Orbital bombardment
Orbital bombardment was a military tactic that consisted of bombing a celestial body from its orbit.
Daleks[[edit] | [edit source]]
Orbital bombardment was a preferred tactic of the Dalek Fleet.
During the 2323 Dalek invasion of Earth, the Golden Emperor ordered his fleet to encircle the Earth in high orbit before opening fire. (COMIC: Liberation of the Daleks [+]Loading...["Liberation of the Daleks (comic story)"])
During their invasion of Islos, the Dalek Restoration Empire bombed the planet from orbit after the invading fleet had destroyed the orbiting weapons platforms. (WC: The Archive of Islos [+]Loading...["The Archive of Islos (webcast)"])
After the Sontaran temporal defences around Rovidia had been disabled, the Dalek Fleet began bombarding the planet, increasing the intensity of the barrage when the Dalek Time Strategist was rescued. (AUDIO: The Eternity Cage [+]Loading...["The Eternity Cage (audio story)"])
At the end of the Last Great Time War, at the Fall of Gallifrey, the Dalek Fleet broke through the defences surrounding Gallifrey and began an orbital bombardment to destroy the Time Lord homeworld. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords [+]Loading...["A Brief History of Time Lords (novel)"]) When multiple incarnations of the Doctor shifted the planet into a pocket universe, the fleet destroyed itself in its own massive crossfire (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (TV story)"]) in what Dalek Caan identified as the "old circular firing-squad gag". (PROSE: Dalek Caan [+]Loading...["Dalek Caan (short story)"]) Whilst the relocation of Gallifrey took almost a day to complete, the Daleks perceived it as happening instantaneously as they were active in a slower gradient of time. (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (novelisation)"])
During the Battle of the Game Station, the Dalek fleet bombarded the Earth with such ferocity that the planet's continents were warped. (TV: The Parting of the Ways [+]Loading...["The Parting of the Ways (TV story)"])
After Oswin Oswald deactivated the force field protecting the Dalek Asylum, the Parliament of the Daleks launched missiles which destroyed the planet. (TV: Asylum of the Daleks [+]Loading...["Asylum of the Daleks (TV story)"])
When the Eleventh Doctor decoded the Question, he feared that the orbiting fleets would fire on Trenzalore from orbit to stop the return of the Time Lords. (TV: The Time of the Doctor) Following the New Dalek Paradigm's conquest of the Papal Mainframe, the Supreme Dalek ordered the Dalek fleet to commence an orbital bombardment of Trenzalore until its protective force field shattered. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe [+]Loading...["Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe (short story)"])
Other instances[[edit] | [edit source]]
When the Taalyens discovered Keska, they launched an orbital bombardment to try and render the Keskans extinct before the War Doctor reconfigured the sky transmitters into a planetary shield. (AUDIO: The Innocent [+]Loading...["The Innocent (audio story)"])
In an auction for the Ninth Doctor's memories, the Cybermen partially upgraded Addison Delamar, using her to execute the other representatives. Observing the death of General Onarr, Major Traneer of the Harrigain ordered a carpet bombing of Nomicae, even after the Cybermen had been destroyed, withdrawing only when the Doctor shared the overwhelming grief he felt from the Time War. (COMIC: The Bidding War [+]Loading...["The Bidding War (comic story)"])
In its invasion of Delta IV, the Borg-Cyberman Alliance opened with an orbital bombardment, a tactic that the Deltans noted was more aggressive than had come to be expected from the Borg. (COMIC: Assimilation² [+]Loading...["Assimilation² (comic story)"])
Alternate timelines[[edit] | [edit source]]
In an alternate timeline created by a temporal collision of the First and Second Doctor's TARDISes, the Black Dalek Leader ordered a brief orbital bombardment to be conducted on Urbinia when it detected that the people were attempting to evacuate the planet. (AUDIO: Daughter of the Gods [+]Loading...["Daughter of the Gods (audio story)"])
In the Warrior's universe, the Warrior observed a planet being bombed from orbit by the Daleks. The sight caused him to swear he would destroy the Daleks. (WC: Doctor Who Unbound - Doctor of War: Genesis [+]Loading...["Doctor Who Unbound - Doctor of War: Genesis (webcast)"])
