And then everything went haywire.
The ground around them began rumbling and shaking. Shapes were rising from the surface: at first like tiny mountains pushing upward, then like rocky eggs floating above the ground. The Space Moose were evacuating, Guybrush could hear Mancomb shouting. More laser blasts shot down from above, one striking a Space Moose ship. It blew outward in a flat pancake of debris. Ships were swooping down on the Space Moose craft - Upchuck fighters, followed closely by Galaxy Police ships. All around them was a whirling confusion of laser bolts, fighter craft and explosions.
Cloaked or not, they were in a very dangerous position. A cloaking device was a useful strategic tool, but it had its disadvantages. The way a cloak worked, it absorbed all the energy radiated upon it. This meant it wouldn't be visible to the naked eye, wouldn't show up on a radarscope, couldn't be probed by radio waves. Unless a cloaked ship moved in front of something highly visible (this was known as 'silhouetting'), it was effectively invisible. The downside to this was that no radiation could be emitted by the craft, while all the time it was collecting radiation: visible light, infrared, x-rays, the lot. This meant the interior temperature of the craft would continue to rise as long as the cloaking device was activated. This put an effective time limit on how long an effective cloak could be held. The limit rose the further you got from the sun, but it was never more than around an hour.
The big problem, however, was that cloaking devices completely changed the operation of the ship's shields. Normally, a fighter craft's shields worked by reflecting as much of the energy blast as possible, and distributing the remainder of energy over the whole of the ship, rather than just one focused point. But with cloaks activated, no energy would be reflected at all. This greatly increased the ship's vulnerability to enemy fire. A blast that would be shrugged off by a normal fighter would be lethal to a cloaked one.
What all of this meant was that Guybrush sat there knowing that if just one misdirected blast struck them, they'd go up in flames. And given the frequency of the blasts out there, this prospect looked increasingly likely. But to even rise off the surface of the moon and look for a discreet exit would mean exposing Boss Hog to a more intense field of fire.
Alerted by the first laser blast, Wally came pelting into the cockpit. He wriggled into the copilot seat and Guybrush, looking at him, came to a decision. The kid had better reflexes, let him do the flying.
"Wally, take us out of here," said Guybrush.
"Sure thing, Mr. Brush," said Wally.
"Remember: we're cloaked."
Wally nodded. "Hang on to something, folks," he said.
Guybrush wondered if the other people understood the fix they were in. Elaine maybe not, the Hermit almost certainly. He thought Mancomb might have protested, but he seemed stunned by events.
It was quiet and tense in the cockpit as Wally lifted Boss Hog into space. Slowly they rose, Wally taking care so as not to allow the rocky surface below them to betray their presence. Guybrush stared at out the viewscreen and wondered who was winning the battle. There were far too many combatants and laser blasts for him to make sense of it.
He saw a Galaxy Police ship strike an Upchuck fighter dead on: they both went up in a flashing white explosion. "Good," he heard Mancomb mutter behind him.
Wally was still taking them up into the air, slowly nosing the craft left and right. He studied the radarscope, looking for regions of lower intensity, breaks in the pattern. "There," he said softly, and even before he'd finished the syllable he'd wrenched them around in a three quarter circle, sending them diving along the surface of the moon. The laggy gravity nearly took Guybrush's head off; behind him, he heard Elaine swear, and Mancomb fall over.
They hugged the ground like this for fifteen minutes, pushing Boss Hog's speed as high as he dared. Then he pulled back on the flight stick, announcing, "We're clear."
"Very interesting," said the Hermit. "Upchuck's displays of power are becoming more overt."
"Can't say I like this much," grumbled Mancomb. "Flying like cowards from a fight, and me separated from the Space Moose men."
"Can't say like we had much choice," said Elaine. "Besides, it's our ship."
"Your ship?" said Mancomb.
Guybrush, again, moved between them. "Now now, it's nobody's fault we're in this situation. All we've got to worry about now is what we do next. Come on down below, and we'll see what everyone has to say."