Who: Jash (Skrull!martha) and the members of Torchwood What: The invasion begins in Wales When: 2010-10-25 Where: Torchwood Hub, Cardiff, Wales Why: Because the Skrulls have to show their superiority and... well you'll see. Status: Open to Torchwood Personnel
The time had come. This was the moment that they'd been waiting for. The plan was set and it was too far along for the Earth's forces to do anything to stop them. The mother ship had touched down somewhere outside the city. Where she didn't know. It was currently cloaked. But after Jash carried out the most important part of her mission, it would not have to stay that way. The plan was simple. Infiltrate, destroy and then kill the members of Torchwood. One by one. And of course the last to go and the most complicated would be the Captain. He who apparently could not die. They had the one called Martha Jones, along with one known as Gambit, in their clutches, undergoing experimentation in order to attempt and harness the energy that was lying in their cells. Very odd specimens. Different from others they'd been impersonating. They had never seen energy from a time vortex before.
Over the last weeks, when she was able to access the system, she had - little by little - been weakening Torchwood's defenses. It wasn't hard. Once you were inside the base. The security was good, for human standards, but for her? Well, she'd gotten the information she'd needed. And had been steadily placing items around strategic points in the Hub. This was war. There were no sentimental ties, nothing but the rest of her mission to keep her from doing anything more than what was in store for today. Everything was in the ready. Communications would go down, they would not be able to warn anyone. CCTV linkups would fall. The Torchwood Hub would be cut off from their governmental and other contacts. And that was just the way they wanted it.
The charges were in place. It was just a matter of when. Very strategic places. Torchwood would be temporarily crippled. Long enough for her people to do everything they needed and take over the planet. The technology she held in her hand was compact enough and would not be detected. Jash positioned herself in medical - where they would expect to find Martha. If she was elsewhere... there would be less questions. And at that she set them off, causing a massive explosion within the hub.
Now the show could begin.
Jack was walking along the upper catwalks of the Hub, reading a file as he paced. UNIT, SHIELD, and several other organizations were all in a panic due to the approaching ships. Torchwood had them under surveilance as well, but there was little they could do at the moment. The home office was busy screaming at Jack to stop them, but it wasn't like Torchwood specialized in long range weapons of mass destruction.
He sighed and leaned against one of the rails, glancing around to see what the others were doing. "Hey Ianto... got any coffee ready?" he called out, hoping the young man was within earshot.
She knew that everyone was there. And it was the perfect time. The detonator in her hand she took cover before pressing the button. She would be a bit beat up over it, but it was worth it. Completely. And utterly.
The explosives went off loudly and with a lot of flash, knocking out the areas they'd been placed. The Armory, Communications, medical, the whole nine yards. The other areas were damaged but not destroyed. She wanted them to know they were powerless. They couldn't communicate. It would be beautiful. Jash smirked, destroying the detanator. She was IN medical, thus she would have to make her way out of there. The alibi being solid all around. It was going EXACTLY according to plan.
With the alien ships coming around and everybody on high alert Ianto did what he did best. Set up everything to be battle ready and then made coffee. He heard Jack's call, and having anticipated it picked up the mug he'd made special for the older man and walked up. "Of course, sir," he said crisply, making for the stairs up to Jack. "Don't I always-" but his mild boasting was cut short when suddenly everything got very loud. The communications counsel he'd just passed blew and sent him flying face first into a wall, the mug shattering and sending hot coffee all over his front, though his nose crunching into the rock wall and the shockwave and random bits of tech hitting his back made that one of the lesser concerns.
The young man hit the floor heavily, blacking out for a few seconds and ever so slowly coming to, his ears ringing and body throbbing. The pain wasn't even registering yet, there was no reason for it to. Just like there was no reason to try to move. Why invite that hurt when he could just lay here and blurrily stare up at the ceiling?
Jack had been walking past the Hot House when the explosions began. He ducked for cover, but still managed to get knocked off his feet and thrown over the railing, causing him to plummet down to ground level of the Hub and his death. It took a few minutes for his body to heal the broken neck before he gasped and jerked back to life, wincing in pain as he managed to sit up and survey the damage. He rubbed the back of his sore head and his fingers came away bloody, but there was no time to worry about that.
"Ianto!" he yelled out, rushing over towards the young man to help him. "Come on... say something. You okay?"
