Includes:
Issue #1: Breaking the Ice
*Written by Space Jawa with guest writer VanceMadrox
*Edited by WakandaMan

Issue #2: Over My Dead Body
*Written by Space Jawa with guest writer sable
*Edited by WakandaMan

Issue #3: Shiver Me Timbers
*Written by Space Jawa with guest writer TheVagrantKing
*Edited by TheVagrantKing

Annual #1: Supreme Kree
*Written by Space Jawa with guest writer mikeinmke
*Edited by WakandaMan

Training Supplement #1
*Written by Space Jawa with guest writer ALC Marauder
*Edited by Space Jawa

Guardians of the Galaxy, Issue #1 - Breaking the Ice
*Written by Space Jawa with guest writer VanceMadrox
*Edited by WakandaMan

“For the Princess! For the True Empire!”

Just when it seemed the group would be overwhelmed, Skrull soldiers loyal to Princess Annelle began to overflow into the control room. While there was only so much they could do, they did it with as much strength as they could muster – their pure will more than making up for their lack of manpower.

Picking up the wounded allies of their leader, the Skrulls fought back to keep the ever-growing force of Dorrek loyalists. As they gathered up the Princess herself, they prepared to retreat, but Annelle, conscious enough to know just enough about what was going on, was not quite prepared to go.

“Do we have everyone?”
“We cannot stay here!”
“We cannot leave any of them behind!”

While several of her followers were not thrilled at the idea of remaining any longer, they were not about to disobey her orders like that. And so the force pushed outwards, even at the increased number of casualties that came from it, to recover Mantis, Gamora, and Captain Mar-Vell, allowing them to all to retreat together.

-----------------------

“Jack, it is time to awaken.”

Coming to, the man known as Jack-of-Hearts opened his eyes to the sight Mantis looking down at him. His head pounding, the man closed his eyes again has he put his hand to his forehead and began to sit up.

“What happened? I feel like I had the Hulk stomp on me or something. I last remember we were fighting some Skrulls and making sure Cap and the rest got away. Dang, if I never see another Skrull again as long as I live…”

Opening his eyes, he looked around to realize that he was at a location that, in addition to the presence of his allies, hosted more than a couple Skrulls. The rest of his recent memories came back quickly.

“Right, good Skrulls. I remember now.”

As he took a second look, he could tell that he was in a building of some kind, though beyond that he could only make guesses. It seemed they were underground, but how far, or what they were underneath wasn’t clear.

“Not a moment too soon.” Said Captain Mar-Vell, approaching from behind. “Your friends may have successfully escaped, but we are still in great danger.”
“He’s right, we need to get moving.” Said Annelle, standing there with him. She still showed signs of having been hit hard in both of the recent battles she had shown up at, but as willful as ever. “Dorrek will have certainly ordered all his forces still on this plant to find and kill us all.”

“Let them come.” Said Gamora. “It’ll be their burial ground.”

“Don’t be a fool.” Replied Mar-Vell. “We were all just beaten by what is only a joke compared to what will be coming for us. We must fall back and regroup so that we plan our next course of action.”
“Can I assume you have a plan other than ‘run around till they give up and stop looking for us’?” asked Jack.
“Yes. The ship I used to come to this planet is hidden not far from here. We should be able to get too it without too much difficulty.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
“We can’t leave yet.”

All of them turned to look at Adam.

“Don’t tell me you want to take them on like she does.” Jack said, pointing at Gamora as he did so.
“Hardly. But the Skrulls have something that I must relieve them of first. I cannot leave until I have retrieved it.”

“And just what is it that you have to retrieve from Skrulls?” Asked Mar-Vell.
“I believe it to be Temporal Ice. But more importantly, I am interested in whatever is contained within the Temporal Ice.”
“So you don’t know what you’re really going after, do you?”
“No.” Admitted Warlock. “But I do know that it is of great importance that I retrieve it.”
“Not good enough. We must leave this planet as soon as possible so that we can…”
“Very well. If you must leave, then do so. I will find another means off this planet if I need to. But this task is far too important for me to ignore.”

Adam turned to go, preparing to head off on his own.

“I’m going with you.” Said Gamora.
“This one shall also join you.” Said Mantis. “Understood, is the need to leave this planet and get you to safety.” She said to Annelle. “But something tells this one that what Warlock seeks is as important as he says it is, and if that is so, he will need help.”

There was a moment of pause as everyone in the room tried to sort through what was going on.

“If you need to do this, then go.” Said Annelle. “And don’t worry, we won’t take off without you.”

-------------
With the help of Adam Warlock, the trio quickly found the building they were searching for. Thanks to Gamora “silencing” any soldiers they came across, they also managed to do it without having their position given away. Reaching out to search for the temporal ice, Adam followed his lead to laboratory, where they found exactly what they were looking for.

“There is it.” He said.
“Now we just have to melt it.” Gamora said.
“Or find a way to haul the whole thing out of here.”

[GAME START]

Outside a very important Skrull facility, a couple of Skrulls sat on a yellow-checked picnic blanket in the middle of a grassy field. The corpulent one wore appropriately voluminous robes, while his young attendant was clad in more simple garb...

Dro'ge: Ah, 'tis a fine day for a picnic, wouldn't you say?

Eegaw: Mm, uh, yes, quite tranquil, Your Masterful Scienceness.

Dro'ge: Now that those fetid human Avengers have fled our fine planet, I, for one, feel perfectly secure with the safety of our...secret [Eegaw leans in close to hear]...thing. After all, it's not as if the Guardians of the Galaxy are on their way right now to take it from us! [Laughs boisterously.]

Eegaw: Eh heh! Of course not, Your Priestly Masterfulness! [Quietly, to himself...] That simpering fool, his overconfidence will--

Dro'ge: Eh? Are you saying something unflattering, Eegaw?

Eegaw: Unh, uh, why no, Your Over-ripe Rotundness, I was simply commenting on how simpering and overconfident the breeze is today.

Dro'ge: Ah, yes, quite so! Say, we told the three guards to stay inside near the... [Eegaw leans in once again]...item, didn't we?

Eegaw: Yes, although it seems they do seem quite concerned with safeguarding your own person, Oh Possessor of all Knowledge.

Dro'ge: I suppose that would explain why they're standing right there? [Points behind Eegaw.]

Eegaw: [Turns to look] No...em, yes, that's actually just a stand of trees, Oh Possessor of all the Really Critical Knowledge, anyway.

Dro'ge: It's getting so hard to tell these days. They're still inside then?

Eegaw: Unh, not so, Your Rotund Profundity. Actually, uh, they're standing right behind you.

Dro'ge: [Turns and looks behind him...] Why, their shape-shifting abilities are magnificent! I was sure they were simply a tall hedge!

Eegaw: With faces, Oh Greatest of the Ranks of the Soon-to-be-Forgotten?

Dro'ge: By Insert Mythical Skrull Diety Here, your right, Eegaw! But, say, then, who is guarding the... [Eegaw rolls his eyes, and leans in once again] ...big block of ice?

Eegaw: I believe it must now be unattended, Oh Great Man-Mountain of Flesh and Possibly Some Muscle Hidden Under Great Folds of Flab.

Dro'ge: Well, then, perhaps we'd better return thence and be sure no harm has befallen... [Eegaw sighs audibly and leans in once more] ...it!

Dro'ge: Come, Eegaw! We haven't the split of a moment to lose! [Charges forward and headlong at the outer wall of the room with the icebox.]

Eegaw: [Gestures just to the right of Dro'ge] Well, ah, yes, as you wish, but, the door is right there, Your Sufficient Munificence.

Dro'ge: [Stops just short of impact] Excellent!

-----------------

Lifting Gamora into the air as he traveled into the main area of the room, Adam flew right to the block of ice and placed the woman next to it, leaving her free to start chipping away at it. Mantis leapt into the room behind them, but as she entered the room, she detected another presence there and began to make her way toward it.

--------------

Eegaw: [Watching his master advance into the building] Hm...perhaps if I slather on the flattery, the old lard-face will let me take the rest of the day off. [Runs after him, yelling...] Oh Impeccably Coifed One! That's such a stylish yellow jacket you're wearing!

------------

As Gamora chipped her way into the ice, Mantis continued to follow her senses and moved over to an inconspicuous looking container in a corner of the room.

“This one senses something inside here. Or perhaps someone.”

Keeping his guard up and ready for the inevitable Skrull attackers, Adam took a moment to look at what his teammate was talking about. For all his power and how he had managed to find the giant ice cube, he was not getting anything that allowed him to confirm what Mantis was saying.

“Are you sure?”
“Certain.” She said, placing her hands upon the container and pressing her ear up against it in hopes of hearing something to give her a clue as to what it might be.
“Very well. Step away.”

Giving Mantis an opportunity to back up a little, Adam aimed at the container blasted at it. If nothing else, it revealed the container to be made of some rather tough stuff. Just not tough enough to remain undamaged.

-------------

Dro'ge: Say there, Eegaw, I feel a premonition that someone may be attempting to breach our security!

Eegaw: Perhaps three humans, one man and two women, in colorful costumes, Oh Exalted Bastion of Immutability?

Dro'ge: Whatever would draw you to that conclusion?

Eegaw: [Rolls his eyes huffily] They're standing right over there, smashing our containment unit, oh Great and Terrible Harbinger of Corporate Restructuring.

-------------

As Gamora continued to chip away at the temporal ice over the voices of the Skrulls in the room, Mantis searched her way around the container, looking for a weak spot. Having had only a small amount of experience with the alien technology over a recent period of time, she didn’t have a whole lot to go on. But there were some weaknesses that were universal, and Mantis found the weakness on this particular device. With a concentrated hit, she smashed apart the last pieces holding it together, and steam poured from the container, as whatever was inside made an effort to break free.

The door flew away from the container, and as its inhabitant stepped forward, the container continued to fall apart as pieces fell to the floor. Looking around, he quickly gained sight of the group of Skrulls, and promptly opened fire upon them. Fortunetly for the Skrulls, he wasn’t entirely there yet, and his aim was way off.

Yet, he still managed to prove somewhat effective, as while the shot went nowhere near his target, it still hit the ceiling above one of the skrulls, causing bits of debris to fall upon the green alien and injure him.

“VILE SKRULLS! I am RONAN. Prepare to be accused.”

----------

Ronan: VILE SKRULLS! I am RONAN. Prepare to be accused!

Eegaw: [Cowers under the falling rubble.] Oh, what terrible ignominy to be wounded by someone with so melodramatic an opening line!

----------

Mantis leapt forward at the approaching batch of Skrulls, intent on keeping them occupied. Gamora nearly moved in to join her, but stopped as the ice began to crack. From the moment she had began to crack away at it, the integrity of the field keeping it frozen had begun to fall apart and the ice had started to melt. Whatever had been inside it had taken little prompting to burst his way out.

Pieces of the temporal ice flew away from the larger mass, and from it emerged a man. Wearing a blue and white suit; and carrying a Red, White, and Blue shield, he attempted to stand. For a moment, it appeared he'd be able to.

"I am...I am..."

But that appearance quickly fell apart, as he quickly fell to the ground, unconscious.

------------

Dro'ge: Why, these must be the new second-shift guards! And they're having a costume party. How festive! [So saying, Dro'ge strides over to the nearest of the "guards" and gives her a firm pat on the back, which quite accidentally knocks her nearly unconscious.] We should let them join our picnic. Chiz'k! Fresh morsels!

Chiz'k: Right away, Your...Lordly...Lordship. [So saying, Chiz'k turns and trips on the prone body of Mantis. He falls square on top of her, his head knocking right into hers and bringing her the rest of the way to unconsciousness.]

-----------

“That’s him, let’s go!”

Adam moved towards the fallen iceman, preparing to leave with the task completed. Unfortunately, the Skrulls were not about to make that easy. With Mantis down, Gamora moved in, taking out one of the green-skinned aliens on her way.

As for Ronan, he seemed ignorant to the fact that those that had freed him were planning on retreating, and continued to blast away at the larger batch of them.


--------------

Eegaw: No! We must fight; these aren't guards, Oh Most...Stupendous...did I already say...wait...oh hang it all! I quit, do you hear me? This rotten job is for suckers! You're nothing but a mangy, smooth-chinned poser, and I'll be just as happy if I never see you again! [Eegaw throws up his hands in frustration, shoots Dro'ge a gesture that is rather obscene to a Skrull, and then pivots and walks away. A moment later, Gamora takes a nasty, murderous swipe at the spot where he had been standing a moment ago.]

------------

"Gamora, Ronan, we're going!"
"Right behind you!"

Moving around the attacks from the Skrull guards, Gamora was able to get in close enough to retrieve the unconscious Mantis and began to make her way out, retreating back first to her initial position when one of the shape-shifters threw a punch that blocked what would have been her initial path.

Ronan, however, was still a wildcard, giving no indication as to whether he planned to stay and fight or go with those that had freed him and save this battle for another day.

“You’re in my way!”

Not taking kindly to the approaching Skrull, Gamora took him out hands free, first stepping on his face to back him up a little and then, at a proper distance, striking him with a full-on kick against the side of the head, knocking him out cold.

-----------

Dro'ge: [Goes over to greet another of the "guards" who ends up on the floor shortly after.] Eegaw! I fear... say, where is Eegaw? I suppose maybe he's excused himself to use the facilities. Bal'drk! I fear for the constitutions of our new guards here! It seems two of them have fainted just at the sight of me!

Bal'drk: Your generation was a special breed, mi'lord.

Dro'ge: Although, I must say, their wardrobing skills are magnificent. This one's Ronan the Accuser costume looks quite convincing!

---------

Ready to leave, and with the unknown man now safely out of reach of the Skrulls he had been taken from, Adam had moved back towards the battle to ensure that Gamora did not require his assistance. While she quickly plowed her way out of the room, a new situation quickly rose up.

"We need to get Ronan."

[GAME END]

Rushing into the room, Adam gave the woman cover as she made for Ronan’s unconscious form. He was a heavy man, and for many would have been too much. Fortunately for him, Gamora was far from what one could call ‘weak’ in so many meanings of the word, physical strength included. While it pushed her to take the man with him at a speed acceptable to escape the Skrulls, Adam’s cover fire allowed her to get out of the room scott-free. Adam was no so lucky, as a shot intended for Gamora went his way instead, though fortunately he was able to handle the worst of it.

By now, Mantis had just begun to come to, but was still quite out of it.

“I’ll take him.”

Relieving Ronan from Gamora, he lifted the large kree over his shoulders, carrying him on his back. As he shot another blast off towards the Skrulls to keep them back, Gamora helped Mantis to her feet, taking one of her arms over her shoulders to support her weight and help her stand.

