IANTO'S JOURNEY, PART V- REDEMPTION
TITLE: Chapter 75 - Invasion
AUTHOR: Aviv_b
RATING: Chapter 75- R for sexual activity
CHARACTERS:: Ianto, Aaron, Jack,
DISCLAIMER: Not mine; Aunty B's and RTD's
WORDS: ~ 3315
SUMMARY: Planet Earth is invaded by aliens and Torchwood is ready. Some of the planet...not so much.
Title is from: Ronald Reagan used to alarm his Soviet counterparts by saying that surely they'd both unite against an invasion from Mars. Christopher Hitchens
Ianto's Journey begins here: http://aviv-b.livejournal.com/1972.html
All Chapter are linked.
( story continues here )
It was late March and it was raining. And it was London so no surprise there. Fortunately it was also Saturday and for once Ianto and Aaron didn’t have to get up early. The weather the past few days had been mild and Ianto and Aaron had talked about getting a head start on their little garden in the back of their house.
Ianto got out of bed and looked at the rain pouring down outside. ‘Well, so much for gardening,’ he thought. ‘Wonder if I should go into the office and look at some of the latest data to come back from the tests.’
Ianto had been assigned to a special project at Torchwood for the last two years. He couldn’t talk about it to anyone outside of Torchwood, even Aaron much to his dismay. Ianto had figured out much about the purpose of the project, but still wasn’t sure that it had any practical applications.
Aaron yawned and stretched lazily. “Is it time to get up? It’s hardly light out.”
‘Actually it’s almost 9, but the sky is filled with dark clouds and it’s raining hard. Doesn’t look like it’s going to end anytime soon.’
“We could stay in bed all day.”
‘Aaron don’t be daft, we can’t do that.’
“Why not? Is there anything we planned on doing today that can’t wait? We certainly aren’t going out in the rain to start our garden. So that pretty much eliminates the need to go to the garden store. And I bet that laundry will still be waiting for us a couple hours from now.”
‘Yeah, I could use another hour or so of sleep.’
Aaron laughed. “That’s not exactly what I had in mind.”
‘No. You’re kidding me,’ Ianto snarked.
“Get over here,” Aaron growled.
‘Ok, not kidding. Let me just brush my teeth and use the loo. You might want to do the same. Especially the teeth part.’
Aaron chuckled. After almost thirty years together, they were completely at ease with each other’s bodies. But Ianto had one iron-clad rule about intimacy. No kissing with morning breath.
“Ok. If you’re going to go neurotic on me, I will get up and brush my teeth. I might even wash my face.” Aaron went to use the guest bathroom down the hall while Ianto used the en suite. Aaron dawdled just a bit looking at his reflection in the bathroom mirror. ‘Shit I’m getting old,’ he thought. Every time I look, I see ten more grey hairs and five more wrinkles.’
Aaron wasn’t vain by nature, but it seemed to him that he had started to really show his age the last year or so. He tried to remember if the Brigadier had had the same experience, but he didn’t think so. He’d have to ask Stephen the next time…shit, how long had he been standing there he suddenly wondered.
He came back to their bedroom to find that Ianto had fallen back to sleep. He was lying on his stomach, blankets just covering his hips snoring softly. ‘Ianto’s getting a little grey himself around the temples’ he noticed. But at least from the back his skin was still smooth and unblemished.
Aaron smiled as he snuggled next to Ianto pulling the covers up over both of them. He loved spooning against Ianto, just holding him and breathing in his scent as his nose brushed against the nape of Ianto’s neck. Ianto sniffed and turned to face him.
"Falling asleep on me. I feel insulted.”
Ianto smiled and stretched like a cat. ‘I really am tired. That project is really wearing me out. And what took you so long?'
“I was just looking at my newest strands of gray hair and wrinkles in the bathroom mirror.”
Ianto smiled. ‘It’s the gray hair on your chest and lower that I’ve been noticing.’
“Oi, watch the pubic hair jokes, will you. You’re starting to get grey hair yourself, you know.”
‘Yeah but just on my head.’
“Well I may be almost seventy-two, but I still have some mileage left in me.”
‘Take me for a ride then,’ Ianto pushed back.
