Galen Alpha: The Heart of a Forgotten System

A write-up of the star Galen Alpha, part of the setting for Tyranny of the Daleks.  This is for the Doctor Who Roleplaying Game from Cubicle 7.

Designation: Galen Alpha

Spectral Type: G1V main-sequence star

Mass: 1.04 × Sol

Radius: 1.07 × Sol

Luminosity: 1.18 × Sol

Surface Temperature: 5820 K

Age: 3.07 billion years

Rotation Period: 24.0 days

Distance from Galen Beta: 0.542 light-years

Surface Gravity: 0.249 km/s²

Core Temperature: 15.3 million K

Galen Alpha, with Galen Beta visible about half a light year distant. Also shown are the orbits of some of Galen Alpha's planets

Overview

Galen Alpha is a sun of quiet majesty, a G1V main-sequence star burning with a steady gold-white radiance similar to Earth’s own Sun. At 1.04 solar masses and 1.18 times its luminosity, it is just slightly more powerful and somewhat younger than Sol, a warm and vigorous stellar engine nearing the midpoint of its life. Yet, unlike humanity’s familiar star, Galen Alpha shines across an interstellar void almost devoid of neighbours, in one of the Galaxy’s most remote and tranquil regions.

Orbiting serenely in this isolation, Galen Alpha and its distant companion, the faint red dwarf Galen Beta, form a binary system whose gravitational bond stretches across half a light-year, making it one of the widest stable stellar pairings known to the Galactic Federation. Their lonely partnership defines the Galen System, a rare island of light in a sea of cosmic darkness.

Origins of the Galen System

The Galen System lies within the Thayrn Assemblage, a small and isolated group of only nine stars scattered across a fifty light year radius at or rather beyond the remote end of the Carina–Sagittarius arm, on the far side of the galaxy from Earth's Solar System. Beyond this pocket of stars, space becomes extraordinarily empty: the nearest other systems lie at least sixty light years farther out towards the last reaches of the spiral arm, and even these are themselves lonely outposts on the thinning edge of the galactic disk. The interstellar medium in this region is exceptionally sparse, making the existence of any star cluster here a surprising anomaly.

After the Milky Way settled into its mature form billions of years ago, the galactic frontier where the Thayrn Assemblage now resides contained only a thin, diffuse cloud of hydrogen. The material was so insubstantial that no substantial molecular clouds formed, and therefore no stars. For around a billion years, this region remained dark and entirely empty.

Around eleven billion years ago, a large galaxy known as “Kraken” was drawn into the Milky Way and disrupted in a collision between the two galaxies. Tidal forces from the crash scattered streams of stars and dust throughout the outer halo, including into this far-flung sector. For the first time, heavier elements, including some exotic molecular forms uncommon in the inner Galaxy, drifted into the region. Though this enrichment raised the metallicity slightly, the density was still far too low for star formation.

The decisive moment came much later. Roughly 3.5 billion years ago, the shock front of a distant gamma-ray burst swept through the remote outskirts of the Carina–Sagittarius arm. Though the GRB itself had occurred many thousands of light years away, far enough not to sterilise worlds, its pressure wave pushed additional enriched material into this frontier, compressing the interstellar medium into higher-density pockets.

One such pocket collapsed into a molecular cloud around a hundred light years across. Compared to the great star-forming complexes near the galactic centre, this cloud was thin and inefficient, but it was dense enough to ignite a brief and localised episode of star birth.

This triggered collapse formed a small handful of protostars in a compact region at the cloud’s centre. Because they formed together and possessed nearly identical initial velocities, they have remained loosely associated ever since, a fragile cluster adrift at the galaxy’s edge. These stars became the Thayrn Assemblage.

Among them were Galen Alpha and its low-mass companion Galen Beta.

Some of these protostars retained protoplanetary discs; Galen Alpha’s disc was unusually massive for such a remote environment. From it formed a rich and diverse planetary system, including the garden world Galentor (Galen Alpha II).

Stellar Character and Behaviour

Spectroscopically classified as G1V, Galen Alpha’s light falls midway between the warm yellow of Sol and the paler hue of an F-type star. Its photosphere burns at 5820 Kelvin, giving the star a faintly whiter cast than the Sun when viewed directly through a filtered optical array. The stellar surface seethes with granulation and slow convection, driving a cycle of magnetism and solar weather that is relatively gentle compared to younger or more active stars.

