The Enemy
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"It's his signature." The general said as he handed the electro-paper to the Castellan. "Ever since that night on Karn, this has been his signature on the cosmos."
The Castellan looked at the film in his hands. There was a gaping hole in the middle of the battlefield chaos. Dalek saucers were torn to bits. N-Forms were tied in causal knots that they couldn't extricate themselves from. War TARDISes shredded like tissue paper, their inner dimensions spewing out into the cosmos like water issuing from a popped water balloon.
"Are you sure it is him?" The Castellan said as he looked at the piles of similar films, showing the same scene over and over again.
"It is him. Data records show the signature of a Type 40 capsule, or rather what had been a Type 40 capsule, there are aberrations…" the general replied, as he laid further sheets down. "No visual verification but, then, how could there be."
"It is hard to believe, I have to say, I knew him for years. He is a man of peace, of justice. He is not a warrior." The Castellan shook his head. He couldn't believe the images being shown to him.
"It's worse than that." The general replied, walking around the large table in the war room. His burnished copper armor glowed red, reflecting the interior lights. "They say he's leading an army of his own now, disaffected Time Lords, survivors from the myriad battles, other species he's been allied with in the past. It is said that the Third Rassilonian Heavy Infantry was overtaken by a Battalion of Thal warriors. The remnants of the merchant fleet of the Warpsmiths of Phaidon are being reported as having launched suicide campaigns against Dalek Outposts along the Humanian-Chelonian Era border." The general lifted a remote and pressed a button. A holographic display appeared on the ceiling of the war room. "This new faction is waging a second front near the Planet Heaven. The men are calling it the Second War in Heaven. He has been leading the charges, and we have information that he's been interacting with his past and future…creating paradoxes, revisiting past battles, attempting to change military history."
"But this…" The Castellan said, pointing at the battlefield pictures. "How is he doing this?"
"Somehow he's gotten his hands on a D-Mat Gun." The general said, with a growl. "We thought the weapon lost forever, but somehow this madman has gotten it."
"He's not a madman, I know him, the…"
"He's the enemy now, naming him would only distract from what he's doing." The general circled the table and stood next to the Castellan.
"But the D-mat gun is a very limited weapon, designed to erase an individual, maybe a small military force, from history, not blast solar system sized holes in reality." The Castellan picked up one of the pictures.
"We believe he's plugged the weapon directly into his TARDIS's engines." The general said quietly, narrowing his eyes. "Very dangerous, if the weapon ever backfired, he would tear an ontological hole into reality, the war would twist inside out; reality would crumble."
"Yes…" The Castellan said more to himself than to the general. He scanned the images on the table, and then looked up at the holographic display. "You say he's leading the charges, have you or the other field officers have noted any pattern to the attacks?"
"Unfortunately, no, the attacks come from nowhere and disappear into nowhere soon after, plus the enemy tends to cleanse the field before departing, we assume to clear their tracks." The general said.
"Small picture, general, small picture." The Castellan said. The Castellan shifted the images on the table, putting them in ontological order, and secondarily in positional order. He took the remote in the general's hands and pointed at the holographic image. The image zoomed out and red dots flashed into existence. "Not, random attacks. These ones that the new enemy faction leader has led make a pattern, look, general, look."
The general looked up. Curving lines joined the dots, forming intersecting circles in four dimensions. He recognized the circular structures, as Gallifreyan script twisted four dimenstionally in the air.
"Words…" The general looked back to the Castellan.
"I know him, he was always theatrical." The Castellan said, shaking his head. He read the Gallifreyan words aloud. "No More." The Castellan looked up at the image, something caught his eyes. "But there's more, overlaying the other attacks by the faction, and the paradoxical events of the enemy." The images shifted; the Castellan took a deep breath. "He also was known for grand gestures, the enemy is doing more than attacking our forces, opening second fronts; changing military history is inconsequential to what he's doing. He's altering the structure of the Web of Time. The base foundations of history and time are changing; he's creating a rival Web of Time…"
"To what end?" The general asked. "He must know that we would resist it!"
"How, general? Our entire forces are tied up in holding off the Daleks." The Castellan said as he slid his fingers across an access panel on the edge of the table. The Castellan narrowed his eyes. "Recall all defense forces."