Jack helped him to a sitting position and gave him a quick once over, making sure he didn't have any life threatening injuries. He activated his comm and quickly asked in concern, "Gwen? Martha? You two okay?"
When there was no response and he realized communications was down, Jack yelled out for them both as loud as he could.
The explosion had gone off without a hitch, but she'd gotten caught in it more than she'd hoped. Still it gave her an authentic look. Which she needed. Her leg hurt, And as she pushed herself up from the floor of medical she noticed something. Part of the entrance was blocked. Oh this wasn't good... but she could work wth it. She might be able to get out but instead she started banging on what part of the entrance of the examination area she could reach.
She wasn't bleeding. Which was good. But still. "Jack?! Ianto?! Gwen?! Anyone?" She banged on the door sounding more panicked than she felt, but then the door opened. The banging having loosened it. There was a small area in which she could slip out ... well in this form anyway. She moved outside and walked - with a limp. She could hear things sparking and clearly broken. Torchwood was down. Everything was going according to plan!
Ianto groaned as he was moved, the pain rushing up all at once. But it did pull him back into the here and now, and he slowly lifted a hand to touch his head, not unhappy to see his Captain kneeling above him. "Yeah. I'm fine," he grunted automatically, slowly catching up and then taking stock of what he could see. "Attack.... it's an attack?" he guessed. Torchwood machinery didn't just blow up, not to this extent and not without alarms detecting a problem and letting them know, first.
He looked over at Jack and saw the blood as well, frowning deeply. "Sir, you're hurt. You need to sit and heal," he said, reaching to pull the collar away from the blood on his boss's neck.
"I'm fine," Jack said, ignoring Ianto's comment. He thought it was odd for a moment, but then remembered that this Ianto was from a time before the team knew about Jack's secret. That would be something he'd need to correct later.
"Come on... we need to find the others, if you can move." Jack slowly helped Ianto to his feet, looked around the Hub. The moment he heard Martha's voice, Jack rushed towards her lab. She was alive... a little beaten up looking, but alive and without any visible major injuries.
"You okay?" he asked in concern, placing both hands on her hips and looking into her eyes.
The look on his face as he rushed over to her, it was classic. The worry was so evident and so very genuine, it actually made her feel bad that she was just play acting. Despite it all, she thought that upon their successful invasion he might be fun to play with. As an informational construct, that was. He was certainly a unique specimen.
Jash let him fret over her, wrapping her arms around him, breathing hard. She was shaking. "Y-yes..." she didn't sound sure of herself. "I was in the lab and... and..." she couldn't finish her sentence. She tried to calm down. She was good at this. One of the reasons she was elite.
Ianto hissed slightly in pain as he leaned against the rail, but was fine, and watched Jack rush off to check on Martha.
"Suppose then I should try something...." he turned, footsteps heavy but resolute, heading towards the computer consoles to see if anything could be salvaged. Also, perhaps, to see if he could locate Gwen anywhere. He pulled out his phone and tried her, but realized in frustration that it had been broken. "Damn. Gwen, can you hear me?" he tried the communicator again, just in case.
Jack pulled his own phone out of his pocket, checked to make sure it wasn't broken, and tossed it to Ianto. "Get Gwen on the line... find out where she is, since she's obviously not here. Make sure she's safe and that this wasn't some kind of coordinated attack. If someone's out to get Torchwood, it's possible that her home and Rhys aren't safe either."
When Jack was satisfied that Martha wasn't hurt, he looked up and finally noticed the darkened state of the Hub, as well as the red emergency lighting. "No... oh no, not again."
He rushed towards the large cog wheel door and banged a fist on it in frustration. The entire Hub was in lockdown mode.
Mobile phones weren't Jash's concern. They could contact one person at a time but by the time they got through the red tape to get an international call? It would be too late.
What she wasn't counting on was the red emergency light going off. The Hub had gotten much darker and whatever was happening... while she had a good idea, it had been in the plans but there hadn't been many specifics. Whatever it was, she liked it.
As Martha however, she had to have a different reaction. "What do you mean not again?" She walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder. He'd hurt himself if he kept doing that... of course Jack hurting himself was something of an oxymoron. "What's happening?"
Ianto caught the phone and winced, then opened the device and dialed Gwen's number, hoping she was alright. "C'mon, pick up," he grunted, moving around carefully as the red lights flashed and inspecting the technology he could find. Nothing was whole, nothing would help. If Gwen wasn't outside the Hub and able to get them out..... He didn't want to think about how long they could be trapped down here.
