1. Hell on Skaro
A mist, as stealthy as the object that roamed the outskirts of the dead planet, lingered into view. It hid the object that swam in the darkness before it vanished as the mist grew in height. It covered the surface hiding the rocks that lay about the ground and the dead grass that no longer grew on the planet.
Beyond the mist lay the ruins of a once great city. A city destroyed following a missile strike that almost wiped out its population. Those who survived had tried to make for the ‘bunker’ once rumoured to exist but had emerged a while ago following another missile strike and with it something unearthly.
~~~
The Doctor was hunched over the controls of his ship. He held one control down while flicking another, and then re-programmed the randomiser to take him wherever he felt like going. He felt slightly wary of where he might arrive next but that was all part of the excitement of the adventure. He held yet another button down, not quite sure what to expect and as he did so the console suddenly began to rise and fall.
The Doctor had only wanted to relax and listen to a bit of jazz. but the console wildly wheezed and shuddered, knocking him over onto his back. The clutter of the sheer drop from the console and onto the metal barrier below him made an awful noise. He struggled to get back up off his hands and knees to check over the console’s data banks. They all read the same four words, which meant nothing to the Doctor. They simply read – ‘You have been summoned!’
The Doctor looked slightly worried. "What? What? What?' he shouted, holding on tightly to the metal barrier that circled the console as the TARDIS continued to shudder as it pasted through the time vortex. He looked genuinely shocked. The console room had been shaken up, almost like a cocktail, but the Doctor was thinking about who it was that had summoned him. At one point he had thought it might have been ‘the almighty Salem’, but then changed his mind as he had already defeated Salem with his mind on the ice railway station on Kara.
The console room continued to jerk sideways, backwards, and forward in time whilst the Doctor gathered pieces of disguarded equipment off the console, and after making slight adjustments, he wrapped himself up in his light brown over coat ready for the inevitable materialisation of the TARDIS.
~~~
There were three citizens who had made it to the bunker alive. Their names were Kathy, Scarlet, and Johanna, they were survivors of the Thal race. All of the same family, and each wore exactly the same military style uniforms, covered in dust, and cuts made from stray shrapnel which had dug into their flesh and continued to bleed. The planet had been swollen up by the mist and the dust, and the sun had been bled also, draining the lives of thousands on the planet. Skaro had fallen under the rubble and the chaos.
Johanna knocked on the metal block, which looked genuinely new, under the circumstances. The metal block that Johanna had thought was the door slowly rose into the air which revealed inside some steps leading down into the ground. She slowly led the way, Kathy slipping in after her, as did Scarlet who covered Kathy’s back keeping an eye out for trouble.
There were no lights, and no sign of life. Kathy let out a slight scream upon hearing the bulk of the metal block behind them shut, and they all suddenly felt very worried and unsure of themselves in the dim light of the bunker.
'I knew we should have stayed in the city!' said Kathy, worriedly.
'What good would that have done any of us?' asked Johanna, starring into the face of her daughters, both teenagers and were both still mildly upset with their mother’s determination.
Scarlet looked her mother straight in the eyes, as a tear ran down her cheek. "We should have thought long and hard before we set foot here!" she said, turning to avoid her mother’s explanation.
'We came here so we all had a chance. I want us all to be safe. If only I could say the same for your brother!'
Kathy almost broke down with anger. 'Leave him out of it. It was entirely his own fault. If he had left that package on the out skirts of the city alone, then maybe he would have still be alive too!'
Johanna showed no response to Kathy's outburst but cut her a sharp look.
'I hate you!' said Scarlet, to her mother, and Johanna wept in silence.
2. Worry on the face of evil
The console had stopped rocking to and fro as the TARDIS finally settled down on a planet the Doctor thought he recognised. He slipped his glasses on, over his eyes, and pulled open the TARDIS doors to reveal the landscape beyond but all the Doctor could sees was nothing but fog. A mist that completely enveloped the entire surface of the planet, and whatever may have lurked in the darkness. He stepped out, and felt the ground beneath his feet.
'How very unusual,' he observed. 'This world reminds me of a place I once lived..." he paused. He spun on his heel, and shut the police box doors behind him. He then twisted back around and prepared himself for what he was about to do.
Taking a deep breath he swung out his arms, embracing the fog. He could hardly see a thing through the black mist that circled him. It almost came up to his neck, walking on tip toe to avoid being consumed in the darkness. He came to a halt when his foot hit what felt like a rock, in front of him. He crouched down into the darkness and found that what he had come across was in fact not a rock, but a dead body.
