When you're on a planet and see a star burning brightly in the cosmos, don't be surprised. It's releasing its final light. Once that light fades, the star will never shine again.
Of course, though this speaks of stars, it applies just as well to planets.
The Xandarian star system.
Xandar.
No... strictly speaking, only half of Xandar remains.
After the super life-computer self-destructed, the entire Nova Force was used to detonate the planet. When the blinding light subsided, Xandar fell into silence, wrapped in stillness.
No one knows how much time passed.
Thanos reopened the space portal he had just unlocked, piloting his craft into the void. He looked upon the shattered Xandar, lost in thought. Who knew what stirred in his mind?
He had survived this attack only because of the previous brush with death, when he learned to open and close the Soul Stone's inner portal.
It was said before: though the Soul Stone is the most dangerous Infinity Stone, its core holds a pastoral dimension. No one knows why it exists. Perhaps it was Nemesis' garden. But Thanos now used it as a refuge to evade fatal strikes. Had he not mastered this ability, the Nova Empire's self-detonation would have ended him.
Yet... as he gazed at the broken planet, though the blast had spared his life, it had wiped out every Annihilation Wave on Xandar. By conservative estimates, at least several hundred thousand to a million troops were lost.
Thanos fell into deep reflection. He couldn't tell if this was a devastating loss or an average one. If devastating, then they had eliminated one of the universe's strongest empires. If average, then this swarm could have culled even more.
But his command had been…
"All forces, attack."
A full-scale slaughter of all life.
So strictly speaking, it was his reckless order that caused countless Annihilation Waves to be obliterated needlessly.
He looked around. Not only had the bugs on the planet perished, but most of those surrounding Xandar as well. The destructive force of the Nova Force's self-detonation was immense. With the planet's explosion, even the swarms orbiting it were annihilated. Only fragments scattered beyond Xandar's periphery survived.
And their proportion... wasn't even twenty percent.
So, in terms of total strength and combat power, Thanos' command this time... was worse than shit—no, not even worth shit.
He had been too eager for a triumphant return, so he became reckless, blind to all else. Coupled with the Soul Stone's influence on his spirit, it led to his blunder.
"Creak~~~"
The Infinity Gauntlet screeched as he clenched it in fury.
What a failure!
At that moment, sensing the colossal explosion, the Insect King of Annihilation arrived in its ship. It examined the current numbers of the swarm, compared them to what they had been before. The difference was obvious.
Barely thirty percent remained. The legion entrusted to Thanos—and after only the first battle, most of it was gone.
Annihilus turned to him.
Thanos, staring at the shattered Xandar, said:
"They self-destructed in their final moments, causing catastrophic losses."
At his explanation, Annihilus did not ask about the reasons, the process, or the results. He simply said, flatly:
"News of our arrival has already spread."
"The longer it drags on, the more time major civilizations will have to prepare."
"You'll need time to replenish the swarm."
"Handle it yourself."
With that, Annihilus departed.
After all, the legion he had granted Thanos was only one of many. It hardly affected the total number of Annihilation Waves. Did he really think he could command the entire swarm? At most, he could control a single legion.
Annihilus, however, had Salo, and three Swarm Queens under his command: Eradica, Extirpia, and Extermina. How many legions was that? And the Queens' legions were the largest.
In the swarm's mind, a Queen was the supreme commander of her legion. Thus, the legions they led were the strongest among all Annihilation Waves. And Annihilus commanded three of them.
Of course, these Swarm Queens were nothing like the alluring Queen of Blades of another insect race. They were hideous. Truly hideous.
After Annihilus left, Thanos looked at the swarm and gave his order without hesitation:
"Follow me to slaughter other life-bearing planets."
Though thirty percent of the swarm might not be enough to destroy the Skrull Empire or the Kree Empire, it was more than enough to wipe out lesser empires—or other ordinary life-worlds.
As long as there was life, the swarm could devour it and recover swiftly. So for Thanos, this loss was not irreparable.
