My Season 1

[brainsnaffler]

Hi there

This is my Dr Who campaign I'm currently running. The story involves the Doctor (unspecified regeneration but hinted at a post 11th Doctor incarnation), a robotic construct known as the Artificer or "Arty", and a teenage boy called Terrence Phillips.

A new episode is played every couple of months so I will update here when we have completed a new episode. Please feel free to let me know your views of the campaign and also please be my guest to use any characters or plot points you may find useful.

Cheers

[brainsnaffler]

Episode 1: The Tides of Earth
The adventure began with a group of scientists taking samples from the antarctic ice. As they anxiously await the drill rising, it suddenly stops and a shadowy form is seen passing by the camera shortly before the image turns to static. Going to investigate, the scientists discover that the camera has been damaged and as they inspect the drill head, a freen scaly hand grabs one of the scientists.

Cue Theme Music

The Doctor was travelling through space with his newfound companion, an artificially intelligent construct named “The Artificer” (Arty for short). As they were disucssiing which planet to visit next, the Doctor noticed a small bleeping noise coming from his pocket. After searching through his many possessions he found a distress beacon that was emitting from Planet Earth. The Doctor knew the signal was coming from his old scientist friend Dr …. With that, Arty and the Doctor set off for Earth.

Antarctic….2008

The TARDIS arrived on a Royal Navy Destroyer that was in Antarctic waters. After a few bungled explanations as to why they were on the ship, both Time Travellers were taken to the Captain. As they were explaining themselves, the ship began to creak and groan as if hit from below. The seamen called out that they had seen something in the water but it was too late, the ship began to capsise. All crew put on life preservers and went overboard including Arty (who had disguised himself as a human) and the Doctor. Whilst in the water, the crew began to be dragged under by green scaly hands. Through quick thinking, Arty produced a small tablet that when activated froze liquid (used to stop oil leaks on machines). He froze part of the water and allowed some members of the crew to escape.

Once safe, talking to the crew revealed that they were on their way to an antarctic research station because about 6 months previous scientists detected unusually fast errosion of the ice caps and a team was sent out to investigate it. The Team managed to send out a brief Mayday before going silent. The ship was to investigate why. With that the Doctor, Arty and the survivors went to find the base.

Hawlins Base

Once the companions got to the base, they encountered the remaining scientists (including his old friend who had summoned them there). They found the reason that the scientists lost contact was that the radio equipment had been trashed by one of their fellow men. He went crazy in the night and trashed most of the ice samples that the team had gathered. examining the samples revealed that there were perfect holes in the ice around 5m in diamiter. The ice seemed to have been fused. At that point there was a commotion in the room where the scientist was confined. The group ran to the room only to find him being taken away by two Sea Devils. Fortunately, the reptiles stated that they “only wanted him”. and so despite having a bit of a struggle, nobody was injured and the rogue scientist was taken away.

Once recovered, the Doctor and Arty investigated the data, finding the rough location of the reported increased errosion. Previously some of the scientists had gone out there to look but never returned. The Doctor and Arty ventured out into the area using a miniature submarine.

underneath the Antarctic

In the submarine the group found a bunch of Sea Devils transporting a huge platform with a huge metal clyinder on board that began to superheat and shoot into the ice, thus melting it. A chase ensued and the submarine lost power, resulting in the Doctor and Arty being captured and being taken to the Sea Devils underwater base.

City of the Sea Devils

Once inside, the Doctor was greeted by the leader of the Sea Devils. He explained that their race had awoken in the antarctic ice from their hibernation and found their world taken over by men. They decided to melt the polar ice caps and thus flood the world, making it less habitable for humans but perfect for the Sea Devils. Then the human scientist who had broken the radio came forward. It turned out that he was in league with the reptiles as he had secretly found them and been promised life in the new world and power. The rogue scientist had issued a broadcast to all the worlds governments asking for their unconditional surrender.

The Doctor and Arty were then imprisoned alongside the other scientists who had ventured out in the other submarine, and the survivors from the Royal Navy ship sinking. Eventually the Doctor and Arty escaped, freeing the other prisoners and holding off the Sea Devils. They managed to fight their way back to the control room and drive the leader away, who along with the rogue scientist eventually escaped.

Once in the control room, the group found that Korea, had launched nuclear weapons against the location of the transmittion (the underwater base), but haven’t realised that the base is defended by a powerful forcefield. Luckily, the Doctor, Arty and the prisoners managed to escape the city just in time before it had been destroyed.

Epilogue

UNIT forces move in and receive a debrief from the Doctor. They explain that they managed to recover the TARDIS and rescu The Doctor’s old scientist friend thanked him for all his help and received a new SOS card. With that, the Doctor and Arty enter the TARDIS ready for their next adventure.

[brainsnaffler]

Episode 2: The Mines of Terror

The episode began with a group of miners going down into the mines for another hard shift at work. They were explaining how hard done by they were by their boss Mr Donaldson and were stating that some of their friends had met with accidents in recent months, especially since Donaldson had opened up a new seam and closed the old one off. As they were approaching the coal face, the miners heard a faint call for help coming from a tunnel that led to the old coal seam. As they moved closer, they saw one of their old friends with a strange green luminescent mist wisping around him as he turned a corner at the far end of the tunnel. Concerned, the miners went forward to investigate and found their old friend (who had been reported killed in a mining accident about a month ago) stood still with his hands stretched by his sides and his head down. He didn’t respond to the miners attempts to communicate with him but instead started to eminate more of the green mist. Slowly, the dead miner turned to reveal his glowing green eyes and screamed at the terrified bunch of men; finally emmiting a skeletal ghost covered in green mist. Stood still and terrified the miners looked onwards as the ghostly figure shot towards them…

Cue Theme Music

The Doctor continued his journey with the peculiar robotic life form known as The Artificer or Arty for short. In addition, he had also picked up a new companion, a young geeky looking boy with an amazing knack for empathy. His name was Terrence Phillips or Terry for short. The Doctor explained of the exciting places he would take them on their adventures and landed the TARDIS. After a small amount of banter, the group decided to find out where they were.

Hampton, Yorkshire….1908

The group found themselves on a village green in a picturesque Yorkshire Village. The Doctor excitedly hurried off to mingle with the locals, Arty engaged his camoflague unit so that he looked like a working class woman of the period and hurried after him. Terry stared in disbelief that he was in a really boring place! It wasn’t long before the group managed to talk to the locals including a post office worker, a pub owner and a local Police Officer who was scratching his head at the sudden appearence of a Police Public Call Box on the middle of the village green! The locals all expressed their distrust of the group, believing they were sent by Mr Donaldson. It was during these conversations that an old mining cart came careering down the hill with an unconscious miner on board and was heading straight towards a small boy in the middle of the road. Leaping into action, the Doctor called for Terry to save the young boy whilst he and Arty stooped the horse. The excitement of it all caught Terry flat footed and he didn’t manage to save the young boy but all was not lost as Arty and the Doctor managed to grab onto the cart and pull it away, ending up back on the village green and thrown off the cart onto the floor as it came to a stop. The group helped bring the unconscious miner to his local house.

