The landing was not as pleasant as he would have liked, but to Field Scout Ejaw Bolsorg, the forerunner of the entire Klavakkon army, it was sufficient. His radio control was working, he himself was alive, and most of all his weapon was undamaged. He would not need to leave this world, now that he had arrived. He would just need to wait for everyone else to die.
The Klavakkons were mighty conquerors, dissolving empires and claiming all spoils for their own. In many planets, some Bolsorg only saw in hologlyphs, and others he saw directly, the aliens would bow down and obey the Klavakkon military immediately on sight, such was their reputation for strength, and cruelty. Those who put up a fight, and there were some, were not treated kindly.
Thinking of the foolish races that challenged him, Bolsorg looked to his left and right shoulder, to the skulls of the child princes of Eldirass, the last race that had dared to challenge the armies. The skulls in particular were a reward to Bolsorg, for the same task he was planning to repeat on this planet. Launching a highly contagious virus to weaken the population level, so that the army would find little retaliation when they launched a formal invasion.
Bolsorg kicked at the hatch on his space ship. As expected with his crash landing, the door had sealed shut. But Bolsorg was not just a scout, he was a fighter, a warrior that had killed the grand Irikev of Gireplor with his bare hands. So the door of any ship, even a Klavakkon scout ship, was no match for one well placed kick.
As the door sprung open, light poured in, causing Bolsorg to be set back a bit. But soon his perception had adapted to the light, and he exited the craft. It was a strange world he had landed on, unlike any he had ever seen before. While other planets were covered in buildings, housing, or wildlife, the environment that lay before him was a thick layer of green. Thin blades of green shot out from the ground, until as far as Bolsorg could see. Walking through it was like flying a ship through an asteroid belt, except much harder. But he persevered, knowing he would need to find a population centre.
The first sign of intelligent life came from a slight squeaking in the distance. Bolsorg moved quickly to find the source, and walking through this thick greenery, he found a black shelled creature, with a segmented body, scanning the ground around it with its antennae. It was about half the height of Bolsorg, with six legs moving around rapidly. Its front segment, the head, had two pincers which may have been intimidating to some, but would not in anyway have pierced Bolsorg's thick skin, let alone his armour.
Bolsorg laughed-this was the dominant species? This was the race that he was set to poison and kill? Why waste a virus when he could have killed them on his own hands? But, he was given orders, and he was happy to obey them.
He slapped the creature on its rump. "You there! Take me to your population centre and I might let you live!"
The creature moved, but not in any apparent acknowledgement of Bolsorg. Bolsorg slapped it a few times, before the creature turned around to face him.
"Good, now we understand each other!" Bolsorg said, but before he could give any further instructions, the creature walked past him, with some sort of round granule kept tight in its pincers. "Good-you're showing me the way to your population centre," Bolsorg assumed, following the creature. "Very wise. I will reward you with your life."
Bolsorg followed the creature through the thick greenery, beginning to prepare the virus dispenser for activation. He noticed more of these creatures were beginning to accompany him, counting up to thousands. The number did not intimidate him. As a soldier he had fought thousands before. But it was interesting that none of these creatures seemed to acknowledge him at all. Instead, all were focused on the granules they had within their pincers.
Or, alternatively, they were already surrendering to him, Bolsorg thought. While the merciful side of him wanted to be compassionate to the lesser beings, he knew his orders, and so he must activate his virus and kill them all.
Soon, then reached the population centre of these creatures. And again, Bolsorg wondered why he was being sent with a virus to defeat them. While other planets had armies, military bases, cannons, laser defences, all signs of civilisation, this population centre was a mountain of mud, with a hole at the peak. He saw all the creatures were scurrying into the hole, including his guide.
He tried to grab the guide. "No-don't go in. I promised you your life, and all in that dwelling will die!"
The creature slipped out of his grasp and ran up the mountain. Bolsorg shrugged. If the creature wished to die, it was his choice. He pulled out the virus container from its sealed compartment in his armour, not noticing that all the other creatures were beginning to move much faster to reach their population centre, nor that the light was dimming, and there was large vibration being felt through the ground.
The virus container was a simple liquid spray, but it would need to be timed so as to harm the creatures, but not Bolsorg. He set the timer for thirty rels, which was usually enough time for him to be far from the creatures once the plague began. He would be suspended in his ship until the population rating of the planet is reached a satisfactory number. Then as he is awakened, his home planet would be notified that another planet was ready for conquest.
It was after activating the timer on the virus that Bolsorg realised that he was now alone. All the other creatures were gone. The vibrations had now grown to a mighty crashing crescendo. And the light was virtually gone.
Bolsorg, fearing nothing, looked up, and for the first time felt fear. He saw the end of him, the end of his entire race if they dared venture to this planet. He realised his miscalculation, and knew it was not something he could live to correct. He saw the oval shaped darkness heading towards him, promising death, and knew there was nothing he could do to avoid it.
SQUISH!
The Doctor suddenly stopped as he was walking along with Rose through a small park nearby the Powell Estate. In the back of the park the TARDIS was parked, ready for more adventures throughout the universe. So Rose was a bit confused to see that, instead of beginning to enter the ship to start their next trip, she found the Doctor lifting up his right foot to stare at the sole of his shoe.
"What's that Doctor?" she asked.
"Oh, nothing. I think I might have stepped on something," he answered.
"Mickey was saying that he saw some ant nests through here. Maybe it was that?"
"Oh no," the Doctor disagreed, putting his foot back down with a slight wiped onto the grass beneath him. "I always take care in avoiding ant nests. Very important ants."
Rose rolled her eyes at that. "Is there anything important about what you stepped in then?"
"Oh no. Nothing important," the Doctor said with a grin. "Let's get back to the TARDIS."
