City of the Daleks.
Chapter Four

'We are so dead.' Rodney whined

'I'd hate to agree with you on that one but the evidence seems to agree.' The Doctor nodded.

John was just angry. 'We're not dead. Not yet. Elisabeth, we've got some anti-tank weapons in storage.'

'John you can't be serious...'

'Take a note as to how serious I am.' he growled out between clenched teeth.

'Even if you have some they might not work against the Daleks. Their armour...'

'We are so dead!'

John rounded on the Doctor and Rodney. 'Not another word. Not one single word that isn't a helpful suggestion. You got that?'

Ever the diplomat Elisabeth tried to calm him down 'John, we don't know what we're dealing with...

'I know I brought it here. Four men are dead because of me and were no closer to stopping those things. Now other than destroying that part of the city does anyone have a better plan?'

'No John we don't.' She shouted back. 'but even I know the damage you can do to the city with those things. There's no guarantee you'll do anything other than get more people killed.'

'Is that all you care about? The city?'

'Of course not. I'm worried that after you go trigger happy with a rocket launcher you take out an important part of the city's defence. Something we can't fix. Then where would we be if the Wraith show up?' Elisabeth actually stared him down. 'But you didn't think that far ahead John. You never do! If you did we would never be in this mess!'

Their short guest whistled. 'This is hardly the time to argue.' He said calmly, how he could go from panicked to rational at the drop of a hat John didn't know. 'We need to pool our resources. Our knowledge. Between me and Jamie there isn't much we don't know about the Daleks. You know more about the city's current state. So instead of finding a bigger gun to hit them with and running in to the jaws of death half cocked. Let's, as I've said, have a plan.'

'I'm with him on this John.' Ronon agreed, it only took a glance for John to realise everyone was against him. It took half the time for him to see it himself.

'Well other than a really big gun I don't have a plan.' he admitted.

'We better come up with one soon people.' Rodney shouted. 'They've just found the bio lab.'

'Anyone inside?' Elisabeth asked needlessly. Everyone was already looking at the life signs detector.

Fourteen blips and three Daleks.

Carson was the first to react. 'My god! Beckett to Dr Caleb. Get out of the bio toxicology lab! Right NOW!'

The screen changed to a visual. A high camera mounted in a corner it looked like at least. Dr Caleb was a tall thin man. They watched him tap his head set; 'Is something wrong Dr Beckett?' And the doors opened...

Elisabeth choked out; 'Is there any other exit?'

'No' Beckett, the Doctor and Rodney said together.

The three alien killing machines glided in, taking up positions and then facing the scientists. Caleb took a step forward. 'H... Hello?' John spun to the Doctor...

'EX-TERM-IN-ATE!' the three killers shouted at once.

'Turn it off!' John shouted at the Doctor. He moved to the controls but was too slow. They got to see Dr Caleb's death. Hear his scream, before he fell the screen switched back to the Life-signs detector.

With horror they watched fourteen pale blue dots flicker and vanish.

'They were scientists!' Tayla whispered, her voice thick. 'They were harmless, innocent. Why? How could any creature do that in cold blood?'

The control room was silent. Not a sound, No one had an answer. Then there was a fizzle on the headsets. Somewhere a radio had activated. 'CO-MMUNICATION FRE-QUEN-CY A-CHIEVED. A-TTENTION HU-MANS. THIS IS THE VOICE OF THE DAL-EKS.

'YOU ARE DEFENCE-LESS. FUR-THER RE-SIST-ANCE IS FU-TILE. YOU WILL LEAVE YOUR HOMES. YOU WILL LEAVE YOUR OF-FI-CES. YOU WILL LAY DOWN YOUR WEA-PONS AND GA-THER IN SE-LEC-TED AR-E-AS. YOUR EX-E-CU-TION WILL BE SWIF-T.

'YOUR LEA-DERS HAVE T-HREE BREEM-S TO RE-PLY.'

'How long is that?' Elisabeth asked their guest.

'Doesn't matter.' John growled and hit the city wide PA. 'Attention tin pots. Resistance is our middle name and we're going to blow you back to whatever twisted planet you came from! Hear that!'

