"You mean to say that none of them survived? It can't be"
"I'm afraid so Asica my liege. The entire world of Meliscor is completely gone. We are the only survivors of the galaxy now."
The King felt like giving up. All of the sacrifices and atrocities that had been carried out in his name, all those years of suffering had seemingly been for nothing.
"We can't possibly hope to fight the Daleks off on our own." The King said.
"No sir we can't. This means we shall have to resort to the final option."
"I prayed it wouldn't come to this, but our race must survive and surrender isn't an option." The King said with regret.
Asica had been ruling their world throughout most of the war. His father Leri, though an effective and just ruler had struggled during the first year with the Daleks. Leri chose Asica out of all his children to replace him because he believed Asica was the most heartless, and therefore the best to deal with the horrors ahead.
It is true that Asica was always the hardest out of all of his siblings, but even he had not been prepared for the Daleks. Asica had been forced to send billions of young men and women away to their deaths, ravage his planets resources, starve his people and force many more to work themselves to death. The King was naturally the most hated man on the entire planet, but there was really nothing anyone could have done differently. It had arguably only been through Asica's ruthless actions that his world had held out for so long, but now it appeared that it was all for nothing. Or maybe not.
The only hope for the Heglozians was to try and get a select group of their people away from the galaxy in a special spaceship. This plan, called the final option had been prepared during the last two years when most of the planets fell to the Daleks.
In spite of the devastating losses, the King still hoped he'd never have to implement the plan. Not only did he not want to abandon his people, the plan also had a very slim chance at succeeding anyway. Asica would have to essentially use most of his soldiers to distract the monsters, whilst he and the select few fled. The Daleks would also most likely pick up a ship fleeing the solar system anyway, but if there were enough vessels distracting the Dalek war fleet, it might just slip by. There is no way that all of the men would abandon their post around the planet however. Furthermore if the public found out about the ship, they would do all they could to stop it from leaving.
There were regular attacks on Asica's central command from various different groups of rebels, all with their own reasons for hating Asica.
Those in the poorer areas who were forced to work night and day, whose husbands, wives, daughters and children were dragged away to fight, viewed Asica as a glory hound who cared about defeating the Daleks rather than his own people. They wished he would surrender to end the conflict. (Having no idea that surrender was not an option.) Others meanwhile viewed Asica as an incompetent leader who wasn't doing enough to stop the Daleks. Others believed that he needed to be stopped due to the damage he had inflicted on the environment, which they felt was worse than anything the Daleks could ever do.
Whatever the case most people on the planet wanted him dead. It was hard for Asica to even get loyal body guards. The only way he could ensure their loyalty was to promise them that their families would not be called on to fight the Daleks, and that they would be given a place on the escape ship. This meant that many of the elite who had been originally chosen however had to be replaced and executed to prevent knowledge of the plan from being leaked.
Whilst the people were divided into different groups, desperate to try and take control from Asica, the knowledge of the ship would most likely unite them all against him.
Even if the ship did manage to escape its own people and the Daleks, all of the planets in the entire galaxy next door were seemingly inhospitable. There is no way they had have enough supplies for most of the crew to survive the journey, let alone trying to terrorform a planet.
Finally the vessel which would have to travel faster and further than any of their other ships, had not even been tested yet, and there was no way to test it. For all Asica knew, the ship would explode as soon as they tried to take off.
Asica contemplated simply ending his own life now. He even stared down at his weapon for a few minutes. Better that he thought than to order millions more young men and women to sacrifice themselves to the Daleks whilst he and the elite fled like cowards.
After a few minutes he managed to pull himself together. "I have a duty to our people. Some of us must survive. We can't let hundreds of thousands of years of history and struggles end like this." The king thought to himself.
Just as Asica was about give the order to implement the final plan however, another guard came bursting into the room with a look of horror on his face.
"My liege, we've just had report that one of our vessels escaped the massacre of Meliscor. It's heading for a crash landing right in the centre of the badlands.".
"Well I'm afraid we have more important matters to discuss if you'll."
"I'm afraid sir there was…. There was a Dalek on board."
Asica's blood ran cold.
"How, how could it get by."
"We don't know yet, but there is a possibility that it may survive.."
"Send a team to the badlands to be sure. The possibility of a Dalek on this world and the fact that we are the last survivors means the final option must be implemented."