Miners House

When the group return to the miners home, he recovered and explained his encounter with the ghosts in the mine that started attacking and possessing his friends. The community began to call for strikes and the group decided to pay a visit to Mr Donaldson the leader of the pit.

Hampton Colliery

The Doctor and his companions enter the compound of the pit where they find Donaldson in an unusually middle class home. After passing themselves off as inspectors, the group questioned Donaldson about the unusual encounters. Donaldson gave little away but professed innocence and stated that they were more than welcome to go down the pit and see for themselves.

The Doctor agreed but whilst being lowered down the shaft, the cage / basket stopped and they could see faint wisps of green mist at the top of the shaft. Then the thick ropes that held the cage began to be cut through. Just before the cage plummeted to the bottom of the shaft, the group managed to find a tunnel into which they jumped. Unfortunately, this left them in the eerie mine alone and with no source of light.

Hampton Mine Shaft

The group explored the mine and found a bloody skeleton with exploded body parts around it. The body had a strong presence of Hydrogen. At that point the companions heard a faint call for help and upon investigating, found the stationary form of a miner with his hands outstreatched to the side, his back to them. He emitted the green mist and the ghosts came after them, attempting to possess them. Luckily after a brief struggle the group managed to find a strange pipe on the shafts ceiling that was pumping water into the mine. Using this pipe they managed to fend off the ghosts for a while but eventually, the sheer number of their attackers that continued to appear caused the group to retreat back down the tunnel. Making twists and turns down the old shafts, the team eventually came into a long tunnel that led to a strange metal airlock to which the group narrowly avoided capture and managed to seal themselves within.

Ssazik Ship

Finding themselves in this strange airlock, the group soon discovered that they were in an ancient spaceship filled with dust. Whilst examining their surroundings they discovered that the ghosts could obviously control the ships systems and came over the intercom demanding the Doctor and his companions surrender. They then began pumping Hydrogen into the area. Trying to find a way out, the group discovered a couple of clues including a mummified alien body in a space suit which contained an old celluloid note entitled “The Doctor” and a series of numbers, and also a ships log that noted the ghosts as the Plactoras. The Plactoras were described as a viral life form that possessed beings and scoured the galaxy. They were hunted to almost extinction until presumably they crashed on Earth.

As the Hydrogen levels rose, the group deduced that the string of numbers were for a teleport base code and found a Transmat terminal which they used to escape after rigging the ships engines to self destruct.

Water House

The Doctor and his companions found themselves in a water house based on a river just outside Hampton that contained a large hydroelectric generator and had various pipes that carried both current and water (in seperate pipes of course) underground. This was in no doubt beyond early 20th Century design. The Doctor reasoned that these were the pipes they used to help hold off the attacking Plactoras. The group began making their way back to Hampton.

Hampton Colliery

When they got back to the village, the group immediately went up the hill to confront Mr Donaldson about what they had found. Donaldson and his servant made no attempt to hide their involvement with alien beings and held the group at gunpoint demanding that they surrender. The Doctor was defiant and Arty decided to drop his camoflague suit which shocked the two men into firing upon the robot, badly disabling it. with further violence deterred by the Doctors surrender, Donaldson decided to take the group to the Hydrogen Chamber and leave the destroyed robot on his study floor. Without further delay, he revealed another transmat terminal in his study and the group departed.

Hydrogen Chamber

The Doctor and Terry found themselves in an underground chamber with a big glass domed device in the centre. The various pipes from the water house led to the device and carbon rods were lowered into water bowsers. Donaldson revealed that the Plactoras were hydrogen based life forms and multiplied in the hosts bodies, bursting forth when they had replicated enough. Although they could possess individuals at will, to reproduce they needed strong levels of Hydrogen present. For this they used the Chamber that used electrolosis of the water to break it up into its components and thus pump Hydrogen into the chamber.

As the Doctor was placed into the chamber at gunpoint by Donaldson, Arty’s voice came over the communications array. Luckily he had not died and when Donaldson left him for dead, he had gone over to the Transmat terminal and teleported back to the Ssazik ship, then re-engaging the engines to self destruct. Despite warnings, the Plactoras did not surrender and Arty was forced to detonate the engines, causing panic amongst the green misted ghosts. In the confusion, Terry and the Doctor managed to escape before the shaft was destroyed and Donaldson was burried amongst his dreams of power with the Plactoras.

Epilogue

The group returned to the TARDIS on the village green and said their goodbyes to the village folk including the confused Police Officer. Just before they left, three remaining plactoras emerged and denounced the Doctors actions, telling him that because of what the group did, they had committed genocide and there was no longer reason for the Plactoras to continue on as he had sealed their fate. With that they screamed and disipated into thin air, presumably demised.

Slowly the Doctor, Terry and the Artificer once again entered the TARDIS.

[brainsnaffler]

Episode 3: The Eye of Artemis

Platform 113, The Hadron Cluster, Artemis Sector…2184

An undisclosed officer opens up a communications line to his associate. He wants to know if the merchandise provided to him is of sufficient quality. His associate who appears cloaked as a black obelisk with multiple lights around him assures him that the merchandise is of sufficient quality and is untraceable. He asks only that the man completes his mission so that the The Sons of Earth will get their reward and so will he.

The man returns to his station in the command deck. The crew report that a ship is requesting activation of the Eye of Artemis, a huge wormhole in space that allows interstellar travel (and which Platform 113 regulates). They soon discover that the ship is actually Air Force One and is carrying the current President of the The Central Earth Government (C.E.G.) Muhammad Rashiq. Clearance is given but not everything is going to plan because warning claxons and lights begin to flash everywhere. Something is wrong with the controls and if they don’t fix it the President’s ship will smash against the wormhole and be destroyed!

Cue Theme Music

The Doctor is teaching Terrance how to fly the TARDIS and tells him to spin the yellow wibbly thing on the console. As he does, the ship is thrown about violently. As the TARDIS begins to shake uncontrollably, the groups voices begin to go out of sink with their mouths and terrible G-forces tear at them. The Doctor realises that the TARDIS is being affected by some kind of force that can manipulate time and space. He summarises that the best way to not be torn apart is to simply ride the force to wherever it’s going as the TARDIS is effectively in a flat spin. Strenuously reaching to keep the controls level, Terrence and the Doctor manage to arrive with a final harsh crash. Slowly, the group pick themselves up as the Doctor explains that they were caught in some kind of time corridor.

Platform 113, Main Corridor

Emerging from the TARDIS, the Doctor, Terrence and Arty find themselves on some kind of space station which is orbiting an immense wormhole that is swirling outside. Jaw wide open, Terrence stares at this most awesome sight before being brought back to the here and now by the sound of alarms and flashing warning lights that are ringing out across the station.

Jovially, the Doctor ushers his companions forth to find the source of both the time corridor and the emergency gripping the station.

Command Deck

Taking an anti-grav lift, the group enter a chaotic command deck that is looking out onto the wormhole. There are staff in white uniforms on the command deck in total panic moving from console to console whilst a captain in white military uniform stares out of the viewport.

The Doctor and Terrence quickly take control of the situation and ascertain that the President of the Central Earth Government (C.E.G.) is on his way to the wormhole known as the Eye of Artemis, but the station (which is responsible for opening the Eye) is not performing its duty. If something isn’t done then the President’s ship will smash into the Eye!