Federation spectroheliographs have revealed a periodicity in its starspot cycles of approximately 8.9 years, shorter and less intense than Sol’s eleven-year rhythm. This subdued magnetic activity, combined with the system’s extreme isolation, contributes to the remarkable climatic stability of Galen Alpha II (Galentor), the system’s fertile, life-bearing world.

At its core, Galen Alpha sustains hydrogen fusion at 15.3 million Kelvin, producing a luminosity 18% greater than Sol’s. This mild excess of energy places Galentor in a slightly wider orbital band than Earth but still within the comfortable limits of a temperate biosphere.

A Star Alone

Astronomers from the Federation Stellar Bureau have remarked that Galen Alpha’s environment is among the most sparsely populated in known space. The nearest stellar system lies nearly 27 light-years distant, and beyond that, the local stellar density falls sharply. No interstellar clouds, molecular nebulae, or supernova remnants disturb the surrounding void.

This extraordinary quiet has made Galen Alpha a prime example of a “cosmic refuge”, a star and its worlds evolving in near-perfect isolation for billions of years. Its isolation has shielded its planetary system from the supernova shocks, radiation bursts, and gravitational disturbances that shape the evolution of more crowded regions closer to the Galactic Core.

As one Federation scientist remarked:

“Galen Alpha is a clock that has never been reset, a pure record of stellar evolution in slow motion, undisturbed by the noise of the Galaxy.”

The Binary Bond

The companion star, Galen Beta, lies at the extraordinary distance of around half a light year,  a separation of around 34,000 astronomical units. A dim red dwarf, one of the smallest found in the Galactic Federation, it circles its larger sibling in an orbital period measured not in centuries but in millennia. Despite this, the two remain gravitationally bound, their motions locked in an elegant celestial dance that has endured since the system’s birth.

Astronomers speculate that Galen Alpha and Beta formed together from the same protostellar cloud, but that an early interaction with a passing interstellar body flung Beta into its current distant orbit. Its gravitational influence has profoundly shaped the system’s structure, sweeping clean the outer debris and sculpting the cometary reservoirs into fragile shells.  Their enormous distance as a binary star means that the presence of Galen Beta makes no discernible difference to Galen Alpha’s planetary system of ten principal planets, numerous moons, comets and asteroids.

Scientific Significance

Galen Alpha’s moderate metallicity, albeit rather lower than that of Sol, offers insights into star formation at the extreme rim of the Milky Way. Its composition indicates that the heavy elements required for planet formation were still relatively abundant in this region three and a half billion years ago, implying earlier episodes of stellar generation farther inward in the Galaxy had already seeded this frontier with the materials of life.

For astrophysicists, the Galen system is thus a paradox: a cradle of planetary richness located in one of the most barren sectors of the Galaxy. How such a system formed and survived so far from the spiral arms remains one of the great puzzles of deep-space astronomy.

A Beacon at the Edge

Seen from afar, Galen Alpha burns like a solitary lantern suspended over a dark ocean, a symbol of endurance and constancy at the farthest limits of the Milky Way. To the explorers and settlers who have crossed the void to reach it, it represents both refuge and reminder: that even at the edge of the known, light persists.

The Galen system - an overview

The adventure “Tyranny of the Daleks” is set in a binary star system, known as Galen.  The larger of the two stars is Galen Alpha, a main sequence G1V spectrum star. It is orbited by Galen Beta, a red dwarf star. The Galen system is at the absolute tail end (and possibly beyond that) of the Carina-Sagittarius arm of the Galaxy, in practical terms on the other side of the galaxy from the Sol System and about as far away from Sol as it is possible to be without leaving the galaxy, at around 75,000 light years distant.  It is approximately 30 light years below the galactic plane. 

The interstellar region around the Galen system is rather empty, and the nearest star is roughly 27 light years away.  This has resulted in the Galen system being entirely overlooked and untouched by any external influence until the arrival of the Federation long range scientific vessel, the F.S.S. Thomas Stafford in 3827, which spent six months mapping it in outline in a preliminary reconnaissance mission before returning to its base of operations at the F.S.B. Lovell Deep-Space Observatory in the Yedrax Cluster.

Galen Beta has a relatively large and surprisingly circular orbit. Ordinarily the orbit of Galen Beta should, according to mathematical modelling, be where the Oort Cloud for Galen Alpha would be but Galen Beta has effectively swept away the protoplanetary disc of material. This configuration has shaped the distribution of matter in the system, suppressing the formation of additional terrestrial planets close to the primary star and creating a distinctive pattern of cometary and minor body orbits.

