A/N. Thank you rainbow star, not only do I want to go there now but I will definitely use your location in the story.
Knocking on the Devil's Door
A red warning light and a flashing LCD screen abruptly halted all conversation within the Hawk, nine heads turned to the twenty-one inch monitor.
Sarge tapped the screen.
-MISSION READY-
LOCATION: PEDDINGTON. SOUTH ENGLAND. X: 4986 Y: 9822
TIME FRAME: 5 HOURS.
PRIMARY MISSION OBJECTIVES: SECURE PRISONERS. DESTROY ALL HOSTILE FORCES.
SECONDARY MISSION OBJECTIVES: DESTROY ALL ENEMY FORTIFICATIONS/EQUIPMENT.
MISSION RESTRICTIONS: KEEP PRISONERS ALIVE.
ESTIMATED THREAT LEVEL: HIGH. MAGICAL CITY. POSSIBLE TRAITOR MILITARY FORCES.
SATELITE IMAGRY:
An overhead satellite image followed along with additional data, in accordance to past and present satellite imagery the most probable location for the prisoners would be the largely rebuilt town hall in the middle of town, infrared scanning showed this center to have the largest amount of people. A thin wall with outposts stationed clearly showed up on the satellite, if they could read the small print on a newspaper on a cloudy day then they sure as hell would be able to see a wall. The last thing he checked was the ground statistics, soft soil.
JJ had stopped the Hawk in mid air just off the coast of Greenland. "Sarge?"
He thought for a moment, taking a quick look over things a second time. "Bring us to the hive. We'll pick up our pilot, and any additional equipment you may need. Stalker, you're our demolition man today; Bessy will dig a trench under the wall that you'll use to get in. You'll place charges at these locations." Sarge marked a couple dozen houses on the map. "I don't want anyone knowing you're there, Bessy you help make sure. Once you set the charges pick a location where you will not be caught by a blast. At that point Snipe will take out watchman around the walls, simultaneously set off the charges and we'll go in down this street burning the place to the ground. Snipe you pick off anyone you can from anywhere you want at stage two. Stage three we go into the hall and take care of things. Destroyer bring along a Sentinel. Questions?"
There were none, plans were never very concrete; the battle could change at any second after all.
Their stay at the Hive took five minutes, refuel, check equipment, put equipment on, simple as that.
"This the real thing boys eh lads?" The pilot asked.
"It is." Sarge replied.
"Then we'd better make sure they don't know you're coming." The Hawk took a sharp nosedive, the altitude falling dramatically to ten feet above see level, a wall of water erupting out from behind the screaming jet. With the speed of the actual jet the wall ended up being ten kilometers long and fifty feet high, a spectacular sight upon the calm, cold ocean water. "ETA fifteen minutes."
"Got it. Lets lock and load gents, you know the drill."
Clicks, hums, and wines echoed around the cabin as helmets were sealed and weapons were activated.
"Identification confirmed. Destroyer."
"Identification confirmed. Stalker."
"Identification confirmed. JJ."
"Identification confirmed. Snipe."
"Identification confirmed. Pyro."
"Identification confirmed. Joker."
"Identification confirmed. Bulldog."
Finally the most powerful weapon hummed to glorious life, the primary barrel chamber glowing blue for a second before powering down. "Identification confirmed. Sarge."
The eye piece visors glowed a dull green, night vision mode. Sarge's HUD flashed through his squad members, all at one hundred percent, nothing deployed in the field. With a minuet shift of his eyes and reading of wavelengths an overhead infrared map was brought up, their satellite was in place. Anything and everything that any of the squad wanted to know could be brought up on their HUD instantaneously, from deployables out in the field, to status of squad members, and if they wanted to they could download music free of charge.
The Hawk stopped two point five kilometers north west of Peddington, the pilot kept it covering a few feet above ground as the squad deployed within a few short seconds and began a sprint to their destination. Snipe veered off north after a solid kilometer, taking up position in an old farm almost directly north of the town. Getting comfortable on the barns roof he checked where the rest of the squad was before announcing. "Ready, taking out patrol." Two silenced shots were fired and kilometer away two bodies fell to the floor, holes the size of tennis balls blown through their heads.
As the two Death Eaters fell Bessy flared out her barbs and began vibrating, her head covered in blades she began to dig into the soil creating a tunnel that ran under the wall. Exodus crouched a hundred yards away, when Bessy was through Stalker ran for the tunnel diving in and in a crouched run made his way down the tunnel, nine years ago he would have been terrified, now he was comfortable and secure. He crawled out the other side, spotting Bessy going off into the dark, on Sarge's orders she was to meet him within ten minutes at a certain spot where neither would get caught by any of the soon to be explosions, somehow she had a very good sense of timing.