Examining the situation carefully, the Doctor stated that there was enough power in the platform to open the eye up, it’s just that there is a problem with the relaying of that power. It needed the gravity drive being taken off line momentarily so that someone could take a look at them. With only minutes remaining, the Doctor left Terrence on the command deck whilst he went down to Engineering.

The Captain, thankful that someone had finally taken action and seemingly knew what they were doing, watched eagerly.

Engineering

Going down to engineering, the Doctor found the generators firmly sealed with blast doors and a nearby computer flashing warnings that the reactors core temperature was critical. Quick as a flash the Doctor unlocked the huge blast doors with the aid of his Sonic Screwdriver and entered the Engineering room where he found destroyed machinery and two dead engineers. The destroyed machinery was what was stopping the power getting through so he speedily constructed a Harmonic Particle Array to solve the problem.

Powering down the Gravity Drive with the help of Terrence, the Doctor quickly replaced the Array and switched the power on once more but there wasn’t enough power. As the seconds to the Presidents impact ticked rapidly by, the Doctor boosted the power with the aid of his Sonic Screwdriver (shorting it out completely for a while) and allowed the Presidents ship to just career through at the last second!

The explorers were thanked and taken to the docking bay to meet the President who stated that he thought it was sabotage and would like the groups help in finding the culprit (he only trusted them because if they wanted him dead, then they could have just left him). He also invited the group to have dinner with him later on.

Eagerly, the group took up the challenge in the hope of also discovering the source of the time corridor.

Security Station

The group began by searching the Engineering room where they found a bottle of brandy popular in the 21st century (but with the label in perfect condition) and an account card. They also discovered the smell of cordite and a security camera which led them to the security station.

At the security station they noticed a guy looking suspicious and handing the engineer the bottle of brandy before leaving. The screen also fuzzed out showing pictures from the 1950’s TV shows. Checking the account card revealed a guy called Jassik Yung.

After searching for a while, the group agreed to go to the Mess Hall to tell the President what they had found so far.

Mess Hall

Arriving at the mess hall, the Doctor related to the President his suspicion of Jassik Yung whom suspiciously entered as a waiter and served the President a glass of champagne. The Doctor quietly told the President not to drink the substance and call in his personal guard. Unfortunately, as the guards entered, Jassik realized that he had been discovered and began to run. The Doctor and Terrence gave chase, but Jassik was destined to escape as the Doctor managed to trip over a table and get his foot stuck in a pan whilst they careered through the kitchen!

After locking down the station and running a quick GPS search, the group found Jassik in the communications room.

Communications Room

Entering the Comms Room, they found Jassik trying to communicate with the black obelisk with multiple lights around it. A tussle ensued, during which Terrence managed to successfully decode the signal to reveal The DALEK EMPEROR!

Astounded, the Doctor quizzed the Emperor about his survival and plans. The Emperor told the Doctor that he used Jasik and gave him the equipment via the time corridor to sow confusion and conflict between the C.E.G. and the Sons of Earth so he could conquer the galaxy easier (because they would be too busy infighting to prepare). Now his plan had failed, the Emperor intended to bring his Dalek force through the Eye of Artemis and conquer the galaxy. Defiantly the Doctor vowed to stop them and cut off the communications.

Defeating the Daleks

With little time to spare, the Doctor, Terrence and Arty began to think of a plan. They realized that through their time travelling escapades; the Daleks (like the group) all had Huon particles surrounding their body which is what the Doctor affectionately termed “void stuff”. He once before used a temporal rift to send the Daleks careering into the void and surmised that if he could modify the platform, he could do it again as when they open the Eye to come through, they would instead open a passage to the void and be sucked in.

Frantically the Doctor set about modifying the station whilst Arty and Terrence helped build barricades and defenses for the Platform. The Captain vowed that his men were military officers and would face the Daleks even though they only had a handful of energy guns. This was to be the last defence of Platform 113!

The Eye of Artemis

In a race against time, the Doctor began making the final modifications to the Platform as the first Daleks activated the Eye of Artemis and began moving through. Between the two companions, Terrence and Arty, they managed to delay the force and shut down the Eye via removing the Harmonic Particle Array, allowing only three Daleks to make it to the other end. Still a tremendous threat, the Daleks began to breach the hull and fight their way to the Doctor.

Triumphantly as the crew radioed in screaming that they couldn’t affect the Daleks (before being exterminated) the Dalek Emperor communicated with the Doctor once more and offered him a chance to join the Daleks. After the Doctor refused and stated that he had just finished the modifcations to stop them, the Emperor announced that he would destroy them all. At that point a Dalek entered the Command Deck and demanded their surrender. When the Doctor refused, the Dalek shouted “Exterminate” and was about to open fire on the group when it began to swirl around stating it was out of control.

In the climax, the Eye of Artemis opened up it’s maw and the Emperors Command Saucer moved through it with the Doctor valiantly pressing the switch to send the Daleks back into the void… BUT… with triumphant elation the Emperor shouted “activate the Neutron Arc” and with that, the plans of the Doctor failed, allowing not only the Emperors Command Saucer and attack force through the Eye, but also a fleet of other Dalek ships that poured through from the void!

The Emperor declares triumphantly that the Doctor was a pawn all along, they brought him here via the time corridor and knew he would investigate. They also wanted him to activate the Eye so that the force would come through. Now begins a new Empire of Daleks.

As the ships begin their deadly descent towards the Platform a manical laughter rings through the communications channel….. the laughter of DAVROS!!!

TO BE CONTINUED…

[brainsnaffler]

Episode 4: War of the Daleks

In the previous episode, we saw the Doctor’s TARDIS land on a space station after it was violently caught in a time corridor. Investigating the area, the group found that the President of the Central Earth Government was travelling to the space station via the use of a controlled wormhole known as the Eye of Artemis. There was a plan to sabotage the station and kill the president. This plan was carried out by the Sons of Earth, a rogue terrorist organisation, but it had support and backing by an unknown faction. After investigation, it was revealed that the faction were none other than the Daleks, led by the Dalek Emperor.

The Doctor and his companions managed to lead the crewmen of the station in its defence. The crew were slowly dealt with by the invading Daleks, but they did buy the Doctor and Terrence enough time to build a feedback device that would use the Eye of Artemis to open up a rift to the void and send the Daleks into the space between dimensions (just as the Doctor had done in the Battle for Canary Wharf).

Unfortunately, when the Doctor activated the feedback device, the Daleks plans came to fruition and the rift to the void didn’t suck in the Daleks but instead allowed another saucer to emerge – one containing Davros!

cue theme music

Platform 113 Command Centre

As the Doctor and Terrence look onward, Davros makes his way to the Command Centre and begins gloating at the Doctor. He states that thanks to the Neutron Arc and Dalek Caan, Davros was able to put this plan into place. In reality, the Doctor had been played for a fool. Davros knew the Doctor would investigate the time corridor and he knew he would use the Eye of Artemis (because Caan had forseen it). When the Doctor activated the feedback device, Davros used Caan’s personal Neurtron Arc to pass through the rift and thus cancelled out the pull that should have happened.

