Mirana, captain of the scoutship Defiant, faces a dilemma; enemy Daleks have boarded her ship with Alby Brook and a young woman named Morli held prisoner, and both will be exterminated unless Mirana surrenders Susan Mendes. Suz takes Mirana’s gun and steps forward, identifying herself despite Alby’s pleas, and as the Daleks begin to exterminate Mirana’s security guards Suz puts the gun to her head and threatens to kill herself. The enemy Daleks are after the mind of their Emperor, and as that’s hidden inside Suz’s mind, they need her alive. Forced to back down, the Daleks demand to know why Mirana revived Suz in the first place when the Mentor had ordered her death. Morli believes it’s because Alby loves Suz, but the Daleks suspect that Mirana and Kalendorf may have other reasons. Unsure whether Suz will really carry out her threat to kill herself, but unwilling to take the risk, the Daleks agree to compromise; if Suz does not harm herself, they will allow the other humans to live. Suz has won, and won’t have to kill herself. If only she were happy about that...

The Alliance fleet has suffered a major setback. Kalendorf’s ship has been seriously damaged and his executive officer Herrick badly injured, and though there are others in greater need of medical attention, Kalendorf insists that Herrick be sent to the medical bay immediately. It seems that the enemy Daleks realised all was lost, linked together their ship’s reactors and self-destructed, taking out a full 25 percent of the Alliance fleet with them. Unsurprisingly, the Mentor summons Kalendorf to answer for this, and he responds by proposing that the damaged fleet press on and secure a foothold in the outer planets before the second wave of Dalek ships arrives. While he tries to discuss battle tactics, however, the Mentor seems more interested in the fate of cargo freighter Omega N-7, especially as her monitors indicate that its cargo was picked up by the Defiant. Considering the nature of that cargo, the Mentor finds it peculiar that it was collected by a ship captained by Kalendorf’s friend Mirana... and doubly peculiar that Mirana was reassigned to routine patrol duties just before the attack on Earth’s solar system. The Mentor is not quite ready to challenge Kalendorf just yet, but she’s very, very suspicious.

The Enemy Daleks force the crew of the Defiant into the ship’s loading bay, and leave two Daleks on guard. Suz and Alby have finally been reunited after so long apart, but under extremely awkward circumstances. The Daleks have learned how to use hope to manipulate Suz; when all seems lost she has no reason to live, but if the Daleks hold out the possibility of hope she’ll do anything it takes to stay alive. She’s starting to think it would be best if she just died, especially if she takes the mind of the Emperor with her. However, Mirana warns Suz that this might not be the victory it seems. She doesn’t know what Kalendorf is planning, but she believes he is planning something -- and to Alby, this may be the most worrying thought of all.

The enemy Daleks unload their equipment from Alby’s ship, activate the Defiant’s engines and set off, preparing canisters of drammankin gas for use. In the landing bay, the captives realise that they’re heading for Earth, and Alby reveals that this is probably where the shell of the Emperor Dalek, believed destroyed, is in fact located. To explain this, he has to start with the distress call he picked up while waiting to rendezvous with the Defiant -- the same distress call which Mirana once detected coming from the shell of the Emperor. He traced the signal to the Pkowik system, where he found a space station littered with the remains of human beings and Daleks of both factions. The only survivor was Morli, a somewhat simple woman who claimed that this was a hospital run by the Alliance Daleks and that the “bad Daleks” had come and killed everyone.

The station had been damaged in the battle, and Alby and Morli themselves were nearly killed by a hull breach before they got to safety and sealed themselves off. Morli assured Alby that the bad Daleks had all gone, taking a large container with them, and Alby told Morli to show him where they’d taken the container from. Morli led Alby to a large chamber containing the shell of the Dalek Emperor, and Alby used his suit camera to let his Drudger take a look at it. The Drudger suggested that the Alliance Daleks had been trying to access the Emperor’s cerebral functions -- but why didn’t the Enemy Daleks take it with them? The Drudger then detected the approach of an enemy Dalek squadron on transolar discs, and when Alby tried to destroy the Dalek Emperor’s casing he found that it was a hologram, presumably generated by the Alliance Daleks to practice experimental procedures. The enemy Daleks really did take the Emperor’s casing with them, which implies that they’re coming back not for their Emperor, but for Alby.

