Disclaimer: All characters, names, settings etc belong to their respective copyright holders, only Night Wolf and a few other things are of my own creation (but inspired from many things under copyright, which aren't mine).
Chapter 02
Malcolm stared at the screen, there was an alien approaching MP Jones and the young girl, Tyler.
Ruth looked from the screen to Harry, he seemed…no it wasn't that he was surprised, he was, thoughtful.
The same was for Dr Ganger she was studying the live video feed carefully, and as Indra Ganesh was dropped by the 3 meter plus tall creature, she looked down for the slightest moment.
Hermione watched as the alien dropped Ganesh, his neck clearly broken to the ground and advanced toward Rose Tyler and MP Harriet Jones.
Her study was broken by Adam Carter beginning to not so much shout, but profess orders around.
"Right, Jo, Malcolm I want to know what this Code Nine, why it's come now."
"Adam, look." Ruth clicked over to other screen, it showed a group of people and another alien, there was electricity of some sort dancing through the room.
"Are they?" He looked to Hermione she stared through the electrical light.
"The uniforms appear to have UNIT insignia." Hermione murmured.
"Doctor Granger, a word." Harry said in a calm tone to her as she continued to study the footage.
"Just…just a moment." She watched the man in the leather jacket rip off the ID around his neck and shoved it at the alien.
"Interesting, obviously some form of shared symbiosis that would pass the electrical charge over distance." She muttered to herself as she looked at a computer next to her, the alien standing over Jones and Tyler was lit up with electricity also.
The man in the leather jacket grinned and ran out of the room, Hermione stared as he ran out of the frame and then nodded to Pearce.
"How far has the infiltration of the security services and the government progressed do you think Doctor Granger?" Harry Pearce asked in a calm voice.
Hermione dragged a hand through her short hair and briefly wished it was longer, but then decided no, shorter was much more manageable, then she turned her attention back to Pearce's question.
"I can say for certain that those that I scanned within your section are not alien."
Pearce looked at her as to state that she hadn't really answered the question.
"If these aliens…" He cut off her train of speech.
"What sort of threat to they pose?"
Hermione briefly wanted to ask him how he expected her to know that after seeing them for all of about 30 seconds.
"Give me some time Mr Pearce, allow me to analyse the video footage we have and I'll be able to come up with a brief analysis while your people work on our mounting problems."
--//
Hermione watched through the footage that was continuing to mount up as she worked, they still had a continuous feed of most places in Downing Street.
Except the Cabinet room they had lost all surveillance from the Cabinet room a little over 5 minutes ago.
Hermione scanned back through the footage on her computer in front of her.
They were upwardly mobile, quite large claws and some sort of device around the neck.
Also judging by the bodies that they had inhabited there had to be some for of miniaturisation or compression of the bodily structure, or maybe the bodies had some form of transcendental engineering involved in positioning the bodies within them.
Then there were the three survivors; Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North, Rose Tyler, missing for over a year from the Powell Estate and Unknown white male, indeterminate age, in a leather jacket.
She hadn't been able to find an angle when he was conversing with the aliens to work out what he said, he was either obscured by the aliens or turned away from the camera.
Hermione looked at the clock on the computer, she was quickly coming up on the imposed deadline that Pearce had asked of her to present a summary of what she'd worked out.
Preferable she would have liked a day or two, the UNIT database and another xeno-archaeologist to bounce ideas off.
That unfortunately wasn't going to happen until the Greyhaven situation was over, and that wouldn't happen until she worked this out with Harry Pearce and his team.
Hermione briefly wondered where another Harry was, but knew the answer to her pondered question, Harry Potter was with the Hattah most likely somewhere between Earth and Research Base One.
"Harry, we know what a code nine is." Hermione looked up as Pearce passed by Jo and Malcolm who had been working on what the code nine was, she was interested on that also, it rang several bells, though she couldn't put her finger on it definitely.
Hermione walked over to where they were explaining exactly what it was.
