Once the blue and chrome ships were in position, Hunter began climbing back toward orbit. He checked his timepiece. Thirty minutes to go.
Where was Zero Point?
It wasn't a coordinate exactly, so it couldn't be found on any star map. It had no aura. No identifying nebula to mark its location. It was simply a point, floating in space, with absolutely nothing special around it. The only reason the sad world of Doomsday 212 was even connected to it was that it happened to be the closest planet of any size near the place.
But where was that place now?
The REF knew where it was, of course; not only had they been using it regularly since the start of their galactic wave of terror, they had had a hand in creating it a month before, during the battle that never was. But Hunter and his friends were never too sure of its location. Why? Because everything in space moved. The stars moved around the center of the Galaxy. The Galaxy was speeding through space. The question was, had the location of this portal moved as well?
It was an important thing to know. If the UPF fleet's cross-over was to be successful, the anti-REF forces would have to defend this invisible yet magical place. That meant that Hunter had to do some detective work and find it.
"Quickly…"
Once in orbit, he activated his wide-screen scanner again. It told him that at the moment there were nine REF ships somewhere within a light-year of Doomsday 212. Of course, he blinked, and the number bumped up to a dozen, and then just as quickly, it fell back to nine.
That was the trouble with the wide-screen scan. It was good technology, but it was not perfect. While it was able read a wide area and locate subatomic wakes, the telltale sign of Star-crashing space vessels, tüese ships moved so fast, as soon as a blip was found, its owner could be a light-year or more away, in any direction, thirty seconds later. In other words, the wide-screen scan couldn't tell you where an enemy ship was exactly, only where it had been.
But Hunter believed the device could still help him determine where Zero Point was.
He did a smaller scan and saw that two REF ships had been at a location above the planet's north pole just a few minutes before. Their wakes were somewhat stagnant, indicating they were lingering there, possibly coming up with an attack strategy. Hunter plunged through the atmosphere once more, leveling off 1,000 feet directly above the pole. He did another narrow scan and was just able to pick up two subatomic wakes heading in the direction of the original evacuation site several hundred miles away.
These were the same two REF ships he'd detected from orbit. He began following them.
One of the scanner's other talents was its ability to pick up sonic vibrations. Hunter pushed his flight panel to call up this function, and seconds later he heard the noise. It was earsplitting, gut wrenching, and he recognized it immediately. It was the racket made by a Starcrasher at crank, the speed a prop-core ship could fly within the gravitational pull of a planet. It was quick but nowhere near Supertime quick. And these two were making a lot of noise, meaning they were going very, very slow.
Hunter caught up to the Starcrashers just as they reached the edge of the original evacuation site.
They were flying just 500 feet off the ground and moving disturbingly slow, not even 100 miles per hour.
Hunter kept his cool, fighting off the temptation to put a couple Z-beam blasts into them and be done with it. At the moment, though, he was concerned about something other than greasing two more flying devils. Besides, he was hoping his friends on the ground were on their toes.
The first Starcrasher went over the chaotic rescue site and opened up with a fusillade of X-beam fire aimed at the soldiers and robots defending the site perimeter. A pang of horror caught in Hunter's throat.
Again, Starcrashers were designed to fight at very long distances in space, thus their incredibly powerful weapons. To fly so low over a target and use those same weapons on ground targets, at such close range, was almost incomprehensible.
But then something else happened. Not a split second after the Starcrasher had started its incredible gunship run, a storm of blue beams rose to meet it. There was a series of huge explosions, and in the next instant, the Starcrasher was gone.
But those on the ground beneath it were not immolated as they should have been.
Hunter breathed a sigh of relief. The Third Empire soldiers at the rescue site had set up a negative-energy weapon and, like the battle he'd just witnessed in space, they had countered what would have been a devastating pass by the first Star-crasher. By their actions, the Star Legionnaires had saved of thousands of lives on the ground — at least temporarily.
The second Starcrasher roared in, its weapons also blasting away. Again they were countered by the negative-energy weapons on the ground. The second REF streaked off, as unsuccessful as its dastardly comrade. But then the first Star-crasher showed up again, cranking in from another direction, its weapons in full roar. The first attack had been a feint. But somehow the counterweapons crews on the ground were able to wheel around in time to meet this new fusillade head-on. Again, whether it was an adjustment in power or a vagary of the wind, the red Starcrasher's broadside was hit by the counterpunch and turned back on itself, crashing into the nose of the attacking ship. The Starcrasher made a vain attempt to gain altitude, but it was too late. It came down, hard and violently, five miles away, disappearing in a huge nuclear cloud.
The remaining REF ship came back around but obviously, after seeing all this, wanted no further part of the attack. It turned first north, then west, avoiding the evacuation site altogether. Hunter twisted and turned and in seconds was just ten miles behind it. This was just what he wanted. He finally pushed his weapons panel and sent a very long stream of Z beams right into the REF ship's aft section — just nicking it, but on purpose.
Predictably, the REF ship went nose up and began climbing out of the atmosphere.
Hunter stayed right on its tail.
He followed the ship right up through orbit and beyond. The Starcrasher was damaged but not terribly, which had been his intention all along. Where would a damaged REF ship go if not back to its point of origin? He was hoping the wounded vessel would lead him to the spot in space where Zero Point existed.
He'd expected to trail the ship for at least a dozen light-years after leaving Doomsday 212, but then came his first surprise. The Starcrasher started slowing down not more than 10,000 miles out from the planet. Sure enough, his wide-screen scanner indicated a lot of subatomic activity in this area of space just in the past hour. Some of these telltale wakes even stopped right in midspace, and now the damaged Starcrasher was moving forward but at a crawl.
What more proof did he need?
He'd found Zero Point.
He checked his timepiece. It was now twenty-two minutes before the UPF crossover. He had to make contact with all his allies back on Doomsday 212. His guess was that many REF ships would start congregating in this area very soon. He and his friends had to be ready to do battle with these ships and defeat them before the unsuspecting fleet from Heaven tried to break through. Many refugees had been lifted off the planet below. Many more would eventually be rescued. But as horrible as it was, Doomsday 212 was just a sideshow now. The real battle would have to be fought here.
He closed in on the wounded REF ship. His plan was to shoot it up before it was actually able to escape. That would bring the number of REF ships down to just two dozen or so, manageable as his forces were now almost three times that number. He let go with a Z-beam barrage and…