The Shi’ar Imperium spans several star systems and has countless planets among its ranks. Everything is controlled by D’Ken Nermani, the Shi’ar Emperor, who rules with an iron fist. Among his crew are the Imperial Guard, beings with incredible power who serve their master willingly. None stand against him.

Well… almost none.

I’ll tell you how I got here. My crew and I found ourselves on Hala. Once, it was the capital of the Kree Empire, which preceded the Shi’ar. The Kree Empire was a paradise, but thanks to the power of D’Ken and the savage monstrosities known as the Brood, they were quickly overrun and D’Ken took control. As a final insult, D’Ken decreed that Hala, once the Eden of the universe, would be converted into a prison planet.

It was here that dissenters were kept. The artists, the scientists, the philosophers. Anyone who dared speak out against D’Ken was captured and left here. They were used as sacrifices. The Brood are powerful, but they need host bodies. So eggs are implanted in these prisoners and when they hatch, the Brood overtakes the host, bursting forth.

The Brood are D’Ken’s shock troops. An army of vicious, soulless beasts who obey his every command. That’s just the kind of bastard D’Ken is. And we came to Hala to prevent D’Ken from sacrificing more people to the Brood.

Raza took care of the security. He was another example of D’Ken’s sick experimentation. Raza was once part of a Shi’ar race of warriors. While the rest of his people died in battle against the Brood, Raza was captured and his life saved by cybernetic enhancements. Now he’s indestructible, and has been denied the chance to die in battle. The cybernetic enhancements come in handy, however. Raza bypassed the security codes through them, allowing us to sneak in relatively easy.

We were greeted with the stench of bodily fluids and rotting corpses. D’Ken didn’t care much about providing the prisoners with any sort of facilities, nor did he worry about cleaning up the dead bodies. The Brood didn’t require healthy host bodies, just host bodies for the incubation period.

I’m not sure how many were in there. Possibly hundreds. How many of them were alive was another question that I couldn’t answer. But I knew what I had to do. I wasn’t going to let these people suffer in their squalor any longer. I had to take action and I had to find a way to get them out of here.

“Raza, contact Hepzibah and tell her to have the ship ready.”

I turned to the large alien beside me while Raza followed my orders. This member of my crew was very amphibian-like in appearance, he always reminded me of the monster from The Creature From The Black Lagoon. Man, I loved that flick when I was a kid.

“You ready for this, Ch’od?” I asked.

“Question is, do we have enough room for them all?” he asked.

“Well big guy, we’ll just have to make room.” I replied. I lifted my sword in the air and called out to get the attention of the prisoners. “Listen up! From this point on, you’re no longer fodder for the Brood! You’ve been liberated from your prison, and my crewmates and I will take you beyond the reach of D’Ken and the Shi’ar Empire! Follow us, and we’ll set you free!”

“Hepzibah is bringing the ship around, Captain,” said Raza.

“Good,” I said.

On Earth, I was Major Christopher Summers. But here, in the far reaches of space, my name is Corsair. My crewmates and I are a group of rebels—space pirates who oppose D’Ken and the Shi’ar Empire at every turn. We call ourselves the Starjammers.

FAMILY TIES

Part I: Spaced Out

By Dino Pollard

London

In London, a Starbucks could be found on practically every single street corner. So when John Proudstar invited Ali Blaire out for a cup of coffee, they found themselves within spitting distance of one of the franchise’s coffee shops.

They sat in an outdoor terrace, a small, round table separating the two of them. When the X-Men first arrived in London after departing the Savage Land, the only clothes they had were the leather combat uniforms that had been given to them when they were operating under the auspices of SHIELD. Since that time, however, they had acquired some normal attire for walking about the streets of London.

Ali sipped her drink and John watched her from across the table. He simply had a cup of plain coffee and he wasn’t even sure what Ali had ordered. It sounded complicated and it was a name he couldn’t even pronounce correctly. After a moment, Ali realized John was staring at her.

“Something wrong?” she asked.

“Hmm? Oh no, nothing.”

She nodded, a bit unsatisfied by his response.

“So what happened there anyway?” asked John.

“You mean at MojoVision?” asked Ali.

“Yeah.”

“He wanted me to be his star,” said Ali. “Make a comeback to the entertainment industry as an actress instead of a musician. And he wanted to keep you guys in those mental scenarios, record them somehow and distribute them. It’s a good thing Longshot came in when he did, not sure if we would have gotten out of it without his help.”

“So why did you turn down Mojo?”

“Because the price was watching you guys go through torment,” said Ali. “I couldn’t do that.”

“But what if you could?”

“Excuse me?” A confused look fell over Ali’s face.

“What I mean is…” John slid his chair in closer, leaning in slightly. “What if you could go back to it? The life you had before the X-Men.”

