Chapter 60
Jack Harkness. Captain. Time Agent (former).
Captain Jack Harkness. Torchwood Agent.
Torchwood Three, Cardiff.
His team, his Torchwood were hopefully safe. Maybe.
Him, the Master had told the Doctor that they'd been sent on a goose chase to the Himalayas.
Hopefully that meant they were safe.
Or fighting the good fight. Creating problems for the Master.
From what he'd heard Harry had been giving the Master hell.
Jack knew how long he'd been chained up here, in the bowels of the Valiant. One of the first things you learnt as a Time Agent was to understand time, just counting it, minute by minute, second by second. Understanding it, its passage. If you were a temporal agent you needed to know what you were doing and where your towel was.
Oolon never did adequately explain that last bit. His book on the Origins of the Universe he'd found pretty interesting, more so than his lectures. But his drinking tour was amazing.
Jack smiled to himself at the memory.
That was how he'd kept himself from being bored. Now and in the past. Being locked up and tortured.
The Master had himself got bored with killing him.
The pain, the sudden breath of air, the rush. That never got old for him.
The swede, that did.
He's known a few Swedes, that's been much better than this swede.
"Mornin' Tish. Lovely day for a late breakfast." She shrugged and looked back to the guard.
"New guys from the ground in today," she said as she put down the tray.
"Fresh meat. Always nice to get new visitors. New people for our 'lord and Master'." He winked at her.
She smiled.
It was their game. Anything to try and stay sane in this floating mad house.
Waiting for Martha, waiting for Martha and the Doctor's plan. He knew it would work.
They knew it would work.
He didn't even know the full details of it.
But the Doctor trusted Martha. He trusted Martha. They all trusted the Doctor.
They were only through half of the mashed swede when another guard approached.
Jack looked past Tish. "Something the matter? Have we been chatting too much today?"
The guard seemed to be talking to the one guarding his 'cell'. It wasn't. It was just a passageway that led to one of the engine rooms. The Valiant had two big ones to keep the engines turning and to keep the behemoth of the ship in the sky.
Then the guard who'd just arrived pulled out his gun and shot the man in the face.
Blood sprayed over him and the walls, but this new guard didn't seem to react to any of the spray he'd just caused.
Then he walked over to them. "Get to the side Tish. Hey you, soldier boy, finally got sick of..." Jack trailed off as the man approached them with a blank look, his face slightly pale.
"I will obey...I will obey..." He was muttering to himself as he walked. Trance-like. Almost mesmerised.
"Tish. Go. Get your family and get into crash positions," Jack said quickly.
"But..." Tish started.
"Go," Jack tried not to shout as the man continued to walk ignoring them completely.
Jack could only think of a few people who would be so daring and so cunning to attempt an attack on the Valiant and there were a far fewer amount who would use these tactics that he assumed were in place with the man who had just walked past them.
Now, he just needed to wait and see.
And, brace. Too bad he couldn't hug his knees.
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The Doctor looked across the table where the Master was looking out at the sky.
He was 'inducting' the new troops. The troops that had been rostered on to the Valiant.
It seemed no one could stand to be around the Master for any long length of time.
Lucy was as ever watching her husband her Harry with a blank stare.
It was barely 20 minutes after the Master began that it happened.
The Doctor spun around on his chair and grabbed Lucy. "Crash positions," he shouted and tried to hold Lucy as best he could as an explosion of gigantic forces ripped through engine room 1.
"Warning. Catastrophic failure of engines. Warning. Assume crash positions," said an unhelpful calm voice that sounded like it was announcing the tube timetable.
Then the Valiant started to tilt and then slide.
Then they were falling towards the ground and the sea below.
"No!" Shouted the Master. "No. No. No. No," he said so himself, beating the drumming beat into controls he was standing by. "Emergency systems." He hit a button.
For a second he seemed to relax and then something else exploded on the Valiant.
"Warning. Emergency systems compromised."
"No. No. No. You. You did this." He pointed to the Doctor. "You. And stealing my Lucy," his voice was full of rage.
"Sir!" Shouted one of the Master's guards who continued to try and warn him of the near 90 degree tilt of the floor. He didn't get any further with his warning. "Don't interrupt me when I'm speaking. I am your Lord and Master and I will-"
"Be dead soon Master," the Doctor said as he braced himself, his body aching, his bones tensing against the walls as the Valiant continued to plummet towards the sea. Throughout it, he held Lucy. He would try... To save her. Save someone if this was the end.
