'CONVERGENCE OF THE DALEKS'
By Scott Weller
Deep in the heart of the once but no longer dead Dalek city located on the far away ancient world of Skaro, the figure of the imposing Emperor Dalek sat in all its monstrous height atop and deeply embedded within its darkly lit and ominous web of control and power, surrounded by a horde of technical workers and security drones buzzing in and around it. Amidst the notorious and seemingly never ending electronic heartbeat sound of the city, the lifeforce of the Dalek empire, its intimidating, all-seeing, all-knowing evil shape raised its eye stalk down slowly, ominously (if seen in human terms, that is - which it most certainly was not), on its subordinates. One might assume that the Emperor was silently, fixedly relishing the control it wielded over its vast empire of conquest, assimilation and power. But looking closer, there might also be detected an aura of mild apprehension and concern about the supreme being, such tension recognised by its underlings as they maintained their speedily efficient duties. As the latest information, both verbal and coded, came in through the many parts of the leader's control systems - his internal multi-brain processors swiftly digesting it all with relish and opportunity- information, analysis, algorithms, scans, phenomena observations, hacked enemy signals and much more relayed from all over the many galaxies of which the Dalek race and its legions were now spread, the fluidic systems of such vital communication constantly updated within seconds, the Emperor was never less than fully up to date on his species unyielding missions, their conquests, their stalemates, their planetary occupations, their mining of stolen resources, and the control and sustained manipulation of key worlds, as well as multi-part, long-term strategies against empires and galaxies potential-ripe for future take over or action towards.
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| Art by Librarian-bot. |
But right now, the Emperor Dalek, with his latent skills already heightened, was looking beyond all that, solidifying its observational and mental abilities on a unique directive, one focused towards the isolated, truly far outer regions of what was known in the galactic history books as 'The Sixth Galaxy', a region known primarily by a less pleasant and far cruder name, as 'the shard', termed so by those eons past galactic travellers logging their star maps with its unusual dagger shape planetary alignments, yet whose worlds were seemingly, ultimately ignored for their lack of mineral deposits and their unceasingly hostile environmental conditions. Such ugliness and danger from that galaxy, the Emperor Dalek considered, was surely the perfect cover for a concentrated race of war-like aliens who may once (or possibly still) have held the ultimate power in their hands, a species that would ultimately become one of the dominant races of the universe when the rest of it was all but in its relative infancy - the darkest powers imaginable, capable of manipulating time, space and energy to their will. An ancient race called the Armagedans.
The Emperor's top Dalek scientists, archaeologists and survey probes had spent 100 years tracing the locations of the legendary Armagedans, their existence once regarded by humanity and the thousands of other species the Daleks have encountered or subjugated over a thousand years, as nothing more than simple mythical legends. Until now... as the final pieces in the puzzle to their genuine rediscovery surely lay at hand to the Daleks - the final location of a potential secret colony world that likely escaped the Armagedans ultimate and swiftly mysterious disappearance after hundreds of millennia of domination in those long-gone darkest times. A colony world somewhere in the Sixth Galaxy whose long untapped technologies, weapons and sciences must be taken by the Daleks, the ultimate successors to such ambition and fury as those kindled by the Armagedans, and adapted to further enhance their war and conquest plans for generations to come. Such burning possibilities raged constantly within the Emperor's computer brains, whose massive spiking of intellectual thought power worriedly registered on the Dalek technicians scanners beneath it. The Daleks, must, he thought, will, rule the universe, once and for all!
Predicted rival alien races to the Daleks (including such long dead foes as the Xeraphin Amalgamation and the conquering Sy-Theryan Empire) as well as plundering pirates operating beyond their capabilities, plus anyone who even might possess the potential talent and abilities to look for the mysterious Armagedans, had, after many years of effort, been taken out of the potential threat equation by the Emperor's unique tactical analysis teams, some even advance neutralised or had their solar systems completely destroyed (sometimes via the use of third parties later eliminated) in order for the Daleks to keep their advantage. And now the path was clear for them, as the ultimate gamble for the Emperor Dalek was being initiated, and not even their most hated enemies, the infamous Time Lords, or their dreaded agent for chaos known as 'The Doctor', the last potential obstacles in their quest for the ultimate power, would finally be able to stop them...
