ANNIHILATION

Part IV: Desperate Measures

By Mitch Crane

The man known as Wendell Vaughn sat silently upon a lone asteroid as it drifted through the empty blackness of space. A jagged and uncomfortable mix of rock and nickel ore made sitting difficult but he had managed to find an area smooth enough to sit down in a cross legged position.

For the past half hour he had blocked out everything around him; the way the stars whirled around them as the asteroid tumbled, the stone beneath his backside, his companion Rom’s heavy footsteps. As Protector of the Universe, he had taken it upon himself to save the Kree from annihilation. It was no small task and his only hope had been to recruit the most powerful beings in the cosmos to aid him.

His mission had failed; all he had found was more questions. Epoch, his powerful benefactor, was missing, and along with Galactus and every other being in the cosmic pantheon. He called out to her once more but heard nothing but echoes. His Quantum Bands were attuned with the very universe, if they couldn’t find her, nothing could.

He sighed in despair; the Kree were doomed and there was nothing he could do about it. There was only one option left, a direct attack against Annihilus, though it was near suicide. With every soul he devoured, the Emperor of the Negative Zone grew in power and thousands were dying every day. The guilt of handing Annihilus the power of the Soul Gem, and getting his friend Adam Warlock killed ate away at him like a cancer.

He rose to his feet and sighed, “Come Rom, we’re wasting time here.”

“What is our next course of action?” asked the cyborg Spaceknight.

“We have no course Rom. You need to leave and start a new life for yourself.”

Rom’s family, as well as his entire life had been destroyed by the Annihilation Wave. For a time, the broken man had dedicated himself to vengeance, but now he only longed for death. Wendell couldn’t bring himself to allow his friend to die. Rom had always been a beacon of hope, he was too important to die.

“Quasar, you have no right…”

“You’ll thank me for this one day Rom.” His Quantum Bands flashed with energy, teleporting him through the Quantum Zone and back to Kree-Lar and leaving Rom behind, far from Kree space.

He couldn’t help but feel guilty for abandoning the Spaceknight, and was certain he would be angry for some time. The lonely asteroid they had stood upon was far enough from Kree space to keep Rom from the battle for many weeks. Hopefully by then the war would be over, one way or the other.

When he materialised in the central chamber of the Supreme Intelligence, super intelligent overlord of the Kree Empire, he was surprised to find the war chiefs and politicians in much higher spirits then when he had left them.

Krag, the Kronan Nova Centurion assigned to assist in the war efforts, approached him with open arms and a grin on his stoney face.

“Quasar! Looks like you achieved what you set out to do.”

“No, I couldn’t find anyone to help…what’s going on?”

“You really don’t know? The Annihilation Wave shifted course a few hours ago. They’re moving into Majesdanian space. Preliminary reports indicate they’re attacking outlying settlements but not heading towards the highly populated core worlds.”

Wendell didn’t feel the same sense of relief that everyone else did. The Wave had not been defeated, they had redirected their warpath of their own accord. They fact that they were bypassing Majesdane’s core worlds was even more concerning as it suggested Annihilus had his eyes set on another prize.

He looked to the Supreme Intelligence, who as always displayed no emotion. The biological supercomputer floating in silence in its gigantic holding tank, likely analysing a thousand scenarios. If anyone know what was going on it would be Supremor.

“Where are they going, Supremor?” demanded Wendell.

The various Kree around the room gasped in shock; how dare a mere human address their ruler so rudely. Ronan looked prepared to cave his skull in with his mighty hammer. He held back though, as the might being replied.

“I cannot ascertain their destination for human. Beyond Majesdanian space is two hundred million parsecs of uninhabited space. There is no foreseeable reason as to why the Wave would travel there.”

“It is of no consequence to the Kree,” stated Ronan, “We must focus our efforts on rebuilding and regaining our strength, lest our enemies try to take advantage of our weakness.”

“But whatever Annihilus is after must be important,” argued Wendell, “They had the Kree Empire on its knees and then suddenly walked away. Don’t you want to investigate?”

“Let the Majesdanians investigate, I have the safety of my people to worry about! With the Shi’ar abandoning us we’re on our own!”

“Silence!” boomed Supremor.

Ronan immediately bowed his head in submission to his leader and Wendell bit down his angry retort. He could understand the Accuser’s attitude but he couldn’t stand the fact that he wasn’t capable of looking outside his own boundaries. There was more at stake than just the Kree.

He looked to Krag, probably the only other person in the room who saw things the same way he did.

“Where’s the main body of the Wave right now?” he asked the Nova.

After a moment’s silence, as his suits computer filled him in, he replied, “Corailias 779; a solar system with a few moon mines and an agricultural planet.” A hologram of the system’s co-ordinates appeared before him.

