Annihilation: Heralds Of Galactus (2007 series) #1

This tale begins on Annihilation Day + 222, the last day of the Annihilation Wave War. Annihilus had led his Negative Zone insectoid horde into the positive universe, but they finally lost when the last Nova (Richard Rider) killed him (in Ann#6). At that point on the AW battle cruiser Ch'Trrr Admiral Deko leads the Delinquent, Paibok and Terrax to have their parasites renewed. The parasites keep them loyal to Annihilus but the victims' resistance wears them out so they have to be regularly replaced. He doesn't understand why they keep resisting because each reinfection causes them more pain than the last.

Suddenly Terrax announces that they *will* stop, but only because Annihilus is dead. Deko doesn't believe such blasphemy but T explains that the parasites have stopped working. D realises what that means the instant before T uses his axe to decapitate him. Paibok suggests they seize control of the spaceship but the shame of his enslavement makes T seek a more final solution. He raises his cosmic axe and destroys the whole ship, and the burning section containing our 3 falls to the planet below.

When Terrax awakes to hear his name he lashes out with a blast, but the shape-shifting Skrull Paibok causes a large hole in his body to let the energy pass through harmlessly. He then introduces T to his companion Chandra, a female Centaurian with the usual bow and arrows, who pulled them from the burning wreckage. He explains that he survived the crash by changing his body into a Formalhautian amoeboid while the Delinquent mentally protected himself with an energy cocoon. And T was apparently "simply too obstinate to die'. But they still might have died in the flames if Chandra hadn't rescued them.

We see that the 'teenage' alien Delinquent has retreated further into childhood and is mentally building a sandcastle. Brusque Terrax offers no thanks but asks what her ulterior motive was. Paibok apologises for him but also wants to know what she wants in return. She claims that she didn't do it for any reward, but now that she's seen their powers there *is* something they could do.

She shows them to her village where she and other disparate aliens live and explains that they are only here to feed the unquenchable hunger of Randau the Space Parasite. Terrax doubts that this hunger can compare with that of his former master Galactus. When Chandra realises that as a former Herald T wields the Power Cosmic then she's even more eager to have his aid. But she says that where Big G feeds on planets Randau feeds on the life energy of living beings, and the more he feeds the more powerful he grows. (We see an image of him fighting Hulk.) Some time ago he came and conquered this planet and judiciously feeds on its population. But he also shoots down passing spacecraft with his Solar Sceptre which is how she and the other non-natives wound up here. Terrax wants to know why the inhabitants don't revolt. She replies that her alien group intend to do that but the natives have grown to accept his rule at the cost of only 1 life every 3 months.

Terrax' recent enforced submission by parasites to Annihilus makes him as angry at the spineless natives as he is at the Space Parasite himself. He uses his power over earth to raise a lump of rock to carry him to the foe. Paibok tries to stop him with a wall of ice because if the SP defeats him and steals his Power Cosmic then they're all doomed. T can't conceive of such a defeat and smashes through the ice. The shape-shifter grows wings to follow him and they tussle on the flying rock until T hurls him to the ground below.

But the ex-Herald Of Galactus does pause and tells Chandra that he will aid them but only to show that he deserves the epithet Terrax The Tamer again. He tells her that her 'army' of aliens will be of no use but the Delinquent's matter transmutation could be helpful. However Paibok points out that his ordeal has resulted in an infantile madness. But T counters that his instinct for self-preservation might cause him to strike back at attackers. And he decides the attack can wait until tomorrow, and in the meanwhile everyone should get some rest. But that night Chandra notes that he himself doesn't take his own advice. He tells her that the cosmos replenishes his energy so he doesn't need sleep. She tells him that she is an empath and she senses his pain over the shame of his enslavement. He reacts angrily to that suggestion and causes the ground to rise up and grip her in an earthy fist. But then he lets her go.

