Annihilation: Nova (2006 series) #3

Richard Rider lived through the destruction of the Xandar Cluster and now he's the last surviving member of the Nova Corps, with the Xandarian Worldmind AI in his helmet and the whole power of the Nova Force in his body and uniform. He teamed-up with Earthlings Drax and Cammi who also survived the event and they escaped in a small Nova craft. At the end of last issue Earthling Quasar (Wendell Vaughn) saved them from crashing on planet Nycos Aristedes.

Now he greets them but they learn that the planet is being evacuated because whatever's destroying worlds is coming their way. It is an Aakon colony world but the Aakonian fleet-arm are busy helping with the fight throughout the Verge systems. Quasar is glad to have a Nova Centurion to aid him but is worried when Nova introduces his green companion as Drax who may or may not be The Destroyer. Q thought D was taller but Cammi says that was a phase he grew out of (when he was 'reborn' during the Drax The Destroyer mini-series). Wendell is shocked to learn that Xandar was attacked and they are the only survivors.

Richard now has to have a chat with the Worldmind in his helmet. It says that he's brought D & C to safety as he wanted so now he must return to his primary task of getting the XWM somewhere where it can be installed in a computer system (and also allow him to relinquish the full Nova Force before it kills him as it did for the only previous Nova to have borne it for a long time). Rider responds that this isn't safety and now he's got a planetful of people to save.

Nova and Quasar discuss the situation as they view loads of shuttle craft landing to pick people up. No-one knows who the aggressors are. Q thinks that with his Quantum Bands and the Nova Force they must be able to make a difference. He quotes Spider-Man's mantra 'with great power must also come great responsibility'. Then he has to break off to stop 2 shuttles from bumping into each other. Nova says he didn't know how to save Xandar so he doesn't know what to do *here*. Q says it's a time for heroes, but Drax joins them to point out that *he* (like Quasar) used to sport a cape but that didn't make *him* a hero. And he agrees with Nova that they're out of their depth. Q wonders if he should send for the Avengers or the (Shi'ar) Imperial Guard but D says this is bigger than even they could handle. Q says he's expecting some of the Aakonian fleet to show up to escort the shuttles but Drax opines they should be talking about fighting the enemy not escaping. And he tells him that Nova hasn't been completely honest with him because he hasn't said that he has the full Nova Force that used to empower the whole Nova Corps but he's afraid to use it.

Drax walks off and Nova follows him to complain about that. D says that N wanted his help and advice, and 1 part of that is telling the truth. He needs to use *all* his power in this situation. Heroes aren't needed, destroyers are. A bit later he confides to Cammi that Nova's power could be useful to him if there was something he wanted to destroy (ie Thanos who Drax was created to kill). But also keeping close to that power is currently their safest option.

Even later an Aakon superheavy warship Kallis Ateratar turns up to escort the convoy of civilians and deploys lots of fighter ships to secure the local space. Quasar tells Nova that they're going to start creating stargates for the convoy ships to escape through. But he figures that it will take 5 days to get everyone out. If they had a much bigger gate they could get it all done in days, and he says Drax told him that Nova could do that (that's how they got away from Xandar last issue). But he's also worried about N having D as a mentor, which could turn him into Dark/Evil/Anti-Nova. Richard agrees to do it.

But just then alarms go off to announce the arrival of enemy warships. The Ateratar starts to fight them and Quasar flies up to join the battle. After a brief hesitation Nova heads up too but Q says this is just an advance party and he can handle them. N should concentrate on forming the giant stargate. Rider expects the Worldmind to object but it adds its calculating power to help get the job done successfully. There's an even bigger display of power than at then end of each of the previous issues ...

... which is again detected by Annihilus and he orders his flagship to take him there to investigate.

Back around Nycos Aristedes the huge stargate is stable and the refugee fleet starts to stream through it. Nova rejoins Quasar to help the Aakon warship which detects something big arriving. The new ship destroys the Kallis Ateratar and Annihilus emerges to find out what power was used here. Drax recognises him and Calli can tell this isn't good news. And Quasar sees Nova at full power rocketing towards the enemy.