U.N.I.T. HQ UK

Location Classified

"Lieutnenant McShane! Lieutenant, we've got a situation. There are casualty reports coming from all over. The reunion's been hit as well." The private stood outside the command room, looking nervous, he had run all the way from the comms room three floors below.

Ace stood up from behind her desk, "I know." She had just turned off the radio before the private barged in, but she wanted to keep an air of mystery. She had learned from the best. The private looked stunned. "I want all available forces on full tactical alert, we need to be able to move asap. Get me a line direct to General Davies in Geneva. I'll probably need to talk to the minister, which one have we got this week? Lambert or something like that, get her on the line too. We'll need her clearance before mobilising. Get the field medics ready, Sullivan and that American, Holloway should be in the med-bay, get them up to speed and ready to go five minutes ago private."

Private Eccleston was new to the job, Ace knew it, but she had faith in him. She had to. She picked up the phone as it started ringing, "Yes General, we'll be ready to roll as soon as the clearance is given by the MOD. Yes sir, we can be in London, in fifteen, with or without traffc on the M25. Yes sir, I know. I'll get them out." She put the phone down, Ace liked Davies, he backed down from no one and said exactly what was on his mind. A rare quality in some military bigwigs these days. The phone rang again, she picked it up once more. "Ms Lambert, thankyou for responding so quickly.. No at the moment we are not sure of the reason for the attack, but it seems clear that we are the targets. No there is no indication as to who, or what is behind it, but we will find out. Thankyou, yes we will keep you updated." Ace immediately hit the tannoy switch. "We have clearance. All units condition Red. This is not a drill, we are heading for London, maximum levels of security, we don't know who we'll be facing, or even what we'll be facing. Move people." Outside the door of her office she could hear booted feet running, "God I love my job sometimes". She herself began walking to the garage, but at Ace's normal walking pace, she found she was still overtaking some of the slower men.

The garage was ablaze with lights as soldiers were packing for war. Grenade and rocket launcers, e.m. pulse rifles, gold guns, and lots and lots of armour piercing bullets. Sir, your staff car is ready." Ace had to smile to herself whenever private Bambera called her sir. Ace got into the car and it got moving almost immediately. A convoy formed behind it as all the vehicles began moving towards the distant lights of London.

"OK, we're clear, hit it." Ace loved this bit. The driver of the staff car pressed a button on the dashboard and suddenly they were driving forwards in speeds in excess of 240 mph. The tech boys had only recently managed to work Bessie out, but once they had, it was pretty easy for them to add her enhancements to all unit vehicles. London, just became a hell of a lot closer.

They arrived at the blast site in record time. The emergency services were quickly drafted in to help out, but they were under no illusions, this was a UNIT operation. "Have we got anyone out yet?" yelled Ace to one of the paramedics, he nodded and motioned to her to come over. Ace practically ran to him, and saw on the stretcher, General Benton, bruised and battered, but still conscious and struggling to get up. On another stretcher just feet away, a motionless figure lay, covered in a blanket. Ace stepped over and pulled the cover away. Sgt Grade, she couldn't have said she liked him, but even he didn't deserve this. He had been on guard duty, hadn't done his job obviously. But Ace put thoughts like that to the back of her mind as she focussed on the job in hand. "Sullivan! You know this man, calm him down, we're doing everything we can, he's in no condition to help out." Harry ran over and took one look at Benton, and the General, who outranked him several times over, resignedly gave up the struggle.

"Right, I want search and rescue teams formed and in there now! I want three squads to secure the immediate area, and trust me, if I see one camera within 100 meters of me, I'll have the balls of the man who let it happen." Ace watched as the men scurried to do her bidding, she would have smiled but there were more pressing things on her mind right now. "What the hell?" Ace turned as she heard a car screech to a stop, just feet away from her. But before she could shout at anyone a woman jumped out of the car with what looked like a robotic dog, of all things.

