Nova (2007 series) #5

Still reeling from the Annihilation War the Kree Empire (including the tech and many of the people) has now been taken over by the techno-organic Phalanx, and they've englobed it with a barrier impassible from either direction (all in the Annihilation: Conquest Prologue). Answering a distress call (last issue) Nova made it to the Kree capital world Hala just before the englobement. But some of the superpowered beings taken over have been conscripted for the Select. 1 of them is Richard Rider's sometime lover Gamora who has been given the job of recruiting or killing him. She sent over 100 Kree Sentry robots to overwhelm him but he escaped by Stargating away. However even a Stargate can't get though the Phalanx barrier and the result was an explosive crashlanding on ruined planet Drez-lar where the stranded remains of a Kree troop are now led by female medic Ko-Rel. She found the burned wreck of Nova's body but the Xandarian Worldmind in his helmet turned her into a Nova Centurion to protect it and Rider.

Now Gamora teleports there on Nova's trail with Phalanx hunter packs. She contacts the Selected Galadorian Spaceknight Lightstorm leading 1 of the packs who reports detecting a fast-moving organic. We see it slice through the Phalanx soldiers killing them all including the Spaceknight. And then we see that it is Ko-Rel now designated Nova 0001 by the Worldmind. She doesn't really know what she's just done because the WM is activating the functions of her Nova helmet and uniform, including flying. It explains that it is still in the brain and helmet of the Nova Prime (RR) and it's just deputised her as a Nova Centurion, linked to her thoughts. As she heads back to the crippled spaceship her Kree troop are using as a base she says that her duty to them means she should use the Nova power to leave the planet and go get help. But the WM says it chose her because of that sense of responsibility.

She lands at the base and is greeted by another female named Dimples who tells her they've all heard what's happened and Chief Yan is waiting for her in the medical bay. She finds him there with Flagpole watching the Nova Prime's body gradually repairing itself. They see Ko-Rel apparently talking to herself but she tells them it's the Worldmind warning of approaching Phalanx, and she orders Flagpole to organise the defence. Yan says he's cool with her being a Nova because 2 of them saved his mother from Skrulls. She passes on what the WM has told her about the Phalanx having taken over the Empire, and that the Nova Prime was just escaping to warn other races. She now has the power to leave the planet and fight the Phalanx. Or she could just use it to save her son Zam. But the WM wants her to just stay here to protect it and the Nova Prime. The Chief urges her to go get help for her soldiers, but she suspects the WM won't let her.

The Phalanx attack the ship and the defence isn't successful because they keep killing or converting the Kree soldiers. Ko-Rel hears Dimples get killed, and we see Flagpole fall. She goes into action as a Nova against the invaders despite the Worldmind telling her to just protect Nova Prime. She correctly deduces and points out that the Phalanx are here *because* of NP. So she meets both WM's and her own goals by broadcasting her Nova status to the Phalanx and then flying off to lure them into following her away from the ship. Her strategy seems to work, leaving her soldiers to look after their wounded.

But now we see Gamora slinking through the ship and killing any soldiers she comes across. And we learn from her comms with the Phalanx that they're onto Ko-Rel's plan and are pretending to go along with it while Gamora achieves their real objective. She kills Chief Yan and reaches the still-regenerating Nova Prime. He's conscious enough to recognise her and she tells Richard that she's here to help him. She could heal him faster and they could be together again. Richard tries to resist but she kisses him and passes on the Transmode Virus. He recovers completely but his eyes have changed like hers and all the others infected. She welcomes him into the Select and he's happy about it.