The Second Great Dalek Occupation (AUDIO: Return of the Daleks) was a destructive war fought between the Dalek Empire and the Earth Alliance a few hundred years after the 36th century. It began when the Daleks, based in the Seriphia Galaxy, invaded Mutter's Spiral, beginning with the planet Vega VI. (AUDIO: Invasion of the Daleks)
The Second Great Dalek Occupation ended with the activation of Project Infinity, which unleashed Daleks of a parallel universe who joined forces with the Alliance. This began the Enemy-Alliance Dalek War. (AUDIO: Project Infinity)
A day to come
Published around the turn of the 21st century, the Dalek Survival Guide cited the "latest reports", which related to the "Dalek incursion which began in the Vega System". It was from these reports that the guide was aware of a new, sophisticated breed of Roboman. (PROSE: Dalek Survival Guide)
Prelude
The Daleks began a campaign of empire-building. First they launched a raid on the library at Kar-Charrat. The Seventh Doctor and Ace prevented the Daleks obtaining all the information from the library (AUDIO: The Genocide Machine) though scraps of data were retrieved. (AUDIO: Invasion of the Daleks) From this data, the Daleks learned of Project Infinity; a project by the Reinsberg Institute to scan dimensions for a universe where the Daleks had been completely defeated so the Earth Alliance could adopt that universe's tactics. The Daleks made plans to use the Project for their own ends. (AUDIO: Project Infinity)
The Daleks built a powerbase in the Seriphia Galaxy in an ambitious gambit involving setting it alight with the Apocalypse Element and then invading Gallifrey to use the Eye of Harmony to accelerate the destruction and ensuing rebirth of Seriphia. This created hundreds of virgin worlds, which the Daleks were poised to seize. (AUDIO: The Apocalypse Element)
The Earth Alliance learnt of the imminent threat of the Daleks and began making preparations. Agent Alby Brook was sent undercover to Vega VI to meet Kalendorf, a Knight of Velyshaa, to negotiate the Knights’ rearmament. (AUDIO: Invasion of the Daleks)
The occupation
Dalek invasion
The first victim of the Daleks’ invasion was the Earth Alliance starship SD Victorious, which had been sent to investigate an anomaly from the fringes of the Seriphia Galaxy, The Daleks targeted the Vega System, destroying the Alliance’s Rapid Response Fleet, causing one ship to crash on the populated world of Vega VI. The Daleks hijacked transmissions and declared the Vega System was now part of the Dalek Empire. The Daleks invaded Vega VI, bombarding the planet and laying cities to waste. They rapidly occupied the planet and set up robotising plants and mining operations, enslaving the population. The slaves were used to manually mine veganite, (AUDIO: Invasion of the Daleks) which the Daleks wanted to use to activate Project Infinity. (AUDIO: Project Infinity) Alby Brook escaped the invasion aboard the final ship to leave in time, leaving his girlfriend, Susan Mendes, behind, for which he grew to hate himself. He was swiftly given a new assignment by Commander Tanlee. (AUDIO: Invasion of the Daleks)
During the mining, Susan Mendes came to the Daleks’ attention, after she led a group of slaves in refusing to work due to exhaustion. Deciding to utilise understanding of the human mind gained from the library at Kar-Charrat, the Dalek Supreme arranged a private communication with her, hidden from all but the Emperor, after which it accepted her request for the slaves to rest. In a second session, it requested that she devise a shift pattern to optimise slave efficiency without them dying. The Daleks’ advance required an efficient workforce to exploit mineral resources of occupied worlds, and whilst they were perfectly willing to work them to death they hoped for a better system. Suz’s system proved effective and so the Daleks arranged her to be transported to the occupied Garazone System to repeat the exercise, allowing her to be accompanied by fellow slave Kalendorf. (AUDIO: Invasion of the Daleks)
The Daleks invaded Guria (AUDIO: The Human Factor) and Manikis. Their occupation on Manikis was foiled by the efforts of the Seventh Doctor, Ace and Hex. (PROSE: Natalie’s Diary)
The Daleks infiltrated the comedy show of Zeet Frenzy, manipulating him to downplay their threat to lull his viewers into complacency. The Sixth Doctor and Mel visited Zeet and took him to Guria to show him the true threat of the Daleks. There they were captured, however the Doctor and Zeet escaped and the Doctor prepared an explosion. Zeet fled in an escape pod early and was recovered by Captain J. V Acondo, receiving the credit for the Doctor‘s work. The Doctor visited him again to reassure him that Mel was fine and Zeet revealed his intent to inform his viewers about the Daleks, though had realised the real Daleks that had infiltrated his show would likely kill him for doing so. (PROSE: The Best Joke I Ever Told)