"K9, any lifesigns?" Tegan asked.

"I am detecting 138 human lifesigns within the building, some however are very weak." K9 was motionless, with his antenna protruding from the front of his snout. "I am also detecting residuals from the explosive device."

"What did that thing say? You can detect the explosive residue?" shouted Ace.

"Affirmative. Running chemical analysis now." K9 began to whir as his computer checked all the records he had, looking for the answers he knew were needed. "Chemical identified. Chemical formula listed in Tardis databanks as Dalekanium."

JFK Airport
New York

"Damn it." Sarah was looking at the departure board and saw that the connecting flight to Gatwick had been delayed, by an hour. She began to pace the walkway in front of the board, like a caged animal. "I hope Tegan got the message and managed to warn them." She was still pacing when she heard the noise. Quietly at first, then louder, and louder still. There seemed to be lightning inside the airport, Sarah was looking for the source. People were running, scared by the noise and the lights. Sarah stood stock still and waited. Then, it was there, five meters from her, the Tardis. The door opened and a familiar face appeared at the door. "Susan? Am I glad to see you. We have to get to London, ten minutes ago if you don't mind. Susan smiled and opened the door for Sarah to enter.

"Quick Doctor we have to get to London now. Or quicker. Unit is under attack, we may already be too late... Bugger me... Did you let Carol Smillie loose in here or something?" Sarah, stood, staring at the redesigned console room. She stopped as the passing time caught up with her, "quick Doctor we need to move. Where are you?" she looked around the console room, there was a young man in a kilt, a middle aged couple holding hands, Susan was at the controls and. In the chair, "Doctor? Is that you?" The old figure smiled, that grin would give him away whichever body he had.

"Hello Sarah, how have you been? I know you're worried but please try to be calm. It is all in hand, for now. K9 and Tegan are helping UNIT, for the time being that will be enough. First, there is something I must do. I should have done it sooner, but even I couldn't have handled the consequences of theses actions before now." The Doctor seemed so weak, so tired. "But now, I am free to do as I wish, to do what I need to do, and to damnation with the consequences." With that, he stood up and walked to the console. "Susan, step away please. You can have nothing to do with this. I am beyond punishment now, They can do as the please, But I need to do this." Susan looked at her grandfather and nodded. As she stepped away from the console, Sarah grabbed her and practically dragged her from the room.

After a long walk, they entered another room and Sarah turned to Susan and asked "What the hell is going on?" Is he about to regenerate again or something, what is he doing? He looks so ill." Susan glanced over her shoulder at the distant outline of the console and the smaller shape of her grandfather at the controls.

"He's dying Sarah." She looked back at the shocked expression on Sarah Janes face. "He has been given leave by the President of the Timelords to bring guests to a ceremony on Galiffrey, where his consciousness will join with so many other great timelords as part of the pantropic net, that governs and maintains the matrix. But first, he has something to do that may well make that offer void. He is about to break our most sacred law. The normal punishment for that is death, but as he sees it, he is going to die soon anyway, so why worry."

"But, can't the timelords do anything for him, can't they heal him or regenerate him again? From what he told me, they are nearly all powerful." Sarah could not hide the hint of desperation in her voice.

"No Sarah, the timelords are not all powerful, even we must die. It is the way of the universe. But this offer, the President has made to him, it would mean that his mind would live, all that made him who he is, would live on. But he is willing to risk that on one act of folly." Susan gaped at Susans words, "isn't that just so like him?" A thin smile spread accross Susans mouth as Sarah smiled in return.

At the console, the Doctor was working the controls as though deep in thought, he was even mumbling to himself, "compensate for spacial and temporal drift" and "inverse tachyon fluxes". Ian, Barbara and Jamie just looked on, completely lost in everything that had transpired since the Doctor had re-entered their lives.

