(6) - Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Previously...
The Dalek Leader reviewed the data.
Their landing had been successful and the few scouts he had sent out had found a few small sentients. A very weak, fragile species. No use to the Daleks, but no threat either.
The lack of further data was an annoyance, but the troops would bring him further information to decide how to proceed next.
Whatever they brought, it could not stop their cause. The planet was theirs.
The Doctor and Jo were transported through the jungle by the Cybermen on their hover-skiff. As they came up upon the base of the volcano, the Doctor saw that several Cybermen had done their best to bore into the volcano with laser drillers, but were halted by a solid wall of metal some 50 feet in. The skiff landed by the base of the volcano, and the Doctor could still hear Dalek landing craft landing in the distance. This would have to be done quickly.
He strode up quickly to the drill, with Jo in tow. "Struck a bit of an impasse, hmm? Well, let me have a look. I am of course, a doctor of a great many things," the Doctor said with a wink.
The Cybermen parted, guns still trained upon them. The Doctor began singing to himself as he rewired the field output of the laser to a level where it would bore through, and have enough left for what had to happen next. "I suggest you all stand back a pinch." The Doctor directed to the Cybermen. They moved back as did Jo, but the Doctor grabbed her fast enough by the hand to keep her from joining them.
The Doctor threw the switch, and the beam hit the proper harmonic resonance to melt through the wall, revealing a long stretch of hallway beyond it. The Doctor cut off the beam and yanked Jo in the direction of the opening "Quickly now! JUMP!!!" The Doctor and Jo leapt through the opening as the drill started to sputter and spark violently, due to his forced overload of it's power cells. The Cybermen were about to fire, but retreated quickly since the drill was close to a core meltdown. They Ran down to the other end of the tunnel as the Doctor covered Jo protectively. The Drill exploded, bringing rubble down and sealing off the tunnel behind several feet of rock. The rock would have crushed them too, but somehow...impossibly, it stopped short of crushing the two intrepid Time Lords by only several inches!
The Doctor looked up, grinned, then cast his gaze down towards his coat pocket. "I think you can come out now...and not a moment too soon." The Doctor and Jo stood up as Maclo'xtast crawled out of the Doctor's plaid coat pocket and flew around them, lighting up the dim corridor with his natural ambiance. "I did well?" he asked enthusiastically.
"You did very well, my little friend. It was very brave of you to 'hitch a ride in with us' as it were...if you hadn't we would still be in the Cybermen's clutches," The Doctor replied. "Now, with us in here, and the Cybermen out there with the Daleks...it finally gives us the opportunity to discover just what is so important down here!"
The Doctor gestured down the dim metallic hallway towards his two companions. "Shall we?"