Attack and Return of the Swarm
by Vanya
Part 1
It was called Sumpara, but some called it paradise. It was a world that had no people of its own, instead its temporary inhabitants flocked from all over the universe to enjoy the simple luxuries the planet had to offer. And so the once peaceful world had evolved into a resort, but also a place of calm. All but the most necessary technologies were not allowed, at least for the guests, other areas boasted state of the art facilities. What Sumpara offered was a break from the stress and rigours of the rest of the galaxy, a chance to get away from a life dominated by machines.
The natural flora of the planet was undoubtedly beautiful. Brightly coloured grass, in a staggering variety of greens, reds and purples stretched out as far as the eye could see with small trees and shrubs dotted around. In amongst them a girl called Haze gently jogged across the wide open space, her bare feet gently bouncing as the hit the the soft ground. She wore a pair of red gym shorts with a white t-shirt and was coming to the end of her circuit. In front of her were the cabins that functioned as the centre of the resort and waiting for her was a man a man in a suit and long brown coat, the Doctor.
He smiled as she grew closer, "Enjoying yourself?"
"Yes," she said breathlessly, but smiling back, "It's absolutely incredible here."
The Doctor handed her a bottle of water, she pulled the lid off and drank quickly, even the water tasted better on Sumpara. Once she had finished she reached up and pulled off her sweatband, letting her long purple hair fall free.
"It's so nice to be out in the open," she continued when she had her breath back, "Not hiding in caves or running round those claustrophobic spaceships. I hate being cramped up, even the TARDIS is feeling a bit constricting." As far as Haze was concerned an entire world was housed within the TARDIS, but it was a world with four walls and no sky.
"But when we met you were living in a camper van that really was as small as it looked." the Doctor countered, unwilling to hear a word against his ship.
"Exactly, never more than three steps from the outside. It's not as if you can step out of that box of yours for a breath of fresh air any time you want. And nowhere else have I ever got so lost coming back from the bathroom."
The Doctor chuckled for a moment, but stopped when Haze shot him a stern glance, "Look, I said I was sorry, but I did warn you I was remodelling the interior."
"You couldn't have waited five minutes?"
"Of course not, if it needs to be done then it needs to be done. Besides, it looks so much better now."
"I have to admit it does, and I did get to see the bits that you usually keep off limits, who'd of thought you had a........" But her words were cut off by a high pitched scream.
A woman came running out of one of the huts screaming at the top of her lungs. "Help! Get security! Get a doctor!"
"I think that's my cue." said the Doctor before he dashed over to the hysterical woman, Haze following quickly behind him.
"What's wrong?" he asked quickly, taking hold of her shoulders.
"It's Mr Wri," looking into the Doctor's eyes was bringing her back to something resembling coherent thinking, "He's gone mad, ranting and attacking the staff."
"Stay with her," the Doctor instructed Haze, "I'm going to see what all this is about."
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Adolius Wri was one of the few to have been board by the resort on Sumpara, at least that was the impression the Doctor had got when they'd met the night before. He'd made his fortune as a prospector, scouring some the most dangerous planets, moons and asteroids for valuable mineral deposits. He was a member of the Chrovite race, characterised by their short stature dark, graphite like skin.
The Doctor burst into the kitchen to see Wri in the centre of the room, holding a chef by the throat, the remaining staff huddled in the corner, an enraged alien between them and the only exit. Wri immediately turned to see the intruder. "Doctor," he mumbled, casually throwing his victim aside as he started to lumber towards him.
"That's right Wri, I'm the Doctor, we met last night, do you remember?"
"Doctor." Wri kept shambling forward, he raised his hand which clutched a large vegetable knife and clumsily lunged at the Doctor, who easily dodged the blow.
"Wri, what's going on? This isn't you."
Wri turned at began to lurch at the Doctor again, "We have awoken!" he said, the words sounding like he was still grappling with the power of speech.
The Doctor stepped back as Wri slashed again, backing himself against one of the cooker units. His hands groped behind his back, grabbing onto a heavy cast iron skillet. Reasoning that this was one conflict that wasn't going to be solved with words he swung the pan as hard as he could at his attacker, the base connecting hard with the side of his head. Wri swayed for a moment, and so the Doctor swung again, hitting the other side. This time he went down like a sack of potatoes.
"Sorry about that," he muttered as he straightened his tie.
