The Cruciform by Fraser Wight
The Master could feel the sweat forming across his forehead, fear congregating on his eyebrows. He was of course only a Time-Lord and was allowed to feel fear; secretly however he cursed the mind of his latest regeneration; he had neither the patience to join the Generals nor the courage to stand against an enemy of whom he had, in the past, shamefully assisted in favour of his own personal gain.

The Daleks had, according to the Time-Lords who resurrected him, began their attacks after they learned of a plot to have their timeline cut short. Unlike the Doctor once had many years before, these Time-Lords followed through with their plot, filled with manufactured hate against the aggressive imperialist creation that was the Dalek Empire. According to his 'Resurrectors', the plot had failed and the Daleks had discovered the existence of the plot millennia later when they discovered an old Type 40 buried at the centre of their home planet - Skaro. That was when they declared war on Gallifrey and plunged the surrounding galaxies into a Time War; the likes of which had never been seen before.

The problem with a war on Gallifrey was the protective barrier known as the 'transduction barrier' in place to prevent any hostiles from entering the planets vicinity. The barrier had only been destroyed once before by the Sontaran race, but that had been done through internal sabotage, causing the Time-Lords to build numerous back-ups to prevent a further incident.

The barrier had been placed into lockdown, meaning the only way into Gallifrey was through the time-vortex which had been secured by a number of Time-Lord protocols which aimed to protect Gallifrey from the chance that the Daleks got their plungers on any Time-Lord technology

The Master himself however was not on Gallifrey; he was part of a task team set to sabotage the Daleks nearest base in the Pelumium Nebula which they had over run only days before, killing all of the remaining natives. He was covered from head to toe in a protective layer designed supposedly to counter a Dalek ray gun, but as yet he was still to see any Time Lord survive such an attack. The problem for the Time Lords was that they couldn't regenerate quickly enough after the violent internal injuries the Dalek gun would cause, meaning by the time they were ready to start the regeneration process, their body would have been collected and destroyed by the Dalek slaves - the bipedal primate species Homo Sapiens from Earth.

The wall he slouched behind did however stop the Dalek gun. The wall was made out of a mixture of steel, and gamma particles which would break up the ray as it struck, removing the danger of the wall eroding under intense fire power.

It was that sound which The Master found most disturbing. Every shot was so distinct from the Time Lord's own heat rays, which fizzled, while the Dalek guns screeched an incoming echo, which meant every shot felt like it was right above your head, intimidating you into hiding or a semi-state of consciousness. While the slow firing and precision meant every shot could be made out over the sound of battle, a sound which the Master could swear sent more fear into him than the quick firing weapons man-kind liked to use.

Above the wall The Master could see the Cruciform high in the bright red sky orbiting the Pelumium base planet 'Pent'. It hung in the sky like a giant X, marking the spot where Gallifrey would put up the greatest stand in all of time, and where they would turn the tide of the war. They said that alone the Cruciform could protect the entire galaxy against the Dalek war machine.

On board the Cruciform was over three million personnel; Fifty separate Vortex-manipulators drives each from a Type 50 ship, together they were said to be strong enough to carve a whole in the entire temporal universe. At this moment in time they were all concentrated on stopping the Daleks escaping through the time Vortex.

The Cruciform's heat rays along its North side turned to face The Master and the rest of his squadron. They could hear the powerful screeching of the gears and cogs of the invulnerable machine as the black cannons turned in their joints to face their firing location. The Master could imagine that if the Daleks could feel, that sound would be as frightening as each of their guns were to a Time-Lord. It would be the sound of impending death; a notion which filled The Master with a sadistic glee.

The North wall of the Cruciform split through the darkness of the empty space it hung in with a great beam of light which erupted across the sky, penetrating through the planets orbit before crashing into the planet surface.

The Master felt the ground shake horrendously, explosively, under his feet. Light flowed over the protecting wall, each beam filling The Master with excitement and adrenaline as if he were seeing the miracle of birth rather than the miracle of destruction. The only disheartened feelings he had at that moment was the feeling of uncertainty, his mind whirling with anticipation over what was lying over the wall - a burnt mesh of metal or a manic squadron of Daleks ready to say the last word he would ever hear - "Exterminate."