The battle for Xandar had begun.
Faced with the onslaught of Thanos and Ronan, Queen Adora gave the order to activate the planetary defense shield.
Countless unmanned fighters, gleaming like scattered starlight, surged into the sky. They arrayed themselves beyond the atmosphere and, channeling immense energy, unfurled a golden protective barrier.
At the same time, the Nova Corps launched a counteroffensive, striking back at Sanctuary and the Dark Aster.
The Corps numbered just over five hundred in total, but every single Nova Corps soldier possessed formidable power. The Nova Force bestowed upon them by the Worldmind enhanced all their physical capabilities. Beyond that, their helmets—much like Eunice or Jarvis—could provide them with a vast array of tactical combat plans.
The most powerful Centurions were capable of flying through space with their physical bodies alone—essentially miniature versions of Captain Marvel.
And there was more than one Centurion. Like security chiefs, there were several of them, each representing the elite of the Nova Corps.
With them on the field, and without Thanos personally entering the fray, the swarming Chitauri horde and the Dark Order held no clear advantage.
Yet the battle could still only be described as brutal.
Not every Nova soldier could maneuver freely in space. Lower-ranking members possessed only a quarter of a Centurion's strength and could not fly, forced instead to fight from small single-pilot craft.
And these soldiers made up a large portion of the Corps.
On Thanos's side, watching the planetary shield hold firm against their assault, patience was wearing thin.
Sanctuary and the Dark Aster immediately concentrated their firepower, bombarding the enormous shield. The Chitauri, in a maneuver mirroring their breach of the Wakandan dome in the battle against the Avengers, literally forced a bloody path through.
Before long, Xandar's planetary shield was breached. Swarms of Chitauri warriors, utterly fearless of death, poured in and immediately began attacking the small craft maintaining the shield's operation.
Right on their heels, massive Chitauri Leviathans were the first to punch through the atmosphere, diving straight toward Xandar.
Chitauri soldiers riding their personal flyers raised energy weapons and began a ruthless slaughter of the Xandarian populace.
This forced the Nova Corps, who had been holding the Dark Order at bay in space, to fall back to the surface—allowing the very Dark Order forces and the Accuser they had been pinning down to flood onto Xandar as well.
In an instant, the entire planet descended into utter chaos.
Thanos did not personally take the field, but Ronan could not restrain himself.
The Dark Aster continued its relentless bombardment of Xandar while Ronan himself, wielding his Universal Weapon, plunged into the war with flesh and blood.
As a being capable of directly touching an Infinity Stone, Ronan's power was anything but weak. Gripping his massive silver-black war hammer, he charged into the Nova Corps encirclement like a god of war.
His opponents were the Centurions.
Beyond them, no one else was qualified to stand against him.
High above, two Centurions were locked in combat with Ronan. One of them was the leader of the Centurions—the Centurion Prime.
"Accuser Ronan!"
Irani Rael slammed into Ronan head-on, streaking across the sky like a blazing locomotive. She drove him straight from the heavens down to the surface, the impact instantly carving a colossal crater into the ground.
Only after smashing him deep into the earth did she plant herself atop a mound of rubble and shout:
"Withdraw from Xandar at once!"
"Have you forgotten the treaty between Xandar and the Kree Empire?"
Ronan rose from the soil. Despite the ferocious attack, his body bore virtually no injury. He simply raised his hammer high and declared in that strange accent of his:
"I do not fight for the Kree Empire!"
"I fight for hatred!"
A violet beam erupted from his weapon in the next instant, blasting Irani Rael away.
Without a backward glance, Ronan swung the Universal Weapon behind him, slamming it into the chest of another Centurion who had been poised to strike.
Clang!
Golden energy poured from that Centurion's arms like flames, like the wings of a phoenix, and he actually managed to block Ronan's blow head-on.
But he did not counterattack. Instead, he reasoned:
"Ronan!"
"The pain this war has inflicted on both Xandarians and Kree is mutual. Many Kree died at our hands in the past, but in turn, many Xandarian soldiers gave their lives as well. We should not perpetuate this hatred!"
Objectively speaking, the Centurion was right. But to Ronan, his eyes blinded by vengeance, the words meant nothing.
The Accuser simply clenched his fists, and the war hammer's energy spiked.
"You are wrong. The hatred will not continue,"
Ronan said. "Because I will exterminate every last Xandarian. Not a single one will remain!"
BOOM!!!
The moment his words fell, a massive surge of energy burst from the hammer. The violet force field hurled the Centurion away and, in the same instant, reduced everything within a radius of several hundred meters to dust.
When it came to Xandarians, Ronan had long since stopped listening to words.
Without pause, he threw himself back into the fight.
At the same time, Steve and the others who had remained on Xandar joined the battle as well.
Though Queen Adora and Nova Corps commander Irani Rael had explicitly refused the Plumbers' help earlier, Steve simply could not stand by and watch innocent Xandarians be brutally murdered.
He and the Winter Soldier both threw themselves into rescue efforts and the resistance.
Kayla did not hold back, either.
Once titled the Supreme Warrior, she possessed the strength to go toe-to-toe with the Hulk. Apart from Brandt and Luma, she was now the most powerful fighter on Sakaar.