The position of the Galen System in the Milky Way

The Galen Alpha planetary system consists of ten principal bodies, each of which has at least one natural satellite. Unusually it has three major supra-Jovian class planets. The rest are two Neptunians along with five terrestrials, two of which (those most immediate to Galen Alpha) are telluric or silicate bodies whilst the outermost three are typical plutinos. There are two insubstantial asteroid belts, one between Galen Alpha III (or Karvtal) and Galen Alpha IV (or Lanetarg) and the other between Galen Alpha V (Mercula) and Galen Alpha VI (Terskan). The system presents as having a comparatively high level of matter, particularly for one positioned so far from the galactic core.  Galen Alpha II, known as Galentor, is a fertile garden world, hosting a young and rich biosphere.

The Galen Beta planetary system is much less substantial, consisting only of two small sub-Neptunians, each with its own system of satellites. None are considered suitable for settlement without substantial terra-forming. Galen Beta itself is considered to be a failed main sequence star and without the consumption of Galen Alpha's protoplanetary material may well have concluded at the brown dwarf stage.

The region around the Galen System is extremely sparsely populated. Within a 50-light-year radius, there are only a handful of known stars. There are no large open clusters or prominent nebulae in the immediate vicinity, and the galactic background density of stars is significantly lower than nearer to the galactic core. This isolation has contributed to the relatively undisturbed development of Galen Alpha II, Galentor, with minimal external influences such as supernova shockwaves or heavy interstellar radiation flux.

Interstellar travel in this region is further complicated by the low frequency of navigational landmarks. The four nearest known systems are:

• Virellon System, 27 light-years from the Galen System, a pale blue-white F-type star illuminating a scattered belt of crystalline asteroids. Old Federation deep-space probes once detected strange harmonic radio emissions from within the Virellon Belt, never explained, and now long forgotten. Local legends speak of “the Singing Stones of Virellon.”

• Orrath System, approximately 32 light-years distant, a dim K-class subgiant surrounded by drifting remnants of a once-massive gas giant, destroyed in an unknown cataclysm. Its sole surviving world, Orrath IV, known as Olyrra, supports vast fungal plains that glow faintly in darkness, bioluminescent ecosystems linked by chemical communication across continents, which are reminiscent of organic forms found on Galentor.

• Thyraxis System, 34 light-years away, notable for its bright K-type main-sequence star and a wide circumstellar ring of debris thought to be the remnants of a failed planetary system.

• Yedrax Cluster, 41 light-years distant; a small, tightly bound group of four K- and M-class stars with a rich circumstellar medium. It hosts the F.S.B. Lovell Deep-Space Observatory, a Federal Empire station dedicated to exploration, scientific observation, and long-range surveys of outer galactic space and indeed intergalactic space. The Yedrax Cluster is becoming a key forward outpost for monitoring interstellar phenomena and emerging threats to Federal Empire space.

This small grouping of stars makes up the closest this part of the galaxy has to a cluster or a stellar association, and is known as the Tharyn Assemblage, after Professor Vek Tharyn, the Draconian astrophysicist who formed part of Doctor Xafonix’s team.  Professor Vek Tharyn discovered that this small grouping of stars is found within a localised region centred on the Thryaxis System, roughly spherical in shape and 50 light years in radius, which is denser than the surrounding very thin interstellar medium this far out from the galactic core.

Beyond this localised density of the interstellar medium, space in these far reaches of the galaxy is very thin and the interstellar medium here is much less dense than that around Earth’s Solar System.  The Galen system is some 5,000 light years from the effective edge of the stellar disk of the galaxy, that is the part of the galaxy containing the spiral arms and their stars.

The Galen System is effectively a cosmic island, where phenomena such as interstellar cloud encounters, nearby supernovae, or perturbations from stellar neighbours are rare, making it one of the quietest and most stable sectors for long-term planetary evolution. This isolation has aided the stability of Galentor’s biosphere, leading to an extraordinarily interdependent ecosystem.

Prior to the inauguration of the Galactic Federation, the whole region in which the Tharyn Assemblage is found was claimed by the Draconian Empire, although during this period it was never explored or even reached.  

In practical terms, Galen’s location at the very edge of the galaxy means that exploration and supply missions from the Galactic Federation or Federal Empire were always going to be infrequent and extremely delayed, giving any settlers a degree of autonomy uncommon in more densely populated regions of the Milky Way.

