Adventures in the TARDIS

The ponies gallop on like the jaws of Tartarus is chasing after them. Very few look back because of it. Only Feather Wind does because he is not galloping but rather on the back of Stern Wing, at her insistence, because she can gallop much faster than him. In return, Feather blows the winds upon all of their backs to accelerate their pace.

When Feather does look back, he notices that the creatures they interacted with have not emerged from the large box prison yet. This, in turn, gives him an idea. Concentrating and communing with the air, he summons forth a large cloud of mist then has it blow outward and upward in order to spread it out to create a giant wall of concealment. He holds his concentration on this power until he’s convinced the wall of mist is tall, broad, and thick enough to completely conceal where his friends are going.

“My friends, this way,” Feather calls to the rest of his friends as he quickly puts on his Mist Cloak then sails his way to an upper ledge of a second story cubicle cubby hole. Along his way up, he calls back to Stern, “Stern, please carry Doctor Kelly here. She’s too frantic right now to concentrate on any spell even if she wanted to.”

“On it,” Stern complies before leaping forward with a large flap and landing on top of Doctor Kelly. Doing that momentarily freaks her out a little further, but Stern Wing quickly consoles, “It’s me. Stern Wing. Don’t struggle and I’ll carry you aloft. Understand?”

It seems to take a moment for Doctor Kelly to register, but she eventually nods in acknowledgement. With that, Stern Wing proceeds to carry the white maji aloft to follow her friend.

“In that case, Derpy, help me carry Margret,” Daring Do requests as she takes off into the air then proceeds to flap closer to Margret. Before arriving, though, she sees Margret create some kind of floating disk of force then hops onto that.

“I can carry myself, thank-you-very-much,” Margret disputes. “In fact, I can make this big enough for all of us. We’d travel much faster too.”

“No need for the moment. Just follow us,” Daring instructs as she flaps upwards and curves her course to follow after Feather Wind. Derpy does the same, though not as quickly. Each pegasus picks up some speed, though, when Feather blows wind behind them to accelerate their flight.

Together, they soon land at the edge of the cubby hole. From there, Feather crouches down and waves for the rest of his companions to follow suit. Quickly getting the idea, they proceed to do so.

“I created a wall of mist back there to conceal which way we went,” Feather quietly informs his companions. “We should be safe up here for the moment.”

“I’ll take it one step further to help ensure that,” Margret decides as she concentrates on one of her spells. The result is a holographic shell materializing around them. From the inside, it looks like a bunch of transparent grid lines and a white glow between them, but they know, from past experience with this spell, that the outside of this holographic shell can look like whatever Margret wants.

“The hologram looks like an empty cage?” Daring guesses at Margret. Judging from the shape and size of it as she can see from the inside, this is an educated guess.

“Exactly,” Margret confirms. “I don’t know for sure if this will fool them, though.”

“We’re about to find out soon, I suppose,” Daring figures as she crawls closer to the ledge and peers beyond it. Once she does, she requests, “Feather, disperse the fog wall over there. It may have successfully concealed us, but that applies both ways. With this holographic shell in place plus this ledge-”

“Say no more,” Feather interrupts. “I’m on it.”

True to his word, he has the fog wall quickly deteriorate. Once that happens, Daring reaches into one of her saddlebags, pulls out her binoculars, then holds them to her eyes.

“Doc, how did you know that those were Daleks?” Feather Wind asks Doctor Kelly anxiously. “Have you ever encountered them before?”

Doctor Kelly does not answer him. Truthfully she seems momentarily incapable of noticing. Her eyes are cracked with red lines, some tears pouring down her eyes, mucus down her muzzle, and she is hyperventilating.

Despite all of that, she seems mildly fascinated about something. Her horn flicks to brief life and a holographic window materializes near her face. On it, there seems to be an outline of her body if her hide is invisible. A lot of data scrolls on the image of her body in the window but especially outside of it. The border of this holographic window is also flashing red to indicate there is some kind of emergency with her.

