Disclaimer: All characters, names, settings etc belong to their respective copyright holders, only much of the convoluted plot, Night Wolf and a few other things are of my own creation (but inspired from many things under copyright, which aren't mine).
Chapter 28
The set of screens showed the troop deployments around the outer walls of the factory. They had been hastily set up inside what used to be the meeting room of the factory which overlooked several parts of it.
It displayed the various UNIT and Night Wolf troops guarding the perimeter as the last of the trucks delivered their cargo via live video feeds. There were also computer layouts of the troops and where they were according to various movement detectors and other such devices.
General Lethbridge Stewart stared at them for a second before walking over to the glassed wall, the meeting room he was in over looked several of the huge freezer rooms.
The large factory had begun its transformation into a makeshift lab for the dissection of the dragons, before the battle had taken place although only with the provision for three, rather than 5 of the massive beasts.
Night Wolf Command still held the charred remains of Night Wolf's previous encounter, and that dragon was taking up quite a lot of room and lab time while it's inner workings and weaknesses were explored, Night Wolf Command had enough room for another dragon…but not three and definitely not 5, thus this site had been chosen.
The factory formerly the 'Icy Block Pty Factory' had been out of business since the world war II but had been acquired by the Ministry of Defence shortly after for storage of 'unknown' (which Lethbridge Stewart had learnt very quickly usually meant alien) artefacts and equipment which needed special conditions.
Following UNIT's inception it had fallen out of use and back into Defence hands, until now.
Lethbridge Stewart gazed out the window as the second truck backed in and the cranes were readied, the trucks were usually used for transporting mining size vehicles and logistically it was tricky at best moving the trucks with their 'unusual' cargo from Dover to his present location.
He still had a contingent of Night Wolf troops some barely out of their 'specialised' field training working with the regulars scouring the area where the final dragon had been destroyed by the RAF, it was found following the missile impact it 'broke up' on the way to the ground, and it was necessary to note and remove each piece…however the clean up crews were all busy clearing away evidence around Dover docks, and out at sea assisting the Royal Navy, Birmingham was assisting in correlating all of the clean up around the main attack site.
--//
Private Damon Janston walked through the scrub of grid 212 and planted another small dark blue flag next to a lump of…flesh…reptilian…dragon…
Damon had always wanted to be a part of UNIT, he'd practically walked in the front door…actually that was what he did do, and what's more they hadn't been surprised…they said an unnamed amount of troops were brought in and trained direct by UNIT rather than being armed forces regulars.
Then following several tests and experience in the field with UNIT he had been fas tracked (very quickly in his own opinion) into a more than top secret arm of UNIT…Night Wolf.
It was more than he ever imagined, aliens he could cope with, even the mysterious and albeit slightly annoying and hard to trust scientific advisor, who was supposedly the same person he could easily accept, aliens and all that was easy enough to accept…
But magic…that was something else, and now here he was, with an assortment of weapons on him, including the new S/K-1, and regular weapons, and orders to 'should any wand user's "appear" to observe and try not to get shot'.
But his and the other squads out here primary mission was to mark all the dragon…pieces for later removal.
As Damon moved onto grid 222 he saw a larger piece of the carcass, as he was making his way through the high over grown grass he heard a series of pops.
He threw himself to the ground dropping the flag he had in his hand and grabbing for his weapons, and radio.
"You sure this was place Tonks?" Damon heard a young man's voice.
"I'm sure, I got it out of the muggle's head, she saw a large dragon, it was definitely a Hungarian Horntail." The woman said, this 'Tonks' Damon assumed was a code name, or a nickname given the casualness in which the man referred to him as.
"You can almost smell the Dark Magic in the air…Bill have you found any curses on the head?"
Damon heard a man ask, Damon thought about poking his head up through the grass, but it would probably reveal his location, for now he thought it was best to stay low and concentrate on his breathing, shallow calm breaths, continue to monitor and collect as much information as possible, at least much of the dragon had already been removed to the secure location with the other dragon bodies.
"They definitely cast some heavy curses to control the dragon…Charlie, have you seen…"
"Yeah…I see, it through into the skull of the Horntail…" The second man…Charlie sounded similar to this Bill, it sounded almost a family resemblance. "What were they doing to her…it's…monstrous…" He sounded disgusted…
"That's what war is lad." The gruff man said once more.
"Can you track the curse Bill? The one that was used to control…or destroy the dragon…?" The woman, Tonks asked calmly.
"Yes…Moody, can you take the head back to HQ…I'll be able to pick apart the curses they used…we should be able to use a modified point me from there."
"I'll help you Moody…dragons can be…difficult…even in death." The man, Charlie said and then muttered. "Even deadly…I hope she took some of the bastards with her."
