Post by Drake on Feb 1, 2016 19:00:43 GMT -5
#17: Infinity - The Kree-Spartoi War Part 2
Finis Ductu
By Drake
J-Son awoke when an explosion sounded a few feet from him, leaving his ears ringing. The first thing he noticed was he was back in a cell. The second was that he was most certainly not alone in the block. Yinuet, or someone, rather, had successfully managed to round up a number of Skrulls and imprison them. That led him to the conclusion that the explosion had been caused by…ah, yes. There it was.
Three Skrull troopers dressed in the same black and purple garb as any other of their kind marched in through a hole in the wall, aiming blasters at the prison block’s apparent new guard, Yinuet, who had a headset half on and his sonic arrow at the ready.
Yinuet whistled, and only had to dodge one blaster shot before the three Skrulls lay dead at his feet, the victim of his arrow.
“Nicely done, sir,” J-Son shouted over the frustrated screams of religious insults from the Skrulls.
“Frag off,” Yinuet growled back, not even bothering to look at the man.
“You know, I wasn’t lying about earlier. I have a plan. Without it, everyone on Knowhere will die,” J-Son said.
“Do I look like an idiot to you?” Yinuet yelled back, sitting down. He paused for a moment and then rolled his eyes. “Actually, don’t answer that question.”
“You look like an intelligent man—no, a leader—who will know a good plan when he hears one,” J-Son continued. “In fact, I won’t even bother asking for my freedom before telling it to you, because, I’ll be honest, it requires my freedom.”
Yinuet glared at the man incredulously, and began to put on his headset. “Excuse me, I have forces to order and a battle to win.”
“I have a communicator stored in one of the Skrull ships,” J-Son blurted, causing Yinuet to freeze. “With it, I can order the Spartoi forces to save Knowhere. …You know you can trust me, Captain. After all, if this colony dies, I go with it.”
Yinuet frowned. “That’s not reason enough. Why should I trust you?”
J-Son’s face fell. He bit his lip for a moment, before saying, “Because I have a son who I care for…who I want to keep safe. He’ll return any minute now, and the Skrulls will slaughter him.”
J-Son shook his head and looked Yinuet in the eyes. “But who cares about that? It’s not like you give a damn.” That stung, and J-Son knew it. “What matters to you is protecting your people, and they will all die if you do not free me. You know that. I know that. The bloody Skrulls across the hall know that.”
“D’ast straight!” one cried.
J-Son rolled his eyes. “See? Free me and live, or remain proud and die. It’s that simple.”
“I’d like to clarify my position. You’ll die no matter what,” the same Skrull spoke up again. Both the Spartoi and the Centaurian glared at him, but he just returned their gaze in kind.
“Bite me,” he said.
J-Son and Yinuet locked eyes again. The king cocked his head to the side.
“What’s it going to be, Captain?”
…
Ronan the Accuser roared in anger and smashed his hammer into the ground, shaking the entirety of the ship. Gamora, just across the room leaning against the wall, rolled her eyes. In the middle of the room, projected from a small table, a hologram of a Kree soldier gulped and continued.
“Accuser Ronan, sir, are you—“
“Silence!” Ronan cried. He turned to the hologram, steadied himself, and said, “Tell your superiors I will go to Kaya, and I will join the battle. Goodbye.”
As Ronan turned off the communicator, Gamora stood up straight and eyed the man disbelievingly.
“This is ridiculous, Ronan. I did not actually think you would—“
“Quiet, woman!” Ronan demanded.
In the blink of an eye, Gamora had drawn her sword and pointed it at the Accuser’s throat. “Speak to me with that tone again, and you will discover the myth of the Accusers’ invincibility is just that—a myth.”
Ronan glared at Gamora, but calmed himself nonetheless. “You heard the messenger. The Spartoi have assassinated the Supreme Intelligence. War is being waged as we speak. I must act in the service of my people. I must annihilate the Spartoi.”
“If you do so, you will disrupt every plan we have laid in motion. We have to act now, Ronan,” Gamora insisted. “Otherwise, our plans will become known, and Thanos will assemble the Infinity Gauntlet and become unstoppable.”
The green-skinned shook her head and stepped forward, continuing before Ronan could speak, “My sister and the other Annihilators expect us on Xandar. We must go.”
Ronan softened his expression and looked away, taking a moment to think. His people or his mission? Revenge or the future? It wasn’t really a question. He had known where his loyalties lied from the moment he had begun to work under Thanos.
