The X-Men gather over the body of the fallen Colossus
while Tigra talks to the recently arrived police. Her Avengers credentials
don’t get her very far, while Cyclops feels a faint pulse from Colossus, but is
at a loss for what to do. Suddenly, air traffic control sensors all around New
York go crazy, as a large spaceship appears over the New York skyline and beams
the X-Men up into the ship, before taking off for parts unknown! The ship, it
turns out, belongs to the Starjammers, who have a joyful reunion with their
leader Corsair! The Starjammers’ medic, Sikorsky, a bug-like creature, gets to
work on attempting to save Colossus, while the X-Men can only watch a pray.
Meanwhile, on the Shi’ar ship, Kitty Pryde continues to fiddle with the
clothes-making apparatus before a hologram of Lord Admiral Samedar, one of the
Shi’ar council, appears. He updates Kitty and Nightcrawler on the status of the
X-Men’s mission, including showing them the footage of Colossus’ supposed death
at Deathbird’s hands! They know they were shown this footage specifically to
cause them pain and Kitty swears she’ll get them back for this!
Samedar then ends his transmission and makes another
call to Deathbird, revealing himself to be secretly working for her, promising
that the Earth will be destroyed on schedule, as long as the X-Men don’t
achieve their goal. Meanwhile, aboard Deathbird’s ship, Charles Xavier wakens
from terrible visions to be reunited with his love Lilandra, both now
Deathbird’s prisoners. Deathbird confronts her prisoners, and Lilandra reveals
that Deathbird is her older sister, who feels that the throne is rightfully hers
even though she was cast out from the Shi’ar, even going so far as killing
their parents to achieve the title! Aboard the Starjammer, Cyclops and Corsair
finally have a chance to talk, and Scott asks his father what happened all
those years ago. He tells the story, how the four of them were returning from a
vacation in Alaska, when suddenly, their plane was overtaken by an alien
vessel, despite Corsair’s fancy flying. His wife strapped Scott and Alex to the
lone parachute and pushed them out of the plane. They saw the parachute catch
fire before being beamed away to the alien ship, thinking that their beloved
children had perished.
Aboard the ship, Corsair and his wife were separated,
and he was put into a slave pen. He escaped and found Emperor D’Ken with his
wife, who then killed her before Corsair’s eyes, to prolong his suffering. He
was sent to the star pits, where he met the other Starjammers and they escaped
to roam the galaxy fighting the Empire. Cyclops and Corsair share a touching
moment before it is announced that they’ve found Deathbird’s ship! Just as
they’re about to overtake it, both ships are swallowed by an enormous alien
vessel and the Brood start to swarm the Starjammer! The freshly healed
Colossus, along with Wolverine, Storm, and the Starjammers begin a furious
battle with the Brood! The Brood turn off the artificial gravity within the
ship, hoping to put their foes at a disadvantage, but the Starjammers equip the
X-Men with grip soles on their shoes, to help them adhere to any surface!
While they fight the Brood, Cyclops and Corsair head
to rescue Xavier and Lilandra. The two teams meet up and Xavier is glad to see
Colossus alive. Meanwhile, Storm had stayed behind to tangle with Deathbird.
Deathbird throws a javelin which narrowly misses Storm, imbedding in the side
of the vessel, which starts to bleed. This clues Storm in on the fact that the
giant vessel is a living being, being controlled by the Brood, and her
momentary shock allows Deathbird to knock her out of the ship and into space!
The Starjammer plows right out of the vessel and beams Storm back aboard just
in the nick of time! Bad news though; though they have achieved their goal and
saved Lilandra, they won’t be able to reach Earth in time before the deadline
is up, so the Earth may still be doomed! To be continued!