The Prime Princess

Hermione looked at Oberon in the vast emptiness of the Void. Oberon was the size of a moon or even a little planet. Blue and blazing.

“We need pilots and gunners,” said Hermione thoughtfully as she looked at Oberon in his mighty magnificence. Major Draconis didn’t say a word. There was nothing to say. Calimea could have handled piloting some ships in the range but it did no good. She was not that advanced as Atlantis. And upgrades were forbidden for Calimea for running off with a prisoner.

Hermione turned around and looked at Draconis who was skimming through the data of the Ancients ships on the other side of the Void. They were so close of getting Oberon out of the Void.

“I need to go on board,” said Hermione firmly.

“You don’t have access codes,” told Draconis.

“Are you sure?” asked Hermione quizzically and tapped the keys on the dashboard to get a connection with Oberon. He didn’t respond. She tried again but Oberon stayed quiet.

“Fly her closer,” she said. Major shrugged his shoulders but guessed she had a plan or was just hatching it. As Calimea got closer, the bigger Oberon got. He just stretched out in front of them more and more when only Oberon filled their view. Draconis piloted Calimea towards the air-docks. Suddenly warning lights started to flash everywhere and Calimea’s subtle voice said that they were missile-locked. Over the sirens and howling klaxons Oberon’s majestic voice boomed.

“State your business or you’ll be shot down.”

Draconis was about to kill engines and put in a reverse to stop Calimea from coming any closer to the Hiveship but Hermione shook her head for a definite ‘No’.

“My name is Hermione Electra Rhiannon Ariston and I’m the Reaper. I demand a permission to come on board,” told Hermione in an icy tone. Then there was silence. It lasted a long time but neither Hermione or Draconis said anything.

“Permission granted,” said Oberon finally and Draconis let out a breath he’d been holding. Calimea had drifted close enough to the docks and Draconis guided her in.

Endless corridors. Few lights showed Hermione the way inside to the Oberon. Draconis had stayed on Calimea. He wasn’t too keen on going to a Hiveship. Hermione on the other hand had always wanted to know how one looked like. So far she’d seen only vastly long corridors with doors on either sides that were locked. Oberon had turned on the life support and gravity but the climate on the Hive was still quite cold and moist. She noticed frozen snow starting to melt away as she went deeper into the heart of Oberon. For a second she wondered if his twin Titania was just alike.

Finally she entered a dark hall that glistened from frost covering hundreds of thousands pods stacked upon each other. Rows after rows they raised under the ceiling. Tiny little lights ghosted the darkness with green and yellow spots.

So many, thought Hermione in awe. And soon to be food for Ancients or even worse – their slaves in war. She was just on the lowest deck of the Hive. There were many more halls like this with people in stasis, waiting when the threat was all over, to come alive again and start all over.

“Oberon, search for personal files of all of them,” she said and gave a wave in general at all the pod inhabitants. Oberon seemed to think about it. She figured he was looking through protocols to deny her request. But apparently Reapers among Walkers had high security authorization.

“Done,” said Oberon and even his animated voice sounded like he didn’t want her there.

“Look for all who possesses the skill to pilot a Glider or Stealth Fighter. Also look for gunners with quick reflexes and accuracy in shooting targets,” asked Hermione and while waiting, she looked around. She wondered if she’d found another copy of herself or of someone she knew. Maybe another Draco or Snape or even a Weasley. Yeah, Weasleys were a lot even without doppelgangers.

“Results have arrived,” announced Oberon. Hermione quickly calculated the size of the number needed to get the fleet up and running. 1000 Fighters and 600 Gliders needed at least 1600 pilots and 600 gunners, which meant about 2200 had to be released early from the sleep. Hermione ordered to select only the finest and if necessary add augmentation and upgrades into the process of awakening them.

Hermione was building an army.
***
Draco took a look over his army.

It was snowing and rising wind turned it into blizzard, making it impossible to see anything out there. The Chaser Nemesis Viggo closed the door of the changing-room and brushed off the snow from her green Slytherin suit. She looked worriedly at the team Draco had assembled and hoped it was the best choice ever. All the players were Hermione’s favorites but not the main characters on the pitch. The Keeper, Tristan Carter, was again glued to the pretty blond LaLey DeMarcus who had problems scoring when he was guarding the hoops.

