According to records Jast was once a planet lush with life, but time had reduced it to a blue desert with oxygen that was toxic for nearly all known lifeforms. It was unknown whether it was caused by some catastrophe or if time itself was responsible, but the fact remained that the planet was now lifeless and harmful to those who lacked protection like Rusty. That was why Rusty believed that nobody was alive on the crashed ship which was the origin of the distressed signal Journey Blue found, yet she refused to leave until she had concrete proof. This somehow led to the Dalek leaving the ship and making its way across the desert in the direction of the signal, Journey Blue landing as close as she possibly could as there were many patches of land closer to the signal which were sinkholes. She had been unable come with him as they didn't have any equipment she could use to leave the ship, meaning she had spent half an hour stressing to Rusty the importance of diplomacy and not killing anyone.
It wondered why it was doing this as it could have refused and found a way to convince Journey Blue of the pointlessness of this mission. Assuming that the people on the ship knew that Jast's oxygen was toxic, it was unlikely they had the equipment or time to set up their own oxygen or use any oxygen tanks. And that's assuming that the distress signal was activated on purpose, as opposed to being automatic and everyone died in the crash.
Maybe it was doing it because history has proven that humans are stubborn creatures, and Rusty didn't have the patients to wait for Journey Blue to give up and leave. Maybe it thought that she would go out herself which could lead to her death. Or maybe it was hoping that there would be something to kill on this planet, as it has been awhile since it exterminated a Dalek and it was admittedly annoying. Regardless it was currently making its way over a blue sand dune, and saw the ship was not that far from it.
As it got closer Rusty noticed that the ship which was of human design was in remarkably good condition, lacking any major breaches and the ones it did have had a clear signs of a basic force field to cover them up. Not capable of stopping anything but air from passing through it, but that definitely would protect the people inside from the toxic air of the planet. It's eye stalk spotted a large rectangular hole on the ship before spotting the metal door which was ejected off, something that happened when someone uses an emergency button from inside the ship. Now that Rusty knew that people had survived it unfortunately had to come up with a plan of convince them to come with it to the ship.
"ATTENTION CIVILIANS. MY NAME IS RUSTY." it shouted as loud as it could. "DO NOT BE AFRAID. I AM HERE TO RESCUE YOU."
Rusty felt he had said that with a lot of eloquence for a Dalek, and so it was a little hurt when the response was someone shooting at it. It was only a single round and it's force field protected it easily, but they had clearly been aiming for it's eye stalk for a better chance of damaging it.
"REFRAIN FROM SHOOTING ME. I AM NOT HERE TO KILL YOU."
Another shot was fired and hit much close to the eye stalk. At that point Rusty had decided that diplomacy was not going to be successful and it was time to fix this the Dalek way, as it quickly scanned the ship an noticed what it was looking for.
"IF YOU DO NOT SPEAK WITH ME, I WILL FIRE AND DISABLE YOUR FORCE FIELD. DALEK TECHNOLOGY MEANS I KNOW WHERE WOULD BE BEST TO FIRE TO ACHIEVE THAT RESULT. IF YOU DO NOT COMPLY YOU WILL DIE."
There was no response but at the same time that meant it wasn't being shot, so Rusty simply waited patiently until a figure appeared behind the force field. It was a man and judging from his clothing must have been a passenger as opposed to a crew member, as he dressed casually and Rusty was somewhat impressed by how the man tried to hide his fear as he talked.
"Please, we don't have anything you would want. The ship's damaged beyond repair, we don't have anything of value and it would be too much effort to make us slaves. Please just leave us." the man pleaded and Rusty wondered if he was hard of hearing since it had just stated it was here to rescue the humans.
"DO YOU HAVE OXYGEN MASKS?"
"Umm, yes?" the man answered in confusion.
"HOW MANY OF YOU ARE THERE?"
"Why does it matter! a voice shouted and a visibly older man walked up next to the first, glaring angrily at the Dalek, dressed in much more expensive clothing than his friend.. "Want to know so you can keep track as you kill us?"