Galen Beta's orbit around Galen Alpha and its planetary system. The orbit of Falcoris around Galen Alpha is just about visible in this image.

Jorath the Path-Maker

 A write-up of Jorath the Path-Maker from Tyranny of the Daleks.  This is using the second edition rules for the Doctor Who Roleplaying Game from Cubicle 7.

Jorath attacked by a Mugati

Concept: Guide to the paths of Galentor

Focus: Footpaths

Homeworld: Galentor

Tech level: 1

Short-term goal: Protect the Pham from the Evil Ones

Long-term goal: Understand Thural’s true connection to Lentargi and the “light that binds all life,” which he believes might one day bring peace to Galentor.

Awareness 3, Coordination 4,

Ingenuity 3, Presence 3,

Resolve 2, Strength 4

Skills: Athletics 4 (Running),  Conflict 3 (Staff), Convince 2, Craft 2, Intuition 2, Knowledge 3 (Galentor pathways), Medicine 2, Science 0, Subterfuge 2, Survival 3 (Forest), Technology 0, Transport 0

Notes: Jorath’s Knowledge is limited to matters concerning Galentor, and the Pham’s unwritten history and lore.

Equipment: Wooden staff (+2 to Strength)

Story Points: 0

Character notes

Quotation: “The spirits walk in the green light, and their breath stirs the trees. Thural says they remember us still — so we must remember them."

Jorath is a broad-shouldered, resilient man of thirty-two, with regular handsome features, brown hair, and sharp eyes that miss little. Standing six feet tall, he moves with the agility of a seasoned hunter and the endurance of one who has spent his life beneath the vast canopy of Galentor’s endless forests. His walking staff is both a companion and weapon,  a smooth, dark pole carved from a fallen Skywood tree, polished by years of use.  As well as the staff, in his pockets he carries some small useful objects including a bone knife, dried roots, a stone flint and a charm made from Lumtarg fungi (which glows faintly at night).  His simple white tunic is made from woven plant fibre, and he wears an animal-hide belt.

Jorath's role in the Pham is to scout and monitor the forest trails, marking safe routes and searching for prey. He also serves as an informal guardian at the tribe's borders, watching for Mugati beasts, Robo-men patrols or the Daleks (the metal ghosts, as Jorath calls them). He has explored some of the human ruins including as far as Tharenos, the old capital of Galentor. Like all the Pham, he has to contribute to the welfare of his tribe, and does so by being a hunter and forager whilst undertaking his path finding work.

At the age of eighteen, an incident occurred when he was out foraging near the Shimmering Ferns. He saw what he believed was the spirit of Lentargi descending to the ground. It was a pulsing green light that made the trees hum and the air shimmer. In awe, he fell to his knees.  In truth, this was a relic, a malfunctioning Federation reconnaissance drone that was still, somehow, operative decades after the fall of Galentor, its nuclear reactor leaking radiation that made the Lumtarg fungi on the ground below it bioluminescent. The device crashed soon after, and Jorath took it as a divine sign, his first personal encounter with what he calls the "living light" of Lentargi.

In his mid-twenties, another tribesman by the name of Marek accused Thural of calling storms through blasphemy.  Jorath stepped forward to defend his shaman and fought Marek with staff and shield by the Targmaw Gorge, the ritual location for such duels.  Jorath defeated Marek, and in so doing pushed his opponent to the edge of the gorge, but stopped short of forcing Marek to fall into it, thereby sparing his life. Jorath's loyalty impressed Thural, and the shaman taught him part of the "Rite of the Sacred Breath", a primitive form of meditation used to commune with Lentargi.

Though he appears straightforward, Jorath’s instincts are keen. He carries the oral traditions of his people with quiet reverence, especially the teachings of Thural, whom he regards as both a prophet and the voice of Lentargi made flesh.

Jorath is steadfast and loyal, the kind of man who listens more than he speaks. Among the Pham, he is respected for his bravery and dependability, though some of the younger people find his faith in Thural's teachings overly reverent. He bears no hatred for the Thals, whom he sees as "the other tribe of the stars", though he does not fully trust them, believing they meddle in things that awaken the Evils Ones (the Daleks).

Thurali

A write-up of Thurali from Tyranny of the Daleks.  This is using the second edition rules for the Doctor Who Roleplaying Game from Cubicle 7.

