That was an experience. Before today, I had never been in a situation remotely like that. And it was fucking terrifying. But I didn't dwell on that for long. I moved on, in this case by taking a closer look at the two plastic mannequin ‘corpses’ I had made with a great deal of confusion.

Mannequins controlled by the Nestene Consciousness don't just suddenly fall over dead if you spear them a bit. In fact, from what I knew nothing except interrupting the signal from the Nestene Consciousness really ‘killed’ it. It was a lump of plastic being moved around by alien powers or whatever, even taking their arms off would only make the arms move by themselves as shown in the episode. Something doesn't add up. The crack I heard coming from their heads right before they died might be the reason. Maybe this version of reality was different from how the show portrayed it?

I walked around the bodies for a few seconds, looking at the entire thing to see if there was anything I hadn't noticed before. I didn't see anything but the normal mannequin shell and the puncture holes from my spear in their heads however. So my next natural step was taking a closer look at the heads. I leaned in close, taking a good close up look at the head itself but most importantly inside the decently sized spear made holes. The heads looked normal like normal mannequins on the outside, not that I had much experience with mannequins but it looked close enough to me. On the inside however, inside the mostly hollow head of the plastic man there was a glint of metal that I could just barely see through one of the holes.

It was lucky that I could even see that much inside the rather dusky and dark room. The windows provided just enough light that I could see without tripping on all the trash and things on the floor, but good lighting conditions for anything except a dark mood it was not. The mannequin wasn't wearing anything over its plastic body, so I could see that it was luckily able to be taken apart. I popped off its head quickly, and brought it over to one of the broken windows to get a good look with better light.

It turns out that even with the better light from getting closer to the opening in the wall that used to be a window wasn't much help, mostly because of me looking through holes, but I could see that it was some kind of metallic sphere that looked like it was held in the center of the head cavity by some small rods. I had no clue what it was, but I was pretty sure that destroying it caused the Nestene Consciousness to lose control over it so it was probably fine to take a better look at it.

I took my hunting knife from its sheath at my side and put it against the hard plastic head before starting to cut it open to get a good look at what I was dealing with. After a moment of slight struggle against the hard plastic casing, I had the entirety of the face portion of the smooth mannequin head off and I tossed the chunk of plastic aside while staring at the thing in my hands.

The entire head was filled with structural rods supporting a small device that took the center most position in where a human brain would be. It was spherical and made of some kind of coppery metal, but it was cracked and burnt. I must have accidentally hit it with a lucky spear thrust. The plastic rods seemed to not hold up against a spear and didn't do anything against it, as I can see by the broken rods around where I had stabbed this one. Just from what I remembered happening, it was clear what had happened.

This was most likely what that production line is doing. Making this universe’s plastic men get mini receivers inside their own heads, instead of the large scale transmitter that affected every plastic out there. Though that probably increased the distance these soldiers could work, it did also present a huge weakness to me.

“I guess I should go for the head.” I chuckled to myself as I tossed the head away. It's not much use for me besides letting me get some more information.

My mind wasn't entirely convinced of something that started bugging me. Was this really the more powerful soldiers that they are making? Just the normal plastic people with a chunk of metal inside their heads? Maybe I am missing something…

I shoved the thoughts to the back of my mind for now. I needed to get to work again.

----------------------------------------

As soon as I got my little insight about the situation I am in, things started to move for real. I only had three days, including today, before the quest was over. So things needed to start moving along.

I needed to scout the building and around the soldiers, I needed to come up with a plan around that and finally make my moves enacting my plan once I had it. If all went well, I should have had a full plan by the end of the day. I did not have a full plan by the end of the day.

Scouting went as well as could be hoped, without being discovered and a lot of information gathered about the schools layout alongside some rough enemy positions.

But I had a problem using that information to somehow create an actually good plan to kill everything without killing myself with just my spear and my knife. I was not a tactician or a soldier, and never was. ‘Was’ being in the past tense because I was definitely going to get some practice in this universe. But for now… I was pretty lost.

I was outnumbered against super strong hivemind plastic people with only the clothes on my back, the spear and knife at my side, and the trash alongside the scraps that filled the school building. The scraps being completely useless for anything here on Earth, especially against the Nestene Consciousnesses soldiers as I had seen them destroy metal pipes with a chop of their hands. But what they had in strength and numbers they lost in finesse, speed and possibly perception.

All in all, I had to be sneaky and careful about this or I would die. But them being a hivemind also means that if I get spotted by one, I get spotted by all.