Heading for the door, Adam reached to add the stranger to his load, but before he could do so, Gamora picked him up first and threw him over her shoulder. He was not nearly as heavy as Ronan, and even with Mantis she was still able to move easier.

------------------

As the two made their way inside the Skrull halls, they took extra precautions to avoid being seen, not an easy task in the least. With three people to carry between the two of them, they were in no position to fight off additional Skrulls.

“We need to find Mar-Vell, find out where his ship is.” Adam said.
“Here.” Mantis stated, taking a communicator that she had hidden on her, given to her by Princess Annelle before she had joined Adam on his personal mission. Handing it to Gamora, she tossed it up to Adam, who caught it with surprising ease.

“Mar-Vell? Annelle? Are you there?”

It was a moment before a response came. As they rounded a corner, a pair of Skrull guards spotted them, and opened a couple shots. They went wide, and Adam blasted the ceiling in front of them to block their path, but also forced them to take another direction.

”Adam?” came the voice on the other end, that of Mar-Vell.
”We have what you came for, where can we find your ship?”
”You have perfect timing. Annelle insisted we remain longer, but things have gotten too intense here. Had you taken much longer, we would have been forced to leave you behind.”
“We have an additional guest as well.”

As the pair of Adam Warlock and Gamora burst out an exit, they were surprised to find themselves storm right out of the frying pan and into the fire, as the particular exit they had chosen led them straight into the pathway of an assembled band of highly trained and highly dangerous Skrull soldiers, who looked like they had assembled as part of the planetary search for Annelle.

But before all five of them could be given a chance to surrender or die, a large ship flew by, weapons fire in pursuit. As it neared the location of the Skrull targets, Adam Warlock, Gamora, Mantis, Ronan, and the mysterious stranger all vanished, safely aboard the ship.

Blasting through the atmosphere, it quickly reached a safe jump point and escaped.

Guardians of the Galaxy Issue #2 - Over My Dead Body
*Written by Space Jawa with guest writer sable
*Edited by WakandaMan

“This is unacceptable!”

As the ship carrying the Skrullos escapees sped through space, things were already getting ugly. Ronan had quickly been awoken by Mar-Vell and filled in on what had happened in his absence after he had arrived. From there, he had attempted to take command, but the captain would have none of it.

“Ronan, you don’t seem to understand how long you have been out of the picture. When we learned you had been replaced by a Skrull imposter, we had no idea what had happened to you. For all we knew, you were dead.”
“As you can plainly see, I am as alive as I can be. Now that I can once again take command, I must return to Kree-Lar at once so that I may fix what has been broken and bring down upon the Skrull Empire a swift and mighty judgment!”

Ronan looked as though he was ready to bring down judgment upon Captain Mar-Vell, but knew much better than to actually do so.

“Things are not that simple.” Mar-Vell said, looking close to carrying out his own kind of judgment upon the angry accuser. “Yes, we will deal with those responsible for all this, but for now, it is more important that we get Princess Annelle to safety.”
“You would choose a Skrull, one of the enemy, over your own kind!” Ronan shouted in Mar-Vell’s face, and looked closer than ever to swinging his hammer at it. “What kind of traitorous beast are you?! Answer my accusations!”

“Annelle is on our side.” Adam said. “If you could restrain yourself for a moment, you could see that she can help us.”
“Explain this madness.”
“Annelle is the niece of the current ruler of the Skrull Empire, the man behind all this. She is opposed to her Uncle’s choices for the Skrull Empire, and has thus far made a failed attempt to usurp the throne. She needs time and a safe location to gather followers. If she can safely gain enough influence, she could make another attempt to take command of the Skrull Empire, which would remove those hostile to the Kree and hopefully bring peace between the two races.”

Ronan attempted to come up with a successful rebuttal, but for the moment, he was unable to do so. While intelligent, he was more a man of action than of words.

-----------------

“That’s Captain America’s shield.”

Back in what passed for the ships medical bay, Annelle and Jack of Hearts had gathered with Mantis to see the newcomer while Adam tried to work things out between Mar-Vell and Ronan. Mantis had already been patched up as best she could for the time being, but the man in blue and white was still unconscious.

“This one knows.” Mantis said.
“What does it mean?”
“This one is unsure.”

Picking it up, carefully as though it had been handed to him by Captain America himself, Jack looked the shield over, trying to think things over himself.

“We saw Cap get on that ship. As far as we know, he made it back to Earth safely. He had his shield with him. And yet you say you found this buried in the ice with this guy?”
“That is how it happened.”
“Could it be a trick of some kind? Could they have done something to Cap and frozen him, given us a replacement? Did we send a Skrull back to Earth in place of Captain America?”
“There’s no way to tell until he wakes up.” Said Annelle. “Until then, we can only guess.”

---------------

“No, that won’t do at all.” Said Captain Mar-Vell. “I’ve been there before, its underworld is strong yet well hidden. It wouldn’t take long after we arrived for someone to find out about the Princess and then sell her out to both the Skrulls and the Kree.”

As the ship traveled aimlessly through space, Adam Warlock, Captain Mar-Vell, and a pair of their Skrull allies, the large and intimidating Whin’do and the aged but sly Antil’Eaz, tried to decide where they could safely take the Princess to give her time to build support and plan a better overthrow attempt. Thus far, their search had failed to yield any success, as each potential option had been shot down by knowledge possessed by one of the four.

“This is getting annoying.” Said Whin’do. “How can we possible plan our next move when the whole galaxy seems to be working against us?”
“An opportunity will present itself.” Said Adam. “I’m certain of it. We just need to keep searching.”
“This one is assuming that Kree-Lar is out of the question?”

The four of them turned to face a newcomer, Mantis, who had taken time to remove herself from the medical bay.

“You must be joking.” Said Mar-Vell. “See how Ronan acts towards her, than imagine having a planet of followers to back him up.”
“This one was simply asking. Speaking of which, where is Ronan?”
“He found a room to call his own. I believe that right now he’s…pouting.”
”And so far your search for a place to hide the Princess has not gone well?”
“No.” said Antil’Eaz.

Looking over the map system they were currently examining, Mantis reached out her hand and pointed to a very specific location.

“Here.”
“What?” asked Whin’do.
“There is a group that should be perfect for keeping the Princess safe. If you plot a course there, you will be able to contact them.”
“You’re sure?” Adam asked.
“Have trust. This one knows it to be true.”

The others looked over the map a bit, looking at Mantis’ suggestion. Mar-Vell zoomed in on the location to get a better look at the surrounding territory.

“That will take us right through Shi’ar controlled territory.” Said Whin’do. “They aren’t exactly our allies either.”
“True, but it’s on the outer regions in a lightly patrolled area.” Mar-Vell countered. “We should run a minimal risk of encountering any of them.”
“I don’t like it.” Antil’Eaz said. “It still feels too risky.”
“What other choice do we have?” said Mar-Vell. “Our previous searching has given us nothing better to go on. This is the best we’ve come across so far. I’ll have the pilot set a course for that location immediately.”

----------------

“When?”

Surprised to see their mysterious guest finally talking, Annelle and Jack looked up at him. Jack finally put the shield down, and the two moved in closer.

“What?” he asked.
“When am I?”
“Uh, how specific an answer are you looking for? Time? Day? Year?” Jack asked, not sure what he was looking for.
“Year will suffice. What time is it – by Earth time.”
“Last I checked, 2009 AD.”
“Then I’ve arrived when I should have.”
“Can you tell us who you are?” Annelle asked.

Slowly, the man sat up, putting his feet off the side of the bed he had been lying on.

“My name is…I was know as Major Victory.”
“Major Victory, huh? Kind of catchy.” Jack said, feeling relieved at this point that the idea they had sent a Skrull home in place of Captain America was less likely.
“I am sorry, I don’t remember my real name right now. I remember very little. I know some of it has come back to me since I was freed from the ice, but I have very little I can give you right now.”
“You said you came when you should have. Do you know what for?” Annelle asked.
“No. Just when I was suppose to arrive and that is was for something incredibly important.”
“I guess that’s…”

Jack’s sentence was interrupted by the blaring of alarms, the sound of something having gone wrong.

“Stay here.” Annelle said to Victory.

Heading out of the room, Annelle went to find out what was going on, Jack trailing behind her. They soon ran into Adam Warlock, who it appeared had been heading in their direction.

“What’s going on?” she asked.
“We’re traveling through Shi’ar space, and were intercepted by one of their Cruisers. They detected you and your fellow Skrulls aboard, and requested we hand you over.”
“They can do that?” Jack asked.
“Mar-Vell didn’t take kindly to the idea.” Adam said, passing over Jacks question. “The conversation quickly fell apart from there, and ended when he gave them few choice words to assure them we wouldn’t be handing you over without a fight.”

Behind him, Mar-Vell entered the room as well, looking ready for battle.

“Princess, get to safety.” He said. “The cruiser is closing in, and every sign points to them boarding us. Thing are about to get very ugly.”

[Game Start]

As the bulk of the Shi’ar invaders beamed into the lower level of the ship in a secondary engineering section, Warlock, Mantis, and Mar-vell moved in to meet them, and found Gamora there as well. While counter-boarding technology hadn’t been developed yet where it could keep people from hopping on board an enemy vessel whenever they liked yet, it was capable of at least diverting invaders so that they couldn’t go wherever they wanted. While other boarding teams had been detected in other sections of the ship, the bulk of them were here, where they wouldn’t be able to cause any serious damage to anything that would make the rest of their trip difficult.

“I can’t predict what kind of boarding team they’ll have” said Mar-vell, his mind working along the military tactical and strategic track that had earned him his rank and position “but I have no doubt it’ll be large and well trained. I’m guessing they’ll outnumber us, but a ship out this far shouldn’t be carrying any of their elite guard, leaving us with superior firepower and strength. Their boarding commanders will be leading from behind, so hit them from all sides, try to circle in from behind, and take out the command structure.”
“And if they are beaten, then the rest should join them quickly.” Adam said, catching on to what the Captain was saying and finishing it for him.
“Exactly.”

-----------------------------

"Alright, boys -- and whatever you are." The Shi'ar Commander waved towards a trooper at random. "It's our job to take down these pesky intruders. So you wander on towards them and de-trude them or something."

-----------------------------

Charging forward and leaping over a computer console, Gamora came around a wall and rolled to avoid oncoming weapons fire. Seeking to avoid making herself a target, she moved up against the wall, making it and the corner her cover, waiting to strike.

-----------------------------

Mar-Vell moved out of cover, blasting as he did so, and at significantly reduced power. Even if they were in a less important part of the ship, he wanted to ensure he didn’t ruin the craft while he was in the process of taking out the boarders unless he was sure he could get a positive lock on them.

“I’ve got them here. Go around!” he ordered, and Adam Warlock did not argue. Mar-Vell was trained for, among other things, situations such as this, it only made sense to listen to him on how to handle it.

----------------------------

Gamora continued to take the lead, charging forward and strategically striking with her blade to mostly incapacitate her target. He made his best effort to defend himself and make some sort of counterattack, but they were for naught when the woman countered the counter by not only blocking it, but grabbing the already wounded limbs to maneuver his body in between her and the Shi’ar’s allies who attempted to shoot her down.

The shield tactic proved dangerously effective, and Gamora gave a strong kick to push the now wounded and limp body towards his friends. Warlock took advantage of the distraction Gamora had caused to fly past the other attackers to make his approach on the commanders.

-----------------------------------

"You made a mistake in coming here, featherheads!" Mar-vell shouted at the boarders as he continued to blast away at them. While not normally one for banter during battle, he felt a different mood towards this particular conflict. "You stand to gain nothing but defeat!"

As he kept them pinned down, he noticed as one of the enemy advanced toward him, and quickly recognized him as a higher-ranking soldier, no doubt one of the leaders. Leaving no chance that the opportunity that had presented itself would slip past, he moved forward and began the process of taking the officer out of the fight.

------------------------------

Mar-Vell continued to push on, especially as the invaders made the foolish choice of getting up close to him. Grabbing an inconspicuous piece of machinery that was in arms length, the captain swung it about and hit the enemy with it in a metallic uppercut. The force of it was so great that what was left after the equipment fell apart flew with the enemy commander through the ceiling onto the deck above.

Not content to rest, he then flew forward with an adrenaline filled battle-yell into the middle of an enemy formation and grabbed the rifle of the center soldier, pulling it out of his hands, and striking him across the face with it. His mind knew he had to remain tactical and in control of the battle, but now that he was in the thick of it, he was beginning to have difficulty controlling himself. There was more to this battle than just rejecting a boarding attempt, more than even he wanted to admit. It was the very reason he had used such choice language to tell these Shi’ar to keep their hands out of the ship in the first place.

”Must keep control. I can not afford to let my guard down!”

While Mar-Vell was making his way through the enemy lines, his companions were doing comparatively poorer. Adam had taken to shooting at the boarders from range, and while he had hoped to chase after the fleeing Shi’ar leader, he could tell that Gamora, and now Mantis, after she too had moved into the middle of the battle, needed his help. He could see that there was a great deal of skill in another of the enemy leaders, especially after his tactics allowed his soldiers to take advantage of Gamora’s overconfidence. It became even more apparent when the same commander was able to get the drop on the woman and take her out of the battle.

------------------------------

After helping Adam get a clear shot on one of the soldiers, Mantis too was left unable to continue the battle, and so they instead concentrated their fire on Warlock. One of the shots hit him, and helped him realize the full gravity of the situation. He needed a better angle, one that allowed him to take full advantage of his range combat abilities. Unfortunately, his choice target - the same one that had caused so much trouble already - was intent on reaching and attacking him.

[Game End]

Things soon got worse. Likely after having heard that the boarding party wasn’t doing as well as expected, a new team of Shi’ar beamed into the area. Already half down, Mar-vell, or Warlocks, depending on how you looked at it, wasn’t in a great position to continue to hold them off. Not that Captain Mar-vell wasn’t about to try.

Feeling yet another surge of determination and now externally showing that he was pushing himself further than he should have been, the Captain flew across the room, with not one, not two, not even three, but four Shi’ar in hand, as he did, letting go of them as he came to a halt to let them fly into one of the interior walls, where they fell to the ground in a heap after impact. He fell to one knee, out of breath as he stopped, and was hit from a shot from behind that while continuing to fail to bring him down for the count, was not exactly shrugged off easily.

“Get them out of here!” he shouted at Adam, even as he blasted one of the boarders as he tried to sneak up on the injured Kree. Warlock didn’t even have to ask to know that he was talking about Mantis and Gamora. He also wasn’t about to argue. Providing what additional fire support for Mar-vell he could till he had both his hands full, Adam retreated, his last sight of the man was him being covered in a dog pile of Shi’ar as they tried to finally get rid of their biggest obstacle so far. And even one of them was thrown off in Adam’s direction as the door closed behind him.