Next morning the Space Parasite sits on his throne in his palace in Randau City when he hears a mighty rumble as the earth rises in a wave to smash his dwelling. But he emerges from the debris to see who did this, and he sees Terrax riding on a rock with the Delinquent with Paibok flying beside them, and behind them Chandra leading her army. T sends a blast of Power Cosmic from his axe but the SP hardly feels it because he is well-fed. His counterblast shatters the flying rock and he notes that the falling Delinquent is an Elanian with a large amount of mental power for him to drain. As he grabs the kid P blasts him and then tries his hypnosis power but he just runs the Skrull through with his Solar Sceptre. Then it's T's turn to embrace him and pour the Power Cosmic into him, expecting it to overload him. But the SP takes it all to become bigger and stronger than ever. Then Chandra challenges him but he blasts her to pieces. Realising that attacking with cosmic energy is useless Terrax uses his axe as just that to split the foe in 2.

We now learn that the shape-shifting Skrull survived Randau's attack by moving his vital organs out of the way of the Solar Sceptre. The local inhabitants say that Randau protected them from invaders and they ask Terrax and/or Paibok to take his place as their ruler. P considers using them  But T says that Chandra was the only 1 on this planet worth anything, and now she's dead he uses his cosmic axe to split the whole world into fragments. He then flies off into space on 1 of those fragments.  P and D are on another chunk protected from space by the Elanian's force-field. P persuades him to mentally transmute their rock into a spaceship and they too fly away.

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Story #2

Stardust: a death of hope

Writer: Stuart Moore.
Penciler/Inker: Mike McKone.
Colorist: Laura Villari.
Letterer: Cory Petit.

Synopsis

On A-Day+227, 5 days after the 1st story, someone thinks about death. They 'remember' the Big bang but they don't know whether there was a previous universe. The stew of particles relatively quickly settled into matter and the 1st corporeal beings strode across the cosmos like gods (eg Eternity and the Living Tribunal). But some particles combined into a more chaotic non-corporeal civilisation of short-lived Ethereals, and the current voiceover was 1 of them. They fear death but don't actually believe in it. They only believe in the 4 fundamental forces - the strong force, electromagnetism, gravity and the weak force. The thinker then rebuilds herself from from her dispersed constituents and we see that it is Stardust, ex-Herald Of Galactus, who is the only Ethereal who can continue existing for a long time because of the Power Cosmic she gained as Herald. She also remembers 'dying' alongside fellow ex-Herald Red Shift trying to hold back Thanos' weapon (actually captive Galactus in Annihilation #3 on A-Day+212). And now she finds herself looking down on the Andromeda galaxy (home of the Skrulls). She doesn't know why she's here particularly so she uses her neutrinos to travel at the speed of light and then the Power Cosmic to go superluminal ...

... until she's suddenly stopped by others of her Ethereal kind, a protective grouping of Ethereals called a Strangepac within which she recognises 3 members named Hadria, J/Psi and Tau. They refer to her as Lambda-Zero and are here to accuse her of a crime. They tell her that they are the last of the Ethereals because the rest were destroyed by the Annihilation Wave. And they suggest(?) that she could have saved them but instead fought to save the Corporeals. She protests that the Corporeals are better and more worthy than the Ethereals. They call her traitor and liar, suggesting that she thinks *herself* superior. Angrily she destroys them all, reducing them to random particles. But she immediately regrets it and gathers their particles within her where they will act as her conscience.

Her destination is Galactus who is still weakened from Thanos' treachery, and the Negative Zone beings he consumed in revenge against Annihilus (Annihilation #6) cannot satisfy his hunger. He tells her that his current Herald Silver Surfer is away on an urgent mission (see next issue) so he's constructing a machine to seek out suitable planets to eat. She asks him to make her his Herald again but he says she wasn't very reliable at the job - too Ethereal. To prove her loyalty she gives him the remains of the other Ethereals to consume, and Big G has to admit no previous Herald has gone so far as to sacrifice the last of their race. So in his hour of great need he agrees to have *2* Heralds at the same time, and makes her the 2nd. But he also muses that the Surfer might betray him again (as he did in the classic Fantastic Four #48-50) so having a 2nd string to his bow might be prudent. But in the meantime Stardust can find him extra worlds now. And as she flies away Lamda-Zero muses that her people were right and that she cares neither for Ethereals or Corporeals, only Galactus commands her loyalty and love.