“You mean be a singer again?”

“Yeah, or do something else in entertainment. Like acting. Would you?”

Ali set her coffee down on the table and cast her eyes down towards her hands. She considered her teammate’s words, and she thought back to the times when she was a pop star.

“Honestly… when I first came to the X-Men, all I thought about was getting back to my old life I hated what had become of me. I hated that I was a mutant and that I was putting my life on the line day after day…” She sighed.

“But…?”

“But now I can’t see myself ever going back to that.” She looked up and made eye contact with him. “After what happened to the Professor and Storm and Rogue, the Shadow King, SHIELD… Black Air, the Savage Land, and especially the Morlocks. It may not seem that way to everyone else, but I’ve changed a lot since that day in Chicago when I met Logan. And when Mojo offered me a way out of this life, a chance to become an actress… even before I knew you guys were in danger, I knew it wasn’t the right choice. That’s just not who I am anymore, y’know?”

John nodded and sipped his coffee.

“What about you?” she asked. “Would you go back?”

“In a heartbeat.”

“Really?”

“I was at the top of my game,” said John. “My parents were always good to me and I had a great little brother who I’d look out for. And all those scholarships? Man, I had my pick of colleges. I could’ve gone anywhere, done anything. But because of an accident, I had to come here. And now, I still want to leave, but I can’t. What if SHIELD is still looking for us? What if there are Acolytes out there who want revenge? What if Magneto’s not as braindead as Jean said he was? I mean, he snapped out of it before. And now with Logan gone, we’ve gotta stick together. Who knows what’ll happen next?”

“Watch what you say, something bad might happen.”

“With our luck, I wouldn’t be surprised…” he muttered. He looked up at Ali and his dark eyes locked with her blue ones. He found himself staring into them. On instinct, he slowly began to move his head closer to hers. She met him halfway and their lips connected. They lingered for a moment before John quickly pulled away.

“Sorry…” He picked up his coffee and took a large gulp of the hot liquid. His tongue regretted it.

“It’s… it’s okay,” she said.

“We should… let’s head back.”

“O…okay.”

“What happened next, Major Su—”

“Corsair.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“My name is Corsair.”

“Okay Corsair. What happened next?”

Ch’od, Raza and I moved quickly to get the prisoners out of the installation. Hepzibah was circling above in the Starjammer. That was the name of our ship, it’s where we got our name. The four of us were once prisoners of the Shi’ar slave camps, although originally, there were five of us. My wife, Katherine. D’Ken took her from us one night, and he… he raped her. He’d done this before to other female prisoners and Hepzibah had told me she was chosen to be his companion on more than one occassion.

Karen was strong-willed, though. She fought against D’Ken, but that only angered him. So he… he killed her. Then… that’s when he had his way with her. He delighted in telling me the details, even filmed it and forced me to watch. His plan was to break me, but all he did was strengthen my resolve. I got together with several of the prisoners and we staged a revolt. Ch’od, Raza, Hepzibah and myself were the only survivors.

Once we escaped, we commandeered a Shi’ar cruiser and flew it to the far reaches of the system. Eventually, we were able to get our hands on the Starjammer through the black market. We didn’t have much in the way of money though, so we stole it.

“Corsair, I thought you were telling us about what happened in the prison on Hala?”

“Sorry, I have a tendency to go off on tangents sometimes.”

Security went off at that point, just like we expected it to. We knew it wouldn’t be a simple mission, but we had to try, right? Anyway, guards came after us, guns blazing. Hepzibah had the Starjammer on auto-pilot while she laid down some cover fire with the ship’s guns. Ch’od, Raza and I returned fire. I sent Ch’od off to get the prisoners onboard. Raza and I stayed behind and continued to fight off the guards. Ch’od was calling for us to get moving, but we were running short on time. I told Raza to go ahead, I would cover him.

Raza ran back to the ship, and it was at that moment that I was struck down by gunfire. My knee was hit and I collapsed. The guards swarmed over me and I was their captive. I called out to Raza, told him they had to get the Starjammer out of there. Raza was a born soldier. Although he didn’t like leaving a man behind, he knew there was nothing he could do.

The hatch closed and the Starjammer took to the air with the prisoners onboard. That’s when I saw it. A Shi’ar Superdestroyer. It targetted the Starjammer and… the Starjammer may be fast and it may be a good ship, but there’s no way it could contend with the force of a Superdestroyer. Needless to say, the Superdestroyer lived up to its name.

I don’t think I have to draw you a diagram.

London

Jean Grey sat on the floor in a large room in the Morlock tunnels. Her legs were crossed and her eyes shut in concentration. Beside her sat the Aborigine mutant called Gateway. At one point, he had been the method of transportation for Magneto and his Acolytes. When the X-Men broke free of Magneto, however, Gateway came with them and has provided them with transport since.