A planet of fierce acid seas with a singular gigantic, clearly parched dry yet also strangely congealed landmass at its centre - several continents uniquely fused as one with the passage of time, and ominously looking like an unblinking giant eye, almost Dalek-like to the Emperor in many regards, the silent but ominous world looked like it was surveying the blackness of space around it rather than the other way around. The view of this nameless planet of titans, lost to the past, was now in the Emperor's inner minds, whilst technical reports about the gaining in visual details planet, and other important ongoing Dalek communications linked to their soon arrival on it, swarmed all around their leader's continued line of vision...
The three heavily shield-armoured, heavily-weaponised-to-their-core Dalek assault ships ever descending this world had braved its fierce electrical clouds and winds, the latter for a short time seemingly directionless in its ferocity but soon concentrating its brutal natural forces towards the interlopers, and the force had now landed with as-one precision possible on a seemingly calm surface once the clouds had been penetrated - it could at first glance even have been considered eerily serene to the Dalek observers above and beyond soon looking towards the vistas of a planet known only as Kaperia - whose ancient translation, after decades of work by the Emperor's specialist technicians, ultimately meant 'subjugated'. But as the massed multi-coloured ranks of the Daleks disembarked their immense and formidable craft, such seeming calm wasn't to last long. Indeed, it had been predicted that potential threats would be initiated against the Daleks from the outset, perhaps from powers so far beyond their sphere of experience. This was a world hostile beyond imagining to the race from Skaro, as if Kaperia had deliberately cloaked itself from the universe and its new intruders, and was now revealing its true primal hostility to the metal encased warriors.
Despite its single continent, Kaperia boasted a realm of multiple environments within it, all of which would be considered uninviting to the many weak human and alien species that concentrated themselves in the inner spiral arms beyond it's lure and whom now deliberately chose to ignore the realm. Its constant electrical storms once smashing the skies alone now reached downwards on to the soon many moving targets on the surface. Once these two hundred diverse Daleks had ascended the ramps from their ships, one such massive electrical storm easily took down and destroyed a dozen of their earliest arrivals.
Alongside massive tectonic plate displacement at regular intervals, and temperatures that were constantly aggressive in various ways attacking their exterior casings and interiors- enduring beyond anything humanoid beings could suffer on this world (at least on the surface), the Daleks were prepared to take as many losses necessary to their cause in acquiring the Armagedan legacy. And such disruptions continued as a powerful Tsunami wind of natural force and carried, nay dragged along sheared rock debris threw not just a collection of Daleks into torn-apart oblivion but also one of the trio of Dalek ships, despite its mighty weight and its advance shielding technologies, where it was literally dislodged, upended on one side and, briefly acting like a control-less kite dangling in a hurricane, literally thrown over a nearby cliff, its interior noise of surprised, panicked and trying to adapt Dalek technicians inside the vessel as overseer coordinators soon generating a cacophony of panic that echoed through the Emperor's chamber on Skaro, before the vessel's once intimidating frame quickly detonated on impact onto the lower rock shore below and all contents, weaponry and former occupants were fatefully severed.
Now, having watched the disaster unfold before them, their eye stalks as one now turned towards the environment and likely further dangers ahead, the three spread out Daleks waves approached and surveyed their own unique environments, the first wave would once more be hit by fierce rain then by further electrical storms that proved themselves even fiercer and violent, with half its ranks destroyed or damaged whilst Dalek technicians worked quickly en route to adapt themselves with energy deflection screen updates. Despite their swift adaptation efforts, however, their fellow Daleks continued to be literally torn apart around the workers, destructing as their casings would be blown open whilst their hideous mutations within the travel casings struggled, clawed their way to freedom, so as to release themselves from the electric death traps that their interiors had become. But their survival attempts were ultimately to no avail as they perished from the resultant poisonous atmosphere and acid rains that entered their scaly pores.
As the Daleks' sensor probes began scanning and sending back information to Skaro, there clearly had to be an underground civilisation waiting to be penetrated. The second force of Daleks would now be attacked by incredible rock creatures that literally pulled themselves together together from various land mases to become living un-coiled, snake-like things outstretching to smash outwards from the Daleks defensive circles. As tactical scenarios played out from Skaro and were relayed to the planetary Daleks internal relays, these brutal creatures were ultimately defeated, but only after heavy losses - nearly thirty Daleks totalled, of which only through the combined efforts of a Special Weapons Dalek force, whose power sources would soon be rendered depleted and inactive for any further protective use, had the moment been won.