Jack rubbed the side of his hand and frowned as he turned to face her. "The Hub's on lockdown. That means for the next 24 hours, we're stuck in here. Normally I could've bypassed it like we did the last time this happened, but those explosions aren't going to help."
He crossed his arms over his chest and looked over at Ianto. "Any word from Gwen yet?" he asked impatiently. Motioning to Martha, he nodded towards Ianto. "Check him out for me and make sure he's alright."
With that said, he carefully made his way back up to his office. The glass windows were all destroyed, but the place was otherwise intact (just really messed up). Jack pulled his Webley out of his desk drawer and unbuckled his belt, sliding the holster into place. Stepping back out, he surveyed the Hub from his vantage point and frowned. Whoever did this, it had to be intentional. And no one came into his home, messed with his things, and hurt his friends. No one.
Gwen meanwhile had been with Susan, making sure the younger woman was safe (and in this case she had sent Susan off to visit Andy). But at that moment she was trapped in the Archives,"Jack! I'm trapped in the Archives!" came a female voice, Gwen was fine thankfully but the sooner she was out given recent events the better. To make things worse Gwen had no clue how she had gotten stuck in the first place.
They were stuck in here. More ways for her to kill them if it became necessary. 24 hours was a long time. And other things could go on. She'd started to formulate plans. This could be even better than she'd initially thought. But only if it seemed absolutely necessary. Things like this needed to be handled with the utmost care.
She nodded at Jack's order, taking a moment to give his hand one final squeeze before trying to locate some bandages. Jash had never been more thankful for her template's memories. She knew precicely what to do. She found what she was looking for - somehow - and moved to tend to Ianto. The young man, while she didn't need him alive, needed to at least be given the illusion of being cared for.
She gave him a once over. "Anything hurt?" She needed to know this. That wasn't really a technical question but it would do...
Ianto shook his head. "Nothing major. A couple scrapes, the flying face first into a wall thing. I'll shake it off," he said, distracted as he put the phone away and started to rummage through the debris. He paused and then turned, looking at her. "Are you alright? Not worried about this lockdown or anything?" The first time he'd gotten stuck in here it had been pretty intense, though he hadn't betrayed how nervous he was and doubted that Martha would either.
Once he was sure that Martha was handling Ianto, he snatched back his phone and charged downstairs to the archives. "Keep talking to me, Gwen," he said into the phone. "I'm on my way. Are you hurt? Martha's patching up Ianto, but it doesn't look like anything major. We don't know who hit us yet though."
When he reached the Archives, Jack crawled through and over the rubble. He grabbed hold of the damaged door and began yanking, gritting his teeth and putting his back into it.
So she didn't need any of the supplies, but it was better to have them than not need them. It worked for her cover. Ianto's questions spurred her into an answer, one that she knew needed to be said. "A few scrapes, 'bout the same as you." She sighed and looked about for Jack and Gwen but if she was trapped in Archives he'd probably try to get her out of there.
"This is my first time under lockdown," She admitted. "Not really one who likes closed spaces but, you know, niothing that can be done about it now..." And she wasn't sure she wanted anyting TO be done. She could kill him so easily now if she wanted to. Strangle him with the gause... it would be so easy...
"Just not taking the small space very well, otherwise just a few bruises." came Gwen's voice again. She had been fighting at the door as well, getting nowhere but had gotten it open a tiny bit.
Ianto was completely oblivious to this, but he wasn't looking for a threat in the one person who'd been really nice to him since he'd come here.
"It'll be alright. Just stay in the main room, that's where there's the most light and the least chance of claustrophobia," he said, standing and turning away from her to dig through the mess, nose wrinkling at the smell of burnt electronics. "But while we're here we might as well try to figure out what blew the systems, eh?"
Jack continued pushing, gritting his teeth and giving it his all. he finally managed to clear enough space for Gwen to crawl out through and helped her out.
"And we just fixed this place up a while back!" he complained. First John Hart helps to blow the Hub to hell, and now some unknown enemy had done the same.
"Come on... let's have Martha take a look at you. Ianto's okay and so are Martha. Just some bruises and scrapes from the look of it."
"Plus I'm not a fan of tiny spaces now." Gwen let Jack help her out of the archives. But beyond being semi banged up she was in pretty decent shape for being stuck underground for about a hour (at least she thinks it was an hour).