Synopsis
A missile launches from the Moon towards Earth, fired from a giant gun.
Tony Stark is at a party in his Malibu house to welcome him back from his time in space with the Guardians of the Galaxy. He's talking to Cora Birch who's writing a book about him. Their exchange of friendly banter indicates that she's taking a warts and all approach. Stark bemoans the fact that ordinary humans gave up on space travel - all the superhumans like him that have been out there don't count. They see a shooting star, which changes course and heads towards them.
Tony gets a notification from his AI PEPPER that the shooting star is a missile, and there's another 1 following. They were detected by the QUILL network, but too late to do anything. We learn that the network is named after Peter Quill, Star-Lord of the GoG. After his experiences with the GoG Stark created an array of microsatellites to watch for alien invasions. This network should have detected the missiles long before if they came from outer space. So they must have come from somewhere nearby. PEPPER confirms the source is the Moon.
The 1st missile hits the ocean near Malibu, and the underwater detonation sends a tidal wave their way. The AI suits Tony up in his Iron Man Space Armour, and he uses repulsor rays to break up the water. Then he heads up to intercept the 2nd missile in space. This 1 is heading straight for LA.
PEPPER has also alerted the military, so James Rhodes puts on his Iron Patriot armour and sets out as backup. But PEPPER estimates he won't get there in time. Iron Man positions himself in front of the missile to hold it back with repulsors, but it's too big and fast. Meanwhile a close-up look tells him it's old Soviet tech. He gains extra power from the heat of re-entry, but it's still not enough to stop the missile.
Rhodey is on his way, but Shellhead and the missile are now low enough that gawkers can take pictures of them on their phones. Stark detects an extreme power source inside the missile, which will make this a much more dangerous bomb. He gets the AI to take the power that keeps his heart and much of his body functioning and add that to his boot jets. And just as Iron Patriot arrives IM succeeds in pushing the missile back.
Tony gets the bomb out over the ocean. But he doesn't know how powerful the explosion will be so, ignoring the pain in his chest, he keeps moving futher out. Then Jim sees the explosion.