![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trillianastraTitle: The Cardiff Resistance
Fandoms: Torchwood and Terminator: Salvation
Rating: PG-13, mention of character death
Characters: Jack Harkness, Andy Davidson, Tarot Card Girl (going by the name Faith), mention of other TW characters.
Disclaimer: None of it is mine, I'm just playing in the sandbox(es).
Spoilers: For the movie. None for Torchwood.
Summary: Since the war against the machines started, Jack has gathered his friends together to fight back, and lost many along the way. Then, a glimmer of hope appears when they find out about events in San Francisco.
A/N: I'm a bit new to Terminator fandom, and after seeing Terminator: Salvation I want to write fic for it, so I guess I'm easing myself in with crossovers. Well, whatever works.
Crossposted to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
crossoverfic and ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
future_war
Jack’s shift as lookout ends as dusk falls over the remains of what was once the city of Cardiff. He gets up from his position hunched over in the camouflaged gun turret and stretches quickly before opening the trapdoor in the floor and climbing the ladder down to the Hub.
For a moment, he misses the days when he could just stand on the paving slab of the invisible lift and wait as it moved him to the surface. But they haven’t been able to use the lift since the war began – it turns out that perception filters don’t work on the machines. He winces as the memory comes back to him, as vivid as if it were yesterday. It had been in the early days of the war – the Doctor had returned to Earth, and Martha had been visiting from London when the first attack came. They rigged up perception filters (with judicious use of the spare TARDIS keys), thinking that the filters might hide them from the machines, and went out to fight.
They made it only a few hundred feet from the Hub before the machines found them. Jack was only just able to get Gwen and Ianto out – Martha had been just behind him, and then suddenly he heard her scream. He spun around just in time to see her being snatched into the air by one of the machines. He had screamed her name, but she was gone. The Doctor – the new one, thin and dark-haired, who looked like a teenager with ancient eyes – grabbed his arm and pulled him along, back to the Hub.
When the four regained the relative safety of their base, they sat in mute silence for a while. Soon after, the Doctor left them, saying that he was going to find out the extent of what was happening, and try to find a way to stop the machines. Jack hugged him goodbye, and then he left. Jack hadn’t seen him since.
Down in the Hub – they still called it that, a small remnant of their old lives – he looked around, reassuring himself that the others were still there. The base had changed drastically since the war began. There was still the Rift Manipulator in the centre, with a couple of computer workstations either side. But the autopsy area was now outfitted as a field hospital, and Jack’s desk had been moved out of his old office into the main room. The office had been converted into sleeping quarters, with bunks and mattresses and small lockers in which they kept their few remaining possessions.
The rest of the base was used as a store – of weapons, ammunition and food. Jack had spent weeks working with their archive of alien artifacts, adjusting what he could into weapons. He sighed with quiet relief as he saw that they were all there, his small team – the last remaining people in Cardiff. Gwen was still with him, though the years had not been kind to her. Since war broke out she had lost both Rhys and her young daughter, Rhiannon, and the Gwen Cooper that Jack met over ten years ago had become a battle-hardened warrior. After Rhys’s death she had cut her hair short, which made her look something like a pale, wide-eyed ghost. As she cut chunks of hair away, she had wept, but when Rhiannon was taken by the machines she stopped talking to Jack and the others, and had wandered mutely around the Hub, as if searching for her lost family. Eventually she started to recover – the first words she spoke after the loss of her daughter were a murmured “thank you” to Jack as he handed her a band of red cloth, which she stitched roughly onto the sleeve of her jacket. They all knew what it meant. Of the others, only Jack wore one.
And the others… it felt strange to Jack, because ‘the others’ felt like it ought to mean more than just two people. Once there had been more – Martha, and Rhys, and John, who had reappeared (to everyone’s surprise) and offered help that was gladly accepted, until he was shot down in battle. That had been the same day that they lost Ianto, and that day had hit Jack the hardest of all the days of the war. Afterwards he had wished that he was able to die, because then he might finally stop, stop losing friends and lovers in this stupid, wasteful war.
But he had carried on, because he had to carry on. He had Gwen depending on him, and the last two – Andy, Gwen’s old friend from her police days, and the little girl that they all knew as Faith, who sometimes read the cards for Jack. Andy was quieter and more solemn than he used to be, though otherwise he had managed to stay remarkably unchanged. Faith too had adjusted surprisingly well. She didn’t go on patrols or lookout duty, but she had quickly learned to use the radios and was now their communications officer, in a way, though there were few transmissions to pick up. She still read the cards occasionally, and every time she would see death and destruction in them. Despite that, despite everything they’d gone through, Jack tried to keep them optimistic, reminding them that they had picked up transmissions from other survivors, mostly in America, and that the human race wasn’t finished just yet.