Damon laid low, listening to the crackle of the wand'rs magic for several minutes, there was a dull murmur coming from the men and the woman as they worked.
Damon could feel the air changing in consistency as the wand'rs worked. Reaching down he grabbed at his radio, just to check it, it fizzled in his hand and then…stopped. Just as he was looking down there was a BANG sound and it felt as though he were on an airplane for a moment as the air pressure shifted wildly.
Popping his ears he waited for a few minutes before carefully rising.
In the area where the portion of the carcass had been there was only a small circle of flattened grass.
Grabbing at his radio he found it had died, or shorted out…or….
"Affected by the wander's magic…" He muttered to himself and pulled out a flare gun and loaded it with an orange flare…
--//
Second Lieutenant James Bradfield walked back around 'his' tank, he was assisting in the move of a portion of the army's tanks from Operation Hare to Operation Fedora.
Double checking the treds once more it appeared they'd cleared all the dragon claws from it, it was something they would definitely need to investigate, especially if a long term assult encountering many of the beats were to ensue. While just a few of the claws didn't appear to do any damage, he'd had to use a diamond tipped saw to remove one of them.
Bradfield nodded to himself as he completed checking the treds, he would be accompanying the UNIT squads to Operation Fedora at an old M.O.D. site, a UNIT site now, according to the maps the army held it was a Top Secret site.
Though he reflected...there was a sudden pop which halted any more thoughts, a man in black judge's robes had appeared in front of him, he'd heard the UNIT guys talking…and then there had been the dragon bodies, the last of which was just being taken away…but, a man appearing out of thin air…the man turned to face him, he had a white mask on.
"Stupid muggles, now…." The voice sounded…cultured behind the mask, the man raised…a wooden stick…
Bradfield aimed his weapon at the man.
"Raise your hands, you are on a restricted military training site."
The man laughed amusedly.
"If you do not, I will be forced to open fire."
"Forced…indeed, what would a simple muggle such as yourself possibly do to me…" The man chuckled once more.
Bradfield squeezed the trigger, and just as he the gun was about to click launching the bullet he dropped it, not because he wanted, but because he suddenly, and impossibly felt extreme pain, inexplicable pain, it felt as though his blood were boiling…had he listened, he would have heard the man mutter softly a word….
Then it stopped, he fell to the ground, grappling for his weapon.
"Don't do that…now…" Bradfield could hear his blood pulsing in his ears, thumping, he stranded to hear the man, butt he felt the wooden stick be pressed to his head. "Ledgillmens…"
In some corner of his brain he realised felt someone shuffle through his head…it was like that time he'd been forced into the infirmary after he'd been out in Edinburgh…someone had spiked his drink…or several…it was like he wasn't there…like someone was talking, searching for something.
He felt…or maybe saw…or heard…it was like something far beyond yet close…words 'Where are the dragons?' 'Where are the Death Eaters?', 'Where are the giants?' 'Where have you taken the dragons?'. But it didn't all come like that it was more…and then it was less, like someone was walking around in his mind swinging a cricket bat. It felt like someone wanted something…looking for directions…
Bradfield searched, grabbing at his radio, trying to hit the emergency button, while trying to keep the man distracted…doing whatever he was doing.
The emergency portion of the radio was shielded against EMP and various other attacks, and Bradfield hoped it would do something as the man prodded his head harder and he felt unable to move or stop the intruision into his mind and to try and stop himself from screaming as the pressure in his head
Brimingham looked up at one of the computer screens, it was flashing 'Emergency Radio Signal Activated', giving a set of coordinates.
"We have a ERS in sector 6…"
"Received Alpha One."
Birmingham looked over at the other screens showing the progress of the trucks carrying the dragons to 'Operation Fedora' as the army had designated it.
Outside there was a thump against the side of the mobile HQ and Birmingham was already moving towards the door, he knew the sound of an Avada Kedavra which missed its target, impacting on the reinforced outside of the mobile HQ.
Outside, Birmingham was slightly relieved it didn't look like there was a fully fledged fire fight going on, but there were some Death Eaters walking around.
He un-holstered his S/K-1 flicking it over to the Kill setting.
Moving carefully throughout he shot down two, shorter death eaters and followed the screams.
Bradfield couldn't stop screaming, the pressure, the pain and whatever else was happening he couldn't stop…and then it stopped.
The man was chuckling again.
"So, the muggles have moved the dragons…not so simple after all…" He seemed to be talking to himself.
Bradfield couldn't see…he was quite sure it was the blood running from his eye sockets, but he still had has hand on the gun, he raised it, pointing in the direction of the man's voice.
