Pest Control

[The Vision]

"Are you ENG-5033?"

ENG-5033 looked up. Captain Romero was standing in front of him in her scorched Stormtrooper gear. He jolted upwards and saluted.

"Yes, ma'am."

Romero nodded. "Walk with me."

The captain turned and briskly marched down the hallway. ENG-5033 followed hurriedly. Engineers and other Stormtroopers were buzzing around them, complaining about injuries or making light of the various wars Coruscant was involved in. The light black floor glinted under the fluorescent lightbulbs, which lined the uncomfortably low ceiling. Hatches and control panels lined the walls. For all ENG-5033 knew, they could be decorating the walls - nobody seemed to know what they were for.

They were approaching the lift that moved troops to various Tiers. Some of the other Stormtroopers called it Glass Elevator. ENG-5033 assumed that nickname was an inside joke of some sort. They also called it the Highway to Hell. ENG-5033 hoped that nickname was a joke as well.

Romero pressed a button on the elevator's keypad, then punched in her access code. The cylindrical glass walls of the elevator separated into a doorway. Captain Romero and 5033 entered the tube, prompting the doors to shut. The elevator seemed to very suddenly reach terminal velocity, letting gravity take them to their destination.

"You know what we're fighting here?"

ENG-5033 briskly shook his head. "No, ma'am."

Romero sighed. "We have been tasked to deal with the Dalek infestation on Tier Six."

For the first time on duty, ENG-5033 flinched. 

"Yeah, I thought you might recognize the name," Romero chuckled. "ENG. You must be our chronophysics engineer."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Fresh out of the Academy?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Great," the captain lamented, "Well, as cliché as it sounds, forget everything you learned in the academy besides taking cover and how to reload your gun. It's not like that with the Daleks. They don't cooperate, they don't negotiate. They just kill until they die. And they don't die very much. Understand?"

ENG-5033's posture remained the same, but Captain Romero sensed what he was thinking. Or perhaps it was because every sane individual had come across the same thought.

"You aren't being punished, soldier," Captain Romero, "Not by the Empire, anyway, and I don't believe in that Omni crap. The Empire doesn't work like that. The Senate and all those bureaucrats just see all the threats to Coruscant as stains on a wall. Nothing dangerous, just something dirty to wipe off with a tissue. As soon as a tissue gets dirty, or if they pull out a tissue and it's already ripped, they just throw it out. And guess what?"

Hearing Romero speak so harshly of the Empire made ENG-5033 flinch once more. That was twice in one day. Romero tersely looked at ENG-5033 through her visor.

"We're the tissues."

The doors slid open to another corridor. It looked like it used to be identical to the ones in the barracks. There were some differences. The walls upstairs were covered in lights and keyboards. The walls down here were covered with ash and blood. FN-5033 blinked a few times, then turned on the LED flashlight attached to the side of his helmet. Romero did the same.

"Welcome to Operation Pest Control."

ENG-5033 stepped forward tentatively, following the brisk march of Captain Romero.

"What... happened here?" 5033 stammered.

"Told you," Romero replied under her breath, "Dalek problem."

5033 listened closely. He could hear laserfire in the distance. Lots of it. And a metallic drone that blared every so often.

"We set up some miniature Time Trenches down there," Romero said over the radio, "Little trick we learned from an anonymous benefactor. We're actually killing quite a few Daleks, since they can't kill us. They're also pretty slow. Helps a bit."

They arrived at the Time Trenches. They were impressive pieces of machinery. Anything deemed hostile according to the operating system was instantly displaced one microsecond forward. As long as the machine was on, this process repeated, meaning that hostile entities, say, a blaster shot, would be infinitely displaced one microsecond forward. Forever. It was one of the reasons that the Zerg were defeated so easily. It was hard to fight a war when all of your troops were forcefully imprisoned in an invisible wall until the end of time.

But something wasn't right. 

5033 frowned. "What the..."

Every few seconds, an invisible wall would suddenly become visible in a flurry of blue and red lights. Every time it flashed, 5033 could see strange figures inside the wall. Laser bolts occasionally flashed, moving forward every so slightly each time the wall flashed. The Stormtrooper squad deployed here watched it nervously.

"It's glitching," Romero glanced at the power cells fueling the Trenches. "We don't know why. That's why we called you here. The Daleks fired a barrage of Dalekanium grenades and I guess something got busted."

"Where's you benefactor?" 5033 asked.

"The Doctor comes and goes without warning," Captain Romero replied, "Best not to depend on him showing up." 

"I don't know how to fix this," 5033 quietly reported, "This is... unprecedented."

"Well, you need to give it your best shot," Romero bitterly said, "Or all hell's gonna break loose."

5033 knelt nervously next to the power cells. He started typing at the console next to them. There was no indication that there was anything wrong with the power cells. In fact, the Trenches were holding very well. So what was the problem?

Without warning, the wall exploded. A tidal wave of azure energy washed over the squad of Stormtroopers, knocking them all backwards onto their backs. Some of the troops recovered quickly and aimed their guns at the smoke which used to be the Time Trench.

"What did you do?" Romero screamed, readying her rifle as well.

"I didn't do anything!" 5033 replied. 

A strange machine emerged from the smoke. It looked like a tank would if tanks were tall and skinny. It had some sort of rod with an camera lens at the end of it. Just below it, what appeared to be a whisk was sticking out next to a plunger.

"It looks like a multi-purpose pepper grinder," 5033 whispered incredulously.

The Dalek's "head" spun to process the presence of all of the Stormtroopers. The light bulbs on its side flashed.

"EXTERMINATE."

A bolt of light shot from the whisk, piercing one of the Stormtroopers nearby. The Stormtrooper screamed in pain as his body was surrounded in blinding light. Branches of lightning wrapped around the soldier's unfortunately conductive armor. Hauntingly enough, 5033 thought he could see the victim's skeleton as if he was being X-rayed. Unlike the Stormtroopers' standard-issue blaster rifles, it passed right through the soldier and scorched the wall behind him.

"Open fire!" hollered Romero.

All of the Stormtroopers started focusing their fire on the one Dalek. The lid of the tank shot upwards, embedding into the ceiling. The Dalek's gun continued to fire at the soldiers. The Stormtroopers were thankfully carefully behind cover as the Dalek slowly powered down.

"EXTERMINATE. EXTERMINATE. EXTERMINAAAaaaa..."

The Dalek stopped moving. 5033 peeked from behind cover.

"Is it dead?" he asked.

Romero peeked as well. "Looks like. We need to get that Trench back up as soon as possi-"

Everything went black.

5033 woke up. He tried to process what happened. He could hear nothing. Gravity seemed to be moving differently. It took him a few seconds to realize he was on his side, and that the ringing in his ears was not supposed to be there. 5033 pushed himself up. He then realized that he no longer had legs. 

There was fire everywhere. The makeshift wall that the Stormtroopers were using for cover had been converted into shrapnel. White lumps were scattered around everywhere.

As ENG-5033 tried to stand up, three Daleks approached him. They towered over him, watching him through their strange-looking eyes.

"EXTERMINATE."

5033 closed his eyes and let his head rest on the ground.