"Doctor, Doctor wake up". Dana roused the Doctor after the debris had fallen on him when the ship was struck by the missiles. Together they then shifted the boulder off of Zoella.
"Quick we have to get to the safe room." Zoella shouted. The Doctor could not disable the trap the Dalek had placed on the lock of the TARDIS as more rubble had fallen in front of the time and space machine.
Their chances of survival in the safe room were still very slim, but it was their only chance. The corpses of Zoella's team still littered the room. Dana could barely look at them, but Zoella showed no emotion, as she had seen entire worlds burn by this point. The Doctor similarly had seen so many people, even entire races fall victim to the Daleks that he was sadly used to it by now.
It soon became apparent to the Dalek that the ship could not be redirected, and so the monster quickly followed the trio to the safe room. Zoella sealed the hatch behind her, but the Dalek was able to override her code and entered the room, blasting the hatch to make it bigger in the process.
"YOU ARE TRAPPED" the Dalek shouted as it fired at the three cornered humanoids. The downward trajectory of the ship however soon sent the Dalek flying back to the other end of the room
The safe room survived the crash, but it was literally blown to the other side of the wreckage. The Doctor, Dana and Zoella had managed to hold on, but when it finally hit the ground all three were knocked out cold.
Zoella's right arm was broken in the impact, whilst the Doctor suffered two broken ribs.
Dana was the luckiest in the crash as she only had a few broken fingers. The Dalek meanwhile was thrown out of the room and into the rest of the ship.
"Dana." the Doctor who was the first to wake said as he roused her and clutched his ribs. "I take it we've landed. Not my smoothest landing, but not my worst either."
Zoella started to wake up. Unlike the Doctor she didn't even take notice of the pain.
"Where is the Dalek." She shouted
"First let me see if you're all right." Dana asked as she tended to Zoella.
"We need to find it. We can't let it loose."
Suddenly the room began to shake again.
"Its the military. They're destroying what's left of the ship. We have to get out of here!" Zoella said.
The Doctor climbed out first. The entire room had been knocked on its head with the door facing up the way. In the sky above the Doctor could see the Dalek flying through the air and fighting with several smaller fighter ships. None of them were able to land a hit on the Dalek however it was so fast. The Dalek meanwhile was able to bring down each ship with just one blast each.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
"It won't take it long to finish them." The Doctor said. Dana followed him, but Zoella couldn't because of her arm. She tried to fight through the pain, but it was too much even for her. The Doctor reached down and with Dana's help pulled Zoella up.
The Doctor, Zoella and Dana jumped off of the wreckage while the Dalek was distracted with the last of the fighter jets. Below however the trio were confronted by several soldiers pointing guns at them. There must have been over 50 there in total.
The soldiers attention however was soon diverted to the Dalek as it flew overhead. The soldiers much like Zoella's crew were frozen with terror when they first saw the monster. They had heard so much about the Daleks, but up until now had been lucky enough not to meet one.
"EXTERMINATE" The Dalek screamed as it fired on several of the soldiers. The rest started to scatter whilst firing back at the Dalek but none of them landed a hit.
"AIM FOR THE EYEPIECE" The Doctor shouted over the sounds of the screams. None of the soldiers even acknowledged him however. They had never felt so helpless and just fired blindly in fear and desperation.
As the Doctor continued to try and warn them, one of the soldiers pointed his gun at the Doctor, Dana and Zoella.
"Come with me now. The King will want to speak with you himself. NOW!" He said as he forced all three of them away on a small vessel whilst the rest of his platoon desperately tried in vain to bring down the Dalek.
The Dalek seemed to take its time in killing the soldiers. It could have wiped them all out in under a minute, but it prolonged their deaths for as long as it could. It let the final soldiers ammo run out trying to hit its casing, before cornering him against a rock. The Dalek simply stared the petrified soldier down for a few minutes, bringing him to the very limit of his terror before exterminating him in cold blood.
All a Dalek existed for was to either conquer or destroy all apparent "lesser life forms" to in their twisted minds ensure their own survival. Whilst they viewed it as a purely logical and cold conclusion. Whenever they could the abominations would still savor a kill.
As the Dalek headed across the wasteland it tried to contact the mothership through its own in built communicator.
"COME IN MOTHER SHIP, COME IN."
A voice came in, though the line was very weak and crackling through the force field.