As the commotion died down Haze came running into the room, followed by several of the resorts security men. "Doctor," she asked quickly, "Are you OK?"
"Don't worry, nothing broken, which is more than can be said for our friend here. Any idea what happened?"
"No idea, as far as I can tell he just wondered in, grabbed the knives and started attacking people."
Still sensing danger the security team cuffed Wri's unconscious body and began to haul him out.
"Doctor, what's that?" Haze exclaimed, pointing to the base of Wri's neck. The Doctor pulled out his glasses and stepped closer to examine the spot, there was something there, just poking out from bellow his shirt. Haze gasped as he pulled back the collar, latched on to the unconscious Chrovite's spine was what appeared to be some kind of insect, partly damaged by the fall but it's body structure still in tact. It's dark green abdomen extended down as far as Wri's shoulder blades, where the head of the creature could be found. It's tail was bored in at the base of the neck and three pairs of legs were digging into the skin for purchase. A long thin pair of wings were protected by a hard casing.
The Doctor shook his head, "Not again."
7 regenerations earlier.....
"Come here and take a look at these Jo."
Jo Grant crossed the Doctor's laboratory the the bench where he was working. She was a pretty young woman with dark blonde hair and dressed colourfully. He pushed the microscope he was using towards her. Staring down the eye pieces all she could see were some orange and blue blobs floating round. "What am I looking at?" she asked, science had never been Jo's strong suit.
"Bacteria Jo, microscopic organisms. This sample was found in an undersea vent. Fascinating organisms really, capable of surviving all kinds of inhospitable conditions."
He sighed, he'd hoped to have piqued her interest with his description, but she was clearly unimpressed with what was before her. Truth be told so was he, in his time he had seen much more interesting life form through far superior equipment. But this was his life now, the Time Lords had caught up with him and exiled him to this primitive world. His UNIT laboratory gave him the best equipment that humans had to offer, nothing compared to the wonders contained in his TARDIS which sat in the corner, broken. All his efforts to get it working had proved futile. For the time being he was stuck on this planet, in this time and in this body. It wasn't a bad body he had decided, and like many things around him he was growing to like it. Since his forced regeneration he had taken on the appearance of a white haired man in his early fifties, although, as the Doctor himself was quick to point out, was rather spry for his age. With this regeneration had also come a penchant for frilly shirts, which today was a striking shade of burgundy. A matching velvet jacket was hung up on the wall.
"Doctor, miss Grant, get your things, you're going on a little trip."
The door had swung open and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart had stepped the room. He was a middle aged man in an immaculate uniform with perfectly shined shoes and sporting a large, neatly clipped moustache. He carried a slim file under his arm with placed on the workbench where the Doctor was working.
The Doctor smiled warmly, "Good morning Brigadier, marvellous to see you," he meant it, any distraction at this point would be a welcome one, "What have you got for us?"
"Camford a small town in Kent that's gone dead."
"Gone dead?" said Jo, surprised, "What do you mean?"
"Best we can tell everyone's vanished. People started report something was up, we sent some soldiers in to scout the area, when they found nothing we set up a quarantine. We need an expert to go in and have a look round and I would say you're more than qualified."
"Thank you Brigadier," the Doctor replied, getting to his feet, "We'll get down there right away."
"Not quite Doctor, there's something you need to check out first. There's a farm a few miles out of town, they reported a single meteor struck the property about a week before all this started. We need you to check out the rock and the crash sight first.
"Right you are Brigadier, right you are."
The Brigadier went to the door and signalled Captain Yates who had been waiting patiently in the corridor. He entered the room, quickly and politely acknowledging Jo and the Doctor. He was followed by a pair of low level unit technicians pushing a stainless steel trolley. Atop the trolley was the meteor recovered from the crash sight. It was vaguely spherical, around the size of a football with a rough brown exterior. The Doctor picked it up and ran his hands across the surface, then placed it against his ears as he tapped it, "It's hollow," he commented and after a moment's searching he located a small hole, "Whatever was inside came out here. You should have brought this to me sooner Brigadier, this meteor is highly unusual."
"What's so unusual about this piece of rock?" Lethbridge-Stewart asked.
"Well to start with it's not 'a piece rock'."
"Not a rock?" Jo echoed his words, "What is it then?"
"This meteor is formed from a highly dense protein matrix," he borough the meteor sharply down onto his desk, splitting it in two. The inside was white and smooth with a few crusty, orange deposits, "I believe this meteor is in fact some kind of egg Brigadier, and I dread to think what hatched from it."
