Synopsis / Summary / Plot
A Clint Eastwood-style Star-Lord (Peter Quill) on an alien 'horse' gallops out of the desert into the little town of Solitude on the planet Galilee IV in the Manifold Territories. He still wears the G(uardians) symbol on his pistol holster. He's greeted by an alien child with the G on his computing device(?) who wants to give him the 'good news' that Star-Lord is risen and salvation is at hand. (This child provides a voiceover for the beginning and end of this issue.) Peter retracts the bottom of his helmet to advise him to go home because things are about to get ugly ...
... which proves correct when the local Sheriff tells him to leave town. Quill hints that *he* is the promised Star-Lord come to save them because soon Solitude will be destroyed. He advises the Sheriff to put his guns away before ...
... Gamora throws a knife through his brain. Peter objects that they're here to save people not kill them. Gamora discards an empty bottle of booze and philosophically points out that everyone dies eventually. Nebula arrives on a Star Wars-type hoverbike and reluctantly agrees with her sister. She reminds them that the Corplexians' home planet was destroyed by Galactus 6 years ago and this town may house the only surviving refugees. And now they're going to be hit by the 'Fall. Nebula also reckons that the town is probably run by a local gang. Gamora burps and asks if Nebula can suggest where they will find their advance scout who's been softening the populace up. Nebula says her probability engine can't predict *her* very well, but she'd guess the Saloon. She herself takes up a sniper post.
Inside that Saloon Gamora and Star-Lord find Mantis who's been putting on a burlesque performance. She thanks her enthusiastic audience of miners and ends with "I've been Mantis and we are the Guardians Of The Galaxy". Now she warns them about the looming threat and urges them to evacuate the town.
Then the predicted local gang shows up and shoots Quill's 'horse'. They call the Guardians out saying that they've heard that the GOTG abandoned their police duties a year ago. And in the lawless Manifold Territories war veterans like them run things. The Guardians prepare for battle, including Mantis transforming into a warrior personality and accoutrements. They dispose of the gang in a double-page battle collage.
When it's over SL tells the townsfolk to go to waiting transport outside town. Mantis transforms back to her vaudeville self to encourage them. Nebula tells them that the 'Fall has arrived. The last surviving gang member tells them they won't get past the mountain, before Gamora guts him with her swords. Mantis leads them out of town and the alien kid asks her if they're really the Guardians, and what happened to them? She doesn't answer. Gamora is more brusque in her urging stragglers to keep up as they approach a hovertrain with only 2 'carriages'. Peter helps her stuff them into the crowded 'boxes'. And then they're off.
It turns out that their actual ticket to survival is waiting beyond the mountain that the gangster said they wouldn't survive crossing. And the train runs into a giant metal monstrosity that Quill calls a Lowkesh War Walker. He fears they've got nothing that could take down *that*. Nebula chides him for his lack of faith as Drax suddenly appears (in a horned barbarian getup), grips the base of 1 robotic leg and topples the war machine to its ruin.
A now-childish Mantis welcomes him onto the train. Some of the Corplexians want to get out here now the bad guys and machine have been dealt with. But Gamora finally lets them know that it's not just their town that is doomed but the whole planet, and the spaceship they now see is going to take them off it. And we and the aliens now learn that there's no room for them inside the ship so the 2 container boxes will be attached to the outside. The aliens protest but Gamora shuts them up. And she won't even let them have any of her whiskey.
However Mantis insists on staying with the settlers. And as they prepare to fly away she tells the kid to look out of the window and she'll see what happened to the GOTG. We see a giant fiery vegetable being behind them and we hear Drax and Gamora announce Grootfall as they finish tethering the boxes to the spaceship. Nebula thinks the extra weight will slow them down too much to escape the impact wave. Peter is more optimistic.
The starship has to ride out the shock wave. Then giant roots start breaking up the planet. They also reach out to the spacecraft and latch on to the 2nd box. Drax is trying to hold the 2 boxes together and asks Gamora to help him but she believes it's a lost cause. Star-Lord joins them and uses his element gun to solder the 1st box to the ship but the 2nd box breaks free, and the lessened weight allows pilot Nebula to achieve escape velocity. Quill says half a win is about on par for the Guardians.
Then they try to contact Mantis who stayed with the passengers. She's OK because she was in the 1st box. Peter asks her hopefully if the 2nd box had enough speed to reach orbit but she has to report that she is watching Groot's tendrils dragging it down and impaling the Corplexians. She says "They are now Groot". The Guardians 'celebrate' their 'victory'.