That day, as he entered their base for the night, Faith came up to him. “I read the cards again.”
He sighed inwardly. He had tried to discourage her, but she wouldn’t stop. “What did you see this time, then?”
She looked up at him, and smiled for the first time in weeks. “Hope.”
Andy looked up from the workstation where he was sitting. “Oh, Jack. There’s something you should see. All afternoon, I’ve been picking up strange signals. And they’re long-distance, too… as far as I can tell they’re coming from America.”
“You think it’s the Resistance?”
Andy nodded. “There were a couple of audio transmissions. This guy by the name of John Connor, and something about an attack on SkyNet…”
“An attack? What are they doing, they’ll get themselves killed…”
“Uh, Jack…”
“What?”
“Their attack. I don’t know what happened, but I think it worked.”
“What?”
“Remember that old satellite we hacked? I used it to get a look at the area around San Francisco. It’s… SkyNet, it’s gone. Whatever the Resistance did, it worked.”
Jack let the news sink it. Finally, for once, an attempt at attacking SkyNet had succeeded, after so long. Of course, there were other bases, other places that the machines could use as headquarters, and when they had recovered they might even be a greater threat than before, but the Resistance had won their first battle. Jack allowed himself a small smile. “Good work, Andy. Get some rest.”
As the young man got up and went to his bunk, Jack sat down in his recently-vacated chair. Faith came up to him. “Hey, kid. Did you hear?”
She nodded. “I heard.”
“Good news, huh?”
“Yes. For a while. But it will get worse for us all before it gets better.”
He looked at her sadly, knowing that she was right and wishing that she wasn’t. “I know. We’ll take it one day at a time, right?”
“It’s the only thing we can do.”
As Faith went to get something to eat, Jack sat back in his chair, reflecting on what had happened, what was going to happen, and how he was going to get his few friends through it all alive.
Fandoms: Torchwood and Terminator: Salvation
Rating: PG-13, mention of character death
Characters: Jack Harkness, Andy Davidson, Tarot Card Girl (going by the name Faith), mention of other TW characters.
Disclaimer: None of it is mine, I'm just playing in the sandbox(es).
Spoilers: For the movie. None for Torchwood.
Summary: Since the war against the machines started, Jack has gathered his friends together to fight back, and lost many along the way. Then, a glimmer of hope appears when they find out about events in San Francisco.
A/N: I'm a bit new to Terminator fandom, and after seeing Terminator: Salvation I want to write fic for it, so I guess I'm easing myself in with crossovers. Well, whatever works.
Crossposted to
crossoverfic and future_warJack’s shift as lookout ends as dusk falls over the remains of what was once the city of Cardiff. He gets up from his position hunched over in the camouflaged gun turret and stretches quickly before opening the trapdoor in the floor and climbing the ladder down to the Hub.
For a moment, he misses the days when he could just stand on the paving slab of the invisible lift and wait as it moved him to the surface. But they haven’t been able to use the lift since the war began – it turns out that perception filters don’t work on the machines. He winces as the memory comes back to him, as vivid as if it were yesterday. It had been in the early days of the war – the Doctor had returned to Earth, and Martha had been visiting from London when the first attack came. They rigged up perception filters (with judicious use of the spare TARDIS keys), thinking that the filters might hide them from the machines, and went out to fight.
They made it only a few hundred feet from the Hub before the machines found them. Jack was only just able to get Gwen and Ianto out – Martha had been just behind him, and then suddenly he heard her scream. He spun around just in time to see her being snatched into the air by one of the machines. He had screamed her name, but she was gone. The Doctor – the new one, thin and dark-haired, who looked like a teenager with ancient eyes – grabbed his arm and pulled him along, back to the Hub.
When the four regained the relative safety of their base, they sat in mute silence for a while. Soon after, the Doctor left them, saying that he was going to find out the extent of what was happening, and try to find a way to stop the machines. Jack hugged him goodbye, and then he left. Jack hadn’t seen him since.
