The first time the commander turned his head, he almost saw Robert. However, the AI's alarm distracted him, and by the time Robert's teasing voice echoed, the commander finally faced the man who had caused his terror.
The commander couldn't comprehend how Robert had managed to track them so far from Xandar. Even with his immense power, how could he pursue them over such a distance? Not even those with spatial abilities should be capable of something like this.
The Kree starship wasn't stationary; its spatial coordinates were constantly shifting, especially after traversing a space wormhole. In the ever-expanding universe, directions and coordinates continuously change. After the jump, the starship's position was vastly different from before, making it impossible, by any logical explanation, for Robert to locate them here.
Yet, Robert was here, standing on their starship. The commander's last line of defense had been breached.
If Robert had attacked from the outside, they might have relied on the starship's hull and energy shields to hold him off. But now, face to face, they had no such defenses left. Even the most advanced Kree energy weapons couldn't compare to the firepower of the starship, and if the ship's weapons couldn't harm Robert, their portable gear certainly wouldn't stand a chance.
"How... how are you here?" the commander stammered as he instinctively stepped back. His fear was palpable, and the ordinary Kree soldiers, many holding weapons, showed no signs of resisting. Some even dropped their guns, worried that Robert might misunderstand their intentions.
"If you hadn't fled, I would have simply dealt with your starships," Robert said calmly. "But since you're fleeing back to your homeworld, I realized that if I don't handle the Kree Empire now, it might cause trouble later."
Robert hadn't initially planned to go after the Kree Empire. He didn't even know where it was. But now, with the commander as his guide, the Kree Empire's location was no longer a secret. Naturally, he would eliminate the threat.
Given the Kree Empire's vast influence in the galaxy, it wouldn't take long for them to learn about Robert's connection to Earth through Star-Lord. If the Kree ever sought revenge, it would spell trouble for Earth.
Though the Avengers, as envisioned by Nick Fury, were designed to exact vengeance on enemies after wrongdoing, Robert wasn't one to wait for retribution. He preferred to solve problems preemptively—if it was convenient.
"No! The Kree Empire has no intention of being your enemy!" The commander's face turned pale as he realized his escape might bring disaster to his empire. If the Kree Empire fell because of him, he would go down in history as a traitor.
If the Kree Empire were truly destroyed, his name would be remembered throughout the galaxy—but not in a good way.
"It's not up to you to decide whether or not the Kree are my enemies," Robert said with a faint smile. "I killed Ronan and his men..."
"Ronan had been exiled from the Kree Empire for his reckless slaughter!" the commander hastily explained. "You don't have any personal enmity with the Kree. Ronan and his forces were no longer part of the Empire. In fact, by eliminating him, you rid us of a disgrace. You could even be considered a friend of the Kree Empire!"
"Oh, you're quite the smooth talker," Robert remarked, his smile not fading. "But isn't it because of your cunning that you used your comrades' lives as a distraction so you could escape?"
"Yes, I admit, my desire to survive was strong," the commander said bitterly, bowing his head. "I committed a grave sin by sacrificing my comrades, and the Kree Empire will punish me."
The commander was indeed conflicted. His will to live had been strong enough to sacrifice the soldiers on the other ships. However, he now understood that his personal survival was insignificant compared to the survival of the Kree Empire as a whole.
The commander didn't know the full extent of Robert's powers or whether he had the ability to destroy the Kree Empire, but he wasn't willing to take that risk. He hoped to divert Robert's attention onto himself to save the empire.
"Since I'm already guilty, killing me won't earn the Kree's wrath. In fact, you'll gain our gratitude for eliminating someone like me. I should die in battle, as any true Kree warrior would!" The commander, steeling his resolve, looked at Robert.
"Oh? You're surprisingly noble for someone like you," Robert said, mildly impressed. Human nature was indeed complex. The same man who had betrayed his comrades in the face of personal danger now willingly offered himself to protect his civilization.
If the commander succeeded in this plan and it became known, he might even be hailed as a hero of the Kree Empire, erasing the stain of his earlier cowardice.
"Unfortunately," Robert said as he sat in the commander's chair, "it's not up to you whether or not the Kree Empire is my enemy. You won't die yet—I'll deal with you once we reach the Kree homeworld."
The commander suddenly realized something and, in a panic, tried to bark new orders to the ship's AI, "Abort the current course! Head to—ugh!"
Before he could finish, his body froze in place.
"An AI system, huh? That could be troublesome. Jarvis, can you hack into this thing?" Robert mused as he attempted to deploy a subsystem of Jarvis to hack the ship's central control.
"Apologies, Saiyan sir. This system's computing power far exceeds mine…" Jarvis responded regretfully. While Jarvis might be unmatched on Earth, in the grander scheme of the universe, especially when pitted against the advanced technology of the Kree Empire, Jarvis was far from top-tier.
"It's useless. This starship has already ceased its course. Your AI lacks the computing power to override me. You should just destroy us," the ship's AI projected itself before Robert. After resisting Jarvis's intrusion, it calculated that their chances of survival were zero—especially if they didn't deliver Robert to the Kree Empire.
As powerful as Robert was, he wasn't omniscient, and he wasn't a tech expert either. There were limits to what he could do with an AI.
"AI systems can be quite tricky," Robert acknowledged with a nod, admiring the AI's persistence. It was, after all, nothing more than pure computing power. However, that didn't mean Robert was entirely helpless. An AI system still relied on the commands of living beings.
"Commander authorization: Transfer primary control of the starship to the Saiyan. From this moment on, the Saiyan has full control over the central system," the commander suddenly announced in a robotic tone.
"Confirm authorization?" the AI asked, showing no resistance.
"Confirmed," the commander replied, still dazed.
"Authorization complete. Saiyan sir, the starship will now operate under your command," the AI said respectfully.
"Good. Proceed with the original course—take us to the homeworld," Robert ordered with a smile.
"Shall we proceed to Hala, in the Large Magellanic System?" the AI confirmed, displaying an image of Hala.
"Yes," Robert responded, releasing the commander from his control.
"We're en route to Hala. The journey will take..." the AI began calculating the distance and time required for the trip.
"No! Transfer control back!" the commander, now free, screamed in despair, attempting to reclaim authority over the ship. But despite his outburst, the AI ignored him.
Although the AI recognized the commander's rank, it now answered solely to Robert, following his orders exclusively.
"This is the downside of AI systems," Robert remarked, laughing as he shook his head. "If these were humans, this wouldn't have happened. But then again, you did give the order yourself."
"Fire at will!" the commander, eyes blazing with desperate fury, barked at the Kree soldiers around him.
Yet, to his dismay, not a single soldier raised their weapon to fire at Robert. Even Robert was slightly taken aback by this. His earlier claim that humans had an advantage over AI now seemed flawed—these soldiers were no different from machines, perhaps even worse.
"You're all disgracing the Kree Empire!" the commander shouted, glaring at his troops in contempt.
The commander didn't seem to understand that these soldiers had been affected by his betrayal. Before abandoning their comrades on Xandar, they would have fought, even knowing they might die. But after experiencing the commander's betrayal, they had become like him—self-serving cowards, unwilling to risk their own lives.
None of the soldiers said a word. Each silently hoped that Robert would ignore them. They knew their chances of survival were slim, but they had lost their will to fight. Instead, they clung to the small hope that they might live just a little longer.
"This is the first time I've seen something like this," Robert said with a sneer. "Are these really the soldiers of the mighty Kree Empire? If the entire Kree army is like this, they won't stand a chance when I arrive."
"When you reach the Kree Empire, you'll see what true Kree warriors are like!" the commander snarled, teeth clenched in defiance.
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