The Campaign Against Ronan / The Campaign Begins

After Atlas took Xandar's contract, he immediately pointed out the major loopholes in Xandar's defenses and advised them to pull more forces back to defend the capital planet.

Nova did as he suggested. As the supreme leader of Xandarian civilization, she had the authority to act decisively during wartime. So long as Dane's proposals were reasonable, she accepted them all.

Thus, when Ronan arrived at Xandar's homeworld once more with the Power Stone embedded in his Universal Hammer, he discovered that the troops at his command simply could not break through Atlas and the Nova Corps' combined defensive line.

Ronan, wielding the Power Stone, could indeed easily destroy an entire fleet. Without equally powerful energy to offset it, even the most impregnable line of defense could collapse.

Yet Atlas happened to possess such power.

When Ronan used the Power Stone to attack the combined fleet, his first wave of attacks did achieve some results.

But when he tried to repeat the tactic, Cortana promptly guided the Bifrost to the battlefield, where it canceled out the destructive energy unleashed by the Power Stone.

What remained of the Bifrost's energy then destroyed a large number of Necrocraft and warships under Ronan's command, dealing him heavy losses.

This forced Ronan to temporarily withdraw and avoid the Bifrost's edge.

The allied forces thus secured a temporary victory.

They successfully kept the enemy outside the homeworld and upheld Xandar's dignity.

If Ronan had truly broken into Xandar as he had in the movie and caused extensive damage, the blow to Xandar's image would have been devastating.

But afterward, Ronan changed his strategy.

He no longer pinned his hopes on destroying Xandar in one stroke. Instead, he chose to gradually cut away Xandar's strength.

Although Xandarian civilization claimed to possess millions of planets, its system of