Guardians of the Galaxy #82

MV1 EPIC BRANCH	Captain-27! Martinex! Yondu! Nicholette!

31st Century

#82 - "MARVEL!"
Written and HTMLed by Adrian Watts
Branch Editor: Jason Snyder | Editor-in-Chief: Van Plexico

The Kree Stealth Squadron, a new division of the Kree military recently created by the Kree Supreme Intelligence, was home to six of the mightiest Kree Warriors in the race's history. Each of them test subjects in the early days of the Ruul experiment*, the Supremor sent them to this far-off outpost to disguise his failed attempts at jumpstarting Kree evolution.

Their duty was to carry out the secret, clandestine missions of the Kree army, working behind the scenes where no-one would be aware of their existence. Their newest mission, however, may have provided the squadron's leader, Kor-Man, with a way to change all that.

"Yes, squadmates - the Supremor wants us to retake Hala!" Kor-Man shouted, his pale blue-grey face showing a broad smile. "Our homeworld, now ruled over by the outdated Kree, will be a perfect place for the Supremor to show us, his brand new creations, to the rest of the galaxy!"

The only female member of the Kree Stealth Squadron gave her opinion, tugging at the long grey tendrils which hung from the back of her head as she began to speak. "You are too gullible, Commander. Don't you see? The Supremor has left us here, on outpost #3889, to hide us from the rest of the galaxy. He has no intention of showing us off, and I'm certain he will simply terminate us once he's perfected the Ruul form."

Kor-Man frowned. "Nevertheless, we have our orders. In three standard hours, we need to take the Firenze and use it's total weapon payload on the planet. The Supremor wants no survivors."

The Silver Surfer, Phoenix-IX, and the Guardians of the Galaxy - Nicholette Gold, Captain-27, Martinex, last and Yondu - stood on a hovering, metal platform, the watchful eyes of the ambassadors of a thousand thousand worlds looking down at them. On another platform, the blue-skinned Kree warrior and leader of the council, Kay-Den, smiled gravely at the gathered heroes and began to speak.

"Despite your bravery in battle against the being called Rylax, the fact remains that you, the Guardians of the Galaxy, are a group of outlaws. There are many member races within this Council that would like to see you executed for defying our mandates in the past. Today, we are to try to come to some form of resolution," Kay-Den explained.

"We will hear testimony from all those that wish to give it, and will then decide by general vote what your fate shall be. The Ambassador of Rigel-4 has asked to speak first."

"Fact: The law, as agreed upon by all member races of this Council at which all sentient races within the galaxy are represented, states that all groups opposed to unanimously agreed upon mandates made by this Council are to be branded as outlaws and punished to the full extent of the law," the Recorder stated. "Observation: The Guardians of the Galaxy have openly stated their opposition to many such mandates in the past. Opinion: The Guardians of the Galaxy should be executed, as all dangerous criminals should."

"Fact: Earth is not represented in the Council," Nicholette cried out. "Observation: Many of the mandates of the Council are immoral!"

"That will be enough, Guardian!" Kay-Den, the Kree warrior that served as the head of the Council said. "It is not yet your turn to speak. The Snark ambassador may speak now."

"Thank you, Kay-Den," High Snark Rommel said. "The Rigellian Recorder isssss correct. Under our lawssss, the Guardians are to be considered outlawsss. However, they have shown themsssselves to be of great aid to ussss all, both in combat againssst Rylax and by defeating Immortusss. If not for the latter event, thisss Council would not even exist.

"Perhapsss a compromise can be reached. The Snark race would not like to ssssee such a potential force for good be eliminated sssimply because their opinion on what issss right differs from our own."

The ambassador from a race of very short, green skinned aliens spoke next. "Nevertheless, the law is the law. How can we hope to retain our status as a ruling body when our citizens will not follow our mandates?" Several more ambassadors spoke, and finally, Kay-Den opened the floor to general testimony.

"Yes," the Keeper said loudly. "I, Norrin Radd, known to most present as the Silver Surfer have something to say."

"The Guardians acted upon a request from the Kree ambassador, Tor-Quin. Tor-Quin made it very clear that his request was an entirely personal one, and in no way was he representing the Council," the Keeper said. "The Guardians acted solely out of kindness towards the Kree.

"Also, the Guardians are not truly in violation of galactic law. While they are opposed to some mandates made by this Council, they have not shown active opposition to them. They have only removed themselves from galactic affairs, remaining on the sanctuary world of Haven II except when they are needed elsewhere in accordance with the law."