****************************************
In record time UNIT had mobilised a force and was speeding towards the quarantined area. Local units had been scrambled but a convoy from UNIT HQ sped down there. Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart led the convoy in his personal vehicle, followed closely by the Doctor in his yellow vintage roadster, nicknamed Bessie for his previous assistant. Behind them were several more staff cars carrying essential personnel. They were greeted at the edge of the quarantine by a Colonel Jennings, an efficient officer with a moustache to rival the Brigadier's. Salutes were exchanged between the higher ranking personnel. As the convoy came to a stop the Doctor produced a wand like device which he waved through the air.
"No airborne contaminants," he announced, but for no ones benefit but his own, "We're safe for the moment."
Acknowledging the statement Jennings dropped the cordon allowing them to proceed. The checkpoint was miles from the town, their first port of call the farm where the meteor landed. Parking up in the driveway, next the the farmers own car, the Doctor stepped out, followed closely by Jo. Following the description they he had been given he strode into the main field, squatting down at the crater. He examined the hole closely.
"Nothing," he remarked after a moment, "Just a crater."
"Doctor!" Jo exclaimed, "The house!"
The Doctor leapt to his feet and spun to face the farmhouse. It seemed quiet, deserted.
"What is it Jo?"
"I saw someone inside, at the window."
Although sceptical the Doctor smiled and said, "Well lets go and say 'hello' then." and the two of them walked up to the house. The Doctor raised his hand and rapped on the door, which to his surprise slowly creaked open. The farmer was an elderly man with dark sunken eyes and pale,
sallow skin, the colour only offset by a sheen of sweat and dirt.
"Yes?" he rasped.
"Good day to you sir, I'm the Doctor," the Doctor said, smiling despite the smell issuing from the man, "My assistant Jo and I are here investigating strange goings on around here, the meteor on your farm and the disappearance of the local population. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that would you?"
"No I would not. Now you'd best be on your way."
The door started to close but the Doctor reached out and stopped it, "Now look here, we're here to help," he pushed to door back open, "Is there anything you want to tell us?"
Instead of answering the farmer raised his hands and lurched forward for the Doctor's throat. Jo shrieked, but the Doctor reacted quickly, taking hold of his attacker's hands, twisting his body and throwing him to the floor, his head colliding with the table on the way down. Lying on the floor the body convulsed violently for a moment before becoming still.
Shocked, Jo put he hand up to her mouth, "Doctor, what happened to him?"
"Well he wasn't himself at any rate, something was controlling him and whatever it was killed him," he knelt down to examine the body, "Look here." he said, rolling him over and pointing to his neck. Like Adolius Wri the farmer had an insect latched onto his spine.
"What is it?" asked Jo.
"Some kind of parasitic insect, it appears to have taken control of his body, but I've never seen anything like this before," The Doctor reached down and gently teased the insect away from the farmer's body. He gently wrapped the body in a handkerchief and placed in carefully in his pocket.
"When I damaged it's body it seems to have secreted some kind of nerve toxin, killing the host."
"So that's what came down in the meteor?"
"Yes, but I'm sure it wasn't alone...."
His voice was cut off by a harsh buzzing. The Doctor and Jo looked around for the source of the noise, but it seemed to be coming from everywhere. Suddenly insects began to pour into the room, from the rest of the house, from under the floor and out of every crack and crevice. These were different, their bodies were squat in a shocking crimson and each was equipped with a very nasty pair of pincers. Thousands filled the room, scaling the walls and forming a living barrier over the doors and windows.
The Doctor could see that Jo was starting to panic, he needed to be the one to keep a level head. His mind raced, quickly trying to put together what he knew about them. They were all clearly part of one race, and presumably had some kind of hive conciousness. The mastery of the human showed intelligence, and a grasp of language, maybe there was a chance for communication.
"What are you?" he cried out to the room, "What do you want?"
The buzzing seemed to change into words, issuing from everywhere in the room, each insect having it's own voice which contributed to the sound, "We are the Grarnian Swarm," it said, "We want this planet and we want it's people."
7 Regenerations later.....
"Doctor, what was that?" Haze demanded as they left the hut.
"They're called the Grarnian Swarm," the Doctor replied grimly, "And if we don't stop them then they'll enslave or kill everyone here."
End of part 1