No matter. He sure wasn't going to stop one and find out
It went on like this for what seemed like forever. Hunter kept weaving his way through the loose formation and kept destroying targets. They weren't avoiding him exactly, but at times it seemed like the number of enemy ships was endless. He'd grease one, and it was as if two would take its place. He'd splash another one, and two more would pop up behind it. It was madness! And he'd become part of it.
But he had to keep going. He couldn't let any of them get by him. He kept firing and firing and firing.
But then, suddenly, he just stopped.
He literally put on the brakes and stopped his ship in mid-space — and thought a moment. Something was wrong here. This was almost too easy. The words of the Ancient Astronaut came back to him. The devils will use everything to get what they want: deception, distraction, deceit.
They will try to make the heroes fool themselves.
Hunter checked his timepiece.
Damn; the countdown had less than thirty seconds to go!
And that's when it hit him. These ships probably weren't carrying anybody. They were able to fire.
They were able to present themselves as targets. But they were a distraction.
And it had almost worked. The heroes had almost fooled themselves.
But not Hunter. He turned his ship 180 degrees and vengefully hit his power bar again. An instant later, he was screaming back to Zero Point.
There were twenty-four REF ships waiting there.
Some had flown through the schism just before it had closed; the rest had come up from Doomsday 212. All of them had their weapons systems cranked up to full power. All of them had their crews at battle stations. With the ships of the good forces off chasing the empty decoys from Hell, the REF ships were able to align themselves in four attack formations of six ships each. Their noses were pointing to a piece of space not far from where their portal to Hell had been sealed. This was the exact spot where the UPF fleet had disappeared just a little over a month ago.
This was where that same fleet was due to emerge.
The REF ships never saw Hunter coming.
Too intent on ambushing the UPF ships once they crossed over, their crews were distracted. They weren't paying attention to anything but the matter at hand. The gold F-Machine came upon them so suddenly, they didn't even move. One ship went up, hit by a massive Z-beam barrage on its control bubble. Another went up, hit by a murderous fusillade on its prop core. A third exploded, its aft section blown away from the rest of its gigantic body.
In five seconds, three ships were destroyed.
Trouble was, there were only twenty seconds to go.
Hunter twisted over and lined up another huge Red Ship. Another barrage from his Z beams; the ship was instantly a flaming hulk. He turned over again. The REF crews were reluctant to change their positions; they wanted to stay ready to pounce on the UPF ships as soon as they appeared. This made it easier for Hunter to pick them off. But it was more a matter of time now than numbers. He put the next ship in his sights and pushed his weapons bar. It went up in a flash.
Fifteen seconds to go — still nineteen REF ships lying in wait.
Hunter screamed through them again. Some were firing at him now, but he easily twisted through the scattered X beams.
He went after the ship closest to where the UPF would pop out. He drilled it stern to stern with his Z
guns. It split right down the middle and exploded.
Twelve seconds to go—
It was like target practice now, but Hunter could not stop time — at least not in this circumstance. It took him several precious seconds to nail a ship, and those seconds were running out. He couldn't possibly get them all.
Ten seconds to go…
He hit two ships at once, leaving his Z-beam guns engaged and slicing through a pair of monsters that had chosen to ride too close to one another.
Seven seconds to go…
Another quick blast, and Hunter took out what looked to be the REF command ship.
Five seconds…
Hunter hit his wide scan. There were still fifteen REF ships in wait.
Three seconds…
He'd done all he could.
Two seconds…
One…
Nothing happened.
There was no bright flash. There was no huge explosion.
No glorious parting of space and time. No tear at all.
The time had come and gone, and absolutely nothing at all had happened at Zero Point.
Thirty seconds went by.
Hunter was loitering just a few hundred miles away, watching it all on his wide-screen scan. A full minute passed. Still nothing. The REF ships stayed frozen in place, waiting for something, anything.
But nothing happened.
Hunter couldn't believe it. He checked his timepiece. Had it been set wrong? Obviously not, because the REF had lined up at the spot at the same time he determined the fleet would break through. Had Joxx's brave action sealed the portal from Heaven as well? Hunter's gut told him no. But now nearly three minutes had passed, and still there was no sign of the UPF ships.
Something must have gone wrong, he thought.
There was no other explanation.
This eventually dawned on the REF ships, too. Stunned into inaction for a few moments, they were beginning to stir again.
Had he thought longer about it, Hunter knew he could have predicted their actions. But now he watched in horror as they formed up into a single attack line, turned around, and headed right back down toward Doomsday 212.
Damn!
It was the other side of the coin again. The planet lay practically unprotected now, and these fifteen ships were loaded with weaponry. By using either orbital bombardment or firing their weapons down on the surface at full crank, they could complete the massacre of the millions of innocents still on the planet, along with the soldiers on the ground who were trying to help them.
Hunter desperately tore after them again. But they were no longer sitting still for him. He was moving fast, but they began moving fast, too. And even he couldn't shoot down fifteen Starcrashers at once. It became a numbers game again. While he was greasing half of them, the other half would be able to vaporize the planet in seconds, especially now that they no longer had any use for the people below as hostages. Hell, two Starcrashers could kill everyone on that planet in a matter of minutes. Or even just one, if it was left alone long enough.
Hunter was furious. At himself. At the situation. At the cosmos. It seemed no matter what he did, he just wasn't going to win this fight. He'd come back from Paradise, he'd traveled across the Galaxy. He'd been tempted with promises to return to the best parts of his life… and for what? An outcome like this?
Maybe this was how it was supposed to happen, he thought darkly. Maybe the bad side was supposed to win all the time. And maybe the rest of them had got it wrong a long time ago.
But no sooner had the thought traveled through his head when something very strange happened…
He was trailing behind the mob of REF ships, trying to figure out how he could possibly ping them all before they busted up the entire planet, when suddenly there was a tremendous burst of light and energy. It came from behind him, and he swore he could feel the light particles going right through him. It was more intense than any prop-core explosion, more intense than when he saw the portal to Hell open up. It was blinding, even though his eyes were turned away from it.