18
Jax takes a few unsteady steps away from the vessel. Rose appears behind him, follows - he holds a hand out behind him, seemingly to make her stop, but then he grabs her shoulder, holds her for support. She puts her hand over his.
"I seen so much death..." Jax gasps "I been on fields carpeted with bodies, friends and enemies - I seen men and women blown to messes no further from me than you."
"Jax"
"But every single one of those people died on their feet. Fighting. Or, hell, running away – doing summat to get through. This is..."
"Jax, I need your help with this. I need you to help me, because I can't…" Rose sobs and he looks at her, folds her into his arms. Brings her face to his, pressing their cheeks together with the urgency of pulsing, necessary life.
He holds his little sister.
Ianto falls to his knees, vomiting. Owen goes to him, puts his hand on his back, and lets him ride it out. "Ianto..."
"I'm all right." Ianto looks at him, wet eyes full of clarity. "I'm all right."
Mickey pulls the recording cylinder out of the console.
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TORCHWOOD - DINING ROOM - NIGHT
The cylinder is on the table.
Jax stands at the head, looking at his crew. "This report is maybe twelve years old. Parliament buried it, and it stayed buried til Ianto dug it up. This is what they feared he knew. And they were right to fear, 'cause there's a universe of folk that are gonna know it too."
Jax touches the cylinder " They're gonna see it. Somebody has to speak for these people."
He pauses. Everyone waits.
"You all got on this boat for different reasons, but you all come to the same place. So now I'm asking more of you than I have before. Maybe all. 'Cause as sure as I know anything I know this: They will try again. Maybe on another world, maybe on this very ground, swept clean. A year from now, ten, they'll swing back to the belief that they can make people... better. And I do not hold to that. So no more running. I aim to misbehave."
There is a beat as he eyes them all.
"My grandma always told me: if you can't do something smart, do something right." Rhys said and by way of emphasis he loudly cocks his big-ass rifle.
Jax takes in the fact that Rhys has spoken for them all. "That the same grandma told you there was an evil dwarf spirit living in your well?"
"She was a fun grandma."
"Do we have a plan?" Owen asks.
"Eugene." Jax nods, "We haven't the equipment to broadwave this code, but he can put it on every screen for thirty worlds. He's pretty damn close, too."
"Based on our orbital trajectories, he reached optimum proximity just before our sunset. If we make a direct run within the hour we're only 67,332 miles out. At full burn we'd reach him inside of three hours" Ianto calmly informs them, he doesn't notice the reactions to his sudden clarity - he's still somewhat in his own world.
"Still got the Munchers, and probably the Agency between us and him." Mickey points out after they all stare at Ianto for a while.
Martha agrees "It's a fair bet the Agency knows about Eugene. They're gonna see this coming."
"No." Jax says to them all sternly. He takes a long moment, his jaw tightening imperceptibly. "They're not gonna see this coming."
Torchwood's jet engines whine, as they fire up.
Torchwood is taking off, leaving the dead place behind.
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Eugene is talking with Jax and Mickey again, very animated. "It's no problem! Bring it on bring it on bring it on! From here to the eyes and ears of the 'verse, that's my motto, or it might be if I start having a motto."
"We won't be long." Jax assures him.
"You're gonna get caught in the ion cloud, it'll play merry hob with your radar, but pretty pretty lights and a few miles after you'll be right in my orbit."
"You'll let us know if anyone else comes at you?" Jax asks on the screen as Eugene shifts in his chair.
The Agent and ten soldiers are in the room, visible to Eugene but not to the screen.
"You'll be the first." Eugene assures him as he tries to ignore the Agent's sword, as he unsheathes it.
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They are amongst the Muncher armada. Torchwood slices quietly through the ships, as we come around and see Hallett receding in the distance.
Torchwood drifts through the armada - and suddenly another ship fires up, running next to her...The two ships pace each other, another vessel coming about as though staring at Torchwood, who comes closer and closer, till we see the suited corpse draped on the cannon.
It suddenly moves: it's Jax.
He swings the cannon round and fires at the ship pacing them.
It explodes, fragmenting into burning bits that spiral into other ships, causing two smaller ones to blow as well.
Jax swings around and fires at another ship.
In close orbit waits the Agency force, at least fifty strong, and clearly with high tech firepower. The Unit Agent's ship, in the middle of the cluster.
As The Unit Agent waits with the others a helmsman speaks. "I'm reading activity in the cloud."
"Lock and fire on my command." The Agent commands, then says quietly to the cosmos, "You should have let me see him. We should have done this as men. Not with fire..."
"Sir!"
The swirling Ion cloud is on screen as Torchwood breaks through and heads at us, fully Munchered out. The Agent looks confused, then smiles at the ruse. Hits the com: "Vessel in range, lock on...Bastard's not even changing course..." he notes with a hint of admiration for his advisory.
As Torchwood get a bit closer, fifty or sixty Muncher vessels suddenly burst from the cloud, also heading straight at them.
The Agent - and everyone around him - goes big-eyed.
"That's not good..."
"Sir?"
"Target the Munchers!" he screams as he turns to look at his stunned crew "Target the Munchers! Target everyone! Somebody FIRE!"
Torchwood suddenly lists hard to port - until she's almost upside down - the Agency ships FIRE, missing Torchwood but tagging a few Muncher ships, none of whom have slowed down - Jax is back on the bridge as he looks out at the upside down Agency fleet, missiles just passing them – "We're too close for them to arm"
"This is gonna be very tight" Martha grinds out.
Rhys enters and pauses as he looks out the window "Hey look, we're upside down."
Martha and Jax shoot a look at Rhys.
"I am a leaf on the wind, watch how I soar." Mickey whispers to himself.
Torchwood slips right under The Unit Agent's ship and ducks and weaves between dozens more. The Muncher force hits the Agency head on - and several ships do just that, smashing into bigger ships kamikaze-style, everything exploding -The fleet mobilizes, blasting Muncher ships, circling around, and an air war begins, a frenzied, balletic ecstasy of destruction that they hurtle through as ships and parts of ships fly at and past.
Torchwood nearly makes it all the way through the agency fleet before a barrelling chunk of debris - which is twice their size - forces them to come hard about and remain in the fray.
Jax looks out at the chaos... "Chickens come home to roost"
They are suddenly JOLTED by a glancing blow from another ship - Mickey struggles to control her -
"The hell" Jax yells as he grabs for the bulkhead.
"It's okay!" Mickey squeals with panic "I am a leaf on the wind!"
"What does that mean?" Jax yells back with equal panic.
Torchwood makes her way past the carnage and heads down toward the tiny satellite moon.
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As the vessel shakes, clearly breached, The Agent moves to a door marked: DART. He puts his thumb to a panel and the door slides up to reveal a standing, almost formfitting one- man cockpit.
The Dart disengages and bullets down towards the surface. As it moves from The Unit Agent's ship, we see that a Muncher vessel has smashed into the main viewshield, and the ship is spinning, explosions popping silently all over it.
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Torchwood continues down, the metallic expanse of Eugene's little moon complex sprawling below them. A moment after Torchwood blows through frame, so does a Muncher ship.
It fires an electronic pulse at Torchwood and sparks fly.
"We're fried! I got no control!" Mickey yells as he struggles with the dead stick.