“Fascinating!” Doctor Kelly marvels despite her crippling fear. “So this is what a panic attack feels like! In all of my centuries of life, I have never experienced this. Especially not to this degree.”

“You treated others who had these symptoms before, I take it?” Feather offers as a change of subject to coax her to engage with him. “You are a psychologist, after all.”

Doctor Kelly finally looks back at Feather Wind then nods. The holographic window beside her also fades away as she answers, “Yes. I’ve had some cases like that. Not too many since my race is raised in a synthetic environment where the only thing we encounter tends to be what we choose to create, but still. Only a society that is completely devoid and incapable of any degree of emotions will totally lack the need for a psychologist on occasion.”

“They’re finally emerging from that prison box,” Daring Do quietly reports to her friends as she continues to peer over the edge of the ledge they are on while she is still using her binoculars. “They don’t seem to be in any hurry for the moment. I think they are even debating something judging by the flashes of light things on top of their domed heads.”

“Once again, how did you know those were Daleks?” Feather repeats his query to Doctor Kelly now that she seems a little more focused. “Have you ever encountered them before?”

Doctor Kelly shakes her head as she says, “No. I only heard and read about them. I haven’t even encountered a holographic file on them. The only images I have ever seen of them are in text and pictographs made by other races.” She shakes her head. “This is going to sound strange and even I can’t explain this, but I still feel totally certain that they are Daleks.”

“I didn’t get a good look at them, but they match every description the Doctor has ever told me about them,” Derpy chips in. “He told me they ride in tiny metal vehicles of sorts and they keep insisting that they are going to exterminate every lifeform they encounter with maximum prejudice.”

“Commander Viraxis said the same thing,” Margret reminds the group. “So it seems both Time Lords agree on that.”

Daring winces in confusion and crawls back from the ledge. She allows her binoculars to rest on its strap on her neck while the device itself rests on the ground since she’s that close to it. From there, she asks, “Why would Commander Viraxis keep a group of Daleks as prisoners? His race has been at war with these creatures and supposedly have been for quite some time during the Time War. One would think he’d do some exterminating of his own with them, so why keep them as prisoners here instead? That just gives them a chance to escape later.”

“To be fair, I don’t think he anticipated, or could even prepare for the possibility, that visitors from another time and/or world would arrive here and be led by a Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony,” Feather Wind figures.

“Based on what I have seen, if he could contain Trouble somehow then I really do think he would have already,” Stern Wing reasons. Stern sighs then shakes her head as she asks, “More importantly, the million-bit question we’re facing right now is what are we going to do now that they have been unleashed?”

“That’s what we need to figure out,” Daring replies. “Fortunately and unfortunately, no pony else is here. That means there aren't any other innocent ponies to be threatened by them here, but that also means no pony else can help us either.”

“And we’re just as trapped with them as they are with us,” Derpy adds fearfully. “Everything I have ever seen and heard of them indicates they won’t be a friendly or even reasonable bunch.”

“They haven’t noticed us for the moment,” Daring says as she crawls back to the ledge. “This gives us a chance to study them in order to figure out how to better deal with them later.”

“What if we try to talk to them?” Feather Wind proposes. “After all, there is a slim chance everything we’ve been told about them could be wrong in one way or another.”

“They kept chanting for us to be exterminated as we ran away from them,” Stern Wing reminds her friend sternly. “I, for one, think that those words, and intentions, have cost them the benefit of the doubt.”

“Worse, both Time Lords insist they are very capable of delivering on that threat,” Derpy says with a shudder.

“Do you have any idea why he would be keeping them here alive, Margret?” Feather checks with Margret.

“I’m not him or a mind reader,” Margret replies. “I’m only guessing when I say I think he was containing them here in order to study them, just like the rest of these chaos beasts here. If I’m right, and he succeeded in that goal, that could win him a tactical advantage in his war against them. Imagine if he had discovered, or created, a new weakness for this race. In terms of motivation, that should certainly be enough for him in his perspective.”

“I agree,” Doctor Kelly chimes in.