So possible diversionary tactics combined with guerilla warfare should work? I remembered that they also had a range advantage when it came to it, unless the guns in their arms weren't present in this version of reality, so I needed to work around that. Corners would be my friends if it came to a straight out fight. Hit and run and ambush tactics.

But that wasn't a plan. The most of a plan was to lure some if not all the guards for the truck they were using to get more resources every morning away and slash the truck's tires to stop the intake of resources and run before they got back. There was a stairwell and the platform thing on the second floor, so I could lure them up the platform to the second floor and run to the stairwell, walk through the hopefully undefended door on the first floor and into the loading bay, disabling the truck before making my escape. After that, I plan on holing out in the stairwell where I should have several advantages if they find me. Two exits, stairs possibly giving me a head start due to their speed and lacking maneuverability, two corners where I can ‘ambush’ them, and possibly the high ground if they come from below.

Though I could also just lure them into the stairwell after I slash the tires and get rid of them faster. Something to think about.

After that… I got nothing. Worst case scenario is that I just have to settle for only getting the quest for stopping production completed and leave the other mannequins alone while I hide. But a third quest reward would be great, even if I don't know what it is. I won't quite risk my life on it though.

I could try to just make a lot of noise or something to draw a group of them out and ambush them in groups? The hivemind aspect would mean that they would learn to counter my tactics though. As far as I am aware, the Nestene controls each mannequin directly so it is against its tactics that I am up against and it had fought in the time war before it came to Earth. Realistically, I was kind of screwed. But hey, it's obviously not that smart or it wouldn't have let the Doctor anywhere near it with the anti-plastic vial.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Besides, maybe I just don't understand something and I am going up against individual beings instead of a single mind? It would be much easier if everybody doesn't know the full extent of what is happening.

Everything is possible really. This universe might be hugely different from fiction, it may be exactly like the movies, I believe only my patron deities really know. Though they did refuse to tell me, so I have no idea.

Whatever, I don't need to know everything. All I need to do tonight is try to think of how to kill things.

----------------------------------------

Day two of the quest already? Yesterday went fast. Two full days before the end of the quest. So I had to make today count. I did come up with a rough plan for how I wanted to go about my secondary quest goals, but it wasn't much to boast about. I would stop the production line by removing their ability to receive new resources, aka slashing the tires of the truck, and killing the loading+driving crew in the stairwell. There were only three of those, so I wasn't very concerned about that part though. What I was reasonably concerned and stressed about was the second half of my plan.

I didn't even give myself a clear time table for the second half of my plan just because I wasn't sure how anything would all turn out. My plan was basically to lure the factory/production line workers up the stairs in the common area where it was situated, and deal with them with the hit and run tactics I thought should work best. I would wait until they reached the door to the second floor and when they came around the corner, I would lunge at the head of the first one through and try to kill it with one blow before I run through the hallway and around a corner where I would wait again, and repeat that through the entire floor or building if it came down to it. It was definitely risky, but not as much as a head on confrontation would be.

Minimizing risks. That is what actual strategizing does, huh? None of this whole ‘If we do exactly this we won't ever be even seen’ business. Not in battle. Though maybe I could pull something like that off if I get a quest to steal something. Maybe get an alien artifact from a museum…

I chuckled at the thought, then instantly grimaced as I drank the bad water that was my breakfast this morning. Oh how I can't wait to get back to my uncivilized and absolutely wild planet to drink and eat some actually good water and food. Great, now my mind is on food again… My stomach is already complaining about that reminder… I started to sigh.

But my exhale sputtered to a halt as I heard a distant scream, coming from somewhere inside the school building. I sat up abruptly, grabbing my spear from its position beside a table and I started to run. I swore as I heard it increasing in volume the closer I got to the door. I was out of the woodshop in an instant, my head swiveling towards the source of the noise. It was coming from the loading bay. I cursed again.

“Of course somebody managed to get into the loading bay!” I said, annoyed but worried as I started sprinting down the short hallway and in front of the doorway that lead to the metal platform where I could see down into the loading bay room and I took a second to get a good hold on the situation while I held my spear firmly, my eyes darting to the source of the screams instantly.

There was what looked like a teenager cowering against the closed garage (Probably technically called a loading bay) door, with five of the mannequins shuffling around closer to him every second as he just shouted and screamed in horror as he watched them get closer. There were boxes that seemed to have toppled out of the back of the van, clearly not the mannequins doing. Just how this guy managed to get into the van in the first place was a wonder in itself. Why, I had no clue. Maybe it looked like a good place to sleep for a few hours to the guy and he had to hide while they were loading the truck?

