The Incurseans battleships were genuinely massive constructs. After arriving in the Marvel Universe, Emperor Milleous had traded technology with both the Kree and Skrull Empires, using those exchanges to upgrade his military capabilities through a combination of conquest and commerce.
While the flagship hadn't been expanded to planetary scale—that would have required resources beyond even an emperor's reach—the Death Ray Cannon's destructive capacity had been dramatically enhanced through those technological improvements.
The original Death Ray Cannon possessed enough power to destroy a star with a single shot. One pull of the trigger could theoretically vaporize an entire solar system, reducing planets, asteroids, and the sun itself to expanding clouds of ionized particles.
This horrifying deterrent capability formed the foundation of Incurseans dominance throughout their home universe. Nobody challenged an empire willing and able to commit stellar genocide.
And now, thanks to Kree and Skrull engineering, that already-terrifying weapon had been amplified more than tenfold.
"I'll miss you, Daddy!" Attea declared, wiping away crocodile tears from both eyes with theatrical grief.
Then she pressed the launch button without the slightest hesitation.
In that instant, the entire star field went dark.
Within a range of millions of light-years, every point of illumination was overwhelmed by the intense radiance released by the Death Ray Cannon. Stars that had burned steadily for billions of years were reduced to insignificant candle flames compared to this artificial sun, their ancient light completely swallowed by the weapon's discharge.
A torrential flood of directed energy swept through the cosmos, so massive and concentrated that spacetime itself distorted and collapsed under the strain. The fabric of reality tore, revealing glimpses of dimensions that existed outside normal universal structure.
Across several neighboring star systems, planetary orbits shifted. The gravitational disruption caused by the weapon's energy output and relativistic mass was comparable to dropping a black hole into stable solar mechanics.
Countless celestial bodies were pulled by the Death Ray's energy signature and the collapsing space around it. They moved like sand through an hourglass, drawn inexorably toward the point of impact. Planets collided with asteroids. Moons crashed into their parent worlds. The resulting detonations created fireworks visible across half the galaxy.
As for the weapon's intended target—the Behemoth Star Ring—it had completely vanished from sensors, lost in the overwhelming light.
Obviously, it must have been vaporized. Reduced to scattered atoms drifting through the void.
"How boring," Attea sighed, genuine disappointment evident in her tone. "I didn't even get to deploy the Waybads. What a waste of buildup."
She shifted in her command throne, then brightened as a delightful idea occurred to her. Her expression transformed into something shy and expectant.
"Bullfrag," she called out, "why don't we start our wedding night right now? No reason to wait for—"
She turned her head. "Bullfrag?"
The space beside her throne was empty. The tall, handsome Bullfrag warrior had vanished without a trace, disappeared at some point while she'd been distracted by the weapon's firing sequence.
Attea's heart suddenly felt hollow, a sensation of loss completely foreign to her usual emotional range.
BOOM!!!
She started to rise from her seat, intending to search the ship immediately, when a catastrophic spatial shockwave struck the flagship. The impact was violent enough to nearly capsize the massive vessel, artificial gravity failing for critical seconds.
Attea tumbled across the command deck, rolling several times before her trajectory was arrested by the navigation console. Her head struck the metal panel with a painful crack.
"What's happening?!" she demanded, pulling herself upright with fury replacing confusion.
She looked through the forward viewport, and her jaw dropped.
The Death Ray Cannon's discharge had dissipated, leaving behind distorted space that resembled shattered glass—regions of nothingness where reality itself had been temporarily erased. But standing within that devastation, completely intact and radiating blue energy, was the Behemoth Star Ring. Its protective barrier shimmered with power, clearly having weathered the assault.
"How is this possible?" Attea whispered, disbelief warring with rage. "Nothing can withstand the Death Ray Cannon!"
Her anger overwhelmed her shock. She didn't even spare a thought for the missing Bullfrag—that mystery could wait. Her fingers stabbed at the firing controls, immediately beginning another charging cycle.
"I want to see how many shots you can survive!" she snarled.
This time, the charging progress bar filled much faster, the weapon's capacitors already primed from the previous discharge.
On another deck of the Incurseans flagship, Ben—still wearing his Bullfrag disguise—strode through the corridors with absolute confidence, his head held high.
Every Incurseans soldier he passed immediately lowered their gaze in fearful respect, not daring to make eye contact. They all knew this particular specimen by reputation now—the favored consort of Queen Attea, second in authority to only her within the entire empire. A single word from him could determine whether they lived or died.
"You there, come here," Ben commanded, grabbing a passing soldier.
The unfortunate warrior immediately began trembling, launching into a panicked recitation of honorifics: "First Prince Consort of the Incurseans Empire! Most beloved pearl of Queen Attea! The handsomest frog-face in the known universe! The—"
"Stop." Ben cut him off with a gesture.
He actually didn't mind flattery under normal circumstances—who didn't enjoy a bit of ego-stroking?—but these Incurseans soldiers were terrible at it. Every compliment somehow managed to be an insult instead.
