Doctor Who and the War Planet
Chapter 1
Oliver Evans sat uncomfortably on a small transport pod which carried him as well as four other recruits down through the atmosphere of the planet below. The pod was obviously old and well used as the chrome finish of the metal was wearing off and the lights would cut in and out plunging the boys into darkness for sometimes minutes on end. Though the boys knew what waited for them on the planet, there was not a sense of fear or malice in the pod, in fact it almost seemed like a joyous occasion to the recruits. This was not the case for Oliver however, he was afraid, not of dying but of what was expected of him during the mission below. He closed his eyes and with bated breath waited for the pod to reach the planet.
"Landing in t-minus one minute, prepare for extraction." The pilot bellowed over the pod's rough intercom system. A resounding cheer erupted from the other boys as Oliver sat quietly and shut his eyes tighter, trying to come to some resolution or inner peace in the mere sixty seconds before landing.
"Cheer up Evans!" said the boisterous boy to his left as a hard punch swept across his arm. The boy's name was Jules, a boy whom Oliver had grown fond of during basic training and whom he saw as a close friend. Oliver gave Jules a half smile, only lifting his spirits to appease Jules. "Sorry Jules, I just dozed off that's all," he lied as he returned the punch to his friend's arm. Oliver and Jules may have felt differently about their recruitment, but he was not going to get away with the punch without the favor being returned, they were boys after all.
This exchange with his friend cheered Oliver up temporarily before the pilot picked up the intercom again and in the same callous voice mumbled, "10, 9, 8..". Oliver's heart jumped out of his chest and he gripped his pants legs tight. He looked around frantically for some sign that his comrades shared the same fear that he did, but no sign appeared. The other boys joined the pilot in his countdown and played around with one another as the pod jerked and moaned as it began the landing process. "7, 6, 5…", Oliver shut his eyes tight as the numbers echoed into his ears and sent what could be best described as an electrical pulse throughout his entire body. "4, 3, 2…" and at that moment something happened which Oliver had been praying would. He stopped caring. At that moment nothing mattered to him anymore, the mission, Jules, even his own well being; he became the robot that he was trained to be. "This is better," he thought to himself unemotionally, "this is easier…." "One," said the pilot finishing his countdown, "ready for extraction."
Suddenly the hanger door unlocked and the large piece of metal crashed to the floor loudly but it paled in comparison to the sounds erupting from the small crowd of men that awaited their arrival.
"Get out of the pod!" A few of the men at the front shouted as more men crowded into the small pod in order to extract any recruits who attempted to stay on board. "Out of the pod! Move, move, move, move!", the men screamed in the faces of the boys as they abandoned their seats and lined in a single-file formation facing the crowd. The shouts and screams of the commanding officers were dull in Oliver's ears. As if he were in a trance Oliver fell into formation with the other recruits and began to stare emptily at the back of the head of the boy in front of him.
"Follow the sergeant to the next contact point!" An officer barked as he pointed to a lumbering man all camouflage and a black beret. The recruits funneled out of the pod into a sea of people pushing and shoving them as they made their way to the sergeant. As the final recruit made his way back into the formation in front of the sergeant, the officer barked "All recruits, follow me!", he said as he turned around and began to jog.
All the recruits followed the sergeant and began to jog their way through the base. The recruits kept their eyes forward on the backs of those in front of them, but Oliver couldn't stay his wandering eye. The base was not on the planet surface as he had been led to believe, but instead was held underneath the soil, deep underground. The walls of the base had to reach up to a hundred feet and were completely made of stone as if the base had fallen through a hole on the surface and nobody had bothered to refurbish it into a proper outpost. Upon further inspection, Oliver could see that the military had refurbished the cavern slightly. He saw soldiers walking along open face tunnels carved out of the cavern walls with nothing but what appeared to be a rope or a chain along the cuts made in the rock. His gaze left the walls and looked upwards towards the ceiling. Multiple aircraft were flying overhead and occasionally a soldier would jump out of the hangar door and release a parachute a few stories below. After gazing up at the ceiling, he realized what was on the ground surrounding him. Hundreds of tents had been pitched on floor of the cavern with other soldiers huddled around the tents or around small benches that had been constructed in small areas around the barracks. Oliver noticed a man with a blood covered bandage around his eye and forehead but before he could get a better look he ran into the back of the boy in front of him.