A vision of Lentargi at the Shimmering Ferns

Concept: Union of Thural and the bio-quantum energy of Lentargi in Extermina, the Dalek virtual world

Focus: Caring for all life on Galentor

Homeworld: Galentor

Tech level: 3

Short-term goal: To rid Galentor of the infestation of the Evil Ones

Long-term goal: Caring for all life on Galentor

Awareness 6, Coordination 3,

Ingenuity 4, Presence 5,

Resolve 6, Strength 4

Skills:  Athletics 4 (Running), Conflict 3, Convince 3, Intuition 4 (Empathy), Knowledge 3 (Galentor Mythology), Medicine 4 (Folk medicine), Science 0, Subterfuge 4 (Camouflage), Survival 4 (Wilderness), Technology 0, Transport 0

Note: These statistics relate to the manifestation of Thurali in Extermina, the Dalek virtual world.

Distinctions: Uplifted being with raised attributes and skills, extra abilities described below

Story Points: 12 

(Extra points due to fusion with Lentargi)

Character notes

During the adventure, one possibility is that Thural, leader of the Pham and shaman of Lentargi, will unify with the spirit of Lentargi through a special ceremony he has learned in secret books of lore. This could create a super-being called Thurali, who may come to the Doctor’s aid in defeating the Daleks.

In essence, the ceremonial ritual opens the mind of the devotee to the spirit of Lentargi. To Thural and the Pham, Lentargi is more than a god. It is the living essence of all things, from which all strength, vitality and fertility comes.  Whilst the Pham think of Lentargi in mystical, mythological terms, it is in fact a planetary-scale life-field.

The Lentargi field (as Xafonix labelled it) is a bio-electro-quantum network; a naturally emergent, planet-wide phenomenon arising from the interaction of Galentor’s biosphere, magnetosphere, and the subatomic lattice of certain crystalline elements.

Within the Lentargi Field exists a state of quantum coherence, a shared information substrate binding DNA, neuronal patterns, and even microbial behavior. This creates a Life Matrix: a distributed network allowing rapid adaptive responses across species , for instance, simultaneous flowering, migration patterns, or coordinated healing of ecosystems after trauma.

It’s not telepathy, but a biophysical empathy; life literally responding as one.

There are special localities, such as the Shimmering Fens near the Pham’s grounds, rich in the Lumarg fungi, where resonance patterns from the Lentargi Field can be detected. Anyone here may have hallucinations, or as the Pham calls them, visions, including those of Lentargi itself, as the mythical Lord of the Mugati.   During one of these ceremonies at the Shimmering Fens after a Dalek attack, in prayer Thural opened his mind to Lentargi like never before. His brainwaves synchronised with the low-frequency oscillations of the Lentargi Field as his ritual chanting grew louder.

As such, the neural network of Thural’s brain became quantum entangled with the Lentargi field, unifying both as one being, Thurali. As a planetary-scale bio-quantum field, Thurali is able to engage in quantum entanglement with any coherent energy pattern, including the Daleks’ virtual hive-mind, Extermina.

As the Doctor’s consciousness was drawn into Extermina by the Daleks, the Time Lord managed to open a quantum bridge, and Thurali crossed over into the vast psionic simulation that is the Daleks’ virtuality.  His goal is to locate the Stranger (the Pham’s word for the Doctor) and do whatever is needed to cleanse his world of the Dalek incursion.

In this form, he appears as Thural, but imbued with the authority and intuitive awareness of the planetary consciousness that is Lentargi.  He speaks with the resonance of the planet’s spirit.

Inside Extermina, Thurali has special powers to navigate through the virtual environment. The Lentargi Field,  a living bio-quantum network, naturally resonates with the subatomic code that forms the Daleks’ virtual environment. To him, Extermina’s data-streams appear not as sterile code but as living harmonics, currents of resonance that he can sense and follow like pathways of vibration. Where the Daleks see logic and order, Thurali perceives the rhythm of life and corruption intertwined, allowing him to move through their virtual hive-mind as though walking through a living landscape. In this way, he becomes a ghost in their circuitry, guided by empathy rather than logic, and uniquely attuned to the pulse of life even within a realm built for death.

In game terms, navigating through Extermina will require Resolve + Intuition rolls, the difficulty being based on the distance involved and any in-built defences (firewalls if you like) around a particular locality. 