Just kill more life.
At his command, the vast swarm surged toward the nearest life-bearing planets!
...
Meanwhile, in the Solar System, on the outskirts of Cybertron.
A solar-powered craft with small wings was spiraling toward Cybertron.
Oh no—strictly speaking, it was still called Mars. Cybertron was only the internal designation.
So the craft wasn't about to crash into Mars. It skimmed past the planet instead, using its gravity to slingshot halfway around it. That way, it could scan nearly the entire Martian surface.
The craft steadily closed in on Mars.
At Tony's residence, Friday prompted,
"Sir, the craft is approaching the outer perimeter of Mars. Do you want to use the onboard electronic telescope for live observation?"
Tony was still reading his magic book. Hearing Friday's question, he nodded, slipped a bookmark between the pages, and said,
"Broadcast it directly."
The next moment, a projection appeared before him.
The feed had a slight delay, just a few seconds at most. As the projection lens brought the image into view, Tony squinted, struggling to make out the details.
He waved his hand.
"Zoom in. Max zoom."
"Yes."
The spacecraft's electronic optical telescope began magnifying the image. The projection grew clearer with each level of magnification, but fine details were still out of reach.
The resolution was barely 108p. Yes—108p, not 1080p. So the fact it wasn't pixelated was already something.
"Ah~~~~~!!!"
Tony still drew in a sharp breath.
"What?"
He frowned.
This Mars... why didn't it look the way he imagined? Even at low resolution, he could tell the entire planet's color had changed!
Could it be...
"The energy burst happened on Mars?"
His first assumption was that the high-energy blast had erupted on the planet itself. That could explain the complete change in color.
He waved his hand again, calling up the original coloration of Mars, then compared the two. The difference was staggering.
Mars had always been reddish-yellow. But now?
In Tony's view, Mars was a deep, dark black. That color couldn't be right.
As the craft drew closer, the projection grew sharper, the image quality steadily improving.
Until...
A streak of green appeared in the projection.
"Green?!"
Tony froze in shock.
How could Mars possibly show green?!
What did green mean? It meant plants, life, atmosphere, soil, environment—everything necessary for a biosphere.
So if a planet displayed green—and it wasn't mineral in origin—it meant the likelihood of life was extremely high.
But Mars... Mars had never had life!
Tony was stunned. His own theory—that the high-energy explosion had occurred on Mars—collapsed instantly. Such a blast would have destroyed the planet completely. Life couldn't have emerged from that.
Then what happened to Mars... to bring about such a transformation?
Tony didn't know. He couldn't make blind guesses. All he could do was wait for the craft to keep approaching and analyze the images as they came.
Under his tense gaze, the craft advanced bit by bit.
In truth, it was moving incredibly fast, hundreds of kilometers per second. Yes—hundreds of kilometers per second, hundreds of thousands of meters every second.
In space, without resistance, once speed is reached, it's maintained.
But in the vast cosmos, even that velocity left Tony anxiously waiting.
He watched as the projection magnified little by little. The green patches grew larger, then began to scatter.
Tony's eyes stayed locked on the screen.
"The green is scattered, meaning there are many patches of green on this planet. So the black areas must be the land surface?"
"No, if it's the land surface, why is there no green and no atmospheric clouds?"
"This place is so strange, the environment feels off. Without atmospheric gravity, where would their environment come from?"
"Could the green be from other planetary impacts? Impossible... Wait!"
"What is that blue dot?"
Tony's eyes widened. He stared at the sudden blue speck appearing on the screen!
It was just a tiny, faint dot.
But it was blue!
Blue was wrong. How could Mars have blue?
Strictly speaking, any planet showing blue now should be abnormal.
What kind of phenomenon could produce blue?
Extremely rare!
Even if it occurred naturally, blue would still be incredibly uncommon.
That was why Tony was so shocked.
At this moment, as the spacecraft continued forward, Tony's hands clenched into fists. This discovery was simply too monumental! He grew increasingly eager to know what was happening on Mars right now.