Aaron pulled Ianto close and kissed him long and hard. He wasn’t sure why, but he felt an urge to take Ianto without the usual foreplay.
‘Want to take you now, Ianto’ he thought as he pinned Ianto’s arms above his head. ‘Want to take you hard and fast.’ He looked into Ianto’s eyes and saw complete trust and understanding. Ianto nodded his consent.
Aaron quickly prepared and entered Ianto. Ianto wrapped his legs around Aaron pushing out, ‘I’m completely yours, take what you need.’
A low growl rose in Aaron’s throat as he pulled back and thrust hard into Ianto. Ianto moaned as the sensations from Aaron and his own feelings fused together. Ianto raised his legs a bit more to give Aaron a better angle. Aaron thrust hard again feeling Ianto’s pleasure building along with his own. He looked at Ianto once again and heard Ianto think, ‘Go on then. What are you waiting for?’
Aaron didn’t need any additional encouragement. He thrust into Ianto at a furious pace as Ianto writhed and moaned underneath him. Occasionally, he’d temper his hard thrusts in order to rock inside Ianto so that he was applying direct pressure against Ianto’s prostate. He could hear Ianto’s mind begging for release and he began to thrust once again. He felt his own pleasure building quickly.
‘Come with me Ianto,’ he thought as he began to rock once again, ‘come now.’ Ianto surprised himself with how rapidly those words triggered his release. As he was still feeling the last pulses of Ianto’s climax, Aaron’s orgasm overtook him. He cried out Ianto’s name and bit him hard on the collar bone, causing Ianto to tighten around him. Aaron thought he might pass out as Ianto continued to clench around him. Finally, Ianto began to relax and Aaron could catch his breath.
‘John Hart, the gift that keeps on giving,’ Ianto thought.
‘Yeah, he’s going to be the death of me one of these days,’ Aaron pushed back. ‘Don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted.’
They had just fallen back into a light doze when Ianto’s cell phone rang. Ianto fumbled for it but missed. Aaron grabbed it, saw it was Jack, and answered the call while Ianto struggled to wake up.
“Yeah it Aaron, Ianto’s j.j.just waking up. We were taking a nap.” A pause. “Shit your kidding….no, no I’ll put Ianto on.” Ianto saw the serious look on Aaron’s face and grabbed the phone.
Jack didn’t waste any time with formalities. “It’s started, Ianto. Remember when I said that the 21st century is where it all changes. Well, it’s here. All that work I’ve had you and Tosh do in secret over the last two years is now going to come into play.”
‘What? What’s going on?’
“The space-time continuum is about to be violated in a big way. You need to get down here as soon as possible. Aaron is not obligated to come, but we certainly won’t refuse his assistance.”
‘Jack…slow down. What’s happening?’
“The Invasion. Through time and space. This will determine the future of the human race. Torchwood and UNIT will be holding a joint briefing for all field offices, NATO, heads of state, and their defense ministers in one hour. Get down here as quick as you can. Gotta go.” Jack ended the call.
Aaron had heard enough to start his shower and urged Ianto in with him. “Damn, every time we try to have a nice quiet weekend, the world decides to end,” he snarked but his face belied his casual remark.
‘Aaron,” Ianto pushed out, ‘you don’t have to go. Maybe you should stay here.’
“The hell I will. If there’s going to be a war, you need soldiers, even retired ones like me. If nothing else, I can work as support so the Torchwood employees can concentrate on the aliens.”
Ianto felt real dread in his heart. He had sensed that things were going to change from Jack and that it wasn’t going to be good in the short run.
***
Ianto and Aaron arrived just in time for the briefing. The main auditorium at Torchwood London was packed and large monitors at the front of the room displayed video hookups to UNIT headquarters, Torchwood/UNIT field offices, NATO, the Prime Minister’s office, and the Minister of Defense, as well as the King, the President of the United States, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff from the Pentagon. Additional monitors showed officials from the rest of Western Europe, China, Japan, India, Pakistan, Russia, several former Soviet Republics, most of Latin America, Australia, Canada, the African Union, as well as some Middle Eastern nations. It was also being broadcast to UN Headquarters.
Jack introduced himself to the global audience and explained that the Earth was about to face an invasion the likes of which they had never anticipated.
