Annihilation: Conquest Prologue (2007 series) #1

The Annihilation event is over but its after-effects continue. Annihilus may be dead but the remaining Annihilation Wave forces led by Ravenous occupy the ruins of the Skrull Empire. Ronan The Accuser now rules the Kree Empire, itself in a bad way.

Now Kree survivors try to rebuild their lives while others try to take from them what little they have. An example of this is Lamentis Outworld  on the edge of Kree space where a mixed bunch of armed aliens are menacing some pacifist Priests Of Pama in their temple. Their hooded spokesperson unsuccessfully tries to persuade them to go away, but then removes her cloak to reveal that she's *not* a Priest but Phyla-Vell, now going by the name of Quasar. The pirates of course attack her and she responds with her Quantum Bands which she claims she took from the dead body of Annihilus. Then she's distracted by a voice seeming to call her name. But it's not that of her lover, the psi-powered martial artist Moondragon (Heather Douglas), who joins the fight to watch her distracted back. The duo make short work of the foes. Phyla suggests that the Priests take the (disarmed) scavengers in and feed them and try to teach them the error of their ways.

Heather and Phyla's subsequent chat reminds us of Phyla's history. She's daughter of the 1st Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell) and brother of another (Genis-Vell) who are both now dead. She tried to continue in the Captain Marvel tradition but wasn't up to the job. Now she's got the Quantum Bands of the original Quasar (Wendell Vaughn), Protector Of The Universe and also now dead, and she's having trouble filling that role too. She can't get the hang of how he got the Bands to do so many different things. Phyla describes the voice that distracted her and now psychic Heather feels dizzy. But Phyla also thinks she should be doing something more important. However Heather assures her that somebody has to help these far-flung worlds because Ronan is concentrating all his effort on Hala and the other central worlds of the Kree Empire.

On Hala a large spaceship from Galador has arrived in orbit and has disgorged a horde of Spaceknight envoys. Peter Quill awaits them because he apparently negotiated the deal between them and Ronan. The pink Earthman and his female blue Kree assistant Ten-Cor exchange banter as she psychs him up for the meeting. He also gets an encouraging holo-call from his buddy Richard Rider, the last of the Nova Corps (since the rest of them got wiped out in Annihilation: Prologue). They both know that the Spaceknights are helping out in the reconstruction, just as they helped in the War. But now they're here to supply A-Ware software that will vastly improve the Kree War-Net that controls the whole defensive system. As Special Military Advisor Quill is here to oversee a demonstration of its capabilities, and he now greets Daystar, leader of the Spaceknight contingent. Daystar says that the S-Knights are few but the Kree military is the largest in this quadrant, so giving A-Ware to them will make all peace-loving races safer against invasions like the Annihilation Wave.

A Kree soldier brings a War-Net interface and Daystar touches it with his cyborg hand to upload the software. Quill then orders a pre-planned manoeuvre and he sees a horde of the giant Sentry robots fly towards space to combat an (imaginary) orbital intruder. He's also informed that the Kree fleet is moving and surface batteries have trained their big guns.

Phyla is meditating in the temple when the voice comes to her again and seems to be coming from the Quantum Bands. She asks if it's Wendell and gets an evasive answer but is told that disaster is coming for the Kree and only she can find their saviour. Heather enters to tell her that garbled news is coming over sub-etheric bands indicating that something bad is happening on Hala. And then they're attacked by a Sentry with something like worms projecting from its eye-sockets.

On Hala Ronan in the High Senate building is getting security alerts from the orbital zone and asks Quill what's going on. Peter tells him that the threat simulation seems to have gone live, and his people are getting confusing reports from the ground batteries and the fleet. And then he sees a warship exploding in space. And the War-Net won't accept commands. He tells Daystar to remove the A-Ware, but the Galadorian insists nothing is wrong. Quill suspects treachery and tries to tell Ronan to shut the War-Net down but the Spaceknight crushes his communicator and his right hand. Daystar says "We must join together to make the Galaxy safe" and Peter sees the 'worms' in his helmet's eye-slit. He fires a gun at the cyborg with his left hand and tells the Kree soldiers to shoot the other Spaceknights. Daystar tells *his* troops "We must join together. Eliminate those who will not freely join." A battle commences  and we see that the other Knights have worms in their eyes too. As do Sentries who are flying past.

In the Lamentis temple Phyla-Vell and Moondragon are hitting the Sentry with quantum blasts and mental blasts respectively. Phyla tells Heather to get clear of the coming shockwave as she really lets loose on the robot. But both women are caught in the blast as it explodes. Heather comments that doing that to a Kree Sentry suggests she's getting the hang of the Bands now. She also suggests that the Sentry was specifically aimed at 1 of *them*. Phyla gets the warning again. Moondragon can't hear it with her ears *or* her mind but says she believes her.

Hala is in chaos but Peter Quill has somehow survived with his arm in a sling. He blames himself for bringing the Spaceknights here. He gets a communicator from a dead soldier and learns that all the Sentries in the planet are flocking to the main city power generator. He looks out of a window and sees them coalescing into a growing tower in the form of a huge spike which then emits a tremendous blast of power out into Kree space faster than the speed of light ...

... which Moondragon and Phyla-Vell see on Lamentis. Phyla uses Quasar power to follow it as it continues outwards. Heather maintains mental contact as her lover sees a superlight liner sliced in half with bodies spilling out. They sense that a barrier has been erected around Kree space. Phyla tries to blast through it but can't. She senses via the Quantum Bands that Kree space has been shifted out of phase with the rest of the universe. Moondragon comments that even Galactus couldn't do that. Then the voice comes again and shows her a vision. We see wormy eyes plus Bug, Rocket Raccoon and what the Fandom Wiki says is Deathcry. And also a being we will come to know as Wraith. Plus a cocoon that hints at Adam Warlock. The voice tells her that the needed saviour is within the enclosed Kree space. And she promises to find him.

Peter Quill is wandering around killing Spaceknights with what he calls a Kree Man-Portable Particle-Weapon. He meets up with Ten-Cor and some soldiers and recruits them to help him gate to the War-Net data-core and pull the plug. But it turns out they've got wormy eyes too and they all shoot at him, knocking him through a window many, many stories up. Ten-Cor and many other converted Kree hear a voice (not the 1 talking to Phyla-Vell) repeating the message about joining together to save the Galaxy. The giant tower of Sentinels emits twisty tendrils which form beings who call themselves the Phalanx, and the Kree Empire now belongs to them.