Ravager Flight Deck – Stakar's Ship
Stakar stood at the forward viewport, the funeral lights still reflecting in his eyes. Beside him, Martinex watched the Quadrant's display, his crystalline features catching every flicker of color.
"He didn't let us down after all, Cap'n," Martinex said quietly.
Stakar's voice was low, steady. "No. He did not, son. He did not"
The massive bulk of Charlie-27 filled the command station. He brought his fist to his chest in salute, his expression rare with solemnity.
"Fare thee well, old friend."
Aleta sat with a glass in her hand on her ship, amber liquid swirling. Her all-female crew gathered close, each one silent, eyes fixed on the lights outside. Tears traced the edge of her cheek before she raised the glass in salute.
"See you in the stars, Yondu Udonta."
Later, the mood shifted. Stakar sat at the head of a table crowded with the most unlikely assembly the Ravagers had seen in cycles. Martinex. Charlie-27. Aleta with the caged, metallic head of Mainframe resting on the table. Krugarr, the mouthless sorcerer, its wormlike body curled loosely, fingers tracing symbols in the air.
"It's a shame it takes a tragedy like losing Yondu to bring us all back together," Stakar said, serious and sad. Then a faint smile touched his lips. "But I think he'd be proud if he knew we were working as a team again."
He leaned forward, a spark in his eyes. "What say we steal some shit?"
"In," Charlie-27 rumbled.
"Dope," Martinex said.
"I MISSED you guys!" Mainframe's metallic voice rang from the cage.
Krugarr traced a quick, spiraling glyph. Two vibrant, holographic thumbs-up burst into the air.
"Hell. Yes," Aleta said, her voice final.
Tenno POV:
I woke up from the connection with my frame and looked around.
Nothing changed since I was last here.
I sighed and tried to make myself comfortable as long as I was here.
My Void powers were gone for all I knew of, probably because I needed them to do the transvergence on my own, now that the whole Orbiters systems were down.
I had to wait a few minutes between every connection here in the chair, till my Void energy regenerated itself again.
I don't know how it worked here, but if I really was in a different Universe from my own one, then maybe the rules about Void powers were different two.
I looked down at my hands, not being able to see them though, as the sight was blocked from the wall that kept me from suffocating.
I sighed again and looked outside the Window, trying to somehow figure out were I was.
The life support, thanks to Ordis repositioning himself into the Liset through my connection with the Warframe, would now be running for years on end, so at least I had Time again to think about how to get me out of here.
I thought about the Warframes innate abilities and how their own energy reserves seemed interestingly nearly endless with this new key of connection, the only problem being that like that instead of the Warframes energy, my Void energy got sucked into the Ability's and I had less time to pilot them.
I turned to the only thing, Ordis left me here to make my time less miserable without him, the blueprints he had could save from Foundry.
A lot of the rare Metals I had in my home Universe and other things we would need for a lot of the blueprints we had were not available, at least not to my research's knowledge.
In the end, I went into the blueprints themself and tried to find something inside them that we could build, we could maybe use, but that was way more complicated then just putting it into the foundry and waiting for it to be printed out, like I did it for all my life, so I had to start the process of learning how stuff worked from the start. But I guess I don't really have much else to do right now, so I guess I will try to do some backwards reconstructing of the principles that laid in these schematics.
"Well, here we go again" I thought as I dove into them, while practicing the mental technique for learning I was taught by Lotus.
Observer POV:
The Ravangers and the Guardians sat in the living area of the Elector, sharing stories with each other, while always trying to get one
up on the other party, leading to heated arguments here and there.
Quill leaned forward, eyes bright. He loved this, the easy camaraderie of people who knew each other. The feeling that he wasn't alone in the universe.
He held up his hand, signaling timeout.
"Wait a sec. I'm going to grab another beer."
Stakar grinned. "Good man. Bring me back one, too. You want anything?" He turned to Aleta. She shook her head, still savoring the taste of whiskey on her tongue.
Quill took a step toward the door, but Krugarr's glowing gaze was fixed on him, its expression expectant.
Quill paused. "Uh... yeah? What's up?"
Krugarr gestured, an image of a glass bottle, fingers curling around it.
"You want a beer?" Quill asked, confused.
Krugarr's hands curled into a thumbs-up.
"All right. Yeah. No prob."
As Quill stepped into the hallway, Kraglin appeared, carrying two beers. His face lit when he saw Quill.
"Hey, Pete! Got you a cold one!"
Quill smiled and clapped him on the shoulder. "Thanks, buddy. Put it in there for me? I'll be right back."
"Sure thing," Kraglin said, walking into the common area.
When Quill returned from the fridge, Charlie-27 was leaning against the wall, waiting. He nodded to the big man. "Need something?"
