In the vast expanse of the cosmos.
A starship streaked by, leaving a trail like a comet in its wake.
Even equipped with the fastest engine in the universe, crafted by the Tazoman people, and utilizing spatial jump technology, reaching Morag would still take several days.
While en route to space, Bant did not forget to instruct Norman to get things in order on Earth.
First, once the ship left the atmosphere, Norman would launch the completed satellites and rebuild a new planetary defense network.
This time, to forge a sturdier defense net, the number of satellites had been increased, ensuring that even if some experienced anomalies, full coverage of Earth could be maintained.
However, per Dr. Otto's earlier suggestion, the planetary shield would no longer use the Infinity Stone as its energy core but would switch to a Krypton-element reactor.
Without the Infinity Stone, the material strength requirements for the satellites dropped significantly.
This also allowed the Skyhammer Bureau to extensively retrofit the original satellites to establish more energy nodes, ensuring the shield could operate long-term.
In addition, the Sky Council's space station was also progressing steadily.
The Primus production line first manufactured Steel Warriors, and then Eunice controlled those Steel Warriors to forge Vibranium alloy.
The Deadflame Cannon, once used by the Red King on Sakaar, had been brought to Earth by Bant to serve as a furnace for smelting Vibranium.
Once the Sky Council's space station was complete, Earth would gain the ability to counter threats from the cosmos.
But no amount of worrying about Earth's affairs would help now.
What mattered was bringing the Power Stone back.
At the ship's current speed, they would reach Morag before long.
So Bant gathered everyone to underscore a few critical points for the mission.
"According to intel from Sky Council headquarters, it's confirmed that Ronan the Accuser has partnered with Thanos. And the location of the Orb is no longer a secret to them. When the time comes, we'll very likely have to fight the Kree army for it."
"The Kree?"
T'Challa frowned slightly.
"What are the Kree? How do they compare to the Chitauri we faced last time?"
The Chitauri were the only alien army they had fought head-on. Though it was just a vanguard force, it had still plunged Earth into a bitter struggle.
T'Challa wanted to gauge the Kree's strength by comparing them to the Chitauri.
"Let me put it this way..."
Bant paused, choosing his words, then said, "The Chitauri are notoriously easy to deal with in the universe, because if you blow up their mothership, you instantly kill every single Chitauri."
That was actually Rocket Raccoon's original line, though in a real battle, the Chitauri weren't stupid enough to steer their mothership right into the line of fire.
"As for the Kree..."
Bant paused again.
In the movies, the Kree's might was barely shown, and Ronan was turned into a simpleton who just wanted to get his hands on Pizza Hut.
But in truth, the Kree Empire was one of the three great empires known throughout the universe, possessing immensely advanced technology and formidable power.
Enough to make most civilizations in the cosmos tremble in fear.
It could be said that, aside from those inexplicable godly races, few ordinary interstellar civilizations did not fear the Kree Empire.
And just as the Shi'ar Empire and the Skrull Empire—the other two great powers—each had extraordinarily mighty warriors, Ronan's own strength was immense.
"The Kree army is extremely powerful. The reputation of the three great cosmic empires wasn't handed to them out of charity. Compared to the Kree, the Chitauri are nothing."
Bant stated.
"According to the intel Sky Council has gathered so far, Ronan's personal strength ranks at least third among all Kree."
Upon hearing this, everyone's expressions grew more solemn.
At the same time.
In another corner of the universe.
An army began advancing toward the abandoned planet Morag.
Anyone present would have easily recognized that this warship detachment belonged to the Kree.
Not only that, inside the ship's control room, the Accuser Ronan and two daughters of Thanos stood in a triangular formation.
Not long ago.
Thanos had sent Nebula to deliver a message to Ronan, saying that if Ronan would work for him, he would deploy troops to Xandar and help him exact his revenge.
To prevent Nebula from fleeing, Gamora had accompanied her.
And Thanos's task was simple: send them to the abandoned planet Morag to find the Orb.
And they had to be fast!
For that very reason, Ronan didn't wait the four years for Morag's oceans to recede, immediately dispatching a squad toward the planet.
He even came along personally.
Gamora, worried that Ronan might turn against them once he got his hands on an Infinity Stone, followed without leaving his side.
Now, Morag was not far off.
And they weren't the only ones heading there.
"Hey
"What's the matter with your head?
"What's the matter with your mind and your sign?"
...
Inside the ship, Star-Lord's classic feel-good anthem pulsed dynamically, making the man in the red leather jacket, lost in the music, involuntarily sway his body.
"Someone actually put a four-billion-plus bounty on a ball. They're insane!"