“What are they doing?” asked Kurt Darkholme.

“Meditation I guess,” replied Scott Summers. The two young men stood outside the room and watched. “Gateway’s been working with Jean in their spare time, ever since the Morlocks were killed. He’s teaching her the ways of his people, or something. I tried talking to Jean about it and she said something about Dreamtime, but that’s all I really understood.”

“Weird,” said Kurt.

“How are you feeling?” asked Scott.

“I’m still a little stiff, but other than that I’m fine,” replied Kurt. “If you’ve got the time to spare, I definitely recommend a coma for a good rest. What about you? Can’t be easy having to take over as leader right after Logan bailed.”

“I can deal,” said Scott.

There was a slight shiver that ran through his body whenever Logan’s name was brought up. He told the X-Men that Logan left for parts unknown after their battle with the Marauders. And it was true, but the part he left out was that Scott told Logan to leave, because he felt the older man’s methods had only made the X-Men worse for wear and the cost was lives. Scott didn’t want to see anyone else die.

“Well, at least Dr. Reyes has been pretty helpful,” said Kurt. “Have you been over there today?”

“Not yet, but I’m gonna head over tomorrow probably. I want to check up on Kitty.”

“Yeah, it’s crazy what’s happened to her. I didn’t even think something like that was possible.”

“You mean not being able to turn off your mutant power?” asked Scott.

“Oh… sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

“Thank you, Corsair. I think we’ve had enough today.”

Corsair stood from his chair, his hands cuffed, and a uniformed guard stood behind him. The guard led him to the one door in the room and Corsair walked out. The guard followed to lead him back to his cell. Behind the two-way mirror sat two men. One of them had long, brown hair pulled into a ponytail and wore round glasses and searched through Corsair’s file.

“Well?”

Leonard Samson looked up from his papers to his companion and smiled.

“I think you were right, sir,” he said. “Major Summers is definitely insane. Clearly, he suffers from an extreme case of schizophrenia. According to his file, he was in a plane crash some years ago, correct?”

“Yeah, his wife died in it.”

“Apparently, he’s played out this scenario in his mind that he and his wife were abducted by aliens right before their plane crashed. I think this may have been his attempt to try to cope with her death.”

“Then why does he think they were put into slavery and his wife raped and killed? Why not dream up a scenario where the two of them are happy together?”

“The subconscious is a very powerful thing, and it often works in mysterious ways,” said Samson. “Summers was a soldier, perhaps he misses the thrill of combat. Perhaps his wife dying in his delusion is his subconscious trying to tell him that she’s really dead, an attempt to break him out of his fantasy. His delusion has become extremely intricate, though. He believes himself to be almost an intergalactic Robin Hood, going up against an evil empire that preys upon the weak. His belief that his fellow space pirates have died in battle could mean progress for his treatment. As he strips away more and more of this delusion, he comes one step closer to reality.”

“Good, because I want to know what he knows.”

They’re talking about me in there, I know it. They’re working for D’Ken. All of this… it’s all window-dressing. I know soon they’ll just implant me with another Brood egg. D’Ken’s trying new tactics. He’s becoming more subtle. Too bad for him, I’m not going to buy into his bullshit.

I stop in my tracks and the guard takes a few steps in front of me.

“Hey, what are you—”

Before he finishes his sentence, I launch my body into his, slamming him against the wall. He tries to get up, but I headbutt him and he goes down for the count. I reach down and grab at his keychain so I can unlock the handcuffs. I pull him into the janitor’s closet and pull his clothes off.

This is my chance to get out of here. I have to take it. I’m not going to let you fuck me over again, D’Ken. This time, I’m going to put an end to you and your Brood factory. The Shi’ar Empire will fall. It’s a fitting revenge, you bastard. For Katherine. For the Starjammers.

You just fucked with the Corsair, asshole.

Doctor Samson rushed into the temporary office set up for his visitor. The tall, black man sat behind a desk, his laptop open and he was busy with that.

“Don’t you knock, Samson?”

“I’m sorry, but this is important. It’s about Summers.”

The man looked up from his laptop.

“What is it?” he asked.

“He escaped.”

The man slammed the laptop shut and stood.

“He what?”

“I said he’s escaped, Colonel,” replied Samson. “He took out the guard escorting him back to his room and he escaped. We’ve searched the entire hospital and we can’t find him anywhere.”

“Sonnuva bitch… okay, don’t worry. I think I know how we can get him back. Keep me posted if you hear anything else, Samson.”

Samson nodded and left the room, closing the door behind him. The man sat back down and opened his laptop. He struck a command on the keyboard.

{{ Voice authorization required. }}

“Fury, Nicholas,” he said.

{{ Access granted. }}