-----------------------------

The lower decks were not the only area of the ship that had been infiltrated. Though in lesser numbers, Shi’ar had also found entrance point in more important areas of the ship, and were coming in as they could. Most were held back by the Skrulls onboard, but a few managed to take advantage of the ongoing combat to sneak around in hopes of accessing vital areas of the ship to help secure their victory. One such team found its way to the medical area.

There, they found a man, dressed in blue and white. That man had a name, and while he couldn’t remember that name, he did know another, one that might as well have been the same thing. That name was Major Victory. He did not remember much, but that he had forgotten was not entirely closed off from him.

When the alarms had gone off, Victory had recognized the noise. Not what it meant or exactly what it was, but that it was a bad sound. It had soon brought his attention to a shield, one situated across the room, at which point he had walked over to it and picked it up, examining it. He knew neither where it came from nor its history, just that it had once been a symbol of some kind, as well as a weapon – one that he had used to great effect. And slowly, he remembered that he knew how to fight.

As he contemplated and bits and pieces slowly came back to him, he was interrupted by a small team of Shi’ar. They entered the room, weapons raised.

“On the ground!”

The Major slowly turned his head, then his body, to face the new arrivals. He didn’t recognize them at all, whether individually or as a species, but guessed that they weren’t friendly.

“I mean you no…”
“Last chance.”
“Don’t force me…”

Again, Major Victory’s attempt to speak was interrupted, this time as the guns were raised for better aim and then fired. Instinctively, Major Victory raised the shield while lowering part of his body behind it, allowing him to block all the incoming fire. The next few moments were nearly a blur for him – he didn’t know why or how he knew what to do, he just knew – further instinct, or perhaps a shadow of the memories that currently eluded him.

Shield up, Victory charged towards the nearest two Shi’ar, knocking them over. The two others, surprised, stopped firing for a moment, but it was all the mistake they needed to make. Throwing his shield, the first Shi’ar was just able to dodge it, and Victory guided it with his powers just enough to lead it straight towards the other standing soldier, while giving a psychokinetic blast to the chest of the dodging Shi’ar. The shield bounded off as it hit the second’s weapon out of his hand, and was guided to bounce back and hit the first, now on his knees, on the back of the head. It then flew back where it had gone before, hitting the second Shi’ar in the face to knock him unconscious before flying back into Major Victory’s hand. There, it was swung around to knock out one of the first initial Shi’ar that was now trying to get back up.

There were few, very few, who could match the shield-throwing skills of Captain America. While Major Victory was not one of them, his powers allowed him to do a fine job of impersonating them.

Fully wielding his shield, Major Victory headed out of the medical section. He knew not where he was headed, but he had a feeling there was still danger, and was not about to wait for it to simply come and find him again.

Guardians of the Galaxy, Issue 3 - Shiver Me Timbers!
*Written by Space Jawa with guest writer TheVagrantKing
*Edited by TheVagrantKing

It was not long after he again reached the main decks that Adam ran into Jack, and with him, Princess Annelle and a small contingent of Skrulls. Jack took at Mantis and Gamora, still unconscious, and immediately could tell things were worse than he had thought.

“So much for hoping for good news.”
“How much has the situation deteriorated?” Adam asked.
“We have been doing our best to repel them, but we cannot ignore their sheer numbers.” Annelle said. “Victory and escape continues to be increasingly difficult to look for, and our deceptive skills are not quite as useful in battles such as this where our enemy is prepared and expecting them.”
“Where’s Ronan?”
“Last I heard he was headed for the bridge. Something about trying to take command of the situation.”
”Where’s Mar-vell?” Annelle asked.
“I was, unfortunately, forced to leave him behind.” Adam said with a tone of regret. “But we will not be able to help him if we can not find a way to repel these invaders. We need to head to the bridge and find Ronan.”

--------------------

On their there, the group soon joined up with Major Victory as well, who was easily convinced to help them, rather than fight them, based on his previous interaction with Jack and Annelle, as well as the fact that unlike the Shi’ar, they hadn’t tried to attack him when they had first run into him.

”Attention! Attention! May I have your attention please?”

Surprisingly, the voice that came over the interior communication systems as they made their way to the bridge was not one any of them recognized. It sounded like neither Skrull, nor Ronan, nor anyone else that they knew was with them.

”Greetings, passengers of the ship that decided to so rudely trespass upon Shi’ar space. This is Captain Corsair of the starship Starjammer. No doubt you know who I am, and are now quaking in your boot in terror. Please, feel free to do so if you aren’t already. There’s no shame in doing the same thing as everyone else.”

“Who’s that?” Jack asked.
“Ignore him.” Adam said. “Keep moving. We should be there soon.”

”Now that you’ve undoubtedly taken the proper course of action, you’ve also probably realized by this point that my mere prescience here means that you’ve already lost. However, being the so great, gracious, and merciful Captain that I am, I shall grant you the chance to get over any feelings of denial that you may be currently experiencing so that you can have the chance to be as gracious as I am and realize that fighting will only force me to prove to you why you’re wrong. Feel free to...”

As the group tried to ignore the recording, they were interrupted by another startling sound. From the wall, they heard an impact, and with it, the impression of a body could be seen. Only a short moment later, and another impact was heard, and the impression was made even bigger. A third time, and the wall broke as the form of a very large skrull came to rest on the ground – the unconscious but still breathing form of Whin’do.

Stopped in their tracks, the group watched as another form came through the hole, though walking under his own power. He was a large, green and muscular creature, showing signs from his fight with the Warskrull yet still looking as ready for a fight as ever.

“I must say, Ch’od, you might want to go a little easier. I’d rather we not destroy this ship if we don’t have to.”

The voice that followed him through the hole was identical to that of the recording that was being heard through the intercom. He too stepped through the hole, revealing a rather handsome man, who was followed by a hairy yet attractive white feminine form. They, along with the apparent ‘Ch’od’, quickly took notice of Adam’s group.

“I must say, those are some rather nice forms some of you have taken. You almost look as dashing as I do.”
“Captain Corsair, I presume?” Responded Jack.
“At your service.” He replied with a shallow bow. “Now if you could all do me a service, lower whatever weapons you’re carrying, and perform the superficial task of surrendering…”

“Are you in changer of this attack?” Annelle asked, interrupting him.
“They don’t call me ‘Captain’ for nothing, though I should warn you I don’t look pleasantly upon rude interruptions.”
“Call off this attack. We are not your enemies.”
“Last time I checked, you were. Shame too. You seem like such a pleasant bunch too.”
“We are not all Skrulls,” Adam said. “Nor are any of us allied with Emperor Dorrek.”
“Really? Is that the best story you could come up with? Honestly, you don’t think I’ve had experience with Skrulls before? Now let’s hurry this along. Are you going to admit I’ve beaten you, or am I going to have to demonstrate?”

“I can’t do that.” Victory said.
“What a shame. On guard, then!”

[Game Start]

The team moved forward and took up positions to strike as their opponents approached them. Two of the Starjammers moved into an adjacent room, taking cover for what Major Victory assumed was going to be an upcoming strike. He had no intention of letting them pull it off.

"Someone get through that wall!" he shouted, much like an order though without having any idea who he should be giving it to. Jack, knowing he had the power to penetrate the metal that the ship was built out of, flew forward and gave the wall a nice internal window.

As soon as got sight of one of the enemy, Victory threw his shield through the hole and struck out his target, her surprise at the angle of attack allowing her less time than she needed to dodge the flying projectile. As she flew back and hit the floor unconscious, the shield bounced off the wall behind her and flew out the main doorway where it came close enough for its owner to catch it again.

Jack could only watch as the move was pulled off, and could help but let out a sound of annoyance as the shield stopped flying.

"Stop messing with me!"

The others weren't quite sure what he was going on about, but decided it would be best to ask about it later when they weren't fighting off the enemy boarders.

------------------

"Skyorsky! We need some back up in here! Hep's out cold!" Corsair, holding his lady in one arm, blaster in the other.

*Roger Dokey!* The machination known as Skyorsky reported, flying forward and spraying a hardening foam in the whole in the wall. *Laceration Fixed, Roger Dokey!*

----------------

"I don't think so, Doctor."

Flying in, Jack burst through the attempt to close up the wall, the Major following close behind.

----------------

"Ch'od, Raza! Where are you, we need back up!" Corsair yelled, shooting stray shots over Skyorsky's shoulder.

"Oh joy!" Ch'od yelled, leaping into the fray, grabbing Jack of Hearts, Major Victory, AND the Skrull Warrior into a headlock in one arm, and a massive fuel drum in the other.

"Well, as it seems our dear Ch'od has those three well underhand..." Raza commented, as he rushed forward with his guns trained on Adam Warlock. "Let's see what I can do about him."

----------------

Warlock fired at the large green alien, but missed as his target ducked. This gave Jack the opportunity he needed to let off an attack of his own and forced Ch'od to focus both hands on the fuel drum to avoid letting it fall away.

----------------

"Hey, stay put, will you?"

Jack tried to grab onto Skyorsky as he moved behind Captain Corsair, but was prevented from doing so by the necessity of keeping an eye out for Ch'od and his giant wacking "stick". Yet even as he tried to watch out for the big green guy, he failed to notice as he was attacked from behind as the Captain let out a shot that struck dead on.

Eager to take out his large foe as soon as possible, Victory planted his shield straight into his face with as much strength as he could muster, and thought he heard a muffled crack as he did so. It did little to deter the intimidating alien, as swung back. Victory ducked, however, leaving the item in hand to swing over his head and hit Jack dead on, sending him flying against a nearby wall where he fell to the floor, still breathing but not making much of an effort to stand.

As all this went on, it left little attention for Raza, who took advantage of the opportunity to sneak in behind and let out a shot that knocked the princess out hard and cold. But as fell, it came as a surprise to everyone BUT her loyal assistant that she turned into someone who's face was not nearly as familiar.

Seeking to put an end to the battle quickly, Adam raced forward, looking to get to the leader of the Starjammers and put him out of commission. However, it was easier said than done when his path was blocked by Skyorsky.

---------------------

Adam tried to blast Skyorsky out of the fight without destroying him, but the mechanoid was ready for him, having carved into the floor enough to pull up a sheet of metal thick enough to deflect the spacemans attack with only minor, superficial damage.

Ch'od, still amused at his attempt at adding humor to the battle, saw this as well and missed seeing a rifle that was smashed against the back of his head. While the big green one would be able to walk it off later, for now it was enough to fell him to the ground. However, it also ruined the weapon, forcing the Skrull who had swung it to ditch the gun and rely on his pistol instead.

------------------

"Ch'od! NOOOOOOOO!!!!!"

-------------------

Victory didn't let the defeat of Ch'od create an opportunity to catch his breath, but instead continued on, moving towards the position of the Starjammers leader. However, he concentrated his focus a bit too much, leaving himself open to attack from Raza, and the followup finisher from the very man he had planned on trying to remove from the equation.

"I don't want to hurt you."

Adam sent a charge of energy through his current opponent, overloading him till his safety systems sent him into whatever amounted to unconsciousness for the robot.

"But you leave me with few options."

The robot shut down, Adam took a shot from behind, and turned to decide whether to continue along his previously decided course of action, or try to remove the other man from battle. His Skrull ally, having already decided upon what to do, ran forward towards Raza, only to be countered and floored, leaving Warlock with a very perplexing problem on his hands.

---------------------

"Surrender now, infiltrator, and I just may let you buy me lunch before we send you away."

--------------------

"I'm afraid I can't do that, Corsair."

Adam knew he was outgunned. In his current state, he couldn't beat both of his remaining opponents. Letting out a flash of light, he prevented Corsair from getting an accurate shot shot off at him and tried to fly around them, hoping he could find some way of turning things around for the ship.

"That's Captain Cor..."

Unfortunately, he did not clear the way as well as thought, and was caught by a shot from Raza as he tried to get a clear path, the sound of which interrupted the Captain as he tried to get off, as he saw it, a necessary correction. Warlock fell to the ground, not beaten but unable to continue to fight until he had an opportunity to rest.

"I don't suppose you could have waited a couple more seconds to do that, could you?" Corsiar asked with a sigh.

[Game End]

“I saw as a shot, and I took it” Raza replied to Corsair.
“I can’t blame you for that.” Corsair said back, walking over to where Warlock had fallen, still conscious but beaten. “It just bothers me when people don’t respect the title. I worked hard to become Captain Corsair, and I’d simply like our enemies to remember exactly who they’re dealing with. Is that so much to ask?”
“It happens.” Raza replied, having by now gone over to restart Skyorsky and get the mechanoid working again, so that he could in turn tend to Hepzipah and Ch’od.

Keeping his weapon trained on Warlock, Corsair approached the other defeated members of his team, and was surprised to see that of the individuals who hadn’t looked like skrulls before, none of them had reverted back to what should have been their natural form. The closest any of them came was a green-skinned woman, and she lacked the other defining characteristics.

Suspicious of what might be going on, he called back to Raza.

“Is Skyorsky up and at it?” he asked.
*Roger Captain!* he heard in reply, a sure sign that he was indeed. *Tending to wounds, Roger Roger!*
“Good. When you know they’re stable, I need you over here to find out something for me.”

“Captain? We have a problem.”

From an adjacent area of the ship, two Shi’ar soldiers rushed in with an air of concern about them.

“That’s never good.” Corsair said.
“We’ve nearly secured the ship, but this may not be a purely Skrull vessel. We just got a report that the Captain Marvel impersonator has finally been subdued, but he didn’t revert to Skrull form afterwards. We’ve also recently encountered Ronan the Accuser.”
“Ronan’s here?” Raza asked, trying to confirm the statement.
“Yes, and he’s putting up quite a-OW!”

The soldier didn’t get an opportunity to finish his statement as a small, blunt metal object collided with his face. Before anyone realized what had happened, Corsair found his knees knocked out from under him, his arm twisted behind his back, and a knife to his neck. He was then pulled to his feet as Raza and the still standing guard both pointed their weapons his direction. Or rather, attempted to point their weapons at the person who looked ready to kill him.

“Order your people off this ship.” Gamora ordered as she pulled him to his feet.

In the final moments of the battle between Corsair and Warlocks teams, the warrior woman had begun to regain consciousness, but not quickly enough to tell what was going on. Faking a continued unconsciousness, she had waited until she was able to identify the individual that was presumably the leader and saw an opportunity to strike.

“Look, lady.” The Captain said. If his current predicament scared him at all, he was doing an awfully good job of hiding it. “While normally I love it when women give me this kind of attention, there’s a couple of problem. First, I’m already spoken for, and I know that if I abandoned her this way, she would kill me. Even if she had to bring me back from the dead to do it. Second…”

He cut his sentence short as the knife was drawn closer to his throat, not yet drawing any blood, but only just. Raza and Shi’ar kept their weapons trained on Gamora, and tried to find an angle to get a clear shot, but had a very difficult time doing so.