"I DO NOT DESIRE TO KILL YOU. I AM HERE TO SAVE YOU ANS BRING YOU TO MY SHIP."
"How stupid do you think I am?" the older asked with a little laughter in his voice.
"SINCE YOU ARE REFUSING AID, YOU ARE MOST LIKELY AN IDIOT."
"Why do you want to save us? What's in it for you?" the younger man asked before the older one could speak which earned him a shocked glare from his friend.
"Unstoffe you idiot, what are you thinking? You can't honestly believe it! I'm all for taking risks if there's a chance at something good, but this would be suicide."
"I DON'T WANT TO SAVE YOU. MY ASSOCIATE JOURNEY BLUE WANTS ME TO SAVE YOU AND HAS REFUSED TO FLY THE SHIP UNLESS I DO."
"Journey Blue? Who's that?" the man, Unstoffe, asked with a frown that matched his older friend.
"Sounds like a fake name." the older man said with some suspicion.
"A HUMAN SOLDIER. YOU CAN TRUST HER."
"I very much doubt she's human and if she is I find it unlikely she's working with you willingly. And if she is then she's the one person in the whole universe nobody should ever trust with anything much less their own lives." the older man spat, and it took all of Rusty's willpower to not exterminate him on the spot. "Besides they're are monsters out there and we can defend ourselves in here."
"IMPOSSIBLE. THERE IS NO LIFE ON JAST."
"Look around Garron, we're going to die here if we don't leave with it. If not from this things but when we run at of power ans supplies." Unstoffe told him with a grim tone that showed he was aware that he was risking death by trusting Rusty, who decided to ignore their irrational belief there were creatures on this planet. Garron glared at Rusty for a moment but eventually he nodded in defeat, and soon Rusty was leading a group of five humans across the desert towards it's ship.
While it didn't exactly care Unstoffe ended up explaining his situation and introducing it to the other passengers. There were two women, a silurian named Balla and a cobalite named Dartaw, and an alberian man named Ransteen though Unstoffe referred to him with female pronouns. While Daleks were aware of species having what they call a gender which is different from their physical sex, only specific Daleks like the Cult of Skaro spent time researching into it to see if it was a viable weakness. To Rusty it wasn't something worth thinking about, so it simply labelled Ransteen as female and carried on with it's task while Unstoffe continued speaking and Garron stood close to his friend in obvious fear that Rusty would do something to them.
Anyway it turns out the ship had been for the especially wealthy and the two humans had come into some wealth after what they described as a misadventure on Ribos, and had decided to enjoy themselves for a while despite many looking down at them for not being of their class. They had hoped for a relaxing trip but as Garron put it they were now following a murder machine that could kill them at any second and wouldn't care at all.
"It already said it didn't want to save us Garron, but it's friend does. It's been honest with us so far." Unstoffe said with his voice sounding only a little different under his mask. "Besides I told you the stories were true."
"We still don't know they are true." Garron grumbled.
"EXPLAIN. WHAT STORIES ARE YOU REFERRING TO?"
"The stories about a human and a Dalek saving people and killing other Daleks. I'm assuming that's you and your friend right?" Unstoffe asked and while Rusty didn't respond or slow down its eye stalk did swivel or face the human. "Over the last year we've been getting more and more stories about that, and its become this whole conspiracy theory that the Galactic Resistance are capturing and brainwashing Daleks or even creating their own. Is that what happened with you?"
"BOTH THEORIES ARE INCORRECT." Rusty answered simply as it returned its focus to getting to the ship, though secretly it was a little concerned with this news though it wasn't sure why it was surprised.
