Doctor Who Fan Fiction ❯ Donna and Ten - The Inbetweens and backstories ❯ Chapter Twenty ( Chapter 20 )

Gwen led the way into the basement of the Atmos factory, using a Torchwood scanning device. Jack, Ianto, and Captain Price followed her to a keypad locked door.

 

'Here, let me,' Ianto said as he stepped forwards with another Torchwood gadget. He placed a device that looked like a calculator over the keypad and pressed a button. A series of numbers flashed on the display, faster than the eye could follow, and after a few seconds the lock clicked.

 

Jack drew his sidearm, pushed the door open and carefully stepped inside. Ianto followed him in, moving to the side of the room to provide cover.

 

'After you Captain,' Gwen said, holding her arm out for her to enter. Price was about to say the same, when Gwen pulled back the hammer on her automatic and pointed it at Price. 'I insist.' She took clone Price's sidearm out of her holster.

 

They stepped into the room, and saw Jack checking on a female body strapped to a frame, she had a futuristic device attached to her head.

 

'She's still alive,' Jack said. 'They must have needed her memories to feed to the clone through this headset.'

 

'When did you know?' the clone asked. It had been interfering with a nuclear counterattack, when NATO had declared Defcon One, and feeding information to the orbiting Sontaran ship.

 

'About you? Oh, right from the start,' Jack said. 'You're wearing a different perfume, stronger, probably to hide the residual odour of the clone vat. Not everyone might have noticed that . . . but there again, I'm not everyone.' He turned his attention to the real Price.

 

'And it was a woman thing,' Gwen added. 'Subtle changes in your body language, y'know, as though you weren't quite familiar with your own body.'

 

Jack took the device off Price's head, and the clone collapsed, clutching its chest.

 

'It's alright, it's alright, I'm here, I'm here. I've got you, I've got you,' Jack said, as Marion Price sat up and clung on to him.

 

'There was this thing, Jack, this alien, with this head.'

 

'Sontarans, yes we know. UNIT have launched a counterattack using the Valiant, but now we need to work out why they didn't want us to launch the missiles,' Jack said, as he took off his grey coat and wrapped it around her.

 

'Why don't we ask this one?' Ianto said, pointing at the clone with his sidearm.

 

'Don't touch me,' the clone said in disgust, as Marion stooped down to try and hold the clones hand.

 

'It's not my fault. The Sontarans created you, but you had all my memories.'

 

'You've got a mother, father, and a . . . sister,' the clone said, as if in wonder.

 

'Yes, and if you don't help me, they're going to die.'

 

'You love them.'

 

'Yes,' Marion said. 'Remember that?'

 

'And Colonel Mace . . . you love him.'

 

Captain Price looked at the Torchwood team and blushed. 'Er, I think that's enough of that.'

 

Jack stepped forward, ever the gentleman, trying to spare her blushes. 'The gas . . . Tell us about the gas.'

 

'He's the enemy,' the clone said.

 

'Then tell me,' Marion said, stroking the clones hair off her face. 'It's not just poison, what's it for . . .? Marion, please.'

 

'Caesofine concentrate. It's one part of Bosteen, two parts Probic five.'

 

Jack went over to a computer terminal, and hacked the UNIT database. 'Clonefeed . . . It's clonefeed!' he exclaimed.

 

'What's clonefeed?' Gwen asked.

 

'Like amniotic fluid for Sontarans. That's why they're not invading. They're converting the atmosphere, changing the planet into a clone world. Earth becomes a great big hatchery. Because the Sontarans are clones, that's how they reproduce. Give them a planet this big, they'll create billions of new soldiers. The gas isn't poison, its food.'

 

'My heart. It's getting slower,' the clone said.

 

'There's nothing we can do,' Jack said sadly.

 

'In your mind, you've got so many plans. There's so much that you want to do,' the clone said, looking into Marion's eyes.

 

'And I will. Never do tomorrow what you can do today, my father says, because . . .'

 

'Because you never know how long you've got, Marion Price. All that life . . . Kiss him . . . kiss your secret love, before it's too late.'

 

The clone exhaled and died. Everyone stood silently, looking at the dead woman. She may have been artificially created, but she had been alive, and now she was dead.

 

Jack cleared his throat. 'That's why the Sontarans had to stop the missiles. They were holding back. Because caesofine gas is volatile, that's why they had to use you Marion, to stop the nuclear attack. Ground to air engagement could spark off the whole thing.'

 

'What; like set fire to the atmosphere?' Gwen said.

 

'Yeah, they need all the gas intact to breed their clone army.' Jack was formulating a plan, but he needed help. He took out his mobile and dialled a number. 'This is Captain Jack Harkness; I need to speak to Colonel Mace urgently.'

 

'This is an unlisted, secure line, how did you get this number?' the young communications officer asked, suspecting that there had been a breach of security. To be fair, she was right; there had been a breach of their security.