"It was instigated in 1966 after this man" Jo opened up a folder that appeared to have accumulated a large amount of dust. The man he was old with white hair, but a curious almost young man like expression on his face. "The code nine was originally based on a set of descriptions and key words before advent of major computer systems surveillance." Jo finished, Malcolm picked up where she finished, pointing towards the computer screen he was in front of, it too showed a collection of colour and black and white photos.
"This man assisted the British government with an 'incident' involving Britain's attempt to set up an internet like system called WOTAN."
"It wasn't just from this incident, according to reports this man was involved in the disappearance and recovery of a concord in the 80s." A face appeared on the screen it was a young man with blond hair and a piece of celery on his lapel.
Hermione nodded to herself, she could easily guess what a code nine was.
"The words Malcolm." Harry intoned.
"Strange collection; 'Blue Box', 'Police Box', 'TARDIS', 'the Doctor'. Those are just the start there are pages only first dozens have been committed to computer databases the rest we found in the files room in the basement here." Malcolm gestured at half a dozen folders covered in dust.
Hermione nodded to herself and could all but guess who the man in the leather jacket was and where Rose Tyler disappeared for a year.
--//
"Well Dr Granger what are we up against?"
"They're humanoid, judging by their lumbering stance they're used to a lower gravity than Earth's, though equally their build could suggest a higher gravity." Hermione frowned slightly. "They're definitely not from an planet with Earth type gravity." Hermione paused to hit a button to change the picture on the large screen.
"They appear to hide themselves within what appears to be the skins of several government officials, one of them included Margaret Blaine, formerly of the security services."
"Is she dead?" Jo asked.
"Blaine?" Hermione asked Jo nodded. "Most certainly, judging by what I've been able to lip read thus far these skins are very definitely the humans that these aliens have taken, extracted all the messy biology stuff and then taken their form."
"What about the size they're…" Adam trailed off.
"Practically almost double the size." Malcolm finished.
Hermione nodded. "Yes…that where I think we can try and get them." Hermione switched to a freeze frame of all the aliens being electrocuted.
"They all seem to be linked, either through some form of psi-link or a technological link, either way that piece around their neck is technological." Hermione paused. "I was thinking an EMP."
"I don't know about UNIT but we don't keep nuclear weapons lying around just in case."
"Neither does UNIT, not especially. But I believe the University of London is currently in possession of a low yield EMP generator." Hermione was about to revel in her grand idea when her laptop beeped.
--//
3 hours previous…
Within one of the cargo areas of the RSCS Firefox sat a catamaran, said catamaran was a specialist UNIT sea vessel, that had been patrolling the waters around New Zealand before it had been quite quickly requested to assist in the current situation by the Firefox.
After that it had been literally plucked from the ocean up into the orbit that the Firefox held and was about to be transmatted back down to just outside the coordinates in the North Sea.
"Captain, the Faer Wind is reporting ready."
"Transmat them to the coordinates."
"Sir." Lt Nikita Robertson nodded.
Captain Timms watched the screens showing the Earth below them, currently there was some form of scattering field stopping their initial scans of the North Sea. Anything more intense may have shown up on the various European countries that looked out for that sort of thing, especially with what was happening in London at the moment.
Commander Ferdinand stood on the deck of the Faer Wind looking at the wall. It was the wall of the RSCS Hattah that had unceremoniously picked them up after only the briefest warning.
He knew about the space craft, but this was the first time he'd gone through the 'transmat'. He vowed not to do it again, except he would in a little under 3 minutes.
The Faer Wind was UNIT's 'next generation' battle craft for the oceans, using technology they'd insofar perfected it was kitted out with the most advanced sensor and scanning systems, defensive weapons to take on anything that got past the ships in orbit and engines that meant at full speed it would break the sound barrier and then some.
But they wouldn't get to test that if they were to be picked up by the space craft whenever there was a problem.
"Stand by for transmat." Said a voice over the speaker system, He wondered if he needed to go back inside.