"The Death Ray Cannon failed to breach the Behemoth Star Ring's protective barrier," Ben said, his tone carrying manufactured urgency. "Princess Attea has decided to use the two captured Plumber officers as hostages for negotiations. Take me to the detention cells immediately and prepare a shuttle for departure."
"Yes, sir!" The soldier didn't question the order for even a moment. He pivoted and led Ben deeper into the ship at double-time speed.
As they walked, the flagship shuddered repeatedly. The Death Ray Cannon was firing continuously now, each discharge causing structural strain throughout the massive vessel. The sustained barrage was literally tearing apart local spacetime.
Inside the Behemoth Star Ring
The conference survivors experienced the first shot as a blinding flash of light, followed by absolute darkness.
The aftershock from the Death Ray Cannon's initial discharge had detonated the local star—the sun that warmed this system vaporized in an instant. By all rights, they should have been plunged into endless, frozen night.
But after the initial aftershock dissipated, a second Death Ray blast followed almost immediately.
Then a third. A fourth. The barrage continued without pause.
For a surreal moment, it seemed as though every star in the visible universe was simultaneously falling toward the Behemoth Star Ring. The protective shield absorbed most of the kinetic and thermal energy, but such devastating power—even the leakage from impacts designed to destroy solar systems—carried force sufficient to crack planets.
"Lady Caiera," King J'son called out, his voice tight with barely controlled terror, "can this shield actually hold?"
The Ravager's usual flexibility and opportunism had evaporated. When you had a weapon of stellar annihilation pointed at your forehead, philosophical debates about loyalty became somewhat academic.
Though his question was directed at Caiera, his eyes kept sliding toward Peter's position. Invincible King of Sakaar, please save us.
"We would be fine if there were no follow-up attacks," Caiera said, her tone measured and analytical. "But sustained bombardment is more concerning."
The Death Ray Cannon's power was undeniable, but the Behemoth Star Ring's planetary protection network had been specifically engineered to resist exactly this kind of assault. The specifications had assumed worst-case scenarios from the beginning.
More importantly, the energy source powering the defensive grid was an Infinity Stone. As one of the fundamental forces underlying universal existence, it couldn't be overwhelmed by conventional weapons—even planet-killing conventional weapons.
"Then... what about them?" someone asked, their teeth chattering so hard the words were barely intelligible.
They pointed upward at the sky. Hundreds of massive black silhouettes stood backlit by the Death Ray Cannon's apocalyptic glow, looking like gods preparing divine judgment. Their arms were raised and crossed in the distinctive firing stance.
"Those are... Way Big?!" Caiera's shock was genuine and profound.
She hadn't been briefed that the enemy possessed so many Way Big specimens. That intelligence failure represented a catastrophic oversight.
"This is extremely problematic," Beta Ray Bill said, his expression grim beneath his cybernetic features. "The king Way Big generate more energy output than the Death Ray Cannon. If hundreds of them coordinate their cosmic ray attacks simultaneously, I don't believe the protection network can withstand the combined assault."
The Infinity Stone's energy was limitless, yes. But the protective barrier's material structure had finite tolerance. Pour enough power through any system, and eventually the conduits would fail.
"We need to contact the King immediately," Bill concluded.
Caiera nodded, already composing an emergency transmission to Ben.
Inside the Incurseans flagship's detention block, Ben did receive Caiera's urgent message.
But he had absolutely no time to reply.
At this precise moment, he was carrying the unconscious Felicia tucked under one arm like a package, while the equally incapacitated Looma was draped across his back. Given Looma's considerable size—she stood over seven feet tall even in humanoid form—the arrangement made Ben look like he was wearing an enormous red fur coat.
Standing between him and freedom was Princess Attea, accompanied by her entire command staff and what appeared to be every significant military asset in her arsenal.
Attea's expression was absolutely murderous, a plasma pistol aimed directly at Ben's forehead. "Bullfrag, you dare to betray me?"
Seeing her beloved consort embracing another woman—two other women, technically—had turned Attea's face an even darker shade of green with pure, incandescent rage.
Scumbag! Absolute scumbag!
"Pardon me for observing," Dr. Psychobos interjected, his voice dripping with acid sarcasm, "but I believe his choice demonstrates excellent judgment. After all, those two females are considerably more aesthetically pleasing than you are. I'm simply being factual."
The Cerebrocrustacean scientist had noticed Ben's deception—or rather, with his superior intellect, he should have identified the inconsistencies much earlier. How could the perpetually malnourished Incurseans military have produced a specimen as well-fed and physically perfect as this "Bullfrag"? The biological improbability should have been obvious.
"Betrayal is never a wise decision," Ma Vreedle rumbled, her massive form blocking the corridor like a living avalanche. Her expression promised violence of the most creative and prolonged variety.
She and Dr. Psychobos had both arrived to rendezvous with Attea, planning to coordinate the final assault on the Behemoth Star Ring. Instead, they'd walked directly into Ben's extraction attempt, catching him red-handed while trying to abscond with the hostages.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Writing takes time, coffee, and a lot of love.If you'd like to support my work, join me at [email protected]/GoldenGaruda
You'll get early access to over 50 chapters, selection on new series, and the satisfaction of knowing your support directly fuels more stories.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~