"GIVE YOUR REPORT."
"I HAVE MADE IT TO THE HEGLOZIAN SURFACE! THE SHIELD WILL BE ELIMINATED IN DUE TIME!"
"EXCELLENT! ONCE THE INVASION HAS EXTERMINATED THE HEGLOZIAN FORCES THE PLANETS SURFACE WILL BE CLEANSED THROUGH FIRE! HEGLOZIA SHALL BE A NEW."
The line started to break up.
"A BLUE BOX HAS BEEN SIGHTED ON THE PLANET! ALERT ALL DALEK UNITS!" The drone said, only to be met with more static before the line cut off. It was hard for the signal to be broadcast through the force field, but the Dalek knew its task and set about accomplishing it.
The Doctor and his companions meanwhile were brought straight to the Kings throne room. Asica had asked they be brought to him as he always liked to shame traitors himself. In his own mind it was his way of getting back at his own people who had decried him as a monster for so long. However it was Zoella who was the first to speak to the broken monarch. She must have spent five or so minutes screaming at him before the Doctor could get a word in edge ways. Even the King himself was somewhat cowed at first by her anger..
"You should have stopped him. You've doomed our entire planet." Asica finally hit back at Zoella.
"Well dooming our planet is nothing you haven't done." Zoella replied. "You're a weak man. You always were. A semi competent leader could have helped to save at least one of the worlds in this galaxy."
The Doctor interrupted. "Excuse me, hate to be a bother but could you direct me to a large blue box?"
Dana said. "What about the Dalek Doctor? It, it killed all of the soldiers. It's loose."
"Yes thanks to you three." Asica snapped.
"Excuse me, we just arrived in this galaxy. We didn't know anything about your war until 30 minutes ago! Now please can you tell me did your men find a blue box from the rubble". The Doctor said
"Those men died rescuing you from the monster you brought here, and all you care about is some trinket" Asica shouted.
"You're the leader here am I right? In that case those men died in your name, not mine. Also that 'trinket' is actually a complex, space and time machine that can get you and the rest of your people out of here. It's called the TARDIS and from the looks of things it's your people's last hope." The Doctor said somewhat boastfully.
Asica was silent for a few minutes." I know you are not one of us." He said. When the Doctor and Dana were brought in, their bodies were scanned which instantly revealed that they were not only not of this world, but of this galaxy. "Did the Daleks create you?"
"Oh not this again look I already went through this with her. I'm a time traveller." The Doctor said impatiently
"Did you cross entire galaxies just to taunt a dying race." Asica asked.
"I crossed billions of galaxies to get here, but I am not lying when I say I can help you. Please we need to stop that Dalek first, and then get your people out of here while the force field still holds."
Asica wasn't sure what to think. As far as he knew time travel was an impossibility, yet if the alien was telling the truth then he couldn't ignore a chance to help his people."
"What do we have to lose" The king said in a somewhat pessimistic tone. "Your ship, can it take off right away?"
"Yes. It can go anywhere, to another world, another time. We can make as many stops as we need." The Doctor assured.
"You will accompany a team to the wreckage to fetch this blue box if what you say is true. We will deal with the Dalek itself." The King said.
"Well that's the thing I have some experience in dealing with these monsters if you'll only listen to me." The Doctor said.
"We'll see if you're telling the truth about this vessel first. The Daleks are our priority. We've been fighting them for longer. I'm not going to listen to a total stranger about the biggest crisis we've ever faced."
"You two" the King explained to two soldiers. "Take him back to the wreckage. Zoella and the other alien will stay here."
"No" the Doctor demanded. "They both come with me."
"You're wasting time" Asica said. "I won't hurt them I promise, but you wouldn't expect me to give up my only leverage?"
"Just go" Dana replied. "He's right all the time we spend here arguing, the more the Dalek gets a lead on us."
"If only that fool would listen. With his resources I might be able to whip up a weapon against that monster." The Doctor thought to himself as he was carried away.
"It's over."
"Finally! Even I couldn't take it another second. No one deserved to die like that. Not even a man like him."
The man is question was Syresia, leader of the terrorist organisation Heglozia First, who were devoted to ending the war with the Daleks in order to preserve the planet. They foolishly believed that their leaders were just as responsible for the conflict as the Daleks, and hoped to persuade them (through violent means.) To settle their differences with the Daleks.
