The Guardians of the Galaxy

The minute he saw them, Peter Quill pulled back on the Milano's FTL drive and commanded his engines into a hard reverse. The ship slowed as it's exterior friction simulators and orbit manipulators kicked into overdrive and held the ship in a locked, steady orbit above the planet Xandar.

Other ships, everything from pleasure craft to huge commercial freighters, also hit their brakes and held their orbit. In a matter of moments, the skies over Xander became a huge floating traffic jam with thousands of ships hovering over the planet's thermosphere. Nothing moved as hundreds of pilots and captains simultaneously looked out at the huge battleship that was floating less than 20 Kilometers from the planet's satellite belt.

The Chitauri were marching to war.

Technically, flying an armed capital ship anywhere near an occupied planet was illegal but Quill doubted the Chitauri actually cared. They were flying through Xandarian space, no one could stop them without starting a war.

They were probably doing it on purpose, Quill thought, Thanos wants to remind everyone he still has the best space navy in the Galaxy.

Through the main canopy of his ship, Quill could see other ships start to deactivate their engines entirely, turning off their main power systems and float dead in space. Playing dead was an understandable reaction but Peter knew it was also a really suicidal strategy. By turning off their engines they would be invisible to a sensor sweep but they'd also be sitting ducks. It wasn't like the Chitauri didn't know they were there, they could just look out their port window and see a bunch of ships floating over Xandar. If an attack came, the Chitauri fighters could pick apart anything in their eye-line.

Quill kept his engine running...but he did turn off his exterior lights. Just in case.

From his cell in the Kyln, Drax watched the holo feeds as news of the Chitauri's battle group spread through the sector. He knew of the Chitauri, fierce warriors loyal only to Thanos the Mad Titan.

Thanos. The name dripped across his brain like a poison, touching every nerve with rage. He scowled as he remembered that Thanos was the man who had ordered Ronan to attack his home planet. He remembered that the coalition of Chitauri and Sakaarans who raped and pillaged his world and the fires they set in the capital city before killing nearly a million people.

Drax watched the holo feed and started sharpening a new shiv he had made from piece of deck plating. He imagined using it to decapitate his enemies. First Ronan, then Gamora, then Nebula, then, one day, Thanos…

On Krylor, Groot watched the holofeed and felt a terrible sense of foreboding deep in his branches. Rocket was still passed out on the floor of the bar and most of the other patrons were ignoring the terrible news flashing across the screen from Xandar. Why should they care? Xandar was on the other side of the quadrant from Krylor and most of the thugs and goons gathered in this seedy establishment weren't interested in galactic politics even when they weren't drunk. But Groot noticed...and he was worried. What was it his seed mother had said to him? "Beware the dark wind, for it blows before the storm."

It was a wise saying, he often tried to use in conversations with other non-Groots but sadly it always came out as "I Am Groot" which robbed the line of some of it's poetry.

Gamora watched the Chitauri battleships as they crawled across the throne room's view screen. She imagined the hundreds of blood thirsty cyborgs inside the ship sharpening their weapons as they prepared to ransack another world...another world just like hers.

She looked over at Nebula and for a brief moment saw look of pain pass across her sister's face, a look similar to her own. It seems her foster sister had a heart after all.

Thanos, however, only smiled with glee. "Come, here my daughters, sit on papa's lap." Thanos shouted and Gamora felt bile in her throat, "Let us listen to this Earth place scream."

Nova

Nova Prime watched the telemetry on the screen as various aides and technicians brought her minute to minute updates on the invasion of Earth.

The Chitauri fleet had opened their wormhole barely a parsec from Xandar's sovereign space and it was easy to observe their attack patterns through the long range satellites as they lined up at the wormhole's entrance and started flying down into Earth's atmosphere.

And there was nothing they could do. The Chitauri were deliberately sitting just inside of Neutral Space and they were well aware that the entire galaxy was watching this invasion on the Holo-feeds. They deliberately wanted everyone to see what they were doing on Thanos' behalf.

The Chitauri fleet wasn't even that big of a threat, just one mother ship and a few support vessels. If Nova Prime gave the order, four fleets of Nova ships could swoop in and easily blast them out of existence. But that was exactly what Thanos wanted, for the Xandarians to let their emotions get the best of them and start a war. He would giggle with that sick smile on his face as he shredded every peace treaty the central empires had made him sign and then start murdering everyone in existence.

Deep in her guts, Nova Prime knew that this was only the beginning, Thanos was going to start killing off any planet that wasn't aligned to a central empire and the races that could possibly stop him, elder races like the Asgardians, the Olympians, and the Eternals, were either too apathetic or currently busy fighting their own battles. She was powerless.

Still, she wondered, if these unaligned planets had their own Nova Corps member assigned to them, they could actually create a kind of...diversion. A small resistance that might slow down Thanos' master plans.