"But," said the short, green-skinned ambassador, "the law simply states that people who are opposed to our laws are to be punished. It does not remark on how their opposition is expressed."

"So," the Keeper continued, "you're saying that citizens of our galaxy may be punished simply for thinking thoughts that violate your laws, even if they never act upon those thoughts?"

None of the ambassadors offered an answer for many minutes. Most of the member races of the Council had, at some time or another, been enslaved and forced to live under conditions where even a very slightly insolent remark about their ruler would be punishable by death. They did not want to impose the same conditions upon the rest of the galaxy. Finally, the Recorder answered.

"Because," the short green alien answered, "they are truly selfless. My people were unaware that that was how our laws were seen by the rest of the galaxy. The Guardians must have thought that they would be terminated for such a blatant 'violation' of our doctrine, and yet they still acted to save us all. I concur with High Snark Rommel's opinion."

Kay-Den smiled, and addressed the rest of the Council. "Is there anyone present who does not?" Only three hands were raised. "Then the Guardians are free to go, with the promise that we will readdress our laws. Thank you, Guardians."

He turned to Phoenix-IX, who had been standing away from the Keeper and the Guardians of the Galaxy.

"Giraud, master of the Phoenix Force and head of defence for this Council, you served us well when faced with the threat of Rylax. Is there anything you would like in return?"

Giraud knew that he was expected to say no. He was, after all, an employee of the Council. Fighting Rylax was his job, and one that he hadn't even been very successful at. The question was purely for show - but there was something he wanted.

"Actually, there is one thing," he said. "Before being incarcerated, Pyreus Kryll told me about the armour of a fellow member of the 20th century Xandarian Star Corps that was found on one of the moons of Rigel-IX. The system's tyrannical ruler, Recorder, refused to give it to Firelord. I would like the Council to issue him with an order that - "

"Statement: That is impossible!" the Rigellian Recorder shouted over Firelord's voice. "Observation: The Rigellians no longer have the armour. Fact: It was sold to a halfcaste Kree bounty hunter named Aal-Tann. Deduction: He may have taken it to Hala for study."

Kay-Den mused on this for a few seconds. "Very well, Giraud. The Council is willing to pay any costs incurred in the collection of this armour of yours, but you must collect it yourself."

Nicholette leaned over and placed a hand on Giraud's arm. "The Guardians of the Galaxy will be glad to help you."

Phoenix-IX shrugged Nicholette's hand off, but still nodded in acceptance of her offer. With a nod of acknowledgement from Kay-Den, the Guardians, Phoenix-IX and the Silver Surfer left the council chambers. Seconds after they left, several dozen blue-skinned Kree warriors, each armed with a blaster rifle as long as their arm, entered the hall. They aimed their weapons at the councillors and ambassadors around them, who gasped in surprise.

"What is the meaning of this?!?" Kay-Den demanded, but he already knew. This was part of the Supremor's plan, and he had expected it to occur for some time. Unfortunately, he had not been able to prepare a defence without revealing to his people that the Intelligence Supreme still lived.

"Councillor Kay-Den!" one of the Kree intruders shouted. "I am Qua-Sarr, leader of the Kree Anti-Evolutionary Party. You are now our hostages, and if the Supreme Intelligence does not accede to our demands, you will all be exterminated!" His fellows chuckled as Qua-Sarr continued. "You will find that all lines of communication off of this planet have been severed. You are entirely at our mercy..."

The Kree worldship Kri-Ree II, the size of Earth's moon, was a self-sustaining miniature equivalent of the Kree homeworld of Hala. When the Supreme Intelligence led the Kree out of the galaxy and the scum of the universe rallied together to make Hala their new den of decadence, the Supremor conferred upon the worldship the title of the New Kree Homeworld.

After centuries aboard the worldship, the Kree race had still not evolved, which upset the Intelligence greatly. He had hoped that the trauma of fleeing the galaxy would be enough to promote at least the smallest evolutionary advance in his species.

Angered, he studied his people once more and after careful experimentation, he created the Evolutionary Submass. The submass, a substance which was less than non-existant, was only able to be produced by the mighty mind of the Supreme Intelligence itself. When applied to Kree beings in the appropriate way, they would begin to evolve, undergoing hundreds of millennia of evolution in a matter of days. The process was quite painful, but in the end it was ultimately satisfying. With the exception of a few 'mistakes' in the early days of the project, the new Kree were quite impressive. They were the Ruul.