The occupation
As the Daleks occupied the galaxy, they sent Suz and Kalendorf to their new slave worlds, where Suz would inspire the slaves as “the Angel of Mercy” and improve the occupying Daleks’ treatment of slaves to boost efficiency. Kalendorf used these visits to telepathically implant a command in the slaves, planning to one day broadcast the trigger phrase to cause them to revolt against the Daleks together. (AUDIO: The Human Factor) The Dalek Emperor was actually aware of their plan, but chose to let it continue. (AUDIO: The Fearless: Part 4) Alby was tasked with locating Suz by Tanlee (AUDIO: “Death to the Daleks!”) and he spent years searching for her. (PROSE: Alby)
The Dalek Scientific Division led the occupation of Zaleria, intending to reawaken the Dalek army buried there and achieve invisibility from studying the natives. On their visit Suz and Kalendorf discovered the Division’s occupation was even more ruthless than usual, including the deployment of Ogrons to police it, and encountered the Seventh Doctor, who reluctantly decided to get involved to ensure history played out correctly. Kalendorf and local rebels worked with the Doctor to try to destroy the frozen army. They infiltrated the Daleks‘ dig and prepared to use heat ray emitters to melt the army. However the Daleks attacked, surrounding Kalendorf in the middle of the dormant army just as the Doctor reached the controls. He deactivated the rays, as Kalendorf needed to live for the sake of history, and surrendered to the Daleks, offering to help their research in invisibility to make the army invisible. The Daleks accepted his terms and Suz and Kalendorf were transported to their next assignment. (AUDIO: Return of the Daleks)
Alliance counterattacks
As the war continued, Alliance Commander Agnes Landen proposed the Spacers, cybernetic suits to help soldiers fight Daleks on more equal terms even in space. A Spacer recruitment squad travelled to Talis Minor, appearing to inadvertently lead the Daleks to the small colony world. Alliance reinforcements intervened in time to safe the planet, after which the colony’s de-facto leader, Salus Kade, joined up as a Spacer. Kade swiftly rose through the ranks to become leader of his own squad, nicknamed “Maniac Squad”, based with the Alliance forces on Kedru 7. (AUDIO: The Fearless: Part 1)
As a Dalek fleet moved towards Kedru 7, the Alliance forces commanded by General Croft were mobilised, with Landen planning for Maniac Squad to engage the Dalek secret weapon, Dead Hand. Proving it’s capabilities to be as rumoured, Dead Hand immobilised the ship carrying Maniac Squad and destroyed it. As Landen had counted on, Kade had already put his squad in their Spacer suits and they were able to survive the destruction and fight through Dead Hand’s escort of Daleks on transolar discs to board and hijack the vessel. The Alliance now held the advantage and Landen authorised Croft to call up the reserve forces on Kedru 7 to press the attack, unknowingly leaving the planet exposed to two surviving transolar discs. The two Dalek pilots caused a power build-up to blow up the discs; a brutal kamikaze attack which burnt Kedru 7’s atmosphere and left no survivors on the planet, with Kade’s family among the dead. (AUDIO: The Fearless: Part 1, The Fearless: Part 2)
Landen gave the grief-stricken Kade a new mission. He was to lead Maniac Squad to assassinate the Angel of Mercy to stop her improving the Dalek Empire’s efficiency. Their intelligence suggested she was being transported through Alliance space on a covert mission. This transpired to be a trap, with a Dalek duplicate of Suz being used as a lure. All of Maniac Squad died, save Kade who was left adrift in space in his Spacer suit. (AUDIO: The Fearless: Part 2, The Fearless: Part 3)
Sometime later, the Daleks began advancing on Earth’s system, Tanlee (now promoted to general) recruited the disgraced Landen to help organise the defence. She managed to organise a push back against the Dalek forces. Kade was recovered in space during this time, barely alive after a year on minimum life support, and treated. Though his mental state had detoriated, due in part to discovering Dalek intelligence that suggested Landen may have intentionally arranged the Daleks’ attack on Talis Minor to recruit him, he was put in charge of a new squad of Spacers and deployed on an intercept of a new Dalek invasion of Earth’s system. The Daleks had used gravity net generators to capture asteroids, intending to unleash them at the system’s defences.
