Norrin Radd could only shake his head and appreciate the manipulations of the Terrans.

He was streaking through the Capella system, with the Zoners opening fire on him out of desperation. He was returning the same to them as he made his way toward the ancient swampy homeworld of the Badoon.

The Annihilation Wave fleet had swarmed over the system irresistibly, overcoming its stations and defenses with speed and overwhelming power, seizing everything with relentless speed, savage strength of numbers, and a complete lack of mercy.

They were clustered heavily around the second planet now, and he could immediately discern that the orbital defenses had been overwhelmed, many planetary locations bombed flat, and the last few cities were being assaulted by ground forces and sure to overwhelm the fanatic protectors of the egg chambers within a matter of hours.

None of that was important to his master, however. The circle of ships clustered at the Southern pole and drilling down into the core of the planet, however, were.

“Master, I am confirming that the invaders are attempting to secure the Celestial Seed for their own purposes.”

The fools did not know it was food for Galactus. They probably thought it was only another power source, not realizing the ramifications of taking it. They could perhaps deal with a Celestial who might come to save it, but his Master?

His speed too great to be readily tracked and intercepted, he circled the planet once and retreated, for he knew what was coming.

From a system in the Skrull Galaxy that had recently been harvested of all life and the Seed within one of its worlds, the Worldship of Galactus phased into being above Lotiara, instantly alarming all of the Zoner fleets, who didn’t recognize it and thought it a surprise attack.

The defenses of his Master’s ship were not easily overcome, and even as the fusillade and attacks upon it increased with frenzied speed, He stepped forth from His vessel, and began to descend to the planet below.

Some of those attacking did finally recognize Him, and hurriedly halted their attacks, turning to flee. The rest saw another source of cosmic energy, adjusted their weaponry to suppress Him, and raged hungrily to the attack.

Galactus, His stately descent never stopping, looked up and around slowly at them, and for a moment, a faint trace of irritation crossed the abyss of His eyes.

Rarely did Galactus bother to act against those defending their homeworlds, as such a defense was only right and honorable. That they would not succeed did not mean they should not be allowed to try.

But these were invaders to this universe, and thieves. There was nothing to restrain Him from dispersing them whatsoever, and indeed, his Master had been feeding well and steadily these past few months. The Zoners did not seem to learn well that they should not stir His wrath, their hunger for His power nearly a match for His own.

But a fully-feasted Galactus was a terrible foe. He did not have to eat a star to give these invaders a proper chastisement.

His hands formed fists and touched before Him. He then calmly spread them in an arc, until they touched behind Him.

There was no hurry in the motion. Time and space compressed to send His power exactly where it needed to go, wasting nothing of what the Devourer of Worlds sent forth, and He sent it forth everywhere in this system.

Moon-shattering shockwaves slammed into and through the shields of every single Zoner ship in this system, rending them asunder and destroying every single vessel here. Millions of explosions filled the void, and Norrin Radd felt the lives of every Negative Zoner in the system basically wink out at the same moment.

At the same time, Galactus pulled, and the biomantic energy of all those lives swirled and came to Him, a trillion lives harvested to replace everything He had just expended.

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I'd like the bots to take some losses as well, but alas...

If you're not reading this on Royal Road, you're helping pay a thief. Please read it in its original home, it's still free! You get the foreword and afterword, author comments, and comments from people with questions! I have not given permission for this story to be copied by a bot and posted ANYWHERE ELSE.

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The world of Lotiara was already burning, and nothing would survive what was to come. The few remaining Badoon creches hurriedly loaded all the eggs they could into creche-ships and took off wildly for the stars, knowing that Galactus was here to feed, and nothing on the planet was going to survive His hunger.

Galactus descended upon Lotiara, and all came to be as the Devourer of Worlds had done a billion times before, and would do a billion times more, until the end of the universe was nigh.

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Whether they desired it or not, the Badoon Empire was shattered, and they could only thank us for it.

Our job was not to defend their worlds; our job was to kill the enemy so they would not come to OUR worlds. As the Badoon had treated the Kree worlds the same way, they could only grit their teeth and hold the line as they defended their creche worlds, while we worked up awful casualties among the Zoners to the flanks.

Two of the other five crecheworlds fell regardless, and they could say nothing, for the hulls of thousands of Galactus Fleet ships tumbled through the void, sacrificed to the slaughter, along with dozens of Nova ships and countless Badoon vessels.

But in the end, the Annihilation Wave broke, unable to bear the weight of the attacks coming down upon it. The utter destruction of their main force at Lotiara probably had something to do with that.

My Cosmic Awareness was on the job all the time. If they fled into the Milky Way Galaxy, we tracked them, and often got to their destinations before they did. Fractured and split, they lost most of their obfuscating power, and we could also split our forces to deal with them.

If they left the galaxy, we let them go. Inside the galaxy, the Great Bear was appearing here, there, and everywhere, devouring fleets and destroying them with raw firepower... or simply dropping off a small squad of Lantern-bearers of the Watchful Order of the Guardian Eye who could hit so far above their weight.

Word that we weren’t chasing those leaving the Milky Way did manage to spread, as well as the fact that we were rapidly annihilating the piecemeal forces splitting up and thinking to lose us among the stars here. The Zoners politely bugged out for some places that weren’t so damn hostile and lethal to them.