Stalker stalked the streets of Peddington, slapping black palm sized disks onto various buildings, eyes darting about, he was like a ghost in the shadows, easily mistaken for a trick of the light. He did run into a few unsuspecting Death Eaters, each time his darkened blade would come out and slice smoothly through flesh, a throat, a spinal cord, all utterly silent. He did not even stop to inspect his victim, he did not have to he was perfect, he knew the results, each swipe was precise, each motion calculated. By the time he had deployed his last gift to the town his blackened blade was slick with crimson blood, a mixture of color and textures most unsettling.
"Stalker and Bessy are in position." He said as Bessy came up behind him, her serrated spear like tail as dark as her red glowing eyes.
"Finished." Said Snipe as he took his final shot.
"Lets go to hell." One silent mental command from Sarge and they knocked on the devil's door.
The disks that Stalker had so generously spread out opened up their little vents and billowed a tasteless, odorless gas, three seconds later three shrill beeps sounded as two small prongs popped up and tiny spark of plasma passed between them. Each disk had enough power to easily destroy a small mansion; in this case, thirty of them blew up from the outside in, in an almost perfect circle towards the town hall. There was a reason they called them the Little Devils. Bessy took the liberty of going through the four houses between which they were hiding, she continued on through the fires, her scales burning red, the fire was like a drug to her, driving her into a mad frenzy, killing anything she did not recognize. Stalker took off back towards the squad, taking down a trio of Death Eaters along the way with his pistol.
At the other end of the city part of the wall disintegrated in a blue explosion of plasma, Sarge's BFG making a low drowning hum as it powered down and prepared another shot, the barrels still glowing a menacing light blue deep from within. They advanced down the street; fire burning around them, screams of the burning and dieing echoing through out the streets. Anyone they met was gunned down within a second, Joker would fire off high explosive grenades into anything that looked too whole, while Destroyer's mini-gun whirred mechanically, waiting for any fun surprises. Their eye visors glowed red, the targeting systems piercing the thick black smoke and bright red flames, they looked like daemons, unflinching, uncaring, advancing through what could best be described as hell made manifest. Stalker quickly joined them, custom high-powered pistol held at the ready, his pistol used the same technology as ASR-1, able to fire a variety of bullets with a power unmatched for something of its size. Bessy made her appearance once, blowing through a burning building she took a look at them, checking that they were all still there and doing okay before plowing through another building to continue on her rampage. Unseen and unheard Snipe made it clear to the large group of Death Eaters inside the town hall that showing your head outside was a mistake one would not live through.
Other then what appeared to be a couple werewolves the resistance to the town hall had been near non-existent.
When they finally got to the front door of the town hall Sarge simply blew a hole through it, later he would find parts of a few Death Eaters, one of Joker's concussion grenades followed. Stepping aside, Destroyer walked through and unleashed a hail of bullets on the spacious room; cutting through dozens upon dozens of death eaters while JJ prepped a Sentinel. Before anyone inside could even begin to regain their senses after the concussion grenade, or his assault, Destroyer baked out of the room and let JJ position the Sentinel. The group waiting outside for a moment while the Sentinel chattered away before going still, no more targets. JJ deactivated the Sentinel and Sarge led the way in.
Bulldog just changed up his ammo from long range to what he called Artist Ammo, given enough bodies he could easily paint an entire room red. Suddenly spells flew at them, the group ducked behind cover, while Joker and Pyro took out AKX assault rifles. The spells came from a hallway just in front of them.
"Bloody bastards, they'll pay for this!"
Sarge lunged, rolled and came up in a crouching position in the center of the room, firing a precise shot down the hall at the Death Eaters who didn't even have enough time to fully register his presence before they were engulfed in searing bolt of blue energy. Because human bodies are rather week when compared to metal or concrete the shot burned through the first few Death Eaters before finally exploding outwards in the direction of the shot on the fifth member.
"Bulldog with me. Joker, JJ, Pyro take the left. Destroyer, Stalker go right." Sarge ordered, making his way past the dead bodies.
Adrenaline pumped, and senses were on high. Bulldog showed off his painting technique on the first room they came to, a group of Death Eaters arguing on what to do. The tri-barrels thumped in quick succession one after the other, it was Bulldog's first on the job masterpiece, the first of many to come. They kept going; Sarge and Bulldog taking turns clearing out rooms, going down a flight of stairs they noticed the `resistance' to be less and less. A few wizards managed to get off a spell or two, but frightened, confused, and disoriented they went wide on the mark.
Joker, JJ, and Pyro flew through the corridors, all Joker had to do was lob a grenade inside and keep going, where he could Joker would stick his flamethrower through a door and liberally douse the room in scorching flame.