If he couldn't save the Master.
"Dead?" He snorted, though was hanging onto the railing with effort. "I am the Lord and Master of the new Time Lord Empire. I cannot die, come...my subjects." His eyes were wild and he began drumming on the handrail as the Valiant tipped further and air began rushing at speed around it.
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There wasn't such a thing as an 'idiot's guide to re-programming and rewiring ICBMs'. Nor was there a beginner's guide to such a task.
It would have been nice if there had been. There wasn't even an operating manual.
Essentially all they needed was to launch the damn things and tell it to go up and come more or less straight back down.
Harry had, along with several other scientists been working on and off on this project for the past few weeks. In between all the other things he had needed to do.
Harry'd needed to be here because he was one of the people who'd survived the invasion who had been in the 1970s and understood how they did things back then.
Sort of.
But now as zero hour approached and the plan would kick off with a nice big distraction when hopefully the Valiant did a nosedive they'd start their attack.
"I think Harry we will need to go to plan B," said one of the scientists (formerly student) who had a mass of wires and a soldering iron in front of her.
"Indeed," Harry said and kicked the launch computer, hoping that would work.
Plan B was drastically more dangerous than kicking the launch computer.
The calculations had been worked out in advance by the Richard and his minions who'd been obsessed with magic and apparition.
They'd need probably 4 wizards per missile.
Fortunately they'd brought along a more than enough to make it happen.
Also fortunately was the fact these silos were completely isolated. There was nothing that was going to interrupt them apparating.
Unfortunately the missiles were quite large.
-/
Hugging a muggle weapon. Alicia Spinnet thought to herself as the count down went out.
There were others in similar situations. They would be 'launching' 7 of these. It was meant to be 8 but something had gone wrong with the 'activating sequence'.
"10...9..."
-/
On the other side of said weapon Dean Thomas looked up above him where Harry was perched, grabbing on to the smallest of hand holds.
They had all studied this days before just in case. Harry had been working to try and make the muggle systems fire. Because he had spent time in the same time as these weapons had been made.
As far as he could tell these were all of the 1970s or the 1980s. Harry hadn't explained what this meant. He'd just said "I'll explain later.".
Dean suspected it was why he and Malfoy were so friendly.
Dean didn't have anything against Malfoy. Not now. Especially not now since what had happened. What happened with Ron.
"5...4..."
Dean breathed calmly and focused on the target, focused on the apparating process. Focused on not splinching himself.
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Hermione flicked a switch on Harry's car to put it in 'secure hover mode'. Supposedly rendering it invisible.
She was in one of Harry's cars that could fly, which she hadn't known Harry had.
It was a gift from the Doctor. It had come, very likely from the same one with whom he had spent time in the 1970s. It even had a registration WVO 2M, though was only registered through the 70s. Not that it really mattered now.
She had earned herself the role of scout and observer. They needed someone in the air to monitor everything that was about to happen, it didn't need to be a wizard. Anyone with a portkey could have gone in this car, or even any wizard on a broom.
But Harry had said he wasn't going to let anyone drive this thing.
Though she suspected Harry wanted to keep her slightly safe during this big plan.
She'd insisted she have someone along, to relay information. She couldn't fly this thing, observe and report.
Well...she could.
For a moment she'd thought Harry was going to send her Malfoy.
But no. It was Ross Jenkins with whom she'd developed a good working relationship with.
"I sort of want to be down there," he said craning over the window sill.
"As do I," she admitted. But 'down there' would soon become quite uninhabitable.
"But if I am honest Ross. I am not sure about Harry's plan B. It's terribly dangerous." Hermione had seen Professor Dawkin's initial research and its associated calculations, but it was hardly something she'd risk her life on. Harry was risking his and many others' lives on it.
But, needs must. Maybe, just maybe they could take their planet back.
That, though was considerably unlikely.
-/
They were sitting in surprising comfort and hopefully secure above 'Shipyard Number One', it already had a plaque and a huge statue of the Master outside it.
It also was the location of the most rockets on Earth, they were all in various states of production.
Production by slave labour.
The Resistance did not have a huge presence in Russia, but Ioan and Judith had found what remained of Оперативная Группа Разведкой Объединённых Наций, OGRON, the Russian division of UNIT and they'd helped discover how far along the production of the rockets had been.
They had hoped that Martha Jones would provide them with information as well, but according to Judith after she'd made it through Russia she'd swiftly dropped off the radar.
