Chapter 11: Death Or Glory
As soon as Clara could open her suit, the resistance had hurriedly replaced her own data cluster with theirs, along with a few other quick tweaks. They'd also concealed their jammer under her base so the Daleks and the antibodies in the suit wouldn't recognise it. They'd apparently been plotting this for a while. Her arrival and the interest of the Dalek flagship had forced them to accelerate things. They offered to take her out while they were tinkering, but Clara refused. Not only was she not sure if she could just turn the system off and on again like that, she also didn't think she'd be able to bear getting a taste of freedom, only to shut herself in once more.
They were now leading her out to a cave on the other side of the mountain, rapidly briefing her on the details. "So you're clear on what the signal is?" Jones was saying.
"Yes."
Jones showed her a map. "Once you're done. Head for this point here. It's out of the way, just take cover somewhere and we'll send an extraction team to meet you once everything's calmed down."
"Sir." Her radio squarked. "Three Dalek saucers converging on this position. Thousands of loose Daleks on their way too."
"I need to sort out the defence." Said Jones. "Good luck."
"You too."
The Dalek ships hovered above them, but didn't attack straight away. Clara knew they would be analysing whether they could just level the mountain range. Several Daleks spilled out of the ships and began circling the area, trying to get the lie of the land as fast as possible.
This was her best chance. She spotted a gap and elevated up into it. She then circled with the Daleks for a minute, before peeling off and disappearing behind a peak. Several more scouting parties were peeling off to search further afield. To the unsuspecting eyestalk, she'd look like one of them. She assumed the flagship hadn't moved since she'd left and headed to where it had been.
After a time, the Daleks had apparently concluded that the base wasn't worth bombing and formed ranks in the air, ready to shoot any rebel who caught themselves in the open. They couldn't know the full extent of the caves and there was too good a chance the rebels would find a way to escape if they tried bombing them, instead, they formed positions to cover every entrance. A small number of people tried to desert at this point, and were taken out before they'd run a hundred metres.
Finally, an assault force began to descend. Jones was watching it through the survailance cameras, while instructing the troops via com link. "Ok. We'll evacuate if we have to but we need to give Clara as much time as possible. Aim for the eyestalks. Try to get them when they're negotiating the terrain. Remember we have a limited number of bombs so use them carefully. Don't hold a position longer than you have to. Try to make a fighting retreat."
Captain Welsh was in charge of the barricade before the main entrance. A large group of rebels would be making a stand here, before they'd fight them ever step of the way through the caves. "But why don't we just blow the entrances?" A soldier said.
"And bury ourselves alive?" She replied.
"They're coming!" Someone shouted.
A loose formation of Daleks was making its way down the cave. The uneven walls and floor made standard formations difficult for them to follow.
"Wait for it." Welsh called, waiting for the Daleks to come closer. "Open fire!"
Journey moved up to her position and sighted one of the Daleks. She fired and knocked out one of its ear lights, missing the eyestalk, then ducked down as the Dalek returned fire, the rocks absorbing its shot.
All around her, dozens of other rebels had risen and hit the Daleks with a volley, smashing several of the stalks. The incapacitated Daleks would block the way for those coming up, who'd blow them to pieces to clear the way.
The Daleks returned fire almost as quickly. Any time a rebel missed one, they'd get a fix on the position, forcing them to keep down until a friend took it out, or drew it to their position. The Daleks would also fire random shots into the cave walls and roof to shower the rebels with stones and force them to duck down in fear of a rockfall.
"Remember New New Dehli!" Welsh shouted to keep them firing. But she could see that it was futile. Where one Dalek fell, another would take its place in seconds. And they were pressing ever closer. "Bombs!" She shouted.
The defenders each flung a dal bomb at the mass of Daleks mere feet from their front line. They were all blasted open. That would buy them time, but not enough. "Now!" She shouted into her radio.
Along the edges of the cave ran a narrow passageway. Their miners had spent more than two weeks cutting out a series of firing holes and disguising them to look like the rock face. Now, as one, they smashed their way through the cover and filled the cave with blanket fire. By the end, barely a Dalek was left with a functioning eyestalk.
Behind the incapacitated Daleks, they could hear the next wave beginning to smash its way through. "That was only the forlorn hope." Said Welsh. "Fall back."
Clara approached the ship. It was much quieter than it had been before. The vast majority of Daleks had spilled out to join the attack on the Northern Group's headquarters. Only a few remained behind, watching the perimeter for any rebels who might want to take the place. They never suspected their attackers might be in Dalek form.
Every time she'd entered one of these ships it was because she was coerced in some way. She'd never dreamed she'd volunteer to go back.
She landed on the moor and approached the ramp. A single Dalek was standing sentry duty.
"WHERE ARE YOU GOING?" It demanded. "YOU SHOULD MAN THE PERIMITER."
Clara felt a jolt from the probes, and the screaming sound, but no directions were uploaded into her head. The new cluster didn't contain the information. This meant she'd have no hope of blending in should something go wrong. But that was fine. One way or another, she was ending this today. And she wouldn't be their servant any longer. "I have been ordered to report to the Supreme in person." Clara said. "The group I came from is experiencing communication difficulties."
She waited with baited breath. If this Dalek questioned her, it was all over. "PROCED." It said at last.