Down in the Hub – they still called it that, a small remnant of their old lives – he looked around, reassuring himself that the others were still there. The base had changed drastically since the war began. There was still the Rift Manipulator in the centre, with a couple of computer workstations either side. But the autopsy area was now outfitted as a field hospital, and Jack’s desk had been moved out of his old office into the main room. The office had been converted into sleeping quarters, with bunks and mattresses and small lockers in which they kept their few remaining possessions.
The rest of the base was used as a store – of weapons, ammunition and food. Jack had spent weeks working with their archive of alien artifacts, adjusting what he could into weapons. He sighed with quiet relief as he saw that they were all there, his small team – the last remaining people in Cardiff. Gwen was still with him, though the years had not been kind to her. Since war broke out she had lost both Rhys and her young daughter, Rhiannon, and the Gwen Cooper that Jack met over ten years ago had become a battle-hardened warrior. After Rhys’s death she had cut her hair short, which made her look something like a pale, wide-eyed ghost. As she cut chunks of hair away, she had wept, but when Rhiannon was taken by the machines she stopped talking to Jack and the others, and had wandered mutely around the Hub, as if searching for her lost family. Eventually she started to recover – the first words she spoke after the loss of her daughter were a murmured “thank you” to Jack as he handed her a band of red cloth, which she stitched roughly onto the sleeve of her jacket. They all knew what it meant. Of the others, only Jack wore one.
And the others… it felt strange to Jack, because ‘the others’ felt like it ought to mean more than just two people. Once there had been more – Martha, and Rhys, and John, who had reappeared (to everyone’s surprise) and offered help that was gladly accepted, until he was shot down in battle. That had been the same day that they lost Ianto, and that day had hit Jack the hardest of all the days of the war. Afterwards he had wished that he was able to die, because then he might finally stop, stop losing friends and lovers in this stupid, wasteful war.
But he had carried on, because he had to carry on. He had Gwen depending on him, and the last two – Andy, Gwen’s old friend from her police days, and the little girl that they all knew as Faith, who sometimes read the cards for Jack. Andy was quieter and more solemn than he used to be, though otherwise he had managed to stay remarkably unchanged. Faith too had adjusted surprisingly well. She didn’t go on patrols or lookout duty, but she had quickly learned to use the radios and was now their communications officer, in a way, though there were few transmissions to pick up. She still read the cards occasionally, and every time she would see death and destruction in them. Despite that, despite everything they’d gone through, Jack tried to keep them optimistic, reminding them that they had picked up transmissions from other survivors, mostly in America, and that the human race wasn’t finished just yet.
That day, as he entered their base for the night, Faith came up to him. “I read the cards again.”
He sighed inwardly. He had tried to discourage her, but she wouldn’t stop. “What did you see this time, then?”
She looked up at him, and smiled for the first time in weeks. “Hope.”
Andy looked up from the workstation where he was sitting. “Oh, Jack. There’s something you should see. All afternoon, I’ve been picking up strange signals. And they’re long-distance, too… as far as I can tell they’re coming from America.”
“You think it’s the Resistance?”
Andy nodded. “There were a couple of audio transmissions. This guy by the name of John Connor, and something about an attack on SkyNet…”
“An attack? What are they doing, they’ll get themselves killed…”
“Uh, Jack…”
“What?”
“Their attack. I don’t know what happened, but I think it worked.”
“What?”
“Remember that old satellite we hacked? I used it to get a look at the area around San Francisco. It’s… SkyNet, it’s gone. Whatever the Resistance did, it worked.”
Jack let the news sink it. Finally, for once, an attempt at attacking SkyNet had succeeded, after so long. Of course, there were other bases, other places that the machines could use as headquarters, and when they had recovered they might even be a greater threat than before, but the Resistance had won their first battle. Jack allowed himself a small smile. “Good work, Andy. Get some rest.”
As the young man got up and went to his bunk, Jack sat down in his recently-vacated chair. Faith came up to him. “Hey, kid. Did you hear?”
She nodded. “I heard.”
“Good news, huh?”
“Yes. For a while. But it will get worse for us all before it gets better.”
He looked at her sadly, knowing that she was right and wishing that she wasn’t. “I know. We’ll take it one day at a time, right?”
“It’s the only thing we can do.”
As Faith went to get something to eat, Jack sat back in his chair, reflecting on what had happened, what was going to happen, and how he was going to get his few friends through it all alive.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-06-14 08:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-14 08:35 pm (UTC)It's the kind of situation they'd get involved in, and they're not the kind of people whp *wouldn't*...
(It did hurt killing off Rhys and Ianto though. But they had to lose someone...)