“I’m not laughing.” She said.
“Gamora, let him go.”

Everyone turned to face the still conscious Warlock, who had pulled himself to one knee and was doing his best to stand on both feet.

“They attacked us first.” She said. She prepared herself to say something else, but Warlock spoke first.
“They did.” He responded. “Over a misunderstanding. A terrible misunderstanding, and a refusal to listen. But we have an opportunity to fix thing. If you don’t let him go, that opportunity goes away.”

Her gut told her that listening to Warlock was a bad idea – a feeling that came with the fighter that she was. But there was something in Warlocks words, and his voice, that told her that right now, she should ignore what her gut told her.

“Trust me.” He said, trying his best to fix the situation, which he knew would only happen if he could get Gamora to listen to him. As the tension reached its greatest, she listened to Warlocks advice, and let Corsair go, though she maintained a very serious look on her face that would kill if looks alone could do so.

“Thank you for that.” Corsair said to Warlock, as he took care to put a safe distance between him and his former captor. “Though I’m afraid there are still some details to work out. Skyorsky, how are Ch’od and Hep?”
*They’re going to be fine, Roger Dokey!*
“Then I need to you to confirm the species of these people.”
*I’m on it, Okie Dokey!*
“I’m going to need your help again.” Corsair said as he turned back to Adam Warlock. “You think you can talk down Ronan the Accuser?”

------------------

Issue 3.5 – Diplomatic Uncertainty

Several hours later, Captain Marvel’s ship, the Shi’ar boarder patrol ship that it had run into, and the Starjammer were on their way to Chandilar, the Shi’ar throne world, though with Marvel’s ship being escorted to the planet rather than being hauled there as some kind of battle prize. However, the ship did still carry a handful of Shi’ar soldiers, a security measure. Even if it had been confirmed by Sikorsky that the ship wasn’t entirely Skrull, it had been decided that it would still be a good idea for the ship to be guarded just in case their motives weren’t entirely honest.

Tensions stood high aboard the Kree/Skrull ship in the time it took to arrive at its destination, most still not trusting the Shi’ar that had recently attacked them, but the combined efforts of Adam Warlock, Princess Annelle, and after a quick convincing from the first two, Captain Mar-Vell, the ship avoided any problems that would have made things turn for the worst. It was for this same reason that upon the ships arrival at Chandilar, the majority of the crew aboard Mar-Vells ship would be required to stay aboard initially. Their first stop was to be an audience with Majestrix Lilandra, and even with the famous Gladiator and members of the Imperial Guard in attendance, the Shi’ar had no intention of letting up until they were as certain as possible that there was no need to worry.

“I trust you’ll help keep things in line?” Adam said as he prepared for transport, speaking to Mantis. As it had been he, Annelle, Mar-Vell and a handful of Annelle’s assistants that were being brought down to meet with Lilandra, there had been a clear need to trust others on board with the mediation position the three had been occupying. Mantis had been one of those who had quickly come to mind.
“This one is certain there should be no trouble.” She replied. “If things go well, none aboard should have to be waiting much longer.”
”We can only hope.” Added Whin’do, his voice filled with a great deal of skepticism. He too had done relatively well on the trip over, considering how bitter he was letting on about his loss to Ch’od, markings from which were still visible on his body.
“I have more than hope.” Said Annelle. “I am certain that we can make this work.”

The conversation ended there as those landing on the planet were beamed off the ship. They arrived in a large exterior chamber room, just outside the Primary Ruling Hall of the Majestrate. Several Shi’ar guards stood at attention around the room, as well as the Starjammers and a small number of Imperial Guardsmen, who were led by a member known as Oracle.

“This way.” They could hear her say in their heads, as she indicated to a large set of doors that opened before them. The Guardsmen took point, leading the rest of the party in, and followed by the Starjammers. Annelle’s group followed, flanked on either side by elite Shi’ar guards, while additional soldiers brought up the rear.

The ruling hall itself was stunning, much like the rest of the building, and amongst the pinnacle of Shi’ar architecture. Few buildings on the planet, let alone the empire, were able to match it, High Council Hall being amongst that number. It was designed to impress and to highlight what made the Empire great, as well as draw attention to the sole individual who, at least in the mind of the Shi’ar, should have been the key focus of attention and driving force behind all that went on within the room. At that point in time, that individual was Majestrix Lilandra Neramani. She was hardly alone, however, and amongst those around her were her sister, best known as “Deathbird”, and Gladiator, Praetor of the Imperial Guard.

The party came to a halt, and the Shi’ar spread out a bit as the Imperial Guards took new positions closer to the throne and Lilandra.

“Presenting, Captain Corsiar and the Starjammers!” Oracle said once she arrived at her new position, the announcement helped by the use of her powers.
“We bring greetings, Majestrix Lilandra.” Corsiar said with a small bow and an incredibly charming smile.
“And greetings to you, Captain.” Lilandra said. “It is always a pleasure to be visited by such friends as you and your crew, and to know that you are able to continue to so successfully and safely assist the Empire in its ongoing endeavors.”
“What can I say?” Corsair replied. “We need some something to fill the time between being us.”

A small chuckle of laughter permeated though the room, though Adam and Mar-Vell could both clearly see that Deathbird appeared to be rather less amused than everyone else in the room. Gladiator simply stood there, practically emotionless.

“And the Empire thanks you for your decision to do so.” She said, right before switching the topic to the matter at hand. “Who are these that you have brought before us?”

The Starjammers stepped aside, allowing them to introduce Annelle’s party.

“Majestrix Lilandra, may I introduce to you Adam Warlock, Captain Mar-Vell of the Kree Empire, and Princess-in-Exile Annelle of the Skrull Empire. The remainder of the group they were traveling with remain in orbit.”
“Captain Mar-Vell and Princess Annelle, I believe I have heard of each of you.” Lilandra said to them. “We have heard many reports lately of conflict between the Kree and the Skrulls, and of political upheaval in the Skrull Empire. If I may ask, does this have anything to do with you two traveling together through our space?”
“It does indeed.” Annelle said. “My uncle, Dorrek, has recently seized the throne. He is a power hungry individual, and has sought to eliminate me and the threat I pose to him. Furthermore, he made his first attempts at conquest of the Kree, which I have no doubt will continue in the future. My companions and have fled Skrull space for safety, and so that we make plans to overthrow Dorrek to both end his plans of conquest and so that I may take my rightful place as the true heir to the Skrull Empire.”

Murmuring passed through the room, interrupted by the sound of Deathbird’s voice.

“This doesn’t change the fact that you are trespassing within our boarders. And even if what you say, which is questionable given the well-known nature of the Skrulls, why should we care…”

She was cut off by Lilndra, who rose her hand in a gesture reminding Deathbird of her place.

“Mar-Vell, Princess Annelle, if you would be willing, I would like to meet with you personally so that I may be better informed before considering what you have to say.”
“Certainly.” Said Annelle.
“Excellent. In the meantime, Gladiator, Corsair, allow the remainder of Annelle’s party to disembark and see to it that they are given accommodations. For the time being, they are to be considered our guests.”

After everyone had gotten some time to settle in an relax a bit, Warlock attempted to call a meeting of those among Annelles group whose fate from this point on was not entirely clear – which effectively consisted of anyone who wasn’t Ronan the Accuser, who everyone knew wanted to return to Kree-Lar yesterday, and was none too quite about it, or a Skrull, who had every intention of either following their leader to the ends of the galaxy or returning to Skrull space to help those Skrulls left behind and unhappy with Dorrek organize an effective resistance to prepare for the return of Annelle.

From those left, both Gamora and Major Victory were missing. At Adams request, Victory was currently being looked at by Shi’ar scientists, while Mantis reported to them that Gamora had actively decided not to be there. The four left, consisting of Adam Warlock, Mantis, Jack of Hearts, and Captain Mar-Vell, wisely decided to leave it at that.

“The Majestrix refrained from making an official decision.” Mar-Vell reported, opening the meeting by letting the others know what he knew about perhaps the key factor to what would happen next. “However, I have reason to believe that while officially, the Shi’ar will remain neutral toward the current government squabbles of the Skrulls, they have every intention of assisting in the overthrow of Emperor Dorrek, including providing Princess Annelle with asylum within their boarders until Dorrek can be overthrown.”
“I can pretty much confirm this.” Added Jack. “I’ve been talking with the Starjammers, and they mentioned they plan to assist the Skrulls in their resistance efforts.”
“Could that not be considered an act of war by the Shi’ar against the Skrulls should they be caught?” asked Mantis, who while unfamiliar with intergalactic politics, was no stranger to the way that governments interacted with one another.
“Only if they’re discovered.” Said Jack.
“Even so,” said Mar-Vell, who knew exactly how these sort of things worked. “The Starjammers are not officially part of the Shi’ar military. Officially, they’re pirates, but in truth they’re closer to privateers. Even if the Skrulls discover what the Starjammers are doing, the Shi’ar can deny any involvement in the activities.”
“Clever, if underhanded.” Said Warlock, though it didn’t seem like he disapproved of the idea at all. “Since we can safely assume that Annelle is in safe hands for now, our next task turns to where we go from here. I know that Ronan is intent on leaving for Kree-Lar as soon as he can. I myself plan on going with him. I sense that there may be a need for someone to temper his current mindset. While he is certainly a key at this point in restoring Annelle to power, I worry that he may act too rashly and make things worse somehow.”
“You think?” said Jack.
“This one understands your concern.” Mantis said. “And shall join you.”

Adam nodded, but the rest could tell he was not quite finished yet.

“I can’t say for certain that I’m going, however. At this point, I can not abandon Major Victory – there is too much yet that I need to learn about him, and should he decide he does not wish to go with Ronan, I have no intention of forcing him.”
“This one does not think it should be difficult to convince him to come.” Said Mantis.
“Let me know if he turns out to be Captain America.” Joked Jack. The rest looked at him with questioning faces, and he tried to wave it off. “Never mind. Perhaps the point is that while I can agree with your intentions, I’m afraid I won’t be joining you. Captain Corsair asked me to join him, help him with the Skrull resistance project. I had some hesitations, but I felt like there was something else there.”
“Something else?” asked Mar-Vell.
“Yeah. I’m not sure what it was. As though something from beyond was beckoning me, calling me to join his crew. I wasn’t sure what it was, but I just couldn’t turn away from it.”

No one tried to argue with Jack over his decision, and so attention turned to Mar-Vell.

“I, too, shall not be returning to Kree-Lar.” He said. This came as a bit more of a surprise to the others.
“I don’t suppose Ronan knows this yet?” Asked Jack.
“No, but it does not matter.”
“This one can not imagine he will be happy to know it.”
“Nor do I. But while Annelle should be safe with the Shi’ar, there is no certainty of this. I have decided to stay with her in order to provide her with additional protection. After all, her safety must be among our top concerns. Should something happen to her, our hopes of restoring the rightful heir to the Skrull Throne whom we can trust will die. It is a sound tactical decision.”

No one questioned the idea further, though Adam continued to suspect there was more at play. He choose not to question about it, however. With this, they needed only to know whether Gamora would travel with them, a decision they decided required no debate. While they waited for an opportunity to ask her, Adam and Mantis both talked to Victory and the Scientists who had taken a look at him. At Adam’s request, they had refrained from taking any risky moves, even though this had limited their ability to learn more about him, to the point of have nothing available for him for the near future. On a brighter note, Victory was indeed easily convinced to go with Adam and Mantis as they followed Ronan.

As for Gamora, they had no opportunity to speak to her up until they were summoned by Annelle, who wished to speak with the lot of them personally. They presumed this to be concerning news of Majestrix Lilandra’s decision. The room that Annelle had obtained for the occurrence wasn’t very large, but it was large enough to serve its purpose, and the organization of the room and those inside it was rather informal.

A Desk took up the center of the room, with the Princess seated at one end. Mar-Vell and the most trusted of her Skrull allies traveling with her sat or stood near her position, and Adam’s group was invited to sit as the entered the room. Some accepted, while others choose to remain standing. This time, only Ronan refrained from attending.

“I have good news.” She said, getting right down to business. I have recently received word that Majestrix Lilandra has committed the Shi’ar to assisting us in our struggle against Dorrek. Accordingly, it my understanding that many of you wish to travel with Ronan to Kree-Lar.”
“That is correct.” Said Gamora before Warlock could answer himself, taking care of any lingering questions as to what she was planning.
“While we will miss your assistance, I can understand your decision. As you leave, understand that we wish you the best in whatever course of action you take next, and that once Dorrek is deposed, it is my hope that the Skrull Empire will forever more be able to call all of you its friends and allies.”
“And to you, we wish you safety and that your exile will be short and as unhindering as possible.” Warlock replied.
“There is but a single matter I wish to discuss with you before you go. As a sign of our gratitude, and of our future friendship, I wish to send someone with you. Jazinda, step forward.”

From the wall, a single female Skrull stepped forward. Adam quickly recognized her, as she matched up who he had seen the fake Annelle revert to on board the ship.

“This is Jazinda, one of my most trusted and loyal of bond-servants, as well as a frequent body double. She has provided me with service and security for years, and I send her with you in trust that she will be as helpful to you as she has been to me.”

“Does…this mean we’re a team, or…?” asked Gamora.
“Yes.” Replied Mantis. “This one believes that it does.”

Guardians of the Galaxy, Annual #1 – Supreme Kree
*Written by Space Jawa with guest writer mikeinmke
*Edited by WakandaMan

It was a smaller chamber, not nearly as large or impressive, but it was hardly plain. No chamber used by Majestrix Llilandra was, at least not when she could help it. But for a smaller meeting such as that she had granted with Adam Warlock, it was a much more efficient location than the larger, grander hall she had used earlier.

“Thank you for agreeing to see me.” Adam said.
“Certainly.” Lilandra replied. “Mar-Vell and Princess Annelle have told me little more than good things about you and your friends. What is it you have to say?”
“I have a request. It is the intention of myself and a few others to travel with Ronan to Kree-Lar. However, as Mar-Vell had decided to remain with Annelle, we are no longer able to use his ship for transportation. I have thus come to you in order to request that we may be provided with a means to travel to the Kree capital.”

A brief moment of silence, and a smile formed on Lilandra’s face.

“I believe we can do better than that.”

----------------

“Mar-Vell! Explain yourself!”

Standing on a balcony that overlooked the horizon of Chandilar, Mar-Vell turned his head and, upon seeing that it was a rather unhappy Ronan the Accuser, the Captain turned the rest of his body to face the larger Kree.