Charlie-27 reached out a giant palm. "Let us take a moment, son. Talk alone."
"Yeah, sure," Quill said. "What's up?"
They walked down the corridor together. The lights dimmed around them.
"I know what it means to lose your father," Charlie-27 said finally.
Quill glanced at him.
"My father was killed by the Badoon. I know the hole that loss can create in a child's life."
Quill stopped. "Listen... thank you, man. But Yondu wasn't my dad. I mean... he was kind of my dad. I dunno..."
Charlie-27 put a massive hand on Quill's shoulder. "I see your pain, young one."
Quill shifted his weight, suddenly uncomfortable. "Okay, dude. That's weird."
Charlie-27 dropped his hand, eyes thoughtful. After a moment he spoke again. "Yondu Udonta chose to give his life so that yours would not be forfeit. In my eyes, he is deserving of all honors and respect for such selfless sacrifice."
Quill nodded, touched. "Yeah. Thanks, man. Thanks."
When they stepped back into the living area, a loud chorus of voices rose from the Guardians.
"I AM GROOT!" Groot shouted happily, holding up his tiny arms.
"He won at arm wrestling," Rocket said proudly, patting the small tree's head.
Kraglin frowned. "But he's just a little guy!"
Rocket's eyes narrowed. "Watch it, Skinny. Nobody calls my partner little except me."
Quill shrugged, sliding into his seat beside Gamora. "I think it's awesome."
Gamora grinned. "I do too."
She slid her hand beneath Quill's on the table, fingers interlacing with his own.
Krugarr gave an uninterested squawk.
Mainframe translated: "Oh, no way! I'm totally going to kick Groot's little butt next round!"
"Before that, do you guys finaly want to talk about why you're really here? I like the little fun we are having, but I'm feeling that you want something from us" Gamora said, while leaning into Quill even more and sipping on her drink again.
The Ravangers looked at each other, then Stakar turned to Quill.
"We're here to invite you to become part of a little Heist we want to Pull, in honor of Yondu, who brought all of us together again" he said, smiling broadly as he took another sip of his beer.
"Why do you need us though?" Asked Rocket suspiciously.
"We don't really need you guys, but as I said, for old times sake"
Stakar said while trying to keep the atmosphere light.
"Not buying it" Rocket said leaning into his seat again.
"And we know you already got beef with them and one upped them once already, experience is better than any planing" Stakar finally said, scratching his chin.
"You gotta be a bit more specific than that, we one upped a lot of people who now hate us" Rocked said, sipping on his drink.
"So, who exactly is your target then" Quill asked after a short silence.
Stakar looked down on the Table for a second before answering.
"The Kree Empire" he said quietly, which made every single Guardian freeze and look at him.
Tenno POV:
"Operator, there seems to be a group of unknown ships approaching Lisets location" Ordis said through my headset as I was back inside my frame.
"Don't worry Ordis, activate the Stealth mode again, should be working again after such a long time, just stay put till we pick it up and tell the Kubrows to get back in, I will be back soon and surveill the area" I said slowly, acclimating to the new Body again.
"Of course Operator, I wait for your return in anticipation" he said, leaving me alone again.
I ran down the hallway to the room they were all in and stoped at the doorframe, waiting for a fitting moment to announce my new objective.
Stakar was standing in front of everyone, his back turned to me, speaking the words that made everyone be silent.
"Ordis, what are the Kree" I asked him as I went over to the sofa, also sitting down listening to this interesting operation they were planing.
"Well operator, the Kree are an ancient race with incredible strength, their technology highly advanced, they rule most of their Galaxy as far as i could gather and have a strong hatred towards the Xandarian's and other alien species as they claim to be superior in every way" He answered, leaving me speechless for a second.
"So, the same thing as always then, nothing nothing special in this Universe it seems"
I said, now listening to Stakars Presentation.
Observer POV:
"Well, we were in contact with the Collector recently and he gave us a list of some Items he would pay an incredibly amount for getting his slimy hands on. And since you guys are so righteous now, we thought, emptying some Kree Vaults would be just what you would like to do, to such an incredible loving and giving government" Stakar said, leaning against the table.
Quill smiled, he knew what Stakar meant, it was hard to think that anyone would actually enjoy being ruled by them, seeing as they were not known for treating others well.
Rocket shook his head.
"You know the Kree hate our guts right? We got a lot of experience stealing shit, but even we haven't managed to get away without losses either" Rocket said as he put his feet on the table looking at the young Groot, copying him by putting his tiny twig feet onto the table too.