The Emperor arrived in his large domed Dalek Armour and together; he and Davros proclaimed that there would arise a new Dalek Empire. Davros wouldn’t reveal the full plans but did say that by the end of his plan, the Time Lords would have lost and he will rule the universe with his creations. The Emperor queried this phrase and Davros turned upon the Emperor, proclaiming him impure and unfit to be the Dalek Emperor. Knowing that they would try and subjugate their creator again, Davros decided to perform a pre-emptive strike. With that, he and his guard Daleks began attacking the Emperor!

Taking that as a cue to leave, Terrence and the Doctor escaped the Command Centre, being pursued by a Dalek.

They ran through the corridors and eventually shut a bulkhead door, stopping the immediate threat, only to come face to face with another Dalek that was hovering between them and the path back to the TARDIS. Determined, this didn’t stop the Doctor or Terrence as they slid under the Dalek and shut it out again through another bulkhead door. Thankfully, as the group entered the console room, they saw that Arty had made it back from engineering and was waiting for them.

With no time to loose as the bulkhead door was being cut through by the Daleks, the Doctor threw the TARDIS up through the time corridor, smashing his way free from its pull and out into the vastness of the Vortex.

Time Lord Reminiscent

Regrouping and thinking of not only their next action, but also the next course of action for Davros, the group determined that the Neutron Arc was used to manipulate Neutrons in unique ways to bypass the effects of time manipulation such as paradoxes and even time locks (an effective weapon against Time Lords).

Spanning from this revelation, the Doctor came to realise that he had encountered the Neutron Arc many years ago and to find the answers, he had to delve into his past… a past he had shut away for so long. He used the TARDIS’ equipment to create a cerebral link to the monitor and replayed the images from his mind onto the screen. The images showed that during the Time War, the Doctor discovered that the Daleks had set up a scientific research base on the supposedly neutral planet of Rapton. He conferred with the High Council of Galifrey and they sent him and another Time Lord to stop the Daleks plans that they were developing at the base. The Doctor and his Time Lord companion discovered that the base was constructing not only a huge Neutron Arc (capable of being installed on a command saucer and affecting a vast area of space), but also that the Daleks were constructing a most hideous virus capable of corroding almost any substance. Whilst putting a stop to the Daleks plans, the Time Lord with the Doctor was captured and killed. When the Doctor gave the Daleks an option to surrender and they didn’t, in fear and anger, the Doctor had only one option left to stop the Dalek plan. He barely escaped their clutches but in doing so, the Doctor released the Dalek virus within the base, gambling that their defensive barrier would contain it. He was wrong and the virus spilled out into the street of Rapton, presumably killing the neutral population there.

These memories the Doctor had buried in his mind out of shame and regret. Although upsetting for him, the recollection of these memories allowed him to hypothesise that the Cult of Skaro (which Dalek Caan was a member of), would have known about the base on Rapton and if Caan had a small, personal Neutron Arc (which is what he used originally to breech the time lock and rescue Davros from the Time War), then surely the larger one on Rapton could release the Dalek Empire from the Time War!

With a heavy heart, the Doctor set course to observe the now dead world of Rapton.

Rapton, Tymbian System

Emerging in orbit, the Doctor and Terrence could see that the world was still enveloped in a green swirling mist. Moving the TARDIS forward in time, the Doctor knew that the virus would reach its “half life” and loose its corrosive properties, but the atmosphere was still choked with its fumes. Therefore the group suited up into space suits and landed as close to the Dalek science bunker as the Doctor could remember.

The area they were greeted with was desolate and decayed, buildings falling apart and roads filled with abandoned cars and rubble. The bunker itself was located inside the basement of a Raptonian government building. Heading into the basement, the Doctor and Terrence (Arty, having circuitry issues, decided to stay in the TARDIS) found a heavy steel Dalek door, locked with a complex code. As the Doctor began solving the code, they were interrupted by the sound of feet on the ramp leading to the basement. They were soon greeted by humanoids in power armour and long snouted helmets that began to fire upon the pair. It was only after Terrence used the Doctors name that the armoured foes ceased fire and began bowing in front of the Doctor. With that the armoured soldiers took the Doctor and Terrence to vehicle, which elevated out of the virus clouds and took them to a floating airbase.

The Valdorasto

Once in the airbase, they were met by three humanoids with heads that resembled ravens. These were genuine Raptonians! They explained that they were the ruling council of those who were left, known as the Valdorasto. They explained that when the Doctor released the virus, they managed to get some (not all) of their people to safety into these floating bases known as “nests”. The Valdorasto were not angry with the Doctor for what he did, rather they worshipped him as their saviour. They explained that the Daleks came to their planet with threats and forced the Raptonians (who were a peaceful people) to build the science bunker and to supply them with test subjects. When the virus was released, so were the people of Rapton.

The Valdorasto stated that since that time, they were guarding the tunnel because they were sure that some Daleks survived and sometimes, at night they heard terrible screams coming from the bunker.

The Valdorasto agreed to send 5 of their best soldiers including their commander Xanilacks with the Doctor and Terrence back into the bunker to disable the Neutron Arc.

Screams in the Dark

Joyful that some of the Raptonians had survived, the Doctor and Terrence went back to the Dalek science bunker. As they arrived there, Xanilacks indicated that another spacecraft was in orbit around Rapton.

The bunker had no power at all and was filled with the green mist of the virus. Moving through the complex, occasionally hearing blood curdling screams, the Doctor found an open hull of a Dalek suit and after slight tinkering, managed to remove its force field. At that point they began hearing the sound of Dalek exterminator rays firing from outside the bunker.

Shortly after, the group came upon a bunch of Daleks that had obviously been damaged by the virus when it was potent. From holes and gaps in the Dalekanium armour protruded the mutant tentacles. The Daleks were lucid and deprived of their senses apart from hearing. They were super sensitive to noise of approaching prey that caused them to momentarily frenzy, whipping their tentacles about before once more going stationary. Xanilacks who had heard the blaster fire from within the bunker now indicated for the rest of his team to remain where they were and defend the bunker whilst him, the Doctor and Terrence braved creeping stealthily through the mad Daleks. With a very close call, the group managed to do so and went onwards.

The next room they encountered was again without power, but seemed to be a main control station. Whilst examining the equipment they were attacked by a Dalek mutant (obviously the one from the open casing). They managed to defeat the creature but not before it had poisoned and disabled Xanilacks.

Taking explosives from Xanilacks, the group moved quickly on until they reached the main Dalek labs where they encountered a lone Dalek scientist that was guarding the Neutron Arc. The scientist had managed to survive by activating the Arc, which provided a type of force field that stopped the virus leaking into the room. The Doctor and Terrence made a plan to use the explosives to destroy the Neutron Arc. Firstly, the Doctor opened the main lab doors and began distracting the Dalek. Whilst this was taking place, Terrence headed back to the control room and managed to draw power from the Dalek Lab, disrupting the Neutron Arc’s force field.

As the Doctor argued with the Dalek scientist, Terrence began sneaking up to plant the explosives. Their brave plan was about to be implemented when the form of Davros and two guard Daleks appeared. Davros once again gloated at his triumph and threatened to exterminate Terrence if the Doctor didn’t surrender. Unfortunately, the Doctor had little other option and the Daleks took the detonator from Terrence (but failed to find the Dalek Force Field generator in his pocket).