Destroyer and Stalker didn't even bother with opening doors, they were smart about things, using infrared imaging which rooms had people in them, if there were only one or two Stalker would fire a couple shots through the wall. If there were more then three, Destroyer would unload on the entire room and then calmly open the door to make sure nothing was still breathing.
In the end Sarge and Bulldog found the prisoners who seemed more scared of them then they were of their captors. Perhaps it was the tower killing machines with glowing red eyes, blood and grime covered armor, or perhaps it was the gunshots and screams of Death Eaters dieing in tortured agony that scared them, either way they were scared.
"Primary objective accomplished." Sarge informed the group, kicking a cell door with so much force that it shattered the lock.
"Follow me." He told the prisoners once they had opened up all the cells.
"Clear."
"Clear." Came the two responses.
"I don't see anything moving and Bessy is waiting in the lobby." Snipe informed the group.
"Affirmative Snipe, group up with the rest." Sarge told him.
Doing one final check Snipe jumped down from the roof and ran to join his squad.
When the group saw Bessy in the lobby they had to admit that she looked intimidating, glowing blood red eyes, blood covered barbs and scales, singed pieces of grime and dirt, and her scales had changed to a dark red color, all adding up to give her a look of a daemonic creature straight out of hell. Therefore it was not surprising that the prisoners latterly went white and shook in fear at the sight of her, what baffled them more was that the biggest of their saviors who held a large multi barreled gun actually came over and pet the monster.
"Love the look Bessy." Destroyer said warmly, patting her scales. "You are one hot lady, literally, anyone have some steak? We can make a barbeque." Destroyer joked around half serious.
"I'll take mine rare." Joker walked up and pet her too. "Hey she is hot, even through the gloves.
Soon enough all of Exodus was petting her, even Snipe did when he came in, curious to see what it felt like.
"You alright?" Sarge asked.
"Ya I'm perfect. I adapt to any environment, that's why I changed color and became so hot, it really feels nice actually." She explained, loving the attention, and loving the fact that she had literally scared the shit out of several prisoners.
Bulldog made it quite clear to the prisoners that they were to stay inside the room at all times or else Bessy would go find them.
Sarge reported on the progress of the mission. "This is Exodus. Primary and secondary objectives accomplished. Team status one hundred percent. Total mission durations since received one hour twenty-four minutes.
Request further orders."
"Hive confirms mission success. Hell of a job Exodus, congratulations." Responded Miller.
"Thank you sir."
"Keep the area secure, I'm coming down to explain things."
"Affirmative."
"By the way Sarge we have something to show you." Said Joker.
"Everyone keep the area secure, four points, the rest relax." Sarge ordered, following Joker.
On the way the Sentinel chattered for a second before going quiet again. "We found a room full of fire places, and well one of the wizards came out of it when we were clearing the room. We set up the Sentinel at the doorway, loaded it up with some extra ammo, should keep them from coming through. Do you want them taken out permanently?" He asked.
"Take them out." Sarge said packing up the Sentinel while Joker prepped his Hydra.
Eight grenades on a ten second timer took out all eight fire places and the room itself.
"Destroyer and Joker go through the building and take out any fire places you might find, make it thorough." Sarge ordered.
Ten minutes later any and all fireplaces were utterly demolished, to the point that the rooms they were in did not exist. The building was labeled secure once Bessy had gone through and checked for anything that they might have possibly missed.
Miller arrived half an hour later, the Hawk swirling the smoke and debris around as it settled down in a small clearing.
---
Miller had just played them a recording of his conversation with Dumbledore. "You think this Hermione could be the Hermione whose name I kept saying for the first few days after you found me?" Sarge asked hopefully.
"I don't know, it could be. Either way I would think it best for you to not say anything until we figure out who these people are and what is really going on, I don't want to give them anything that they could possibly use against us." Miller warned.
"Okay, everyone keep your helmets on at all times."
"Sure thing Sarge." The squad agreed.
"This is bullshit though." Pyro interrupted. "We do all the work, they'll come in smile and then decide whether we are good enough or not. On top of that we have to wait for a good three hours."
"I say we make them run through a couple of our own loops, see if they are good enough for us." Snipe suggested.
"What did you have in mind?" Sarge inquired.
"How about we let them come into the city, teach them some respect?"
"Not a bad idea. If anything it will give Miller some leverage."
Miller did not bother arguing or saying anything on the matter. He had realized not too long ago that he could never really order Exodus to do much of anything, they let him do it, and right now this was territory they had conquered and they alone would decide what went on there.
---
Professor Dumbledore, Ron Weasley, Nevielle Longbottom, Remus Lupin and Mad Eye Moody apparated as close as they could to Peddington, a distance of ten kilometers away. From that distance it was easy to see the still billowing black smoke on the bright horizon, tinged with a sort of black purple color. They flew cautiously towards the city on their brooms; the only living thing they could spot was someone moving towards them just outside the gate.