He emptied a full clip into the man before collapsing, leaning against his tank.
Birmingham watched as a man limped towards a cliff top, gazing between the man and where he had heard the screams, which had stopped quite suddenly he elected to follow the man.
Concentrating for a moment he holstered his weapon and stood palms up, muttering and concentrating he shimmered for a moment and disappeared from view.
The spell was affective as a spying tool, but would only last 20 minutes at the most, especially without any focus or anything to merge with the spell.
Birmingham watched following quietly as the man ripped off his mask, Lucius Malfoy, he realised, who had two head wounds was cursing in three languages in quick succession.
Lucius Malfoy cursed in three different languages, the muggle had fired some sort of…cannon into his body, he felt at the holes in his robes, he had been shot several times…he would definitely need a healer…the pain however was bearable, concentrating he disappeared with a pop, reappearing on a cliff top, cringing against the pain in his upper thigh he dropped to one knee.
"Well Lucius?"
"The muggles have the dragons, I have the location."
"Very well…withdraw the others…I wish to remove the dragons before they are defiled."
"Yes Master." Malfoy rose nearly collapsing, watching his Lord disapparate.
"Mors Morde."
Birmingham gazed up as a glowing skull formed into the early day sky.
It looked…quite ineffectual, given the relatively sunny day, in fact it was being washed out by much of the sun and just looked like a bad fireworks display.
There were a sound of pops around the site as the death eaters disappeared.
"Orange flare sighted in Grid 222."
"Investigate, take a squad, Alpha One out."
Birmingham made his way back towards where he had heard the screams, shaking off his spell as he walked.
"You're going to have company Brigadier…" He muttered to himself.
--//
Lethbridge Stewart regarded the troops placed around the perimeter of the fence, as well as the inner courtyard, the tanks taking their defensive positions having just been moved off the trucks.
He'd received Birmingham's information a couple of hours ago, both the information over heard by Private Janston and by Birmingham himself.
The best thing they could do was bolster their location and fight away the attackers, he wasn't letting the dragons go to Voldemort's troops, and who ever the first wave of troops were, they sounded like Harry's Order of the Phoenix, but until they attacked, if that was what they were going to do, they would need to wait an see.
Voldemort's Death Eaters were more of a problem, but he wasn't going to fall back an allow them to take the dragons, they were too much a curiosity and a resource to simply be abandoned.
The only thing which was slightly worrying from a tactical perspective was their lack of magical jamming support, there were 6 available to them, which were currently maintaining a close perimeter around the building, and even with those 6 they were running at half the efficiency, with most likely some blind spots, some had been damaged in the previous night's battles, others were back at Night Wolf being repaired, the ones he had were the 'not too damaged' ones, or those that had been repaired on the way to his current location.
Tucking on his tactical vest he grabbed a small hand held computer and made his way out of the command centre, it was being run by a trained crew from UNIT HQ, from Bambera's own command who were experts in micromanagement and planning of operations. Lethbridge Stewart could sense it just by being in the room with them, the small gestures the looks, this team had been in field away from command, yet could manage large groups simply and with ease.
He nodded to the men on the door which was quickly sealed up as he walked out, he needed to be out in the field, outside of the building for this, they would need all personnel on the ground who were familiar with all the players and their tools in the coming battle.
Not all the troops here were from Night Wolf, many of them were regulars, who despite fighting with them on the Dover Assault, or 'Operation Hare' hadn't had the training to develop the innate sense to detect and battle wand users.
He'd conferred with Birmingham and they'd decided that the most logical time for both parties to mount their attack was night.
The Death Eaters typically attacked at night, though considering their attack at Dover that wasn't always the case.
Looking around Lethbridge Stewart paused for a smile, while it wasn't a large force, they could surely beat back the wand users and make them think twice about the people that they so casually rape of thoughts.
There were four tanks positioned roughly half way into the perimeter in near the corners of the large warehouse, each challenger had a quarter of the area to cover.
Troops were placed around patrolling, waiting for the inevitable battle, just when and how was a mystery.
Lethbridge Stewart was thankful that this factory was situated inside an undeveloped estate also held by the M.O.D. The surrounding township had been warned that there was to be a 'bomb disposal squad' removing spent ammunitions from the estate.
It wasn't an unlikely cover story, but it wasn't the best, considering they had four very powerful tanks around, but with many of their research people on the dragon research and UNIT and Night Wolf's 'facilitators' working on plausible cover stories for the battle in London, Dover plus the various townships around the outer counties, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands which had some sort of battle damage, or fire fights which had broken out in the past 48 or so hours, it was the best they could do.