Then the space ship melted away and Ferdinand had to admit it felt slightly less bad than the first time, then the sea spray hit him, filling his senses once more after the short time aboard UNIT's first space ship.
--//
Hermione looked down at her computer as she switched over to the communication that was coming in, the source of the beeping coming from her laptop.
"Doctor Granger, ma'am. The Faer Wind has confirmed presence of a launch pad and craft at coordinates."
Hermione clicked on the accompanying scans, images and video that were being sent in a compressed data file to her. She noticed specifically the signal that had been picked up and was in the process of being decoded, before she could look into that interesting piece of information she was interrupted in though.
"Harry you need to see this." Ruth said walking into the room they occupied, Hermione turned to look, it was a TV broadcast.
"…murdered right in front of me by alien hands…" Hermione snorted.
"Bit of a comeuppance, aliens on the TV bullshitting." She muttered to herself.
"…these visitors do not come in peace…our inspectors have searched the skies above our heads and they have found massive weapons of destruction. Capable of being deployed within 45 seconds Our technicians can baffle the alien probes, but not for long we are facing extinction unless we strike first. The United Kingdom stands directly beneath the belly of the mothership I beg of the United Nations pass an emergency resolution give us the access codes a nuclear strike at the heart of the beast is our only chance at survival….from this moment on planet Earth is at war…"
Everyone turned and looked at Hermione who was sitting watching the screen with a vague look of amusement.
"I think we can prove one of his claims very easily." She said as she grabbed the cable on the desk and plugged it into her laptop, he screen was replicated on the larger screen on the wall.
"Captain, I take it you got all that?"
"Yes ma'am."
"Just to check, are there any hostile space craft over Britain, or indeed any other country on Earth."
"Negative Doctor Granger, we can confirm no hostiles in orbit or the immediate area."
Hermione nodded.
"One moment captain." She said blanking her end of their conversation. "There."
"How can we know they're not beyond manipulation?" Adam asked.
"Because they are Mr Carter."
"Adam leave it alone." Harry said softly. "What about these codes will the UN release them?"
Hermione leaned into her chair thinking for a moment.
"Probably, with the rest of the government out of contact Joseph Green is in charge."
"Just like that they'll release the codes to the British government?" Jo asked incredulously.
"The UN knows this sort of thing is possible, with UNIT-UK in lockdown or suspect due to Greyhaven they won't be able to interfere. Also the UN they're appealing to is in the US and they won't listen to their European counterparts."
"What about UNIT contacts in the US?" Jo suggested. Hermione frowned.
"Unfortunately UNIT has a frosty relationship with the US at the best of times."
"And the US wouldn't want the UK upstaging them on another war with 'massive weapons'." Harry said in a low sarcastic tone.
"I'm no expert but getting the codes doesn't mean an immediate release…" Hermione looked around the room for confirmation.
"Yes that's right, the codes need to be entered into a secure computer…umm…there's one in Downing Street, it's a connection from the cold war days." Malcolm offered.
"So Doctor Granger's idea still stands as useful? Low yield EMP?" Harry stated. Malcolm shrugged.
"It could work if we were to position it over the area that they were congregated to minimise the area affected."
Hermione watched as the room cleared out, she'd be heading out to assist with the EMP…not that she really knew that much about it, only Harry Pearce was left in the room.
"Captain Timms." She said opening up her laptop communications with the orbiting ship once more. "As a member of Night Wolf working with an un-affected group of UK security services I am authorising Earthstrike protocols." Hermione felt a chill run down her back, she didn't think she'd ever have to say that, she'd never conceived of a situation where she would need to say it.
"Confirmed Doctor. Targets?"
"There is a list of nuclear missile sites accessible by the UK government, codes held by the UN in the US. You should be able to find them, they may be launched, disable or destroy them by any means."
"Confirmed Doctor. And the launch pad in the North sea?" Hermione thought for a moment.
