Title: Code of the Griffin
Author: Knife Hand
Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated
Spoilers: Nothing Specific, general for first few books.
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I do not own Hermione, or Luna, or Ginny, or Cho, or... I would buy them all but I am broke.
Summary: From a war ravaged future, someone is sent back in time to change the course of the war.
Sergeant Marie St Clair looked around, the world bathed in the green glow of her night-vision goggles, the weight of her gear comfortable on her body and her M-16 familiar in her hands. She looked around at her squad. Merlin, even now that was weird, her being in command of a squad. It was one a.m. and the squad were on patrol at the far edge of the Forbidden Forest.
Ever since Lovegood and Waters had attended the Centaur Clan Meeting, The Grand Marshall had increased the late-night patrols and stretched them further than before. A chill ran down Marie's spine and she held up her hand to stop the squad. The squad took up a loose defensive formation around her. A mocking laugh sounded from the trees, the kind that ran through everyone like nails on a chalkboard. A second laugh joined the first and then a shadow swooped down and grabbed Smithers, who screamed as he was jerked up into the trees.
"Vampires!" someone called.
Marie paused for a split second, in which two of her squad began blind firing into the trees. There was one thing that had been drilled into her in the leadership sessions led by the Lieutenants. Make decisions and give orders. It does not matter what the decisions and orders were, but nothing can undermine the moral of a unit like a leader who cannot make a decision.
"Close defensive circle. Wright, do your thing." Marie snapped.
Another shadow detached from the trees and made for two of the troopers and they were falling back into the close defensive circle. Marie and three other troopers opened fire around the shadow and managed to drive it off, but not before it slashed at the two troopers.
"Ten seconds." Wright called out, as two troopers went to retrieve the wounded troopers.
"Shield eyes." Marie ordered, casting directly upwards. "Lumos Solem."
A bright ball of sunlight appeared directly over the centre of the squad, causing the Vampires to hiss and back off, the troopers either having closed their eyes or pushed their night vision goggles up onto their foreheads at her warning. This allowed the wounded troopers to be pulled inside the circle and Wright, the squad's Combat Engineer, to finish his spell. Earthen walls rose out of the ground around the squad, and the floor beneath them sank.
Once the earth stopped moving, the walls were four foot thick and, on the outside, were shoulder high with slits lower down, and the Lumos Solem died. A second later the walls themselves and the gap above them was covered with a magical shield as the Troopers re-donned their night vision goggles. The shield was cast by one of the troopers rather than by Wright, who was tired from constructing the walls. Inside the bunker, with the shrunken floor, the firing slits were at chest to shoulder height, tapering in from a wide slot on the inner wall to just a slit on the outer wall.
"Miller, get working on the wounded." Marie ordered.
Private Miller, the younger sister of Sergeant Miller from First Platoon, looked across at Sergeant St Clair in slight disbelief. She was one of the Troopers who had been selected for medic training.
"Sarge, I've only had two lessons." Miller said.
"That's two more than the rest of us." Marie replied. "Get to work."
Marie looked around her troopers. With one dead, two wounded and Miller on healing duties, that was four of the ten taken out of the fight.
"Switch to incendiary ammo." Marie ordered. "But for Merlin's sake, watch your targets. You don't want to hit a friendly. Wright, get on the radio to Command. Call for reinforcements."
Marie ejected the current magazine from her M-16, putting it into a pouch in her vest, and pulled out another magazine marked with two bands of red tape. Having loaded the incendiary magazine, Marie took her place at one of the firing slits. Someone fired and must have hit a tree with highly flammable sap as it immediately went up in flames, casting shifting shadows over the entire area.
"Watch your fire." Marie ordered. "Controlled bursts. We don't want to burn the damned Forest down."
"Sarge, I spoke to the Staff Sergeant." Miller said, meaning Second Platoon's Staff Sergeant Kate West-Potter. "Reinforcements are on their way, ETA eighteen minutes."
Marie had to force herself not to swear. Of course it would be eighteen minutes, they were on the far side of the Forbidden Forest. Three minutes for the alert squads to gear up and fifteen minutes for them to traverse the distance and arrive in a condition to fight.
"Rider, transfer the shield to me. "Wright, start laying down traps. As many as you can without leaving the bunker." Marie said, drawing her wand. "Anything that will slow them down."
Rider waved his wand and so did Marie, transferring control of the bunker shield to her control. More bursts of gunfire sounded out at irregular intervals as troopers sighted targets, punctuated either by screams of pain from the Vampires or curses from the Order Troopers.
Marie was counting down the time to reinforcement arrival when she realised that several minutes had gone by without a shot being fired. That either meant the Vampires had left or they were planning something. Given how the patrol had been going so far, she was going to bet on planning something. A tingle ran through her and something made her look up. Three Vampires were in the branches above the bunker and as she looked they dropped, thinking to go through the gap above the walls. Unfortunately for the Vampires, the shield extended over the gap and was under Marie St Clair's personal control.
Marie shuddered from the magical recoil as the Vampires hit the Shield and it held them aloft. A second later she ran an electrical surge through the shield that shocked them, feeling her magic being seriously drained from the effort of holding up three adult Vampires. Shielding spells were not solid barriers, they were always permeable. Permeable to what, and in which direction, was determined by the spell used.
For Order Bunker Shields, they were fully permeable going out, to allow for spells and gunfire from the Order to exit, but from the outside the shields were only permeable to base atmospheric molecules, Oxygen; Hydrogen and Nitrogen, allowing the Order Troopers to breath during extended stays but not be vulnerable to chemical and biological attacks. While the Vampires were still recovering from the surprise of being stopped in mid-air and the electrical shock, they were shredded by incendiary round from four troopers, causing them to burst into flames and dissolve into ash.
Moments later the entire area seemed to brighten up with the rapid fire of three squads, consisting of Susan Bones' Squad; Jenifer Carter's Squad and Fred Weasley's Heavy Weapons Squad, led by Staff Sergeant West-Potter herself.
"Miller, stay with the wounded. Everyone else with me. Wright, when the line reaches us, open up the bunker and close it behind us." Marie ordered, transferring control of the shield to Miller.
The advancing line of Order Squads reached the bunker, Wright spread the earth from a section of the wall away and the six Troopers exited the bunker, which reformed behind them leaving only Miller and the two wounded troopers inside. Joining the line, Marie's Squad added their fire into the now retreating Vampires. Within minutes, all the Vampires were either dead or running for their un-lives.
"Report." Staff Sergeant West-Potter ordered.
Marie reported on her the events and her decision during the incident. Kate West-Potter looked around the combat area while Marie stood there nervously. She had lost one trooper and had two more wounded. That was not a good record for her first engagement as a Squad Leader.
"You did well, given the circumstances." West-Potter finally said. "The bunker was a good call. Gave you cover and time for us to get here."
"Thank you, Staff Sergeant." Marie replied.
"Bones, Weasley, escort St Clair's squad back to the Castle." Kate ordered. "Carter, have your squad create a perimeter while I inspect the site."
TBC…