The group remained in a single file formation as the sergeant unlocked a large steel door standing about an inch into the wall face by placing his hand on the middle of the door. At once the door slid horizontally into the wall and revealed a small room made of all chrome metal and with blaring white fluorescent light emitting into the cavern. As the group entered the room, Oliver could see five glass cylinders along the back wall, a few black military uniforms hanging behind a table with multiple guns laying on it, and finally what appeared to be a control panel on the opposite end of the room from the uniforms.
"Formation!", yelled the sergeant as he stood near the control panel and faced towards the uniforms and the small armory that lay on the table. The recruits all lined up behind the table facing the sergeant who spoke more calmly than anybody had since they arrived on the base. "Welcome to Alliance Base Alpha recruits. Here, the strong become stronger, and the weak...are left to dust. You only have one decision to make in this room. Are you going to be strong or dust? Will you better yourself as soldiers and the Alliance?"
"Yes sir!" The boys replied, shouting in unison.
"Then suit up," said the sergeant, gesturing towards the uniforms that hung behind them.
The boys about-faced simultaneously, then causally yet quickly removed the uniforms and began to change. As Oliver examined his uniform he noticed a small hole on the middle of a dusty black shirt. He stuck his finger through the hole then turned around to address the sergeant.
"Bulletholes, sir?" He asked, showing the sergeant the small fissure he had discovered in the uniform.
"As I said, dust," the sergeant replied grimly which gave Oliver a sinking feeling in his stomach that the grey dust on his uniform wasn't just regular wear and tear.
When all the recruits had finished changing and had retrieved weapons from the table, the group faced the sergeant once more for orders.
"Recruits," the sergeant addressed them, "you know what happens next. When you enter the arena, know that you have to work as a team to defeat your enemies. Individually you are nothing, but as a team, you can achieve your goal and get out alive. Do you understand?"
"Yes sir!" The recruits replied. Then, the recruits moved in front of the glass cylinders which opened as the sergeant positioned himself over the controls and opened them for the young soldiers. The boys maneuvered their way into each of the cylinders then about-faced again and faced the sergeant. The door shut in front of them. Oliver slowly started to drift out of his apathetic trance when he realized the position he was in. His thoughts raced and his breath quickened, which became visible from the outside. The sergeant's attention turned towards Oliver specifically, then he addressed him as if he had seen a recruit act this way many times before. "Brace yourself lad, you're about to enter the training grounds." In a flurry of panic, Oliver placed his hand on his weapon, considering shooting his way out of the cylinder back into the base, but Oliver quickly rationalized that it was a safer bet to enter the training grounds than disobey orders and leave his glass container. If he stayed in his cylinder he would have a shot of surviving, if he left he might as well slit his throat on a shard of glass as he attempted to leave the transport.
The sergeant glared at Oliver as though he knew the thoughts and decisions he just made. Finally, the sergeant nodded to all the recruits as if to give them some last bit of reassurance. Oliver shut his eyes yet again, hoping to fall back into apathy but not resolution came this time. The pressed a button and the recruits shot upwards towards to planet's surface. Oliver's knees buckled in an attempt to correct his stance from the force of the propulsion. Looking down, he saw that he saw standing on a small metal and was not simply being shot up into the air like a bullet from a gun.
The discs began to slow as they approached the surface and came nearly to a complete stop as the ceiling opened above them revealing the darkness of the sky above them. The discs moved upwards once again then locked into place as they became level with the surface.
All the boys drew their weapons immediately then crouched over and kept their eye out for incoming enemies that would attempt to cut their training short. Oliver made his way off his disc with the other boys and all began to fan out and secure the area. Oliver looked around and saw that he and his fellow recruits were in a small clearing of a thick wood which encompassed the entire clearing. The night was cool and clear without a cloud in the sky. The forest surrounding them appeared black which proved its immensity to Oliver and the other boys.
Just when all seemed clear and the boys were safe for the moment a distinct and loud rustling came from the edge of the forest . All the boys raised their weapons then rushed to meet their adversary head on and created a small formation in front of the rustling. "This is it," thought Oliver as fear flooded across his face. The rustling neared the boys and soon could be made out as footsteps. The recruits raised their weapons ready to fire. Oliver attempted to look down his sight in order to see the incoming enemy before it saw him but he was shaking too much to get his weapon stabilized. The footsteps reached the edge of the forest and out came the beast. Except, it wasn't a beast, in fact the rustler looked just like them. An older man wearing a dark coat with red lining walked out of the wood hands raised, then calmly said with a smirk on his face,
"Hello, I'm the Doctor. I believe you're trying to kill me?"