Eowyn and the slaying of The Nazgul

Written for the Drabble challenge "Tolkien Done Modern."
By Ottis413
(Put together in a hurry, and not betaed, so please overlook errors, this was just for quick fun!)

Eowyn and the slaying of The Nazgul, and the passing of The King.
As it might have been if written by Tom Clancy.
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Merry was scared, he had been scared before, but not like this. It was all he could do to keep from throwing up, let alone watch the radar and IR displays in front of hin. What had he been thinking! Volunteering to be Eowyn's back seater when he didn't know anything about jet fighters, or electronic warfare. They had given him a 'crash corse' in threat assessment and electronic countermeasures. He couldn't remember anything they had taught hin right now! Watch for warning lights, and red dots on the screens in front of him, and hope Eowyn was as good a pilot as she had claimed to be.

They were skimming south-east at perilously low level over the uneven terrain of Anorien, and their jet fighter, never more than two hundred feet off the ground, jerked up and down to Eowyn's constant, and somewhat unskilled course adjustments....

Far over their heads, dozens of fighter aircraft raced toward Gondor, trying to distract the forces of Mordor away from Minas Tirith and into an air-to-air battle away from the city. Each side had airborne radar aircraft with which to control such a battle and so gain the advantage in a war which, though few yet knew it, had now reached a new level.

And I'm getting to take part, Eowyn thought. I'm finally doing something to make a difference! She'd had hundreds of hours in the simulator, but only about fifty hours soloing, in a trainer. But the instructors had said she was a natural. She wondered what they would say if they knew what she was doing now, fighting just to stay even with the other three fighters in the flight. Now knowing that she was about to prove or disprove their judgments.

Their small Rohirrim squadron was led by King Theoden and Eomer in the lead fighter, and was now passing over Duradan Forest and approaching their destination at just under mach one.

"Range to Minas Tireth is now sixteen miles," Eomer advised. "All on-board systems continue nominal. No radars are locked onto us. Looking good so far."

"Roger." Eowyn stammered, trying to make her voice sound more masculine as well as brave.

She pushing the stick forward as they passed over the crest of a small hill, then bottomed out at eighty feet over the north road leading almost straight toward Minas Tireth. Theoden was playing his game to the limit, drawing on years of experience in low-level attacks before becoming King. Their primary target was a formation of giant Southron armored vehicles approaching the city from the south.

Eowyn heard the alarm sound at the same instant that Merry cried out a missile warning, almost immediately she saw an explosion under Theoden's right wing witch buckled the control surfaces and flipped the fighter over on its side. Less then a second later a blinding flash told her that her aircraft had suffered the same fate as that of her Kings.

Merry had had one had on the ejection handle since they had left the runway in Rohan, and upon seeing the flash and feeling the shock through the fuselage he jerked the handle without thinking of waiting for permission from Eowyn.
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Eowyn pushed herself up off the ground and released her parachute harness, she shook her head to clear it before remembering what had just happened. She had seen Merry's parachute open after hers, and had seen the two others from Theoden's plane descending in the distance.

She immediately jumped to her feet and surveyed the land around her, they had landed in the middle of a battlefield that had since moved on, in the distance she saw the white towers of Minas Tireth, where the battle now raged. And to her horror, she saw a black helicopter with the markings of the lidless eye and a gray crown, one of the Nazgul. It was at that moment making its way toward the spot where Theoden's parachute had came down.

Frantically Eowyn started searching the battlefield around her. She knew what she wanted, they were common enough in modern warfare. Finally in an overturned command car she found what she had been seeking, a shoulder fired anti-aircraft missile.

Racing to a low rise overlooking the area, Eowyn raised the missile launcher and trained its two-element sight on the approaching helicopter. Her thumb went sideways and down on the activation switch as she nestled her cheekbone on the tube of the launcher. She was instantly rewarded with the warbling screech of the launcher's seeker unit. The Nazgul came from the east, just beyond missile range, for his first firing run. The black helicopter's nose was down, and he was training his sights on the area where Theoden lay. The helicopter was sideslipping right now, expanding around the inner ring of her sights. It was now in range. Eowyn punched the forward button with her left thumb, "uncaging" the missile and giving the infrared seeker-head its first look at the heat radiating from the helicopter's turboshaft engines. The sound being carried through her cheekbone and into her ear changed. The missile was now tracking the target. Unwittingly, the Nazgul had turned his aircraft, his jet exhaust aimed almost right at Eowyn as he confidently surveyed the battle field where Theoden's parachute had came to rest.

The missile screamed its readiness, but still she forced herself to be patient. When the helicopter was only a thousand yards off, Eowyn took a deep breath, elevated her sight, and whispered a brief prayer. The trigger was pulled almost of its own accord.

The launcher bucked in her hands as the rocket looped slightly upward before dropping down to home in on its' target. Eowyn's eyes were sharp enough to see it despite the almost invisible smoke trail it left behind. The missile deployed its maneuvering fins, and these moved a few fractions of a inch in obedience to the orders generated by its computer brain, a microchip the size of a thumbnail. The Nazgul had no time to react before the missile struck.