"Have the Faer Wind conduct scans, destroy or disable any thing that posses a risk to Earth."
Captain Timms nodded and the link was cut.
"Earthstrike Doctor Granger, I wasn't aware of such a protocol."
"No, it's something that is should only be ordered in a very dire situation. I believe I'll be called to task on that order." Hermione said with a mix of worry and distaste, authorising the ship to fire its weapons on Earth based targets within the atmosphere was one of those things that wasn't done, UNIT vessels would fight aliens in space, but when they entered the atmosphere that was UNIT's Earth based forces to deal with. But if it was between that and nuclear armageddon she chose that.
She had no taste of ordering ships armed forces around.
--//
Nor did Hermione really enjoy breaking and entering into a new university.
An old dead one abandoned for thousands or even hundreds of years she was fine with.
As Malcolm and Adam set about disabling the security systems that would unlock the door she just jabbed her wand at the door and sprinkled a sand like composition on the key card reader. The readers sparked as the door slid open, with no (audible) alarms going off.
"Come on." Hermione said as she looked at the map she'd drawn for herself to get through the locked and shut down university, no doubt because of the alien space craft in the Thames, though it was also very early in the morning which could have something to do with the quietness that was in the University of London.
Hermione stood looking at the device, it was like two shoe boxes stuck together with a satellite dish on the end.
"That's it?"
"That is a low yield EMP generator, quite remarkable isn't it?" Hermione nodded as Malcolm started to unplug the EMP and pack it into the large case they'd wheeled behind them.
--//
Outside of Downing Street Jo looked around her amazed at how much the other journalists around here weren't paying her any attention, even when the looked directly at her their gaze seemed to drift off to something else.
As she set up the tripod and the 'scanner' that Dr Granger had left Jo checked again the sand like substance that Granger had told her to make sure was on her and around the tripod was still in her pocket.
It was, the large bag of what seemed to be sand and smelt like a health food shop had been mixed up by Granger in about 10 minutes from her 'bag of tricks' before she had left with Adam and Malcolm to get the EMP.
Of which she would be helping with the targeting of said 'low yield' device.
--//
"Zaf, Colin I'm starting now."
"Start on the ground floor Jo and work your way slowly upwards."
--//
"Is that?"
"Yes. There are a lot of them." Colin and Zaf looked at the swarm of colours that represented the aliens, they were walking around on the ground floor and a large amount of them on the top floor of Downing Street, a worrying amount of them.
--//
Hermione tried to refrain from making a noise as they hauled the main portion of the EMP up the fire stairs behind Downing Street. The armed police guarding the rear had been 'dispatched' and were unconscious down the street.
Hermione looked toward Adam Carter, she was getting a little bit worried about him, while she may have been able to deal with events without sorcery, it would have taken much longer and probably wouldn't have got done. But each time she did so Carter seemed…flinch.
Probably something to do with spies making everything quantifiable within their own personal existence.
She couldn't use said sorcery to assist with the EMP to get it into position in case it affected its function.
Hermione wondered albeit it briefly if this was the correct course of action.
It was a logical action based on the available information, diplomacy wouldn't have worked much to her annoyance. Diplomacy was the first course for UNIT except, and that was the thing, the list of 'excepts' was quite long, and hollowing out British MPs and Army personnel and using them as suits was in the 'except' category.
Hermione imagined that other UNIT officers and personnel probably would have dealt with the situation in a different manner, gassing perhaps, maybe storming the building…but this she reasoned was the most rational with the least chance of loss of life.
--//
"What is it Colin?" Ruth asked as she sat down beside Colin.
"We got a red flash from the Navy about possible terrorist hack. They're using a new form of virus, it's acting like a worm going through the Navy computers."
"They get hundreds of hackers trying to get into their computers, some consider it a sport. GCHQ used to run a pool on it." Ruth dismissed.
"Yeah but with the access Doctor Granger provided us to UNIT's infrastructure I've been tracking it, it's been working through their systems as well. Look." He gestured at the computer screen, it was showing a sine wave recording.
