Chapter 8- The Battle for Xandar
Valkyrie pulled up a screen in the main area of the Milano, ready to send a message to Nova Prime, leader of Xandar. She was nervous. A little while ago the Ravanger's had reported that the Klyn had become under attack about an hour after she had been taken hostage. Everyone was found dead and she was reported missing, presumed dead.
She took a deep breath, prepared for the biggest scolding of her life and called Nova Prime. After a few seconds of calling, Nova Prime's face came on the screen. She gasped, "Valkyrie?" Nova Prime asked hesitantly. She was definitely older than when she saw her a couple days ago. There were new wrinkle lines that weren't there before.
Valkyrie smiled sadly, "It's me… Mother."
"What happened child? They said you were missing presumed dead." Irani Rael, otherwise known as Nova Prime leader of the Xandarian Empire replied, relieved to see her daughter safe and sound.
"It's a long, long, story that I don't have the time for right now. You need to evacuate the city. Ronan is coming and he has an infinity stone."
Irani paled, "Are you sure?"
Valkyrie snorted, "Pretty damn sure. Unless there's something else that can make a purple explosion and blow up The Collector's, well, collection on Knowhere."
"How did you get off of the Klyn?" Her mother asked, "And how in the worlds did you end up going to that rock?"
She swallowed, "Um, well, that's also a long story."
"Come on Val, hurry it up with the message!" Shouted Quill from up in the cockpit.
"I'm trying to!" Valkyrie shouted back up the stairs and sighed when her Mother recognized the voice.
"They kidnapped you?!"
"They did, well only at first," Valkyrie huffed, "I'll tell you later. My point is Ronan now has the infinity stone and is coming to wipe out Xandar. The Ravagers are willing to help us but it will be a long battle. Get the civilians away from the city. I'll be dropped down so I can pilot the Nexus. Oh and I'll be working with Gamora, Peter Quill, Drax, Rocket and Groot to take Ronan down so don't fire on them. They're helping us."
"Gamora?" Her mother narrowed her eyes, "Are you sure?"
Valkyrie nodded, "Absolutely Positive."
"Well, this will make a very interesting report for us to read later." Irani Rael said in her Nova Prime mode, "I'll alert the fleet. Be careful." Her mother closed the connection.
Valkyrie rested her head on her crossed arms that were resting on the edge of the screen. 'I'm going into another battle. Calm down. Calm down. You're no use to them if you freak out.' She thought to herself. 'Yeah, but you're going up against Ronan.' Valkyrie groaned and picked her head up, took a deep breath and walked up to the cockpit and sat in the empty seat they left for her.
"Drop me off at these coordinates, 34.56 N, 43.57 W. 23.14 E and 87.23 S. My Ship should be there."
Quill glanced back at Valkyrie, "Should?"
Valkyrie grinned sheepishly, "My brother likes to use it a lot without my permission."
Quill grumbled something Valkyrie couldn't make out then said, "Okay, if it's not there, you're coming with us."
It took a few minutes to reach her home. She hopped out of the Milano and ran into the barn where she kept the Nexus. The spot where it normally was, was empty, "Damn." She cursed then ran back out wher Quill was still waiting.
"You're brother took it again?" Quill asked, raising an eyebrow.
Valkyrie groaned, "Shut up and fly."
It took a couple minutes to get back to the fleet and by that time, Ronan was just arriving with his own huge, black, ship.
"This is a terrible plan." Gamora spat, "We've already failed getting Valkyrie to the Nexus because someone's brother wanted to take it out for a joyride."
"It's not my fault it wasn't there. I've been off planet for two years." Valkyrie shot back, "Plus I was declared missing and dead until a hour ago."
"Yeah," Quill remarked, "Plus you're the one who said you wanted to die among friends."
Gamora snapped her head around and stared down Quill who only smiled a little.
"Fire!" Yando commanded, and the Ravager fleet fired two big orange balls which flew straight to The Dark Aster and hit it. Then, "Cover it down. Submerge!" All the ships followed his command and dove down underneath the cover.
"Rocket, hurry!" Quill yelled across the communications.