The missile ran directly into one of the engines and exploded. The helicopter was crippled instantly. The driveshaft for the tail rotor was cut, and it began spinning violently to the left while the Nazgul tried to autorotate the aircraft down, looking for a clear space while he brought the engine to idle, unloading his collective to control torque, locked his eyes on a flat space near his intended target, then cut his electrical power and activated the onboard fire extinguishing system.

Eowyn watched as the helicopter hit nose-down in the dirt. Surprisingly, it didn't burn as the aircraft came apart. The helicopter cartwheeled viciously, the tail whipping forward and over the nose before it came to rest on its side only about fifty yards from where Theoden lay. Eowyn raced down the hill with Merry limping along behind. It took only a few minutes for her to reach the fallen king and position herself between him and the wreckage as the Nazgul extracted himself from the ruined aircraft.

After he had righted himself and seen the figure standing before him, his cold voice rang out: 'Come not between the Nazgul and his prey! Or he will not kill you in your turn. He will bear you away to the houses of lamentation, beyond all darkness, where your flesh shall be devoured, and your shriveled mind left naked to the Lidless Eye.'

Eowyn raised an assault rifle that she had picked up as she ran. 'Do what you will; but I will stop you, if I can.'

'Stop me? You fool. No living man may hinder me!' The Nazgul dropped his black cloak and pistol belt, reviling the gleaming metal body beneath as he stepped toward her with clinched fists.

Then Merry heard of all sounds in that hour the strangest. Eowyn laughed, and her clear voice was like the ringing of steel. 'But no living man am I! I am a woman, and my name is Eowyn, Eomund's daughter. I stand between you and my lord and kin. Leave now! For man or machine, I will smite you, if you touch him.'

Amazement for a moment conquered Merry's fear. He opened his eyes and looked around him. There some paces from him lay the wreckage of the black helicopter, the Nazgul's cloak and pistol beside it, and nearby loomed the Nazgul like a shadow of despair. A little to the left facing them stood Eowyn. But she had removed her flight helmet, and her bright hair, released from its bonds, gleamed like pale gold upon her shoulders. Her eyes grey as the sea were hard and fell, and yet tears were on her cheek. An assault rifle in her hands, and she fought to hold her gaze against the horror of her enemy's eyes.

Into Merry's mind flashed the memory of Eowyn's face as she climbed into the cockpit in Dunharrow: the face of one that goes seeking death, having no hope. Pity and great wonder filled his heart, and suddenly the slow-kindled courage of his race awoke. He picked up the pistol that the Nazgul had let fall. She should not die, so fair, so desperate! At least she should not die alone, unaided.

The face of their enemy was not turned towards him, but still he moved carefully, dreading lest the deadly eyes should fall on him. Slowly, slowly he began to crawl forward; but the Black android, his malice intent upon the woman before him, heeded him no more than a worm in the mud.

Forward strode the Black robot, tall and threatening, towering above her. With a cry of hatred that stung the very ears like venom he swung his metal fist. She raised her left arm to block the swing and it was broken by the blow; she stumbled to her knees. He bent over her like a cloud, and his slitted eyes glowed red; he again raised his metal fist to kill.

But suddenly a shot rang out and he too stumbled forward with a cry like that of bitter pain, and his stroke went wide, driving into the ground. Merry had shot him with his own pistol from behind, unknown to Merry it had been loaded with mithril tipped bullets that sheared through the black metal skin like paper, piercing the cables and wires behind his mighty knee.

'Eowyn! Eowyn!' cried Merry. Then tottering, struggling up, with her last strength she fired into the slits that were his eyes as the great shoulders bowed before her. The metal skull shattered sparkling into many pieces. Eowyn rolled away from her fallen foe. A cry went up into the shuddering air, and faded to a shrill wailing, passing with the wind, a voice bodiless and thin that died, and was swallowed up, and was never heard again in that age of this world.

And there stood Meriadoc the hobbit holding the pistol of the slain Nazgul, blinking like an owl in the daylight, for tears blinded him; and through a mist he looked on Eowyn's fair face, as she lay and did not move; and he looked on the face of the king, fallen in the midst of his glory.

Then Merry stooped and lifted the King's hand to kiss it, and to his astonishment Theoden opened his eyes, and they were clear, and he spoke in a quiet, though laboured voice.

'Farewell, Master Holbytla!' he said. 'My body is broken. I go to my fathers. And even in their mighty company I shall not now be ashamed. A glad day, and a golden sunset!'

Merry could not speak, but wept anew. 'Forgive me, lord,' he said at last, 'if I broke your command, and yet I have done no more in your service than weep at our parting.'

The old king smiled. 'Don't grieve! All is forgiven. A great heart shell not be denied. Live now in blessedness; and when you sit in peace with your pipe, think of me! For never now shall I sit with you in Meduseld, as I promised, or listen to your herb-lore.' He closed his eyes, and Merry bowed beside him.