Nova Prime tapped a button on her console to contact the Centurion in Charge of Recruitment…

Spider-Man

A small group of Chitauri raiders flew over the river and into Brooklyn, breaking away from the main group with orders to kill at least two thousand humans. It would be an easy task since the human armies had lost their air superiority the minute the Chitauri air skiffs hit their upper atmosphere. So Chitauri Battle Leader 44321 was confident that his group could achieve this task.

Flying in formation, 44321 directed his soldiers to open fire upon the various stone structures used by the humans as housing. This was not to destroy the structures, but to cause as much debris to fall upon the humans running to safety in the streets below. It was a common Chitauri tactic known among their people as the "rain of stones", it was usually very effective in causing horrific casualties.

But for some reason, today it wasn't working. Today, every time a large brick or piece of steel fell towards the ground...some unseen force used a net or a wire to keep the debris from hitting the ground. It was extremely frustrating.

44321 flew closer to the ground to find the source of this resistance. He dived near one of the rooftops and peered down at the streets below.

Only to receive a hard kick in the face from a flying blue and red clad being. "Heads up spaceman!" The being shouted.

The Punisher

Chitauri Drone 48109 marched calmly down Yancy Street and randomly opened fire on any living creature that entered his field of vision. This was a common Chitauri ground tactic known as the "slaughter of the animals", Chitauri shock troopers would walk through residential areas and kill and then execute as many people as possible. 48109 followed this tactic to the letter but he also prioritized targets who appeared to be either female or in their immature larval stage.

Humans were known to be horrified by the deaths of females and immature youths.

The Drone had just vaporized an elderly female when it felt a small tap on it's shoulder, it turned to see a large human male wearing some kind of black skull uniform. The human smiled. "Nice gun." He said.

The final thirty seconds of Drone 48109's life were very, very painful.

Daredevil

It was very dark in the subterranean structures under New York and the small attack group of ground Drones were having trouble navigating in the darkness. Their cybernetic skulls had not been fitted for low light engagement and they were forced to use their enhanced hearing instead of their visual structures. At the end of the tunnel they could just barely see a human rail vehicle which had been evacuated after the attack began.

Just as they prepared to entered the vehicle, Drone 39126 felt a strong pair of hands grab him by the shoulder and flip his body into the air. He landed on the electrified third rail and died a horrific, fiery death.

Suddenly from the shadows, the surviving drones heard a mocking voice call out to them. "Please take it easy on me fellas," It whispered, "Because I'm handicapped."

Dr. Strange

In the realm between worlds, where the Vishanti dwell, a sudden disturbance awakened Doctor Stephen Strange from his meditation. His eyes snapped open and he uttered two words. "Infinity Gauntlet." He gasped.

Black Panther

Chitauri Drones entered the United Nations Lobby with minimal resistance, since the building's security forces were more focused on evacuation than on battling alien invaders. Most of the building's occupants had either taken shelter in the building's basement or run out through the rear exits but one very special VIP guest had slipped away from his handlers and was now preparing to do battle in the traditional manner of his mighty people. In the darkness, he slipped on the black hood that had been worn by his father and grandfather before him.

As the Chitauri entered the darkened offices of the Wakanda Delegation, they fanned out in search of someone to execute but all they found was the sound of Vibranium claws unsheathing in the darkness…

Captain Marvel and The X-Men

Major Carol Danvers pulled her F-35 into a tight spiral over the city of New York as she tried desperately to avoid the plasma bursts of the attacking Chitauri hot on her tail. She was the last member of her Squadron still in the air and she knew that if she didn't get the hell out of Manhattan's air space she was as good as dead.

She tried desperately to shake the attacking Chitauri air skiff behind her but it remained glued to her exhaust trail no matter what maneuver she pulled. Carol let one of her hands grip the ejection system and prepared to ditch at the last minute.

But there was no need, another large black aircraft flew across her position and strafed the attacking Chitauri with a loud burst of angry machine gun fire. Carol looked over her shoulder at the friendly pilot, who gave her a quick salute….with a furry blue hand and a fanged smile.

Hercules

Zeus slammed his fist in rage against the arm of his throne. "The blaggard!" He shouted, "The slimy blaggard!" So fierce was the Sky King's rage that force of his voice was enough knock over a nearby bowl of fruit, sending the produce crashing to the floor. Zeus' loyal servants, Hebe and Ganymede, rushed to clean up the mess before his fury turned upon them.

Athena was unfazed by her father's rage and merely raised an eyebrow at his furious reaction to the news of Earth's invasion, "You expected Thanos to honor his word?"

"I expected that the combined might of Asgard and Olympus would be enough to dissuade him from taking such rash action. Obviously I was mistaken." The Lord of the Olympians took a deep breath and lowered his voice to a more manageable level, "Send an envoy to Thanos and inform him that if I see one more Necrocraft in Earth's atmosphere, they can expect my battle ships to follow. Then summon Hercules, tell him to prepare for war."

To Be Continued...