He and his men moved swiftly, since surprise was hardly possible, without worrying about noise. They were on the pathway down, going as fast as they could while retaining their footing, when Barlow saw that they had been spotted. Three of the Daleks whirled to study them, and they clearly gave some kind of orders. He couldn’t make out what had been said, but the Robomen suddenly spun about in unison and began marching towards the cliff.
Bullets couldn’t hurt Daleks, but against humans they were very effective. Reaching the end of the path, Barlow led the charge towards the marching Robomen. They had no expressions on their faces, mirroring the blankness of their minds, but they had their guns up and aimed.
The first burst of gunfire tore at the ground just ahead of them. Barlow ignored it, leaving this to his men. Several returned fire as they ran and weaved. Barlow concentrated on just being a hard target to hit. His grenades weren’t for the Robomen.
One of his soldiers gave a cry and collapsed, blood streaming down his leg. But he didn’t stop firing. Good man. Two of the Robomen went down, without a sound, their chests stitched red by bullets. Then Barlow ignored them. He was just about in range now, and had his weapon at the ready.
Unfortunately, that also meant that he was in range of the Daleks. One fired a blast of lethal energy that barely missed him.
‘Bastard,’ he growled, and fired the first of his grenades. A moment later, the top of the Dalek exploded, fire and metallic debris spraying all over. Ignoring its loss, the other two Daleks also opened fire.
Barlow threw himself to one side, rolled and then fired from the ground. The skirt of a second Dalek exploded, throwing the metallic monster backward, electronic guts and slime spewing from the wrecked casing. The third Dalek moved away, still trying to catch him in its death ray. He blew it apart with his third shot. But more Daleks were rising from the pit, and advancing to join the growing firefight. He chanced a glance around, and saw that all of the Robomen were now dead but that only three of his men remained on their feet. The rest were either wounded or dead.
They didn’t stand a chance of holding back the Daleks.
Which left him exactly one option. He levered the next grenade into position and fired, targeting the communications equipment. He was at extreme range, but it was a bloody huge target, so surely he couldn’t miss. To be sure, he sent a second grenade after the first.
The machinery erupted under the double assault. A gout of flame caught three of the Daleks working on it, enveloping them and exploding them too. The communications array started to collapse in on itself, and Barlow felt a huge sense of relief. It lasted until a blast from one of the advancing Daleks torched a tree beside him. They were in range…
‘Pull back!’ he ordered his men. ‘They won’t be able to follow!’ He himself spun around, sending another grenade back as a parting gift. He weaved his way back, pausing only to grab hold of the wounded soldier he’d left earlier. Another man grabbed his arm, and together they hurried him away. Apparently he was the only other survivor.
The Daleks didn’t follow. They moved to try to assess the damage to the array. Barlow grinned nastily.
‘I’d like to see you repair that,’ he said happily. There was no way the Daleks were moving out of this area. But that meant only that they were delayed – not stopped. Unless he could get some serious weapons into this area as fast as possible, the problem could only get worse. ‘Back to the runabouts,’ he ordered his men. ‘We need reinforcements badly.’ He nodded to one man. ‘Hurry. I want every trooper we can spare in this area as soon as possible.’
‘But what about the assault on London?’ the man asked.
‘Sod London,’ Barlow snapped. ‘If we don’t stop the Daleks now, it’ll be the whole human race that dies. Move!’
The man moved.
The Black Dalek saw the warning lights flicker on and stay on. ‘Report!’ it demanded.
‘Human forces have destroyed the communications equipment,’ the technician answered. ‘it is nonfunctional.’
The Black Dalek considered. It would be impossible to revive the other units or to raise Skaro to request reinforcements, but that could be taken care of later. ‘Begin assembly of a new unit,’ it ordered.’ We have only been delayed.’
‘I obey!’
The Black Dalek turned to study the panel, with the warning lights burning. There hadn’t been time yet to establish a video link to the surface. ‘Have the humans been destroyed?’ it demanded.
Another technician spun around. ‘Most have been killed,’ it grated. ‘Several have retreated and are non‐hostile. All surface Robomen are dead.’
The humans would be back. They would not concede that the Daleks were superior, and would try again. ‘Order all remaining Robomen to the surface,’ it decided. ‘Priority is to guard the new communications device. It must be functional as soon as possible.’ It turned to the duty officer. ‘Is the transmuter ready?’
The Dalek studied its instruments. ‘Countdown has reached zero,’ it reported.
‘Has target been destroyed?’ the Black Dalek demanded.
‘Negative,’ the officer replied. ‘There has been a malfunction.’
‘Malfunction?’ The Black Dalek spun about. ‘Order the technicians to report.’
A moment later, the duty officer replied, ‘Unable to contact laboratory technicians. Their life signs do not register.’
‘There are intruders in the complex,’ the Black Dalek announced ‘All available Daleks, seek and destroy.’
The other Dalek relayed the order, and the Black Dalek whirled around as several more warning lights started to flash.’ What is happening?’ it demanded.
The officer studied the panel. ‘There is another malfunction. This one is in the hatching area,’ it reported. ‘Power drain is rising.’
‘Stabilise,’ the Black Dalek commanded.
‘Impossible,’ the officer answered. ‘I am dispatching a repair crew immediately.’
The Black Dalek studied the panels once again. This was clearly sabotage, and must be corrected immediately. The Daleks’ plans would continue once this was settled.
Susan moved out of hiding, and continued slowly down the corridor. The Master stayed close beside her, the transmuter clutched in one hand, his TCE in the other. He was almost seething with frustration.
‘My TARDIS is just up ahead,’ he informed her. ‘We’ll be out of here in a few minutes.’
Their journey had taken them longer than he’d expected. Several times they had been forced to hide from either Robomen or passing Daleks. Something was clearly bothering the inhabitants of the complex, and she suspected that some of it, at least, was her doing. The rest… Well, she could only hope!
Fumbling the transmuter into the same arm as held his TCE, the Master fished out his TARDIS key. ‘Here,’ he said, ‘you no doubt know how to use one of these. You’ll open the door for me.’ Susan took the key with only slight reluctance. It had been thirty years since she’d held one, her own key long lost in the rubble of old London. She felt a faint thrill at having one in her possession again, even if only for a short while. She considered it highly unlikely that the Master would allow her to live for very long once they had left Earth. Her only hope was that he would decide to try to kill her wherever he stopped next. That way, she at least had a chance of regenerating…
Just when Susan could have done with another delay, there was none. They reached the Master’s TARDIS quickly. Its chameleon circuit was obviously functioning perfectly, because it was disguised as a computer station, but her eyes could see the TT capsule for what it was.
‘Hurry!’ the Master snarled. ‘Try to delay me, and I’ll use this on you here and now.’