“I’m afraid you will have to be more specific.” He said.
“I’m talking about your decision to stay.”
“I’m sorry if you just found out, but you’ve been rather difficult to contact of late.”
“There shouldn’t have been a need to contact me. I have been waiting aboard your ship with the expectation that we would be on our way at the earliest possible moment. By all rights we should have already left! Now I learn that you won’t be returning to Kree-Lar, and that your ship is staying with you.”
“It is my privilege as an officer of the Kree to retain control of the ship, which I dutifully obtained by proper protocols, so long as necessary to complete my mission.”
“Don’t cite privileges and protocol to me, Mar-Vell. I am an Accuser! And the reason you provide for holding onto it falls flat in that by no sensible judgment should a Captain such as yourself be choosing to remain with a batch of exiled Skrulls rather than return to our Empire so that we may prepare for our next move against our foe!.”
“I am making a sound strategic option. The Princess remains our most viable option for ensuring that an individual we can trust will obtain the throne once Emperor Dorrek is deposed. I need to remain here to provide her with additional security, in case…
“Save it for the gullible!” Interrupted Ronan. “I know the real reason you wish to remain with the Skrulls. The real reason you wish to remain with her. Do you take me for a fool? Do you think I don’t take notice of such things? Your first duty is to the Kree, and I need that ship!”
“Perhaps I can be of assistance.”

Ronan and Mar-Vell both turned towards the new arrival, Adam Warlock, who now stood in the archway that led out from the building to the balcony.

“Explain.” Ronan said.

The three walked into the hanger where the ship was docked, and saw several Shi’ar walking about making final preparations for the initial departure of the ship, along with the occasional member of another species that had been incorporated into the Empire over the years. Mixed in even with them were the other allies of Annelle who would be traveling with Ronan to Kree-Lar.

While Gamora and Mantis were moving about, helping as they could, which in Gamora’s case was a desire to get going as soon as possible, Jazinda and Major Victory were currently following a Shi’ar engineer by the name of Jerrodd, who was filling them in on the details and specifications of their new ship.

“The Far Seeing Eye of the Osiris”, as he had explained to them at the beginning of his tour speech, “Is part of our new Herald class scout ship line. Built primarily for speed and maneuverability, she is capable of outrunning nearly any other ship out there, and only two others of her kind exist at the moment. She’s well armed and defended for a vessel of her size, but I wouldn’t recommend getting into many battles with it – she’s not designed for extended battle. Her best defense is avoiding her enemies to find safer territory. She also features a top of the line sensor outfit and an experimental-level integrated AI system. Topping it off are signature Shi’ar hologram and cloaking technology.”
“Sounds like an impressive ship.” Said Jazinda.
“Of course it is.” Jerrodd said back without a moments hesitation. “It’s Shi’ar. Though I should probably warn you – while the initial design incorporated the best cloaking system we could fit into it, we’ve made some modifications to the Osiris to downgrade that particular technology.”
“You downgraded it?” Victory asked.
“Yes. Nothing against you personally, and the Majestrix wanted you to be assured that she trusts you entirely, but as I’m sure you know, sometimes events happen that are entirely out of your hand. As such, with a ship of this caliber running around completely out of Shi’ar hands, we want to be sure that she won’t be too unrecoverable should something…unfortunate happen.”
“What a show of faith.” Jazinda said, nearly at a whisper.
“Hmm?” he asked, having missed the comment.
“Nothing.”
“Still, I am simply astonished that the Majestrix was willing to present your little band with such a marvelous piece of work. She mush either really like you, or really want to get rid of you.”
“Or maybe both.”

Victory and Jerrodd both looked at Jazinda in response to her comment, and quickly refocused their attention when they saw she was looking out from underneath the ship, and began to get what her comment meant when they saw that she was looking directly at the newly arrived Ronan.

Ronan himself took a few moments to look the vessel over from afar, but what went through his head at that time was anyone’s guess.

“It will suffice.” He said once he finally spoke. “Good work, Warlock. I am glad to see that some have put some thought towards such crucial matters.” There was no direct address to Mar-Vell in his word, but both men with him could tell he was attempting to use the moment to give the Captain another chastising blow. But it was not the end of it, as he then turned to the other Kree to address him directly.

“Very well, Captain Mar-Vell. Stay with the Skrulls, and provide them with safety. But know this. When the time comes that you look back on this decision and begin to regret it, there will be neither anyone to blame for it but yourself, nor will there be any guarantee that you will have an opportunity to make amends. Furthermore, there will come a time when you will have to decide where your true allegiances lie. I hope, for your sake, that when that time comes, it is with the Kree.”

Not offering the man a chance to respond, the Accuser advanced toward the ship to investigate just how much longer he would have to wait before he could leave for his homeworld. Mar-Vell said nothing, simply giving a minor shake of his head before turning to leave.

As Adam watched, he hoped that this was not the first signs of something worse to come.

*Greetings to you. My designation is ‘Osiris’. Please inform me if I can be of any service to you.*

“That’s pretty polite for a ship.” Commented Jazinda in response to their ships self-introduction.

“Are we ready?” asked Major Victory from the pilots seat.

As the team has prepared to leave, it came as a surprise as they compared notes that none of them could say they had much, if any, experience flying. While the advanced design of the ship made it possible for the ship to be flown without formal training in the skill, this also made it impossible to utilize the ship to its fullest. Of those present whose name wasn’t Ronan, Jazinda appeared to have the most experience flying ships, even if she wasn’t exactly a pilot. However, during the discussion, Victory had taken a moment to sit in the pilots seat, and as he had done so, he had felt something come back to him.

While all evidence indicated that they were best off with having the Skrull fly the ship, Warlock managed to convince them to let Victory try his hand at it, at least for the trip to Kree-Lar. Since it should have been a simple flight, it would allow them an opportunity to see just what Victory could remember, and might even offer him an opportunity to bring other memories back.

“We’ve been ready for far too long.” Said Ronan in response to Victory’s, clearly of the mind that everyone was ready when he was ready. In this case, no one cared enough to try to argue with Ronan, especially since they would be rid of his persistent prescience soon enough. So without another work, Major Victory lifted the ship off the ground and entered orbit. While his piloting wasn’t flawless, it did quickly become apparent that he had at least some idea as to what he was doing.

“Chandilar flight control, this is the Far Seeing Eye of the Osiris,” said Jazinda into the communication system. “Requesting jumpgate access and forwarding our authorization code and destination coordinates.”
“We follow, Osiris, please stand by for confirmation.”

The ship continued along its flight path, traveling along the path to the jump-gate system, as it waited for clearance to use the gate.

“Osiris, you have been cleared to jump. Majestrix Llilandra wishes you safe travels. Chandilar flight control out.”

The jump-gate ahead of them could be seen powering up, then activating, ready for whenever their ship arrived to use it.

“Prepare yourself. We will be jumping momentarily.”

And jump they did. As the ship entered jump-gates field of influence, it was snatched up and propelled countless light years towards its destination, well outside solid Shi’ar territory and on the outer fringes of space claimed by the Kree. All this in but a fraction of the time it would have taken otherwise.

From there, the ship was force to move under its own power, and it wasn’t too long before they passed within range of the nearest boarder patrol station.

“Unknown vessel, this is Kree Imperial Boarder Station Acua Five-Five. Identify yourself!”
“Activate the screen!” Ronan demanded, a demand which was met, even if those around him weren’t exactly happy about taking such orders. “This is Ronan the Accuser, and you will let me through!”

The view on the other side was frantic, as it could be seen that there were double takes and checking their controls to make sure there wasn’t a mistake. But in their shock, they could think of no reason to deny him entrance.

“Yes! Certainly Sir! We will inform Kree-Lar of your approach!”

The communication was cut without another word.

“The ship is now on auto-pilot.” Announced Victory. “We shouldn’t have any more trouble between here and our destination.”
“If that’s so, then Mantis, Gamora, Jazinda, Victroy,” Said Warlock “Could I perhaps see you for a moment?”

Ronan turned to give a disapproving look at Warlock, but said nothing more, content to simply wait for the ships arrival. The others, while not understanding what Warlock might be up to, complied anyway, happy to get away from the Kree.

“There are a few important matters that need to be taken care of before we arrive at Kree-Lar.” He said as the door to the bridge closed behind them. “And I’m afraid that you are one of them, Jazinda.”
“Why would that be?” She asked.
“It is not that we don’t trust you, Jazinda, but due to circumstances, we will need you to use your shape shifting to take on another form for the immediate future.”
“I’m not quite sure I follow.”
“Adam is correct.” Mantis added. “While these ones have no doubt of your loyalties and trustworthiness, the Krees recent conflict with the Skrulls is unlikely to result in them accepting a Skrull entering their territory like this.”
“It is also important to take note of the strategic advantages your shape shifting may provide in future conflicts.” Added Major Victory. “To reveal your existence as a Skrull will sacrifice this advantage.”

The green-skinned woman looked around at her new teammates, and saw little point in arguing with their statements. Especially since they had valid points.

“Alright then.” She said “I suppose I’ll have to decide upon a secret identity to rely on until I don’t have to worry about hiding who I am. I don’t suppose you have a sister, do you?”

Gamora was taken aback as the Skrull indicated towards her, and quickly squished what she suspected was being suggested.

“Don’t even think about it.”

When the Osiris arrived at Kree-Lar, it was granted access to land in a tower attached to the Royal Kree Throne Room.

*I have run an internal landing diagnostic, and can report that your vessel is currently in need of minimal maintenance.* reported the ships computer as they stopped moving *Would you like me to run the ships automated post-trip standby program?*

“Yes, please.” Answered Victory. He and the others had to move quickly. Ronan was already off the bridge, headed for the exit, and the others were trying to stay close behind.

“Stand Aside!” He heard the large Kree shout as he reached the ships entrance. As he stepped onto the floor of the docking area and closed in on his teammates, he saw a large group of Kree soldiers around the main doors. Also, Ronan didn’t appear to be making any indications he was going to stop for them.
“Sir, with all due respect, we must inspect you and your…colorful assortment ofUugf!”

Ronan pushed straight past the man, and the rest of the Kree there stepped aside and followed the earlier order.

“There will be more than plenty of time for that later, Commander, not now. I must first see kind of damage my ‘replacement’ caused and ensure that it is fixed before we prepare to strike back against our enemy!”

Some of the soldiers and guards aimed their weapons at Warlock and his team, if not at Ronan, but not a one dared to pull the trigger. If this was the real Ronan, and none of his tagalongs were Skrulls, then woe betide he who made that kind of mistake.

Ronan made as straight and fast a line for the throne room as was physically possible, almost cutting corners through the wall in the process. As he neared the throne room doors, however, some found themselves surprised at the lack of guards near the door.

Ronan burst the doors open, and five steps in, came to a screeching halt. Aside from the general emptiness of the room itself, a stark contract to its usual nature, there was also another figure occupying the throne itself. And not some figure that Ronan just barely might have accepted the prescience of, such a Kree Captain, General, or Admiral, trying to keep things in line and more than willing to abdicate the seat upon his return. Instead, he had burst into the room to find, seated there, the Physical Manifestation of the Supreme Intelligence. Or rather, hovering over there.

“RONAN THE ACCUSER: FORMER LEADER OF THE KREE EMPIRE.” The being spoke as the doors closed behind him, but not until after Adams group had made their way in. “YOUR ARRIVAL HAS PROVEN AN UNFORTUNATE SURPRISE.”
“I DEMAND an explanation for this! How dare you refer to me as the ‘Former’ Leader, and by what authority does a glorified, over-revered computer take the throne of the Kree!?”

“ZZT! ZZT! ZZT! ZZT! ZZT!...”

“I ‘SIT’ HERE, AS YOU NIEVELY STATE IT, BY MY OWN AUTHORITY. YOU, RONAN, HAVE BEEN REPLACED. I HAVE SUCCEEDED YOU, AND NOW RUN THE KREE EMPIRE.”
“And I have now come to reclaim it. I order you to abdicate your position and stand down. You get this one warning before I begin to smash you apart.”
“I CAN NOT AND WILL NOT ‘STAND DOWN’. TOO MANY THINGS HAVE BEEN SET IN MOTION TO ALLOW YOU TO INTERVINE.”
“What ‘things’? What have you done!?”
“WHEN YOU WERE REPLACED, I SAW AN OPPORTUNITY THAT COULD NOT BE IGNORED. IT IS A SHAME THAT YOU ARE STILL ALIVE. LOGIC HAD DICTATED THAT ONCE THE SKRULLS HAD YOUR BODY, THEY WOULD PROCEED TO ELIMATE YOU. CLEARLY, I OVERESTIMATED THEIR DECISION MAKING ABILITIES.”
“Stop your ranting and answer my question before I tear you apart!”
“Wait, you knew he was a Skrull?” Asked Jazinda.

“ZZT! ZZT! ZZT! ZZT! ZZT!” the machine laughed again. “OF COURSE I DID. JUST AS I KNOW THAT YOU ARE NOT SHI’AR. YOU SKRULLS ARE NOT AS SKILLED AS YOU LIKE TO BELIEVE. WHILE YOUR SHAPESHIFTING IS IMPRESSIVE, THE ABILITY TO IMITATE BEHAVIOR ACCURATELY IS TOO OFTEN OVERLOOKED.”
“ENOUGH!” shouted Ronan, already determined to smash Supreme Intelligence to pieces, and now tired of waiting for answers.

Ronan raised his hammer high and charged the throne, and for a moment it appeared the fight would be over quickly. But the Supreme Intelligence was not as unprepared as he first appeared. From above, a dark, black figure dropped to the ground and hit the Kree from behind. While Ronan staggered, his run continued, only to be hit by another flying body which took his legs out from under him, forcing the Accuser to fall to the ground. Just as quickly as they has appeared, the two black figures returned to where they had come from, completely out of sight.

As Warlocks group slowly advanced and looked for signs of the beings, not sure what had just occurred and not quite sure what to do, Ronan stood to his feet.

“What were those?” asked Victory.
“THEY ARE THE RESULT OF MY OPPORTUNITY. THEY ARE THE FUTURE OF THE KREE.”
“What. Have. You. Done?” asked Ronan in a slow, menacing voice.
“WHAT IS NESSICARY. YOUR RACE HAS BECOME STAGNENT, INCAPABLE OF FURTHER INDEPENDENT ADVANCEMENT. I CALCULATED THAT UNLESS THIS ERROR IS CORRECTED, THE DAYS OF THE KREE EMPIRE ARE NUMBERED. NOT IN THIS GENERATION, NOR THE NEXT, BUT THEY HAVE ONLY SO MUCH TIME BEFORE THEY ARE INCAPABLE OF MAINTAINING THEIR CURRENT STATUS.”