“They are on the move now,” Daring reports to the rest of her friends. “They seem to have gathered in front of one of the chaos beast’s cages.”

“I should take a look too,” Doctor Kelly decides as she crawls up close to the ledge.

“Please don’t panic again,” Daring requests to the doctor. “Also I’m still using my binoculars.”

“I think I got a better hoofle on my emotions now that I’m more prepared for it,” Doctor Kelly assures. “They just caught me off guard for a moment. As for your binoculars, keep them. I have something better.”

Igniting her horn, Doctor Kelly creates a holographic window in front of her and a bunch of holographic, disk shaped things ahead of that. Each one is a different size and has variable distance from each other. They also rotate and change their distance from each other after she creates this spell. The result of that is a magnification of anything she’s aiming the disks at. Digital information of some kind is also displayed along the border of this window.

“That is neat!” Feather Wind says with fascination as he observes this spell. “Do you think you can teach me this?”

“Perhaps later,” Doctor Kelly answers. “And I’d have to translate it too if you plan to cast it with traditional unicorn magic. Right now it is a magi gem. Either you’d need to craft your own and attune to it, or translate the magic later on.”

“Later, then,” Feather Wind agrees. “But I’m not going to let you forget about that one. I often fly in the sky or park myself on a cloud. A spell like that would be fantastic in my repertoire considering the perspective I’m frequently able to cast it in.”

“Duly noted,” Doctor Kelly replies. “And agreed.”

“It would certainly make a good scouting spell,” Stern says enthusiastically. “If I could cast magic, I wouldn’t mind being prepared with that myself.”

“There are alternatives,” Daring says as she shakes her own binoculars for emphasis. “And I agree that these especially come in hoofy for adventures, particularly if they are pegasi or able to often take the high ground somehow.”

“Can’t your drones do this too?” Feather recalls as he looks back at Doctor Kelly.

“Yes, but I won’t dare to send them out now and alert them to our presence again,” Doctor Kelly insists.

Suddenly they all hear a collective cacophony of high pitched buzzing sounds. It sounds very similar to the Doctor’s sonic screwdriver except there are many of them this time. Those who can see the Daleks, either through Daring’s binoculars or by studying Doctor Kelly’s magnified holographic screen, have a chance to notice a new device arose on top of these creature’s metallic domed heads. It emerged from a new hole that slid out of the way at the top and this device lifted up. Once again, it appears to be a device that is very similar to the Doctor’s sonic screwdriver, although these ones are thicker, shorter, and less streamlined-looking.

“What are they doing?” Daring quietly wonders aloud.

“By Celestia! Those are sonic screwdrivers, aren’t they?!” Feather realizes in astonishment. “And they parked themselves right in front of one of the cages of the chaos beasts. Commander Viraxis did say they have some way to control these creatures so I can see their incentive to release them.”

“What? But the Doctor never told me that they have a built-in device like that,” Derpy mentions.

“But he doesn’t come from the pony universe,” Feather recalls as he looks back at Derpy. “Maybe the Daleks are a little different here.”

“He doesn’t come from the pony universe?” Margret echoes questioningly. “What does that mean?”

“It’s a long story,” Feather answers dismissively. “And I’m pretty sure I’m lacking some of the details. For some reason the Doctor prefers to remain mysterious with his history. I have a hunch that he thinks it would be too risky for others to know too much about him.”

“My stars! Feather is right!” Doctor Kelly exclaims in shock. “They are releasing the chaos beasts. The one in front of them has resumed the normal flow of time.”

Stern Wing growls and quietly pounds the ground with her right forehoof as she says, “Then this situation is growing untenable. If we don’t stop these Daleks now, they are going to unleash the rest of the chaos beasts. If they do that, they’ll be that much harder to deal with later.”

“No! Stay where you are,” Daring orders insistently. “I think they can easily take us out already. Protecting ourselves and observing them is our best recourse for the moment.” She shakes her head. “We just don’t have enough information on them to take them out now.” She nods ahead. “Each of those metal things you see is just their outer shell. It’s like miniature carriages. The real creature is somewhere inside. Something tells me their outer shells will be hard for us to pierce which gives them plenty of shooting opportunities while we try. One of those stick arms they have in front of them, the one that curiously does not look like a plunger for some reason, is an energy weapon designed to kill others in one shot.”