With this war as that was what it was starting to turn into going on with the intensity it was, they would need to start drafting more troops from the regular army, just to keep back the evil, and halt the panic.
That was part of the reason why he hadn't insisted Harry take a squad with him…he had faith in Harry that he knew what he was doing, under the sarcastic and mildly laid back personality was a determined young man who knew what he needed to do.
Lethbridge Stewart checked his computer, 1 hour 56 minutes to sundown.
Walking through the troops acknowledging their salutes he checked and rechecked his weapons.
The army troops had theirs, the Night Wolf troops that were present had their own.
They didn't have enough, nor the time to train the army troops, and bullets would just as easily kill a wand user, after all wand user's didn't come with bullet proof armour and even if they did, concentrated fire would win out.
Lethbridge Stewart had clipped to the front of his tactical vest a P90, he had a great many clips of ammunition, his S/K-1 by his hip, along with a hand gun, his pistol from the old days had been retired to his office.
The S/K-1 was set, for the moment to Stun, he'd had a brief meeting with his own Night Wolf troops at the possibility of the Order of the Phoenix people turning up. He'd contacted Bambera to try see if Harry out of the woods, but he had yet to awaken, so he couldn't get confirmation that these were definitely Phoenix people.
But, and Birmingham had agreed that, at least in theory they were fighting the Death Eaters, and Harry might not be very happy should they shoot down half a dozen of his friends.
That said, if they came, they would be entering a secure area, and while they would take care, there were plenty of troops which had only been briefed in what they needed to know.
Slipping the radio earpiece into his ear he activated the mic.
"Report all sectors." Lethbridge Stewart glanced toward the horizon, the sun was very slowly sinking below as the Earth rotated and they moved away from the sun's gaze.
"Sector 1 clear."
"Sector 2 all clear."
"Sector 3 clear."
"Sector 4 nothing to report."
It was just as twilight sunk into night that he saw it, a sudden flash of swirling light just, in the shadow cast by the lights of one of the tanks in sector 3.
He could feel the air change consistency, the slight buzz caused by a wand'r using their magic to detect, in that sector it was mainly army troops also, the Night Wolf troops there would have no doubt…
"Sector 3 to command…"
"I've got it Sector 3, Greyhound Leader to Night Wolf troops in sector 2, 3 and 4, converge on challenge tank."
Lethbridge Stewart un-holstered his weapon and ran up joining the few Night Wolf troops, he gestured to them using simply hand commands to form a half circle to storm them, monitor, then stun.
They all knew extra information gained could be useful, be it from the enemy or…who ever these people were.
Lethbridge Stewart crept around the front of the tank, he would face them front on.
"Ow…Bill, Moody? Are you sure you charmed the port key properly?" Muttered a woman's voice, she sounded agitated.
"Of course Tonks, I tracked it here…Moody you charmed the portkey…"
"That I did lad…and you didn't want to port key into whatever Death Eater stronghold, I set us a dozen or so feet away from the location Bill got." Lethbridge Stewart could tell that this voice was the 'Moody' that Private Janston had over heard, this man he would need to shoot first.
"I can smell the dragons…they probably all dead…if they were being kept we'd be able to hear them." A younger voice said gravely.
"We've still got to get in, make sure that the Death Eaters aren't using the dragon's bodies for anything, we haven't had any reports of Necromancy, but Voldemort would still be able to do a lot with the dragon body parts…" Moody again, Lethbridge Stewart noted.
"Yeah and kit out his troops in dragon hide." The younger woman 'Tonks'.
"Moody can you see anything?"
"No…Bill…Voldemort must have cast a diffusion charm…that's another reason why we shouldn't attempt to apparate in…you'll end up splinched into over 10 pieces."
"I only suggested it." The Tonks woman exclaimed.
Lethbridge Stewart nodded to the man next to him who crouched away, he counted to 10 whilst listening.
"We should get moving, any longer and we risk detection, even if the Death Eaters are half awake they'll no doubt make patrols, if they're holding even one dragon."
Lethbridge Stewart stepped out.
"I think you'll find you've been detected." He said and shot the man with the scars, false eye and leg, he crumpled to the ground in a heap as the light quickly shot from his S/K-1 to the man.
There was a rush of activity and then the 4 wizards were surrounded by 8 trained UNIT Night Wolf personnel, all pointing weapons at them.
The three remain grabbed for their wands.
"Don't." Lethbridge Stewart simply said.
"You're muggles!" One of the red heads exclaimed.
"You're not going in…we have everything under control." General Lethbridge Stewart said sternly gazing at them, the younger red head stared at him.
"You don't understand…bad…bad men are coming…they'll…"
"Bill!" The other man red head hissed at him.