“I can sense them.” Said Warlock. “But I do not know…what it is that I sense.”
“I KNEW YOUR KIND WOULD BE INCAPABLE OF UNDERSTANDING. THEY ARE TOO ILLOGICAL. I TOOK MATTERS UPON MYSELF, AND WHEN YOUR REPLACEMENT PRESENTED MY WITH AN OPPORTUNITY TO BEGIN MY WORK, I TOOK IT.

WHAT YOU HAVE EXPERIENCED ARE THE FIRST STAGES IN MY PLAN. THEY ARE FORMER KREE WHO WERE BROUGHT AROUND TO MY POINT OF VIEW. THEY HAVE BEEN BONDED WITH AN OBSCURE SPECIES THAT WAS DISCOVERED ON A REMOTE, UNIMPORTANT BACKWORLD OF THE KREE EMPIRE. THIS SPECIES SHOWED IMMENSE SYMBIOTIC POTENTIAL, AND SO WERE SELECTED TO BRING ABOUT A NEW AGE FOR THE KREE EMPIRE.”

“Some sort of…’symbiote’?” asked Jazinda.
“Whatever it is, they didn’t look like any Kree I’ve ever seen.” Said Gamora.
“THAT IS THE POINT.” Said the Supreme Intelligence. “CURRENTLY, THE PROCESS REQUIRES GENETICALLY MODIFYING THE ALIEN, WHICH HAS A UNIQUE UNSTABLE PHYSIOLOGY, INTO A FULL SYMBIOTIC STATE, AT WHICH POINT IT BONDS WITH ANOTHER BEING, A KREE, AND FORMS A FULLY ENCLOSED SUIT AROUND THEM. THIS PROVIDES THE KREE WITH ENHANCED CAPABILITIES.

BUT THIS IS A CRUDE, INNEFFICENT METHOD. IT IS ONLY THE FIRST STEP. WORK WILL CONTINUE, AND WITHIN A FEW SHORT GENERATIONS, THE KREE AND THE SYMBOTES WILL BE BLENDED INTO A SINGLE, INSEPERABLE SPECIES, WHERE THE YOUNG WILL BE BORN AS AN IMPROVEMENT OVER THE CURRENT VERSION, AND NEITHER WILL BE DISTINGUISHABLE FROM THE OTHER.”

As the machine came to the conclusion of his explanation, the two original attackers, along with several additional ‘bonded’ Kree, emerged from hiding, showing just how difficult things were stacked against Ronan and the others. The Symbiote Kree looked barely distinguishable from one another at first glance, with only their gender and basic body type viable through the black goo. However, at second glance, other small variations could be seen, small features that appeared to be attempts at suit customization, such as one who had formed a black crest on the top of its head that mimicked the standard Kree military helmet, while another had some sort of dull spike-like features jutting out its back in an upward fashion.

“This is an outrage.” Said Ronan. “You have no idea what you are doing!”
“QUITE THE CONTRARY.” Said the Intelligence. “I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT I AM DOING. THESE REPRESENT THE FUTURE OF YOUR PEOPLE. YOU, RONAN THE ACCUSER, ARE OBSOLETE. BUT YOUR RELUCTANCE TO ACCEPT THE INEVITABLE IS NOT SURPRISING – YOU ARE NOT DRIVEN BY LOGIC, AS I AM. I SUSPECT MANY WILL RESIST THE FUTURE AS THE PROGRAM MOVES FORWARD AND THE PROCESS BECOMES A REQUIREMENT FOR ALL KREE.”

“They won’t have to.” Ronan fired back. “Because I won’t let you get that far.”
“I WILL OFFER YOU A SINGLE OPPORTUNITY TO REVERSE YOUR DECISION MAKING PROCESS AND SUBMIT TO THE INEVITABLE. SHOULD YOU REFUSE, YOU WILL BECOME ONLY THE FIRST USED TO DEMONSTRATE YOUR INFERIOR NATURE.”
“I’ll show you inferior!” Shouted Ronan as if it were a battle cry. Lifting his hammer once again, he prepared to resume his charge, indicating that the conversation was over.

[Game Start]

Ronan charged forward, and came nearly within striking distance of the Supreme Intelligence, but was tackled by a duo of the Symbiote-enhanced Kree soldiers. The Accuser attempted to fight them off, but they were too quick for his heavy swings and, as they managed to strategically fight him away from the throne, more joined them. Soon, not only were they too quick for him, but they were too many, as well. His skill as a combatant shined like it hadn't done in some time as Ronan attempted to deal with the traitors, but he was only just barely able to hold his own.

"Attack the Intelligence!" he barked out, as if it hadn't been clear already that the primary target would have to be taken care of by Adam's team.

The group moved forward, only to be surprised by a volley of long-distance, and well off, shots, coming from the ceiling.

"Take cover!" Victory shouted, blocking one of the lucky ones with his shield before doing it himself. The others listened, and as they looked over the newly created battlefield, they saw four additional Symbiote Kree emerge. Even if the Supreme Intelligence had designated Ronan the primary threat, it didn't mean it had simply left itself defenseless.

-----------

Imperiously and impassively, the Kree Supreme Intelligence seemed to observe the goings-on before him. At the same time, its visual representation betrayed that it was also -- simultaneously -- engaged in thoughts of another nature. "I realize what you are planning. Your crude tactics are another piece of evidence that your inferior nature dictates your elimination."

Its creations, the Kree-symbiote beings, advanced, staying effectively hidden in their black ooze outfits -- or were they second skins? It was hard for Adam Warlock to see them clearly.

------------

"You discredit us too easily." said Warlock as he slowly moved closer to the artificial intelligence unit. "That shall be your downfall." As he did so, he attempted to light up the area around him and provide his allies with some semblance of cover. While he had no doubt that it would have no impact on the Supreme Intelligence, as he likely was connected to other visual links, the Symbiotic Kree he could not count on this guarantee for. He knew too little about them, but hoped that they would react to the normal visual stimuli.

Their black-covered opposition, meanwhile, had split into two basic groups, one heading off towards the right flank while the others kept more to the foreground, headed more or less in the opposite direction. Gamora quickly sprinted off to take care of the loner, grabbing the edge of a strategically, and decoratively, placed wall to swing herself around.

Her opponent was ready for her, stretching the black ooze of his arm outwards beyond its typical length to grab Gamora by the arm. The woman reacted quickly, yanking her arm and following through with a spin. The tactic took the Kree by surprise, causing him to be pulled forward, and as he came within striking range, found a heeled foot strike him on the neck, knocking him to the ground.

Gamora landed him with her foot firmly on his neck, but he was not quite finished, letting go of her arm, the soldier instead had his symbiote put a protective layer of ooze between his neck and the foot pressed against it, then had the ooze start to flow up the leg in order to keep her in position for his inevitable counter attack. Gamora wasn't about to let that happen.

Kneeling down, she brought her opponents face within arms reach and sliced across it with her blade, resulting in a horrifying mix of screeching and yelling. She pulled her leg away as it was freed, spun, and took the soldier out of the fight with a stab to the neither regions. The pain shared by the Kree with his Symbiote left them alive, but unable to do much of anything for the near future other than lie on the floor in pain.

With Gamora and Warlock covering the teams backside, the rest began to move along to the left, with Victory taking the lead.

-------------

The other black bipedals, formerly pure-blood Kree, continued their careful, silent approach. They could not know that one of their kind had been summarily dispatched in a matter of seconds by Gamora. Even though she was one of the premier fighters in the quadrant, the Supreme Intelligence fell silent -- perhaps shocked that one of its genetically altered Kree had been defeated so quickly...

-------------

The symbiotic Kree still not fully recovered from the flash of light he had created, Adam attempted to use the moment to start removing them from the battle. He picked his first target and shot at it, only to be surprised as the being ducked and leaped as though it could sense something was coming for it.

Having knowledge of something to shoot at, the Kree produced a handheld blaster, previously hidden beneath its black, Oozy exterior. His teammate, following the lead, also produced such a weapon and fired in the same direction. Unprepared for this counter attack, Adam was only just barely able to put up a proper defense, and even doing that sufficiently to stop the brunt of the attack drained him.

Expecting more, he quickly 'fudged' his image, as some might call it, making him appear to be nothing more than a fuzzy blur of a cloud for a mere moment. This was enough to throw off the aim of a third set of shots, produced by the last remaining Kree-Symbiote soldier.

Gamora, continuing her assault, charged from around the corner and sliced the weapon in half just as it was about to fire again. The black soldier dropped the gun without hesitation and attempted to form his arms into blades of his own. This was met with little success, as they hardly appeared very sharp. However, they still looked dangerous enough, and as she ducked under the first swing, wondered if perhaps they weren't fairly dull on purpose.

After a few missed swings, the arms turned from blades to something more closely resembling whips. These, however, he did not get a chance to use, as Gamora has found a opening in her opponents attack. Letting out a kick that began to swing the soldier around, Gamora grabbed him by his wrist and brought the arm down behind his head. Grabbing the other wrist, she placed her foot on the soldiers back. The soldier began to send out his ooze to hold Gamora in place by the hands and foot, but by now she was well prepared for it, and even counting on it. Using the holds to better solidify her footing, the woman twisted the Krees arms with her hands, dislocating both arms at once.

The goo immediately released her as both symbiote and soldier fell to the ground in pain, and Gamora made sure he'd stay there with a well-placed kick to the face, knocking him unconscious.

"You call these advanced?" She taunted, mocking the apparent ease with which she was able to dispatch them.

"Hold on, Adam."

With Gamora having things well in hand, Mantis moved to help Adam, rushing forward and kicking the gun out of the hand of the nearest Kree. The Symbiote, however, had other plans, spitting out a line of goo from its backside to grab the gun and pull it back to its body, returning the weapon to wherever it had come from.

Hoping to take advantage of what she viewed as a distraction, Mantis delivered a roundhouse kick, which the Kree dodged with ease, then let out a punch of his own. Mantis ducked in return, and while still on the ground, tried to kick the Krees legs out from under it. He leapt over them, and as he displayed just how much more connected and in control with his symbiote he was, stretched the good from his legs to hold Mantis kick in place, setting her off balance. Coming back to the ground, he then shot out an entirely new 'limb' from its chest, grabbing his opponent by the neck and pulling her to her feet.

While surprised by the move, Mantis was able to just barely block the punch thrown by the first of the Symbiotes two free hands, but was not able to stop the second, which hit her right across the face.

"I can't get a clear shot."
"Allow me."

While Adam wanted to open fire and free Mantis, who had now also had herself pulled in closer to the Kree with such speed as to slam her face against his chest, he was unable to do so without the possibility of hitting his ally. Jazinda rushed forward, with Adam providing cover fire, and with the use of her shapeshifting powers, morphed her arm into that which sported a blade of sorts, with which she sliced the connection between Mantis and her attacker.

While he let out a shout of surprise, he did not appear phased by the attack, and quickly re-absorbed the lost material. Instead, the two women saw a face form that looked like a mix between being ticked off and glad he now had twice the opponents to show off and truly test his skills on.

----------------

"You are in the presence of the Intelligence Supreme -- rightful ruler of the eternal Kree. You gaze upon a mere representation of a multiplicity of geniuses, made manifest in one being, one entity."* A beam of throbbing energy seemed to shoot out of the forehead of the entity. Gamora had no chance to evade it. It struck her and she immediately fell to the floor, writhing in psychical agony.

"You might have defeated the first generation of my genetic spawn, but Ronan has been effectively delayed, and you, too, shall soon fall." Meanwhile, the black ooze in the shape of bipedal humanoids attempted again to attack Adam Warlock, but failed.
------------

Victory let his shield fly, but as it bounced off the floor in an effort to smack its target in the jaw, the Kree stepped aside, and the shield simply flew past him to bounce of a nearby column to return to its owner.

Meanwhile, Mantis moved aside and bounded back a couple feet as the lead Kree attempted to grab her again. Sliding forward to seek an opening, she was forced to roll aside and leap back up onto her legs as the soldier pounded the ground, creating a noticeable mark where the martial artists had previously been located. Jazinda took a swing as the soldier was distracted with its primary opponent, but a black arm spat out of its back as the attack came down, grabbing the Skrull's arm. She was quick to cut the connection, but knew that she would need to come up with something else if she was to successfully connect and hurt him.

------------

Belying the confidence of the Intelligence Supreme, its two warped Kree creations attempted to lash out at the heroes. Both of them failed to connect with their attacks.

The Guardians felt a renewed dash of hope. If they could reach the incarnation of the Intelligence Supreme and damage it somehow...

------------

Taking advantage of the missed attack, Adam sent out a concentrated blast at the Kree furthest away from Jazinda and Mantis, knocking the creature off his feet. He had little time to take pride in this small victory, however, as he noticed Gamora making her way towards the Supreme Intelligence herself.

"Gamora, wait!"

While he had no doubt of the woman's skill, he could not be so certain as to how she would fair against this machine, which he could detect sported rather spectacular skills, some of which there was no physical defense against. But she paid no attention to the warning.

"Let's see how genius you are with a blade stuck in your head."

------------

Mantis continued to look for an opening, without allowing an opportunity to counter attack, but the Symbiotic Kree was simply too fast. He ducked and dodged every kick, every punch that was thrown at it, which became fewer and fewer as it became more comfortable with throwing its ooze around.

Taking a different approach, Mantis prepared to deliver a punch directly at her foe.

"Prepare to duck and use your blade." she said for Jazinda, then delivered a strike. It was caught with little difficulty, and the Captain reached out along the arm that had hit him and prepared to deliver his counter attack. Mantis, however, struck back first.

Using her opponents weight against him, Mantis moved in and tripped the Kree, then did the best she could to direct the body over Jazinda's head, which quickly and wisely had lowered towards the ground. Gravity took over as the body fell to the ground, and Mantis propelled her body, still connected, to the other side of where it fell, delivering a kick to the beings face as she landed.

Jazinda was quick to cut the connection, then attempted to deliver a follow up blow, but the ooze-covered foe rolled out of the way and leapt to his feet, just in time to get hit in the back from another shot from Adam Warlock.

-------------

Attempting to get creative and use new tactics, the subordinate of the two remaining Kree formed a ball of black at the end of its hand and launched it in Mantis’ direction, like some sort of organic baseball bazooka. Mantis ducked under the attack, and weaved to the side as a second shot in her direction, but when she found herself forced to leap over a third, he was hit by a fourth of the black goo balls. The force of the impact was stronger than the damage, and Mantis worked with it, catching herself and quickly self-righting to her feet.

The superior of the two, taking a simpler approach, simply formed smooth mace-like instruments over its hands and swung at Jazinda, ever eager to crush her ability to fight. But the Skrull was too fast, and the return of her organic, bladed instruments gave the symbiotic kree reason to pause and hold off going all out. It did not want to leave itself open to a counter-attack from those things.

