Dalek War: Chapter Four (audio story)

 was the fourth and final instalment of Dalek Empire II: Dalek War, and the eighth release in the Dalek Empire series overall.

Publisher's summary
Two thousand years ago, the galaxy was devastated by a great catastrophe. No one really knows what happened. Some say it was the work of the "Dark One" or the "Bringer of Death".

And in the ancient remains of a civilisation on the planet Velyshaa, a lonely outcast is uncovering evidence of who that terrible figure really was.

Could it be that Kalendorf's determination to rid the galaxy of the Daleks will bring about the destruction of everything? Indeed, can the Daleks ever be truly defeated...?

Plot
Siy Tarkov is a special envoy from the Galactic Union who was sent to Velyshaa with a military escort to search for Saloran Hardew. Tarkov travelled to Velyshaa aboard a star yacht called the Crusader, which is equipped with solar sails. The journey took approximately one year. Hardew comments that it took her five years to make the same journey and that, 3,000 years earlier, it would taken their ancestors a fraction of the time.

Hardew promulgated the theory that the Great Catastrophe was as a result of a massive war, that humanity's ancestors were considerably more advanced beforehand and that the population of the galaxy was once billions of times larger than it currently is.

Tarkov tells Hardew that the Galactic Union have intercepted a corrupted transmission emanating from outside of the galaxy through a freak wormhole. It features an image of a machine which is consistent with Hardew's archaeological findings. He was sent to find Hardew so as to avoid making a nuisance of himself in the eyes of the Galactic Union

In the aftermath of the Great Catastrophe, stories were told on planets across the galaxy telling of a mythical figure known as many names such as the Dark One, the Bringer of Darkness and the Harbinger of Death. Hardew believes that this figure existed and that she has identified him as Kalendorf, one of the Knights of Velyshaa who lived 2500 years earlier.

Hardew tells Tarkov that she sleeps in a vast burial chamber on Velyshaa. According to legends, the Velyshaans were telepathic. The chamber is charged with Kalendorf's memories and, by sleeping in it, Hardew is able to absorb his memories in the form of dreams. After touching a statue which appears to be a machine in the chamber, Tarkov is overwhelmed by a powerful psychic impression of evil in a form of a machine which proclaims, "Exterminate!"

Before Alby can shoot Kalendorf, Suz kills Alby. As he dies, her message saying that the Angel of Mercy has returned due to the actions of the Enemy Daleks is transmitted throughout the galaxy. This marks the beginnings of what would become known as the Great Catastrophe. The transmission triggered a war between all of the non-Dalek races in the galaxy and the Alliance Daleks, which allowed the Enemy Daleks under the command of the Dalek Supreme to gain the upper hand. The Earth Alliance subsequently forged an alliance with the Enemy Daleks. In response, the Mentor accelerated her plans to perform brain correction on all the humans in the galaxy. It began a devastating war which lasted for years. The Dalek Supreme eventually commands that Suz be sent back to Earth so that the Dalek Emperor's consciousness can be extracted from her mind.

After surviving a devastating battle on Meercos V, Kalendorf discovers what appears to be an escape pod from the scout ship SS Defiant, which Mirana commanded prior to her death from asphyxiation. Kalendorf boards the ship using a recovery capsule. Both ships momentarily phase out of existence. Shortly after his aide Godwin reports that the escape pod is at the centre of a dimensional gateway, Kalendorf is transported to the home universe of the Mentor and her Daleks. The Mentor has managed to extend the dimensional gateway opened on Lopra Minor by Project Infinity.

Kalendorf tells that the Mentor that, after capturing an Enemy Dalek in the early in the Dalek War, he underwent telepathic contact with it and successfully gambled that it would transmit his offer to give Suz to the Dalek Empire through its command net.

The Mentor tells Kalendorf that the war cannot be won by either side and that it will only end with the complete destruction of all life in the galaxy and beyond. As the war cannot be won, the Mentor recalls her Daleks through the dimensional gateway and they retreat to their own universe. Hardew tells Tarkov that the end of the war was followed by a brief period of peace.

After the war is over, Kalendorf travels to Earth in a scout ship in order to retrieve Suz from the Daleks. The Daleks reactivated the Dalek Emperor's consciousness within Suz's mind with the intention of extracting it. However, the Dalek Emperor favoured amalgamation and their minds became one. The Dalek Emperor notes that the more persuasive aspects of the Human Factor has affected its consciousness. After making telepathic contact with Suz, Kalendorf triggers the programming which he had placed in her mind years earlier: "Victory or Death." As her mind is still connected to the Dalek command net, she is able to send a destructive impulse to every Dalek in the galaxy. With the destruction of every single Dalek and every piece of Dalek technology, the destruction was unimaginable. Whole star systems were destroyed and countless lives were lost. This was the Great Catastrophe. It took 1,000 years for the shroud of destruction to even begin to lift. Although Suz was killed, Kalendorf survived and, after many years, made his way back to Velyshaa, where he spent the rest of his life.

Hardew's people are able to decipher the corrupted transmission which the Galactic Union picked up through the freak wormhole. It displays a Dalek on a transolar disc. They have also managed to uncover a fragment of an audio transmission which states that Daleks originating in the Seriphia Galaxy have entered Mutter's Spiral and are on their way to its centre. Tarkov and his men return to the Galactic Union to warn their superiors of the imminent invasion but Hardew decides to remain on Velshyaa.

Cast

 * Kalendorf - Gareth Thomas
 * Susan Mendes - Sarah Mowat
 * Alby Brook - Mark McDonnell
 * Mirana - Teresa Gallagher
 * The Mentor - Hannah Smith
 * Saloran Hardew - Karen Henson
 * Siy Tarkov - Steven Elder
 * Trooper - David Sax
 * Colonel Susan Godwin - Helen Goldwyn
 * Command / Computer / Technician - Jack Galagher
 * Herrick - Jeremy James
 * The Daleks / The Alliance Daleks - Nicholas Briggs

Worldbuilding

 * Although he is human, Tarkov has never heard of Earth.

Continuity

 * Hardew tells Tarkov that Kalendorf first met Susan Mendes on Vega VI at the beginning of the Dalek invasion of Mutter's Spiral. (AUDIO: Invasion of the Daleks)
 * Hardew and Kalendorf both refer to Sancroff, the leader of the Knights of Velyshaa, in the 36th century. (AUDIO: The Sirens of Time)
 * Kalendorf and the Mentor discuss the Punished Planets. (AUDIO: Dalek War: Chapter One)
 * The Dalek Emperor refers to the Human Factor. (TV: The Evil of the Daleks; AUDIO: Invasion of the Daleks, The Human Factor)
 * A Dalek declares, "Every planet within that mighty swirl must become a Dalek world." (COMIC: Return of the Daleks)
 * Kalendorf and the Dalek Emperor discuss the rebellion against the Daleks, which they had been anticipated and used as a distraction to prevent the remnants of the Earth Alliance from discovering their use of Project Infinity. (AUDIO: Project Infinity)