Their most heinous crime had been the sabotage of a war vessel, the Osteria, which caused it to explode before taking off. Over 2000 young men and women lost their lives in the explosion. There were no survivors. Syresia had himself orchestrated the sabotage.
Nevertheless Syresia's own executioners could not help but pity him in his final moments. The lack of resources meant that they were not allowed to use guns and waste ammunition to execute the prisoners. Instead a lethal form of chemical called Ixeri was used, which killed its victims slowly and painfully over the course of several hours. It wasn't just a lack of resources as to why this chemical was used however. The King wanted it to be used as a form of terror.
The executioners had been forced to slaughter many innocent men and women. When Syresia had been brought in, for once they were happy at the prospect of executing someone who deserved it. Still now that the grizzly deed (that had taken over two hours) was done, the two executioners had instead come to the conclusion that no one deserved to die from Ixeri.
"The King should be made to see just how that poison eats people from the inside." One of the executioners said as he carried Syresia's putrid, stinking corpse from the table.
"I sometimes think it would be better if that entire force field just collapsed on us." The other replied as he mopped up the mess created during Syresia's death throes.
Suddenly the two men were alerted by screams. The executioner carrying Syresia's corpse dropped it and ran to the window. Outside to his horror he could see the guards one by one falling to a Dalek.
"My god one of the Daleks is here."
"What? That's not possible? What would it want here anyway? To kill all our criminals?"
""I don't know but we have to get out of here now!"
The two men were not soldiers. The only reason they were in this position was to avoid having to fight in the war. Every day they regretted it and contemplated going off to fight against the Daleks and die an honourable, yet completely pointless death. Ultimately however their fear of the Daleks always won out and they instead decided to sacrifice more innocent lives in the hopes that they could wait out the war. (Regardless of how hopeless that seemed.)
The two men ran down the long corridors filled with prisoners, most of whom were there for minor crimes, such as stealing resources to feed their families.
Most of the prisoners were asleep, but a few were woken up by the commotion. One of the prisoners, a young man reached out and grabbed one of the executioners as he ran past. He managed to pull the executioner right up to the bars and hold him in place by placing his arm around his neck.
"Please help me" the executioner shouted to his friend, who without a seconds hesitation ran away.
"You coward. We were in this together." He shouted after his former comrade.
"Tell me, what's going on? Why are you two leaving? Where are all the guards? Answer me!" The prisoner shouted.
"There's a Dalek outside. I don't know what it wants, but it's coming in here."
"A Dalek that's not possible, unless our force field's down. If it is, why bother running?"
"What else can we do?"
Outside the Dalek had slaughtered almost all of the guards. Only four out of 50 in total remained. As the last four survivors ran for cover the Dalek hovered about twenty feet in the air and blasted a hole in the prison wall before entering. The Dalek made its way into the room the main generator was kept in, which controlled all of the doors in the facility. It was also capable of electrifying them if the prisoners got too close.
The Dalek killed two of the three soldiers guarding the generator, (with the other fleeing in panic) before placing its sucker arm on the generator. The four soldiers outside regrouped and continued to fire desperately at the creature to no avail. The soldier who fled returned and attempted to pull the Dalek off the generator, but he wasn't able to move it a fraction of an inch as the Dalek had briefly magnetized itself to the metal floor.
The Dalek was able by linking its own software with the generator to override the electronic locks on every door in the prison and open them. Once it was finished the Dalek spun round, knocking the soldier off its back. The Dalek then exterminated the last of the guards below, before turning to face the guard it had knocked down, who it cornered against a wall.
"HUMANOIDS KILL HUMANOIDS. THE DALEKS ARE UNITED THAT IS WHY WE ARE SUPERIOR! THAT IS WHY WE ALWAYS TRIUMPH!" The monster said before exterminating the guard and leaving the area.
The criminals were easily able to overrun the few remaining guards in the prison, most of whom they literally tore apart with their bare hands. The executioner who had been abandoned's neck was broken by the criminal who had restrained him. The other executioner meanwhile was beaten to death by a crowd, made up of people whose loved ones he had either personally killed, or people he was due to execute. In his final few moments he was almost relieved more than anything else to finally be free of the nightmare his existence had become.
Given what was to befall their planet, he wasn't wrong.
To Be Continued