In addition, Thurali can, once per scenario session, attune to Extermina’s underlying code and perform an act of “restoration”, effectively healing some part of the virtual world or wresting control momentarily of Dalek control systems. This requires an Ingenuity + Intuition v 21 roll as it such an effort, and in the case of a failure, this will cause massive psychic feedback and Thurali risks dispersion (effectively disappearing from Extermina), which can only be avoided with a Resolve + Survival v 18 roll. 

Dalek Scoutship

A write-up of the Dalek Scoutship from Tyranny of the Daleks.  This is using the second edition rules for the Doctor Who Roleplaying Game from Cubicle 7.

Dalek Scoutships inside a Battleship

A dark shape against the stars, the Dalek Scoutship is the silent workhorse of the Second Dalek Empire. Compact, swift, and unnervingly spartan, these vessels slip into unexplored systems without fanfare, probing worlds before the main fleets arrive. They carry Daleks, Robo-Men, prisoners, or whatever the Empire requires, but always with the same purpose: to prepare a planet for subjugation.

The craft itself is brutally utilitarian. There is space for two Daleks or up to eight Robo-Men, but “space” is all it offers; no seats, no restraints, no comfort. The Daleks regard turbulence as irrelevant, and many humanoid passengers have been thrown against bulkheads during transit, sometimes with fatal results. To travel in one is to feel like so much cargo.

The Scoutship’s design reflects its role as a first-response vessel. Twin trans-solar discs generate lift, while stubby wings stabilize it if flying in an atmosphere. The controls are deliberately crude so that even a Robo-Man can fly it, though in practice the craft largely pilots itself once a destination is set. Sensors are minimal, communications link only to Dalek command channels, and there are no weapons at all. The Empire considers stealth and expendability to be armament enough.

Despite its stripped-down nature, the Scoutship is fast. In a typical planetary atmosphere it can reach up to 4,000 km/h, though structural stress usually forces lower speeds. In the vacuum of space it travels at up to 1% of light speed, making it an efficient interplanetary courier. 

Rarely (and in game terms normally with the spending of Story Points) some Scoutships are fitted with an experimental Relativistic Drive, capable of hurling the vessel to a terrifying 70–80% of light speed. Engaging such a drive is a gamble: without precise computer handling, or a player’s Hard difficulty level Coordination + Transport rolls, the Scoutship is almost certain to disintegrate within minutes. Even expert repairs (Hard Ingenuity + Technology rolls) may only buy a little time before the vessel tears itself apart. (In game terms 2d6 minutes after the Relativistic Drive is engaged without computer control, the Scoutship will explode, destroying everyone and everything inside. If the Technology roll is made, this is extended by a further 2d6 minutes).

In short, the Dalek Scoutship is a paradox: fragile yet fearsome, crude yet dangerously effective. To encounter one is to glimpse the patient reach of the Empire, and perhaps to steal a tool of survival from the claws of its masters.

Concept: Short range scout

Focus: Scout ship

Awareness 3, Coordination 4, Ingenuity 2, Presence 3, Resolve 3, Strength 3

Distinctions: None

Weapons: None

Tech Level: 9

Story Points: 6

Dalek Scoutship ascending from the surface of Galentor

Hoverbouts

 A write-up of the Hoverbouts from Tyranny of the Daleks.  This is using the second edition rules for the Doctor Who Roleplaying Game from Cubicle 7.

HOVERBOUTS

Exterminator Daleks on hoverbouts attack! The Exterminators are flying on Striker class Hoverbouts.

When Daleks rise from the battle lines they often do it flying on Hoverbouts – shimmering anti‑gravity discs wider than a Dalek’s own base. Each platform usually skims ten to twenty metres above the ground, slipping over forests or city spires with effortless menace, and can climb far higher whenever the mission demands.

Powered by transolar‑disc technology, these craft are especially used by squadrons of Exterminator Daleks. In perfect formation they bank, roll, and surge forward, their riders blasting targets long before any ground force can answer.

The Second Dalek Empire fields two distinct models:

Protector Hoverbout

Armour 8

Hit Capacity 15

Speed Average

Typically used by Command, Science and Drone Daleks

Striker Hoverbout

Armour 3

Hit Capacity 10

Speed Fast

Typically used by Exterminator Daleks.

Protector Class Hoverbouts exchange velocity for durability, wrapping their motive cores in reinforced plating that shrugs off small‑arms fire.

Striker Class Hoverbouts strip away excess shielding, turning every scrap of mass into raw thrust. The result is blistering speed, perfect for rapid attack runs and lightning‑fast redeployments.

