Last issue, the other X-Men found out that Steven
Lang’s Sentinel base is not on earth at all, which left Banshee, Wolverine, and
Jean Grey floating in space after trying to escape. Steven Lang dispatches some
Sentinels to retrieve the heroes, warning them not to try escaping again. Simultaneously,
Dr. Peter Corbeau accesses Norad’s Valhalla Base Data Bank to determine where
the Sentinels are likely to be coming from, eventually learning that they are
originating from an abandoned SHIELD orbital platform. We then cut later to a
news broadcast with Roger Grimsby and Geraldo Rivera, reporting on the increase
in anti-mutant paranoia following the Sentinels reappearance, as well as the
mysterious midnight launch of the Starcore Shuttle, piloted by Peter Corbeau
and his mystery crew. The crew is a mystery, of course, because this is the
cover used to allow the X-Men to travel into space to rescue their teammates
without drawing too much suspicion.
As the shuttle prepares to launch, Nightcrawler
notices that Colossus looks to being feeling ill, before Colossus suddenly
transforms into his armored form, bursting out of his spacesuit. The shocked
Nightcrawler asks what’s wrong and Colossus shares that he had a cosmonaut
brother that died when his ship exploded on the launch pad, making this whole
situation very stressful for him. As the shuttle counts down for liftoff, each
of the passengers reflects upon their situation. Cyclops determines that he
can’t lose Jean after all they’ve been through, and Storm does her best to
remain calm, reminding herself that her friends need her. Colossus feels
helpless despite all his power, and finally Nightcrawler worries for Colossus
while also wishing that his comrades from the circus could see him on such a
grand adventure. The shuttle shoots off into space and the nearby Starcore One
research station reports that they’re heading right for some of the worst solar
storms in recent memory!
We then take a small detour to the village of Dal’Roon
in Ireland. There, a solicitor named Flaherty sends out an urgent letter
addressed to Sean Cassidy, Banshee, before he is killed by Banshee’s cousin,
Black Tom Cassidy, who’s got mysterious plans of his own upcoming. Back with
the X-Men, Corbeau radio’s the abandoned SHIELD station that Steven Lang is
using as his base, requesting sanctuary from the solar storm. Lang’s sensors
pick up all the mutants aboard the shuttle and he sends out Sentinels to attack
the ship. Corbeau does his best to avoid them, but one manages to blow a hole
in the side of the ship. Storm’s lifeline gets cut in the blast and she is
sucked out of the shuttle and into the cold of space! Meanwhile, Colossus is
also suffocating, no longer having any space suit, forcing Corbeau to ram the
shuttle straight through the side of the base to safety! All alone, Storm finds
a Sentinel chasing her but also discovers that she can manipulate the solar
winds, just as she does the weather on earth. She destroys the attacking
Sentinel and notes how human it sounds, wondering if this is the best way to
honor her parents’ memory and her oath not to kill.
Meanwhile inside, the rest of the X-Men battle the
Sentinels and workers that came to stop them. Nightcrawler saves Cyclops from a
Sentinel then flips Colossus up to destroy another. Cyclops destroys the final
Sentinel while noting how easy it was to defeat them. Storm makes her
reappearance at that moment, delighting Colossus, who lifts her up, overjoyed
that she isn’t dead. Cyclops then gets a mental call from Jean, telling him to
hurry. Cyclops orders the other three to go rescue Banshee and Wolverine in
B-Deck, while he heads to main mission with Corbeau to rescue Jean and
Professor X. Cyclops reaches main mission and savagely attacks Steven Lang in a
display of ferocity that would make Wolverine proud, before getting blasted
from behind by an unseen force. Jean reacts with disbelief and Lang reveals
that is what Project Armageddon has really all been about as the remaining
X-Men come face to face with what seem to be the original X-Men and Professor
X, as “Professor X” orders that his students kill the new, imposter X-Men! To
be continued!