Star-Lord kept shaking his head, as if already seeing piles of cash stacked before him like a small mountain.
He had long since broken away from Yondu's Ravagers to go solo. With a decent reputation in Knowhere, his mission completion rate was high.
To him, those four billion were already in the bag, and this time he didn't have to split it with a bunch of interstellar scumbags.
Pull off this one score, and he could retire for life!
...
"Pull off this one score, and we can retire for life!"
Rocket waved his hand forcefully, his tail practically sticking straight up into the air.
Beside him, the tree-like Groot scratched an itch and said, "I am Groot."
"What?"
"You want rare soil from Tegarola? Forget it!"
Rocket rolled his eyes.
"I'm risking my goddamn life for four billion, not so I can bleeping eat dirt!"
Rocket roared, his words absolutely saturated with profanity.
"I am Groot!"
Groot pounded the table.
"You get a cut too? My god, you're a tree. What do you need so much money for?"
"I am Groot!"
"Fine, fine..." Rocket finally caved. "Strap in, I'm speeding up!"
The ship's rear thrusters spewed searing flames, and in an instant, like a bee, it darted headfirst into a hexagonal jump space.
Boom!
At the outer edge of Morag, a ship burst out like a flying fish breaking the surface of water.
Felicia braced her hands against the main console, leaning forward to gaze down from above.
"So this is Morag. It's a little different from what I imagined."
Though Morag was engulfed by oceans, it didn't actually look blue but rather a dark hue, like a deep seafloor tens of thousands of meters down where no light could penetrate.
"It looks like the Kree fleet hasn't arrived yet. We need to pick up the pace." Steve hadn't detected any trace of a large fleet.
"How do we find the temple that holds the Orb?"
Peter asked.
The planet was enormous, yet all they knew was that the Orb was in a temple.
This was practically like searching for a needle in a haystack.
Just thinking about it made him irritable, feeling like his head might burst into flames.
"Don't worry."
Bant naturally had no intention of conducting a stupid ground search. He pressed a button, and instantly, the bottom of the ship opened, releasing a swarm of machines that looked like robotic bees.
In the world of the Omnitrix, these machines had been invented by Azmuth to collect the genes of intelligent species across the universe.
Bant had replicated them.
Of course, now they were little more than shells of their former selves.
They essentially functioned as a massive swarm of drones, capable of blanketing the skies of Morag and scanning the planet section by section, creating a detailed map to pinpoint the temple's location.
"Let's head out first. Eunice will transmit all the info to our wrist devices soon." Bant tapped the device on his wrist.
This was also something he had outfitted every member of this operation with.
Though compact, it was essentially a mini supercomputer with a wide range of functions, even loaded with quite a few Servant Disks as emergency weapons.
The ship plunged into the atmosphere.
Then, under Bant's control, it switched to underwater mode.
As the recon bees began spreading across the planet, they also relayed back vast areas of terrain for Bant.
Before long, Eunice scanned and identified the locations of dozens of temples.
After filtering and cross-checking, three different temples were ultimately pinpointed as the possible storage site for the Orb.
"The three temples are located at three equidistant points along Morag's equator. If we have to check each one, it's going to take quite a bit of time."
Steve immediately made a decision.
"In that case, let's split up."
Considering the imminent arrival of the Kree army, and potentially even Thanos's forces, it was indeed a safer approach.
Bant also agreed with Steve's suggestion.
Then he said, "Alright. Captain, you and T'Challa team up. Peter, you're with Venom. Felicia and I will go together. Barnes, you stay and guard the ship."
Taking into account Bucky's currently unstable mental state, Bant didn't pair him with Steve but had him remain with the ship.
"No problem."
So six people, plus a blob of goo, split up. Each boarded a smaller submersible and sped off in different directions.
Inside their cabin, Bant and Felicia were squeezed together.
Though fully aware of the cramped space, Felicia had deliberately shifted into her slightly curvier Black Cat form, pressing herself tightly against Bant.
"It's so cramped!" Felicia complained, all while resting her chest against the back of Bant's head.
She was clearly doing it on purpose, because however cramped the cabin was, it still had roughly the space of an elevator.
"Yep, really cramped. So weird."
Bant naturally wasn't about to refuse this kind of fanservice.
Not long after, Bant detected the target through the power of his brainwaves.
At the same time.
The Accuser Ronan had finally reached the abandoned planet.
From beyond the planet, Ronan leaned forward to look, and the planet's image was projected within his ship.
He smiled slightly, turned to Gamora, and said:
"There are three possible temple locations. It seems we'll need to split up."
/-\
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