"So, uhm, Jamie? Right?" Ian asked? Jamie nodded. "I'll bet you're glad we pulled you out of Culloden before the battle started eh?" Jamie frowned. "I mean, The English forces were immense compared to yours." Jamie's frown deepened, Ian noticed the scowl and quickly stepped away from the topic, "so how was the weather there?" Ian tried.

"Don't mind him Jamie, I'm Barbara and this is my husband, Ian. We used to travel with the Doctor too, we saw some wild sights on our travels, Daleks, Thals, the Menoptra." Jamie seemed to brighten a little with the change of subject.

"Aye, those Dalek beasties were nasty bits of work, but at least you could run up the steps to get away from them" Jamie smiled as Ian and Barbara smirked. "The Cybermen, now they were real nasty so and so's. And the Yetis what a nightmare they were."

"Yetis?" Barbara asked.

"Aye, they tried to take over some wee monastary in Tibet and then tried again by invading the London Underground." Jamie seemed to enjoy talking of all the creatures he had faced, so Ian and Barbara just let him continue. "Then there was the..." Jamie's sentence went unfinished as the Tardis landed with it's usual thud.

"Stay here, all of you." The Doctor said as he hit the switch to open the doors, and began moving towards them. Jamie looked at Ian and Barbara, then began to follow the Doctor. Without even looking back, the Doctor shouted, "that includes you Jamie." Jamie stopped in his tracks as the Doctor closed the doors behind him as he left the ship.

"...I'll never know if I was right" Adric was saying to himself as the Doctor entered the freighters flight Deck.

"Adric, come with me, now. The Doctor shouted. Adric turned

"Who are y..?"

"Questions later, now hurry up, before there is no later." Adric followed the old man out of the door and saw the Tardis sitting serenely among the carnage, the fallen humans and cybermen alike in the hallway. The old man opened the doors and held them open for Adric to pass through.

The Doctor followed Adric into the Tardis, before he closed the doors though, he gazed off for a moment and then certain that his other task was done, he closed the doors and dematerialised.

The same Tardis
The same moment
Different players
"Adric!" Cried Nyssa, anguished beyond belief as she saw the freighter crash into the Earth, with Adric aboard. The Doctor gazed into nothing for a moment. The message had been received.

London

The shattered remains of the Dorchester Hotel

"I want all units armed with armour piercing rounds and anti tank rockets. NOW" Ace yelled at pvt Piper. "If there are Daleks in the area, I want to be ready for them."

"So you've faced the Daleks before then?" Asked Tegan of the soldier shouting the orders in every direction.

"Yeah, nasty little buggers, had a dance with a few of them back in 1963." That was all Ace felt inclined to tell this woman until she knew more about her and her tin mutt.

"1963? But you don't look old enou... Ah, was the Doctor involved?" Tegan asked. "Oh wait of course he was, he always manages to land the Tardis in the thick of it, just before the proverbial hits the fan." Tegan looked at the soldier who now seemed to be scrutinising her. "Oh how rude of me, My name's Tegan Jovanka, I travelled with the Doc for a while, and this is K9, an almost mobile computer unit." K9 whimpered slightly at the comment.

"I'm Dorothy McShane, but any friend of the professo, I mean the Doctor, can call me Ace." Ace smiled at the new found allies. "So what are you doing here? You hear about this on the news or something? Damn reporters."

"Uhm, no. I got a phone message from Sarah Jane Smith, she used to work with the Doctor in UNIT, she was doing some undercover work in South America, Peru, I think. She called to say that someone, or something had set UNIT up for a big fall, and that this reunion was on the hit list." Tegan paused, "So I grabbed K9 and got here as quick as I could, had to dodge a few of your roadblocks on the way in though."

"Mistress Ace!" K9 said. "It would be remiss of me to omit the fact that the Daleks themselves never used the explosive Dalekanium. It was devised by a professor, working with the human resistance during the Daleks first conquest of this world. Unfortunately in the quantities he managed to produce, the explosive was woefully inadequate to subdue the Dalek force."