“Thanks, I’m going to get some answers myself.”

“I’ll come with you boy,” said Krag, who was eager to get away from the uptight Kree generals and politicians and get back to the action.

“No Krag, you were assigned to help the Kree. Stay here and aid with the rebuilding effort, protect them if the need arises.”

The Kronan sighed, “As you like Terran.”

While Krag wasn’t foolhardy with his life like Rom, Wendell just couldn’t stand to put the Nova’s life at risk when he was more than likely going on a suicide mission. He looked Krag in the eye, and vanished without saying goodbye.

Corailias 779 Solar System
Majesdanian Space

To say it was a battle would be a vast overstatement. The Annihilation Wave simply destroyed the minimal resistance as it passed through the Corailias System with little effort. Annihilus drank in what few souls the battle could muster, but was left wanting.

With every hour his unquenchable thirst for souls grew stronger, the Soul Gem practically screaming in the centre of his forehead. He eyed his various flunkies greedily, barely managing to control his urge to steal the souls of each and every one.

They eyed him nervously, but carried on with their work; not one of the giant insects were foolhardy enough to flee. There was nowhere to go. The Devourer of Souls controlled every facet of their magnificent command ship; Ego the Living Planet. After dominating the planet’s ancient soul, Annihilus now controlled it like his puppet.

His workers were of no consequence, thought the Emperor. They were headed towards much greater prey. Somewhere out there in the universe was a glorious power, one that may well satiate his bottomless hunger, and the entire might of the Annihilation Wave was tearing its way through the galaxy to get to it.

Holding Cells

“You’re lying to me, you miserable wretch!” growled the former Herald known as Terrax.

He and fellow former Heralds, Red Shift and Morg, hung suspended by antimatter chains in the deepest dungeon of Annihilus’ flagship, Ego. The Lord of the Negative Zone, obsessed with increasing his power, sanctioned the capture off all those wielding the Power Cosmic, a primal force of nature tapped by the mighty Galactus. So far, these three were the only ones captured.

“I have never laid hands on the Ultimate Nullifier,” replied Red Shift coldly.

“Heh…lying sack a glatch,”coughed Morg, conscious for the first time in days, after a severe bout of torture and experimentation. “You ran me through…took the thing from my dyin’ hands.”

“Looks like I didn’t do a good enough job,” smirked Red Shift.

“I’m gonna gut you when I get out of this place!” snarled Morg.

“Silence!” yelled a frustrated Terrax. After a moment he exhaled heavily and continued more calmly, “I have an…ally. One who knows you have the device, which is integral in our plans.”

“Sounds more like a master than an ally,” snorted Morg.

“I am no man’s servant!” snapped Terrax.

Red Shift looked to Terrax with annoyance,” Fine, I have the device, but it is nowhere you will ever reach. And if you think I would ever hand it away to you and your shadowy ally, you are sorely mistaken. I have ally’s of my own…”

Terrax, unused to being refused, was ready to explode in anger, but uncharacteristically swallowed his rage.

“Very well. Let us focus our energies on freeing ourselves and avenging this indignity or that worm Annihilus,” he said.

Insolent maggot, thought Terrax, I’ll choke the life from you if I have to. The Nullifier will be mine!

Nearby

Quasar materialised close to the blue green moon of Corlialias’ fourth planet. What he witnessed when he appeared filled him with conflicting feelings of dismay and hope. Ego, the Living Planet, sat at the heart of Annihilus’ mighty armada. Clearly, after reluctantly helping Quasar and the Kree fleet to flee the disastrous battle at Eldrin, Ego had switched sides and was now aiding Annihilus.

Wendell wasn’t a fool, he had feared this could happen, but at the time he had no other choice but to free Ego from his prison in the Quantum Zone. How he longed for the days when his biggest quandary was deciding whether or not to ask out a workmate.

Surprisingly, Ego’s presence was a ray of hope. There was no doubt in Wendell’s mind that Annihilus was now using the Living Planet as his flagship. There was no way the insectoid megalomaniac could pass up the opportunity to charge into battle controlling his own mobile planet.

For a time, Quasar and the Living Planet had been physically bonded. Ego had been reduced to spore form, but was quickly enveloping the Earth and transforming it into a new body for himself. The Protector of the Universe valiantly took the Ego spore into his own body, removing he threat to his homeworld but dooming himself to a lifetime of never being able to touchdown on a planet again. Eventually he realised he could purge the spore and trap it in the Quantum Zone, where is slowly regrew into the giant pink planet he saw before him.

The upside of being temporarily bonded with Ego was that the Living Planet could no longer detect him. He also knew every nook and cranny of the world, as well as how he would respond to various threats. Finally something was going his way.