Rocket's ship and two other Ravagers ship's speed past the Milano to focus on creating a hole that the Milano could fit though. Just then, Ronan's fleet emerged from the mother-ship and Valkyrie stared, open mouthed at the amount of ships he had, "We're dead." Valkyrie stated.
"Not yet we're not." Quill stated, "Have a bit of faith in the plan, Val."
"The Plan?" Valkyrie teased, "You mean the plan that only has twelve percent of it worked out?"
Quill moved the Milano into position and started flying upward, "Shut-up. It'll work."
"Quill, Yando! Now!" Rocket yelled.
Quil turned and smirked at Valkyrie, "See, it's working." Quill pushed full throttle and speed towards The Dark Aster, Ronan's ship. The Milano flew straight up, weaving in and out, dodging the enemy fire and spacecraft.
Suddenly Yando's voice cut over the transmissions, "Aww hell. I'm going down, Quill! No more games with me boy! I'll see you at the end of this!" At the end of the transmission Quill banked left and kept dodging enemy fire. Then part of a craft came down fast and hit the Milano making a black dent on the left wing right next to the glass cockpit.
"There are too many of them, Rocket!" Valkyrie shouted through the communications from her seat behind Gamora, "We'll never make it up there!"
The yellow laser fire that came from behind the Milano made Valkyrie gasp in recognition and yelled, "The fleet is here! We have back-up!" Xandarian spacecraft spread out their craft around the Milano, protecting it in formation.
"Commander Valkyrie Rael, This is Denarian Saal of the Nova Corps." Saal said, "For the record, I advised against trusting you here. You have an interesting group of… friends."
"And they are more trustworthy than you." Valkyrie spat. 'Oh why couldn't it have been Rufford who was in charge of the fleet today.' She thought. Xandar had two rotating Captains who were incharge of the fleet, making it easier instead of piling all the duties onto one man.
"Then prove me wrong." Saal retorted.
Quill glanced at me, "I take it you two have a history."
"You could say that." Valkyrie replied in a dark tone. Quill once again pushed full throttle and the Milano lurched forward at full speed towards The Dark Aster and speed right into the hole in the wall that Rocket and his team had made.
The Milano slid through the ship, metal scraping on metal sending huge sparks flying everywhere, "Yes!" Drax yelled, laughing madly. Valkyrie looked out the window to see Sakaaran firing green fazers at the ship.
"Fire back you idiot!" Valkyrie yelled at Quill who immediately started firing and turned the ship so he could get the best angle at which to fire.
The ship jerked to a stop, "YES!" Drax yelled, throwing both hands up in fists and laughed madly.
Gamora turned to Quill and breathlessly remarked, "We're just like Kevin Bacon."
Valkyrie breathed in and out, trying to steady her heart rate, "Quill, I'm going to need a gun. My weapons were in the Nexus that we failed to get."
"Sure, run down below and grab what you need from the bin." Quill said, "We'll meet you outside."
Valkyrie got her weapons that she was borrowing from Quill. She strapped two leg guns to each leg, put on a belt with a two knives and a long range hand sniper that was about the length of her arm. It could also be used for short range hand-to-hand fighting with a retractable knife at both ends of the weapon.
Valkyrie walked out of the circled door of the ship to see four shapes ahead of her in the darkness.
"I can barely see." Drax complained. Groot lifted his hand and hundreds of light buds flowed out of it, lighting up the area inside The Dark Aster. Everyone stared at the lit-up buds, "When did you learn to do that?" Drax asked in shock.
"Pretty sure the answer is 'I am Groot.'" Quill remarked and Valkyrie gave a quiet snort.
Gamora stepped forward and started to walk, "The flight deck is three hundred meters this way." Everyone followed Gamora's lead.
"I want you all to know that I am grateful for your acceptance after my blunders." Drax acknowledged. "It is pleasing to once again have… friends. You, Quill, are my friend."
"Thanks."
"This dumb tree here, he is my friend."
"Mmm." Groot commented.
"You, Commander Valkyrie. You are my friend."
Valkyrie swallowed knowing that they were likely going to go their deaths soon and replied, "I am honored."
"This green whore, she too…."
Gamora wiped around, "Oh, you must stop!"