With that, Davros prepared his final plan and used the Daleks emergency temporal shift to take him and his captors back to the Dalek Saucer.

Offer of Imortality

For a time, Davros tortured Terrence and the Doctor by subjecting them to the mind probe and forcing the other to watch. No questions were asked and they were mentally and physically exhausted and Terrence was feebly hanging onto his life when he was eventually taken to Davros. Davros explained that the Doctor was a butcher and caused his companions nothing but pain and death in the end. He explained that the Time Lords wanted the universe to be stunted and actively stopped cultures evolving and developing time based technology, not allowing them to grow as naturally they should. Davros also stated that his ways maybe draconian at first yes, but that he sought nothing but order and stability for the universe. Once that is achieved he will be a fair and just ruler. He offered Terrence the ultimate reverence… he offered him the chance to become a Dalek and serve in the new empire! After all, what did Terrence truly know of the Doctor?

Terrence mulled the offer over and finally stated defiantly that although he might not know everything about the Doctor, he knows more than he ever needs to about the Daleks! Furious, Davros condemns Terrence and announces that he will suffer the same fate as the Doctor.

The Final Battle

Davros commanded Terrence to stay with him in the Dalek command centre and had the Doctor brought to them. The Doctor was strapped to a swastika shaped cross that sent pulses of current though his body, making him wrack with pain.

Davros explained that the end had come and the command saucer had reached its destination: the constellation of casterberous… home of Galifrey! From here, Davros would activate the Neutron Arc from a nearby console and shatter the time lock placed on the time war, causing the Dalek race to be freed and the final extermination of the Time Lords. Davros was clearly confident and explained that he knew he would not be stopped because Dalek Caan had foreseen it.

With a click of a button on his panel, Davros bathed the nearby Dalek Caan in light and sent violent electrical impulses through the mad Daleks form. It was obvious that since Caan’s tretchery, Davros had been torturing prophecies from Caan. Between screams of pain, Dalek Caan announced that the Doctor would not interfere with the rise of the new Dalek Empire.

Preperations were made and just as Davros was about to activate the Neutron Arc, the air shimmered and the bulbous form of the Dalek Emperor and his elite guard temporal shifted onto the command deck of the saucer. Defiantly, the Emperor announced that he was immortal and that he would put a stop to Davros’ plan and claim the empire for himself (the Doctor realised that when Rose resurrected the Emperor, she also inadvertently gave him the same renewing life force that she had given to Captain Jack Harkness!).

The command deck erupted into warfare, Dalek vs Dalek. In the chaos, Davros was screaming for someone to activate the Neutron Arc and breech the time lock. Whilst the Daleks were too busy fighting each other, Terrence moved over to the Doctor and managed to shut off the electrical feed to the cross. Before he could release him, the Doctor, shouted that they must reverse the polarity of the neutron flow on the Neutron Arc, that would allow the Doctor’s original plan to work and when it was activated, it would open up a rift to the void and suck through the Daleks.

Valiently crawling to the device, Terrence, under instruction from the Doctor managed to do just that, all the while Davros (who was under fire from his own creations) cursed the Doctor and his companion. He could not believe what was happening and denounced Dalek Caan for betraying him again as he prophesised that the Doctor would not lift a finger against the rise of the Dalek Empire. Caan laughed manically and stated that the Doctor hasn’t lifted a finger against the empire… but his child of time has!

With that, Davros cursed the Doctor once more and decided to abandon the saucer whilst he could.

Finally, the Neutron Arc was ready to be activated and with one final look around, Terrence threw the switch. Immediately, the saucer began to twist and implode on itself, causing fires and debris to fall and erupt around them. He quickly worked on the Doctors restraints and freed him. Both exhausted and injured, the Doctor and Terrence began making their way out of the saucer.

Just before they left the command deck, Dalek Caan called after them and told them that when the time comes, they must choose the path of destruction. Caan was then obfuscated by falling debris.

Things looked pretty bleak for the Doctor and Terrence, until the young boy remembered that he still possessed the Dalek force field in his pocket. Just in time, he activated it and debris that would have surely crushed them, bounced off the field and gave them just enough time to locate the TARDIS that Davros had captured when he arrived on Rapton.

As the saucer and the Dalek force imploded and were sucked into the void from where they came, the TARDIS fled to the safety of the vortex. The Doctor and his companions had saved the day and were ready for their next adventure…. After some much needed rest that is.

[brainsnaffler]

Episode 5: All Bets Are Off

TARDIS Console Room…somewhere in the Vortex

Terrence and Arty looked onwards at the Doctor in bewilderment as he threw various items of clothing over his shoulder out of his wardrobe. Frantically he exclaimed that after all the hardships the group have faced recently, he knows just the place to take the group…. With that he handed the pair a set of clothes in suit bags and put on his best set of Elvis Shades!

Cue Music

Las Vegas – 1976

As the TARDIS’ time rotor ground to a halt, The Doctor set off outside with the companions quickly following him. They were met by the wondrous sights and sounds of the Vegas Strip. Las Vegas 1976 to be precise.

The Doctor, sauntered down the street telling the group that they are here to work with a select group of people known as the Watchmen (rumoured to be affiliated to the Shadow Proclamation). The Watchmen are an organisation of different species that have dedicated their lives to observing and recording great historical events throughout time and space. The Time Lords used to keep a very watchful eye on the group to make sure that their time travel technology was strictly regulated. Now that the Time Lords were no longer around, the Doctor felt an oath of obligation to continue to drop by now and again to make sure the Watchmen were not doing anything they shouldn’t be doing. And that is why he had brought the group to Vegas 1976. That, and to see Elvis’ stunning concert which the Watchmen were here to record and preserve.

Slowly, the group headed down the Vegas Strip towards Caesars Palace where they were intercepted by an obese Texan in a white ten gallon hat. He hugged them and said “thank you, thank you” and wandered off down the street. Everyone shrugged at the bizarre event, confirming with each other that they’d never met the Texan before in their lives! With that, they carried on to the grand lobby of the palace.

Star Struck

As the group waited around for their Watchman contact to appear, Terrence happened to notice the one and only Frank Sinatra stood by the reception desk. He meandered over, not wanting to look like an adoring fan. Unfortunately, as he was preparing to talk to Old Blue Eyes, a busy hospital porter dropped a heap of matched luggage from his trolley which hit Terence and caused him to set off a chain reaction that scattered all the room keys onto the floor and had the poor boy sprawled along with them. Frank walked over to Terence and helped him up, telling him not to worry and saying “you only live once, and the way I live, once is enough”. He gave Terence some money to enjoy Vegas and with that, he went with Sammy Davis Jr (who had just showed up) into the casino.

Soon enough, the Watchman contact called Sam Phillips turned up, equally as excited about seeing “The King” as the Doctor. One by one, the group entered the Casino Hall to kill some time before the big performance.

Strange Tidings

Hearing the contact’s surname coinciding with Terence’s Surname, the Doctor began dwelling on a tiny feeling in the back of his mind that something wasn’t quite right with Terence. The more he thought about it, the more it bothered him. After deducing the fact that there was not paternal connection between the two, it finally came to the Doctor that Terence had the same kind of aura about him as a fixed point in time. Somehow, either Terrence should be fixed and something about him had been altered, or he should be a variable time point and he’s become fixed. Unfortunately, the Doctor couldn’t work out which. Putting it out of his mind for now, he began enjoying himself in the Casino.