'YOU WISH TO RE-SIST? YOUR DEATH-S WILL BE PAIN-FUL. DA-LEKS RE-SET WEA-PONS TO MINIMUM POW-ER.'

'What is that supposed to do?' John threw over his shoulder.

'Dalek guns can kill at any setting.' The Doctor winced. 'The lower the output, the longer it takes to die.'

'Son of a bitch.' John growled. Pressing the PA again John said two words, he only hoped they sounded as brave as they needed to be. 'Bring it.'

Tayla couldn't shake the chill from the scientist's death. Never, in the years she had lived, had she seen a race so willing to kill for so little reason. 'I have never seen anything so terrible in all my days...'

The Doctor looked at her, mirth in his eyes. 'When you've seen so few my dear I wouldn't be so surprised. But your right, the Daleks are amongst the most dangerous creatures in space or time.'

'Don't feel insulted lassie.' the one called Jamie tried to be supportive. 'The Doctor here is over two hundred and he hasn't seen it all!'

'Two hundred...

'Two hundred and fifty-six. Years, in the way you measure time.' He shrugged it off. 'Jamie's right, I haven't seen nearly enough of this universe.'

'...None of us are going to see anymore of it if we don't deal with these guys.' Rodney needlessly pointed out. 'Right .We need a plan so let's work one out. Err, let me see:-

'We attack them; they're bullet proof. We plant a bomb; we take out a chunk of Atlantis and we think they can still walk through it. What's left?'

Tayla had an idea. 'Wait, they have no legs. How can they ascend the stair wells? We already know they will not fit into the transporters. Are they not trapped?'

'Aye, she's got a point.' Carson smiled. 'Tayla, love, that's brilliant!'

She looked to the Doctor. The strange man was shaking his head slowly before pressing more console controls. Tayla watched the screen, it showed the three Daleks stopped in a open room. They looked up, their little gun sticks wiggling for a moment.

As one they fired, blowing a hole in the celling. 'What's that going to do?' Ronon asked.

'Oh no... No WAY!' Rodney shouted at the screen 'You can NOT...!' but they could.

'Can nothing stop them?' Elisabeth whispered.

The three metal machines glowed at their base and raised. Floating, much like the Puddle Jumper entering it's hanger, the Daleks glided up and through the hole. 'So much for the stairs.' Ronon pointed out.

'Everything we can think to stop them they have a counter to. Replacement eyes, flying, practically invincible.'

'What if they run out of power? They did before.' Radek suggested from his console.

'Unlikely,' Rodney replied. ' "Weapons to minimum", remember? They drained a naquada generator dry. There's more than enough power there.'

'It's worse.' The Doctor supplied.

'It can't get any worse!' Rodney and John said at the same time.

'It can.' The old man said in a voice like steel. 'They want Atlantis. Three Daleks could level the city, they wouldn't have to waste power flying. They would just topple buildings.'

'I promise you they won't get it. John?' Elisabeth growled The actions of the Daleks were inexcusable and while Tayla's friend might be a person of peace she knew when to back up a threat.

'Self-destruct?' John asked.

'I'm setting it for two hours.' She strode to one of the Laptops. 'If we don't have a working plan by then well this will serve as a back up.' John followed.

'What is a self-destruct?' the girl that accompanied the Doctor asked, Tayla believed her name to be Victoria.

She explained to the younger woman; 'We can destroy the city if we need to. Only if there is a dire emergency or need.'

'Well we certainly got that now ain't we.' the Scotsman said

Dr Beckett agreed with him. 'Aye' and surprisingly so did Ronon. Tayla could tell that the brief battle had left an impression on Ronon. Not only did the Daleks frighten the imposing Runner but the Scotsman's bravery had impressed him. Even after his reservations about the young man's dress.

That was something she would have to ask Dr Beckett about later. The Doctor looked out at his strange craft, still sitting in the middle of the gate room. 'I can get most of you off Atlantis inside my ship.'

'But not all of us?'

'Not enough time to get everyone up here and the Daleks are making their way up.' he admitted. 'They'll want to take out the leaders here first and then work their way back down. If anyone get caught making their way up here...'

'I'm not running.' Ronon growled. 'Not from them, not from anything again.'