Two absolutely crazy Beaters were laughing at something again and Sappho was trying to sing the team’s hymn but was too busy to laugh himself under the bench. Nemesis rolled her eyes and sat next to Cyrus Theron with whom she’d be stealing Quaffle from hufflepuffs. Cyrus glanced at her and the gothic look with stern coldness gave Nemesis the idea of merciless game to become. He was not the one to fool around. When Cyrus was on the field, then everyone else were trying to be anywhere else than on the same field with him. She would have wanted the Rosenbaum brothers with her but Draco had other plans.

“This is not an easy game against Hufflepuff! And don’t laugh, Sappho! Yes, the same blasted Hufflepuff beat Ravenclaw! And that’s bloody serious I tell ya. If you don’t stop giggling like a first year, I’ll put Vincent in your place!” threatened Draco and glared at the Beater, who just could stop himself. Both blond Beaters just cackled like madmen and Draco was running out of patience with those two.

“Oh, to Hell with it,” growled Draco and ordered Tristan to throw Sappho out into the snow where he could chill for a while. Then he looked at his Chasers. Yes, he could always rely on Nemesis and Cyrus but what about LaLey. She was this sweet and cute little hellcat who was so deeply, madly in love with Tristan. She couldn’t take her eyes off of him while she was supposed to score points.

This is the team Hermione would pick, I know that, but how is she keeping control over these lunatics, asked Draco from himself. Where the Hell is she anyway? With Blaise? With my Father? Argh!

“Alright, lets get this show on a roll!”
***
Hermione strode before her troops and gave a speech of fighting for the good. She did mention there was a possibility to die with glory in the fight with Ancients and that was an honorable death for each and one of them. She herself planned to take a Fighter and lead the attack. Ancients would never expect that, so she hoped. They’d have no time to call out their Destroyers when the attack had already taken down at least one or two of the Ancients Cruisers. The Mothership was a bit difficult to conquer just with Gliders and Fighters. She needed something bigger, something with more power. Well, Atlantis was one hell of a big battleship but Atlantis wasn’t there.

While Hermione kept talking about undying glory, honor and fame and the need to protect the weak ones, she thought about getting more power. Then she realized that she was standing on board of Oberon – gigantic Hiveship. He had weapons to defend his precious cargo… But Oberon’s A.I. had a different program from a battleship – Oberon would flee than fight. And that was a problem.

Hermione marched along the row and didn’t quite pay attention to the faces in front of her. She just wanted screw the emotion high enough to drive them mad to go into fight. Yes, she was helping them to die a bit quicker. To die for others. She wanted to feel guilty but couldn’t because it felt right thing to do. Morrigan had done the same but still she’d got killed. Not even Hel had been able to retrieve her wholly from death. Would it happen to her also?

Now really thinking about heroic death, she led the army to Calimea where everyone got a ship. Major Draconis came to her and looked standing next to her men getting ready to take off. It was a magnificent sight but it was taunted with death. Not all of them would return to Oberon.

“I must go,” said Hermione and was about to pull on her helmet when Major grabbed at her wrist. He opened his mouth but he had nothing to say. He couldn’t find right words or a way to tell her that he’d want her to stay behind, be safe with him.

“See you on the other side,” she told and kissed him for goodbye.
***
Both teams were in the air. Snowstorm was tossing players around in the blizzard but from blind luck Hufflepuff was leading 30 to 10. Draco was hovering above the pitch and tried to search the Snitch by sensing its magical current. Summerby was keeping an eye on him but the strong wind really tried to rip him off the sky.

Draco grinned to himself as he remembered a spell he’d been discovered while lurking in the Library. Taking out his wand, he cast the enchantment. A bubble suddenly surrounded him, blocking out the cold and icy wind with stinging snow.

“Yesss!” cried Draco, as he no longer suffered from hypothermia. He had a cozy environment while others where freezing stiff.

Now, lets see where this Snitch is, wondered Draco when his mind started to work again. Down below Luna was commenting that he was using means not allowed. Well, while she was whining, some professors really did look into the rulebook but found no rule to forbid that exact spell from using.

Smirking, Draco dashed into action and caught up with Justin Finch-Fletchley who swung his bat at him.