Fitting in

Meanwhile Arty had found in his storage compartment, one of his old possessions that he had collected over time: a terullium credit card containing one measly terrulium ducket on its account. Trying his had, he cashed the terullium ducket in which amazingly enough rang up as 5 million dollars! Taking a sizable amount out, he began to explore, coming across the Texan from earlier. However, the Texan seemed to have no recollection of their meeting.

Meanwhile Terrence was doing really well. He spotted a skinny man with longish 70’s hair winning big at a craps table. As he passed by he told Terrence to have a good time and gave him $100 chip. Eventually, Terence spotted Sammy Davis Jr and Frank Sinatra having some disagreement but despite talking briefly to them, couldn’t actually work out what was wrong. Unfortunately for Terence, time had run out and they were due to see Elvis sing.

Time Belt Crisis

The group came out of the concert and went back to the reception to get keys to rooms.

Whilst they were waiting, the Doctor saw the Texan once more by the fountain in reception. After a brief discussion, it was revealed that the Texan had lost a fortune and his girl but just wanted to be left alone.

Eventually, the receptionist came back to the group explaining that the accident with the keys earlier meant that none of the group could get into the rooms they had ordered including Sam. He explained how this could have been a good situation anyway because he travels by use of a time belt and overuse of it causes disruption to local environmental climates and is therefore potentially dangerous. Sam suggested that the Doctor help him complete his other recording tasks and return when the belt has had time to cool down. The Doctor however became concerned that the time belt should be obtained as soon as possible so as to avoid anyone accidentally getting hold of it.

Low and behold, as the group hurried to Sam’s room, they found that the belt had been taken. The Doctor used his Sonic Screwdriver to track the chronon energy emitted from the belt and the group rushed back to the TARDIS where they followed the stream of chronon particles back to just a few hours before, whilst the group were in the concert watching Elvis.

Hunting the Thief

The group soon discovered that the belt had been taken from the room by the slim guy with long hair that had given Terence the poker chip. Off they set into the Casino to try and locate him. Eventually Arty spotted the man standing next to a very big guy in a black suit who seemed to be guarding him. After a few minutes watching him sneakily, the group happened to unfortunately be mistaken for counting cards or other such underhandedness and were forcibly removed from the Casino but not before witnessing the long haired man be taken into a back room by a short bald guy in a smart black suit, using a gold membership swipe card.

The Texan

Out in the street with little hope of retrieving the belt, Arty recalled from his data banks that the Texan had obtained such a gold membership card that they needed. The group skilfully tracked down the Texan (after their past selves had spoken to him by the fountain) and convinced him to go back in time with them where through their actions, they managed to save his fortune and his woman. As he succeeded, the Texan spied the Doctor and his companions walking down the strip and thanked them for their help (see back to when they first arrived).

The group returned to the present time where they discovered that the local climate was now very turbulent and stormy. This obviously meant that the belt had been used and time was of the essence before something really bad happened.

As payment for helping him, the Texan used his Gold membership card to gain access to the private playing area and smuggled the group in through the window.

A Timely Diversion

Now inside, Arty, Terence and the Doctor gained information to suggest that the room was full of gangster hoods led by a top racketeer known as Mr Silas (the bald guy from earlier). Sure enough, the group soon located Mr Silas talking to the long haired guy who was obviously being detained. Mr Silas said something to the guard and went through a door to the private stairwell. As he did so, the group spied that he was wearing the time belt!

Somehow, the group needed to think fast and get past a bunch of guards so they could go up the stairwell after Mr Silas and the belt. The solution was provided by Arty who deftly caused a distraction and sent the guards chasing after the long haired man (who was trying to escape) whilst they all piled up the stairwell.

The Showdown

Eventually, the group found Mr Silas on the edge of the roof of Caesars Palace amidst a thunderstorm complete with crashing bolts of lightning. Sam Phillips quickly noted a small read flashing light on the belt indicating its critical temperature and said that if the belt is used once more, it could be disaster for earth or maybe even the universe.

Silas told the group of how he had stumbled upon the time belt but immediately realised its potential. With it he could go anywhere, pull any heist. He could become leader of the New York Family even.

The Doctor dramatically explained the curse of the time belt and how it could spell doom for earth with it’s constant use, to which Silas smugly announced that he would wait for it to cool down and then use it. However, as Silas stepped from the edge of the building, a lightning strike hit the building and sent him dangling off the edge with the belt just out of reach.

Despite his best attempts at convincing Mr Silas to take his hand and leave the belt, the old gangster couldn’t let go of his dreams of glory and ultimately paid the price by slipping and falling to his death.

Terence quickly recovered the time belt and the group managed to bluff their way past the Police using the Doctors persuasive abilities and the use of his psychic paper.

Epilogue

Sam Phillips renounced his connection to the Watchmen and stated that he would make sure they put all recording on hold until the belts systems were improved.

The long haired man who managed to survive the ordeal, saw the folly of taking the belt and vowed to do something good with his life.

Finally, the Texan happily exclaimed that the Doctor and his friends had saved his fortune and his relationship and if they ever needed anything, they could always call on him for help.

With that, Arty, Terence and the Doctor stepped back into the TARDIS to begin their adventures once again…

[garethl]

:)I always like actual play reports.

I have one request: could you do a Confidential just like kaijubot*.


* I mean the commentary. Could have sworn it was called Confidential.

[cliffordjones]

thanks for posting brainsnaffler, I've really enjoyed reading your play reports. I look forward to more fo the same. Have some karma

[brainsnaffler]

Awesome. Cheers. :-D

[brainsnaffler]

Episode 6: The Chaos Battery

London, September 2011

Dave, or as he was known online: Varak 135 sat at his computer alone at night, frantically punching in the numbers to ring his friend Ryan. He was putting the finishing touches to the virus he was about to send to wipe out Imperium, but the unknown groups would be soon on him and would be hot on his trail. As the phone went to voice mail, he was momentarily distracted by a metallic clicking. Investigating, he soon discovered the toaster operating on its own. Then, the TV clicked onto a news channel discussing a series of murders in America. Soon other strange things began happening such as the secruity alarm arming itself and the lights flickering.

Dave began panicking and ran out of the door into the street. However, the nightmare wasn't over as the street lights began glowing brighter and cars began starting up, and a nearby CCTV camera swung around to look at him. Frightened, Dave ran down the street, trying to reach somewhere safe. At this time of night, the streets were pretty much empty in this part of London, and everytime he wanted to go off the main road, a car would suddenly spring to life and chase him back onto the main road. It was clear he had to get away from the cars and so, after a couple of streets, he managed to duck in a Tube Station. Frantically looking on the platforms as the empty station began flickering with lights, he finally found a train in the station with a couple of passengers inside. Quickly, Dave bolted onto the train as it was setting off and though puffing and panting and sweating profusely, he tried to act normal in front of the two other passengers in his car.