John turned from the controls. A read light began flashing on most of the Earth equipment. 'Well we have just under two hours to think up a better plan than cut and run.'

After a moment. 'Any suggestions?'

'I can do the count down.'

'Not helpful Rodney' John growled.

'Look, the only thing we can do to stop these things is fire a drone at them. Once again taking out a significant amount of the city. They're in the main tower by now. If we thought we could damage the city before, hit anything in here we can't fix it. Oh and guess what? You can't shoot drones inside Atlantis because they're too fast to turn the corners!'

The Doctor looked back around 'You can launch the city's point defence missiles?'

'For all the good it will do, yes. Weren't you listening when I said "too fast to go round corners"?' Rodney replied as only he could.

'We just need an open space.' the Doctor pointed at the open gate room

'And three drones, we can't control them like that...' Rodney pointed out again.

But John had an idea, the Colonel joined the Doctor looking out across the room. 'We get them up here. Take them outside... Are they waterproof?'

'Not at any great depth. The window?'

'Why not?' John beamed a smile. 'Elisabeth we might have a plan that works!'

'And for those of us that don't speak your secret language?' she asked, eyebrows raised to make the point.

They explained it.

Ronon looked to Jamie. The two of them had been given the "Bait" part of the plan. Neither had liked it but it was what they were good at. Fight and stay alive. The metal monsters should be coming round the corner any minute. They were to shoot, get noticed, and get the hell out of there. With luck the Daleks would follow them.

They had to make look like they were a delaying tactic, The Doctor and John agreed that would make them think they were buying time. In fact what they were doing was keeping the Daleks focused on the two of them and not killing any of the scientists stuck in any of the rooms.

One of the things came around the corner. Jamie threw the smoke bomb, bouncing it off the Daleks armoured side. Ronon fired and they dived out of the way. No one thought the smoke would do any good but they had ran out of rocks.

The gun did as much as the smoke and the Dalek fired after them. Running Jamie pulled up his loaned P90. He was a fast learner and just needed practice. Ducking a ray blast Ronon watched his new friend fire, trying to cover him. He was missing but making enough noise to split the Daleks attention.

Tayla ran around the corner with the other visitor. 'We've got their attention! Ronon shouted.

'Then I suggest we retreat.' Tayla called back as the other woman threw a flash grenade.

'Take that!' she cried viciously. Ronon knew that tone of voice, these things had hurt her in the past but she had enough intelligence not to get herself killed in the name of vengeance. Ronon's opinion of the Doctor raised another notch, if these two were willing to travel with him there must be much more to him than met the eye.

The two groups fell back and met with Lorne's team, what was left of it. The Major was firing into the corridor, his team-mate dead at his feet. 'What took you?'

'Those.' Jamie answered as another blue ray shot too close.

'Let us flee while we can!' Tayla fired at the two Dalek's eye's behind them. The five humans ran for the stairs. They couldn't risk losing the damn things by going through the lift.

The Daleks flew after them. The young woman used up all her flash grenades, Jamie his smoke bombs, to slow them down. It worked, just.

Rolling through the doors to the gate room Ronon wasn't surprised when the Scotsman was the second man through. Instead of running he pulled Tayla and then Lorne through, Ronon got his friend and they ran for the blue box.

As they dived in the Daleks fired, the shot exploding against an invisible force field over the door.

The Doctor closed them and let out a breath. 'Have fun?' he asked.

Lorne answered; 'I lost a man. How is that fun?'

'I'm sorry, its not.' The Doctor nodded before touching a control. 'Colonel Shepherd, Phase one complete.'

John heard the message and grinned. Bringing up the HUD he had it tap into the city's surveillance. It showed the Stargate and three Daleks in front of it, firing at the blue box.

A quick mental command and the Jumper bay doors opened. Dropping his ship through the gap the Puddle-jumper slid down into launch position. Only thing was that the three Daleks were in the way.

Not a problem. John grinned, opened the Jumpers drone pods and deactivated the cloak. Giving them a moment to notice him John waited until their eye stalks turned and he fired.

Two drones picked up Daleks each, punching them out of the stained glass window and into the sea. The last one tried to move and got it's own two drones sending him out of Atlantis. Somewhere in the distance the drones exploded.

End Chapter Four