Anybody from ground level firing up at a Dalek on a Hoverbout is most likely to hit the Hoverbout rather than the Dalek due to the angle. To hit a Hoverbout with a Dalek on top of it from ground level using a ranged weapon such as a rifle or a laser gun requires an opposed roll of the attacker’s Coordination + Conflict v the Dalek’s Coordination + Transport (remembering that Exterminator Daleks have a Hoverbout specialisation in Transport and assuming the attack is within range). If it is a Striker Hoverbout, this roll will be at a Disadvantage due to the Hoverbout’s speed of Fast.

To actually hit the Dalek on top requires the same roll but rolled with Disadvantage. If you are trying to hit the Dalek on a Striker Hoverbout, this would also give the Dalek a +2 bonus as well as having to roll at a Disadvantage.

Daleks prize Hoverbouts because they conserve a travel machine's internal power, offer an extra layer of defence, and, in the case of the Striker, provide a faster means of travel. Wherever these discs appear, their sinister hum usually heralds swift destruction from above.

The Dalek Commander descends to the surface of Galentor on a Hoverbout following the initial successful conquest of the planet in 4078, accompanied by the Revelator Dalek.

Drone Daleks

 A write-up of Drone Daleks from Tyranny of the Daleks.  This is using the second edition rules for the Doctor Who Roleplaying Game from Cubicle 7.

DRONE DALEKS

A Drone Dalek (in blue) reports to the Dalek Commander

For statistics, see the 2nd edition rulebook for the Doctor Who Roleplaying Game, page 225.

In addition, Drone Daleks are sometimes equipped with cutting torches:

Plasma cutting torch - Heavy‑duty industrial cutter. This appendage to the gunstick emits a focused plasma arc beam capable of melting or fusing most known alloys, doing 5 points of damage per round.

Distinction - Unlock/Seal - can only be used to cut metallic objects including doors, bulkheads or armour plating and the door or wall etc, has to be reduced to 0 hit capacity before it is cut through in a hole large enough for a Dalek to travel through.

Can be treated as a short‑range energy weapon in close combat. Damage is (3/5/8); ignores 2 points of physical Armour due to heat damage, but can overheat; on a roll of double 1s the torch powers down for one round.

Special: Generates intense light; any adjacent target, including anyone in close combat with the Drone Dalek, not wearing appropriate eye protection must make an Awareness + Resolve v 9 test or be dazzled (lose 2 Awareness points).

The torch has to be fitted over the end of the gunstick, and this operation takes two rounds to fit, and two rounds to remove, assuming all the equipment is in good working order.

Character notes

Every empire needs its legions, and the Second Dalek Empire marches to war on the backs of its most unrelenting force, the Drone Daleks. Numberless, tireless, and pitiless, these are the foot soldiers and labourers of the Dalek war machine. They are the ones who hold the ground after the skies have burned and the cities have fallen. Where Intruder Daleks sneak and Exterminator Daleks slaughter, the Drones descend like a tidal wave of metal and fire, flooding through breach points and spreading across the rubble-strewn landscape until nothing remains but obedience or ash.

Aboard the Dalek Battleships of the Galen Division, Drones perform endless cycles of maintenance, tending to the engines and systems that keep the fleet aloft. But when war is declared, their purpose changes in an instant. As soon as the first strike clears a path, Drone Daleks are deployed in overwhelming numbers to secure, patrol and dominate what remains. It is said that, in the silence after a battle, one can sometimes hear their emotionless cry of “EXTERMINATE!” still echoing across the smouldering ruins, repeating long after all resistance has gone.

Do not mistake their rank for weakness. A single Drone Dalek is a formidable adversary, fully armed and capable of annihilating an entire squad of soldiers. In close quarters, they can be fitted with cutting torches to slice through reinforced bunkers, sealed bulkheads or desperate holdouts who believe they still have time to escape. They are designed to eliminate hope as thoroughly as they eliminate targets.

The Galen Division fields a terrifying force: two companies of Drone Daleks, two hundred in each, aboard each of its four Battleships. These eight companies form two complete battalions, enough to occupy a continent or subjugate a planet in days.

Drone Daleks wear the cold colours of inevitability, deep blue armour, burnished silver sensory hemispheres, gunsticks, and limb mounts. When they arrive, it signals one terrible truth: the extermination has already begun, and they are here to make sure it never ends.

Drone Daleks on hoverbouts with two Battleships in the background