The Legend of Gallifrey ~ [Doctor Who]

Part 3 | Angels of War

The TARDIS rocked back and forth under the weight of time itself.

The Doctor had been afraid of this. Without a proper dematerialization circuit, it could very well implode under the pressure of being in the vortex. The Doctor had to set it down somewhere and quick, but with the way it was rocking he was having trouble hitting the right levers and buttons.

He grasped the edge of the console and secured his position by firmly grabbing the edge of the monitor, then he gripped the wibbly lever and gave it a good yank. The TARDIS spun upside-down, knocking the Doctor to the floor, then it shuddered and stopped. Wherever the Doctor was now, he was stranded, so he opened the door, and stepped out into a war.

Laser blasts flew everywhere, and explosions rocked the entire gigantic field of blue grass, stained red from blood. On one end of the field, the Doctor could make out a battalion of the short, potato-like Sontarans as they charged towards him. On the other end of the field, he could make out a hoard of Rutans, with their blobby green shapes and thin tentacles that could somehow still hold laser rifles.

The Doctor had heard of the Sontarans before, but he hadn't actually met one since that field trip in the Academy back in his 12th year. He had met the Rutans before on several occasions, the latest of which had been with Jamie McCrimmon back in his previous form. He knew overall that although both races were war-crazed, the Rutans were an overall better choice, so he ran towards them.

The Sontarans were only maybe ten yards behind him when he reached the Rutans. They were confused as to who he was, but they got distracted by the oncoming enemy and decided to bring him back to base to decide what to do with him, so as the army fought the Sontarans, two of them took the Doctor away towards a large silvery complex off in the distance. They introduced themselves as Raktar and Jul-Zun.

"You say you landed here on accident, Doctor?" asked Jul-Zun. "If your craft is on the battlefield, I'm afraid it is likely long gone."

"It's deceptively resilient," said the Doctor. Nevertheless, he was worried. Although he had met a Sontaran before, he had yet to encounter their weaponry. He did know that the TARDIS had a strong force field, but the Sontarans had, by the point the Doctor had arrived, been at constant war for almost a century, and war does strange things to a species and a man.

The two Rutans brought the Doctor to a vehicle that was similar to car, but circular and without a roof. The Doctor was chauffeured into the back, and Raktar got into the driver's seat, then the vehicle spun off towards the Rutan base in the distance.

Less than three minutes of driving and talking, the vehicle came across a hoard of other vehicles, all parked but still running.

Jul-Zun swore in Rutan. "Not again!" he said.

"What happened?" the Doctor asked. "Has this happened before?"

"Every fourth day at 12 rells in, a group of good warriors has gone missing. It's been going on for almost 100 days now," said Raktar.

The Doctor got out of the car, curious as to what this phenomenon was. He pulled a device out of his pocket and used it to scan the entire group of cars.

"I'm picking up a cluster of chronon particles," he told Raktar and Jul-Zun. "From the setup, it looks like something appeared from the Vortex, sent each soldier back in time, then disappeared back into the Vortex. How is this possible?"

"We've concluded the same thing of every investigation we've done, Doctor," said Raktar. "If you wish to 'crack this case' as they say, you will have to do better than that."

The three of them got back into the vehicle and drove to to Rutan base, where the staff immediately swarmed him. After a quick dose of truth serum and a questioning, they concluded that (gasp) he was not a Sontaran, nor a Sontaran construct, designed to infiltrate their base. Pending further investigation, the Doctor was put in the library with the door locked and a plate of Rutan war rations, which all tasted like tree bark. Since he was in a library, the Doctor decided to do a little reading. He found something that he immediately brought to a guard's attention. Jul-Zun and Raktar, as well as the base commander, were all summoned.