“I am an Accuser of the Kree people,” Ronan began, leaving Gamora to sigh in frustration. “My duty is to the Supreme Intelligence. It has been murdered. Such a crime can not go unpunished.”
“Then this is goodbye,” Gamora said, turning away. “I will take a shuttle to Xandar. Enjoy what remains of your life. It likely will not last.”
The two parted ways, and neither regretted the decision.
…
“Black Alert: all Nova Corpsmen return to Xandar at once. I repeat, return to Xandar at once. The Nova Prime needs you,” rang the Worldmind inside Heather’s head.
The Terran woman sat up, causing Phyla Vell moan. She had laid the Kree warrior’s head atop her lap, which had seemed to relieve some of the fading woman’s distress.
Peter looked at her from across the hall. She motioned down at Phyla, and then toward the guard outside her cell. Peter frowned, but seemed to understand. He nodded.
As Peter nudged his cellmate, Rocket, to get his attention, Heather gently stood up and removed Phyla’s head from her lap. They had to act now. They had to escape. Phyla’s condition had been worrisome enough, but now the Corps was summoning her back to Xandar. The situation was bad. A Black Alert meant the Nova Prime’s life was in danger.
“Hey, beautiful,” Heather cooed to her cell’s guard, the young Phyla Vell. “Mind getting us something to eat? I’m starving.”
The white-haired girl looked at her, doubting her motives but unsure whether to deny her a basic necessity like food or not.
“Please.” Heather smiled.
The young Phyla relaxed. “I’ll see what I can do.”
She looked across at her fellow guard. “I’m going to get the prisoners something to eat and drink. Watch them while I’m gone.”
The other guard nodded, and young Phyla marched off in search of food.
Sighing in relief, Heather sat back down. Peter eyed her questioningly and she mouthed back, “trust me.”
She’d done it once already…with a plan, admittedly. A plan made by the others, who happened to be professional, experienced criminals. Okay, yeah, things didn’t look good, but she’d survived in space for over three months now. She had changed. She could manage this, at least…right?
Right?
“Shit. We’re all gonna die,” Rocket grumbled.
…
“This is a horrible, horrible plan,” Yinuet muttered, scrambling into a Kree Warbird hidden underneath the shipyard.
“Relax. We can handle this.” J-Son slid into the weapon’s dock as Yinuet sat down in the pilot’s seat, activating the ship.
The Warbird jerked out of its locks, shaking.
J-Son took a deep breath and whispered, “I hope.”
“How in the Dei are we going to board a bloody ship?” Yinuet mumbled to himself as he activated the dock’s gate, opening it. “My brother was the pirate. My brother was the d’ast pirate.”
The Warbird quickly rose off the ground and soared out of the gate and into Knowhere’s atmosphere. Immediately, two Skrull fighters flanked the ship and began to fire upon it.
“Two Skrulls on our rear,” J-Son shouted, blasting back at their attackers. He squinted and quietly muttered to himself, “Sounds like the name of a d’ast porno.”
“I know!” Yinuet yelled back. He twisted the controls, sending the Warbird spiraling toward a flock of buildings.
“About the porno?” J-Son wondered.
“What?” Yinuet exclaimed. “What the hell is a—“
“Less talking, more flying!” J-Son quickly interjected. Battle was good for many things, but clearing your head was not one of them.
At the last minute, Yinuet pulled back on the controls, causing the Warbird to hurtle upwards, away from the structures. One of the Skrulls managed to do the same, but the other was too slow, and exploded upon contact, bringing a building down with it. Yinuet silently prayed no one was inside it.
“Well done!” J-Son cheered, as he managed to blast the other Skrull out of the sky.
“It only gets better from here,” Yinuet said through gritted teeth as he joined a cloud of starships.
The Warbird’s next fatality came near immediately. Yinuet actually shot the Skrull ship himself.
The next minute blurred to the two men, as they began to massacre the seemingly endless storm of Skrulls. Yinuet flipped the ship, allowing J-Son to shoot down a ship as the captain fired on another. It managed to escape for a moment, arcing upwards. Yinuet followed it and blasted it into nothingness.
A Skrull targeted the ship and managed to land a couple shots before Yinuet spiraled downwards, only to zoom back up around the ship and blow it away. J-Son succeeded to blast a few fighters out of the air, but Yinuet continued to do most of the work.