Hermione wasn't sure how she felt about Martha Jones and her plan. It required something of a leap.
She trusted what she had in front of her, what she could conjure, what she had control of. That was how most people survived, lived now in the Resistance. They had to trust one another and work towards a better future, one not faced with the threat of genocide from one's own descendants.
That last one still...Hermione couldn't fathom it sometimes.
Even though Professor Dawkins and K9 had been giving classes on what they'd found out. What they'd discovered. Hermione applauded Harry and the others for supporting that.
No secrets was what the Resistance was striving for. 'With a little asterisk', however is what Harry would say.
There needed to be some restrictions of information, occasionally, with things like this big plan of theirs.
Their first really big attempt to throw a spanner in the works of the Master's big factory build of all these rockets.
They'd still not found out what the big dangerous thing was inside them. From what information OGRON had discovered that whatever it was required quite precise engineering. Precise and deadly, most of the people working on hearts of the rockets had died from some sort of radiation exposure weeks and in some cases days later.
The Master's forces didn't seem to care, their attitude was that there were more humans.
The Toclafane only ever seemed to do heavy lifting when they wanted to, which was very infrequently. They were more likely to be found 'playing'.
Hermione had witnessed a memory of them doing that at one of the labour camps.
That still haunted her mind. She'd cursed herself for even being curious enough to find out about it.
Thought there were plenty of things to haunt her mind these days. She had a long list of haunting things. She certainly tried not to think about the big red headed idiot in the room.
He didn't deserve any consideration. The only consideration she had given to him is what spell she'd use if she ever found herself face to face with him. Even if she wasn't she'd just shoot him in the back.
Men like him didn't deserve any better.
-/
The car the 'Whomobile' a name she'd found in the instruction manual in the glove box rumbled and several of the dials and sensors within the car alerted them to explosions below them.
"Radiation warning," Ross said in a neutral tone.
"Above what was predicted," Hermione paused to flick a switch to widen the scope of the sensors. "Staying contained within the outer boundaries of the shipyard."
"I'd better contact them," Ross said. "Greyhound 40 to Watchtower. Successful detonation. Repeat successful detonation."
There was some delay as the signal was encoded, encrypted and sent.
"Received Greyhound 40. Hawk Major is down. Secondary targets are live. Remain and report. Watchtower Out."
Hermione nodded. "We should be getting clearer readings shortly."
"They actually managed to get it down. Did Potter say how?" Ross asked.
Hermione shook her head. "No. I presume he'd say if we asked. It was something at Torchwood Four. Down in the bowels."
"Where the dark stuff happens," Ross mused aloud.
Hermione snorted. "They should be firing off the subs by now."
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What remained of the Earth's submarine forces had now taken up their positions.
"Watchtower to Krakens, Hawk Major is down."
For the second time in recent memory the HMS Taurean fired on British soil.
Around Europe and the Middle East submarines launched missiles, firing on ports and other factories that would hopefully be distracted by events thus far.
Destroy and disrupt the Master's plans.
Prevent Earth from becoming as large a factory as the Master was so determined to create.
Every sub-commander had been given the choice of whether or not to participate in these attacks. They had no command structure, no governments to give them orders. Only the Resistance.
They at least had some ideas, and action had to be taken, they couldn't just sit around and wait, or hope not to die, or wait for some divine intervention. They had the means to take action against the enemy, and they would damn well do that. They'd damn well do something.
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15 weeks since the Toclafane invaded and 1 week since the big plan...
Harry felt someone approach before they actually ambled up and leaned against the tree he was currently lying beside.
He could have got his invisibility cloak, but that would have taken it away from others who were using it.
Using it more responsibly, probably.
"Potter," Draco said using his old moniker for him.
"Draco," Harry said not looking away from peering through the binoculars. They weren't omnioculars. According to the bottom of them they were made in the Filipino Protectorate and had an oddly worded copyright sticker from 4993. They were military hardware, hard and rubbery and the imaging software that was copyrighted more than 2000 years in the future indicated everyone you saw through them as 'targets'.
"How'd you find me?" He asked the man beside him who was leaning nonchalantly against the tree.
"Please Potter," he merely said.
Harry exhaled a sigh.
They were currently several kilometres away from the targets, there were also buildings and other things between them and it. The software had filtered most of it out giving him a good, though not perfect image of them.
It was better than what omnioculars could manage.
