Ronan the Accuser was feeling very irritated.
He had thought that dealing with a band of space pirates would be a trivial matter if he handled it personally. But who could have expected that these space pirates called the Death Vanguard, while not particularly powerful, would be so extraordinarily slippery?
Not only was their ship ridiculously fast, they also had all sorts of tricks up their sleeves. They had even smeared cow dung all over his beloved Dark Aster.
It did little damage, but the insult was immense.
So even though Ronan knew perfectly well that the Death Vanguard was leading him around by the nose, he couldn't swallow his anger. He was utterly determined to catch them.
Then the Crossbone Vanguard led the Dark Aster straight into the Nova Corps' encirclement.
"Fine. I'll take this opportunity to destroy Xandar as well!"
Ronan decided that since he had already come this far, he might as well attack the Nova Corps too.
The Necrocraft Fleet became locked in combat with the Nova Corps' ships, while the Dark Aster remained single-mindedly focused on chasing the Crossbone Vanguard.
"Damn it! If my Blade Fleet hadn't been completely wiped out, I'd teach you all a lesson!"
Angela grumbled resentfully as she piloted the Crossbone Vanguard, fending off attacks from both Ronan and the Nova Corps.
At first, the Nova Corps thought the Death Vanguard and Ronan were on the same side, so they attacked both indiscriminately. Naturally, Angela refused to take that lying down and immediately returned fire.
Fortunately, the Nova Corps weren't blind. After fighting the Crossbone Vanguard for a while, they realized it seemed to be fleeing the Dark Aster. They soon stopped attacking it on their own initiative and began contacting the Death Vanguard members aboard.
**"What do you want?! If