“That is consistent with the historical records I have read,” Doctor Kelly agrees. “Daring is right. We are not prepared to engage them yet.”

“Teleport a stick of lit dynamite inside their tin cans,” Stern Wing suggests. “Simple as that.”

“I don’t have enough for them all,” Daring replies. “I have three left last I checked. At most, that will only take out half of their forces and that isn’t counting the chaos beasts.”

“Besides, I refuse to kill,” Doctor Kelly reminds insistently.

“Then . . . can we teleport some kind of gaseous drug in those tin cans?” Stern counter proposes but with much less confidence this time. At this point she is clearly reaching.

“Maybe if we had any,” Doctor Kelly answers.

“And what if they don’t need to breathe?” Feather adds.

“Um . . . some gasses can be disabling just from physical contact,” Stern proposes but it sounds clear that her argument is losing steam at this point and even she has noticed that.

“We’ve already learned a few important things by safely observing them,” Doctor Kelly mentions. “They are interested to free at least that chaos beast and they have sonic screwdriver’ish devices to pull that off, and each of them is equipped with such a device.”

“If that is true, then they can hack their way out of anything that isn’t made of wood,” Derpy says in a frightened voice.

“Including out of this warehouse?” Feather asks with growing alarm.

Hearing that theory chills the blood and silences the group for a moment. A moment that is first broken by Daring Do.

“Well, in that case, that would provide us a means of escape as well,” Daring proposes. “And they might be easier to challenge outside because we’d have more room to maneuver. There might also be other resources out there that could make that job easier.”

“And harder,” Stern argues. “Because there are a lot more innocent civilians out there.”

“Maybe, but Those Above are pretty powerful as a society,” Feather mentions though he still sounds nervous when he says that.

The group sees the Daleks shoot the bars of the cage with their little arm cannons. The result of that blast of energy disintegrates the bars. As a result, the mantis-like creature crawls out of the cage and seems to bow in deference to the Daleks. One of the Daleks seems to say something, judging from the lightbulb flashes on its head. Shortly later the Daleks all split up. They fly towards separate cubby holes. What is in common with each of their destinations is it leads to another imprisoned chaos beast. From there, they repeat a pattern of emitting some kind of sonic noise followed by shooting and disintegrating at least some of the bars of the cage. They shoot enough for the beast within to squeeze out of. The group notices that the Daleks need much less time to sonically hack each of the cages to disable them.

“That’s because they found the sonic frequency they needed to disable the cages,” Doctor Kelly proposes once Derpy mentions that they are disabling the rest of the cages faster after the first one. “They just memorized that pattern and repeated what works.”

“And now they are unleashing all the chaos beasts contained here,” Stern says very nervously. “This situation is getting worse and worse while we wait up here.”

“Can you contact the Commander from here?” Daring asks as she looks back at Margret.

Margret shakes her head as she answers, “No. I’ve already tried, or rather I attempted to do something similar earlier. Wherever we are, I can’t get a signal out of here. That makes sense if you think about it. We’re at someplace the Commander would consider very secure.”

“Draconequi notwithstanding,” Stern reminds bitterly. “And that reminds me, where is our little trouble maker?”

“Laughing it up most likely,” Daring guesses with the same mood as Stern Wing.

Just for mentioning her, the group actually expects Trouble to show up, but this time she does not.

The group remains at a bit of a loss on what to do while the danger continues to escalate.

All of this changes, however, when they hear a curious beeping sound. The ponies look about in confusion and alarm to see who in the group might be able to identify that sound while simultaneously concerned that it is loud enough to alert the Daleks to their presence.

When they look about, they notice that Margret seems to be the only one in the group who can identify the sound. Her cheeks flush in embarrassment at this interruption while her eyes are also very wide, for she is equally concerned that the sound may attract the attention of the Daleks.

