Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Meditating Drax the Destroyer is thinking of himself and his currently-dead daughter Moondragon when Gamora and Mantis return from last issue's mission to retrieve his soul (that of the clone's original identity Arthur Douglas) from Soul World. He tries to consume it but it doesn't work.
But they can't deal with that now because Star-Lord's sister Empress Victoria of Spartax is leading a space armada to destroy Grootspace. (Potted summary:- Groot was transformed into a horde of asteroids called Grootfall which transformed a sector of space called the Manifold Territories into Grootspace, seemingly killing the Guardians Of The Galaxy and all its inhabitants. However they weren't dead but assimilated, and Grootspace is the restored homeland of Groot's people the Flora Colossi. Groot rebirthed most of the Guardians (Drax, Gamora, Mantis, Nebula, Rocket Raccoon and Peter Quill) to help him complete the transition and bring back the rest of the 'dead'.) Now in Groot-as-spaceship they prepare to repel the attack.
Peter on the hull of the Grootship gets a message from his sister stripping him of his rank as Star-Lord and High Prince of Spartax. But he also faces a mechanoid on the hull of the Spartoi flagship which contains his old friend Captain Krakeen who blames him for his current condition and the defeat of his troops in earlier issues. They exchange weapons-fire which is a signal for the rest of the GOTG to start fighting.
Drax and Mantis in war-mode 'distract' the enemy by destroying some of their ships while Gamora and Nebula invade the Spartoi flagship. They fight their way to the solar engine which cyborg Nebula manages to eject, stalling the ship. Rocket is piloting a little thing he rustled up which now engulfs the solar engine so he can he can fly it to where it will become a pocket sun for the Groot system. But the angry Empress is prepared to sacrifice the rest of her armada (except the heavily-shielded flagship she's on) by firing everything they've got to explode the lost engine.
Gamora wants to assassinate Victoria but Nebula talks her down. Rocket was supposed to trigger the solar engine into a sun remotely but he has to stay as pilot to avoid the Spartoi weapons. Drax leaves the armada-bashing to Mantis and grabs an engine off a ship which he uses to follow Rocket. Quill and Krakeen are still shooting at each other until a blast from Peter's gun cuts the mecha in 2. Then he leaps from the Grootship through a window into the control room of the flagship to confront his sister. He says he's come to retake the throne of Spartax.