"So tell me, Zal-Tarn," the Supreme Intelligence addressed his chief advisor, "what do you make of my creations? Are they ready to return to the homeworld?"

"Yes," Zal-Tarn mused, swaying one of his branches as he spoke. "They are perfect specimens. My operatives have already been briefed, as well. They are ready to begin the assault whenever your people are. The outdated Kree will not stand a chance against your Ruul."

The Supremor laughed, a hideous sound even to Kree ears. "Do you know why the Kree race failed to evolve when other, even from our own homeworld, continued to spawn new and varied mutations?"

"Because we made the mistake of killing any products of cross-breeding between our species and another. The pink-skinned Kree, for example. That was a mistake that I sorely regret." He bobbed up and down in his glass capsule. "Bring the worldship into orbit around Hala. I wish to see my great mistakes do something useful for a change."

The Guardians' spacecraft landed on a small black landing strip which had fallen into disrepair long ago. Deep, dark potholes lined the surface of the strip, and Captain-27 feared that the ship may just fall into one of them. When he managed to land without the slightest hiccup, the Mercurian Nicholette Gold sidled up to him and patted him on the shoulder.

"Let's go," Charlie said as he and Nicholette rounded up the rest of the group. "Hala is a big planet - finding one suit of armour may take a long time."

The ship's passengers disembarked one by one, meeting together outside the ship.

"We should search in groups," Giraud said. "I do not even know where to begin looking for the armour. If we divide our forces, we can cover a much greater area."

"Agreed." Charlie said. "Nikki and Martinex will take the north, Giraud and I can - "

"I will go with the Keeper," Phoenix-IX interrupted. "I know that he will not betray me."

"That's not fair!" Nicholette shouted. "Charlie never betrayed you and you know it!"

"Nikki..." Charlie whispered. "Now isn't the time to go into it. Giraud and the Keeper can head west, Nikki and I can go north, and Yondu and Martinex can head south. Sound okay?" Nobody objected to Charlie's plan, and the group went their separate ways, some of the team heading away from the city center and some - like Martinex and Yondu - towards it.

"Martinex, something is wrong!" Yondu exclaimed. "We must return to the others immediately!"

"What do you sense? What's wrong?" Martinex asked just as a bolt of crimson energy blasted down from the sky, striking the ground only a few feet in front of he and Yondu. Pieces of stone and metal pelted them from all sides, but Martinex was able to shatter most of it with quickly- and well-targeted blasts of fire and ice.

When the rein of debris ended, Martinex looked down to see Yondu's unconscious, bloody and battered blue body flat on the ground. Looking up, Martinex saw his attackers. There were two men, with pale grey skin and six long tendrils hanging from the back of their heads. They had pale yellow eyes, not unlike those of a snake. Their bodies were covered in gaudily coloured armour, and each carried more than a dozen weapons that Martinex could see.

"What are you doing here, human?" one of them asked. "There should be no humans here."

"Well there are humans here," Martinex replied, "and I demand to know why we were attacked."

"You demand?" the grey alien asked, amused. "Here is what I think of your 'demand'." It aimed one of its arms down at Martinex, and a small alcove opened in the armour on his wrist. A small blaster weapon popped out, and automatically fired at him. Before he could react, a bright beam of yellow energy crashed into him and sent him flying - but it didn't hurt.

It took him a few moments before he realised that he was still moving, and gaining speed.

"Don't worry, human!" the yellow beam called up to him. "You're safe. Trust me - those two Ruul warriors won't hurt your friend."

Martinex frowned. "Am I hallucinating or is an energy beam really conversing with me?"

The beam laughed, and began to slow down. "Sorry," it said, as it began to take a new form. Martinex soon realised he was in the arms of a boy of comparable age to a human twenty year-old. He wore a blue and red costume with a bright yellow star on it's front, which Martinex noticed was uncannily like Starhawk's. His skin was very dark blue, dotted with what looked like stars. His hair was a very faint yellow, but it looked nearly white. He wore two thin, golden bracelets on his wrists.

"The name is Gan-Vell, but I prefer to be known as Captain Marvel." Captain Marvel slowed and landed on the rooftop of a tall building, allowing Martinex to jump from his arms. "I'm here to stop the two that attacked you, and their friends up in orbit."

"Captain Marvel?" Martinex asked. "Your name sounds familiar. But wait right there - I'll use my badge to summon the rest of my team." Martinex pressed his red, white and blue Guardians badge and waited for a reply. He received none.

