The Last Great Time War: part III

Kolox, part II

The Renegade wandered the halls of the Time Dreadnought for several hours without finding anyone. When at last he realized he was going around in circles because the ship was creating a maze for him, the Renegade called out telepathically to her.

"Please stop moving the walls. I need meet up with the others and complete my objective."

The ship responded;
"You blow through my shields and armor, board uninvited, slaughter my brothers and sisters, and you expect me to trust you? You will not find your friends. When this battle is over you and your friends will be taken to Gallifrey and brought to justice."

"Please," the Renegade thought back, "look into my memories. I am sorry for what we did to you, but you must look and see why."

The Renegade felt the Time Dreadnought sifting through his mind. Memories played back to him as they were examined.
Davros refusing to destroy the Daleks. The Dalek war machine spreading through creation, world after world, system after system, galaxy after galaxy. The Hand of Omega incident.
Romana drafting up the Act of Master Restitution, the first and only Dalek-Time Lord peace treaty. Daleks scheming and plotting in the shadows, growing their Empire even larger. Meeting Molly as the Daleks plotted to destroy Gallifrey, then watching her, powerless, as she gave her life to stop them from starting a War.
Watching the Time War break out at Tartarus, then vowing never to fight in it. Decades of failing to stop the War by peaceful means. The War becoming multiversal at an ever-changing point.
Crashing on Karn, rejecting the name of the Doctor because the Doctor was already rejected by everyone else. Fighting. Meeting Preda. Losing Romana and Braxnil. Watching the Skaro Degredations lay waste to Drornid.
Losing Preda, meeting and losing Cinder. Turning against the Time Lords. The Nightmare Child. The Horde of Travesties. The Eternals fleeing in terror of greater horrors yet to come. Through all this, the morality of the Time Lords sliding down a slippery slope. Innocent lands destroyed in the name of Rassilon.

"Now I understand," said the Time Dreadnought. "I will impede you no further. I will join your Alliance, and get as many of my brothers and sisters as I can to do the same."

"Thank you," the Renegade said, before he and the NTA members on board were transmatted to the War Chief's ship.

"Sir, TT capsule #24601, one of our Time Dreadnoughts, has turned on us," said one of the War Chief's lieutenants. "Several dozen other timeships have followed. Our shields and formations are being undermined! What are we to do?"

"Move to the next phase," the War Chief ordered. "Start the false retreat and the attack on the Renegade's Sanctuary."

"Not today," the Renegade said.

The War Chief whipped around. Behind him, blocking the exit, were over a hundred soldiers of the New Temporal Alliance.

"Drop your weapons, step away from the controls, get on your knees, and put your hands behind your heads," said the commander of the Skrawn.

"We will never surrender to the king of overgrown scorpions," said the War Chief. "Or to a bunch of traitors and terrorists."

"You're the traitor and terrorist," said the Renegade. "Rassilon must be desperate if he's bringing back criminals like you. Surrender now or we will take you by force."

"Never!"

The Renegade nodded to the Skrawn commander, who lashed the War Chief with his deadly stinger. The War Chief collapsed on the ground and curled up in agony. The rest of the crew surrendered immediately.

The Renegade went to the controls and signaled the rest of the Time Lord fleet.

"This is the Renegade. We have captured your lead vessel and the War Chief. We know of your plan. Surrender and join us, or leave. If you try to attack the sanctuary you will be destroyed."

The War Chief, still on the floor and despite being in excruciating pain, crawled under the console unnoticed and managed to hotwire the controls. Before the rest of the fleet responded, an automatic voice rang out over the intercom.

"Self destruct sequence initiated. Detonation in T minus 59, 58, 57..."

"You fool," the Renegade shouted, throwing all his weight behind the kick he planted in the War Chief's side.

"You...will...die...for...this," the War Chief said, clutching his ribs.

The Renegade and the others searched all over the controls, but could not find the off switch for the self destruct.

Telepathically signaling the ship did not work either. The countdown continued.
"39, 38, 37, 36, 35..."

"Abandon ship," the Renegade shouted. He ran to the nearest airlock and waved his sonic screwdriver at the controls. It did not work, so he yanked the wires loose and redid them so that the doors finally opened. With fifteen seconds left in the countdown, he leapt out into space.

After less than a second, the Renegade's TARDIS materialized around him. He pulled himself up, and looked out through the de-opaqued walls at the battle.

The vast majority of the Time Lords had not surrendered. The whole arm of Mutter's Spiral that contained Kolox was still ablaze with fighting, but now the NTA ships were leaving.

"I did not order a retreat," the Renegade said.

"I know, but I did," said the human commander. "I'm going to wipe the enemy out of the Milky Way, and I want as few friendly-fire casualties as possible."

The Renegade saw that the War Chief's Time Dreadnought was sailing towards Kolox's sun!

"What the hell are you doing," the Renegade said. "You're going to wipe out a hundred star systems!"

"Perhaps," the human commander replied, "but this vessel is about to blow anyway and this is the only way to stop them. Very few have joined us and the rest are not leaving. There's no time to think of anything else."

There was no time to respond, either. The Renegade pulled out a stop and the TARDIS vanished, reappearing well above the galactic plane.

Kolox's sun detonated in a flash of light that outshone the rest of the galaxy. A wave of time energy swept through the battle, wiping out the ships that had not left in time and turning the Kolox system into a brilliant nebula of chronon particles. Half of Mutter's spiral was poisoned to time travel for many years to come.

"That's the last time I trust those stupid apes," the Renegade said.