 

'I'm Torchwood,' Jack said, by way of explanation. 'I did say urgently, this is a matter of national security.'

 

'Er, yes sir, I'm patching you through now.'

 

Mace's voice came on the phone. 'Captain, where are you, what can I do for you?'

 

'We're in the basement of the factory. Look, I need a chopper to take me to the nearest civilian airfield.' Gwen and Ianto looked at each other with puzzled expressions.

 

'I'll also need an M202 FLASH, equipped with M74 rockets, and fitted with M235 warheads.'  

 

'Jack, what's going on?' Gwen asked in that "do I really want to know" tone of voice.

 

'Right, thank you Colonel, I'll be out the front in five,' he said, hanging up the call. He looked at Gwen and Ianto, who were waiting for an explanation.

 

'Well?' Ianto said.

 

'The M202 FLASH is a flame assault shoulder weapon, it's the modern day flamethrower. It uses four M74 rockets, to launch M235 incendiary warheads. I'm going to commandeer a light aircraft and fly into the densest collection of gas and fire the rockets.' He was now heading for the door to climb the stairs to the surface.

 

'But that's suicide,' Marion told him.

 

'Which is why I'm doing it,' Jack replied. Marion just frowned at that reply.

 

'But won't that make the Sontarans "kick off" when they see all their lovely gas go up in smoke?' Gwen said.

 

'Yeah, I should imagine so, that's why I'm getting the plasma rifle out of the Range Rover when I come back, so that I can use the teleporter in the basement to get to their ship and cause some mayhem.'

 

They had reached ground level, and were moving towards the front entrance. Gwen grabbed Jack's arm and swung him around.

 

'Jack, you can't do this on your own,' she told him. 'You don't know how long it will take to get back here . . . there might be millions of Sontaran troops on the ground by the time you get back.'

 

'But Gwen, what choice have I got? They're both suicide missions, and I'm the only one here who can do them.'

 

Ianto took a deep breath, and swallowed hard. He couldn't believe what he was about to say. 'I can fly a light aircraft.'

 

'And any fool can pull the trigger on a rocket launcher,' Gwen said.

 

'NO! No, no, no, definitely not,' Jack said, shaking his head and cutting the air in front of them with his arms.

 

'Think about it Jack, Ianto can put us in to a steep dive after the rockets are launched. There's a chance we will survive it, and you can launch a simultaneous attack on their ship while they're distracted.'

 

Ianto nodded as Jack looked at them. Gwen was right; damn it, she was right. He reached forwards and held Gwen's face, kissing her on the lips. He then did the same to Ianto, and remembered a time, many lifetimes ago, when he was in the same situation on Satellite Five.

 

'Be careful,' he said quietly. 'See you in hell.' He put on his gas mask, and walked past them, heading for the Range Rover.

 

The black, Westland Lynx helicopter landed in front of the Atmos factory, and Ianto ran towards it, with Gwen close behind. They climbed inside, took off their masks, and put on the headsets. As soon as they were strapped in, it took off, and flew over the factory, where Jack looked up, and wondered if he would ever see his friends again.

 

He grabbed the large, plasma cannon out of the back of the Range Rover, and headed for the mobile headquarters, to give Colonel Mace a run down on their plan.

 

Ianto sat with the pilot, looking at the satellite data which indicated the concentrations of gas in the atmosphere. With petrol being so scarce, the greatest concentrations tended to be over a metropolis, and the nearest one of those was London.

 

Gwen sat in the rear of the helicopter with a weapons specialist, who was giving her a quick lesson on how to fire the rockets without killing either herself or Ianto.

 

'You're going to fire it where?' he asked in disbelief.

 

'From a light aircraft, why, is that a problem?' she asked.

 

'Oh, no, not at all, if you don't mind the rocket exhaust setting fire to the aircraft,' he said sarcastically.

 

Gwen smiled at him sweetly. 'I'll have to make sure I've got a big fire extinguisher then, won't I.'

 

'We're coming up on the airfield, wheels down in two minutes,' the pilot announced.

 

After landing, the UNIT weapons officer led them to the small office on the airfield, and handed the manager a requisition order from the Ministry of Defence.

 

'We need to commandeer a light aircraft on a matter of national security, you may have noticed the gas that is choking everyone,' he said.

 

The manager examined the paperwork with a worried expression.

 

'If the aircraft is damaged or lost, you can claim compensation from the Ministry by completing the claims slip at the bottom of the form.'

 

'What do you mean, lost?' the man asked, wondering how you could forget where you landed a light aircraft.

 

'You really don't want to know,' Ianto said. The haunted look on his face, telling the manager that they didn't mean that kind of lost.

 

'Ah, right . . . There's a Cessna 162 Skycatcher available at the moment. It's a bit beaten up, but it's solid and reliable.'

 

'Does it have the swing up door design?' the helicopter pilot asked.

