"Wait, what did you say?"
"Talos... is dead?"
Hearing the news from the other end of the communicator, Fury looked utterly incredulous.
Coulson did not answer, but the silence itself said everything.
Fury slowly lowered his arm.
This... was bad.
"Who is Talos?"
Seeing Nick Fury fall silent, Steve stepped forward and asked.
"The leader of the Skrulls."
Fury took a deep breath, calmed himself, and explained,
"A moderate. For the past few decades, he had advocated peaceful coexistence with humans.
He was basically my only bridge of communication within this alien refugee camp."
"In other words,"
Steve's jaw tightened,
"these alien refugees are now completely beyond your control."
Fury could only remain silent.
"How many are there?"
Steve pressed on.
"Probably only a few tens of thousands."
There was a forced certainty in Fury's tone.
"When Carol rescued them, there were only that many survivors.
They had stayed hidden all these years. Their reproduction rate couldn't have been that fast."
"Not necessarily."
An abrupt voice cut off Fury's attempt to save face.
Harry turned his head and looked at Fury.
"Director, do you have some misunderstanding about the term 'alien refugees'?"
As he spoke, Harry brought up a holographic image of Avengers Tower.
The image showed a vast, profound starfield.
"This was near-Earth orbit footage captured by my private biological satellite three days ago."
Harry swiped his fingers through the air.
The starfield on the screen rapidly magnified. Against the pitch-black backdrop of space, the starlight in one region showed a strange distortion.
"Optical camouflage?"
Tony narrowed his eyes and leaned closer to the holographic display.
"Was S.H.I.E.L.D.'s near-Earth orbital radar network just for show? How did it not raise an alarm?"
"This thing evaded the satellites' warning network..."
Harry shrugged as he enlarged the image.
As the focus