"What the hell was that?" barked Tracy.
Corrigan pushed himself off the deck. Pain throbbed in his arms and his right knee. He put it out of his mind as the stench of smoke filled the ship. He looked over his shoulder.
The cockpit was wrecked. Flames and sparks danced and popped along the ruined console.
"Everyone okay?" Corrigan coughed on the smoke.
"Just peachy," said Tracy.
"I'm still alive," added Templar. "We'll just have to see how long that lasts."
Corrigan coughed again and stared out one of the portholes. Through the trees he spotted the outlines of large wheels and tubes.
"They're using artillery."
Flashes of orange and black spat from the guns.
"Down!"
They all dropped to the floor. The rocketship shook. Thunder blared throughout the interior. Corrigan saw shattered portholes and two dents in the hull. The steel used by the Mongonoids could stand up to most artillery used by Earth's armies.
To a point.
Corrigan stood and stepped toward the aft batteries.
Another explosion rocked the ship. He stumbled back. The turret burst into glass shrapnel. The ray guns vanished in fire and sparks.
Corrigan cursed himself. Instead of holding up in this ship until the Defender arrived, all he'd done was put himself, Tracy and Templar into a deathtrap.
He grabbed his ray rifle. If I'm going down, I'm going down fighting. He stuck the barrel out one of the shattered portholes and fired. The beam blasted several branches.
The guns boomed again.
Corrigan dove for the deck. He landed just as the shells exploded against the hull. Several dents and cracks appeared along the starboard side. A couple of more hits and they were finished.
He got up again, as did Tracy and Templar.
"To the left," the detective called out.
Corrigan turned. Out the porthole he saw several of Bababu's soldiers rushing at the rocketship.
He snorted and turned to the other two Defenders. "Sorry I got you into this, gentlemen."
"Don't sweat it," said Tracy. "I probably would've made the same choice, too."
A determined look formed on Templar's face. "Let's see how many of these blaggards we can take with us."
Corrigan nodded and turned to one of the left portholes. Bababu's men drew closer.
Ray beams streaked down from the sky. Geysers of fire and dirt burst from the ground. Soldiers spiraled through the sky, some with their uniforms in flames.
Corrigan looked out the porthole. A bullet-shaped rocketship flew over the base.
"It's the Defender!"
Two more shells slammed into the ship. Corrigan's head banged against the edge of the porthole. Bits of metal pinged throughout the interior.
He, Tracy and Templar all landed in a pile. The Brit had a gash along his cheek. A jagged hole had been blown out of the starboard side.
"I think we better -"
Corrigan stopped in mid-sentence when he saw ray beams tear into the jungle. Fireballs billowed up among the trees. The Defender had silenced the big guns.
"Care to finish that thought, Commander?" Templar wiped the blood from his cheek.
"I was going to say let's get out of here and find General Bababu."
XXXXX
"Looks like they're free and clear." Flash circled the dirt airstrip, watching Corrigan, Tracy and Templar heading toward the cluster of huts. He had assumed the three Defenders were on that ship when he saw Bababu's men shooting it up.
It also seemed they, along with the Jungle Patrol, had done their job. No tracers, ray beams or rocketships zipped through the sky.
Flash swung the Defender toward Mount Etisi. He crested the mountaintop and spied an area of large leaves and branches arranged in a circular formation. Since the transmitter couldn't beam its signal through solid rock, an opening had to be dug out of the mountaintop. That opening, the Jungle Patrol learned, had been camouflaged with vegetation. That would not impede the signal, which spread throughout Earth's ionosphere to interfere with communications worldwide.
Flash landed next to the camouflaged opening and opened the hatch. He, The Phantom and The Shadow hurried down the ramp, each one with ropes coiled around their shoulders. They tied them around the landing struts and tugged on them, making sure they were secure. The trio pulled away some of the leaves and branches, then stared through the gap. They saw the transmitter, eighty feet tall, humming and pulsating blue as it beamed its signal into Earth's atmosphere. Flash couldn't see any guards around it, but figured they had to be close by.
He let out a long breath, regretting using up all their dynamite on the satellite to destroy the robowarrior control signal and cover their escape. One charge could disable this thing and allow Earth's governments and militaries to communicate and organize a counter-attack against Ming's forces.
We'll just have to find another way.
"Good luck," Dale called out from Defender's entry hatch.
Flash gave her a salute, gripped the rope with his gloved hands and slipped through the gap. He shimmied down, followed by The Phantom and The Shadow. The air tingled with electricity. The hairs on Flash's neck and arms stood on end. He checked the floor for any guards.
Two ray beams shot past him.
Flash slid down the rope with one hand, the other reaching for his ray pistol. More beams crackled around them. The Phantom fired at the base of the transmitter. The beam sparked off it, driving the two guards back. Flash noticed their Romanesque helmets.