'Oh,' he said, 'I am so, so sorry!" He closed the eyes of the humanoid life form. 'I wonder...' he began as he examined the body closely but suddenly he felt something prod him in the back. Suddenly, he could see clearly now as the fog had left him. He stood up, and spun around. He was now stood facing a familiar face.
'Ahhhhh,' exclaimed the Doctor. 'It had to be something nasty, didn't it!' he said, 'it always is.' he muttered. Stood before him was a tall ape like creature dressed in uniform and pointing a weapon of sorts in his direction.
The Doctor had recognised the creature before him as an Ogron. It brandished its weapon in front of the him. He felt for his sonic screwdriver, but the Ogron took notice and held it's weapon up at the Doctor.
'Stop.' the creature grunted, 'Don't move!' it continued, it's voice was so very deep and it's action's were as unfriendly and as menacing as it's presence altogether.
'Did you kill this humanoid?' asked the Doctor, almost shouting at the Ogron in pure rage. 'It could only have been you, or your Dalek masters!'
The Ogron ignored the Doctor and his meaningless words. 'Hand over the password generator!' it bellowed, as it looked meaningfully into the Doctor's eyes.
'I don't know what you're talking about. Password generator?' he mused, 'Never heard of it before.'
The Ogron shook it's head, angrily. "Hand over the password generator, or face my Dalek masters.'
The Doctor emptied his pocket's in front of the Ogron, who starred in horror at the Doctor and his tomfoolery. 'I haven't a "password generator", but I do have one "little dish", an apple core, a yo yo, an umbrella and the latest edition of the beano I bought last friday for a fiver. There. Bigger on the inside these pockets of mine!'
The Ogron's temper had exceeded it's limit. It fired at the Doctor, and an array of light shone out of the creatures weapon. It enveloped the Doctor within seconds. He let out a yelp, and fell face down to the ground. Slowly picking himself up, he saw the creature towering over him.
'That was a shock-wave. Not full capacity!' the Ogron grunted
The Doctor nodded breathlessly. The Ogron helped the Doctor back up on his two, slightly weak legs and looked him in his eyes. 'Now, before this interrogation gets under way, I would like you to meet your Dalek masters!'
The Ogron let go of the Doctor's collar and the he fell back down to the ground landing beneath his captors feet.
~~~
Johanna was in her forties, had married twice, both of her husbands having perished long ago leaving her to bring up her two daughters, from her second marriage, struggling to survive the war that waged for over a millenia. Johanna had been a typical mother- who had hung out with her daughters when she had the money and the time but the war had put paid to the normal family life and threw them all into a world of survival. Skaro had been their home, they had known no other and they had learnt to accept that on a world where political know-how had been shunted up the wall, they just had to do their best to get on with life. Johanna had done so, up until now.
Her daughter Kathy was the eldest of the two off-spring, Scarlet the youngest. Their brother Marcus had been the eldest of the her children before falling ill to the nuclear waste. He had been named after Johanna's first husband and had been a happy young lad. He had just turned eighteen and on the day after his birthday, the Ogrons had been ordered to attack the city for the very last bombardment. They had lost their brother to Skaro and the evil beneath the planets surface. Scarlet was almost certain that she'd die at the hands of Davros.
3. The Underworld
The Doctor had been taken by the Ogron, to it's base set within the side of a hill. The Ogron had to help the Doctor to its lair, as he struggled to walk. The Doctor had been so shaken up, that he knew that he only had to say one word, and his Ogron guard would blast him with it's staza gun.
He looked around the room he had been placed in. It was dimly lit, however, there were windows that looked out, onto the surface of the planet he had landed on. The Doctor struggled to get up off his knees and attempted to peer through the window frame in front of him. As he did so, he took out his sonic screwdriver and adjusted one of the many settings on the slim handle, he had in his grasp. He flicked a tiny switch and an array of light shone out, at the window. He pressed his nose up against the window and he looked out with amazement.
'This is wrong, so very, very wrong!' he concluded after starring out of the window for several seconds.
The sky had been completely smothered in fog and the landscape outside was littered with corpses. The Doctor could just make out countless bodies through the fog. He stepped back from the window. He spun on his heel and saw his Ogron guard had just left him, alone in his cell.
There was an odd glow outside, as the Doctor peered even closer now, against the window. The glow hovered in the fog for several seconds and then settled down amongst the many bodies that lay on the waste land outside. He tucked his sonic screwdriver back into his pocket, as he heard the footsteps of his returning guard draw closer.
Fearing the guard had returned, the Doctor stepped away from the window, and settled back down on the bench he had been left on earlier. The door leading to the his cell slid open and the Ogron guard stepped through, alongside a Dalek.
