[A/N: Another flashback chapter. A nice long one too. Don't worry, I will eventually get back onto the main story. First though , I just want to fill you all in on how The Daleks and The Master ended up in a space ship, on earth with The Doctor. Also, I am sadistic and want to keep you all in suspense (Mwahahahahah). Read and review my pretties!]
The first impression that The Master got when he arrived in Dalek proximity was that they had established some sort of base here. Enormous dome shaped buildings dominated the area and were connected by a series of tunnelled passage ways. Situated at the opposite end of the base was the hangar, containing the fleet of ships, his awaiting transport. Part of him wanted to journey around the base, take one of the ships and leave.
While he had fled from The Time War when it was at its worst, he knew perfectly well of the destruction they had caused and how Skaro had burnt along with Gallifrey. Yet despite everything that had happened, here were the Daleks, as strong as ever. The largest part of him wanted to find out what they were up to, terminate their plans and destroy every last one of them. The Master grinned. He knew exactly what he was going to do.
Using all his stealth he moved his way through the base. He was not about to boot his way in through the front door. In order to find out what they were doing here, he would have to find a non-descript entrance and sneak his way through. Trying his luck, he encircled the building, scanning for anything that would aid him in his endeavours. Upon finding some sort of ventilation shaft, he prised it open and wriggled inside.
'Perfect', he thought to himself. Within the tightly enclosed, maze-like passage, he could hear the familiar sound of high-pitched Dalek voices and followed on towards the hellish noise.
Although it was fairly dark inside here, every now and then beams of light would flow in from grated panels. It gave The Master opportunity to peer through the grates into different rooms and spy on Dalek plans.
So far, he had witnessed various rooms full of different sorts of technological machinery. He had no idea what most of it did, but he would find out soon enough.
Soon, he also passed some prison chambers. Some of them were empty, but some held three foot high beings with rough, crack-engrained, purplish skin. The Master watched them for a while, but all they did was sit there on the cell floor, hopelessly. He moved on.
The sound of Dalek voices grew louder and the next room he was peering into what was either an experimentation or torture chamber. Shackled to the wall in a long line were more of the creatures and the Daleks in the room seemed to be testing how much pain they could administer to them without exterminating them. The Master did not know what race the creatures were and didn't exactly take pity on them, but he remembered similar strategies being used on his own people and that sent the anger coursing through him. He noticed that these Daleks were larger than the usual ones he had encountered, certainly a slightly different shape, with large posterior sections, also they were brightly coloured. Still though, despite looking even more ridiculous than they ordinarily did, their very presence sent spine-chilling fear straight through his gut. He continued crawling through the shaft.
Now this was more like it. He had seemed to have reached some level of authority, as a group of Daleks were taking orders from one Dalek in particular. It stood on a raised platform, above the rest and had armour of startling white. More machinery lined the walls of this room and Daleks were stationed at various sectors, sucker arms working at dial and feeding through data.
"Atmospheric pressure shield is complete", reported an orange Dalek, turning toward its leader.
"Prepare planet surface for full revivification and assimilation to features of Skaro. Through the New Dalek Paradigm, Skaro will sur-vive!" announced the white Supreme Dalek.
The Master watched on in horror as a large display screen showed an image of the sky he had witnessed before. It wasn't the sky that had been red. It was the so-called "atmospheric pressure shield" and from the sounds of it, it was about to alter this planet, so dramatically it would in fact replicate the conditions of the Dalek home world.
'Skaro 2.0', The Master realised. The Daleks had taken it upon themselves to take over this planet, claiming it for themselves, despite the race that already lived here and were building their empire back from scratch. He would not allow this.
Turning around in the small space, he doubled back as fast as he could to the other rooms with machinery. Kicking a grated panel away with his foot, he then dropped himself down into an empty mechanical room and began tearing apart panels and rewiring. He was going to use The Daleks technology against them and destroy this entire operation. Warning alarms began to sound, so he only quickened his pace. If it was an atmospheric pressure shield they were using, he would force it into an act of atmospheric decompression. The result would rip this entire place apart. The Master was a genius and he had the whole scientific procedure almost finished, when a posse of red Dalek drones busted into the room with cries of,
"Halt or you will be exterminated!"
The Master just grinned and flicked a final switch.
There was a deafening boom as the building's infrastructure was destroyed in an explosion that sent Daleks of every colour skyrocketing at an alarming pace, somersaulting through the air. The Master revelled in the sensation and laughed to himself, before hitting hard back down on the planet's surface.
What could have become a newly restored copy of what once had been the most feared planet in the entire cosmos, now stood scattered in ruins. Tremendous jungles lay burning. Entire continents had been severed and disconnected. Gaping, ragged holes dotted the planet where chunks were missing, destined to float through space as dust. The planet had once been solely inhabited by the Evearchion race. They were a peaceful species who did not understand the concept of violence. Now, their little corpses were already beginning to rot on the surface of their broken home.
Badly battered, but alive, the groaning figure of The Master gently rolled himself over, only to be faced with a swarm of Dalek drones, which stood over him, with barely a scratch on their metal casing. They made way for the Supreme Dalek, which moved forward, its cold eye trained on the Time Lord. It spoke with so much high-pitched anger, its voice could have broken windows.
"You have set the Daleks back in our goal of universal genocide and domination. You will be exterminated." It targeted its gun.
"Stop!" The Master cried out, very real fear filling his eyes. He raised his hands in surrender. "If its domination you want, you aren't going to achieve it. Not if The Doctor has anything to say about it."
The Dalek did stop. It untrained its gun and stood very still.
"You know the whereabouts of The Doctor." It wasn't a question. No, The Master did not know the exact whereabouts of The Doctor, but he could guess. There was no place his fellow renegade Time Lord loved more than that god forsaken rock, called Earth. Given the opportunity to navigate close enough, The Master was sure he would be able to track him down. "You will take us to The Doctor!" The Master sniffed and picked himself up off the ground. "I am going to need transport."