POV Rio
"Idiot. Seriously, how did that even work?" I ask myself.
Sure, the bait was great as I replicated the Time Stone's energy signature and used the old container of the Time Stone to further sell it, but it was still so obviously a trap. Who would leave such a dangerous artefact undefended? Nobody. Nobody smart would.
'Whatever, that solves that problem.'
"Invading ships, this Admiral Trench of the Kingdom of Gaia, you are trespassing; leave at once or face... Click Click Click Click. destruction," my magic clone warns, using his scary face to try and scare them.
The answer over the comms is laughter.
"Hahahaha! Why don't you skitter along, ugly, or we'll feed you to the beasts!" a pirate leader mocks.
"Click Click Click Click. So you have chosen death," Trench responds.
The laughter quickly died down, as it seems my magic clones' unimpressed reaction seems to unnerve a few, but none retreat.
POV Shift Yondu
While everyone else laughs, I feel something isn't right.
'They shouldn't have this level of tech.'
I stare at the space station orbiting the fourth planet from the star. A planet that also looks way different than the records show.
'Red Planet, my ass, that's clearly green as can be.'
Then there was the worst part. My gut. It was screaming at me to flee, and you don't survive this long without trusting your gut.
"Click Click Click Click. So you have chosen death," Trench responds.
The spider creature responds, and that look in its many eyes sends a shiver down my spine.
"Have our ship slow down a bit; I want to let the others take the lead," I order.
They answer quickly, and we slowly go from the centre to the rear while avoiding any attention. It likely helped that I wasn't the only one who did so. It seems that a few others wanted to let the others trigger whatever trap they had laid out for us. Moments later, it is revealed as numerous cannons open fire, obliterating anything it hits.
"Take evasive action. Grey Group, stick close to Sector F7," I order quickly.
"Captain! Radars picking up a large unknown object," Taserface shouts.
Others quickly detect the same.
"The readings are off the scale. What is that thing!?" shouts another tech.
"Get me a visual!" I order.
Seconds later, a feed is pulled up, and the entire bridge goes silent.
"By the gods..." says someone, and I have to agree it was ridiculous.
What was before us was a massive wedge-shaped ship bristling with weapon stations, and it was pointed at us.
"It's a trap!" I yell.
POV Shift Magic Rio Clone
"All systems are green; you're clear to go," reports OCC.
"Copy that," I reply as I take off on the Millennium Falcon.
"All wings report in," Shoan Kilian, another Magic Clone, orders.
"Gold Leader, standing by," reports one wing.
"Red Leader standing by," reports another.
"Blue Leader standing by," I report.
A few more report in.
"All groups accounted for," I report.
"All groups assume attack coordinates on my mark," Shoan Kilian orders.
Shoan Kilian had been my most recent template I got. He was an Admiral in the Republic Navy during the Clone Wars who believed in Old Spacer Rules, such as a captain always goes down with his ship. Similar to Admiral Trench, Killian came with a ship, this time: the Venator-class Star Destroyer Endurance, and it acted like a ship from the Empire at War Video Game. It came with 10 squadrons of V-19 Torrents, Z-95 Headhunters, ARC-170s, and BTLB Y-Wing Bombers. He wasn't the most amazing template, but I would take what I could get. Especially now, when I desperately needed more ships.
The signal is sent, and we jump into Hyperspace. We wouldn't be the only ships or starfighters to do so. The attack would come from multiple angles to encircle the enemy and annihilate them all. The goal was abundantly clear. No Russian. I mean no survivors.
As the Hyperspace tunnel closes, we appear on the enemy's left flank and get to work clearing them out.
Everything freezes, however, when it shows up. A 19 km-long wedge filled to the brim with weapon stations and built out of an indestructible alloy comprised of Vibranium, Adamantium, and Promethium. The secret weapon we had just finished and were now seeing in its first battle. Project Harmony. AKA the Super Star Destroyer Harmony, the ultimate weapon that can fight any other space power in the universe by itself. We had to mine out every last bit of Vibranium in the universe to finish it, and even then the inside couldn't be made of the alloy, as we didn't have the Vibranium to do so; instead, it was made of an Adamantium-Promethium alloy.