Immediately after, as the spacecraft drew closer, moving objects began appearing on the planet's surface in the feed.
But they were too far away to make out what they were.
It was like trying to see what ants were doing from a standing height. At that distance, you could only make out moving shadows, but not what they truly were.
Yet this alone stunned Tony.
"Something's moving!"
Instantly, it hit him.
"Mars has life!"
Green, blue, moving shadows—wasn't this proof enough that something existed on Mars?
"My God."
Tony gasped.
How long had it been since Mars was last observed? And now it harbored life?
How much time had really passed?
Why could these lifeforms already leave their planet?
He had clearly seen it just now. Those tiny dark shapes were moving between the planet and the blue dot. Which meant... they already had the ability to escape the planet's gravity!
"How could this happen so fast?"
Tony found it hard to believe.
How many years had it taken humanity to reach space? And yet Mars was already traveling back and forth?
Just as Tony was deep in thought, the footage from the spacecraft grew increasingly blurry.
"Hm?"
Tony immediately pulled up the settings.
"Friday, where's the anomaly?"
Friday had actually been running a self-check all along.
"Sir, no anomalies detected. Solar intensity normal, space radiation normal. Everything is normal."
Tony frowned.
"Then why is the feed getting fuzzier? What's causing the interference?"
As he spoke, the image blurred again. It seemed to revert to its previous pixelated state.
Ah, this...
Tony paused, then quickly ordered,
"Adjust the craft's forward angle. Fly sideways."
Friday reminded him,
"Sir, the spacecraft's remaining energy only allows for one maneuver."
"I know. Adjust it quickly."
Under Tony's command, the spacecraft began adjusting its flight angle.
Tony's feed remained blurry, but the rate of distortion genuinely slowed.
"It really is Mars' fault..."
Tony rubbed his chin in shock. He'd been pondering it earlier.
It wasn't the sun, nor radiation. The only thing affecting transmission had to be the target itself.
Now, with this experiment, it was confirmed.
But the spacecraft was moving too fast. Even with the emergency angle adjustment, the broadcast feed grew increasingly blurry.
It felt like it was rolling backward.
The blue dot vanished.
The green vanished too.
Gradually, the screen was about to go completely blank.
"Oh no..."
Tony sighed.
He could already predict this spacecraft was about to be scrapped. But scrapped it would be.
He didn't care. Collecting this much data was already good enough. He'd send a few more over later to take a look.
Tony shook his head. He was just about to close the feed—
Then the camera panned.
A massive metal hand suddenly gripped the craft!
Then that giant hand clenched with force.
Tony's live feed instantly went black.
"!!!"
In an instant, Tony's normally calm eyes widened. His mouth opened, then he immediately ordered Friday,
"Friday, loop the final footage."
After Tony gave the order, the last seconds of footage began looping.
Gripping... crushing... gripping... crushing...
Gripping.
"Stop."
Tony reached out, and the footage halted.
He studied the shape of the hand.
"What kind of hand is this?"
Friday replied,
"Undoubtedly a robotic palm. Proportionally, it should measure 1–2 meters in size."
"A robot..."
Tony examined the fingers and joints. He shook his head.
"This isn't a robot. Its joints aren't drive shafts, but flexible metal. So it's..."
After Tony mentioned flexible metal, Friday began digging through old files to compare with this footage.
After a long while, image after image of Transformers' joints were pulled up for comparison.
And the subject of these images was none other than the Transformer, Jetfire.
Therefore...
Tony finally concluded,
"It's a Transformer."
Once Tony confirmed it, Friday's comparison also finished.
The match was nearly perfect. Tony was absolutely right.
Realizing this, Tony scratched his head.
"So the changes on Mars were caused by Transformers? And the lifeforms there are Transformers?"
"How long have Transformers even existed that they've already remade Mars?"
"An entire planet transformed... how many Transformers would that take?"
"And what exactly happened during that massive energy surge that day?"