Doctor Who_ Warmonger Part 33

'You heard the Supremo,' bellowed Streg. 'Back, you sc.u.m, and keep the line!'

The Doctor returned to her side. 'That's the trouble with Sontarans they get carried away! Come on!'

They moved to another part of the perimeter, where High Commander Aril, calm and elegant in the chaos of battle, was wheeling and marching and countermarching his Draconians in a series of brilliant manoeuvres that left the enemy dazed and confused.

'Not so much mobility, High Commander,' shouted the Doctor. 'Keep the line! Keep the line! Never mind manoeuvres, go straight at 'em!'

Aril raised a long green hand in acknowledgement and shouted orders, pulling his troops into closer order.

'And that's that's the trouble with Draconians,' said the Doctor. the trouble with Draconians,' said the Doctor.

'Sometimes they can get too tricky!'

'Are we winning?'

The Doctor scanned the battlefield. 'We're holding our own.'

he said sombrely. He wiped his forehead. 'This kind of battle is just plain hard pounding. We shall see who can pound the longest!'

His tone was cheerful and confident, but Peri could see the underlying worry. The soldiers of the Alliance were being brilliantly led, and they were fighting with incredible courage.

But, in the end, superior numbers must count. Peri could see, as could the Doctor, that the Alliance lines were being driven inexorably back.

Old Maren sat on her stone stool staring sightlessly into s.p.a.ce.

She was not seeing the stone walls of the temple. Her spirit was hovering above the battle that raged around Castle Karn.

Her eyes came to life, and all at once she was back in the Temple. She beckoned to Ohica, who came at once to her side.

'What is it, Reverend Mother?'

'I have been considering the words of the stranger, the one called Smith. It is bitter to me to admit it, but his words were true. We cannot stand against the hordes of Morbius alone. We must aid his enemies to defeat him. Come, Sisters.'

She led them from the Temple.

As the battle raged on, strange misfortunes began to plague Morbius's nearly victorious army. With victory almost theirs, things started to go horribly and mysteriously wrong.

A battalion commander was rallying his troops when he saw a wizened, black-clad crone peering at him from a nearby rock.

She stretched out a scrawny hand and a ray of light shot from a ring on her finger.

The commander fell to the ground in the midst of his panic-stricken troops.

'I'm blind,' he howled. 'I'm blind...'

Elsewhere on the battlefield, vitally important section commanders fell dead when no blaster-bolt had touched them.

Inexplicable waves of panic spread through the mercenary ranks, making them flee for no reason. Men fell to the ground, howling in strange fits, or clutched their eyes, screaming that they couldn't see. Soldiers swung round and turned their weapons on their friends.

And all the time, black-robed figures flitted through the battle lines, appearing and disappearing like ghosts.

The weird psychic attacks unnerved the mercenaries, turning the certainty of victory into the fear of defeat. They began to fall back.

As they patrolled the perimeter, the Doctor and Peri became aware that something very strange was going on.

'What's happening to them, Doctor?' asked Peri.

The Doctor pointed to a black-robed figure standing brooding at the top of a half-ruined tower.

'I must have got through to old Maren after all!'

From the war room of his flags.h.i.+p, Morbius too observed the strange phenomena. 'It isn't fair!' he said petulantly. 'Those hags have joined in on the Supremo's side. The men are starting to crack, they'll break and run soon...'

'Maybe you should go down and rally them?' suggested Grimoire.

Morbius stared at him. 'Are you mad? My presence graces victories, not disasters.' He slammed a fist down on an instrument panel. 'Why don't they come? Why don't they come?'

Suddenly, they came. A fleet of battlecruisers winked out of hypers.p.a.ce. It was a small fleet but, as Morbius knew, it was crammed with mercenaries, new fresh troops. Morbius's great gamble had come off. It had cost him an empire but it was worth it. He hurried to the com-unit.

'Morbius to Force Two. Attack immediately. Attack! Attack!

Attack!'

Chapter Four.

Defeat The Doctor and Peri stood watching as the new wave of a.s.sault s.h.i.+ps dropped out of the sky.

'It's not fair,' said Peri, unconsciously echoing Morbius.

'We've fought so long and hard and now this! It's just not fair!'

'Well, of course it's not fair,' said the Doctor. 'It's a battle, not a ball game! All the same, you've got to admit that it's brilliant. Morbius is a military genius in his way.'

'Terrific!' said Peri bitterly. 'I'd hate to get slaughtered by someone second rate! Where did all these reinforcements come from anyway?'

'You know we didn't liberate all the planets Morbius had conquered? He still had a dozen or so under his control?'

'So?'

'He's given them up,' said the Doctor. 'It's the only possible answer. He's withdrawn all the occupying forces and ordered them here.'

'So his empire is finished? Now he's got nothing?'

'Nothing but victory. Trying to hang on to those planets would have cost him the war. Giving them up means he wins. It takes a great commander to see something like that.'

