Tardis

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Tardis

You may be looking for War TARDIS.

Battle TARDISes were the usual type of TARDIS used in battle. They saw use throughout Gallifreyan history, including seeing deployment to the frontline of the Last Great Time War.

Characteristics[]

Contrary to the Doctor's Type 40 and other conventional TARDISes designed for time travel without the threat of attack and for scientific research and exploration missions, these TARDISes were equipped with heavy armaments to engage in battle at a second's notice while being flown into hostile locations. The Celestial Intervention Agency made significant use of them.

Decoy illustration

The interior of Artarix's Battle Tardis (PROSE: Decoy)

Their outer plasmic shells were composed of living metal, able to morph into shields and any number of predetermined gun emplacements. (PROSE: Engines of War) Their main weaponry were time torpedoes, (COMIC: The Stockbridge Horror) which could be used to freeze time and thus suspend other vessels in the time vortex. (AUDIO: Neverland)

Battle TARDISes were as sentient as other TARDISes, to the point that their experiences were recorded by the Matrix upon their destruction, much like their Time Lord pilots'. (COMIC: Sky Jacks)

History[]

Before the Time War[]

The CIA used at least one Battle TARDIS, commanded by Tubal Cain, to capture the Fifth Doctor after he had brought an elemental being to Stockbridge. (COMIC: The Stockbridge Horror)

Time Torpedoes

A Battle TARDIS launching time torpedoes at the Fifth Doctor. (COMIC: The Stockbridge Horror)

"Military TARDISes" were sent to collect the Sixth Doctor from Etarho in a displaced timeline. (AUDIO: Trial of the Valeyard)

A flotilla of Battle TARDISes were sent to gather the Eighth Doctor and Charlotte Pollard for the fight against anti-time. The Doctor initially avoided them, (AUDIO: Embrace the Darkness) but they eventually caught up to his TARDIS and snared it with time torpedoes. (AUDIO: Neverland)

With the Monan invasion of Gryben imminent, Narvin ordered Time Control to surround Gryben with Battle TARDISes armed with null space missiles. They were ordered by Irving Braxiatel to stand down after the Timonic Fusion Device dematerialised. (AUDIO: Weapon of Choice)

Gallifrey at war[]

Road to conflict[]

In a timeline later erased by Irving Braxiatel, (AUDIO: Enemy Lines) Romana III cleared out large sections of Gallifrey in order to make room for more Battle TARDISes. These Battle TARDISes would then join the fight in Gallifrey's "darkest hour". (AUDIO: Luna Romana)

The Battle TARDIS Program was restarted by the Doom Coalition, with Battle TARDIS Ī” being used by Captain Veklin. (AUDIO: The Crucible of Souls)

Last Great Time War[]

Gallifreyan Battle-Timeships vs

A fleet of Battle TARDISes prepare to engage a fleet of Daleks. (COMIC: Ambush)

In the opening stages of the Last Great Time War, a Battle TARDIS was sent to collect Susan Foreman from 22nd century Earth. (AUDIO: All Hands on Deck) Mid-flight, the TARDIS was hijacked by Daleks who began using it to drain power from the Eye of Harmony. With the Time Lords unable to remotely reassume control of the TARDIS, they, at Susan's advice, sought out the Sensorites for aid who managed to override the Daleks' controls and trigger the self-destruct via the telepathic circuits. (AUDIO: Sphere of Influence)

Over a million Battle TARDISes were used by the Time Lords in the later stages of the conflict. (PROSE: Peacemaker) Cardinal Ollistra travelled to Synthesis Station in a battle TARDIS. (AUDIO: Day of the Vashta Nerada) The General led a strike force of Battle TARDISes to the Gates of Elysium. (PROSE: The Third Wise Man)

Daleks surround the Battle TARDIS

Bronze Daleks surround the Battle TARDIS. (AUDIO: Previously, Next Time [+]James Moran, Cass (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2023).)

A group of Daleks captured a Battle TARDIS and used it, in combination with temporal interocitors, to build a retcon bomb. The Eighth Doctor prevented this by seeing to the TARDIS' destruction a year earlier when the Daleks first began the scheme. (AUDIO: Previously, Next Time [+]James Moran, Cass (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2023).)

Veklin forced the War Doctor to use a Battle TARDIS for a time, which had its self-destruct connected to his hearts beat. Whilst aboard a Dalek harvester, the Doctor stopped his hearts briefly to trigger the ship's detonation to destroy the harvester's storm drive. (AUDIO: Saviour)

In the war's later epochs, Vassarian crashed his Battle TARDIS on Rovidia. Locking himself in an Eternity Cage until rescue came, his ship's technology was salvaged by the Sontarans who sought to join the Last Great Time War, Vassarian allowing them to do so lest they cause terrible damage. When the War Doctor made contact with Vassarian, his vessel was claimed by the Time Lords as an escape craft only for Heleyna to kick the Doctor out in the upper atmosphere. (AUDIO: The Eternity Cage) After Heleyna revealed herself to be a Dalek collaborator, Ollistra rescued the Doctor using the transmat recall. Taking Ollistra as a hostage, Heleyna made her way to the Battle TARDIS' star chamber while setting its systems against the Doctor and Kalan. When Heleyna managed to reignite the Battle TARDIS' link to the Eye of Harmony, the Dalek Time Strategist reneged on their agreement and sent a Dalek force into the star chamber to destroy the Eye only for the Doctor to reveal his sabotage of the architectural reconfiguration system, cutting off the star chamber from the ship. As the Dalek stratagem collapsed, a remorseful Heleyna sacrificed herself by detonating the Daleks' Primary Weapon to provide the Battle TARDIS with enough energy to return to real space, the wrecked ship crashing once again on Rovidia. (AUDIO: Eye of Harmony)

A flotilla of Battle TARDISes were destroyed by Dalek stealth ships near the Tantalus Eye. President Rassilon later sent another flotilla to the Eye to deploy the Tear of Isha. (PROSE: Engines of War) On the final day of the war, it was stated that despite heavy casualties, the Battle TARDISes could not stop the invasion of Gallifrey by the Daleks. (COMIC: Sky Jacks)

Post-Time War[]

The Battle TARDISes had been rebuilt by the time of the Coup against Rassilon. When the corrupt founder returned, backed by the full might of the Cyberiad, he manipulated the Eye of Harmony to depower every TARDIS, preventing the Time Lords from sending the Battle TARDISes back to undo the invasion. (COMIC: Supremacy of the Cybermen)

Alternate timelines[]

In an aborted timeline, a version of the Master from a parallel universe seized control of Gallifrey and ordered all 2,000 Battle TARDISes to be deployed against an entropy wave that was consuming the universe, armed with dimension inverters. Once they were in position over Gallifrey as the wave approached, the Master activated the inverters whilst they were still onboard the Battle TARDISes, destroying all of them, Gallifrey and the Eye of Harmony. This failed to stop the entropy wave. (AUDIO: Masterful)

Parallel universes[]

In an alternate universe where the Time Lords sold their technologies to other races, they gave Battle TARDISes to the Killorans. (AUDIO: Reborn)

External links[]

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