When it opened fire, it truly embodied the phrase, remove that direction. Anything in its way was immediately annihilated. And to make things worse, it was standing right on top of the jump point to leave this system. Meaning there was only one way out, and that was as space debris.
POV Tony
"I-Is that a-a-a... A Star Destroyer!" I practically shout.
"A Super Star Destroyer, and that over there is a Venator, and those are Providence-class Star Destroyers," Rio says calmly.
I sit there with a slack jaw and buggy eyes as I watch the carnage before me.
"A-Am I even needed here?" I ask with uncertainty.
"Possibly. I can't predict everyone, and there is a chance that some may try their luck at landing on a planet. I doubt they will get that far, but you never know," Rio responds.
I felt that was accurate, as we were currently on one of the reasons for that unlikelihood. A cloaked battlestation ready to open fire as soon as someone gets too close.
"Why didn't you tell me you were making such works of art!" I complain with some level of anger, not much, but a little.
"It was a surprise. That, and Pepper might have tried to kill me if I did, as you would never leave the lab unless it was in a body bag," Rio counters.
I want to argue, but then I consider myself and sadly have to nod.
"Yeah, probably. But maybe..." I start to say.
"No," Rio shuts me down.
"But I didn't even..." I counter.
"No," Rio says again.
"Just one!" I beg.
"No, I'm not building you one!" Rio says while frowning.
"Come on! I'll take really good care of it. And I'll never ask for anything ever again!" I plead.
"No means no!" Rio says before I am picked up by some invisible force and shunted out of the command room.
"Aw, man!" I say while snapping my fingers in frustration.
'Oh, if I cannot convince Rio, then perhaps I can turn Lucy to my side instead.'
I move to fulfil my devious plan.
POV Shift Yondu
"Enemy fighters incoming!" Taserface reports.
"I can see that!" I complain.
"I'm hit!" reports one of my fighters before the signal goes dark.
"They're too fast; I can't shake them!" reports another before they are killed as well.
"How much longer before that calculation?!" I ask.
"I don't know; the Warp Drive isn't built for breaching outside of a known warp point," complains Yeloft.
"I don't care if it is possible; just do it before we are turned into space debris!" I demand.
"Yondu, this is Kleaver. Come in, Yondu," Kleaver, a fellow Marauder, calls.
"This is Yondu," I answer.
"There's only one way out of this. We need to push towards that hulking ship," Kleaver points out.
"I know that! But we won't survive long enough against firepower of that magnitude!" I shout back.
"Well, we won't last long at this rate anyway; might as well choose the only option that gives us a chance at life. Thanos can't hunt us down later for all I care; nothing is worth this sh*tstorm," Kleaver replies.
"Fine, let's do this," I say after some thought.
"All ships make way for the warp point," I order everyone who can hear me.
I get a lot of affirmative responses as we all try a desperate breakout. I wouldn't get to see that, though, as by sending out that message I made myself a clear leader, causing me to get annihilated by a missile.
POV Shift Rio
Despite the best efforts of the pirates and mercenaries, they fail to escape. Sure, some made it to the warp point, but that didn't help them, as I had locked it down. Turns out creating an Interdictor-like effect for warp travel is not that hard when you have the genius of several beings and the knowledge from a device meant to bypass warp and hyperspace. That didn't mean it didn't take a while to wipe everyone, as there were just so many of them. A few even managed to escape the encirclement and flee at sublight speeds, but the star fighters were able to get them.
'Hmm, I suppose this proves that the tech of Star Wars is vastly superior to this level of enemy star fighters.'
I knew that these weren't a professional army or anything, but many of the ships had been enhanced with aftermarket parts and yet nothing detected was anywhere as fast as the ships I had. They also were quite weak offensively. They didn't even manage to break any of our shields.
'Overall, a great show of our defences. Now to see what else happened.'
To no surprise, Thanos managed to break the Anti-Teleportation Ward and escape from Pandora. And I hadn't even managed to harm him that much.
'Oh well, we can deal with him once the armour is forged.'