'So we're doomed.'

'Let's say things are looking a bit tricky,' said the Doctor.

'Come on, Peri. Never say die till you're dead.'

'In about ninety minutes by the looks of it,' said Peri. She was determined that if it wasn't to be victory, which seemed highly unlikely now, it would be death.

She was never going to be the prisoner of Morbius again.

In his secret laboratory Solon was toiling ceaselessly. He wheeled a complex arrangement of electronic equipment to one p.r.o.ne form after another, applied electrodes, threw power-switches, and watched as the ghastly, dead shapes twitched into life.

The revival process was perfected at last well, almost but it was taking too long. Some of the patched-together corpses revived too slowly, some would not stir at all. There was a danger that the force would be too small...

Solon heard the rumble of battle from afar. Morbius would win, of course, but it was vital that Solon's army of the dead make a contribution to the battle before it ended. Morbius must know what Mehendri Solon had achieved on his behalf.

Frantically, Solon worked on...

The Doctor was back amongst his weary troops, putting new heart in them.

'Morbius must have felt things were getting too easy for us, so he's brought in some new players. We saw off the first wave and we'll see these off too!'

Ragged cheers went up, and cries of, 'Supremo! Supremo!'

But there wasn't the heart in the cries that there had been before.

The battle followed its inevitable course.

The a.s.sault s.h.i.+ps of Morbius's reinforcements landed no easy task, since the rocky terrain around the castle was now littered with a.s.sault craft. But land they did somehow, and wave upon wave of mercenaries flooded out to join Morbius's troops.

Old fears forgotten, Morbius's tired soldiers surged forward with their new and unwearied allies.

'What about the Sisterhood?' asked Peri as she followed the Doctor around the perimeter.

'I'm afraid they may have shot their psychic bolt,' said the Doctor. 'These supernatural stunts take it out of you. They'll need time to recover their energies and by then...'

The battle went on and on, prolonged mostly by the fact that the Alliance troops fought like heroes. But it was like trying to hold back the sea. Gradually the perimeter circle became smaller and smaller, until the Alliance forces were cl.u.s.tered tightly around the castle.

'It's the end,' thought Peri. 'They'll make one last charge and it'll all be over.'

Morbius preened himself as he studied the scene on his scanners.

He looked in the nearest mirror and adjusted his sash.

' Now Now I'll go down and rally them. Contact the field commanders, and order a general ceasefire!' I'll go down and rally them. Contact the field commanders, and order a general ceasefire!'

'You're going to let them surrender?' asked Grimoire, surprised.

'No, I'm going to kill them all, of course. But I might offer them a little hope first, just for the fun of it. It's always nice to savour the moment, don't you think? I don't want to hurry hurry my revenge. Have my scouts.h.i.+p made ready. We'll go down together, Grimoire, it'll be a little treat for you.' my revenge. Have my scouts.h.i.+p made ready. We'll go down together, Grimoire, it'll be a little treat for you.'

Gradually the forces of Morbius stopped firing, and a mercenary captain came forward to where the Doctor and Peri stood by the main entrance. He held up a grimy white flag.

'Marshal Morbius offers a ceasefire. He wishes to parley.'

'Very well,' said the Doctor.

He had no hope that any good would come of it, but it would give his weary troops a few moments of rest.

The mercenary retired. The Doctor beckoned to the nearest Alliance soldier, one of Ryon's men. 'Find my staff officers and tell them to use the time. Food and water for the men, energy re-charge for the Sontarans, power-packs replaced, fresh ammunition supplies, dead and wounded dealt with, anything they can think of. Tell them to join me here when it's done.'

'Supremo!' The soldier sped away.

An uneasy silence fell. The Alliance survivors formed a tight circle around the castle. In front of them was a wide circle of bare and rocky terrain. No man's land.

On the far side of the circle were the hordes of Morbius, relaxed and confident now. You could see the dirty faces, the stubbly chins and the wolfish grins of antic.i.p.ation.

'What's all this about, Doctor?' whispered Peri.

'I think Morbius wants to come down for a bit of a gloat.'

'Why accept the offer of a ceasefire?'

'Why not? Gives us all a bit of a breather.'

They waited, and after a time the staff officers came to join them.

The Doctor looked sharply at them. 'You got my orders?'

Ryon nodded. 'All under way, Supremo. Matter of fact, it was all under way before before we got your orders.' we got your orders.'

The Doctor smiled wearily. 'I should have known.'

'What is happening, Supremo?' asked High Commander Aril.

The Doctor shrugged. 'Who knows? Morbius seems to want a little chat with us.' A thought struck him. 'He may offer surrender terms not to me but perhaps to the rest of you.'

'Never!' growled Battle-Major Streg. 'Sontarans do not surrender!'

The Doctor held up his hand. 'If he does, I can't advise you to accept.'