Then, as the human-registered twenty-eight hour day continued into its middle point, the third Dalek splinter force would encounter mysterious insect-like creatures of crystalline adaptation whose shapes would change between see-through and substance, bearing an unknown physical make-up that might be similar to resilient and adaptive silicon, and a recombinant scenario about their physical make-up soon making them hard to take down with the Dalek's normally intimidating gunstick firepower. The Skaroans suffered from legion aerial kamikaze attacks from these insects, the antagonists literally proving themselves capable of stretching their bodies in flight and dive-bomb tearing into the Daleks' shells structures so as to inflict maximum damage, as their powerful blade-like stingers and DNA poisons would infect the mutant controllers within the Dalekenium casings - the Emperor would be positively shocked at the after effects of the insects' swift and shocking attacks - waves of disintegrated, green blood coagulated flesh literally oozing out from the grilles of their head casings before flamethrower capable Dalek soldiers would arrive to destroy not just the irritant creatures but also their poisoned comrades. The surface area around the Daleks survivors was a slaughterhouse view littered with dead or dying insect opponents whose own insides spurted further poisons once the Daleks moved with callous disinterest across their defeated remains.
So many of the Dalek taskforce's life sign indicators had now blinked out of existence around the Emperor's evolving sense sphere. But the Dalek taskforce would not be beaten, already the Emperor had initiated a new wave of assistant ships to be assembled with even greater firepower for fastest possible dispatch to the enemy world. Already they were on track to find the Armagedan legacy - the mountainous continent explored by what was once Dalek Force One, soon to integrate with its fellow remnants, now giving off slight but noticeable rhythmic energy emissions. The key to their secret base must surely have been found. All of the remaining Daleks expeditionary units were convergent on the location - to subjugate all that could be found.
Amidst a planet now fully in darkness, its storm clouds looming anew, and with further strange wildly colourful electrical storms building within its upper atmosphere, the Daleks headed towards a rocky outcrop extension beyond a main mountain ridge, their shocking losses having now cut their number down to a mere twenty survivors - so many having been destroyed in less than a day, a trio of white shelled scientists, protected in a moving circular formation by the combined efforts of fourteen grey worker Daleks and three heavily armoured expeditionary members in red/black, whose own stick guns were of a larger size and with a separate internal power generator to enhance and also emergency redirect the necessary required firepower against their opponents, be they natural or potentially humanoid.
Soon enough, one of the Dalek scientist's detector globe arms finally locked on the location of the emissions as the survivors converged as one and blasted their way through a sheer section of mountain wall at ground level. As debris smashed around them, their shells protected by deflector screens, the ashy soil and dust cloud residue soon cleared to reveal the inside of a darkly futuristic environment of technological systems seemingly deactivated, bar an irregular and muffled sound unlike anything heard with the Daleks own city heartbeat, and operating at a clearly power stifled level. A further sealed entrance to the alien structure's interior, resistance to cutting tools, had to be literally destroyed by a concoction of special explosive elements mixed with Dalekanium in order for the Daleks to descend into further darkened realms holding a seemingly unending spiral-esque circular platform ever descending towards what must be the true command centre of the Armagedans. With the Daleks enhancing the darkness below via interior casing illumination, their sensors were swiftly activated by the emergent response of some kind of biological weaponry that was now attacking them as they continued their spiralling descent. The heavily armoured remnants of the expeditionary force would start and stop to provide distraction cover for the continuing-on scientists and would successfully hit most of the enemy targets, grotesque flesh and metal hand-like instruments emerged from the shadows, literally fused into the walls and unleashing powerful disabling energy squibs. A macabre sight indeed, indicating the kind of biological experimentation the Emperor had not seen since the time of the Daleks' original creator, Davros. Despite the protective cover, one scientist Dalek had unfortunately been felled to the weapons, whilst another would ultimately survive but had received numerous battle damage and intense scouring marks by the time the five surviving defensive Daleks had re-joined them, all now arrived at what was seemingly the facility's final underground level.
With a small amount of cell lighting littering their environment from adjacent walls and ceilings, the Emperor hesitantly awaited the next stage of the investigation by his seven loyal servants as they glided onwards silently, penetratingly...
It should have known that the destructive trap would soon begin against them....
