ally pounding the surface
installations with atomic blasters.

"Captain Strong," cried Astro. "Tom and Roger--they were in the tower!"

"Come on," yelled Strong, "we've got to get back!"

"You ain't going nowhere, Strong," snarled Coxine behind him. "I've been
waiting a long time for this!" He suddenly struck the Solar Guard
officer with a heavy rock and Strong slumped to the ground unconscious.
Before Astro could move, Coxine smashed him to the ground with a blow on
the back of the neck. They both lay deathly still.

Then, as the atomic bombardment of the penal asteroid continued, the
giant space criminal jumped into the jet car and sped away.

CHAPTER 11

"Fire!" bawled Major Savage to his crew of gunners.

At the other end of the field one of the remaining two undamaged rocket
destroyers blasted off to battle the invading spaceship.

Tom and Roger had been on a tour of the great central tower with Major
Savage when the attack came and had been ordered to find safety in the
open fields. The major knew the tower would be one of the first targets.

Sprawled on the ground behind a bunker, they saw the major, his space
jacket torn from his back, standing in the middle of the field, quietly
issuing orders to scarlet-clad spacemen, desperately trying to organize
the penal asteroid's defenses.

The spaceship, which had somehow managed to penetrate the tight radar
warning screen around the prison, had struck with merciless precision.
Again and again, its atomic blasters had found the most important
installations and had wiped them out. The first target, after the tower
had been shattered, was the underground launching ramps for the
asteroid's small fleet of rocket destroyers. But even after a direct
hit, the guards were able to ready two ships to fight the attacking
spaceship. The first was already diving in, her small one-inch blasters
firing repeatedly.

Suddenly, Lieutenant Williams, in command of the second ship, came
racing up to Major Savage, to report that his radarman had been hit and
the ship couldn't blast off.

"Here's where I get into the act!" Roger jumped up immediately, and with
a brief "So long, spaceman" to Tom, raced off to join Lieutenant
Williams.

"Spaceman's luck," yelled Tom as the officer and the cadet ran toward
the waiting ship.

Looking skyward again, Tom saw the first destroyer diving toward the
attacking spaceship, trying to get in range with her lighter armament.
Suddenl