Captain Marvel nodded. "It's the Ruul. Their orbital ship, the Firenze, is able to block almost all forms of energy. The Ruul armour has the same technology incorporated into it on a much smaller scale, making me totally unable to harm some of them."

Captain Marvel pointed into the sky behind the Guardian. Martinex turned quickly, following his companion's gaze.

"Looks like they're taking 'Yondu' to the Firenze." Captain Marvel announced. "You can breathe in space, right?"

Two members of the Kree Stealth Squadron flew in through one of the ship's open access tunnels, their armoured suits protecting both them and their alien prisoner from the coldness and airlessness of space. Together, they dragged their bleeding, slouching captive down grey steel tunnel after grey steel tunnel, until they eventually arrived at the ship's bridge.

The bridge was a buzz of activity as a large viewscreen counted down until the time that the squadron was to attack the planet below. Three or four other Ruul warriors, the rest of the Kree Stealth Squadron, ducked back and forth across the bridge performing some duty or another. In the center of the room, sitting in a massive plasteel chair, was Commander Kor-Man.

"Commander Kor-Man, sir!" one of the warriors said, saluting the back of his commander's head. "We captured a prisoner on our final sweep of the planet. We found no Kree worthy of evacuation, but did find a human."

The two warriors stepped forward, dragging Yondu behind them. The Centaurian archer left a trail of blood in his wake, but it was absorbed so quickly by the steel of the ship's hull that it was as if it had never been there at all. They dropped him at Kor-Man's feet, still unconscious.

Kor-Man reached forward, grabbing the scantily-clad Centaurian's red mohawk in his fist, causing Yondu to cry out in pain.

"Bah!" Kor-Man shouted. "That is nothing! You two," he indicated the two Ruul that had brought Yondu onto the ship, "take him to the dungeons and prepare for battle. Hala is cleansed in seven minutes."

Giraud and the Keeper floated down another of the bustling streets that formed the bulk of the city of Kree-Lar, having already stopped at several dozen fences to ask about the Xandarian armour. No-one had known anything about it, so far, but the last fence had generously given Giraud the address of yet another fence. Generously, that is, since Giraud only had to hit him twice. They approached the home of the fence, and he was at the door to greet them.

"You two th' guys who've been lookin' for th' armuh?" The fence, a short, stocky man with a long moustache asked. Giraud was shocked to see that the man wasn't a Kree; he was human.

"Why not?!?" Giraud demanded. "That armour was stolen! You have no right to keep it!"

Giraud extended his arm, now aflame with the Phoenix Force, and pointed his hand straight at the man's face. "Give me the armour," he said simply.

Phoenix-IX grabbed the man roughly by the neck and hurled him across the street. He blasted his way into the fence's home, and began tearing the place apart in search of the armour as the Keeper stood watching him from the street.

He finally found the armour. It was blue and yellow, with three star sigils on the front, each connected by a thin yellow line. It was accompanied by a yellow and red helmet, and yellow gauntlets and boots.

"Let us away, Giraud," the Keeper suggested, "this planet troubles me." They took to the air, heading back towards the ship. When they finally arrived, they found Nikki, and Captain-27 waiting for them.

"We saw you guys flying overhead with the armour and thought we'd come back and meet you here," Nikki explained.

"Yes, I'm sure you were trying very hard to help me," Phoenix-IX said sarcastically, pushing past Nikki as he climbed aboard the ship. Nikki pulled her arm back, ready to strike Giraud from behind, but Charlie stopped her.

Captain Marvel streaked through the air, having left Martinex on the planet's surface. The Plutonian could not fly or breathe in space, and he had suggested that he return to the Guardians while Captain Marvel did his best to rescue Yondu.

He ducked through an external access tunnel seconds before it closed, just behind Yondu and his two captors. Once inside the ship, Gan-Vell was careful to keep close to the walls as he followed the Ruul through the large craft. They finally reached the bridge, and it took all of the self-restraint that Gan-Vell could muster to stop himself from attacking Commander Kor-Man as he assaulted Yondu.

As the guards dragged Yondu into the corridor where he hid, Captain Marvel attacked. Thankfully, the two Ruul that had taken Yondu captive were not equipped with the technology to nullify energy based attacks, allowing Captain Marvel to get a few blasts in before they were able to adapt; but he knew he could not win the battle.