“No wonder you’re not Captain! You can’t distinguish Bludger from player!” sneered Draco and was satisfied when the hufflepuff started to yell after him and forgot about the Bludger that soon hit him across the head. Little Laura Madley was scurrying with Quaffle just right from him and Draco noticed incoming Cyrus. Like reading each other’s minds, Draco and Cyrus pinned little Laura between them. A hellish ride through the snowstorm led them to crash Laura into Hufflepuff’s goalhoops and Cyrus scoring 10 points.

Sappho and Cillian came yodeling some stupid song and hammered one of the Bludgers away from Draco who was trying to see through the snow covering everything. Somewhere near two Hufflepuff Chasers collided with Nemesis who screamed at them on top of her lunges. Yeah, things were going well. In some way.

Summerby was at his tail again. That guy never gave up on catching Malfoy spotting the Snitch to steal it from under his nose. Draco snorted.

But then again, the blizzard was so thick with whiteness, it was impossible to even see anything, thought Draco, so who’s going to tell what is going on. Draco rushed his broom next to Cillian who was singing duet with Sappho from The Phantom of the Opera. Cillian’s high-pitched voice scared half the hufflepuffs away as he took the part of Christine while Sappho was singing the part of the Phantom.

These two are crazy, figured Draco and lend a club from Cillian to strike the Bludger right at Summerby. From the snowstorm came a crash and soon Luna Lovegood screamed that Hufflepuff’s Seeker have fallen from the sky. People on the stands yelled, booed and whistled but Draco didn’t see them in the snow. Just wind howling around his comfortable bubble.

And suddenly there was a glimmer in the storm.
***
The Fleet took off with the Reaper in front. Major Draconis watched them breaching the thin wall of the Void and disappearing behind the infinite blackness. On screen he saw thousands of dots scurrying around the Cruisers and trying their chances with the Mothership. Lots of other dots appeared from Cruisers – Ancients Destroyers opened fire on them and before Majors eyes the dots started to vanish. They were shot down. Blown into pieces. There were so many Destroyers dashing over the screen taking down his fleet.

Draconis started to fear for Hermione when Calimea announced the death score of 56 after few minutes of full fire. Main targets – Cruisers – were still there but Calimea reported great damage on the two of them. The Mothership finally engaged into battle and opened fire on the tiny ships.

“Calimea, find Hermione,” asked Draconis and soon the image on the screen was zoomed in on one little dot. The data report running next to it told the craft had taken heavy fire and was leaking atmosphere and was shutting down in any minute.

“NO!” screamed Major Draconis. In front of his minds eye he saw Morrigan’s ship shot down and crashed to desert on a lifeless moon.

“No, it won’t happen again!” roared Draconis and started to prepare Calimea to exit from the Void.
***
Yes, the Golden Snitch! Finally! Draco dashed after it. Suddenly Summerby came out of nowhere and landed right in front of him.

“Oh no you don’t,” growled Draco and pushed next to him, nudging the damn hufflepuff out of his way.
***
Hermione chased after one of the Destroyers who was giving her Hell. She wanted to kill that bastard who had shot a hole through her Fighter. Finally she had lock-on and half a second later the Destroyer exploded. Then her engines died, leaving her drifting amongst derbies of other blown up crafts. The shield was holding up but it was fading.

Her wrecked Fighter slowly turned from inertial force for her to see one Cruise crumble like a cookie. Second one was burning inside out. The third was taking fire but its shield was holding. Hermione smirked. The fleet she had assembled was soon taking all the Cruisers down but the Mothership remained. Hermione checked the readings and calculated that she had only five-ten minutes to live. A long time to plan, a long time for something to go wrong.

And then she saw Calimea coming out of the Void. She targeted the Mothership with all the power she got. Hermione looked Calimea moving over her, seeing her beautiful belly littered with blinking lights. Hermione smiled as she followed her with her eyes.

Calimea advanced the Ancients Mothership, rapidly accelerating while taking direct hits. And then she exploded. Hermione watched in terror as pieces of Calimea were shattered over the space. There was no sound. Just blinding light that rolled over darkness followed by fireball blasting all the wreckages from its way.

“NO!” screamed Hermione as she braced herself for the impact of the blast wave. It hit her with such force that it burned off her shield, sending her craft into spin.
***
“YES!” shouted Draco, holding the struggling Snitch in his hand, while shoving a growling Summerby off of him with his boot.

“And Slytherin wins 210 to 80!”