"Force sighted, making way on foot, eta 5 minutes."
"We don't have time for you…we won't snap your wands, a sign of good faith, don't come back." He nodded and three of the Night Wolf troops opened fire.
"Stun the older man again. Move them to the outer limits, secure them, make sure their wands are out of reach, we don't need them coming back whilst we've got Voldemort to deal with."
"Sir."
"Return to your positions."
"Greyhound to command centre, Phoenix neutralised."
"Noted Greyhound, enemy in bound, eta 3 minutes and counting, approaching along main drive."
"All troops to alert status, standby for main assault."
Around him he could hear tanks revving up ready for the assault, taking aim from via the coordinates being fed out from the command centre.
Lethbridge Stewart made his way to one of the shallow bunkers which had been set up, only one step up from a set of sand bags but lined with a concoction which would absorb many spells thrown their way.
Looking over towards the main gates he could make out a single figure leading a small group.
The he realised the fog rolling in despite the warm night, the cold chill that had come out of no where, the tempreture was falling, and it had nothing to do with a simple spell that the wand'rs were using.
"Forward teams switch to tracer rounds, fire on the cloaked figures leading assault. All Night Wolf teams, Demmentors in bound."
As the Dementors approached the gates to factory they were blasted open by a curse from behind them, the gates opened slightly, another curse shot out melting them down to slag before freezing the white hot metal to the concrete below.
The Dementors made their way forwards, Voldemort had brought 8 of them…the muggles would have no defence, and the Dementors enjoyed the innocence of a muggle to feast upon.
As the cloaked figures passed the firing threshold, several bullets ripped through their cloak, fired by some of the British army's and Night Wolf's best.
The army were too consumed with taking out the…whatever to be astounded that the figures took several bullets without slowing, but following more…simply screamed into fire…
The scream of the cloaked figure permiated their minds…but that just made the troops more determined to destroy the rest, firing round after round into them, eager to end to freezing mist that was slowly surrounding them.
Lethbridge Stewart pulled out a set of binoculars, the destruction of the Demmentors appeared to be giving Voldemort pause to think, but he saw him motion and the some of the group disappeared while the others strode onwards.
"Assault on rear of building." Said the calm voice from the command centre.
"All Challengers open fire, all troops open fire." Lethbridge Stewart barked grabbing for his own P90 and looked through the scope.
There were dull thuds and explosions from behind them as the challengers opened fire on the Death Eaters that were approaching.
In front of him Lethbridge Stewart watched with a satisfied sense of amusement as the Death Eaters struggled to say their spells as faster than speech ammunition was fired at them.
Some of the bullets were even being deflected, into the tanks or the ground, their decreased velocity harming no one.
More spells were flung towards them and the building as the group of Death Eaters pushed their way forwards, many of their number collapsed on the ground as their leader fell back, surrounding himself with his followers as they pushed forwards.
"Energy drain on jamming field, attempted breach in progress."
Lethbridge Stewart muttered something to himself as he again tried to shoot down the central figure in all of this, the remaining group had managed to push past the first line of defence, it was now down to the on the ground troops, the tanks couldn't fire without risk of hitting the ground troops.
Lethbridge Stewart wanted to kill Voldemort, despite what the prophecy said, even if he couldn't kill he could wound.
"All squads sector 1 and 2, concentrated fire on central figure. On my mark…" The sound of bullet fire died down for a moment and the group of death eaters rushed forward, but their haste left large gaps in their protection of Voldemort in the circle.
"Mark!" Lethbridge Stewart shouted. Around him all the troops opened fire through any available hole at the central figure.
Bullets ripped out, smashing knee caps, shoulder blades, smashing ribs and puncturing several major organs, after concentrated fire of 2 minutes the central figure collapsed with a hiss of anguish, there was a sudden turn of the group who started firing spells…and then they disappeared in a swirl of light.
"Sector 3 and 4, enemy has withdrawn."
"All squads, scout all sectors and outer perimeter for any enemies."
A deafening silence now reigned, aside from the extremely dull hum of the magical jammers, the engines of the tanks now part of the background noise.
"Report, casualties?"
"Sector 1…and 2…no casualties, request move injured within building."
"Granted, move all injured with main building."
"Sector 3, nill casualties sir…"
"Sector 4 2 men require immediate attention."
Lethbridge Stewart recognised the voice as not one of his troops, and it was slightly panicked…
"Night Wolf field medics to Sector 4."
"Confirmed Greyhound Leader."
--//
Well there it is, the chapter many people requested, the meeting / battle between Night Wolf, Voldemort and the Order of the Phoenix.
Thanks for reading.