To rectify this quickly, she creates a holographic window and looks at it. What she sees widens her eyes slightly further. Then she looks at the rest of her party as she informs them, “We’re getting a call . . . from Commander Viraxis!”

At first the group is caught off guard by that announcement, then Feather Wind realizes something before quietly announcing, “Actually, that makes sense. We probably tripped some kind of alarm system here in this . . . wherever we are . . . the moment Doctor Kelly hacked into the security system for the Daleks.”

“That’s the thing with imprecise control over a system,” Doctor Kelly reminds. “Shutting it off was an all-or-nothing deal.”

“I know. None of us blame you,” Feather assures to Doctor Kelly. “If anypony does deserve the blame, it’s all of us equally.”

“Or a creature whose literal name is Trouble,” Stern offers as an alternative then bonks her head while giving a “duh” expression as she says sarcastically, “Hello, ponies!”

“Well . . . should I answer it or just mute the beep?” Margret offers to the group.

“Answer it,” Daring decides as she looks at Margret with conviction. “At this point he’ll more likely be an asset to us. We’re trapped in here and we also need some critical information. He’ll probably have questions for us, too, and it might be important for us to cooperate with each other, at least for now.”

Each in their own way, the group gulps nervously as Margret looks at the holographic window then uses her magic to activate a digital button which, in turn, answers the call. The result of this is the image of a transparent window that is centered on Commander Viraxis’s head and shoulders. He is looking at the “camera” with a dull expression as he says dryly, “Why am I not surprised to find all of you in the thick of another troublesome situation? I just hope your reputation for getting back out of trouble is just as potent as getting in it. Such is the reputation of the Knights of the Hourglass.”

“Keep your voice down!” Margret encourages urgently in a hushed tone. “The Daleks are loose and so are some of the chaos beasts. They might hear us.”

“I’m well aware of that,” the Commander assures in a tone of light annoyance, but he also seems so accustomed to this that he seems almost bored. “I would appreciate a further tactical assessment of your situation. Please report.”

“Well this time we’ve had additional help getting into Trouble with a capital T,” Stern Wing reports irritably.

“I’m aware of that too,” the Commander assures. “Margret was right. I do have the group of you bugged so I was aware of your conversation with that troublesome spirit in my ship, but by then I was unable to respond. My computer system was not responding to me. Apparently my authorization codes got scrambled. It took us quite some time to straighten that out.” He shakes his head then asks sarcastically, “Oh gee, I wonder who is responsible for that?”

“In that case, you’ve heard our whole conversation since we arrived at this place too?” Daring asks the Commander through the holo communicator hopefully.

“Some of it, I think,” the Commander answers. “The bugs stopped working after you all entered through Trouble’s portal. What little I do know comes from the security feeds of the storage facility you are in which, by the way, that whole facility is stored in its own pocket dimension. Technically you are not even on this planet anymore or any other for that matter. That place is effectively its own tiny universe.”

“You call this tiny?!” Derpy asks incredulously as her eyes almost bulge out of her eye sockets when she says the word, “this”.

“All time, space, and dimensions is relative to my people,” the Commander explains then orders again, “Now report!”

“Before we do that, I would like to propose an alliance,” Daring Do offers. “At least for now. We’ll give you some information if you give us some information. Then, after we all decide what to do about this together, we cooperate for the mutual benefit of all.”

“Agreed,” the Commander replies instantly. “That’s what I wanted in the first place. I take it that it's a temporary alliance that you are proposing and I still agree to it. That way I can reveal to you all how much we can benefit together.

“Now, for the third time, report!”

“The Daleks have been freed in our attempt to discover what was in the one ominous box that stood out from the rest,” Daring reports. “Trouble sort of nudged us to discover that one too.”

“Of course she did,” the Commander says in a flat tone.

“They asked us if we knew the Doctor. When we mentioned that we did, that seemed to trigger them. They grew suddenly very aggressive at the mention of that name. At first they kept chanting his name in anger, but then they switched to chanting what I assume is their favorite catch-phrase.”