Kayla plunged into the fray, blue lightning coiling around her body. The gargantuan Chitauri Leviathans seemed pathetically fragile before her.
It wasn't just the Chitauri who noticed this group—Queen Adora noticed her as well.
She was simply too conspicuous.
Amid a sky saturated with the golden radiance of the Nova Force, those blue bolts of lightning flashed like an azure dragon.
Adora recognized her immediately as the envoy the Sakaarian Plumbers had sent not long ago. Seeing her now, the queen could not deny that her strength was genuine—on par with any Centurion, not the slightest bit inferior.
If she had accepted the Plumbers' alliance proposal back then, perhaps now...
The thought flickered through her mind, but Adora cast it aside just as quickly.
There was no point dwelling on that now. What mattered was resolving the crisis before her. And Xandar had not yet reached the point of absolute despair.
The soldiers of the Nova Corps clustered together as golden drones and circling Leviathans filled the sky.
Bombardment. Death. Terror. Destruction.
Catastrophe descended in an instant.
The Nova Corps, five hundred strong, now seemed utterly isolated. Facing tens of thousands of enemies, they were completely encircled. Ronan alone was tying down numerous Centurions, while the rest of the soldiers, under the relentless tide of bodies, slowly gave ground.
The Chitauri could flood the field with troops far too quickly.
This was precisely why Brandt had sent Peter and his team to destroy the Chitauri mothership ahead of time.
If the mothership was not dealt with at the source, no matter how many Chitauri soldiers they killed, it would be meaningless.
Even a War Lord, in the grand scheme of the Chitauri race, was just a particularly powerful super-soldier. Given time, the Chitauri Queen could simply cultivate a new one.
Aboard Sanctuary, watching this near-certain victory unfold, Thanos remained calm and at ease.
Magus, on the other hand, was growing restless.
"Didn't you say you would show me the power of the Power Stone? Why not use Xandar as the test subject right now?"
Magus was burning to verify whether Brandt Parker truly possessed the Omnitrix. A tiny speck of a planet like Xandar meant nothing to him.
He wanted nothing more than to put a swift end to this pitiful world and head straight for Sakaar to confirm his suspicions.
If it were all true, then he could resume his original plan—using the Omnitrix to forge an alien army and conquer every universe in existence.
Imagine it: an army that knew no pain, capable of transforming into a vast array of immensely powerful alien lifeforms. How terrifying would that be?
When tens of thousands of planet-destroying, giant-sized warriors gathered together, everyone who refused to bow to Magus would face a single fate—annihilation!
"What's the rush?"
Thanos cast a calm, sidelong glance at Magus.
He knew full well that his new partner harbored ulterior motives. He didn't care. Whatever Magus sought, it posed no conflict with his own goals.
Of course, if Magus's goal happened to be the Infinity Stones, then Thanos had only one thing to say to him: sorry.
In Thanos's view, the Stones existed for one purpose—to fulfill his destiny: erasing half of all life in the universe.
Once that destiny was achieved, the Stones would lose all meaning.
And he would then use their own power to destroy them completely.
"It won't be long now. Ronan will bring me victory."
At that, Magus said nothing more.
So be it. He would wait.
Thanos's composed demeanor was clearly not an act.
And indeed, the battle was a one-sided affair. The intervention of Kayla, Steve, and the others was merely a drop in the bucket.
Before long, most of the Nova Corps had fallen.
Though Thanos's side had suffered even heavier casualties, who would care about the lives and deaths of mere Chitauri?
They were nothing but pitiful locusts in the cosmic wind.
By now, Ronan, Universal Weapon in hand, had stormed straight into Adora's palace.
When Kayla and Steve arrived at the palace, they arrived just in time to see Ronan gripping Irani Rael by the throat with one hand, hoisting her high into the air. The once-regal Queen Adora was now kneeling wretchedly before Ronan, as battered as a stray dog.
"It is time to pay the price, Adora."
Ronan's voice was cold.
In that moment, the only emotion Queen Adora felt as she lay on the ground was regret. Overwhelming, crushing regret.
Especially when she saw Kayla standing not far away, unable to advance any closer—that feeling surged to its absolute peak.
If only time could reverse, back to a few days ago when Kayla had urged her to form an alliance with Sakaar. She would not have let that chance slip away.
If only there truly were such a thing as a second chance...
Adora would have paid any price, if only it could save Xandar.
Just as the thought crossed her mind...
The sky above suddenly went dark.
"Thanos, Accuser Ronan, this is the Plumbers. Withdraw your forces from Xandar immediately!"
A voice boomed from above, resonating across the skies of Xandar. Queen Adora froze, then sharply lifted her head.
Through the ruined ceiling of her shattered palace, she saw an enormous warship bearing down.
"You again—the Plumbers!"
/-\
Enjoying the story? Want to read ahead?
Support the novel and unlock early access to unreleased chapters!
~ +20 Advanced Chapters Available on Patreon! (+1 Chapter daily)
https://p-atreon.com/Its_Zack
(Just remove the hyphen (-) to access Patreon normally)