Alby and Morli fled through the station’s infrastructure, trying to avoid the Daleks and get back to Alby’s ship, but they were too late; the Daleks had already captured it, and soon both Alby and Morli were prisoners. Keeping Morli alive as a hostage to ensure Alby’s co-operation, the Daleks then attached a brain analysis disc to Alby and questioned him about Susan Mendes. Alby attempted to resist their torture, but to no avail; the Daleks knew how to ask the proper questions and apply psychological pressure to make him think about the answers, and though he didn’t give his friends away consciously, the brain analysis disc tapped into his mind and revealed the location of the rendezvous with the Defiant. But even then, Alby realised that the Daleks already knew far too much. Did they somehow know he’d be coming out here, and did they deliberately send the distress call to lure him into a trap?

Mirana is disturbed by the implications of Alby’s story, and by some of Morli’s comments, which suggest that she was brainwashed by the Alliance Daleks in their “hospital”. But Marber then confronts them, having learned the truth about Suz from the guards who survived the attack at the airlock. The view outside indicates that they’re heading to Earth, which presumably means that there will be stand-off and that the crew of the Defiant will be used as hostages. Marber knows that the Mentor will never give in to them, and Alby suspects that her forces will simply blow the Defiant out of the sky to simplify things. Marber demands to know why they don’t just kill Suz now, and is stunned to learn that the Mentor has already condemned her to death. Mirana and her friends are traitors. Enraged, Alby spells out the truth for Marber, informing him that though most people choose not to believe it, the rumours of the “Punished Planets” are true. The Mentor and her Daleks have been destroying whole worlds which refused to join their crusade. Without the Alliance Daleks the galaxy would have been overrun by the enemy faction long ago -- but what will happen when the war is over? The Mentor and her Daleks will be in charge, and anyone who disturbs the peace will be exterminated for their own good. A benign dictatorship may be the lesser of two evils, but Mirana prefers trusting Kalendorf to find a third option. She doesn’t know what he’s planning, but she believes that he won’t rest until every last Dalek has been driven from this galaxy...

Centuries in the future, Siy Tarkov is struggling to understand the motivations of these historical figures. He doesn’t know why Kalendorf didn’t trust his friends with the plan -- but Saloran Hardew believes that the more people Kalendorf had told about the plan, the more chance the Daleks would find out about it. But which faction was he plotting against?

The Alliance fleet has entered Earth’s solar system. The second wave of enemy ships is still some distance away, and Kalendorf thus orders the Alliance Daleks to scan the moons of Jupiter for landing spots so they can recharge and recuperate. But as Herrick returns to the bridge, the scan yields unexpected results -- the entire planet Jupiter has been terraformed. For some reason, the enemy Dalek faction has transformed the solar system’s biggest gas giant into a world inhabitable by human beings...

As the Defiant approaches Earth’s solar system, the Daleks prepare to deal with their human hostages by venting drammankin gas into the landing bay. As Suz will presumably become hostile when she realises what’s happening, the Dalek Commander orders the landing bay guards to withdraw. This backfires, however, as the humans see the Daleks retreating and realise that they’re up to something. Alby takes Suz’s gun and opens fire, damaging one of the retreating Daleks’ motive units and weaponry -- and the damaged Dalek grinds to a halt in the doorway, leaving the Daleks unable to seal the loading bay. As the hostages try to escape, the Daleks release the drammankin gas and force the bulkhead shut, crushing the disabled Dalek. 57 humans fall victim to the gas, and the Daleks track down the others as they flee, exterminating most of the escapees. Suz once again threatens to kill herself unless the Daleks stop firing, and Mirana and Marber thus manage to get to one of the Defiant’s escape pods and launch. However, Alby refuses to leave without Suz, and Morli lags behind, trying to convince him to get away while he can. The Dalek Commander orders its soldiers to shoot Alby and Morli with stun beams, and then threatens to kill them unless Suz surrenders the gun. She does.

Once again, Kalendorf proposes a potentially risky plan; half of the fleet will remain on guard in orbit around Jupiter, while the remaining ships land on the newly terraformed world for refuelling, repairs and a chance for the non-Dalek soldiers to stretch their legs. It seems safe to do so; there’s no intelligent life to be found on the planet, which Kalendorf suggests was intended for use as a military base before the Daleks were forced to retreat. The Mentor questions why such a base would be made habitable for humans, and suggests that it’s far more likely to be a trap. However, since the trap’s nature is unclear and the fleet desperately needs downtime before facing the second wave of Daleks, she reluctantly authorises Kalendorf’s plan. She warns him to proceed with extreme caution -- and, almost as an afterthought, informs him that since her monitors have been unable to contact the approaching Defiant, she has sent a gunship to offer “assistance”...