“Say no more about that,” the Commander bids as he lifts a hoof. “I get the point.” He lowers his hoof back down as he asks, “Then what happened?”

“We ran at Doctor Kelly’s urging,” Daring resumes. “For some reason she seems to recognize them, even on an emotional level, despite never meeting them before.”

“Really?” the Commander asks in an intrigued way as he rubs the bottom of his jaw. “That is interesting.”

“I plan to psychologically dissect myself on that one later on,” Doctor Kelly mentions on that topic. “But for now, I think we have more urgent issues to discuss.”

“The Daleks haven’t detected us yet,” Daring goes on. “In truth, they don’t even seem interested in looking for us at the moment. Instead, their efforts are focused more on freeing the rest of the chaos beasts. To do it, they are using some kind of sonic device much akin to the one the Doctor uses.”

“That’s no coincidence,” the Commander assures. “The Doctor really is the reason the Daleks eventually decided to equip all of their drones with such a device.

“That said, they aren’t nearly as proficient with its use as the Doctor. To be fair, though, I don’t know of anypony else who is. Not even his fellow Time Lords.”

The Commander lifts a hoof again, but this time it is his metallic, prosthetic gun-hoof. When he does so, he also adds, “Be warned, though. While the Daleks aren’t as proficient with its use as the Doctor, they are very good at calculations and they are surprisingly good at cooperating with each other on a project if they deem it tactically necessary. Furthermore, unlike the Doctor, the Daleks are fully willing to use the sonic device for offensive purposes too.” He then returns his prosthetic hoof back down.

“Such as?” Daring asks as she widens her eyes a bit in alarm. Whatever he says about this next, she may consider this very noteworthy and could alter her approach against them later.

“If the Daleks feel threatened, I’ve known them to emit a high-frequency pulse that overloads the brain's synapsis of other biological lifeforms within approximately fifty meter range. It can be wider and stronger when they use this tactic simultaneously as a group. Likewise, they can use this to overload circuitry. I’ve also seen them use it precisely enough to target as few as one individual within that range and knock just that person out instead. If they succeed with that attack, that individual, or individuals, will be unconscious and defenseless. If that happens, you need to know that, for a race that often likes to request ‘mercy’ whenever they are at a disadvantage, they are also very stingy in granting it themselves. If they ever spare you from extermination in one moment, they likely have something else sinister planned instead like using you as bait against a higher priority target such as the Doctor, especially considering that has never failed to work before. Not even once that I can recall.” The Commander nods in respect. “And I do have to give the Doctor credit for that one. If nothing else, I cannot question his loyalty to his companions, even if it sometimes provokes him into a situation that is not always tactically prudent.”

“Loyalty is a critical Element of Friendship!” Derpy chirps proudly. “Just ask Rainbow Dash.”

“As you’ve said,” the Commander agrees in a sudden careless and dismissive way. “Anyway, on to other matters. I think I know why the Daleks are freeing the other chaos beasts. It isn’t just the fact that they plan to use them as pawns in their efforts to exterminate all other life other than themselves. There is one in particular they are searching for most likely, and that is the one that can teleport. If they get a hold of that beast, then they will use it as an indirect method to escape this pocket dimension, and I will add that it is also a method that will not likely work for you as well. If you tried, that beast is more likely to kill you instead.”

“Then how do we escape?” Daring asks the Commander. “And, mind you, if we do, we can help you against these other troublesome louts.”

“I’ll provide you with more than just that,” the Commander decides as his eyes, including his one prosthetic and red-glowing eye, shift slightly to the right as if either reading or interacting with information off to the side of the “camera”. “I’m sending you the access codes and instructions on how to escape that pocket dimension. Furthermore, I am also sending you any relevant information I have collected on those particular Daleks and the chaos beasts.”

“Thank you, Commander,” Daring says gratefully. “That will be immensely helpful.”

“Why did you keep those Daleks in storage?” Feather asks the Commander.

