The control room on Flight Cruiser Lexonus had gone mental.

“Something must be wrong!” cried Captain Cormitz. “This is ridiculous. This is what happens when you trust the weather forecasters. He was getting a really bad feeling about the logic behind Eric Smythe’s ambush tactic.

“I… I don’t know what’s going on…” stammered Simm. All he could see was that the Rearguard Beagles’ ships had re-appeared on the radar again, but they were disappearing as quickly as they arrived.

“Sir,” shouted a wiry young dachshund who had appeared at the door. “I’ve repaired the antennae, you should be able to contact our ships again.”

“Thanks,” said Captain Cormitz. “Simm, call Officer Bouncer.”

“Sir,” continued the dachshund.

“We’re busy now. Go away.”

“But Sir, it was tampered with. Someone had replaced it with a different antennae. That’s why you couldn’t contact anyone, it was set with an antennae of a really strange frequency. The kind that only Crawklings use.”

A lump formed in Captain Cormitz’s throat.

* * *

Captain Scheider turned around as the phone rang.

“Rearguard Beagles? It’s HEDGEHOG. You need to get your men out of there now. You’re about to be ambushed.”

Captain Cormitz had just noticed the army of Crawkling ships that had materialised around his own army.

“Roger that.”

“Corporal Simm, call Officer Bouncer. Tell him to get everyone out of there.”