Author's notes: This is my second Doctor Who fic, but unlike the first one, this features the CURRENT Doctor and his companions. Hope you enjoy it!
Doctor Who: Last Stand Pt1
Prologue
Death is natural. Death is unavoidable. Death will come.
Such morals were something that would have once been considered too brutal, too inhumane to be taught to children of such age. But such days were over long ago. Carter was one of those kids, someone brought up in a place too dirty, too savage for him to care about the quality of his life. For the last thirty years he had lived with death, running beside it and sometimes even overtaking it. But no matter how much he was used to such things, he still found it difficult to see it in others.
A final, farewell groan confirmed the death of yet another companion Carter held dear. How many has it been, twenty or thirty? He couldn't remember anymore. And as he scanned the hanger around him, he knew that more would follow. Around him, what little medical staff they had left rushed from one side of the building to the other tirelessly, working like machines; but the wounded outnumbered the healthy.
The blast doors behind him sealed with a loud clang, signaling the start of what would soon become an orderly chaos. Somehow, and he had no idea yet how, Carter would have to manage the evacuation of over a thousand people within an hour. Already, the men and women who served under him hurried with their allocated tasks: soldiers helped move the barely alive and technicians did their best to salvage what little equipment they had left and destroyed what they couldn't take with them. Outside he could hear the distant sound of gunfire rattling through the night sky; the perimeter defense will do what they must, but it would only be a matter of time before they fall.
"Move it people, we may only have minutes!" The coarse, harsh voice escaped his throat, a reminder of just how long it has been commanding these people. The knowledge that if he fails tonight, not one of them will live threatened to overwhelm him. But there's a time and a place for a psychotic breakdown.
The junior officer half scrambled towards his commander, his worn out and battered body struggled to force a salute as he gave his rushed report: "They are within range of the secondary defense ring."
Carter froze as he stared at the kid, as though a stern parent trying to make his child tell the truth. "How? How did they get past the primary defense so quickly?"
"They..." The officer swallowed hard and gave a nervous glance at the blast door behind them, suddenly feeling like they were made of paper than reinforced steel, "They bypassed them completely, sir. No one knows how but they're heading straight for us."
Carter silently wiped the sweat from his brow, with more forming immediately. "How long?"
Around them, people slowed down and listened almost subconsciously, desperate for some good news. But they received none. "Ten minutes, maybe less..."
Abruptly, the commotion ceased as the entire population of the hanger paused to contemplate their fate. For what felt like a generation now, Carter has trained his men and women to have no fear and soldier on regardless of the dangers. But they have never before been so near to death with so little they could do to save themselves. For a fraction of a second, even Carter himself considered collapsing into a heap and let someone else take over. Good thing no one noticed that.
"Then we need to leave right now."
As though an unseen switch had been flipped, the still working people simultaneously stepped up the pace; those who were walking were now running, and those who were running were now sprinting. The well oiled machine that Commander Carter has spent so long nurturing was finally living up to their reputation.
But it wasn't enough.
A sudden explosion confirmed the inevitable: the enemy has breached the secondary defense ring. Next line of fire would be them: Ground zero. The only thing that stood between these people and their doom was a layer of blast door. Without even a second's worth of pause, Carter knew what he had to do. With a short click of his fingers, one of his best squads assembled before him. Once it was about six squads, but the survivors of those groups of hardened men and women had since formed into one unit; a testimony to their bloody experiences.
"Alright." Carter announced without even raising his voice, "You all have eyes and ears. Everyone of you must already guessed by now what the situation is, so I won't waste time filling you in. In the next ten minutes, this base will be empty except us. We all know that the others won't even make it out of the complex if we don't halt the enemy right here, right now."
Almost in unison, members of the squad nodded their approval. Some of them gave a last glance at their loved ones being evacuated, but showed no disapproval whatsoever. They all knew this was the only way.
Carter drew in a long breath and turned to the blast doors behind him, as though he could already see their enemy gathering on the other side and preparing to breach. Simultaneously, his men loaded their weapons and took their positions, waiting for the inevitable to come. And right on time, the spark of light from a plasma cutter emitted through the tiny gaps upon the door. The sight triggered an overdrive for the evacuees as they abandoned whatever they carried and ran for their lives. And as Carter knew that the people he had cared for was now safe, he turned to his squad. "Take everything that's left behind and set up fortifications: tables, beds, equipment, anything you can find..."
A series of loud clangs interrupted him as the door finally caved into the pressure, and like the passing of a great beast, it toppled. Burning plasma vapour erupted into the hanger and through the mist, blue lights lit up one by one. A final glance at his squad without fear and Carter gave them the last order they'll ever hear.
"If they want us dead, then we'll make them work for it!"
"Hoorah!"