Axos Unleashed (audio story)

 was the third story in the audio anthology Objective: Earth, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Katharine Armitage and featured Jemma Redgrave as Kate Stewart, Ingrid Oliver as Petronella Osgood, James Joyce as Josh Carter, Chris Lew Kum Hoi as Jimmy Tan, Eleanor Crooks as Naomi Cross and Mark Bonnar as The Eleven.

Publisher's summary
With the threat of a Vulpreen invasion imminent, a new menace presents itself in the shape of golden humanoids. A foe from UNIT's past.

Axos has escaped the Time trap it was placed in years before and has returned to feed off the Earth.

Plot
The Axons demand surrender and fight the UNIT Canada soldiers, whose bullets prove useless. Josh calls Osgood, confirming that Axons have emerged from the arch in Norway as well as the ones in Canada and China, and tells her that the trees around him have started growing before his eyes. The Chinese authorities inform Osgood that there is no sign of Kate or Jimmy and that the arch in China has been destroyed. She heads to Norway with Li, who feels indebted to Jacqui, to analyse the trees whilst Naomi goes to Lake Claire to ask for the Eleven's help given that it was a Time Lord who defeated Axos last time.

Inside Axos, Kate and Jimmy are kept alive. Kate remembers her father's story about how a US agent escaped from Axos and uses her heel to damage Axos's nerve centre, allowing her and Jimmy to get free from their restraints. They find an inactive arch and Jimmy realises that he and Osgood have been here before. Axos tells her that they made a deal with the Vulpreen for their release and that they will feed on enough of Earth to leave the humans vulnerable to enslavement.

Assisted by Li, Osgood analyses the trees and confirms that they have been contaminated with Axonite as part of Axos's nutrition cycle. The arch, guarded by Axons, activates and Axos drains Private Burgess of energy. UNIT HQ reports that further arches have landed near Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela and Ahvaz in Iran; Li realises that, with the exception of Beijing, the arches are landing in oil fields, the perfect conduit for Axonite. According to Harry's analysis at Porton Down, Axonite is all around the world.

Naomi puts Faraday cuffs and he claims that he can only set up another time loop from inside Axos. She and the Eleven pass through the arch to Axos whilst Josh and his soldiers fight the Axons in Norway, but the Eleven soon tricks her and pushes her back through before offering to make a deal with Axos. Li passes through the Norwegian arch and meets Kate, giving her the hologram projector and allowing her to communicate with Osgood. Osgood has found that Axos is unable to absorb hydrogen and plans to poison it by feeding liquid hydrogen into the soil near the arches at the same moment that the feeding cycle begins. Kate goes after the Eleven and sends Li to look after the injured Jimmy.

Axos refuses to make a deal with the Eleven and, told by Kate that he is a Time Lord, begins the feeding cycle to absorb his knowledge of time travel. They replicate the Eleven and unwittingly create copies of him for each of his incarnations and struggles to reabsorb them, recalling the Axons through the arch. Li finds Jimmy and they return to Norway, followed by the Eleven, where Josh and his team have released liquid hydrogen at the same time as other UNIT operatives around the world. Osgood travels through the arch and saves Kate with bleach.

The Eleven is returned to UNIT custody, Li returns home to her mother and, after seventy-two hours, the Axonite rapidly decays. At least part of Axos survived, however, and escaped Earth. After a small memorial for Jacqui, Kate shows Osgood a message that they have received from Lord Varliss; he says that humanity would have been killed quickly by Axos but will not be wiped out in war with the Vulpreen instead. Hundreds of arches descend to Earth and Kate says that the Vulpreen invasion of Earth has begun.

Cast

 * Kate Stewart – Jemma Redgrave
 * Osgood – Ingrid Oliver
 * Naomi Cross – Eleanor Crooks
 * Captain Josh Carter – James Joyce
 * The Eleven – Mark Bonnar
 * Axos – Richard Goulding
 * Yang Li / Private Burgess – Suan-Li Ong
 * Lieutenant Jimmy Tan – Chris Lew Kum Hoi
 * Lord Varliss – Alisdair Simpson

Worldbuilding

 * Josh mentions Cybermen and Daleks.
 * Li mentions Xiangliu, a nine-headed monster.
 * The UNIT report on Axos was one of the Brigadier's favourites. Kate says that it made a great bedtime story and remembers Bill Filer's escape.
 * Li's parents wanted to have a boy and could only have one child due to a government policy.
 * Li always wanted to be like Qiu Jin, a heroine who started out as a posh housewife and educated herself. She became a fighter and had a nickname which meant "as heroic as a man”. Li's mother loved the story.
 * There is a force field around the Eleven's prison, made from Movellan technology.
 * Naomi calls the Eleven "Svengali".
 * Osgood and Li pass Iceland.
 * Faraday cuffs magnetise at Naomi's voice command.
 * Marsden is new. He is drained of energy by Axos.
 * Further arches have landed near Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela and Ahvaz in Iran.
 * Li's father is a geologist. He often works at oil fields and has taken her to several.
 * Harry is at Porton Down, helping map the spread of Axonite. It is present in the soil in Houston, in Rio de Janeiro, the waters of the Thames, the trees in Paris and in Singapore.
 * Li gives Josh the hologram projector.
 * Osgood once thought that Postman Pat's cat was called Stanley.

Continuity

 * Jacqui died saving Kate and Jimmy. (AUDIO: By Jacqui McGee)
 * Osgood and Jimmy previously visited Axos. (AUDIO: The Vulpreen Encounter)
 * The Third Doctor trapped Axos in a time loop. (TV: The Claws of Axos)