"Right keep monitoring it, find out what this virus worm is doing, make sure our systems aren't compromised Colin."
"Ruth what's the UN's status?"
"They're voting."
"And Adam and Granger?" Harry asked looking at the live feed from Downing Street at the large green aliens standing around, waiting to bring forth apocalypse.
"They should be getting it into position."
--//
"Malcolm, how's it looking?"
"Good, considering I'm sitting in front of the controls of an EMP." Malcolm looked around the van, they'd kitted out an OP van with their equipment and equipment they'd liberated from the university, he was pretty sure they had enough power, and the right controls to release the EMP without destroying the electronics for a quarter of London.
--//
"So do you do this often?" Adam asked Hermione, they were sitting just out of view on the top of Downing Street lashing the EMP to the roof and working out the cables.
"I dig things up, try not to get shot at doing it, today was going to be a quiet day since I got back from…well you know." Hermione smiled.
"Classified?" Adam smiled as he touched his ear piece. "Malcolm how's it looking?"
"Stand by Adam, I need to run through and check it all, lest we plunge London into the dark ages."
"How long?"
"10 minutes."
--//
"Ruth, Harry!" Colin yelled across the Grid. "Someone's hacking into the Royal Navy's automated launch control systems."
"The what?" Harry asked looking down at the screen.
"It's an experimental system with some of the Trafalgar class submarines. It's in case of an infiltration of the command structure the RN could override the launch systems preventing any weapons from being launched."
"Well it looks like someone is reversing it…oh crap." Colin blinked staring not believing at the information that was being presented to him.
"Colin?" Ruth asked looking at him and the computer, a worried expression forming.
"Someone, who ever used the worm has launched a sub-harpoon missile from the HMS Taurean."
"Can you work out where it's headed?" Harry said in a deathly calm voice. He'd assumed they'd face more than once terror attack from outside forces, but launched from one of their own submarines, with aliens in Downing Street hadn't figured into his estimation.
"Working the trajectory now." He pushed himself away from the desk sliding along the floor to another workstation and then back to his original.
"Central London, it'll be on radar in 1 minute."
"Get Adam, Granger and Malcolm out of there. Get Jo away from the front, get her to clear out any journalists she can." Harry ordered Ruth. "Divert air traffic."
--//
"Adam, Harry said get out of there now." Said Ruth's worried voice.
"Why what's the matter?" Adam asked, he and Hermione were still on top of Downing street, it had taken them 15 minutes to get up here, even without the EMP would take them at least 8 to get down.
--//
"On radar…it's Downing Street, ETA 2 minutes."
"Get emergency services on standby, Ruth get them out now."
--//
"There's a cruise missile on approach Adam, a minute 30 and it'll hit."
Adam stared out into space sure he could see the missile coming.
"Get down now, there's a missile." Hermione almost sighed, nothing could ever be easy, though considering she worked frequently on alien planets it was unlikely she'd ever have a 'normal' life, she wouldn't have it any other way though as she pulled Adam to the edge of the roof.
"Jump."
"What?!' He almost shouted, she just stared at him and aimed her wand at the ground.
They hit the cushioning charm hard, harder than she would have liked, harder than was probably safe.
The van's door exploded open.
"Come on." Malcolm shouted as he let them in.
"How big is a blast radius for a cruise missile?" Hermione asked herself out loud.
"Too close for comfort." Malcolm answered as Adam was starting the engine and pulling away, the missile couldn't have been more than 20 seconds away.
--//
"20 seconds to impact. All flights diverted from missile's flight, emergency services standing by outside projected impact zone."
"How big will the impact be?"
"10, 11 and 12 Downing Street, most likely will need a rebuild piece by piece."
"Adam, Malcolm and Dr Granger are on their way out." Ruth reported.
"5 seconds to impact."
Then their video feed went dead and Downing Street was destroyed.
