backfired and sent the entire thing up in explosive flames, the explosion easily heard for miles around.
Sighing heavily, the surviving members of the scouts looked around one another before quickly turning tail and rushing back to Hogsmeade. If that was just a taste of what those damn horses had in store for them, they were woefully underequipped and dangerously outclassed. Regardless, the Minister and the Department Head would need to be informed of the situation as quickly as possible.
Hogwarts
"It's over…for now," Ron said, his eyes closed as he faced out towards the Forbidden Forest.
"That was…short," Hermione admitted, both surprised and worried. "I can't believe they were defeated so easily! Surely, with their weaponry, the magical technology should've held on for longer than this."
"What did you expect?" Draco asked from where he stood off to the side. "Magic will always triumph over technology."
Hermione glared at the Malfoy in annoyance but refused to reply, instead looking back towards Hogsmeade village. The three of them stood upon the balconies of the Seventh Floor of the North Tower, which had offered a perfect view of the battle that was taking place mere moments ago. And they weren't the only ones there. A large collection of students was gathering up there as well, attracted by the loud blasts of explosions and the battle as a whole, most of them being members of the 'secret society' against Umbridge that Hermione had created months ago out of the remains of the abandoned Defense Association.
"That's not what I saw, Draco," Ron remarked dryly, staring the Malfoy heir with a look of immense dislike. "I saw that black buzzard easily smashing through the Aurors and it would've won if it hadn't been for a lucky shot."
Draco snorted but made no other reply. Ever since he had come to the realization that he owed Ron a life debt, a true and genuine debt, he had struggled to come to terms with that fact ever since. Nowadays, he mostly just tried to ignore the Weasley boy as best he could, though he did make an effort to no longer try to pointlessly provoke a fight with him. Granted, this was also because he didn't want to accidentally reveal a few things about Ron and, by extension, himself, such as them being Sorcerers. But old habits tended to die hard.
"What's going on out there?" one of the younger students asked fearfully. "It's like war zone out there!"
"That's because it is!" someone else answered.
"Then, who's fighting who and why?"
"Those are some good questions," Hermione muttered, her mind abuzz with dozens of potential answers. But the most likely ones involved were Harry and Sirius's branch of their MagiTech project and the Ministry of Magic. If so, what had drawn them all the way up here in Scotland, so far from the Ministry and whenever Harry had set his base of operations? Why were they fighting now? And who else was or would get involved? And she knew that Harry was here, in the Forest out there beyond. Ron had sensed his arrival earlier and informed her. She really wished she could've gone out there to speak with her long lost friend, to catch up on what he's been doing and to show him all of what they'd built and accomplished in Hogwarts since his departure. But she wasn't foolish enough to enter a battlefield of this magnitude.
Seeing Ron beginning to lean forward as his hand dug into his pocket where he usually hid his lightsaber, Hermione reached over and firmly grabbed ahold of his shoulder, holding him in place as best she could. He glanced over at her in askance for a second before sighing and leaning back, trying to relax. Ron might've gotten a lot of new powers and abilities since becoming a Sorcerer, but he was still a hotheaded and impulsive teenager. If he really wanted to jump out there into the thick of the fighting to join his lost friend, Hermione knew she wouldn't be able to truly stop him. In fact, truth be told, she'd probably join him after only a few minutes…or seconds, depending on the situation.
Catching the byplay out of the corner of his eye, Draco rolled his eyes in annoyance. The pigheaded 'nobility' of Weasley and Granger's inability to not get involved were probably going to cause them some problems before this crisis was over. And he already knew that he wasn't going to enjoy it, whatever happened.
(Author's Note) Eh, like I said, a small update. But I figured something was better than none. Hopefully the next one will feature the first actual clash, if only the first few scenes of it. I hope you all enjoyed this little piece!
The HWP (Heavy Weapons Platform) is basically the HMP (Heavy Missile Platform) Droid Gunship from Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Season V. I just really liked that design for some reason.