"I am here," he paused. "Harry." He looked to him. "If you need help," he paused slight amusement entering his voice. "Granger too. When you decide to make your move."
Harry pulled the binoculars away from his eyes. "You're sure I will do something?" He started to stand up. Draco offered a hand, which he gladly took. He'd been lying beside the tree for some hours. Watching the targets.
"Yes," Draco answered.
A short answer Harry thought, the most certain of answers.
And what if, Harry had asked himself, leaving the target alive meant that the Master's wizarding response was predictable. Just not palatable or satisfying for him. Could he hold back his desire for justice? For revenge?
Among those and others were questions he'd thought on.
The two wizards turned away from the tree. Harry looked up to the sky. The clouds were taking on the look of brown smudges, like someone had mixed up the white paint.
If only it was something that simple and poetic.
"Perhaps I'll leave him alive. He is very predictable. Better an incompetent idiot than a capable idiot."
Draco smirked.
"I can compartmentalise Draco. We need to. Somethings..." Harry trailed off.
"Justify it how you wish Potter."
There was an old MI5 Cold War era bunker that the Resistance had considered as a safe house, were it not for its store of deadly pathogens and other interesting things.
It also had a containment tank and he had just the test subject to fill the tank.
A traitor couldn't be saved. They chose to betray the human race to the Master.
But revenge was something else. He had more important things to concern himself with than just one man. Even the red man.
"Your friend Judith has also made her skills known to be available," Draco continued.
"I bet that was an interesting conversation or did she pop up while you were showering?" His voice cracked slightly as a memory popped into his head. Not related to Judith, related to...
Maybe revenge would make things better.
It probably wouldn't.
He'd already dealt with a mad cow, maybe now he had to put down a red dog.
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16 weeks since the Toclafane invasion...and 2 weeks since the big plan.
Harry sat in the chair scowling.
The Master had announced a broadcast.
So they were sitting here in the manor house, others of the Resistance were in the pub. K9 was also here and he very much wanted to use the metal mutt as a footrest. It was just out of reach.
K9 was here to check for any unwanted signals the Master might try and slip in. Even though he was quite sure they were still isolated and, if the Master had wanted to attempt some mass control of the Resistance he'd have done it by now.
"Transmission beginning," K9 announced.
"Any sign of a control signal K9?" Harry asked in his nicest tone he could muster for the idiot box from the 51st century.
"Negative Harry Potter. Signal is merely a primitive television signal."
"Thank you K9," Harry said. "Well, let's see what the Master has to say."
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Jack breathed in the fresh air, the Master had forced, he imagined Francine to wash and press his clothes. Not new. Recovered from his body after they'd pulled the Valiant out of the sea. But now here they were standing out on the deck of the Valiant.
It still showed the scars of what had happened.
What Harry had done.
The Doctor was in a wheelchair being pushed by Lucy. Following the Master.
The Doctor had been injured when the Valiant had impacted with the water.
Jack was pretty sure that he'd saved Lucy's life.
Jack knew he'd died briefly, at first he'd thought it was from the explosion though there had been a point when he'd come back to consciousness and then gone again. There'd been a bit a wet feeling in the interim. He'd not had enough breakfast to lose his bladder so it was probably drowning.
"Set the camera up just here," the Master gestured beamed at them. "My loving audience can watch my debut on camera. Their Lord and Master speaks." He twirled around them and the watching Toclafane.
Jack wondered if he could grab him and thrown both of them off the edge. But there were guards along all the edges.
The Master had sent for new extra ones.
Though he didn't seem to realise how the Valiant had been hit, or how his soldiers had been compromised.
"Action," the Master said.
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"Citizens of Earth, please attend carefully. Your Lord and Master is alive. Rejoice."
"Yay," Harry commented sarcastically.
Drawing a glance from the others in the room.
"My loyal subjects, servants to the cause are alive and well." The camera paned around and they saw Captain Jack Harkness, people who looked like Martha Jones' relatives based on the UNIT reports he'd seen that had been compiled when Martha went off with the Doctor, and...the man himself. He had been drastically aged Harry assumed by the Master in the early minutes of the invasion. He'd not really seen exactly what had happened when the Master had used his laser screwdriver on him.
"So. Humans." He paused and then seemed to remember himself. "Citizens. Resistors. I am your lord and Master of Earth. Surrender now and you will live. Those wishing to surrender must stand in the middle of the street. Obey orders and you will live. Resist and..." He trailed off and the image switched to an external view from what appeared to be the underside of the Valiant.
