Without Star-Lord, the Guardians of the Galaxy fell apart surprisingly fast.
Honestly, that made sense.
The entire group had originally ford around Peter Quill's reckless stupidity, chaotic optimism, and bizarre ability to drag equally dysfunctional people into his orbit.
Once he was gone, the glue holding the team together disappeared with him.
Yondu declared he was going to avenge Quill.
After interrogating the remaining idiots he'd been traveling with, Yondu finally learned the truth.
Ego had taken Peter.
The mont Yondu heard that, the blue color drained from his face so quickly he almost turned pale white.
Then soone casually ntioned it had happened several days ago.
Yondu's expression darkened imdiately.
Several days?
Then Quill was probably already dead.
Not taphorically.
Gone.
Reduced to nothing.
Yondu had seen the piles of bones left behind by the other children he once delivered to Ego. He knew exactly what that monster did to his offspring.
anwhile, Gamora accidentally exposed her location to the Black Order.
Previously, Thanos had sent both Gamora and Nebula to search for the Soul Stone. Gamora eventually uncovered clues leading to it, but instead of reporting back, she chose to betray Thanos and disappear.
She would never allow him to obtain the Soul Stone.
Now, however, Thanos knew where she was.
And recently, his life hadn't exactly been going smoothly.
The Shi'ar Empire had dealt his forces a devastating blow, and the Kryptonian Empire had practically annihilated the rest.
Even soone with Thanos' resources couldn't absorb losses like that forever.
Fortunately for him, the universe never ran short on violent lunatics who loved war.
The mont the Black Order began recruiting again, their ranks not only recovered, but nearly tripled in size.
"Where is Gamora now?"
Thanos sat upon his golden throne as he addressed his subordinates.
"She realized soone was tracking her," Supergiant answered. "She's already entered Kryptonian Empire territory."
"Kryptonian Empire…"
Thanos frowned deeply.
There were many empires he was willing to provoke.
The Skrulls.
The Kree.
Even galactic coalitions.
But not the Kryptonian Empire.
That place housed armies so absurdly powerful they barely felt real. And the terrifying part was that the Kryptonian Empire still hadn't shown its full strength.
If the Kryptonian Emperor ever sent his top commanders personally, escape might not even be possible.
"Send Nebula," Thanos ordered. "Bring Gamora back."
He had no interest in provoking the Kryptonian Empire again.
Gamora herself had already beco extrely cautious.
As one of the deadliest assassins in the galaxy, she initially failed to notice anything unusual. But after a short ti, she realized people were asking questions about her movents.
Soone was hunting her.
So she hunted them first.
Several alien trackers ended up beaten bloody and interrogated in an alleyway.
What she learned turned her face pale.
Thanos had found her again.
The frozen world of Contraxia glittered beneath endless snowfall.
Amid the white wasteland stood an enormous district blazing with neon light and artificial heat. Bars, brothels, casinos, and pleasure dens stretched endlessly through the streets.
Every block overflowed with alcohol, smoke, narcotics, and desperation.
Even the air slled like cheap perfu and bad decisions.
After separating from the Guardians, Gamora had hidden herself here for a while, drowning frustration beneath drinks and distraction.
Now she needed to leave imdiately.
And she already knew where she was going.
The Kryptonian Empire.
Ever since footage of the Black Order being crushed by the Kryptonian military spread across the galaxy, immigration requests had exploded overnight.
The Black Order had terrorized the universe for years. Entire civilizations lived in fear of Thanos.
Then the Kryptonian Empire appeared out of nowhere and steamrolled everything in its path.
Even the Black Order suffered catastrophic losses. Proxima Midnight herself had died during the conflict.
For countless worlds, the Kryptonian Empire suddenly looked like the safest place in existence.
The mont immigration opened, aliens across the galaxy packed their bags and ran.
Of course, not everyone qualified.
Drex Valen had no interest in collecting endless waves of weak refugees unless they offered sothing useful.
Specialized skills mattered.
Value mattered.
Otherwise the Empire would beco nothing more than a dumping ground for displaced wanderers.
So applicants also carried deep hatred toward Thanos and the Black Order. They joined the Empire specifically to borrow its strength for revenge.
Gamora herself wanted citizenship badly.
Foreign visitors were only allowed to remain within Imperial territory for a single universal year before being expelled.
Fortunately, the mont she crossed into Kryptonian territory, Black Order pursuit teams stopped appearing.
That alone let her breathe easier.
Now all she needed was approval.
When the immigration officer asked about her professional skills, Gamora hesitated briefly before writing down the only thing she truly excelled at.
Assassin.
Ridiculous as it sounded, it wasn't even the strangest answer they'd received.
One alien had once proudly listed its primary skill as:
Eating garbage.
Naturally, the Empire tested the claim.
The results shocked everyone.
The creature could digest virtually any waste product imaginable. It processed over one hundred tons of garbage daily and excreted environntally beneficial radiation capable of restoring damaged ecosystems.
Not only did it imdiately receive citizenship, it was granted Class-C citizen status on the spot.
Drex Valen himself beca interested in the species and considered cloning additional specins for environntal restoration projects.
The Kryptonian Empire actually treated immigrants and visitors fairly well.
A completely isolated civilization couldn't sustain itself forever, and foreign populations stimulated the Imperial economy significantly.
At the sa ti, Drex had begun large-scale military exercises.
New recruits.
Player forces.
Auxiliary alien races.
Freshly ford Imperial armies.
All of them were undergoing live combat training.
Their opponents?
The Queen's insects.
Officially, the players and Kryptonian military were participating in joint extermination campaigns against hostile alien swarms.
What they didn't know was that the insects themselves had been deliberately deployed as expendable test subjects.
The Queen wanted new genetic material.
More importantly, she wanted battlefield data to evolve stronger bioforms specifically adapted for future wars.
The mont Imperial forces landed, countless soldiers felt their scalps go numb.
The mountains ahead moved.
Not figuratively.
They were covered in insects.
The original Hunter strain had evolved.
Now the creatures were called Stalkers.
Each one stood nearly three ters tall.
Their bodies resembled monstrous spider-like mutations layered in yellow-green chitin streaked with dark red markings. Four elongated blade-like limbs supported their agile movent.
Their primary mandibles were almost as long as their torsos, flanked by two pairs of hooked claws. The larger claws specialized in killing. The smaller pair assisted feeding.
Everything about them radiated predatory violence.
Even their chitin reflected tallic gleams beneath the battlefield lights.
No one needed an explanation to understand these things were engineered solely for slaughter.
"Hunters evolved?"
Drex asked curiously while observing beside the Queen.
The current design looked very different from the original version he created.
"They're called Stalkers now," the Queen corrected him.
The answer ca quickly enough on the battlefield.
The Stalkers were horrifyingly efficient killers.
Because they possessed plant-like biological structures rather than conventional nervous systems, soldiers soon discovered sothing terrifying.
Destroying the creatures' heads didn't stop them.
Even after taking fatal gunfire directly through the skull, the insects continued charging forward on pure instinct.
Razor-sharp forelimbs carved through armored troops.
Bodies were ripped open before many soldiers even realized the creatures were technically already dead.
...
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