~~~
Johanna had reached the very bottom of the staircase that lead deeper into the pit's of the bunker. Her daughters followed, they too had reached the very last step that lead off the staircase and into a clearing.
'What option shall we take?' asked Johanna nervously.
There were six separate passage ways that lead off into all sorts of directions.
'I reckon we ought to take this one!' said Scarlet pointing out a tunnel with one of her bony fingers.
'I'm not sure' said Johanna. 'It may take us to the "underworld" ' A name that had been passed down over the generations with reference to the once, hidden bunker.
Kathy caught up from behind Scarlet, who observed her mother's action's like a hawk. 'Oh, leave it out mother, just this once. You're determined to frighten us, and lead us to hell before were forty!'
Johanna's eyes swelled with tears. 'Alright,' she whispered gently, and after a moment's thought said, 'We'll take the route you so badly urge us all to take!' almost as though her daughter had taken charge over her. She felt like she no longer had the power to stand up for what she believed in or her role as their mother.
~~~
On the surface of Skaro, amidst the fog and bodies, creatures roamed through the darkness, surfing the fog as though surfing waves, picking at the bodies through the darkness. There were three of them, all exactly the same as one another, but they weren't human. They were almost shapeless and as dark as the fog that hid them away. They were heading towards a ship that stood out in the darkness and something that made the three creatures shiver.
They approached the object with considerable care, and then stopped and began to praise the object. They had found their agent and his time capsule.'The Time Lord has come to save us,' said one, in all but a whisper.
'He has come to rid Skaro of the evil we face!' said another grimly.
The three creatures melded as one surrounding the object. 'The Dalek Supreme shall pay for his crime against Skaro!' they all said in unison.
~~~
The Doctor got up off the bench standing taller than the Dalek itself. The Dalek's eye stalk swivelled around and focused on the Doctor.'Who is the humanoid?' it asked the guard inquisitively.
The Doctor ruffled his hair, and looked into the eye stalk of the Dalek. 'I'm the Doctor!' he declared.
The Dalek swivelled as far away from the Doctor as it possibly could. 'If you are the Doctor, then you will be exterminated!'
The Doctor also stepped away from the Dalek, the Ogron who had his trigger finger wrapped around his staza tightly, wasn't sure how to react to the sudden outburst. His people had also heard of the Doctor and knew of the threat he imposed upon them.
The Dalek looked as menacing as ever turned and then left the Doctor as did the Ogron. The Doctor felt that he had unsettled the Dalek but he knew that if he didn't get out of there soon then the end would be fast approaching.
4. False Hope
The Doctor sat back on the bench, and took his glasses off, shoving them into his pocket violently. He took in a deep breath and sighed. Then he began to talk to himself, but this was not uncommon.
'I knew that the Daleks would be behind all this. Why else are the Ogrons on this planet, and furthermore, there's one question that I've forgotten to ask myself and that is - Where the hell am I?' The Doctor thought back to when he first left Gallifrey, after he delivered the Master to his family's keeper. The Keeper took the Master in his hands and locked away the sealed casket that had the Master squirming within. Then, the Doctor left, and as he did so, the TARDIS console rose and fell frantically, in response to the Doctor's mood.
He thought of the time when he and his companion's met once again, to defeat the might of the Dalek race, and they had done so, impressively. But then, the thought of Davros and his army, his empty spirit, and the Dalek home world Skaro. But Skaro had been wiped out of the sky. The Doctor had blown it up, a while back. But if Dalek Caan had the ability to travel back in time to avert the jaws of the 'Nightmare Child' from swallowing Davros whole, the Doctor knew there was still a possibility that Skaro had not been destroyed.
He scratched his head, worryingly, looking down all the time. Sweat poured down over his eyes, and taking out a handkerchief he to wiped his face.
He looked up, just for a second. He had not noticed that there were three baskets that had been lowered from a hatch in the ceiling. In each basket were, what looked like, bottles of water and food.
The Doctor had taken off his overcoat and settled it down on the bench. He approached the baskets and kneeled down to drink from a bottle he quickly picked up. He first examined the water within then unwound the lid and sniffed the contents within. It smelt alright, but the Doctor wasn't so sure. He replaced the lid on the bottle and slipped the water bottle back into the basket. He thought he'd leave it for now.
~~~
The TARDIS had almost been broken into. Somehow, the three creatures who had surrounded the blue box, and continually circled the device had been given entry when the door opened. But before either of the three creatures could gain full access to the 'Police Public Call Box', something approaching from the distance stopped them.
'You there...think carefully about what it is you're doing!' came the voice, boldly.