Harry craned forward. "Where is that?"
"Calculating based on available data-" K9 started.
"It looks like Japan," Brian answered in a worried tone.
"Correct Professor Cox," K9 said happily.
Harry scowled at the robot. If he'd interrupted K9 the robot would have been distinctly shitty with him.
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"Now, you will watch what happens when you resist a Master, a Lord of Time," the Master said into the camera and then walked over to Tish and the others.
Jack wanted to do something to him, to the Master, but knew that the Master could easily hurt any of them rather than him. "And you, Tish, Francine, Clive. You're going to watch it burn."
The Master looked to one of the guards. "Continue firing until there's nothing left." He turned to look at a pair of the Toclafane that were always present. "You too kids, off you go, have some fun, there's lots of games to be had down there."
"We like games Master."
"We shall make them sing."
"And dance. Dance with joy," said the final Toclafane before flying off over the edge of the Valiant.
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Harry wasn't sure how long they watched.
He knew there was nothing they could do.
The Master hadn't just been satisfied with using the Valiant, the Toclfane were going in as well.
Probably to kill any of the people who'd not been killed in the first bombardment.
After an indeterminate time the Master returned to the screen. It was only himself, Richard and Ros, the others had...Harry wasn't sure. He wasn't really sure why he'd stayed watching, why the other two had stayed with him. Even K9 had gone to sleep, at least he was pretty sure the idiot dog had. He was tempted to kick the robot to wake it up, but the Master's reappearance had perked it up.
"Now," he said raising his chin to the camera slightly. "Humans. You have witnessed the power of your Lord and Master." He held out his hands, palms up; the Toclafane floated to above his hands. "My citizens, the welcoming hands have revealed their powers once again," he paused. "My citizens. Show yourselves in the streets. I am the Master of Earth. Your Master." He wrinkled his nose. "Resist and you will be" he paused and smiled. "Removed. A Master must control his world, and you are all my world now." He frowned dramatically and walked across the deck of the Valiant. "Isn't that right? I control each and every one of you, every cleaner, cook and" He bent down to look at the Doctor. "Every doctor. Everyone is my subject, and I will do with you as I wish." He stood up, the camera settling again on him allowing him to smile at the camera. Then the signal went dead.
Harry exhaled, he felt exhausted and felt like a drink. The latter wasn't a solution and he wasn't even sure he'd enjoy it.
It was Richard that broke the silence. "Brian informs me that the Moonbase cabinet has been transmatted correctly and that passage to the Moonbase is ready."
Harry smiled weakly and pulled himself out of the chair. "Then let's take a walk to the Moon Richard." He offered his hand to the Professor.
"Just...just like that?"
Harry shrugged. "I've time travelled using a cabinet. This should be a breeze."
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In the end they'd decided to wait until the next day.
Watching a country burn wasn't something you shook off.
Rather, you felt like throwing up as the true reality of what had happened hit you.
"This is amazing," Brian looked at the cabinet.
They were currently in out buildings off the manor house. It was where they'd decided to move the cabinets to. There were two of them helpfully signposted with 'Moonbase' and 'Mars (potentially)'. Although they both lead to the Moonbase at the moment. They'd decided they needed to be somewhere easy to access as they'd need to move resources to the Moonbase.
Draco had sourced the largest cabinets he had at his manor for the task and they were huge cabinets. Their other halves of the pair had been transmatted up to the Moonbase.
"Complicated magic Professor Cox," Draco said, Harry had heard him say he liked to respect the Professor's standing. Something that had greatly amused Hermione.
Richard exhaled beside him. Harry smiled. It annoyed Richard whenever anyone said 'it's just magic' near him. Harry did it all of the time around him just to get exasperated noises out of the professor.
"Come to see us off Ros?" Harry asked as Ros Myers approached.
"Come to make sure you come back and don't disappear up your own arse Potter," Myers responded with a thin smile.
"That would never happen Ros. I'm too important to do that," Harry replied without irony.
"Come on Potter," Draco said gesturing. "You're trying to be far too smart."
"Lead on Draco." Harry waved at the cabinet as he patted his bag to make sure it was closed and present.
Draco just looked at him for a moment as Harry made a half attempt to smile and opened the two large wardrobe-like doors.
"Into Narnia," Brian wondered as he and Richard followed them in.
For a moment there was darkness.
"Is it supposed to be this..." Richard started as Draco walked forward.