“It’s the Toclafane. I won’t go into their history now, suffice it to say that these aliens come from another time far in the future and through the manipulation of the time/space continuum they will be here in ten days bent on the total destruction of planet Earth. They can be defeated, but it won’t be easy. Every nation will need to mobilize troops as quickly as possible. Torchwood field offices already have prototypes and designs for the weapons you will need to use. Supplies of these weapons have been strategically stockpiled for distribution. Each nation needs to be ready to produce more as necessary. They can be operated by anyone who has conventional weapons training."
"Do not deceive yourselves, this is real, it's happening, and each nation will need to be responsible for its own defense. For nations that are too poor to mount a defense, UNIT will be supplying troops and weapons. Plans have been drawn up as to which nations will be supported by UNIT. Every country has the right to refuse, but be advised that refusal will result in mass casualties, if not annihilation of your populations.”
Aaron was stunned when Ianto got up and walked to the podium. ‘My name is Ianto Jones, Executive Director of Torchwood Research & Analytics and my job, along with my team has been to develop these defensive weapons. I want to make clear that these weapons will only work on the Toclafane. They will have no effects on humans and will become inoperable once the invasion is defeated. Any attempts to modify these weapons during or after the invasion will be dealt with by UNIT. They have express permission from the permanent members of the UN Security Council to destroy any individual or government who attempts to use this technology for any purpose other than which it is intended.’
The head of UNIT, General Stanley McGregor, outlined a series of briefings that would occur over the next twenty-four hours. There were briefings scheduled on weapons manufacturing, delivery and training, government communications, counterinsurgency, medical triage, protection of nations without troop or weapon production capabilities, and every other contingency that they could plan for.
For once major military and political alliances were working together having had the advantage of forewarning from Torchwood. Torchwood had known because the Doctor had provided information to Jack about the upcoming invasion. Jack was startled that the Doctor had given him notice and authorized him to begin planning a defense.
“Well looking from the future its clear that the Earth had a small window of opportunity to plan for the invasion, but it’s unclear how well they made use of it,” the Doctor explained. “So I don’t think I’m changing anything by telling you – this event looks to be a fixed point in time.”
What the Doctor didn’t know is that once Jack became aware two years earlier of the attack he had most of Torchwood and a fair part of UNIT working on a strategy to defeat the Toclafane. He was pretty sure that this was a far longer period than Earth had during his past’s timeline, but his main responsibility was to this timeline regardless if that changed the future. He did wonder, however, if his direct ancestors were killed if that would obliterate his future, but the Doctor waived his concerns away with a remark about him also being a fixed point in time that would be unaffected by what happened on 21st Century Earth.
The Doctor also didn’t know that Jack had discovered that the source of the attack was once again the Master, and the Doctor was trying to stave off destruction of the Earth while still protecting the insane Time Lord. Jack had already made plans for hunting down and killing the Master and this time he would not give in to the Doctor’s desire to save him. There was no paradox machine being used so no way to reset time. Whatever happened was going to be real and permanent. And Torchwood was ready.
The chaos caused by the invasion of the Toclafane made the incident with the 456 look like a minor inconvenience. Many nations, including all the permanent members of the UN Security Council, were already well equipped with the military hardware they needed to defend the major cities which would the primary targets during the attack. China and the Russian Federation had no problem readying their governments and civilian populations for the attack. The legislatures of France, the UK and the US were furious that they had not been included in the planning. A direct appeal by King William (quoting Churchill), and the announcement that Prince Harry would lead the troops into battle brought the population of the United Kingdom in line with plans.
French citizens rioted in the streets, and then those who could deserted the large cities much as they had in World War II. The French President was only partially successful in ordering his troops at the ready. Nobody was really surprised.
And then there were the Americans. Jack would shake his head afterwards at the way American politics played out. The Congress deadlocked and refused to approve a Declaration of War. The President invoked Executive Privilege and took direct charge of military operations. She addressed the Congress forty-eight hours after the countdown to invasion had begun.
“I am the Commander in Chief,” she told a joint session of Congress, “and as such, I am ordering all armed forces including the National Guard at the ready. Any refusal to cooperate will result in the takeover of those troops by the Federal Government.”
