The Karnak ability to see weaknesses could work on a macro scale, and if the Skrull Empire spanned all of Andromeda, that only created more weaknesses for me to take advantage of.

Since I had returned from the future, I had made use of this combination of Awarenesses, and the strikes against the Badoon and Skrulls had become surgical and cumulatively discordant, inflicting ripples of overlapping economic and military damage that were building upon themselves in unhealthy ways as the Xandarans began to disassemble the Skrull Empire at all its most vulnerable spots.

Revenge could totally be a bitch, and the Skrull Empire was fracturing along invisible lines as I cut it along all the stress points between rival worlds, warlords, noble families, and wealthy alliances within it, as well as flaring long-term infiltration plans or alliances with strikes they couldn’t stop.

The Skrulls numbered trillions, but there were naturally divisions and rivalries within their numbers, especially given how many worlds they lived upon. Little pinpoint conflicts escalated and turned into bigger problems as they mushroomed, and the Skrull economy was already starting to creak at the violent interference. Intertwined economies who had specialized in different things, and the flow of goods and services between them, were already starting to have problems.

That was exactly what I wanted to see. Sure, we were going to have to kill a bunch of Skrulls. But it would be even better if they started killing one another when things started going south, and even a casual look at their history made it obvious that it had happened on more than one occasion during basically their million-year history of being in space and expanding.

The Badoon were taking it on the chin hard, since they didn’t have nearly the unity of the Skrulls, and had much deadlier rivalries between factions. The increased trade difficulties, precision piracy, resource destruction, slave rebellions, and conflicts with irate neighbors were tearing at them from within and without, and were also starting to create internal unrest and strife as the warlords and chiefs of the race looked quite impotent about them. Thanos was basically ignoring them and telling them to fix their own problems.

Indeed, the Black Order’s piracy arm was having a great time in Skrull and Badoon space, and certainly drawing the ireful attention of the former as a convenient force to blame for what was going wrong... which was naturally the idea.

----

Thus I was musing as I flitted around Terra, towing a cylinder of E-Silicon to transmute into the required forms as additions to the scansats that regularly swept the planet looking for aliens and unnatural lifeforms, and the telltale radiations that accompanied them, their technologies, and use of their inhuman abilities.

They tracked use of superhuman powers, too, including mutant Awakenings, which were a big help in getting the right people there to help someone whose powers were out of control, and gathering them up for proper training.

Some people decried it as an evil eye in the sky... mostly people who wanted to use their powers for nefarious purposes. Generally speaking, the things did a whole lot of nothing for the average person, and were actually less invasive than actual spy sats used for military and business espionage.

I added the programming in to the scanning, set up the new crystalline emitters and transducers for the Galadoran tech, and waited around as Paragon tested them out and the feedback they were giving, making sure there were no errors to speak of.

High-end techy geniuses, that was not bloody likely, but that was why they paid guys like him the big bucks, right?

I made it back before the Starholder teleported out of Andromeda and made its way back here through some staggered jump points, bringing the raid team home with them, as well as specific looting objectives that had been set. The sheer variety of rare Isotopes waited for no one, and naturally a ship repair facility had literal storehouses of the good stuff.

After all, we were going to another Good spacefaring people to develop and strengthen connections with them. We should bring some trade goodies to go along with everything, right? Not that there wasn’t already a rising demand for Terran cuisine and goods, and slowly increasing trade as Sama and Briggs got the Alchemists and Artificers lined up to take advantage of the availability of all manner of Isotopes to start jacking up the production tech.

Having Tony taking direct lessons from the Xandarans as well as upgrading and revitalizing their own technology was also paying some huge dividends. Down here on the planet, the Baxter Foundation was expanding with ever more eggheads as they all worked on converting the alien tech to human standards. Then the REAL work was in the Tribes and Russia as they worked on the production technology to make it all, and were doing so either here on LaGrange, down on the moon, or over on Venus.

Humanity, represent! We were finally starting to move, we just had to get the scale of it all working, and defend it against the actions of hostile forces while we did so...

I kind of shook my head at the rote comics. ‘No advancement’ was a byword in the comics, so the worlds literally never got past the ‘modern’ age, regardless of the fact that superscience was floating around. Breaking that trope and leapfrogging humanity forward so it could defend itself against the crap that was going on was the whole purpose behind this.

It looked like I was going to Galador. I frowned and considered what was going to happen in the future, and wondered how I got dragged into this stuff.

Three things were going to happen to Galador in the future that I knew of.

The Dire Wraiths had returned to the Dark Nebula and were going to launch an attack on Galador. That had initially been dependent on the return of the Dire Wraiths and recovery of their numbers after their failed war with Galador. That had been pushed back by the pursuit of the Spaceknights, but they were already there in numbers.

We should probably help with that.

The second thing was going to be the infiltration of the Phalanx technorganic race and attempted sublimation of their entire people. That was going to be huge. When I’d pointed out the vulnerabilities in the Nova Corps uniforms to infiltration by symbiotic or nanotech-level subversive influences, Tony Stark had gone apeshit digging into the Xandaran technology for solutions to the problem for first the various Corps, and then on a civilian level in case of biological or technological infestation.