"Castellan…"
"Do it! Reinforce the sky trenches, re-route all power from the citadel's power network to the transduction barriers." The Castellan glared at the general. "I will inform Rassilon of this new information. This Paradoxical Faction is planning to assault Gallifrey directly. The new Web of Time is targeted to eliminate the defenses around the Omega Arsenal. Look, here, the dimensional dams are already starting to erode, the time spiral is collapsing, the temporal baffles safe-guarding Gallifrey's ontology are eroding. You're right, general, giving this enemy a name is to ignore its true nature. This is a fundamental threat not just to Gallifrey, but to the entire war and the remaining universe. If 'The Enemy' gains entry into the Time Vaults he will wield the worst weapons in history, the forbidden weapons of the Dark Times."
"He'll be too late; most of the weapons have been used against the Daleks." The general said, as the Castellan started to leave the war room.
"One weapon will suffice." Replied the Castellan as he continued to the door. He stopped at the door frame and turned back to the general. "The Daleks will notice soon that our defenses are collapsing, general. The war, in all its horror, is coming to Gallifrey. Prepare your men for a full scale invasion of Gallifrey, everything will be coming here, the demons we released from the Shadow Dimensions, the Daleks, and 'The Enemy' will be here."
"How soon…?" The general fumbled, not sure how to interpret this.
"It's a time war, general, 'soon' is relative, they may already be here." The Castellan said leaving the war room.
The general reached down and touched a blue button on the table. "This is General Maxillondiravandrulandru, High commander of Gallifreyan Military Operations, Leader of the War Council, all non-terrestrial forces must return to Gallifrey, immediately, we are officially at triple mauve; I repeat we are at triple mauve. All forces are ordered to return to defend the home-front!"
The general looked up at the screens, and that's when the klaxons started. The images shifted on the ceiling shifted. A fleet of Dalek saucers were in orbit. The ground shook, tremors vibrated through the floor as the saucers started their attack. The general braced himself as the room shuttered. The saucers just kept coming, piling more and more on each other, until they filled the orbital spaces around Gallifrey and the general knew that this was the last day.
The general tapped a button on his gauntlet. "Under general order 17, I authorize the launching of all weapons in the Omega Arsenal, save the final Moment. Pray that we'll never need to use that."
A light blinked near the communication console, within seconds a voice was coming over the speakers. "This is flight control; we are detecting an unauthorized TT-capsule materializing near the city of Arcadia."
"Can you identify it?" The general growled.
"The pilot used old presidential access codes to bypass the transduction barrier, but the owner of the codes is not in the system. We don't know who it is." The flight control officer said.
"The vehicle, can you identify the vehicle?" The general asked, increasingly paranoid and fearful of the answer.
"Computers are trying to extrapolate information from the sensor grid at Arcadia as we speak…that can't be right…"
"What can't be right?"
"The computer says that it's some obsolete model…Type 40s haven't been in service for millennia." The flight controller said. "Must be a fault…"
"It's no fault." The general said, he looked down at the outlaid images on the table, of holes in reality torn by 'The Enemy'. "Dear god, he's here." The general hit the communicator on his gauntlet. "All members of the War Council are ordered to the War Room…all citadel security officers are ordered to the Time Vaults."
New klaxons went off in the war room as the other councilors arrived. The klaxons told the high general what he had feared.
"What the hell is going on!?" one of the councilors roared. "I'm trying to orchestrate a defense. I'm getting reports that the Daleks have penetrated the sky trenches near Arcadia; the population is in chaos!"
"It's him…he's gone mad." The High general growled.
"Who's gone mad?"
"It's the Enemy." The high general responded. "He's broken into the Omega Arsenal."
"A wasted action, we just launched the remainder of the weapons against the Dalek invasion fleet." The councilor said.
" There is one weapon left." Another councilor pointed out. "But the Doctor would never…."
"The Doctor wouldn't, but the Enemy, the rogue that burned off of Karn, would." The high general said. "Inform, the High Council that the man who was the Doctor has the Moment and intends to use it." The high general walked towards the door, turned and pointed at two other councilors. "Come with me, we must check the Time Vaults, and verify the theft. The rest of you, get these Dalek saucers off our backs!"