Entering a massive chamber seemingly without end, the Daleks were immersed within a generating control room like no other, one whose power source was soon activated with their arrival (a sign of surrender or a gesture of succession pass over to the might and ingenuity of the Dalek race perhaps, the Emperor vainly thought) as the knowledgeable Dalek Scientists worked at deciphering a key section of the Armagedans' ancient language was revealed. Though the Daleks were seemingly emotionless, it was not impossible for their witnessing of such ancient power being resurrected to generate some kind of internal thoughts, albeit if only for a few nanoseconds, of avarice - of such mysterious and awe-inspiring grandeur around them, beyond anything prior encountered, and now theirs to eventually command. And the Emperor Dalek was certainly impressed in its own way with the unprecedented sights being relayed to him, especially considering the eons old technology that looked new and efficient in its craftmanship.
As vast, pounding electric sources discharged like potent colorific starburst explosions above them and resonated throughout the chamber, further instruments linked to a massive, seemingly blank wall to the far right side of the chamber were suddenly dancing in operational intensity as the Dalek scientists began to study them and make their observations, and their protectors moved around in numerous flanking/defense positions. Logic soon told them that the instrument panel devices were part of some kind of time/space portal, the blank wall opposite seemingly of mass yet likely fluidic to Kronotic energy. And, like an ever moving portrait of phasing and fusing colour, the wall was now fully alive and active...
The Emperor was keener than ever to see the results of this activated technology - long had it been known that the Armagedans were fluent in time manipulation for primary use in exploration and conquest during their legendary dark days of fear and destruction, a tool which they so easily wielded against the lesser species of the galaxy, and a testament that the Daleks would continue for themselves. The once blank wall of the chamber further expanded into a mass of ever-changing colour patterns and auras of coalescing energy shapes. It was then that one of the now busy Armagedan display screens self-operated a set of colourful and clearly important graphics revealing a lock-on point within a set of circular objects, some kind of a solar system for sure, comprising three planets, of which the outlined destination world was now pulsing on screen alongside a series of further changing graphics boasting a constant sound pinging of purpose echoing around the chamber, likely a countdown of sorts ominously going down to a primary configuration. Around the remaining Daleks the huge energy pulses above and around them built in intensity and lit their domed heads in a shadowy swarm of colour as the eerie sight of the wall finally concentrated into a haze of blue and white energies, from which a series of grey patterns were now starting to escalate and emerge, now confirmed as a distance of time and space within its malleable frame - a bridge now established between worlds, possibly even universes. And as the once grey patterns came forward, their final coalesced frames of altogether different colours gained depth of detail towards their ultimate shape, a shape now shapes that soon brought an undesired, unexpected sense of fear into the Emperor and its multitude of equally observant followers in service beneath it....
It was a force of... Daleks!
But Daleks of a kind unlike anything that the Emperor or his subordinates had ever witnessed before in their long history of adapted life and survival. Larger in size, their ranks donated by differing colour schemes far more diverse than anything established by the current Dalek empire, and made of metals not recognised by the Daleks scientists (with massive heavy gold strip bars across their middle frames that didn't register as anything like their own bonded polycarbide armour), and boasting larger eye pieces with primary weapons frontal centre mid-base that seemed similar but of different functions beyond firing just destructive energy blasts. For the briefest of time there was fascination by the Emperor's Daleks towards these new arrivals, as one of the scientists asked for the lead 'alien's identification and point of origin. But the lack of response soon turned to purposeful anger as the xenophobic Expeditionary Daleks began calculating the huge potential threat of these unknown-in-origin Daleks, surely full of unregulated ambition, and all of which had to be immediately destroyed. But what should have been action quickly initiated was soon to prove all too late.
The alien Daleks' leader, boasting a near burgundy red colour form and a black array of global lower sensors, was confidently gliding forward, now ominously speaking whilst a further five of its kind were now fully realized behind it from the ongoing time/space bridge energy. Like the opponents it faced, it equally recognised the threat from its own perspective point of view and control, and delivered a chilling ultimatum to its opponents:
"HOSTILE ALIENS - SURRENDER, OR BE EX-TER-MINATED!"