When it had agreed to travel with Journey Blue and kill the Daleks, it hadn't especially cared about whether it would be noticed. It cared that the Daleks would notice and come to it as that would make it easier to kill them, but it didn't especially care what the rest of the galaxy would think. And it just realised that it ever occurred to it how this would affect Journey Blue and her life, because Rusty knew this was arrangement was only temporary. Assuming she wasn't killed Journey Blue will eventually come to terms with her brother's death and leave to live he'd own life, assuming she doesn't develop any negative habits that will prevent this outcome. Or at least that's the conclusion Rusty has come to using the pathweb, the Doctor's memories ans it's own experiences with Journey Blue over the last eleven months.
It had never considered how being associated with Rusty might mean Journey Blue could never return to the life she had before, that the Galactic Alliance and other forms of government likely have her photo on file. Marking her as a suspect, someone worth investigating to see if she is a Dalek spy and honestly believing everything that they were doing was a lie. Yes she made the choice to come with Rusty but what if she regretted now and knows that she can't go back to her old life even if she wanted to, so she stays with Rusty since she essentially has no choice. The thought that it has played a role in ruining her life forever caused odd feelings for Rusty that it did it's best to ignore as it's ship finally came into view and they passed the last of the sinkholes, and it was in a way thankful when Balla screamed in terror.
Rusty stopped and span around to see what the scream was about as several creatures began to claw their way out from the sand. They were humanoid but not like any humanoid species the Daleks have encountered before, with grey flesh that seemed to be covered in boils. The creatures has four orange eyes and two slits where a nose would be, and the stood hunched over with arms twice the length of their legs but none stood on all fours like most animals did. What was most surprising was the fact that on the chest, starting at the neck and ending at where a human's stomach would be, was a large mouth with sharp teeth that made clear hissing sounds.
"RETREAT. RETREAT TO THE SHIP." Rusty ordered calmly as it fired at the creature that was the closest to them, killing it without any effort though this set off the rest. They began racing towards them on all fours which are them very fast, and despite shooting them as quickly as it possibly could they were getting closer and closer to Rusty which forced the Dalek to slowly move backwards.
More and more of creatures clawed their way out of the ground to replace those Rusty killed and eventually the Dalek knew it could kill them all. So instead it turn and began speeding towards the ship, which still had its doors opened and it could see the survivors were getting on board. It's sensors knew that despite its top speed the creatures were getting close and closer, and for a second it wondered if Journey Blue would fly off now that the survivors were safe. It wouldn't blame her and it was honestly expected since Rusty was a Dalek himself despite his hatred of the species, and it would be the perfect way for her to convince others that she wasn't traitor. However just a st hat thought occurs to Rusty, the small but reliable turrets on the front of the ship turned and fired taking the creatures behind the Dalek.
Soon Rusty was making it's way up the ramp of the ship and span around to fire at the creatures as it closed shut. Once that was done the ship began to lift from the ground and flew away, Rusty making his way past the scared but relived survivors to the cockpit where Journey Blue was. She glanced in its direction and briefly nodded at how many it saved before focusing on flying the ship, mentioning about dropping them off on a space station where they can get help, and Rusty was struck by an odd thought. Should it ask if she wanted to leave, if she regretted her decision and wanted to go back to her uncle? It wrestled with the idea for a few seconds, which for a Dalek might as well be hours, before leaving without a word. It didn't see how asking the question would benefit itself or Journey, and as it concluded if she wanted her life back all she would need to do was kill Rusty. Instead it decided to review its memories of exterminating those creatures and enjoying the feeling of euphoria it got every time they died, and hoping it wouldn't have to wait too long for the chance to do it again. Perhaps it could convince Journey Blue to fly into the heart of Dalek space if it suggested they could rescue triple the amount of people they've saved today.
Garron and Unstoffe are meant to be the same characters from the Fourth Doctor story The Ribos Operation as I watched that recently and I enjoyed the characters. While it won't be for a few more chapters yet I do plan to do a chapter focusing on Journey asking about Rusty's gender, so that brief mention of Ransteen was just setting up how Daleks view gender and physical sex in general. It was also to set up the idea that the two are developing a reputation due to their actions as people would logically notice a Dalek killing other Daleks.