"When will this invasion take place? Do you know?" Ace asked, hunching next to K9.

"The exact date of the invasion is not in my memory banks, but the Doctor arrived in 2150, when the occupation had already been in place for some years."

"Ace? You don't think this could be the start of it do you? The first strike?" Tegan sounded worried as she asked.

"Could be. It would make sense. UNIT is the organisation set up to combat alien intrusions, so if you were and alien planning on invading, wouldn't you take that organisation out first?"

"Mistress, human lifesigns approaching from within the ruins." They all turned to see who was coming out. It was a UNIT rescue team, carrying three people on stretchers. One of them, Tegan and Ace recognised instantly as Lethbridge Stewart, the other two were women. Ace recognised one of them.

"Doris... Is she ok? She practically shouted at the rescue team.

"She's unconcious, but there don't appear to be any life threatening injuries." Private Adams, a field medic, continued to carry Doris down to one of the waiting ambulances.

"Let me up you idiot. Can't you see I'm fine" Jo Grant struggled with the hands trying to restrain her. "Are you some kind of special idiot, bred specifically to ruin peoples lives?"

Ace smirked as it sank in. The Brigadier had talked about her. It's alright private Turner, she sounds fine to me let her up." Turner did as he was ordered and malked away mumbling to himself about how the world hated him. "Ms Grant, sorry about that, it's just he's a little over enthusiastic, likes to do things his way and to hell with everyone else.."

"Yeah, well, If I ever see him again, I'll probably be up on a murder charge. It's just as well he joined up after I left." Jo took the hand proffered by Ace and stood up. My God, look what they've done to the place." Jo was just taking another breath to speak again when...

"Alert... Alert... Chronometric displacement. Time field distortion detected." As he spoke K9 took a defensive position in front of Tegan, Ace and Jo. His Blaster protruded from the front of his nose and aimed at nothing. "Arrival imminent. The noise was a little quieter than they all remembered, and the lightning was a new touch, but they all recognised instantly the materialisation sounds of a Tardis. They all waited expectantly, waiting for the familiar form of a police telephone box to appear. They were dissappointed. A simple grey box appeared in front of them. It was the right size for the Tardis, but it felt wrong. The Door opened and a figure appeared at the door. A young woman, wearing flowing robes, and looking very uncomfortable in them. She saw the others staring back at her and gasped.

"K9? but how can this be?

K9 pwered down his blaster and acknowledged the new arrival. "Mistress Leela. I am K9 mark 3, created by the Doctor as a companion for Sarah Jane Smith, some three years after your decision to remain on Galiffrey."

Leela stepped gingerly from the Tardis, followed by a man in a uniform that Tegan recognised instantly to be that of the Chancellory guard on Galiffrey. They were both followed from the Tardis by... K9?

I am Leela, warrior of the Sevateem, this is the man who will be my husband, Andred, and I think you know K9. Or at least, you know one of him. We have been summoned to this time and place by the Doctor, is he here?"

"Not as yet," replied Ace, "but I'm figuring he won't be far behind you. And one more thing, if those tin mutts start sniffing each others arses, I may be forced to shoot them." Both K9's looked at her.

Location: Unknown
Time: Unknown

Two shadowed figures stand around a glowing ball. The ball is strange only in the fact that it is not lighting up the room. The shadows seem to prevade every part of the surrounding space, and fill the room, as if no light ever had, or ever could penetrate them.

"All is proceeding as planned"

"Yes my lord"

"Good. soon, he will arrive and our agents will destroy him,"

"But my lord, if the 'other' interferes, our planning will be for nothing."

"Even if he does show the courage to intervene, even he is too late. Give the order to begin the assault."

"Yes my Lord, our agents are moving into position now..."

"Then, all we need do is wait. and watch."