In her office, the puppet president was in video link talk with the Supreme Dalek. "My troops are where we agreed. If the rebels try to escape, they are under orders to shoot them." Fortunately, the Daleks didn't trust them enough to send them into battle against other humans. Their orders here were just to maintain a perimeter around the battlefields. But it seemed the Daleks were encountering heavier resistance than expected.
"YOU WILL MOVE YOUR LINES FURTHUR IN. THE REBELS WILL BELIEVE IT IS SAFER TO SURRENDER TO YOU. IF THEY REFUSE, THEY ARE TO BE SHOT ON SIGHT." Said the Supreme. "THIS IS AN ORDER."
And with that, the link faded. Clearly the discussion was over.
Summers turned to her vice president. "The Daleks suspect you've been in contact with the resistance. I had to hide some evidence that you were. False of course. But hypotheticaly, if you were secretly in contact with the resistance… What would they say to you?"
He thought for a moment. "Hypothetically… They might be planning a counter attack. One which aimed to take the Daleks apart from within."
"So… presumably, you'd be left to wait for a signal to stop me interfering? What form might that signal take?"
"Well, in these circumstances, I'd withhold that information, as there'd be no certainty whether you were asking because you wanted to help, or because, hypothetically, a part of the plan could involve your assassination and you want to avoid it."
"That would be fair. This is all theory of course. And I suppose, unless this hypothetical plan actualy does carry out, we'll never find out whose side either of us is on."
The rebels knew the tunnels much better than the Daleks and had used their labyrinthine nature to loop round and make a string of surprise attacks, whilst also leading them into traps and holding their advance at difficult passageways. But still they were being pushed back. The narrow passages also made it difficult to concentrate fire on the Daleks, and they were getting good at methodical sweeps, keeping every side passage covered in case of ambush. Plus, every trap would work only once.
Journey was busy holding a barricade at the top of a steeply sloping tunnel, picking off Daleks as they tried to bring themselves close enough to storm the barricade. After losing three this way though, the Daleks seemed to back off.
The commander had been killed by this time, leaving her in de facto control. "They wouldn't just give up." She said. "There's no way they can flank us. They're planning something."
"What is that?" A soldier pointed. Just before the tunnel turned away, was a Dalek that looked flatter than the rest. It had no sucker arm, just a single massive gun. It was keeping still positioning itself.
"Special weapons Dalek! Run!" She shouted.
The group fled deeper into the passageway, seconds later, the special weapons Dalek blasted their barricade to dust.
The tunnel was a dead end. But they'd led the Daleks this way deliberately. There was a smaller passageway in the wall, which they could just about squeeze through but would be imposable for a Dalek. The group rapidly fled into it.
Journey was the second to last to go. The soldier behind her squeezed in and paused near the entrance. "Now?"
"No." She said. "Let them get closer."
He peered round the edge of the rock and waited. "They're coming. They're almost on top of us."
"Detonate."
The soldier hit a button, remotely setting off some carefully concealed explosives in the tunnel behind the Daleks. Effectively trapping them inside. Even the special weapons Dalek couldn't blast its way out.
They crawled away into the passage. "This way to the barracks." The person at the front said.
"Oh no, we can't! I've just heard on the radio. The Daleks have overrun them."
"Take the tunnel on the left then. I think that way's clear."
"Come on Clara." Journey muttered. "Hurry up."
Clara had found the corridors on the Flagship much harder to navigate than others. While she'd spent two weeks living here, she'd always had the routes imprinted on her brain, and all the corridors looked the same. Nonetheless, she'd found her way eventually.
Clara found the bridge entrance and felt around for Daleks. But they were all at stations. The only ones nearby were those running the bridge. She just had to make sure no more turned up. There were two corridors leading off from there. She shut and locked the bulkhead on both, then went and opened the door.
She entered and activated a device the resistance had installed, releasing two devices, disguised as sense globes, to roll across the room. She then withdrew behind the wall and waited.
Before the invasion, some scientists had built a prototype for a very special device for taking out the Daleks. Now they were dead and there were never going to be more. But the resistance had captured the prototype. The bomb went off, releasing a specialised electromagnetic charge designed to reverse the polarity on the magnetic locks that held the Dalek casings closed. Once they'd come open. The second globe detonated, releasing a gas into the room to poison them.
Clara waited a few moments for the ship's filtration system to clear the air, then moved into the room. As she'd hoped, all the bridge crew were wide open and stationary.
The only one unaffected seemed to be the Dalek Supreme. Knowing she could never talk her way out of this, Clara quickly fired at it. But her shot dissipated short of it.
"Exterminate!" She shouted, with as much anger as she could muster. She fired again, but still nothing.
"THIS STATION IS SHIELDED AGAINST ATTACK." It said.
"Yeah? Well, you will have to lower it to get at me!" She replied
"YOU ARE THE DOCTOR'S ASSOSIATE. YOU WILL BE CONTROLED."
"I broke free. You cannot control me any more!" She fired into the floor near the shield, hoping to hit some system that powered it.
"INCORECT. WE CANNOT ACCESS THE MACHINE, BUT WE CAN STIL CONNECT TO THE DATA CLUSTER. THROUGH IT, YOUR MIND."
Clara suddenly felt a pressure from the probes, greater than any she'd felt before, and she gasped in pain and horror.
"YOUR MIND WILL BE PURGED AND YOU WILL SUBMIT TO US." The Supreme said.
"No. No. No!" She gaped as everything went dark.
Author's Notes: The next chapter may be delayed by a couple of days due to holiday. Be assured, I don't plan to leave her here.