Everyone turned to the radarscope as one. "What's that-"
"It's a group of them," said Wally, first to parse the output. "Converging on us." He turned and looked at them. "Fast."
Guybrush felt a chill. Upchuck. Has to be.
"How long?" he asked.
"Four minutes, at the most," said Wally.
Guybrush turned and grabbed Elaine by the arm. "Get the Hermit out of there, now. I don't care what he's doing. Have him help you disengage the ship."
"What are you-"
He flapped her away. "Just go! No time!"
Elaine ran off. Guybrush could hear her swearing under her breath as he looked again at Wally, who had an expression of dismay on his face.
"It's not looking good," he said. "They're faster than us. Profiles match those of advanced fighterships. And they seem to know exactly where we are."
"How'd they find us?" said Guybrush.
Wally shrugged, then paused. "Of course! The portal stones! Guybrush, they can-"
"Nevermind that now," said Guybrush, aware of seconds slipping away. "Have we got enough power to cloak?"
Wally glanced at the screen. "Yeees. But that's taking a lot from the engines. We're not going to be anywhere near top speed."
"Right. Okay, here's the plan..."
There was a deep dull thudding pain in her head, like someone
rhythmically pounding two anvils together. And as Elaine stumbled through
the passages of XStation, she noticed the edges of her vision starting
to blur. Not really in a condition to rescue anyone at the moment,
she thought wryly.
She tried another shout, even though the noise shattered her skull like frozen glass. "Hermit!!"
And he appeared. He held something in his right hand, hidden in his curled fist. "Elaine? What's the fuss?"
"We're under attack," Elaine gasped. "Got to go." The Hermit nodded, once. Together they ran back to Boss Hog. The Hermit sealed the airlock behind them, and helped Elaine back through the ship, past Mancomb (still out cold), and into the cockpit, where Guybrush and Wally were huddled together in intense debate.
They straightened up as Elaine and the Hermit entered. "How long do we have?" asked Elaine. That fuzziness in her vision was growing.
"One and half minutes," said Guybrush. "Wally's scanning the radarscope for the right moment." He noticed the dazed look on Elaine's face, and came quickly over to her side. He helped her onto a small stool at the rear of the cockpit. Two straps ran down the wall, quickly he crossed them and belted them at the side of the stool. "Might get a little rough soon," he said. A glance at the Hermit told him he was taking similar precautions, and then Guybrush returned to the seat.
"One minute," said Wally.
Guybrush sat tight and resisted the impulse to gnaw his knuckles. He stared at the radarscope, with its ten fightership blips spread out in a deadly cloud, slowly narrowing as it closed on them.
For the moment, they were invisible. Boss Hog was quite small, compared to the rickety warehouse that was XStation. Once the fighterships got close enough for direct visuals, however, it would be all over in milliseconds. So they had to cloak.
But it wasn't enough to cloak, they also had to get away. And there were techniques for taking out a cloaked craft. A fightership's onboard computer could scan the entire night sky, and knew the position of a million stars. Against that backdrop, a cloaked ship would show up as a most conspicuous silhouette.
All they could do was use the cover available to them. Which meant XStation. When the fighterships were close enough, they would cloak, slip around the back of XStation, and fly straight out of there. By the time the fighterships had finished their pass of the station they'd hopefully be long gone. But the plan could only work if XStation covered a significant amount of the sky, from the viewpoint of the fighterships. Which meant allowing them suicidally close...
"Thirty seconds," said Wally.
Guybrush stared at the radarscope, his throat dry. "Just go for it," he croaked.
"But-"
"Now!"
Wally hit the cloaking switch and with the same movement moved the flight yoke down. Guybrush held on to the straps as they turned in a tight circle around XStation.
The radarscope flashed. Shots from the fightership - they'd been noticed. Several pounded XStation where Boss Hog had been seconds before. XStation buckled, several panels blew out, but the structure held. As debris spewed out behind them Guybrush grinned. This'd help mask their escape.
Now they were on the opposite side of XStation. The fighterships were one white halo on the radarscope with XStation at its centre. Wally straightened the flight yoke and yanked the throttle forward. As they sped off, he stared unblinkingly at the radarscope. The halo was widening, expanding...
A single dot emerged from the halo. "Crap. They've come around early," said Guybrush. Well, that might be okay. One they could evade.
Two more resolved themselves on the radarscope. "Double crap." With three ships scanning the sky, their combined resolution would pick them out easily. "Any other cover we can use?" said Guybrush.
Wally was already changing course. "Just the one. The portal stone. Might be big enough..."
The radarscope flashed. "I think they're firing at us again," said Elaine.
Wally jerked the flight yoke around, sending Boss Hog on erratic spirals and curves. The intensity of the radarscope flashes grew. Despite Wally's best efforts, they were being targeted.
Still he flew on, the portal stone growing closer on the radarscope. The Hermit suddenly stirred behind Guybrush. "Stop," he said. "I believe this is a very bad idea..."
The radarscope flashed blindingly bright. At the same instant Wally pulled up hard on the flight yoke.
Boss Hog jerked back at a ninety degree angle. The space below was rent by four simultaneous blasts, that with unerring accuracy converged on and struck the portal stone.
Immediately the portal stone began to glow. A deep pulsing red, the kind Guybrush had become so familiar with.
"Oh, great," said Elaine. "Now we're going to have to track it down all over again..."
But the portal stone stayed where it was. It seemed to be getting brighter. Guybrush was looking at it through direct visual, and he could swear he saw cracks, like dark valleys, multiplying on the surface.
The portal stone exploded. Stone fragments blasted out at all angles, white-hot and vaporising before their very eyes. But something had been left behind...
"This is not possible," breathed Guybrush.
Curled up tightly in a space ten times greater than that of the portal stone, was a stone monkey. It lifted its head, and opened its eyes. It roared.
Seconds later Boss Hog vanished.