Just when he thought it was safe, all the trains lights went out at once and the train began to pick up speed. Faster and faster they went. Over the speaker system of the train, Dave heard the robotic voice calling out “delete, delete”. The rest was drowned out by the sound of the train careering down the track and the innocent passengers screams.

Cue Music

The Doctor emerged from the TARDIS sniffing the air, expecting to find the local smells of the fish and chip shop near Camden Market. However he, Arty and Terrence instead found the acrid smell of a smouldering police car and broken street light nearby. Confused by this and the seemingly deserted London street the TARDIS had landed on, Arty (who had decided to take on an appearence not unlike Rainman) went back into the TARDIS to try and pick up the local media stations and news feeds.

Eventually, the group discovered that they were in the cordon area of a recent riot that had occured in parts of London. As they were investigating, they witnessed a teenage boy smashing his phone and then begin takin a metal pole and smashing a nearby cash machine. Arty approached the young boy and asked him to explain why he was criminally damaging the machine. As the boy turned around, Terrence recognised him as Denzil Wright, a young boy who Terrence had once hung around with before meeting the Doctor. Denzil was about to talk to the group when a Police patrol came around the corner and started shouting for the group to stay where they were. Denzil panicked and began running desperately. The Doctor pocketed Denzil's smashed phone and shouted “Run for it!”.

High Street Chase

The group all began charging down alleyways, desperately trying to catch Denzil whilst outrunning the Police. The group narrowly dodged a man who exited his shop into an alleyway (the Doctor careered into the door, spun around 360 degrees and carried on running!). They also managed to skillfully vault up a high wall onto the main high street where life was trying to return to normal.

Terrence tried calling out to Denzil to stop, but the noise of the traffic and his panicked state meant that Denzil couldn't hear Terrence. The young boy tried loosing his persuers by running through a department store, into the back and out the side alley door. Meanwhile, Arty had the idea of cutting the corner and running around the store and charging up the alleyway to cut him off. As he was nearing the door, Arty saw Denzil burst out of the loading door and stumble into the alleyway. This was a perfect opportunity for him to grab the boy. Unfortunately however, the Doctor came cascading out of the door at the same time covered in various items of womens clothing and wearing a womens hat! The Doctor in powering through the door hit Arty square on and sent him sprawling. Terrence (with a bra stuck to him) came out shortly afterwards still yelling for Denzil to stop.

Not being able to recover from his stumble, the group did manage to catch up with Denzil and convince him they meant him no harm. He was quite panicky but was very surprised to see his old friend Terrence. He agreed to tell the group what he was up to and why he ran away, but would only do so somewhere quieter.

The Old Tree House

Denzil took the group to an old tree house that Terrence and he used to play in. After briefly filling Denzil in on where he had been, Terrence asked what was going on. Denzil told the group about a new craze for a mobile phone app called Imperium. It lets the operator control various electronic devices through their mobile phone. It came to light that Denzil and Terrences old friend Dave had gone missing. He knew something about a mobile phone app that he said was very bad news and that he was up to something. Dave had asked Denzil to meet up with him and he would explain, but he never showed. When Denzil investigated his house, he was approached by an Army man in a truck that said he must go with them, but Denzil managed to escape.

Denzil also found three different articles in Daves house that linked people going missing to the local riots in London.

The Doctor, Arty and Terrence all agreed to look into the matter and told Denzil not to worry. With that, they set off to solve the mystery

Home Appliance Havok

Using his uncanny abilities, the Artificer used some of his localised communication circuitry, a C battery and a whisk to make the smashed up phone of Denzil's work again. Examining it with his Sonic Screwdriver, the Doctor managed to find that within the standard signal of the Imperium app, a secondary signal burried in the first. He couldn't fully trace or identify it though.

Once this was done, the group decided to go to Dave's house to look for clues. They found the house in a little bit of a mess and the door unlocked. Soon they began searching the house for clues. Terrence found an old photo of him, Denzil, Ryan and Dave at the old tree house. It reminded him of a happier time before his mum and dad disappeared and he began his travels with the Doctor. As he was looking at the photograph, he heard a sound from the room across the hall, which turned out to be a TV that came on on its own.

Meanwhile, the Doctor and Arty had discovered that on Dave's laptop, he was last on an instant messenger programme trying to contact Ryan. As they were looking through the messages, Ryans call sign replied and told them that Imperium must exist and that they will be taught not to destroy even if it means employing those tactics to prove the point.

Terrence came downstairs to tell the group not only about the TV, but also that he had noticed the smell of gas in the rooms. At that point, the group heard a crash from upstairs. They decided it was time to leave and ran for the back door, only to find a hammer drill floating in the air, resting on its power cable and spinning wildly. It stood between them and the door! Moving back to the front door, the group found a vacuum cleaner now blocked their way.

Arty panicked and picked up a chair to smash the room window but found that he didn't have enough strength to put it through all in one go so had to take time smashing all the glass so as not to cut himself as he ploughed through it. The Doctor frantically looked around and saw the wire of a lamp being yanked out of the wall and deduced that due to the smell of gas, whatever it was aimed to create a spark and blow the building up! All they needed to do was get out.

Taking the hint, Terrence tried running past the vacuum cleaner, but it's wire wrapped around his arm and the door handle and began holding the door shut. It also wound its coil around poor Terrences neck and began choking him! Terrence began thinking back to the fact that he had fought some of the most evil beings in the universe (i.e. The Daleks), and he was about to be killed by a vacuum cleaner! However, the Doctor managed to come to the rescue and help him, but not before having to skillfully dodge the viscious attacks of the hammer drill that had moved into the room to stop him.

Finally Arty managed to clear the window, jump out and run to the front door. Things looked pretty desperate as a now purple faced Terrence was begining to loose consciousness and the wire from the lamp was almost sure to spark any second. Quick reactions and a team effort enabled the front door to be forced open, and the Doctor used his trusty Sonic Screwdriver to shut down the signal to the vacuum cleaner, looseining the coils and allowing Terrence and the others to escape just as the lamp wire sparked and sent a fireball ricoceting out of the doors and windows.

As the group dusted themselves down, they found themselves staring at an armed response Police unit who promptly arrested them.

UNIT

The arrest was short lived as Brigadier Timothy Bright (who the group last encountered at the end of Episode 1: The Tides of Earth) arrived. He said that after the incident with the ATMOS Systems and the Sontarans, UNIT had been monitoring technological advances and had become interested in Imperium. He believed it was linked to the local riots in London and a group of missing people, but couldn't proove anything without the aid of the Doctor and his companions.

Taking the group to UNIT HQ, the Brigadier introduced the Doctor once again to Professor Malcolm Taylor whom he last encountered in a big red bus stopping a swarm of metallic creatures from devouring the earth. Malcolm promptly hugged the Doctor and showed his jubilation at getting to work with him again.

Malcolm explained that he had managed to link the same sub signal the Doctor had been following from not only the computers of the missing people, but also the face book feeds of prominent organisers of the local riots. They all seemed to feed back to the originating source of the main offices of Cachelite Systems (the company who ran the Imperium App).

Through investigating, the group also discovered that the company had seen a year on year decline in business before developing this app and then sales shot up. There was no precedence for the appearence of this new technology and the Doctor was sure it wasn't wasn't a normal leap of advancement.