The pause and fixation on Jazinda, however, turned out to be a mistake in its own right, as by focusing too much on one foe, it had forgotten another, who’s shield smacked it against the head into unconsciousness.

But just as it seemed that the team was ready to wrap things up before dealing with the Supreme Intelligence itself, Gamora continued her storm towards the ringleader. She never finished the trip. A second mental attack, the very kind that had sent Gamora on a one-woman quest to deal with the Intelligence on her own in the first place, struck her again, and she fell to the ground, gripping her head in pain as she did so. She tried to pick herself back up, but it was too much for her to handle, and she soon was down for the count.

But what would have been a downward turn for the team was quickly negated as a black-suited Kree soldier flew across the room, over Jazindas head, and straight on into a column on the other side.

“WE FINISH THIS! NOW!”

The loud, commanding voice of Ronan the Accuser was unmistakable, and for all the things they didn’t like about him, his allies in the room could not deny that seeing him ready to put an end to this fight was something that put them all in better spirits.

The Accuser flew forward, smacking away another symbiotic kree with little effort as he did so.

“Advance!” shouted Major Victory, in such a manner that gave credit to the former part of his name, and with a point to boot. “We need to cover for Ronan!”

The rest quickly saw why. While the room was nearly clear of combat worthy Kree, the Supreme Intelligence had apparently prepared for such an event, and another team of them could be seen emerging from their assorted hiding places. Mantis and Jazinda both moved forward to intercept them, while Adam provided more direct cover, preparing the clear the way.

One way or another, the fight was about to reach a very messy conclusion.

----------------

The Symbiotic Kree began to advance in Adams direction, but when he held up his hand and let off another flash of light, focused in their direction. Their advance stopped, and they held put without action long enough for him to retract the light, focus it into a burst of energy, and propel it forward, causing his intended to screech as it was hit. The remainder of the energy he released again, allowing it to scatter and keeping the kree from aiming at him properly.

The Supreme Intelligence, perhaps mocking Ronan, refrained from taking immediate action against the ‘former’ ruler. Instead, he targeted Major Victory, and with an attack that his shield could not possibly defend against. Downed and nearly beaten, the Major pushed on, intent on not failing his allies.

Ronan continued to move, though not directly towards his foe. There were many things that people had been known to call the Accuser, but ‘Stupid’ was usually not one of them, and not just because of how scary the large, blue individual was when he was angry and found out about people talking about him behind his back with such disregard. Ronan had underestimated the Intelligence once already; he was not about to make the same mistake again. He was thankful enough that he had fought his way out of that particular error the first time around.

As Mantis continued to advance, Jazinda moved towards Ronan, and with what was a noticeable and effort on her part, began to shape shift into the form of Ronan himself on the way there. By the time she reached him, anyone who hadn’t been paying attention would not have known how to tell the two apart.

It was a move that quickly sparked feelings of rage within the Accuser towards the Skrulls apparent impudence – how dare she attempt to impersonate him! But he held back any physical exertion of this anger for two reasons. First, he knew that striking her down now would only distract him from the more important goal. Second, he realized why she was doing it.

The move confused the Symbiotic Kree long enough to do what it had to. Locating an opening in the machines defenses, Adam flew forward, cast away its concentration, and opened up a line of fire for Ronan to attack.

“NOW!”

Jazinda leapt out of Ronans path, shifting back to her original form in the process. Funneling his anger, the Accuser slammed his hammer on the floor, smashing the area into a puzzle of materials. Picking up the largest one, he threw it in the air, wound back his hammer, and swung as the piece made its way back down. The connection sent the block flying forward with deadly speed straight at the Supreme Intelligence, which moved itself as best as it was able, given the nature of its body. It was to no avail, and the projectile connected with its intended target, smashing through, sending bits of machine out to scatter about the floor.

Sparks began to flow from the ‘wound’, if it were to be called that. While the Supreme Intelligence was built of sturdier stuff, it was now missing half its ‘face’, and would not be able to survive another hit of the same caliber.

[End Game]

NO! The intelligence said, in as close to screaming as he could come. He may have been wounded, but he was no less dangerous. YOUR EFFORTS ARE IN FUTILITY! MY FUTURE IS INEVITABLE! INEVITABLE!

With a large blast of sparks, the machine's eyes began to glow, and Ronan bent over in pain, but as he used all the strength he could muster, he refused to fall to his knees. With a wave of his hands, Adam created an invisible barrier that blocked the attack, then sent out a wave of energy that wrecked havoc on its remaining defensive capabilities. With a long, loud, yell of fury, Ronan regained his footing, straightened up, and threw his weapon with all his might.

The weapon hit and lodged itself half-way into the Intelligence’s forehead, throwing small pieces of machinery and alien circuitry in all directions. The machine stopped hovering and fell right into the seat with a thud. The few symbiotic Kree still standing, knowing their leader had been defeated, quickly began to scatter. One let off a parting shot that hit Mantis from behind and left her on the ground, but the move cost it dearly. Adam used its pause to blast it off the wall, and it then tried to pick itself back up off the floor after it landed, only to be kicked across the face by Major Victory. It, too, fell unconscious.

“Your reign has come to an end, Emperor.” Ronan said, mocking the Supreme Intelligence, as he approached the fallen machine and yanked out his hammer, causing even more damage to the already beaten machine as he did so.

IT is…*Tisxt* he said to their surprise, now with fluids beginning to pour out and the sparks flying out in a continuous stream. it IS INeviTABle! i wIll BRING AB*CHICH!*bring about a NEW aGE FoR the KREE! IT is ONly a maTTEr of TIME and SACrifice.
“Have fun doing that from a scrapyard.” Said Jazinda.

ZZT! ZZT *paCHIE!* the machine laughed, only to be cut off by another explosion of sparks. A flash of light and a burst of smoke erupted from around the throne itself, forcing everyone to back off. Before they knew what was happening, the throne began to retreat back through the wall, which crackled and distorted as the seat passed through, revealing it to be a ‘soft’ hologram. Jazinda was the first to go after it, leaping through only to see a door close behind her.

It also meant that until they bust the wall down, she was the individual with the best chance of stopping the machines escape. The throne stopped only a few yards in, and she saw it drop onto the ground. As she reached its position, she saw that the machine had dropped into an elevator shaft that was quickly passing downwards towards who-knew-where. She jumped down after it as quickly as she could follow, slowing her fall to a manageable speed by grabbing onto the assorted mechanics of the shaft.

Yet it wasn’t fast enough, as by the time she reached the bottom, she found a room that showed signs of having been recently deserted, with a couple of other obvious entrances and several closed doors. Behind one of the doors she could hear a loud humming sound. She ran to the door, and when the panel near it wouldn’t respond to her attempts at operation, morphed her physiology to grant her a little extra strength and smash the panel. Contrary to what she hoped might happen, the door did not open, but rather a window revealed itself, through which she could see a large room that held an incredibly advanced piece of equipment. In the middle was the Supreme Intelligence. From the room, she heard a trio of pulsing sounds, then a flash of light that was followed by an expanding bubble of energy, and she instinctively hit the ground. When nothing happened, she stood up to look through the window again, only to see that the room was now empty, blackened as though it had been scorched over.

And then it exploded, causing the machine to fall to pieces.

----------------

“We’re still examining the wreckage, but we don’t expect to recover anything at this point,” said Commander Galen-Kor, providing Ronan with the initial full reports on everything they had learned since the Supreme Intelligence had made his escape. “However, files we recovered indicate that he used an experimental long-range teleportation device. Something similar to what the Shi’ar use for their territory wide gate network.”
“And we don’t know where he went?” Ronan asked with more than a hint of annoyance in his voice.
“No.”

“What of his…symbiotes?” Ronan asked, the name of the black beings of goo coming off his tongue with disgust.

Galen opened the door in front of them and followed Ronan and Warlock's group with Jazinda back in her Shi’ar appearance, into the primary biolab the Intelligence had used for his symbiote experiments. It was a large chamber, full of, among other things, tools, supplies, instruments, and of course, “biological samples.”

A small number of Kree were scattered about the room, recording data and trying to figure out just what had been going on.

“We believe we’ve rounded up most of the Intelligence’s successful test subjects. The symbiotes we were able to separate from their hosts died soon after. Our information tells us he was focusing on a strain that was intended to be a permanent bonding.”

The group came to twin rows of round tubes, each filled with some kind of black substance, some of which were moving.

“Why is that one empty?” Mantis asked as the group passed through the path of tubes, quickly taking notice of the lighter container. A Kree technician who was cataloging them lifted their head, took a look, pressed some buttons on a pad they were holding, and spoke up.

“That tube was recorded as holding the first of an experimental offshoot branch. Less dependent, and probably a testbed for changing the levels of its abilities; intelligence, strength, etc. I’d say that with his chosen path of advancement, he probably had it destroyed.”

Ronan stepped closer to the empty tube and glared at it.

“Make absolutely sure of it. Then do the same to the rest of them,” he said.
“Sir?”
“Do you require a doctor to look at your ears? I want the rest of these symbiotes destroyed. Then dispose of the rest of this disgusting work. I want no traces of it left behind. Are we not Kree? If we truly do need this ‘advancement’ the Intelligence spoke of, it shall be as Kree. Not as some half-Kree hybrid.”
“Yes Sir.”

--------------

From the darkness of a corner, a black, malleable being watched the room. It had endured so much since it had come into this world, against pain and separation, and it had no idea why. It hardly even knew what it was itself. But it did know what it could do, and it had used that knowledge to escape from its captivity, and to freedom from the terrible feelings it had endured.

But as it had escaped, it had quickly realized it had no idea what it would do afterwards. It had taken its first steps into a larger world, and the larger world scared it. Where would it go? How would it sustain itself? How would it avoid being recaptured? As it had stayed hidden, moving about the room, it had attempted to contemplate these thoughts, and then recognized a new feeling – hunger that it could not fill on its own.

As the new feelings emerged, a sign of hope did, as well. Those it recognized, those that had hurt it, had fled the room. It could escape! There was no one standing in its way. Perhaps it could even free its fellow beings, those who had been trapped like it but did not have the abilities to escape on their own. But before it had an opportunity to act on these ideas, new beings entered, and its fears and doubts returned.

Yet, new hope emerged for it. A new group, much different from the rest, entered the room. There, among them, it could sense something. Something it had sensed before in others, but only as a very low, easy to miss feeling. Yet in this one, the sense shouted out to it, and it knew just what to do. Not only would this new one allow him access to a source of sustenance, but it would also allow it an escape. It had but one opportunity, and it could not let it pass. Fortunately for it, the individual followed at the back of its group, where it would be easy to latch on to.

Lurking through the shadows, the black being made its way to the door, and hid there till the one that stood out to him passed under. Dropping, it caught onto that which hung behind and quickly hid itself amongst the flowing material, well out of sight and well on its way to freedom.

----------------

As she passed through the door out of the biolab, Gamora turned around, certain that there had been something there mere moments ago that wasn’t supposed to be. When nothing she could see appeared out of the ordinary, she turned back around and continued after the group.

----------------

“It feels good to finally be home,” Ronan said as he took a seat in the throne room's newly installed throne, having finally undergone the required tests to ensure that he wasn’t a new imposter and the room cleaned up. At his request, the room was presently empty besides him and Warlock's group. “It is also a pleasure to know that things are finally back to normal around here. As normal as they can be given the trouble the Skrulls have caused us. And to you, I must offer my thanks. You’ve saved the Kree an incalculable amount of time and trouble. I will even give my thanks to you, Skrull,” he said, directing his attentions specifically at Jazinda. “Though I will warn you that should I should I ever learn of you impersonating my form again, there will be nowhere in this universe you can hide where you will be safe from my retribution.”

“While we have every intent of opposing Dorrek and undermining his rule as we are able, we will not be able to join your war in such a role,” Adam replied. “My…gut…for lack of a better terminology, tells me that our team will soon be needed elsewhere.”

“This one agrees.” Mantis said. “Even now, it would not come as surprise if there is a call for aid on a much greater matter waiting.”
“Understood,” Ronan replied, though it wasn’t hard to tell that their response was a disappointment to him. “Until we meet again, then, may the powers above guide you to victory.”

----------------

Before long, the ship lifted off the surface of Kree-Lar and reached orbit. With an undisguised Jazinda taking a turn at the flight controls, the rest had taken seats on the bridge, refraining from conversation, but instead reflecting all that had happened so far.

“If nobody minds me asking,” Gamora said, finally speaking up, “does anybody know where we’re planning on going next?”

The rest turned to look at her, with the exception of Jazinda who simply peered over her shoulder for a moment before turning her attention back to where she was flying.

“Or are we simply planning on throwing knives at a map blindfolded and setting a course for wherever we hit?”

Her eyebrow rose as she smirked at the sight of Warlock and Major Victory looking at one another, with Jazinda once again looking away from the flight controls for a moment. While Adam was certain that something would come up that would require their aid, what he didn’t know was when, where, or what. Mantis simply remained seated, calmly, with her eyes closed.

“It will come, and soon. All that is needed is patience.”

The eyes then went upon Mantis, right before a light lit up on the ship's control panels with a beeping sound. The others turned to look at it, but Mantis simply remained calm, with a small smile having formed on her lips.

“If I’m reading the controls right, it looks like we’ve received a message.” Jazinda said. “It’s just an audio recording, though.”
“Play it,” Victory said.

“Mantis?” a voice said as a hologram appeared on the communications panel, sporting a familiar, dashing man. “This is Eros. I had to go to some trouble to get this signal, so I hope this message has reached you. I don’t have much time right now, I’m still trying to reach others and find out all I can. Please contact me if this message gets to you. I need your help, badly.”

The message stopped, and the hologram turned off.

“That’s all there is,” Jazinda said, “I think. So who’s ‘Eros’?”
“Eros is to whom Osiris must take us next.” Mantis replied. “Set a course for Titan.”

To Be Continued in RPSC Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2: The Infinity Quest!

Guardians of the Galaxy, Training Supplement #1
*Written by Space Jawa with guest writer ALC Marauder
*Edited by Space Jawa
Takes place after GotG Annual #1

Booster: "What are we here for again?"
Beetle: "We are here to get the ... what are we here for Ralph?"
Ralph: "We are here for the ..." His nose starts to wiggle. "I smell a mystery!"
Everyone groans.
Ralph: "Come on! I'm sure we will know what we are looking for when we find it. Lets go snooping." So saying he set off deeper into the museum.
Fire lites up and grabs Icemaiden under the armpits. "We better keep up with him, and try to keep him out of trouble." They caught up with him looking at the description in front of a case.
Ice: "What is it?"
Ralph: "Not what, who. most of the people here are Justice Society of America members, or affliated heroes. But some I don't recognise. Maybe that is the key to why we are here."
Ice: "Somehow I do not think that is it."
Booster rockets up with Beetle hanging by his ankle. Beetle twists off and lands next to Ralph.
Booster: "We are in the JSA museum. Some of the members will have joined years from now." Everyone but Ralph gets a perplexed look on their face. Ralph isn't listening and is reading.
Booster: Mumbles something about English not being suitable to time travel. "We are in the future realative to when we were, but the past from where I am from." The puzzled looks get deeper, then Blue Beetle brightens up.
Beetle: "We have traveled to the future!" Everyone looks amazed but now understanding. Booster glowers. Beetle pats him on the shoulder. "No one expects you to say anything that intellegent." Booster is now grinding his teeth.