With a grin he focused his thoughts into the Quantum Bands and created an armada of glowing yellow spaceships to supplement the few Majesdanian forces remaining. This was perhaps one of the most large scale feats he had attempted, and was greatly draining, but hopefully he would only have to maintain it for a few minutes.

As expected, mainly of the Wave ships turned to attack their new opponents, but more importantly Ego himself prepared to attack. Volcanoes all over his surface spewed forth magma like monumental high pressure hoses and city sized chunks of stone were hurled outwards with devastating force.

Quasar took advantage of all these attacks, ducking and weaving between meteors and lava streams to avoid detection by Annihilation Wave forces. Within a few moments he reached the bizarre pink-purple desert that composed most of Ego’s surface. Bulky purple humanoid, with odd hexagonal faces, Ego’s antibodies, charged about in preparation for an attack. All were thankfully blind to Wendell’s presence though, and he flew into a sizable cave opening.

He stopped for a moment and used the Quantum Bands to search the planet for Annihilus’ energy signature. He found him almost immediately in the northern hemisphere, close to the pole. The malicious emperor radiated energy, and was vastly stronger than the last time they had met. There still had no other option than to attempt to kill the villain. Perhaps if he came in hard and fast, before he could react?

Another pang of energy caught his attention nearby. This power was vastly different to Annihilus’ corruption and was very familiar; the Power Cosmic! Focusing harder, her realised there were three individuals empowered with the Power Cosmic, deep within the planet. But were they friend or foe? Judging by the way Terrax attacked Ravenous and then disappeared, he assumed the Heralds were no friend of Annihilus. Before fighting the Living Death that Walks, he thought he better investigate.

Elsewhere

The Seeker known as Ravenous blasted through the cosmos a look of manic glee plastered across his bloody visage. The power that ran through his veins felt incredible. Of course he had felt the power of the Essence before, but it always felt borrowed; tainted by the fact he had to leech it from a beast tethered to his arm due to his master’s mistrust.

Blood stained his face and chest, from his voracious feeding on his cure and those of all the other Seekers. Now there was only Ravenous. He pondered what to do with this new found power; destroy all life as part of the Wave’s great mission?

His hunger overwhelmed that notion, a hunger for more power. There was one being with more power than any other; Annihilus.

Ravenous grinned savagely; it seemed only fitting that the servant consume the master.

Ego the Living Planet
Holding Cells

Quasar tracked the energy signature to a secluded part of the living planet, destroying several hordes of insect-like troops in the process. He blasted the stone door aside to find the Heralds Morg and Red Shift chained to a wall, and Terrax strapped down to table with a large praying mantis like creature bent over him.

The mantis looked up in surprise, but before it could act, Wendell had already ensnared it in quantum chains. He stepped inside and blasted the Herald’s chains but found them surprisingly resistant.

“They’re antimatter, human. You’ll need to do better then that,” stated Terrax, without a thank you for being saved from torture.

Something in the room had to deactivate the chains, but every device present was so alien he had no idea where to start. In the end he approached the mantis, and easily held it up by its chains. It let out a high pitched squeal but otherwise said nothing.

“How do I turn off the chains?” he demanded.

“Eeeee! Skeeg will not betray the Soul Taker, he will steal Skeeg’s soul!”

He sighed, there was no time for this. The quantum chains morphed into snaked and threatened Skeeg’s face. The cowardly mantis quickly folded.

“That device there!” he gestured towards a small oval shaped item with a red and green button, “push the red button.”

“You realise if you’ll lying to us…”

“Skeeg does not lie!”

He dropped the mantis and pushed the red button on the item, half expecting alarms to begin blaring. The only sound that came though was a thud as Red Shift and Morg hit the floor. Terrax raised himself up from the torture table and grabbed Skeeg by the throat.

“I’m going to pop your head like a pustule you worthless scab!”

“No!” yelled Quasar, lassoing the helpless scientist and yanking him away from the Herald.

Terrax looked outraged, “That scum has tortured me in the name of science for days!”

“That freak’s had me for months,” his already scarred body was covered in fresh wounds.

All of a sudden the scarred Herald tackled Red Shift, screaming, “you put me in this place! You left me for dead, at the mercy of these bug freaks!”

“It was an eye for an eye you dast fool!” screamed Red Shift back, “you betrayed me and left me for Galactus to torture!”

“ENOUGH!” yelled Quasar, separating the two with a wall of quantum energy. Thankfully they halted their fight long enough to listen to the human.

“No one here is a friend, but while we’re surrounded by a planet full of enemies put your damn issues aside, okay?!”

Terrax eyed the scientist come torturer in Quasar’s hands but made no move to kill him again. Instead he said, “Why have you come here human? I doubt you’re here to rescue the likes of us.”