The guards were Mongonoids.
He guessed Ming and Bababu wouldn't solely rely on humans to protect something this important.
Flash fired twice and missed twice. A beam whizzed by, inches from his body. The Phantom also fired. His shot clipped one Mongonoid in the shoulder. He spun around and dropped to his side, writhing in pain.
Another beam just missed Flash. The Mongonoid fired again.
The beam slashed through The Shadow's rope.
"Shadow!"
The severed rope dropped to the floor. So did The Shadow. He reached out and snatched at Flash's rope.
He missed.
Flash's chest tightened. He fired again, one eye on the Mongonoid, the other on the falling hero. Would this –
The Shadow reached out a second time. He grabbed the rope. It jerked from his sudden stop. Flash grabbed the rope with both hands to keep from falling himself.
His pistol tumbled to the floor.
The Phantom fired. The beam hit the remaining guard in the chest.
Six more charged through one of the tunnels, four Mongonoids and two Bababu soldiers.
The Shadow slid down the rope, firing his ray pistol. Two Mongonoids went down, smoke billowing from their chests.
Flash shimmied down the rope as fast as possible. He glanced down. He was just 25 feet from the floor.
A beam whizzed past him.
The Shadow let go of the rope ten feet from the floor. He hit the ground and rolled behind the base of the transmitter. Two Mongonoids fired at him. Their beams exploded into sparks against the base.
The Shadow threw a grenade over his shoulder. It bounced across the floor toward the guards. They cried out. Three threw themselves to the ground before it exploded. The other spun and fell. He lay motionless on the floor.
Flash let go of the rope and hit landed in a crouch. So did The Phantom. They unslung their ray rifles and advanced on the remaining three guards, who were starting to get to their feet.
The two heroes quickly blasted them.
"This way!" Flash led them toward the tunnel.
Two more Bababu soldiers ran out of it.
The three heroes fired from the hip. Both soldiers fell. Flash, The Phantom and The Shadow didn't break stride as they entered the tunnel. They continued on for another 30 feet before slowing. Flash pulled out one of Hulapaak's hand-drawn maps as they neared the intersection.
"It should be around this corner, then the first corridor to the left," Flash told them. He just started to move into the corridor when he heard the echo of booted feet.
"Back! Back!" He waved the other two out of sight.
Flash pressed his back against the rocky wall. He held his breath, listening as the rapid footfalls grew louder. Any second now . . .
Four of Bababu's men charged around the corner. Flash rammed the butt of his ray gun into one soldier's gut. He doubled over and fell. The Shadow nailed a second soldier with a palm strike and a sidekick. The man collapsed. The remaining two soldiers stood frozen in shock.
A flurry of punches and kicks by The Phantom put them down.
They hurried into the corridor, then the next one. Flash slid along the wall until he reached the corner. He peeked around it.
The corridor dead ended. A large window was embedded in the rock, with two Mongonoid technicians standing by a console. A few feet from the window was a small stairway leading to a steel door.
This had to be the anti-radio wave control room on Hulapaak's diagram.
Getting to it, however, wouldn't be easy. Eight of Bababu's men sat behind a sandbag wall. Four riflemen and a pair of two-man machine gun crews.
Forty feet of empty space lay between Flash and the sandbags.
He turned back to the other Defenders. "Just like Hulapaak said. The control room's guarded by eight men and two Vickers machine guns. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say a charge is not an option."
"Let me have a look."
Flash moved aside to allow The Shadow to peer around the corner. The caped hero looked straight ahead, then looked up. He turned back to Flash.
"The lights. We can shoot out the lights."
"This deep inside the mountain it will plunge the corridor into absolute darkness," The Phantom pointed out.
"Won't we have a hard time seeing?" asked Flash.
"I thrive in darkness."
Flash had to admit the way The Shadow said that gave him a mild case of the heebie-jeebies.
Thank God he's on our side.
"The Shadow seems to have no problem operating in darkness," said The Phantom. "I have also fought on some of the darkest jungle nights."
Flash looked at the two costumed heroes. "Well, I can't come up with anything better, and we need to take out that control room before Bababu can call in reinforcements. Do it."
The Shadow nodded. He pressed himself against the wall, took a breath and wheeled around the corner. Crackles came from the ray rifle. Flash heard several pops. The corridor dimmed.
Machine guns chattered. The Shadow spun out of the way. Bullets cracked past them or slapped against the rock wall.
The Shadow dropped to a crouch. He leaned out, fired several bursts, then retreated behind cover.
The corridor grew much darker.
Shouts went up around the corner. The gunfire picked up.
From his stomach, The Shadow fired again. The overhead lights burst with deep pops.
The corridor was plunged into near total darkness.
"Now!" The Shadow bolted around the corner, followed by The Phantom.
Flash joined them. The only light in the corridor came from the control room window. It allowed him to see the silhouettes of the men on the left side of the sandbag wall.