Suddenly Nebula drops down in front of them with a grunt, "Gamora, look at what you have done. You have always been weak. You stupid, traitorous..." A shot fired and knocked Nebula backwards and the group looked towards Drax who lowered a rocket launcher with a stony look on his face.
"Nobody talks to my friends like that."
"Head to the flight deck. I'll shut down the power to the security doors." Gamora said, walking off. Drax, Quill, Groot and Valkyrie all readied their weapons and ran off in the direction to the flight deck. They ran until they came face to face with a squadron of soldiers.
"Star-Lord." The leader said menacingly and smiled.
Quill smirked back, "Finally." The leader of the Sakaaran squadron picked quill up and threw him into the middle of his squad and chaos broke out. Three Sakaaran broke away to charge at Valkyrie who had started climbing the metal machines to get to higher ground to make use of her sniper. She turned around, pressed the button to extend her hidden knife within her weapon and quickly dispatched the guards and climbed to a higher position.
Valkyrie pointed her gun at the mess of confusion and started picking off soldiers one-by-one.
"You will never make it to Ronan." Valkyrie heard the leader say and then he fell to the ground from Valkyrie's shot. Quill looked up at her and nodded before going back to the battle and Valkyrie picked off targets that were running into the fray.
"Oh no." Quill commented as a whole other squadron ran into the room but then Groot stretched out his arm into the soldiers and with that knocked the other standing soldiers down back and forth until they were unconscious or dead and Groot yelling as he did so.
Drax looked at Quill and Valkyrie with a huge smile on his face.
Groot turned around and smiled and the group walked forward to encounter more Sakaaran. Just as they were finishing that round of soldiers, Rockets voice came over the communicators that Quill had set up earlier, "Quill, you gotta hurry. The city's been evacuated but we're getting our ass's kicked down here."
Quill walked up, shot a guy trying to kill him and banged his hands on the door to the flight deck. Valkyrie raced next to him, "Gamora hasn't opened the door!" After a few minutes, the door slid open to reveal Gamora on the other side of the hall way.
The group stormed into the flight deck and killed the guards that ran at them. Quill ran in with The Hadron Enforcer and pointed it at Ronan who turned around and Quill fired. Ronan just stood there and let the missile hit him.
There was a huge explosion that made a blue puff cloud and blew back air on the group that each one had to put up their hands to try to block some of the aftershock. Quill retracted his face mask and started, trying to see if they were successful or not.
"You did it!" Drax shouted excitedly.
Quill's face turned into horror and Valkyrie whipped her head around to see Ronan getting back up. Valkyrie's mouth dropped open in shock, "That blast should have killed him." She whispered.
Ronan turned around holding a hammer with a long stick. In the center of the hammer was the glowing infinity stone. He pointed his hammer staff at the group and it blasted them back. Valkyrie's back slammed into the steps hard and she groaned a little but rolled over to try to get back up as soon as she landed.
Apparently Drax had thought the same thing because he immediately got up and full out ran at Ronan yelling. Ronan just had to pick Drax up by the throat. He turned Drax around to Ronan's right while he started speaking, "I was mistaken. I do remember your family. Their screams were pitiful. I…" Ronan turned to the huge, open, window to see Rocket's ship slam into it slamming into Drax and Ronan.
Quill managed to get Groot out of the way and Gamora grabbed Valkyrie and pulled her out of the way a the last possible second. They rolled to the floor, coughing. "Thanks." Valkyrie said, gasping for breath.
"Hmm. Don't make it a habit." Gamora responded, then gave Valkyrie a brief smile. Valkyrie nodded back at her.
The ship lost power and started to fall. Valkyrie helped Gamora drag Drax back to the group while Quill brought out an unconscious Rocket while the ship fell down around them.
Groot's body vines suddenly spread outward as he tried to incompous Quill, Gamora, Rocket, Drax and Valkyrie. Then Rocket awoke and Groot had completed his vine ball to try to protect the group. By now Rocket was standing on his own, "No, Groot!" Rocket walked up to him and put his hands on Groot's body, "You can't. You'll die. Why are you doing this? Why?"
Groot lifted a vine to Rockets face and smoothed out a bit of his hair on Rocket's cheek, "WE are Groot."
During that whole exchange Valkyrie teared up a bit and she was about to say something when everything went black and she passed out.
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