------------

"I am not familiar with this location at all." Stated Adam Warlock as he looked upon the location that had been created in the ships hologram chamber.
"I'm not surprised." replied Jazinda, who had pulled up the program from a pre-constructed list of battle simulation parameters. Since she had opted to simply observe, she had in turn been designated to run the system for the duration of the simulation. "From the description I read, both the location and opponents are loosely based on a series of stories popular in the Shi'ar boarder territories mixed with a dash of what knowledge they have of Earth popular culture."
"An interesting choice." Commented Mantis.
"You told me to set it up as I saw fit." replied Jazinda. "I decided to go for the entertainment value."

She smiled, mostly to herself, as she watched the others present proceed into the battle program.

--------------

Ice saw something out of the corner of her eye and spun raising her hands. Icey water shot out and froze in place sealing one of the doorways in ice.
Ralph looked up from the plaque, "What? Hey! Careful! There are priceless things in here. Fragile, priceless things!"
Ice looked a little sheepish. "I saw someone over there."
Ralph, "It might have been a guard, or some lost tourist."
Beetle snickered, "Well they probably need to thaw the brown stain out of their shorts now." Booster started to laugh but a look from Fire stiffled it to a chortle.
Dimitri followed the others on foot. No sense firing up the boot jets and defening everyone and ruining the floors just to get there a bit faster. He scanned where Ice had put up her wall. "She wasn't wrong. There are two people at the Starman display. Unidentified capes."
Raph: "Great! Witnesses! Or maybe suspects!" His nose was still doing its wiggling thing. "Hey look there is onother one up ahead."
Booster and Blue Beetle look ahead and their jaws drop. Booster, "I think Beetle and I should go question that one and check her for weapons."
Beetle, "Though where she could keep weapons in that costume beats me."
Booster, "Be fun to look for them though."
Beetle, "Yeah."
Fire groaned and looked at the ceiling. "Why. Why did I turn down that position with the Great Ten. Sure it was as a junior member but ..."
Ice, "I wouldn't go with you remember."
Fire glaring at the guys who can't take their eyes off of Mantis, "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah."

-------------

Ralph looked at where the ice was rapidly turning into a giant puddle of water. "Well lets see what the damage is." He stretched his long legs and easily steped over to where the orange man with a facinating green gem in his forehead was floating. "Hello! I .." Suddenly the computer realised that the program would not result in a combat simulation without some personality adjustments. It quickly attempted to correlate combat training with entertainment. Unfortunately for Adam Warlock The Three Stooges was its top item to correlate the two. "Hey what's that on your shirt?"
Adam Warlock in a defensive posture getting ready to block the incoming rubber finger was taken aback and looked down. Raphs hand snapped up and smacked Adam in the face. It didn't hurt but Major Victory started snickering at him.

Fire picked up Ice again and followed after Elongated Man. When she set Tora down Major Victory gave her a considering glance. The computer did some quick calculations and Ice got a dangerous glint in her eyes. She wiggled her fingers and abruptly he yelped and danced around a bit.
Ice, "That should cool him down a bit." Bea looked over at her a bit shocked. "What's gotten into you?"

Booster took off for the strange aluring woman standing next to the Liberty Bell statue. Beetle yelped and leaped after him.
Booster got a lusty glint in his eye, "Mam we are going to have to take you into custody. And search you for weapons."
Beetle was aghast. "Kidding! We were kidding! Joking around right?"
Booster gave him a cool look, "Maybe you were." He started to reach for the woman and Beetle readied himself. 'What is going on!' He thought to himself.

----------------

"This one would prefer you keep your hands to yourself."

Mantis grabbed the Holo-Booster's arm as he reached out and twisted it behind him, spinning him around as she did so. Now with his back to her and with his forearm still being grasped, Mantis lowered her body to the ground and leveraged herself against it. Using her feet, she lifted him over her till he came down face-first on the other side. Using the momentum to her advantage, she continued along the path, landed on Boosters back, and leapt off to land on her feet on the other side.

A room over, Major Victory raised his shield as the Holo-Icemaiden attempted to freeze him with her powers, covering the defensive weapon in a frosty sheet. When Icemaiden paused her attack for a moment to look for an alternate attack route, Victory struck, pushing his shield forward into the womans face, stunning her. This left her wide open for a followup finisher from Warlock, who hit her with a knockout black that send her sprawling backwards into unconsciousness.

-------------

Major Victory slammed his shield against the new, armored arrival as he approached, shattering the ice that was still slowly melting off it and placing a noticeable new dent into the holographic construct. Adam tried to follow up with some sort of beam attack that was intended to cause Rocket's flight to malfunction temporarily so that he'd fall to the ground, but before he could send it off, Elongated Man grabbed his arms and was able to redirect the attack onto its creator.

------------

Blue Beetle sparred with the green and yellow garbed woman. She was good. D@mm good. He decided to change the playing field though. He jabbed with his left blocking movement with his right to the foam gun at his hip. She blocked as he knew she would and when she counter attacked he whipped the gun around and pointed it at the ground at her feet. He triggered the spray and white foam shot out in ropey globs. and mist. She attempted to dodge but was in mid-attack. He sprayed her legs for good measure. He then kicked at her head. She instinctively ducked and blocked but the frictionless foam gave her no traction. The kick hit her block and forced her sideways. She attempted to regain her balance and had half succeded when she impacted on the display cabinet, bruising her shoulder and sending her face down in the foam. "Bwahahahahaha!" When she got up she had a murderous glint in her eye and was covered with foam.

Ralph attempted to imprison the orange man but as soon as he had his giant hands wrapped around him a burning sensation hit his hands at the man's head. "OWCH! Hot potato! Fire this one is for you!"

--------------

Fire, "Well lets see if he likes it hot!" With that green flames shot out and impacted into Adam Warlock. The force and heat drove the Defender back. "For ICE!" Flames fairly danced around the orange man. His cloak smouldered and burst into flame. He twirled it off while retreating, looking like a matador. "Wow, beautiful moves there. I bet you dance divinely too!"

Rocket Red looked at the dent in his armor. "Must hit harder than that. Like this!" So saying he swung at Major Victory a massive haymaker. Victory just got his shield up in time but the impact was so great is knocked the shield into his head and side.

--------------

Adam fired off a quick shot at Elongated Man, but the stretchy hero stretched behind the statue he was practically on top of and let it take the shot instead.

Trying to work with the blow he had just suffered rather than against it, Victory let the rest of the attack flow to the side off his shield.

"I've..."

Moving his body into first his shield and then into the armored soldier, he pushed his opponent back off him like a battering ram.

"..hardly..."

Backing off to give himself some room, the Major then threw his shield behind him. Rocket, surprised by the blue-and-white man's decision to discard his weapon, left himself open to a right cross to the helmet.

"...begun..."

Victory then ducked to the ground, and as Rocket prepared to come back from the surprise punch, saw the shield flying right over Victory and at him. He rose his arms to keep the discus from landing a second blow to his face, allowing his range weaponry systems to take the brunt of the impact instead.

"...to..."

As the shield bounced off Rocket and returned to Victory, the man caught it, swung around, and brought the blunt end of the weapon through in an uppercut.

"...fight!"

The attack left several cracks in the armors visor and sent the armored soldier reeling backwards into a statue, knocking it over on top of him.

The statue was large enough that most people would have been trapped underneath until they could get assistance, but even with the new dents and damage to his armor, Rocket knew his suit still had enough left in to allow him to free himself. He just needed a little time to do it.

---------------

Blue Beetle was doing everything he could to dodge the woman. If it hadn’t been for the frictionless foam she would have cleaned the floor with him long before this. He had to continue to use it and press his advantage before she regained her footing. He whipped out his BB pistol and bounced shots past her legs, off of case behind her and into the backs of her knees. She staggered again and went down face first into the foam. But she didn’t quite touch this time and flipped her body over her hands, sliding along the foam towards him. Before he could react her foot kicked his hand smashing his wrist and sending the gun flying. Unable to stop her slide she continued planting another foot into his midsection. Beetle doubled over and fell on top of her. A wild melee of arms hands and frictionless foam erupted. Beetle grabbed both her hands and before she could break the hold he activated his suit. His forearms bulged and two handcuffs shot out and wrapped around her forearms. She broke his hold but the cuffs activated and cinched on her forearms and then clamped together. In the second of struggling to free her hands Beetle did the same to her legs. He then sat back and wiped sweat from his brow. “Wow, can’t believe I did that.” He spotted the unconscious form of Booster Gold behind the woman. He smiled. “I will leave you with a view of your handiwork.” He got up and manoeuvred her so her face was inches from Boosters. “Have fun you two!”

Elongated Man kept after the orange man. He was singed and injured but had a look that he was not about to give up. He was right. The man attacked him and only by stretching himself to his elastic limit did he avoid it. He then socked the Adam with a giant fist, stunning the defender.

Fire and Rocket Red concentrated fire on the man with the shield. Major Victory dodged and weaved. The statue he was hiding behind was slagged by Fire as she unleashed green flames in greater and greater waves at the man. Rocket Red’s damage had taken his targeting computer off line and his dead reckoning fire was not accurate enough for the agile target.

--------------

Elongated Man kept trying to get his giant fists around the very quick orange man. Every time he would get close to pinning him down a green blast from his forehead would lash out and make him dizzy and flashes of memory would pop into his mind distracting him. He never even saw the man with the shield that he passed while pursuing his quarry. With a casual looking toss the shield smashed the back of Ralph's head and his body dropped to the ground like a spilled bowl of spagetti.

Dimitri continued to fire blasts at the agile man. Suddenly an orange streak flew by with Ralph in close pursuit. The orange alien tried to punch him and Dimitri instinctively put up his fist and caught the incoming fist. "You punch like girl!" The red gauntlet closed over the fist and squeezed. Adam gave a gasp, "Perhaps physical altercations are not the best approach to this situation." In the surprise of seeing Ralph go down Adam managed to free his hand. Dimitri turned his attention fully on this opponent and the two sparred. Adam kept out of reach but Dimitri managed to take blasts on his armor which was starting to look very ragged.

Bea continued to blanket the display with fire. It was amazingly resiliant to damage and continued to provide cover for that man with the shield. She thought she had him when the shield went flying and layed down a large barrage, but to her surprise he leaped over it, balanced on the ball of one foot on the corner of the display top and caught his shield on the rebound from the back of Ralph's skull. "Where is Batman when you need him." She grumbled to herself while shooting out the support under him. He landed on his shield glass crunching between it and the marble floor. He rolled with the fall and came up behind the back corner of the display.

Blue Beetle saunted up. "Whatcha doing Fire?"

"Trying to toast this poptart. But he has more moves than a salsa dancer! Where is Booster?"

Beetle was feeling a bit cocky after his last encounter. "Oh he and his new girlfriend are taking a little nap together. Lets see what this guy has." Beetle leaped up to the case and faced Major Victory across the display.

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Adam Warlock wasn’t sure how his powers interacted with Shi’ar holographic technology. To be honest, he hadn’t had a great deal of experience with it. Did it affect the technology itself, or did the programming know more or less what he was doing and take it into account.

When it came right down to it, the real answer didn’t matter. All that really mattered was that it worked, at least well enough to serve its purpose, both from the perspective of the battle and from a perspective of training. Yet at the same time, he didn’t have much opportunity to use it. It provided him and Adam a means to penetrate the defenses of the stretchy program, but soon after another one hit him with a blow that took him out of the battle. While the training parameters and safety mechanisms prevented it from causing any greater harm or actually knocking him unconscious, it did project a system designed to ‘convince’ him to play the part, which he complied with.

As he watched the remainder of the battle, he found himself impressed with Major Victory’s skills. After the initial hit he had taken, the man had not allowed another one to touch him, either blocking or dodging everything the holograms could throw at him. Moving with greater intensity upon seeing Warlock go down as well, the blue and white clad man blocked another one shot from the holographic Green Flame, then moved his shield enough to deflect a second so that it nearly singed the holographic Blue Beetle, who had gotten precariously close by this point.

He could tell that the move had left an opening in the mans defenses, and took it. Throwing his weight behind the shield to smack him in the mid-section, Victory followed with a knockout punch that broke the holograms left goggle and resulted in him sprawled out on the ground as he came to rest.

He turned to block another shot from the holographic rocket soldier, but the program suddenly froze in place, then dissipated. Adam got up and, with Victory, looked across the suddenly smaller-feeling room to see Jazinda, sitting with a confused look on her face. She quickly turned to look at the controls. Next to her, they could see Mantis, sitting in a cross-legged transitive state, having apparently both broken out of the holographic cuffs and ignored the programs knockout protocols since she had been ‘defeated’.

“This one saw no reason to remain in place within.” She replied without ever opening her eyes, though she apparently could still tell what they were wondering about. “She is perfectly capable of doing the same out here, where there are fewer distractions to prevent her from clearing her mind.”
“I’m not entirely sure what it was.” Jazinda said, interrupting the previous non-conversation. “It’s not helping that I’m not very adapt to reading this kind of information. I think that I either set up the program in a way I didn’t intend, or the Major performed better than the program was set for and I failed to set up anything to accommodate such a possibility.”
“It’s not worth worrying about now.” Adam said. “I still believe it was a beneficial experience, and like Mantis, I believe I would benefit from taking the time to contemplate it.”
“I still want to take a closer look at it later. Unless you’re willing to go relieve Gamora for me.” Jazinda said, the second part directed towards Victory.
“I should be able to do that.” Victory said. “It will likely give me some opportunity to reflect upon…my performance as well.”
“Thanks. I owe you one. I think we kept her at it longer than she was expecting.” Jazinda said, now back to facing the control panel, a smile on her face.

The relief she was referring to was stationing in the ships bridge. With the ships still new to them and a lack of familiarity with all the systems, it had been determined that, even while the ship was on autopilot, it would be wise for someone to remain in there at all times if possible, watching the sensor data, providing any sudden necessary piloting that would be needed, and the like. With the rest concerned with the training session in one form or another, that duty, for now, had fallen to Gamora.

“I’m doubting she’ll be in the best of moods right now.”

Thus Ends Volume 1 of RPSC: Guardians of the Galaxy