Yinuet soared toward a squad of five Skrulls, destroying the first. The other four scattered into two pairs. One group acted as a distraction while the other swerved behind the Warbird. J-Son began to fire upon them, to no avail. That was fine. Yinuet had it covered. The Centaurian circled the Warbird around, doing donuts in the air.
As all four Skrulls surrounded it, J-Son cried, “Do something, d’ast it!”
Yinuet smirked, and cut off the engine, sending the ship falling it to the ground. The four Skrulls hesitated, but took off after them nonetheless. J-Son started to scream in protest when Yinuet activated a nozzle, opening a dock in the back. Suddenly, wind whipped through the air, and the half dozen boxes of cargo blew out into the atmosphere. J-Son’s face lit up with confidence, suddenly aware of the plan.
One of the boxes caught a Skrull ship, damaging its shield. J-Son shot that down first. The other Skrulls had to slow down to maneuver around the debris, allowing Yinuet time to repower the ship’s engine and arc behind the Skrulls. From there, it was easy pickings, as he and J-Son blew them away.
“Which ship?” Yinuet shouted after he closed the dock.
“What?” J-Son yelled back.
“Which ship do we board?” Yinuet repeated.
J-Son blinked. “The Godship.”
Yinuet sighed and turned the Warbird around to fly out of the atmosphere toward the enormous Skrull mother ship.
“Of all the d’ast ships,” he grumbled.
Nearing the Godship, Yinuet and J-Son discovered another Skrull tailing them. The Captain rolled the ship to the side and spinned it so J-Son could take aim and shoot the other ship. Then, Yineut readjusted and continued toward the Godship.
They outmaneuvered or outgunned a dozen ships before managing to make it within striking distance of the behemoth starship. There they joined a small battalion of six rebel fighters that tried and failed to blast past the ship’s shield. They all had attacked different, never moving in together. Yinuet would correct that mistake.
He activated the comms, and said, “Listen up, this is Captain Yinuet of Centaurius I. I want all of you to encircle me. Three line up at the far back and protect the rest from enemy ships. The rest take the lead and fire all of your remaining missiles at the same point…”
Yinuet quickly examined the Godship, and decided, “Attack the starboard window near the front. We only need to cut a hole in the shield there for a few seconds.”
“With all due respect, sir, what’s the point of that?” a captain asked.
“I’m going to crash into the bloody Godship,” Yinuet grimly explained.
Silence from the others.
“This is a horrible plan,” J-Son said.
“That’s what I’ve been saying,” Yinuet muttered.
Another moment, and then the same captain from the other ship spoke up, “Will do, sir. Getting into position now.”
As stated, the six fighters surrounded the Warbird. The three in the back began to blast at any Skrulls that neared them. The ones in the front unloaded everything they had upon the same general point on the Godship. Green plasma missiles, orange energy bolts, and red ion cannons exploded out over the holographic shielding, causing it to flicker. Just a quarter minute from crashing into the shield, the ships arced away.
“Good luck, sir.”
Yinuet resisted the urge to say, “We’ll need it.”
He blasted their proton torpedoes at the shield, and ordered J-Son to focus his fire on the same point. The man did as ordered. An explosion boomed, creating smoke that immediately dissipated.
Three. J-Son’s fire burst against the shield. The flickering grew fainter.
Two. The shield broke at that point. Yinuet focused the Warbird’s shields at the front.
One.
The Warbird crashed into the Godship, penetrating its hull and sliding to a stop amidst an open control room. The main gun was crushed under the ship’s own weight. The Kree fighter ship smashed about a dozen Skrulls into paste, and, after causing a small explosion in the engine, disintegrated a few more. The Godship’s shielding quickly recovered, restoring the artificial atmosphere.
Yinuet and J-Son immediately unclasped their seatbelts and grabbed blaster rifles. Taking the lead, J-Son opened the hull and marched out. Both men were surrounded by twenty Skrulls as soon as the door opened. Both surrendered instantaneously.
“Son of a bitch,” Yinuet whispered, eyeing J-Son. He had to have a plan, right? Dei, why hadn’t he thought this all the way through? Desperate times, desperate measures. He was ready to die fighting, if need be. All he had to do was whistle…
“(Hands down. I have something in my pocket you want to see,)” J-Son said in Skrullarus.