“To gather more information about them and their mission,” the Commander quickly answers. “Later on, I had also planned to use them as test dummies for any pony who agreed to join my army and I deem ready to learn about more classified information.

“I’m recruiting for a War, as you all may recall, but the peace-loving ponies here in th era, while powerful in some regards, were largely far from psychologically ready for such ideals. I was trying to prepare them to be ready for that information then eventually train them to be an asset for the larger War. A most important War to win.”

“Do you have any access to any other security system in this warehouse that could hinder these creatures?” Margret checks with the Commander.

“I wish I did, but the resources I was able to bring in from my own kind is very limited,” the Commander answers. “Gathering resources from this world and era was the point of me coming here. The knowledge and technology of Those Above is decently advanced, but they are sadly lacking in any security or military departments and they are so naive and arrogant that they think they don’t even need such things. A lot of what I later came up with I had to invent from scratch with some limited help from the few I did manage to recruit.”

The Commander shakes his head in pity before he says, “So, all told, I had to be far more selective in my approach than I preferred to be.” He shrugs. “I had hoped that being frozen in time and stored in a pocket dimension would be enough to contain them, but it is exceedingly difficult to keep anything secure around a reality-bender who messes with things for fun or a group of meddlesome time travelers who frequently suffer from delusions of grandeur. Under the circumstances, I did the best I could.” He straightens his head with dignity. “And I can die with some peace, if I had to, knowing that.”

“Um . . . Daring,” Stern Wing says in alarm. “The Daleks. They’re gone now! So are most of the chaos beasts.”

Daring grunts in frustration then says, “Then they must have found the teleporting chaos beast while we weren’t looking. That same creature probably teleported the rest of its companions while under orders from its master.”

“Then we can waste no further time,” the Commander in the holo-screen urges. “I know where they are most likely going. Those Above have access to something the Daleks could use as a transmission tower. Fortunately they don’t know precisely where it is, but if they get their grubby little plungers on it, they’ll hack that system and use it to contact the rest of the Daleks. If that happens, they’ll invade this world en masse.

“That was their original plan. These ones are technically scouts, and they were sent here basically for the same reason I was. They are here to gather resources for their war effort except they are far less concerned about collateral damage along the way. So much the better, in fact, to their hate-filled eye cameras.”

Once again the adventurers are stunned silent which is broken by Feather when he asks unexpectedly, “Those plunger-arm things that they have really are plungers?”

“Not really, no,” the Commander answers more calmly. “They only look like plungers.” He shakes his head. “It’s complicated to explain and we don’t have time for that right now. That kind of info is among that which I sent to Margret’s data system so you can look it up later if you wish.

“For now, suffice it to say, those things are the Dalek’s very peculiar way to interact with the rest of the world if they are not busy shooting at things. It oddly still is their preferred method to interact with the world even after they got equipped with sonic devices.”

“We’ll take a quick look at that information soon,” Daring Do promises. “In the meantime, Margret, access any information the Commander has sent to us to get us out of here. We need to get back to the floating city of Those Above quickly. We cannot allow these things to call in more of their kind or this world will be doomed.”

“And we need to warn and defend any innocent civilians in danger,” Stern Wing adds.

“That’s the plan,” Daring Do agrees, then looks at the Commander in the holo-screen. “Can we count on your support too?”

“My ship will arrive very soon,” the Commander promises. “When it does, I’ll do whatever I can to help. This ship is equipped with some weapons, defense shields, and a short-range portal emitter. I can use it to transport troops and civilians back and forth as needed, but remember . . . preventing the Daleks from accessing the Transmission Tower must take priority. If they get a hold of that, nothing else we can do here will matter. This world will be swarmed with enough Daleks to easily overwhelm this place despite the fact that the Daleks are starving for resources in this exhausting war too.” He shakes his head. “I know how they fight and how they tend to approach a would-be battle, or more like a slaughter. The more they can absolutely overkill their enemies, the better in their eye cameras.”

“Thanks for the input. We’ll keep that in mind,” Daring says with as much professional calm as years of adventuring can muster. “For now, it’s time we move.”