With little hesitation, the forms of the Emperor's remaining Daleks, as swift and resolute in battle as they could be, moved in an around their so-far small in numbers opponents, discharging their energy weapons at the intruders, blasts of intense death waged in and out against the heavily armoured shells of their distinctive enemies, continuously looking for weak spots in which to destroy them. But such firepower was soon to no avail, despite the best efforts of the Expeditionary Daleks, whose main defensive ranks were now protecting the scientists as they initiated the only tactic open to them now: to retreat from the death chamber that was all around them, re-group and form a new attack strategy somewhere else, away from these 'other' Daleks whose formidable strengths were overpowering. The alien Daleks would soon have the survivors cornered by sheer strength of numbers, however, as multitudes of further colourful enemies were now fully revealed from the time bridge and quick to action alongside their brothers. As the alien Daleks made one final ultimatum, having destroyed a further three of the Emperor's Daleks - one destroyed by a huge blast wave of fire from a blue domed enemy, the other from blasts of strange gas vapour discharges that infiltrated their top gratings - their prime leader back on Skaro, in a near frenzy of anger, immediately activated the self destruct overrides against his dying subordinates on Kaperia, the build-up noise towards their explosive sacrifice growing in his control chamber as the Emperor hoped that their act would destroy or at least paralyse some of the enemy, whilst buying time for the soon approaching new task force, thousands in number, that was now dispatched to the planet...
As the Emperor seemingly retreated into the shadows above and around it, away from its subordinates, its brains worked further on new strategies and ways to make its Daleks go beyond their existing powers and combat capabilities. It knew without doubt that his Daleks had to win, no matter what, against the incredible challenges that lie ahead, from a threat the likes of which he'd hoped never to encounter...
The Skaroan Daleks self-destruction had indeed made a small impact, destroying several of the aliens in retaliation, but now there were as many as fifty of these new Daleks now fully emergent from the time wall, with many more on the way as they broke off across the main chamber and explored the underground base, ready to completely take over the facility and neutralise any further threats to their plans. And as this takeover was cemented, their higher-brained leaders would soon be joining them...
For decades the seemingly one-way only time bridge technology of the Armagedans' had been both elusive and denied to these Daleks operating within their own alternative universe realm. But no longer. The Armagadens centuries enduring lure and trap against threatening adversaries in this other universe had ultimately been reengineered by these alternate Daleks to their own advantage. And as the Red Daleks on Kaperia initiated realms-traversing communication with their ominous, singular Black Dalek leader, the chillingly all-powerful and intimidating creature residing within an incredible city on their own alternate home planet of Skaro - its control centre environment gleaming of metal chrome, gold and silver, orally bathed in its own unique but different electronic heartbeats of calculating power - the so far silent yet dominating frame looked down from atop its higher point dais towards an impressive congregation of diverse Dalek ranks - from planners, scientists, workers to warriors - all of whom awaited their next instructions...
The time squad beachhead on the alternate Kaperia had at last been achieved after a thousand years of observation and waiting for that 'other' universe to make its move. Now, a race of alternate universe Daleks (which had been potentially predicted by these Dalek scientists, and whom now had been proved right), would need to be eradicated, no matter what the cost, before the invasion and conquest of all other potential universes could begin.
The Black Dalek addressed its observers with succinct instructions. "ACTIVATE THE DELTA IMPERATIVE. ALL INVASION PLANS TO PROCEED. ELITE FORCE DALEKS TO BE RECALLED FOR CONVERGENCE TO KAPERIA..."
As the other Daleks screeched their unison obeying of orders, their dome indicator lights acting as one in their dedication, they quickly scrambled off to their relevant stations and imperative duties, as the silent but clearly deadly Black Dalek remained eerily still whilst initiating strategies and battle computer options within its domed skull. This would be a long, brutal conflict, it thought to itself - a Dalek War on the scale to which no universe had ever been witness, and from which there could only be one side to victory. The Black Dalek had decided that theirs would be the winning side, even if it wrought eons of cataclysm in their wake...
"DALEKS CONQUER AND DESTROY!" Its fixed and aggressive words of conviction, a promise of a nightmare tomorrow, raged from its being as it left the control room apace towards its own unique electronic displays alcove.
Those four words of brutality would continue to reverberate through the now empty chamber for what seemed like an eternity...
"DALEKS CONQUER AND DESTROY!.... DALEKS CONQUER AND DESTROY!..."
THE END...?
This story is dedicated to the iconic Daleks' legendary and versatile creator Terry Nation, and to their other equally key story contributor (and creative legend of the original Doctor Who series) who'd bring intriguing new facets to the Skaroan creatures within the Patrick Troughton era: David Whitaker.
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