Two of the Skrulls, one clearly in charge, looked at each another. The captain of the Godship motioned the other forward. He did as told, and approached J-Son.
“What—what did you tell them?” Yinuet wondered.
“Oh, just a key detail,” J-Son casually replied.
“What in the Dei does that—“ Yinuet quieted as the Skrull produced a medallion—the one he’d taken from Raksor—from J-Son’s suit. “That medal. I found it when I searched you. I—“
“(Silence!)” The ship’s captain ordered, before turning to J-Son. He proceeded to bow, and all the other Skrulls did the same, including the one holding the medallion. Yinuet’s jaw dropped. “(Praise our new General. Praise Lord…)”
“J-Son,” the king stated.
“You can control them. That’s why you wanted to get on the Godship. You—“
J-Son interrupted the Centaurian, saying, “I’d apologize for lying, but manners bore me. Always have.”
“Peter…he’ll kill you,” Yinuet growled.
J-Son chuckled, “Silly man. I wasn’t lying about my son. I will protect him. I will make him love me, even if I have to tear down his whole world—his whole galaxy—to do it. (Kill him.)”
Yinuet roared in frustration, charged J-Son, and whistled.
WHEEE!
BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
Five Skrulls fired upon Yinuet, and none of them missed their mark. The Centaurian fell to the ground, five holes in his chest, his sonic arrow just an inch from J-Son’s throat.
As some Skrulls proceeded carry the corpse away, the Godship’s captain addressed his new leader, “What now, my lord?”
“Cease your battle with the rebels and lead the armada to Kaya,” J-Son ordered.
“As you wish, my lord.” The Skrull bowed.
J-Son turned to face the battle waging outside the ship. Explosions silently sounded and fighters exploded like fireworks. It was a celebration for him. He had returned. J-Son smirked.
“It’s good to be the king.”
…
Fifteen minutes after the request had been made, young Phyla Vell returned with a tray heaped with pink rolls and glasses of water. She approached Heather’s cell first, and activated the default mode from the control panel. What that entailed was instead of clear pink laser walls, simple pink bars separated the prisoners from the outside. This allowed Phyla room to slip in two rolls and two glasses of water after setting the tray down.
“Thank you,” Heather said.
When Phyla turned away to hand out the food and drinks to the rest of the Guardians, Heather nodded at Groot. The tree-man returned the gesture.
As soon as Phyla reached Groot’s solitary cell and activated the default mode, he extended his arm and knocked her away. The other guards tried to act, but Groot was too quick. He managed to unlock his cell before the Kree could attack him. They fired their blasters, burning Groot’s skin, but not managing to do significant damage. Groot smacked them all to the ground, and then proceeded to free his friends.
“What the hell are you?” the young Phyla Vell wondered, glaring up at the tree-man.
Groot looked back and smiled at the woman. “I am Groot.”
Rocket patted his friend on the leg, saying, “Even I don’t know what this hunk ‘a bark is.”
Phyla offered the raccoon a venomous glance, before raising her hand, and with it her communicator. “The prisoners have escaped! I repeat—“
“Son of a—“ Rocket grabbed a blaster from an unconscious guard and used it to knock the girl unconscious. “Why’d no one knock her out sooner? Groot!”
The tree-man frowned. “I am Groot.”
Rocket faced the unconscious Phyla Vell from the future, who rested in Peter’s arms. “What do you mean she looks like…oh, d’ast.”
He looked between the two Phyla Vells. “They’re both Phy.”
“What?” Peter exclaimed. The others sans Heather and Groot followed Rocket’s example, and slowly it clicked for them, one-by-one.
“Phyla…” Peter whispered knowingly.
“Hate to break up the crazy time revelations, but we’ve gotta move,” Beta Ray Kill said, grabbing a blaster rifle.
Peter crunched up his brow and shook his head. “No. We’re not fighting our way out of here.”
He set Phyla down as Kill began to protest. Before anyone else could speak up, Peter took a deep breath and reached for his Kree comrade’s hand. Suddenly, the Infinity Gauntlet appeared. He gently touched it, and, after suffering no apparent side effects, removed it from Phyla’s hand.
“Peter, don’t even think about it,” Heather said.
“I would advise against what you are about to do,” Quie agreed.
“I am Groot.”
It was too late. Peter slipped the gauntlet onto his hand. Multicolored light burst from his eyes and mouth as the stones on the gauntlet began to glow.
Rocket gulped. “That can’t be good…”