It wasn’t like the major powers didn’t have access to that type of tech, they just didn’t use it very often, for fear it would be used against them. Swarm-style combat tactics were considered a no-no among stellar empires, who had plenty of ways to deal with them, and use them on their own, if someone was so daring.

The last was going to be the Annihilation Wave, when the Negative Zone finally breached and got to our universe in numbers. That was going to be a big event we were going to have to do something about, preferably ahead of time.

------

“In excess of ten thousand deep infiltrators, and that’s not counting the ones staying underground,” Doc Bronze murmured, looking at all the bright lights around the globe.

“Can your people deal with all this?” Rom asked politely, although it was plain his thoughts were elsewhere.

“Now that we know they are there? They are so dead. We won’t bother to inform them of the Galadoran upgrades before we kill them all,” I assured him. SHIELD, the Tribal Braves, Russian Ops, and a lot of hero teams around the planet were already moving out. “Thank you for coming. We thought we were keeping a good lid on the infiltrations, but obviously we were a bit too optimistic.”

“Their guile is a curse and a byword,” Rom agreed with a nod.

“Responses from your fellows?”

“They are scattered over the neighboring galaxies, but I was told that would not be a problem. Those closest to our home are making their way there now, while the rest are gathering to make use of your Portals and the Starholder’s teleportations,” he responded instantly. “Only those in the very middle of a purging will not be there, and they will return as soon as is possible.”

I sent my Awareness out, and I could see the Spaceknights were indeed gathering in common locations, wisely deciding to make the trip easier. If something decided to strike at them while they were gathering, I could be there quickly, and I was watching for signs of shenanigans, like pop-and-drop netherbombs and the like.

“One hundred and fourteen of you left, Spaceknight,” I murmured, and heard him sigh.

Ninety percent losses, of the thousand who had volunteered for the process of being transformed to fight their enemy.

He clenched his flowmetal mitten of a fist. “I remember all of them.”

I clapped his metal chest softly. “Let’s get your accommodations set up on the Starholder. I doubt you and your people need much.

“Also, there’s an old man and a hag here to talk to you. I understand they are bringing gifts for a noble son of Galador.” He looked over at me in confusion, and I just held out my hand to show him to the work room where Briggs and Sama were waiting for him.

-------

“Wow, you are styling there, Rom!” I told him, giving him two thumbs-up as he walked aboard the Starholder.

His silvery form was now accented and chased with golden Runework, Sigils, and Seals glowing with the purity of the soul within. It made his form look more like an armored shell, and less like a flowmetal robot, which at once humanized it and gave him a more unique character.

“I... was not expecting such generosity,” he admitted, turning his head to look at his hip, where a gleaming, inhuman skull of crystal adorned with golden Runes burned with flames of a greenish-black hue, the color of Dire Wraith blood. The savagery of it hanging there contrasted with the nobility of his demeanor starkly. “This Baneskull against the Wraiths has a fell power attached to it...”

“Aye.” I popped out one of my own for him, except it was a Skrull mutate. “Yours is more specialized than mine is. Mine is a Skull against Shapechangers. Yours will work against Wraiths or anything imbued with Wraith science or magic, such as their servants, pets, Summoned minions, constructs, or artifice.” I smiled. “I understand they gave you a Lance and a Shield suitable for a proper knight?”

He nodded, and held out his left hand. A long kite Shield, again of silver chased with gold, materialized in his grip, standing almost as tall as I was, and definitely wider. I touched it and nodded. Shieldium, magically Enchanted, the same as those of our Shield-soldiers. He touched it to the Baneskull, and a phantasmal Wraith skull of black-green fires formed in the center of the Rune Sigils, attuning it specifically to them.

With a flash of silvery particle effects, the Shield was swapped out for a long Spear, again Silvery and chased with gold. It was over ten feet long, but instantly receded to a mere foot in length, basically a stabbing shortsword at that point, before returning back to a working seven-feet that could be easily spun about, as he was quick to demonstrate. With both hands upon it, he thrust it forward, and it grew to a full twenty feet in length, popping into green-black flames as he tapped it against the Baneskull on his hip.

“Very good!” I clapped politely. “A proper knight should not be without a true Shield and Weapon. Name them and Grow their Names with victory, and they will stand by you forever, Spaceknight!”

He bowed slightly as the Spear was stowed away. “I have Named them Brotherhood and Charity,” he said firmly. “I had not expected to find such generosity out here among the stars, Dynamo.”

I smiled widely. “Good things should happen to good people, Rom,” I said softly. “It does not matter where they hail from.”

“Yes. Also, they had revolutionary matters to speak of to me.” He paused significantly. “They would like to start a Golden Corps of Galador, to match that of the Nova Corps of Xandar, the Ultra Corps of Terra, and the Emerald Corps of Venus.”