“I’ve come to kill Annihilus,” replied Wendell sombrely, and Skeeg let out a small squeal at this.

Morg smiled, “I’d like me a piece of that action.”

He walked across the room and picked up a gleaming silver axe blade from a nearby table. The blade smoothly attached to the stump of his missing left hand. Terrax followed suit, taking up his own axe. After a moment’s hesitation Red Shift picked up his black and red swords.

Quasar couldn’t help but feel a glimmer of hope; with three Heralds on his side he might just be in this with a chance.

Annihilus’ Command Post

They were so close, he could taste it. Just one more hyperspace jump and they would reach the source of incredible power that had lured him like a moth to a flame. Nothing stood in the Annihilation Wave’s way, not even the mysterious fleet of golden ships that had appeared out of nowhere and vanished without a thought.

It was of no consequence now. Nothing mattered but reaching his destination. The Soul Gem hungered, and it was possible the souls he was charging towards could satisfy that hunger, as well as cement his foothold as a god.

“You are not a god Annihilus, you are a slave,” stated an ethereal voice behind him.

The Devourer of Souls spun about and found himself face to face with the man who had once held the Soul Gem, a man he had killed; Adam Warlock.

The emperor lashed out at the yellow skinned man, but his clawed hands passed harmlessly through the apparition, decapitating a servant behind him. It’s soul was immediately sucked into the gem.

“Cast down the Soul Gem before it’s too late!”

“No-one commands Annihilus!” screeched the beast, blasting the man, to no avail.

“The hunger will never cease. Never! Stop this madness…”

But the apparition faded away, its warnings ignored. Annihilus looked up to the sky, iridescent with glow of hyperspace travel. Unconsciously he stroked the soul gem on his forehead.

“Soon,” he said, soothing the gem.

Nearby, below ground

Quasar and the three Heralds blasted their way through hordes of Wave troops and Ego’s anitibodies, cutting the most direct path to Annihilus’ command post. While Wendell was invisible to Ego’s detection, none of the Heralds were, so they figured the best option was to get to Annihilus hard and fast, before he could prepare an appropriate defence.

Morg laughed in manic delight as he destroyed a multitude of bugs, revenge for months of torture and subjugation. He was so drench in blood and entrails that he appeared even more monstrous than ever. Terrax also appeared to enjoy the killing, but it was clear the bugs were of no consequence to him; he wanted their Emperor. Red Shift remained silent the entire time and displayed little emotion. Having never met the herald before, only hearing about him from the Silver Surfer, Quasar had no idea if this was the norm.

“I still don’t get why you can’t just open a doorway there,” growled Morg.

“I told you, I haven’t regained enough strength yet,” replied Red Shift, not bothering to hide his hatred for the madman.

“This way,” said Quasar, leading the trio up a vertical shaft, and praying all the while that the three villains kept their animosity in check until the job was done.

After several minutes they left the underground and rocketed into the sky. Towering purple mountains surrounded them on all sides. Wendell had little doubt that Annihilus had set up command in the tallest of these mountains, like the god he saw himself as.

Gazing upwards, he realised the sky was an iridescent rainbow of colours; they were in hyperspace. A second later the colour was gone and the stars returned to the sky once more. Energy crackled through the air briefly, a common side effect of exiting hyperspace.

“Whoa!” he exclaimed, and he turned around.

More Celestials than he had ever seen filled the sky, there had to be at least a hundred of them. He didn’t even know there were that many of them. The armoured giants, each two thousand feet tall stood in the void of space, surrounding a gigantic machine. The machine resembled a throne made tubes of orange light and upon that throne stat the biggest Celestial he had ever witnessed.

“Exitar, the Exterminator!” gasped Terrax.

What the hell is going on? Wondered Quasar. The Grandmaster had warned him the Celestials were up to something but he had dismissed it, thinking the Annihilation War was more pressing. Now the Wave had shown up directly where the Celestials were. Was this an alliance?

The sound of laughter behind them had Quasar and Terrax turning around to find a very dead Morg. An ebony blade was sticking out of his chest, and Red Shift covered his mouth so he couldn’t yell out.

“Fool! Couldn’t you have waited until we killed Annihilus?!” yelled Terrax.

“There’s not going to be a fight,” grinned Red Shift, “Not now that my master’s plan has come to fruition,” he gestured towards the Celestials, “they have been calling to me for some time, but clearly I was indisposed.”

“You work for the Celestials? Why? What do they want?” asked a frustrated Quasar.

Red Shift smiled, “They want to destroy the universe of course, every stinking molecule of it, and stand their grand experiment anew,” a tear in space the length of an arm opened beside the Herald and a small pistol like device fell out into his hand; the Ultimate Nullifier!

“All they need is this.”

To be continued…