"What did you say? Gamora is missing?"
Ever since Ronan had assigned Gamora the task of retrieving the Orb, he had focused entirely on dealing with Xandar. He had no time to check on her progress, and only when his subordinate reported to him did he learn that Gamora had vanished while searching for the Orb.
"According to the information we gathered, Gamora tracked down the Ravager who appeared on Mogla and captured him on Contraxia. After that, they left aboard a ship, and neither has been heard from since."
Ronan's subordinate knelt below him and continued his report.
"However, according to eyewitnesses, she apparently located the Death Vanguard after capturing that Ravager."
Star-Lord and Gamora had caused quite a commotion on Contraxia, so Ronan's men had pieced together what happened without much effort.
"Death Vanguard!"
Ronan slammed his fist into his throne's armrest in fury, shattering the hard stone it was made from.
"It seems these newly emerged space pirates are more capable than I expected..."
After venting his anger, Ronan rose from his throne and commanded the subordinate still kneeling and trembling below him, "But this ends here! Deploy the entire Necrocraft Fleet. Even if you have to search the whole universe, dig those pirates out for me!"
Although Ronan wanted to continue targeting Xandar, he was even less willing to anger Thanos.
Gamora was Thanos's daughter. If Thanos learned that Ronan had lost her, never mind helping him attack Xandar-Thanos might turn around and help Xandar eliminate him instead.
At Ronan the Accuser's command, countless Necrocraft flew out of the spiral-shaped mothership, the Dark Aster, and scattered in every direction to search for the space pirates.
Meanwhile, the Crossbone Vanguard, which Ronan was hunting, had arrived on a planet called Vormir.
"Oh! This place sure is desolate."