"Frank Miller." Dumbledore greeted surprised, landing down before him.
"Dumbledore." He replied warmly.
They shook hands and Dumbledore introduced the people along with him. "Ron Weasley, our chief man who leads us on many battles, Nevielle Longbottom, our herbologist and clever tactician, Remus Lupin who leads our special troops, and Mad Eye Moody, our veteran and one of my close personal friends."
Miller shook hands with each of them in turn.
"I must say that I am pleasantly surprised and astonished that you could take out this city within such a small amount of time, within six hours, it is nearly unheard of." Dumbledore congratulated.
"Not six hours. One hour twenty four minutes." Miller corrected proudly.
"How?" Ron asked, his tone was cold and disrespectful, biting into an apple.
"Easily. Now I must ask you to hand over any weapons and your…wands?"
"No." Ron stated with finality.
"You do not understand the situation young man. I am not asking you, Exodus is, saying no is not an option."
"Are you threatening me?"
"It is not a threat it is a condition." Miller replied. "Exodus can hear what you and I are saying right now, and I can receive instruction from them." Miller pointed to an earpiece. His eyebrows shot up ever so slightly. "Mr. Weasley please throw the apple you are holding upwards over your head."
Ron threw the apple over his head. At the apex of its climb upwards the apple exploded in the air. "Your weapons please."
Dumbledore gave Miller his wand. "Its okay." He said to the others.
Reluctantly they gave up their wands and followed Miller through the destroyed city in silence, bodies littered the ground, buildings lay burnt and destroyed, the city had been leveled to the ground. They followed Miller through the front entrance, no longer sizzling and burning away, Mad Eye spotted a figure waiting just beside the door on the other side but said nothing. Ron was the last to walk through the door, he barely got two feet through before the butt end of a shotgun smashed straight into his face, flipping him hard on the ground with a painful thud.
Bulldog cocked his shotgun. "Snipe doesn't miss, but I do. Be disrespectful again and you will regret it. That is a threat."
As much as he wanted to do or say something Ron was completely powerless, his nose was shattered and bleeding, and the man above him scared him more then an army of Death Eaters. He got up and swallowed a quick potion for simple physical healing, a potion that Neveille made by the liter.
Getting up Ron looked around the demolished room, bodies of Death Eaters lay strewn about like rag dolls, holes, blood and burn marks dotted the entire lobby, he doubted it was much different in the rest of the building. It was carnage, a vision of hell, and muggles had done it all…
Then suddenly voices, a group of around sixty prisoners ran in, weeping and cheering at the sight of Dumbledore and the Order.
"They're daemons Professor daemons." A woman cried, a look of utter terror on her face. He immediately saw what she was so scared of, seven men entered the room, powerfully built, armed and armored, he had never seen human beings like them before, the woman's description fit them perfectly.
"This is Exodus." Miller introduced.
They looked at them cautiously, and then Bessy made her entrance. There was no screaming, or crying, it simply turned quiet.
"Do not be scared of Bessy." Said one of the men, for some reason a shiver ran down Dumbledore's spine, he was not the biggest man, but the way he held himself, the way he talked, the aura around him said that He was the one in control here.
"I am Professor Dumbledore." Dumbledore extended his hand.
"Sarge." They shook hands, Dumbledore's hand felt weak and insignificant compared to the iron grip of the other's.
"We mean you no harm. There is a war going on and we had to be certain that you were not some kind of trick, that Miller could do what he said he could do."
"Was this a test?"
"Well, unfortunately yes." Dumbledore replied.
"It was an easy test."
"Please, allow us to get these people home." Dumbledore asked, looking around at the many witches and wizards.
Sarge was not a heartless killing machine, he had established his team's dominance, he saw truth in the old man's eyes, the fear in those around him, and now the game was over. Besides, somehow, deep down inside he knew to trust this man.
"Give them back their…wands is it?"
"Yes wands, we use them to cast magic." Remus Lupin spoke for the first time.
"Well, give them back."
Miller held out the wands and each member of the Order took their own.
"We have some questions we would like to ask." Miller said.
"Yes, likewise. I would ask you to come to Hogwarts, please." Dumbledore invited.
"What about this place?" Sarge asked.
"We will have people here shortly." Dumbledore replied.
"Okay, how do we get there?"
Dumbledore pulled out a half dozen handkerchiefs from his robes. "Hold one of these and you will be teleported to Hogwarts grounds."
Exodus took them skeptically. "Shouldn't I get a big one?" Destroyer asked, wondering if size had anything to do with it.
Once the handkerchiefs were passed around to everyone present Dumbledore muttered a quick spell and they were portkeyed to the Quidditch pitch at Hogwarts.
A/N. Hope you enjoyed that. The next chapter should be the one that you have all been waiting for, and the chapter after that.
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