"Lumos," said Draco although the light didn't illuminate much. Just a dark void and a door ahead of them.
Then in just a few steps, or possibly more Draco opened the door and they set foot on the moon.
"Oh," Brian said as he looked around.
"Hello Liz." Harry walked past Brian who seemed a little in awe.
"Harry Potter." She grasped his hand with two hands. "It is very good to finally meet you Harry."
"Likewise." Harry pulled the older woman into a brief hug seemingly surprising her. "You've met Draco."
"Briefly. Doctor Shaw."
"Mr Malfoy. A fantastic device you have in this cabinet."
"It's just magic." Harry said looking over at Richard who despite looking around them, and more to the point out one of the windows still frowned at him.
"There is nothing 'just' about this Harry," Richard said in an annoyed tone, somewhat ruined by his wide-eyed awe.
Harry exhaled theatrically. "Fine Richard. It's science. Rational and all those dragons." Harry said undoing his bag. "I come baring gifts Liz."
Liz beamed at him. "And welcome they are Harry. We're quite independent up here, but anything for a change." She led him out of the room they'd arrived in. "We used up lot of out stores to build the transmat and we'll use more to get Mars up and running."
"And of Brian's suggestion? There's surely not enough bandwidth to Mars for a transmat." Harry asked. He was thankful for being up here, away from Earth, away from...
It was also good to be able to discuss things face to face without a vid-link, almost relaxing, though that wasn't the word. Distracting, that was relaxing. Not thinking about the red man for a moment and what he'd witnessed the previous day.
What they'd each witnessed.
Harry found himself walking over to a window where Brian was stood looking out.
"Have you seen all this before Harry?" He asked in wonder.
Harry didn't say anything, he just looked out of the window, wondering many things. Wondering where it'd all gone to shit, wondering how a man, a Time Lord. Time's Champion, Keeper of the Legacy of Rassilon, Defender of the Laws of Time and allowed this to happen.
That quote went on to 'Protector of Gallifrey'. He had failed in that last, failed his people.
'It is defended.'
That was what according to Mickey Smith's debriefs and Harriet Jones' personal diary notes is what the Doctor said to the aliens on Christmas day before the ship was destroyed. He'd been reminded of it from Brian and Richard's working groups into where things went tits up. The how, where and when the Master was able to take Harriet Jones' Prime Ministership from her.
Some defence.
Harry thought looking at Earth's browning clouds, he fancied he could see the destruction wrought from yesterday's carnage from here. But he couldn't, they were too far away to see that.
Brian looked at him with a gentle smile and patted him on the shoulder Harry vaguely noticed that Liz had called the professor away while he remained looking out the window.
Where had it all gone?
His two friends, oldest friends, men beyond time and space, their planet destroyed and now they were bent on destroying his.
Theirs.
'It is defended'.
By whom Doctor? Harry wondered looking out at the Earth, its people slaves, its rivers torn asunder by ice and fire, its resources ripped and mined, all for a mad man. A Time Lord, a master.
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A/N:
I'm not entirely happy with the pacing of this chapter. Which for more than half is stuff blowing up, essentially "off screen".
I just couldn't really have anyone in the firing line for any of the main action, so it's all a bit removed. But these are events I wanted to have happen, to show the Resistance with some power.
This is one of a few times where I've written from the Doctor's perspective, and I've done mostly because there's no one else in the room that I could write it from where it'd be meaningful.
OGRON (Оперативная Группа Разведкой Объединённых Наций) does exist, it is as is said the Russian UNIT like NUIT (the French UNIT), it does exist in the Doctor Who universe, though only appears in one story.
All the call signs aside from Krakens are call signs that have appeared in Doctor Who. I couldn't find a call sign for a submarine, hence Kraken.
Tish says in Last of the Time Lords that "That man made us stand on deck and watch the islands of Japan burning. Millions of people." and I'd wanted to do something with that and I didn't want it to be something the Master just randomly does.
Next chapter some questions are answered and someone who's not been in the arc so far makes an appearance.
Finally I've had some feedback from previous chapters again questioning the length of this arc and why I'm bothering with it when it basically gets a reset button at the end.
There will be some revelations in this arc that happen that will impact the main timeline.
Also, while this alternate universe gets reset, that's not quite how I will be looking at it.
In brief, while events do get wound back for all involved, that doesn't necessarily mean the timeline doesn't continue on. It's all a bit multi-verse.