"Last time we killed one of their high and mighty ones, that went astray and officially he was a Terrorist even for them, but in his ploy to destroy Xandar he had Backers from deep within their Government. How else would he have got these Ships. So officially they owe us, but they never even sent a thank you card, I guess they still hate us for halting Ronans plan and Killing him" Quill said, thinking back to everything that happened.
Stakar looked at the Guardians with a smirk.
"It doesn't matter if they hate you, If you go there as official diplomatic guests, they can't kill you because of their own laws, or take your stuff when you leave" he said laughing.
Mantis raised her hand shyly "I'm sorry to interrupt, but how will we do that?" she asked quietly.
Stakar smiled at that "We got an inside-man, someone who values money over patriotism" he said proudly.
He held out a holo pad which showed a Kree with gray skin and a bald head, wearing the typical uniform of the Kree Imperial Forces.
"This is Korath, son of Attilan, once one of Ronan's most trusted henchmen and now he is working with us. He has gained quite the reputation in their ranks, thanks to his success rate when it comes to hunting down criminals, but was always discriminated because of his skin color, so never developed the undying love for his country the other high positioned Kree have planted in their heads"
he said as he sat down again, clearly proud about having such a capable asset.
Gamora leaned forward in her seat, interested.
"What is his story?" she asked.
Stakar nodded. "After Ronan's death, he swore loyalty to the Empire. But while serving them, he found himself being passed over time and time again for promotion.
He'd been doing their dirty work for decades, and they still treated him like a peon."
Aleta took up the tale, leaning back in her chair with a wicked smile. "So one day he decided to start doing some of his own dirty work.
The Kree are all about honor. So if you have the right dirt on someone... well, you know what they say."
Quill nodded. "They'll do anything to keep it quiet. Especially those at the top."
"Korath contacted us," Stakar continued. "He said he was tired of playing second fiddle. And we knew he could get us into the heart of the Kree military installation. We didn't tell him that we also wanted to hit a Heist, but we did give him enough information so that he'd be able to come along for the ride without blowing our cover"
Aleta's eyes glittered with glee. "And boy does he want a piece of that action..."
"The problem is," Quill said, "the Kree don't like surprises."
Charlie-27 nodded slowly. "Which means we need a Trojan horse to hide our attack. Something small enough to pass through their scanners and insignificant enough not to raise any suspicion."
Tenno raised his hand, everyone looking at him, as he normally not really voices any ob his concerns and just goes with the flow.
"I might have a Ship that would be able to pass any of their scanners, we just have to pick it up from somewhere" he said to them, seeing the opportunity to get his ship back and maybe even an upgrade to its insulation, so it could use the jump points.
Quill looked at him shocked, then turned back to Stakar who had a confused look on his face too.
"How big is this ship you talking about, Tenno" he asked.
"It's smaller than one of your Ships and much more agile, it should be able to out maneuver everything even if it gets spotted. She Just can't use Jump points as of yet" Tenno answered, trying not to say too much, seeing as this was clearly only a temporary alliance.
Stakar scratched his beard while thinking, then nodded at the rest of his team.
"We will send some guys to pick it up and help with repairs if needed"
he said and the others of the Ravangers agreed, seeing it as an easy job to do for a change.
"No chance, you would just ditch the thing for yourself and skip the Heist, do you even know what such kind of a ship would be worth" Rocked said after angrily glaring at Tenno for revealing such an incredible peace of information.
Stakar nodded "Then what do you propose?"
Rocket looked at Gamora and Quill, who both nodded back to him.
"Well, we're going to go together, if something happens or you betray us, I'm sure we can handle it" Rocket said smugly.
Stakar looked at his team, all of them agreeing with a nod, knowing that this was better than letting someone else take control of the situation.
"Will we finaly talk about what was on the list the Collector gave you guys, I'm starting to think he wants the whole Vault for the trade" Rocket asked after finishing his drink and getting another one from the fridge.
Stakar laughed as he got up from his seat, walking towards the window, looking out into space.
"He is indeed interested in whatever is in there, but that's not our main objective. There is said to be a peace of a map inside the Vault, which's content may lead to an infinity Stones location" Stakar said without turning around, clearly serious about this.
"It might be an old map, the stones swap location from mad ruler to another, but the Collector Collects old things with history, so…" he said while shrugging.
The Guardians were surprised by how much the Ravangers seemed to trust the word of someone like Taneleer Tivan, known for lying and manipulating others to get what he wanted, even if he would lose a lot doing so.
So why exactly did they think that this time it was different?
Was there something they didn't know or were they just too blinded by hope and greed to see reason.
Rocket sat back in his chair and crossed his legs on the table again, taking a sip from his drink.
"Well, guess we will find out soon enough" he said smiling.
"But may be that we have to be fast, there are already two ships in its vicinity" Tenno said, watching at them through Ordis feed, back on Berhert.