If we happened to inform the new galaxies they were targeting ahead of time that they were coming, well, that was the Zoners’ problem to deal with. If they went back to the Ringtrap Worlds to fight for a place there, that was perfectly all right with us, too.

There was no doubt whatsoever that I’d be keeping busy for months tracking and hunting down Zoners engaged in genocide, and as long as we used the Galactus Fleet for only that, we were good to go.

Galactus did send notice to Barb to cease growing the size of the Fleet, which was totally expected, but also an ‘Aw Shucks’ moment. He also had her shut down making Nova Ships, which was also expected. She promptly shut down all inputs, finishing up production of those in transit, leaving the Xandarans with only the biggest and most powerful intact fleet in four galaxies... unless you counted the Acanti, but they were more a universal than galactic power when it came down to it.

The Annihilation Wave wasn’t gone, but it had shattered into a bunch of little streams and currents running every which way, and would be bedeviling the universe for uncounted years, just with the Ringtrap Worlds and the raiders for resources they’d inevitably be sending out. Destroyed ships were among such resources, but the Acanti were already on that job...

Only one small branch of the Wave made it into the Sol System, sort of stumbling into our home territory.

The ten matriarchs of the Strontian Pulsar Guard annihilated them out between Mars and Jupiter, along with a fleet of Nova ships eager for the fight and some bursts from LaGrange’s Terminus Lance Cannons launched from half the system away. None of them made it to Terran orbital range.

Given what most of their fleet was made of, Uncle Ben actually dropped the wreckage into the sun to clean up after the fighting. The people on Terra could see the explosions of the defense, and the High Guard was there to inform them that they and their alien allies were defending the system against an invasion by warmongering invaders who had already conquered the neighboring galaxies and slaughtered trillions.

The Uni-Mind of the Eternals and Kronus looked on, not deigning to get involved. We noted that and prioritized them accordingly.

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Just like that, the galaxy-slaughtering wave of Negative Zone invaders petered out, and became something else entirely.

The conflicts between them and the inhabitants of the galaxies they had displaced were only just beginning, and only going to grow more violent over time, giving all the galaxies involved in the Wave a future of unending war. None of the Ringworlds had resources beyond agriculture and living space, so there were still going to be fights over natural resources if they didn’t have the tech and power to transmute their own... and their tendency to use technology that could even accelerate the end of the universe wasn’t going to win them any favors, as was the fact they had tech that could destroy the cosmic entities who would like them to stop using such stuff.

Yes, fun times for the Zoners in the future, especially if they kept using that stuff, or more entertainingly, sold it off...

As for the rest of the Negative Zone, they did indeed hear about the ‘success’ of the Wave, and the discussions began between those races who had been left behind.

Then the entire galaxy from which the effort had been launched exploded, the eruption shaking the whole of the Negative Zone and accelerating its collapse by tens more millennia. Eruptions and cracks in the Crunch began to assail the remaining races, and they realized that the invasion had doomed the rest of them, as there was no way to cross the Crunch now, and they had even fewer years left to survive...

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But something began to rise in the wake of this Annihilation Wave. It was unprecedented, and could indeed be said to have been built on the bones of collapsed Empires.

The Pentad Alliance of Xandar, Galador, Terra, Corbin, and Whoberis had established themselves firmly in the stars. The Watchful Order of the Guardian Eye was here in numbers, and growing. The Great Bear roved the stars, a living Warworld that could destroy whole star systems. The Acanti, many with Xandaran nomad-cities on them, were now a true force to be reckoned with in space.

The Five Starcorps born from the Nova Force had firmly established themselves in space. There was a great amount of interest in joining the Pentad Alliance under their protection. Of the Strontians, now, nothing was said as yet, a surprise to be unveiled when it was time.

Galador was chosen as the diplomatic center of the Alliance’s dealing with other species, as the Sol System still had xenophobic Terra, which was by no means ready to deal with an influx of aliens.

The Colosseum had expanded to ten times its former dimensions, and in addition to its reputation for unrivaled martial competition and knowledge, had become the center of the greatest mercenaries in the universe, all drawn by Champion’s reputation and his showing in the Annihilation War.

Rune King Thor now sat upon the throne of Asgard, watching over the planet, and his ties with certain members of other pantheons were whispered among the other Skyfathers as they watched the power of certain gods begin to ascend. They also spoke of things born in the Void and now gone before the call of a Trembling Sword...

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The Portal opened, and Khan stepped through with his delegation in sharp order.

Goddess Cleo was there to meet them. His entire delegation went down to one knee upon seeing her there, and so did Khan.

“I did not expect you to ever return to this dimension, Great Khan,” Cleo said, her Voice whispering past all of them with far more than noise. “Your request for a treaty has raised many questions among those in the Alliance, especially with you having subjugated Terra in multiple realities.”

“I will endeavor to keep my proposals as worthy of your time and consideration as possible, my Goddess,” Khan smiled without fear.

“We shall see, Great Khan,” she replied non-committedly. “Come, I shall show you the station and your quarters, and introduce you to the other ambassadors of the Pentad.”

“As my Goddess commands!” He leapt to his feet, his entourage doing much the same, and dared to step up alongside her as she began to walk away, and his smile did not go away.