--//
10 Hours Later…
Downing Street had been declared safe now that the UNIT trucks had left with their alien cargo.
Zaf looked up at the council housing, the Powell Estate.
"What level?"
"Third." Jo said as they walked to the lifts.
It had taken Colin and Malcolm a long time by their standards to find the perpetrator who had launched the missile, UNIT had provided any support they needed, after the Greyhaven situation had been lifted and Doctor Granger had stayed around until another UNIT officer had come to relieve her 'Just in case' she'd said.
Michael Smith previously taken in buy the police concerning Rose Tyler's disappearance with possibilities of kidnapping. According to the list from his ISP he had a predilection for conspiracy theories.
"Michael Smith?"
"It's Mickey, what'd you want?" He said eyeing Jo, which was unfortunate as he didn't see Zaf remove a small canister and spray him in the face, he collapsed into unconsciousness.
"Do you think UNIT will let have us have more of this stuff?" Zaf asked with a smile.
"Only if we filled out more mountains of paperwork and I thought this job involved a pile of paperwork and security." She said as two officers came through the door to take Smith to a holding house.
"Definite conspiracy nut." Zaf said looking around 'Mickey's' bedroom, there was a large corkboard with contacts for every crackpot organization he recognised.
"Odd substance in the kitchen, I got a sample for the labs to have a look into." Jo patted a coat pocket. "Anything?"
"Computer can go to Colin, you think that has anything in it?"
"Except fan organizations and stuff about blue boxes?" Jo asked eyeing the corkboard.
"Could be cover for a terror cell. He did launch a missile into the heart of London."
"Don't remind me." Jo said there was still a dull ringing in her ears from the explosion.
--//
Mikey opened his eyes gingerly and looked around, he was sitting in a well lit, though dark room, his hands were bound with plastic ties, there was a table in front of him.
He looked up as the door slid open and a man walked in.
"Who are you, why've I been kidnapped here?"
"Do you know, before September 11 you might have got an answer to those questions 'Mickey'."
"Why what'd you mean?"
Adam placed slid a photo onto the table in front of Michael Smith it was a picture of the missile as it flew past the Powell Estate.
"You launched a Sub Harpoon Missile, utilising a computer worm known as 'Buffalo'. Why shouldn't I just pack you away to Guantanamo Bay?" Adam asked before turning and leaving.
"That was a lot of pomp Adam." Harry muttered looking at the video feed at the man in the questioning room. "UNIT just contacted, they believe that it was this Doctor that gave Smith the worm activation."
"The code nine?"
"Yes."
"What about Jacqueline Tyler?" Adam asked, Harry smiled awkwardly.
"Jo's getting a debrief from her, she's been…very forthcoming."
Adam looked down at the security monitors again at the man who had launched a cruise missile at Downing Street, killing several officers around Downing Street and injured several others, not to mention destroying the over 250 year old building.
--//
Ok this chapter was difficult to write, which explains the 2 week gap between chapters.
I had a lot of the scenes in my head, but this chapter was a bit like Tetris, it was all there, just trying to work out how to make it all fall in together.
There are a few scenes which never made it to page but where there as an idea; there was going to be a scene involving the Faer Wind attacking the platform, with rail guns, missiles and other things like that (which I attempted but after I wrote a sentence or so it just felt like it was weighing down the story). There was another scene where in the Firefox, monitoring the UN's decision starts to mark out missile targets and drops into the atmosphere to prepare to beginning targeting, but the last few paragraphs there's already a so many things happening and it didn't quite seem right.
There were also various bits dealing with the Doctor in more detail that never made it either.
On the Doctor Who stories referenced WOTAN comes from a 1966 story The War Machines and the stuff with Concord is from a 1982 story Time-Flight
The next story entitled The Prometheus Encounter, will probably be up in a week, it'll be a sequel within this same universe, featuring Harry Potter again, and be a crossover with Stargate SG1 (timeline wise around Season 8).
Thanks for reading.