None of that mattered however, as the second I saw that I ran and leaped over the railing on the mezzanine and landed heavily on the floor, only staggering a moment after a momentary flash of pain because of my landing before I stood straight. “OI! YOU HUNKS OF PLASTIC! OVER HERE!” I shouted to divert their attention from the kid to myself before I steadied my hands on my spear before I raised it up in my grip and thrust it towards the back of the nearest mannequin’s head while throwing myself into the fray.

The teens' screams died out as soon as he heard my shout, but I was more concentrated on the mannequins all turning to me at once. My initial thrust seemed to strike true and I managed to hit the side of the mannequin's head. But I didn't hit the control orb thing as it just kept turning to face me, not paying attention to the spear in the side of its head at all as I held it firm. I gave the spear another good firm push, as I struggled to stop the thing from coming any closer or even turning around its head while I could see the other four start to come closer in front of me, just behind the one I was stabbing and walking menacingly.

As I pushed however, I felt a yerk and heard a crack with a small pop as my spear apparently pierced through the control orb and my arm was left holding up the weight of the mannequin corpse on my spear. I gave the spear a firm yank with both arms, letting it come free and the mannequin fell to the ground while I took a step back to gain some distance from the other four mannequins that were drawing closer still.

I had no time to do anything however as the second the one mannequin fell, the other four mannequins started to move faster, reaching their plastic hands out in a grabbing gesture, clearly intent on strangeling me to death. They were all on me in an instant, but that second warning I got was enough to duck below their grasping arms and backpedal against the rail of the stairs that lead up to the metal platform overlooking the loading bay.

I leaped up and over the railing, pushing myself away from the Autons and onto the stairs getting a slight reprieve as they started to jog around to get onto the stairs themselves. I looked over to the kid again, quickly trying to make sure that he was ok. He was ok, but I could see him stare up at me with wide eyes. “You need to get out of here!” I called out to him, raising my spear to chest level and pointing it towards the plastic drones who were now on the stairs below me. “But don't go out on the first floor!” I warned as I saw him move, “There are more of them all over this place! If you can't get out through the loading bay door, just hide! I will be back as soon as I deal with these!” I directed him and I could see him nod with a tight jaw before I had to redirect my attention to the first plastic man in the line they were forming on the staircase, giving the first in line a sharp stab in the forehead from my higher position and getting rewarded by a crack as I pulled back.

‘Thats two down. Three left.’ I thought to myself as I watched the front mannequin collapse on top of the mannequin behind it and nearly topple it over before it fell to the side and onto the floor below. I went ahead and stabbed at the third one, but the mannequins seemed to have learned my atack and for the first time, they countered my attack by swatting at my spear and only leaving a scratch on its face.

My spear on the other hand nearly went flying across the room to the floor, but I managed to hang onto it and I was only sent reeling instead of disarmed. ‘I was really not ready for that… I have been underestimating these things…’ I thought with some surprise, but I decided to correct my mistake immediately as I turned to run up the stairs with the plastic men right behind me.

I stopped at the platform and stepped to the left two feet and stabbed at the front mannequin diagonally as they came up, still looking forwards. Their mistake. My spear punctured the head before the front mannequin made it to the top step, halting its movement alongside the other two behind it for a second as it tried to reach up towards the spear with its clumsy arms. I started jerking my spear around, as if I was trying to slice everything inside and pumping my arms around furiously before I connected with something solid and I put my full body into a push into my spear and got a thump in return, making the mannequin almost fall and making its hand fall to its side. I say almost fell because it started to find its footing less then a second later.

‘What was that?!’ I thought, a mix of I withdrew my spear and stabbed at its head while it was still disorientated, and was rewarded by a firm crack and it fell over for good this time, collapsing on the stairs and hindering the progress of the other mannequins below as they had to push it aside before continuing to move quickly up the stairs. I quickly retreated once more as they made their way onto the platform just a few feet away and I was out the door on the second floor in an instant, turning to run.

Then I stopped cold and stumbled backwards as a black glossy fist came thundering past where my head used to be. There was a completely glossy black plastic figure standing by the door, its mussels defined and its face gone with white lines traced its body.

“Shit! Why do I have to be right!?” I screamed out as the actual upgraded version of the Auton soldiers stepped towards me with fluid motions and a grace that the lesser mannequins did not have, raising its leg to deal a lethal blow as I reeled from the sudden emergence of another attacker.