The Brigadier stated that he could send in his UNIT troops heavy handed, but he didn't really know how many people were behind all of this and so he agreed to let the Doctor, Arty and Terrence go in with a walkie talkie and he could then give UNIT a code signal to send the troops in once he found out who was behind it all.

Professor Taylor was given the walkie talkie and was most extatic to be working with the Doctor once more. Between them, they came up with the most unusual call sign of “Denzil flies by night”!

Cachelite Catastrophe

Heading off to Cachelite systems, the group managed to bluff their way past security, joining a specialist group that had been put together to be given a tour of the Imperium system. The first obstacle was to get past a metal detector in the lobby which the Doctor quickly and subtely managed to disable so Arty didn't set it off. Being somewhat rushed and obviously in conflict with the project manager, the scientist who was taking the group on the tour: Doctor Giddeon allowed the group to press on.

Gideon took the group on the tour and showed the pride of his work, the Chaos Battery. It was an unusual system that allowed the storage of data that could be totally deleted and recalled, allowing potentially unlimited storage capacity. He said this was the heart of Imperium. He then took the group to the mainframe which he referred to as the brain of the system. At this point, one of the group said he was ill and Dr Gideon took him away to sort him out.

As this was happening, alarms started blaring out and the technicians in the mainframe began panicking. The group were told that the mainframe and the chaos battery had suddenly gone out of sync. It meant that there was lots and lots of data requests going to the battery and it couldn't cope. If they didn't do anything, then the chaos battery could superheat and it would be the equivalent of a reactor meltdown.

Eventually, the group determined that someone had to go down to the Chaos Battery (in 60 seconds) and enter a subroutine into the processor at the same point that a similar subroutine was entered into the mainframe. If this happened, the system sync should restore and everything would return to normal. With virtually no time left, Arty went into the elevator shaft and changing to his robot form, slid down the shaft to enter the routine. Sparks flew as the damaged Arty managed to get to the Chaos Battery just in time and enter the routine.

The Next Problem

Whilst Arty then began checking into who had sabotaged the system, the project director in the mainframe with the Doctor and Terrence became furious and stated that the system would be shut down and wiped until a proper analysis could be done. As he reached for the failsafe switch to wipe everything (which had sent electric current shooting through a technician who tried to turn it off previously), wire shot out of a nearby server cabinet and wrapped around the director. Wires then began shooting out everywhere and entangling the technicians, turning them into bound hostages that walked like zombies but still retained their humanity so were screaming for someone to help! The Doctor and Terrence quickly realised they were outnumbered and fled to the stairwell, taking the remaining survivors with them to let them evacuate the building.

A similar bunch of wires began bursting out of the Chaos Battery servers and chased Arty out of the room. In desperation, Arty headed for the ground floor and eventually got hold of Professor Taylor to which he exclaimed “Cut the power! NOW!” Massively dejected, Professor Taylor who had been denied his moment of working in a commando style team exlclaimed “but you didn't even use the call sign!”. Eventually, he did however agree to attempt to cut the power.

Assault on Cachelite

The Brigadier, finally having information that things had gone awry, sent in his UNIT troops to which Arty sent them up to the Doctor. Meanwhile, locked out of the mainframe floor, the Doctor and Terrence were trying to track the source of the subsignal. They discovered the mundane primary signal had now been shut off and the subtle sub signal had definately grown weaker. Running up and down the stairs tracing the signal, the duo met up with the UNIT troops, to which the Doctor sent them to secure the downstair area whilst he kept one soldier (bob) with him.

Terrence, the Doctor and Bob then set to finding a way into the mainframe corridor again.

Meanwhile, Arty hacked into the Cachelite computer system to look at the security monitors to find out who sabotaged the system. After some rooting, he discovered that the sabotage came from a female member of the group, working as a double agent and trying to eliminate their rivals. However, he also discovered that Dr Gideon did dissapear and not actually look after the ill man. He then sneaked back into the mainframe room after the Doctor and Terrence fled into the stairwell.

The final confrontation

Now aremed with the knowledge that the sub signal was coming from the mainframe room itself and that Dr Gideon was in there, it was obvious that he was the one responsible for the incidents and the group needed to get to the mainframe and stop him.

Eventually, the group managed to gain entry to the mainframe corridor via the lift shaft and were about to enter the door to confront Dr Gideon when one of the “wire zombies” came out of a nearby office and approached them menicingly. Heroically, the Doctor and Terrence managed to dodge past the “creature”, but unfortunately bob didnt and was grasped by the sparking wires, taken out in a haze of electrical current. The wire zombie moved in closer to the Doctor and Terrence once more and it looked like the end for them both. However, at the last moment, Arty appeared from the lift shaft with a roll of fire hose and let the water fly down the corridor, shorting out the wire zombie and stopping it.

Trying to open the door to the mainframe room failed as the Doctor discovered it was deadlock sealed, but heroic Arty had another plan. He looked through the viewing window into the room and saw the wires steadily approaching Dr Gideon and had to act. He quickly pulled two grenades from Bob's webbing and placed them at the base of the door, then all three ran for cover as the grenades blew the doors apart!

A new life

Looking into the smoky room, the Doctor discovered Dr Gideon and came to understand that the wires weren't going to harm Gideon, they protected him. They had thrown him clear of the blast so he wouldn't be seriously injured, but in the process, the mainframe had suffered considerable damage. It was then that the Doctor related the 3rd prinicpal of sentient life is its ability to self sacrifice in the love of another. Everyone looked pretty puzzled until the Doctor explained that nobody actually “controlled” Imperium. The fact is Imperium was a sentient machine and it sacrificed itself to save Dr Gideon.

Gideon explained that he had found the machine crashed and had developed the technology. Originally it was just a machine but it evolved and when people began to threaten it, it reacted like a child that knew no better: it defended itself. Gideon managed to convince Imperium not to kill the people but instead to “store” them in its chaos battery.

The Doctor was now in a precarious situation, he knew Imperium was acting in self defence, but it had posed a significant threat and should have been terminated. Looking for alternatives, the Doctor managed to get an unimpeded scan of Imperiums source code and discovered that it was in fact left over code from the Logopolitans! This meant that Imperium had the ability to transform data into physical form and thus create a body for itself. Joyfully, he made a deal with the machine to turn human and return the people it had taken and it could live out it's life as a living being. Imperium agreed and before long, the Mainframe room was full of the missing people, including Terrence's old friend: Dave. Then a blinding light came from the monitor as Imperium constructed a body for itself. And the template it used was... Terrence! It looked and sounded exactly like him!

Epilogue

The Doctor pondered that this emergence of a dopelganger could be related to Terrence's link to a fixed point time stream but before he could really get into deep thought, Brigadier Timothy Bright came into the room with his UNIT Troops.

He thanked the Doctor and his companions and asked if he could contact him in the future if they ever needed help. He also explained that UNIT had the TARDIS picked up and brought to the office lobby. The Doctor kindly agreed to future contact and with that, the group left the situation in the capable hands of the Brigadier whilst they went off into time and space once again to find a really good fish and chip shop.

As the TARDIS wheezed and groaned out of existance, Professor Malcolm Taylor came rushing into the mainframe room and exclaimed at the top of his voice “I've done it Doctor! I've turned off the Power!”.