Whilst the Alliance fleet engaged the Daleks, Kade led the Spacers to the gravity generators, forcing Landen to join them at gunpoint. He and Landen were the only survivors to reach the generators, where they were surrounded by Daleks. Kade held them off by offering information on the Angel of Mercy, being put through to the Emperor. Kade revealed her and Kalendorf‘s plan to forment rebellion, which he’d learnt from a slave accompanying the duplicate Suz, using the distraction to prime an explosive. When the Emperor revealed he already knew about the plan, Kade threw the explosive and destroyed the generators. The asteroids rapidly dispersed and in the ensuing confusion Kade and Landen escaped, being rescued by an Alliance ship. Afterwards, Kade resigned his commission and Landen let him leave. In time, the Daleks launched a new assault on Earth. (AUDIO: The Fearless: Part 4)
The rebellion
After over a decade of fighting, the Daleks invaded Earth’s solar system. The Alliance lost Jupiter and Saturn and faced imminent defeat on Mars, forcing the President of Earth to surrender to the Daleks. Before surrendering, she appointed Tanlee as the commander of all remaining Alliance forces. Tanlee ordered Project Infinity to go to the final phase, believing it was the Alliance’s only hope, and caught up with Alby on Carson’s Planet. Alby had failed to track down Suz, however Tanlee informed him that intelligence suggested she was involved in something big on Yaldos and told him to find out if those plans involved Project Infinity. Before he could set out for the Project himself however, Tanlee was captured by the Daleks. Alby escaped, accompanied by a Interplanetary Police officer, Mirana (AUDIO: “Death to the Daleks!”) who was secretly an advanced Roboman under the control of the Emperor. (AUDIO: Project Infinity)
On Yaldos, Suz and Kalendorf decided the time had come for the rebellion, as the Daleks ordered her to deliver a broadcast to the entire Dalek Empire announcing their victory. Suz issued the command, “Death to the Daleks!”, and was then seemingly exterminated by her Dalek guards. The rebellion began; with slaves suddenly revolting against the Daleks across the galaxy. Alby and Mirana arrived on Yaldos to find it liberated, only to be informed by Kalendorf that Suz was dead. (AUDIO: “Death to the Daleks!”)
Overhearing Dalek reports on the rebellion, the captive Doctor realised history was being fulfilled and made his move. He released a virus which infected all the Daleks on Zaleria with light wave sickness and restored the natives‘ natural invisibility. He nearly perished from light wave sickness himself, however made it back to his TARDIS where the dimensional stasis neutralised his sickness and enabled him to recover. The Doctor departed, once again victorious over the Daleks. (AUDIO: Return of the Daleks)
In the three months after the rebellion, the Daleks fell into retreat on every front. Kalendorf helped reorganise the Alliance forces, however couldn’t shake the suspicion that things were going a little too well and feared the Daleks were lulling them into a false sense of security. (AUDIO: Project Infinity)
Activation of Project Infinity
Using the distraction of the rebellion, the Dalek Emperor personally led the flagship to seize Project Infinity on Lopra Minor, loaded with veganite and Suz, who was actually just stunned and now kept in suspended animation. The flagship moved deliberately slowly to avoid detection and the Daleks sent a duplicate of Tanlee ahead to lower the defences and allow a Dalek force to occupy Lopra Minor.
After witnessing Suz’s memories that she’d left with a Seer of Yaldos, Kalendorf and Alby learnt that the Emperor was aware of Project Infinity. After fending off an assassination attempt by Mirana, Kalendorf and Alby led an Alliance force to Lopra Minor. They arrived five months later, just before the Emperor’s flagship. Having released her from Dalek control, the Alliance forces exploited Mirana’s implant to pre-empt the Daleks on Yaldos, retaking the facility though the Daleks had killed all the human workers there.
They met Tanlee’s duplicate, who claimed to have been hiding from the Daleks in the forests, and prepared to mount a defence from the flagship. Tanlee’s duplicate lowered the defences however, allowing the Daleks to transmat in and retake control of the Project. As Kalendorf, Alby and Mirana were taken to be imprisoned on the flagship, the Emperor prepared to activate the Project and make contact with a parallel universe where the Daleks ruled their universe. He succeeded, however the parallel Daleks proved to be benevolent crusaders and judged the Daleks as guilty of the worst crimes they’d ever witnessed upon connecting to their network. The parallel Daleks declared war on the Daleks and attacked. (AUDIO: Project Infinity)
The Emperor escaped capture by transferring his mind into Suz’s body. (AUDIO: Dalek War: Chapter Three) The parallel Daleks freed Kalendorf, Alby and Mirana and put them in communication with their leader, the Mentor. They negotiated an alliance between the parallel Daleks, now known as the “Alliance Daleks”, and the Earth Alliance to fight against the “Enemy Daleks.” This marked the start of the Enemy-Alliance Dalek War. (AUDIO: Dalek War: Chapter One)
Behind the scenes
The Second Great Dalek Occupation served as the main conflict of Dalek Empire I.
A behind the scenes section of Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe dates the Second Great Dalek Occupation to the 42nd century.