Thinking quickly, Marvel fired a blast at the ship's hull. It ruptured with surprising ease, sucking Yondu, the two Ruul, and himself into the void. Captain Marvel grabbed Yondu and sped toward the surface of the planet as fast as he could, hoping to reach it before Yondu suffocated. When he did finally land, he turned to look up at the Firenze. The hole that he had ripped in the hull had already repaired itself.

Back on the ship's bridge, Kor-Man was startled as the bloated face of the Supreme Intelligence appeared below the countdown timer.

"Yes, sir!" Kor-Man replied, saluting. "The Kree Stealth Squadron will not fail you!"

"Very well," the Intelligence replied, "I am off to carry out stage two of my plan. Do not fail me, Kor-Man."

The Supreme Intelligence's face disappeared from the viewscreen, and his ship left the Hala system.

Captain Marvel, Yondu, and Martinex landed beside the Guardians' ship, breathing heavily. The two flights through space had taken a lot out of Gan-Vell, and he was glad to be back on solid ground. As they touched down, though, Nikki ran straight to Yondu.

"Yondu!" she shrieked. "What happened to you?" She was looking at a deep gash across his right forearm.

"Aliens," he gasped. "They are going to destroy the planet... in seven minutes... we must act..."

"Yes!" Captain Marvel yelled. "There are innocent people here! We have to evacuate them!"

Phoenix-IX approached Gan-Vell and stood imposingly over the smaller man. "Who are you?"

"I'm Captain Marvel!" Marvel cried. "I saved your friends." He turned to the Guardians' ship. "We can fit what... maybe one hundred people aboard your ship?"

"I will attempt to alert the populace," the Keeper said. He summoned his surfboard to his side and took off.

"Let's gather everyone that we can," Captain-27 said. "Nikki, you get Yondu aboard the ship and prepare to take off. Everyone else, let's go.

Despite the Keeper's best efforts and warning the people, he failed. Few people believed him, and those that did had no means by which to escape. The Guardians could find no more than ten people willing to be evacuated, and with them on board, they were forced to flee. As their ship began to rise, the cockpit sensors registered an immense energy buildup in orbit.

The ship continued to rise and turn away from the planet. Just as the ship cleared the planet's atmosphere, a marvelous beam of orange energy streaked toward the planet, hit it, and surrounded it. It remained for nearly thirty seconds, giving off a tremendous amount of heat that nearly destroyed the thermal shields on the Guardians' ship.

Nicholette rose from the co-pilot's seat to stand beside Gan-Vell. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pulled him close. "It's okay," she tried to reassure him, and Captain-27 noticed again how mature she had become. "There might've been survivors..."

The Kree rebels remained, still holding the ambassadors of one thousand thousand worlds hostage. They seemed to be waiting for something... or someone. It wasn't long before the Supreme Intelligence's worldship appeared in orbit around the chamber world and he - inside of a mobile harness - along with twenty of his best Ruul warriors, teleported into the council chambers.

"Hardly," the Intelligence replied. "I abandoned the Kree years ago. As you can see, my people are the Ruul." He indicated the grey-skinned figures behind him. "We're here to save you." With a nod from the Supreme Intelligence, the Ruul opened fire. In less time than it took to blink, the Kree rebels had fallen.

"As you can see, the Kree have moved into open rebellion," he indicated a viewscreen on the far side of the chambers, which showed the last minutes of Hala. "Even as we speak, Kree rebels aboard the battleship Firenze have exterminated all life on the planet Hala as a show of 'how far they have advanced'. These Ruul, immigrants from another galaxy that has also been destroyed by the Kree, have agreed to aid all member races of this council in the extermination or incarceration of any Kree citizens left within this galaxy."

The councillors in the chamber exchanged quick whispers, debating over the truth of the Supremor's words.

"They have but one request: that we are admitted into this council. Furthermore, they ask that they temporarily take the position of the Kree as the chair race of the council."

It didn't take long for the Councillors to reach their decision. In less than ten minutes, they had accepted the Supremor's demands.

As the Supreme Intelligence spoke on Chamber-World, his worldship returned to Hala, launching five smaller vessels which made their way to various points on the planet's surface. Each one fired what looked like seed pods, which implanted themselves in the scorched ground of Hala and began to grow, forming the skeleton frames of hundreds of thousands of buildings across the planet's surface.

Still more ships were launched, these carrying metal plates which were dropped beside the building foundations, forming the walls and roofs of buildings. After these were bolted in place by Ruul technicians, transport ships containing Ruul citizens descended to the planet's surface.

In a matter of hours, Hala was once again a sprawling city-planet, filled with citizens. All Ruul.