Not surprisingly, several states refused to ready their troops, and within 48 hours those states were under federal military control. Also not surprisingly, the Congress continued its useless wrangling, many calling for impeachment of the President.
The President addressed the nation in a special newscast the next day. “My job is to protect the American people, not to play politics. If the Congress wants to impeach me afterwards, that’s fine. But I won’t stand by as our cities burn and our way of life is destroyed.”
As they saw other nations prepare most Americans realized that this was not some type of international conspiracy started by the UN. There really was going to be an invasion and there was no time to lose. And while cities would be targeted, so would strategic locations such as nuclear power plants, telecommunications operations, as well as rail and air transport hubs. Like France, the major cities saw a mass exodus of civilians. Fortunately, the government had had time to plan and quickly had tent cities in place for the displaced populations.
Most other nations had at least some defenses in place by the end of the ten day countdown. And while they also saw major exoduses from cities, in the end about two-thirds of the populations of all major cities stayed where they were either not wanting to move to a tent city or figuring that those temporary camps would become targets as well.
Many smaller nations, particularly in the Caribbean and the South Pacific felt they were too far off the radar strategically to be the focus of attacks. And while they were mostly right, they were totally unprepared when the fighting spilled over to their locations. The President of Haiti summed up the general attitude when he was questioned about his nation’s lack of preparedness.
“Aliens? Why would they bother with us? We have nothing they would want. No minerals, no industry, no military. But if they want mudslides, that we can give them.” Still, the UN sent a small contingent of troops just in case.
And the Middle East also had difficulties getting ready. Israel, Egypt, Jordan and Syria had sufficient troops and weapons to mount their own defenses. Saudi Arabia had to dance around the issue of letting UNIT infidels on their soil and found themselves exposed to attack. Iraq, Libya, and Lebanon had troops but many of their citizens believed the upcoming attack had nothing to do with aliens; their governments struggled as sectarian violence broke out. Iran blamed Israel and the International Zionist Conspiracy for the invasion; no surprise there.
When the fighting ended, the estimate was that 20 million people had been killed. A huge number, but considering the estimates for casualties if no preparations had been undertaken were upwards of 100 million lives, the work of Torchwood had undoubtedly saved tens of millions of lives.
The worst damage occurred as predicted mostly in the large cities. The New York financial district was hit hard and the UN building was destroyed, but most of the city survived intact. Los Angeles and Chicago sustained moderate damage but nothing on the order of London, a city of similar size but as home to UNIT and Torchwood, a far more strategically important location. Washington, DC also sustained considerable damage, but fortunately almost all civilians not involved in providing essential services were evacuated before the invasion began. Half of Paris was destroyed due to their lack of preparation and twenty percent of their remaining population was killed or wounded. Likewise Moscow was targeted along with Mexico City and Sao Paulo, but the attacks seemed, like Washington, to be centered on government and military locations rather than civilians.
The attacks almost seemed random at times. Some cities in a country would be targeted while others would be barely affected. In Japan and China, Osaka and Shanghai sustained heavy damage and huge numbers of casualties. Given their large populations, most people were unable to evacuate and the Toclafane seemed to unleash their wrath in greater intensity there than in other locations. Tokyo and Beijing were damaged but by comparison seemed almost untouched.
Mumbai and Delhi fared better at least in terms of the survival of their infrastructures but the military casualties were high. The Indian troops fought with incredible discipline and courage in order to protect the cities and citizens and their bravery and sacrifice were something people around the world talked about for years.
Jakarta was destroyed. No preparations had taken place as they believed they had no strategic importance. Apparently the Toclafane disagreed. Most of the Middle East and North Africa sustained light casualties with the exceptions of the two largest population centers of Cairo and Tehran. They were well armed and prepared, but the number of civilians in close quarters left almost a million casualties between the two cities. The petroleum installations in Saudi Arabia were destroyed. The rest of the Middle East, as well as Central and Southern Africa (with the exceptions of Lagos and Cape Town) were never attacked.
But while losses were counted in the millions every family that lost a loved one sustained a horrible loss. Some people turned to prayer, some cursed God, others blamed the politicians, and still others became unhinged or unable to cope with the reality of the alien attacks.
And as Torchwood and UNIT and the UN worked to help restore order to the world, severe casualties hit them as well.
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