"We are the Cybermen. Resistance is useless. Your lives as you have known them are over. From this moment on you belong to us. You will be converted to become like us."
Every communication channel was swamped with the same message repeated over and over. A swarm of Cyberwarships turned the sky dark as they speeded over every city of Beta-Derwani.
People began to pray for deliverance as millions of silver figures pulled the planets population into conversion chambers to swell their ranks. None were spared men, women and children were all taken and converted. Soon the planet was swallowed into the cyber-empire. Buildings were torn down and replaced with vast computer banks to enhance the resources of the Cybermen.
A Cyberman approached a beautiful garden. It had once been the groundsman but now it cared nothing about such matters. It surveyed the sheer waste of building space, the trees, the flowers and the many woodland animals. Ruthless logic determined this paradise should be torn away and replaced with productive resources. It would never shed a tear for the rose that lay crushed beneath it's heel.
***
Sarah Jane Smith removed the Brigadier's blindfold. Lethbridge-Stewart found himself inside the Doctors TARDIS again.
"Now see here Doctor, return me to UNIT HQ this instant."
"My dear fellow don't you want to see where we are?"
"No."
"That's not the sort of answer I'd expect from a military officer, Brigadier. I thought you were an adventurer at heart." Sarah was disappointed.
"Oh very well Miss Smith, I'll take a quick look around and that's it."
The TARDIS doors opened and the trio emerged to be faced by twenty Cybermen, all pointing a variety of weapons at them.
"We are the Cybermen. Resistance is useless. Your lives as you have known them are over. From this moment on you belong to us. You will be converted to become like us."
"Not today thank you." The Brigadier tried to draw his sidearm but the Doctor stopped him.
"They'll cut you down before it's unholstered."
"You will come with us," the Cyberleader stated.
They were led inside to a bland waiting room.
"I always said you'd be the death of me, Doctor."
"That's hardly fair. Last time I was here this was a beautiful world with charming natives."
"Who are these aliens, Doctor?" Sarah Jane asked.
Before the Doctor could reel off an answer the Brigadier detailed their invasion attempt of six years ago.
"Oh, not friendly then?"
"Anything but Sarah, we have to escape or they will turn us into Cybermen."
Sarah felt things were starting to look glum as she was strapped into a conversion booth between the Doctor and the Brigadier. "No chance of a last request?" she asked hopefully. "This silver suit is very itchy can't I at least have a silk one? Cotton would do at a pinch."
The attendant Cybermen ignored her completely.
"You're a great conversationalist you know."
"Don't worry Sarah Jane, I have a plan."
"What is it Doctor?" She heard the high-pitched whine of the sonic screwdriver.
"Simple sympathetic sound-waves Sarah. Hah, try saying that after a glass of Rutan wine."
The Cybermen clutched their heads and fell to the ground.
The Doctor freed himself and Sarah before going to rescue the Brigadier. They gasped when they saw he had been fully converted. The Doctor had no choice but to use the sonic screwdriver to deactivate it.
"You know your problem Doctor? You worry too much and leap to the wrong conclusions."
Sarah Jane and the Doctor turned around to see the Brigadier safe and well.
"The day one of these Cybermen get the better of a UNIT officer is the day I stand and watch my world be destroyed. That Miss Smith, Doctor will be never."
"Which way out of here Doctor?"
"This way Sarah." The Doctor took the lead.
They ended up in a large hall. "This is not the exit, Doctor."
"I was wondering when you would notice." The Doctor used the sonic screwdriver to open three small wall safes. "Our clothes. Luckily for us I can read ancient Mondasian."
They bundled their clothes into a tight ball as they ran for the exit, down identical looking corridors until they found themselves in open ground once more.
It took several hours of patient waiting as they crept towards the TARDIS. It was guarded by three Cybermen. The Doctor managed to deactivate them and they slipped inside and escaped.
Back at UNIT HQ the Brigadier made the Doctor promise never to take him on any more trips without asking first.
***
Four Cybermen staggered to their feet. Their logic circuits had been all but destroyed. The biological components of their brain began to be stimulated and they felt emotions again. They felt hate and anger and pride and how to use this to their advantage. They reprogrammed several others and left in a small scout ship. They would bring terror to the galaxy and it would feel good ...