Flash fired. The beam exploded just beneath the window.
The machine guns opened up. Flash threw himself to the floor. Rounds cracked overhead. He rolled to the left and fired twice from the stomach. A shadowy figure threw up his arms and fell behind the sandbag wall. The machine guns kept firing.
Flash's eyes flickered left to right. He saw no sign of The Phantom or The Shadow. He aimed for the muzzle flash of the Vickers on the right and fired. The beam sliced into a couple of sandbags, setting them ablaze.
The machine gun fired. Tracers whizzed through the air.
A shape moved along the right wall. Phantom? Shadow? Flash couldn't tell.
He fired more beams at the sandbag wall. More bullets snapped and zipped around him. Good. Let them focus on him. Ignore The Phantom and The Shadow.
Flash thought he saw a ball-shaped object fly through the air and land behind the sandbags. A small explosion echoed through the corridor. Another followed seconds later. Men screamed in pain.
Dark specters jumped over the sandbags. One of them wore a cape and fedora. Ray beams sizzled. The screaming ceased.
"Flash! Come on!" shouted The Phantom.
Flash got to his feet and ran toward the sandbags. He leaped over them and stared at the window. The two Mongonoids inside stared back at him with wide eyes.
He brought up his ray rifle and fired. The beam burst into sparks against the glass. Smoke rose from the impact.
The window was scratched and charred, but otherwise intact.
"How is that possible?" The Shadow uttered.
"Mongonoid hardened glass. It's bulletproof, and can withstand ray pistol and rifle fire." He paused. "To an extent."
"How long will it take to get through that window?" asked The Phantom.
"Maybe a minute. Maybe longer."
"I hope not too long."
Flash was about to ask what he meant when he heard pounding feet and shouts from around the corner.
"Sounds like reinforcements."
The Phantom cocked the Vickers machine gun. "I'll hold them off. Break that glass."
Flash looked to The Shadow and held up his ray rifle. The other hero nodded. They pointed the barrels at the window and fired. Sparks exploded from the glass.
The machine gun behind them fired burst after burst. Flash held his finger down on the ray rifle's trigger. So did The Shadow. Parts of the glass melted. Cracks spread across the rest of the surface.
Two bullets smacked off the wall less than a foot from Flash.
"Phantom?"
"I'm doing my best." The jungle hero unleashed a long burst from the Vickers.
The cracks in the glass grew larger. Flash gritted his teeth, willing the damn window to –
It shattered into hundreds of glass splinters. Flash turned away. Small shards bit into the back of his neck and his hands. He ignored the stings and the blood and pulled out a hand grenade. The two Mongonoids inside the control room were starting to recover when Flash chucked the grenade through the window. The Shadow flung another grenade a second later. Both heroes dropped to a crouch.
The Mongonoids let out cries of shock and terror. They were cut off by the crump of twin explosions. The Phantom kept firing his machine gun as Flash looked into the control room. He saw no sign of the Mongonoids.
He climbed through the window, as did The Shadow. Both Mongonoids lay dead on the floor, drenched with blood.
The two Defenders rolled over the console and onto the floor. A bullet pinged off the wall. The Phantom continued to fire the Vickers.
Flash looked up at the console. He had no idea which buttons did what, nor did he care. He had his own off switch.
Flash fired his ray rifle. Sparks burst from the console like a violent fireworks display. He turned away. Tiny spots of intense heat formed on his hands and scalp. He slapped at them until they cooled, then looked back at the console.
It was a scorched, mangled mass of metal and plastic.
Flash let out a breath of relief. "Good work." He nodded to The Shadow.
"You too."
They got to their feet. Flash noticed The Phantom had stopped firing, but there was an uptick in gunfire from down the corridor.
None of the bullets came their way.
Seconds later, the gunfire ceased. A voice called out, "Is that you guys around the corner?"
Flash recognized the voice. "Dick?"
"Ha! I figured these mugs were firing at you. We got 'em all. You're in the clear."
The three Defenders walked back to the intersection, where they found Tracy, Templar and Corrigan.
"Did you knock out the control room?" asked the Navy commander.
"We did." Flash nodded. "We should be able to talk to anyone we want now."
"Marvelous." Templar looked down at the dead Bababu soldiers. "We happened to see this lot running into the mountain. Thought they were up to no good, so we followed them."
"A good thing you did, too," said Flash. "Are they all dead?"
"All but this one." Tracy pointed to a large man propped against the wall. Blood flowed from wounds to his calf and buttocks. Flash's brow furrowed as he stared at the man's face. He recognized him from several past newspaper and magazine photos.
"Phantom. I believe you know this guy."
The jungle hero stepped over to him. His steely eyes locked on the wounded soldier.
"Indeed I do."
General Bababu looked up at his old foe and swallowed.
TO BE CONTINUED