 

'Yeah, it does.'

 

'That will be ideal for your needs,' the weapons officer told Gwen.

 

'Right, let's do this before I change my mind,' Ianto said nervously.

 

They loaded the Cessna with the rocket launcher, and a borrowed foam extinguisher, before strapping in and moving onto the runway. It was late evening now, and it was getting dark as Ianto taxied down the runway.

 

'I don't actually have a night rating,' Ianto confessed, as the engine idled. 'I only have a NPPL for recreational flying.'

 

Gwen actually laughed, despite the fact that she would probably die in this attempt. 'Can you take off?'

 

'Yes, of course,' he replied.

 

'And can you follow a compass heading to London?'

 

'Yes.'

 

'And can you land this thing?'

 

He smiled at her. 'Yes, I can.'

 

'Well that's good enough for me, just fly the bloody plane and the CAA can go and sod off.'

 

He opened up the throttle and the Cessna accelerated down the runway. Ianto pulled back on the yoke, and they climbed steadily into the night sky towards London.

 

'I can't see a damn thing through this gas,' Ianto complained, relying on his instruments to get them to their destination.

 

Gwen had taken her laptop out of her holdall and was checking the satellite data. 'Well, according to this, we're right in the thick of it . . . I guess its time.'

 

She reached behind Ianto's seat, and pulled the M202 FLASH onto her lap, where she started to prepare it to fire. Ianto throttled back the engines and extended the flaps to lower their stall speed. Gwen twisted the handle and lifted the door, and felt the wind whistle by. She looked down and saw a muddy brown glow of the sodium street lights through the gas.

 

She perched the rectangular rocket launcher on her left shoulder, pointing the `business end' out of the open door, with the exhaust end pointing into the back of the cabin.

 

'YOU READY?' she shouted through the gas mask, over the howl of the wind.

 

Ianto turned to look at her and nodded, before turning back to the flight instruments.

 

`WHOOSH', `WHOOSH', `WHOOSH', `WHOOSH'. The four rockets disappeared into the night, and Ianto pushed the yoke hard forward. Gwen's stomach churned, as she went into free fall. The cabin was filling with thick black smoke, and she reached behind the seat to get the foam extinguisher. She pulled the pin and squeezed the handle, spraying foam into the back of the cockpit. A deep, orangey brown glow filled the aircraft, not from the fire inside, which was now out, but from the sky, that had become a churning inferno.

 

Gwen's last words were quite typical for her. 'Ohhhh Goddd . . . Rhys, Love, I'm so sorry.'

Ianto, on the other hand, was an ordinary lad from Cardiff, although having been to university, he was quite well read. If he had known that they would be his last words, he may have quoted Dickens, `It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known', or maybe Churchill, `Never was so much owed by so many to so few'.

 

As it was, all he managed was 'Yeeeeee-Haaaaah,' as the plane plummeted, and then was tossed about in the turbulence of the convection currents of the fire, like a leaf on a breeze.

 

 

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Jack Harkness stood at the entrance to the short, tunnel like teleporter in the basement of the Atmos factory. He pulled back the slider on the plasma cannon, and primed it for firing. He stepped into the tunnel and pressed the button on the control panel. There was a flash of white light, and he was facing several, troll like Sontarans, who were looking at their precious clonefeed gas, burning in the Earth's atmosphere.

 

He pulled the trigger on the cannon as he stepped out of the teleporter, and blew a control desk to pieces. He pulled back the slider and fired at another panel, and another, and another. The whole of the control room was in chaos and ruins, as the deck lurched under his feet. With all the control interfaces destroyed, the engines and power generator would spiral out of control, and the ship would blow up.

 

General Staal, of the Tenth Sontaran Fleet, Staal the Undefeated, drew a pistol from the holster on his belt, and shot Jack in the chest. Jack flew backwards and landed on the deck, his cannon clattered across the deck. Staal walked over to where Jack lay, and looked down at him, nodding in appreciation.

 

'At last, a human fit to be called a warrior, I salute you sir.'

 

'General,' Lieutenant Skree called out. 'The power grid is becoming unstable; we do not have much time.'

 

'Then it will be a glorious death,' Staal said.

 

Jack took a sharp, gasping breath.

 

'What manner of warrior are you that cannot die?' the general asked him.

 

'Wouldn't you like to know,' Jack said, propping himself up on his elbows.

 

'You're right, I would. Imagine all our warriors able to experience a glorious death, time after time . . . Magnificent!' He turned to Skree. 'Lieutenant, I charge you with taking the prisoner to Sontar on a transport, where our scientist can study him and replicate the ability.'

 

'But General, what about my honourable death?'

 

'There will be other opportunities for you to die, and imagine Skree, being the warrior that allowed all future warriors to experience that final honour again and again.'

'Hmm, I see your point General . . . it would be an honour to escort the prisoner home.'