Earth
London
The remains of the Dorchester Hotel

"Well, The Doctor's fan club are all here. So what does he think he's doing? Where the devil is he?" Lethbridge Stewart had finally managed to fend off his 'nursemaid' with a few choice words. "Damned Americans, always doing unnecesary medical procedures on themselves, now they're starting over here as well. She could have killed me, poking around like that. Who the hell recommended her as a UNIT medic?"

"A personal letter from the Doctor sir." Replied Ace, "she apparently killed him, but he got better. He pretty much said it wasn't really her fault." Ace could see the Brigadiers face shifting slightly, from annoyance to a slight smirk.

"So where is he then? The worlds in danger, he should have reared one of his heads by now." His comment garnered half smiles from the nervous assembly.

The K9 which had arrived with Leela approached th Brigadier. "You are Alistair Gordon Lethbridge Stewart?" K9 asked matter of factly. The Brigadier nodded, slightly bemused by K9's appearance. "I have a message for you from the Doctor Master. If you will follow me, it is for you alone." K9 began moving around the debris to a spot some distance from the group. The Brigadier followed, impatient to know what the Doctor had to say for himself.

The rest of the assemblage, lloked on as they saw the Brigadier reacting to whatever it was that K9 was telling him. He walked back after a few moments, a look of shock on his face. Ace would almost have sworn there was a tear in his eye. But it was quickly replaced by a steely look of a determined man. "Ace we need every man here right now. Call the minister, have her second as many regulars as she can spare right now. Contact UNIT HQ in Geneva, have them evacuate the building and head for secure location alpha 44 delta. We need every member of the UNIT personnel out here ready to fight, draft in from foreign branches if you have to. Use security protocol, omega, omega, red. Tell them we are facing an apocalypse situation here. Also tell them that I am taking personal charge of this under regulation.."

"I don't need the reg number Brigadier, if they don't like it, I'll personally crack their skulls for 'em." Ace hurried off to the mobile command centre to relay Lethbridge Stewarts commands. The Brigadier now did genuinely smile.

"Right, civillians, I want you out of here, as far as the Doctor could tell me, any location north of Watford is about to become a Warzone, so I want you all out of here."

"Yeah, and I want next weeks lottery numbers, it aint going to happen!" Tegan stood defiantly before the Brigadier.

"As a warrior of the Sevateem and as a friend of the Doctors, I will not run from a fight." Leela grabbed Andreds hand and stood with Tegan.

"And so say you all?" The group nodded. "Just like he said. OK, Andred is it?" Andred nodded in reply. "Well you take Leela and one of the K9's up there to the Northern command post and stay there. Nothing is to get past you, understand?"

"We understand you loud one" Leela said as she started towards the command post.

Miss Jovanka, if you, and your K9 would like to come with me. I think I have some ministerial feathers to ruffle, and a City to evacuate. Ms Grant, will you join us?" Jo was standing to attention even before the Brigadier finished the sentence. The Brigadier smiled, but inwardly he prayed that the Doctor knew what he was doing. These people weren't chess pieces to be played and lost, but then he chastised himself. No one knows that better than the Doctor himselves.

"Ms Lambert, If you do not evacuate Greater London, you will end up with a casualty list the likes of which have not been seen since Hiroshima and Nagasaki. No I am not exaggerating. A major invasion force will be here any moment. We need all of your available personnel here now. We also need to have the city cleared of civillians. No I don't know how long the operation will take, yes it will involve damage to property, yes it will involve the loss of lives. I am trying to limit those losses, but you seem determined to stop me at every turn. No I don't care. The PM could be enjoying coitus with his wife, three secretaries and fourteen undersecretaries for all I care, just tell him what's going on and get him the hell out of London, along with the rest of the population."

"Alert. Alert. Matter displacement detected. Teleportation device is in operation. Probability of incoming hostiles, very high." K9 was again in motion. attemting to triangulate the locus of the teleportation beam. "Multiple incoming hostiles. Species... Dalek"

You know what's coming don't you?

Yep, that's right

To be continued...