The numbers of Acanti with us had swelled to literally tens of thousands. They came from multiple galaxies for this fight, and the truth and facts echoing through their hypersongs.

They were going to regain the Starsoul of their race!

We swept into the Broodworld system, leading a singing wave of starwhalesong that could shake the firmament.

There was a single abortive attempt to come out and meet us. It died with ridiculous speed, and some of the smaller, newer Acanti stayed back to set them alight and see to it they were devoured.

They came onto the Broodworld, where the main fleets of the system had all gathered in fear and horror at what was sweeping down upon them.

It wasn’t a fight. Their numbers just gave the Acanti more targets to sweep from the stars. Point-defense repeaters discharged like the Starholder’s main cannon, sweeping the sky clear hundreds of thousands of miles ahead of the incoming wave, and the Acanti rolled right over the Brood defenders unstoppably.

They had no way to resist, and it took very little before the queens, including the High Queen, broke to flee, sacrificing as many drones as they had to in order to get out of there.

The Acanti, for the moment, ignored the gargantuan body of their Ancient splayed over the planet below, and followed the Brood as they fled, outrunning them casually and sweeping them closer, coming up from behind and through everything that tried to stop them.

Only when the last terrified broodqueen still alive made it into hyperspace while fleeing wildly did the Acanti slow down, turn back, and begin to feed once more.

-----

It was the size of a moon, even after all these years. The amount of biomass infused with the essence of stars it represented was hard to calculate. It was just too damn big for even the Brood’s bioscience to eat it all away.

But there were a lot of Acanti.

The Soulsinger had again been given preferential treatment. From a little junior of the Acanti he had swelled to a full ten miles long now. He was no longer a child among them, but the size of some of the former elders of his pod.

Those elders were much bigger now, too!

“Directly below this point?” I repeated to the Soulsinger, as he hovered over a certain point above his elder’s head.

The reply was affirmative.

I began to strafe the area below. Flesh that had died long ago and could not be rotted ignited like tinder beneath the alien jungle below, vivic fire rising up the strange trees and plants, harming nothing... but eating the ground away underneath them.

The Soulsinger opened his broad mouth and inhaled. Great streams of vivic fire rose from the inferno before him as he descended to just above the trees, and began to devour the Ancient’s flesh.

I zipped away as I was followed by a pod of larger Acanti. When they pointed out a location, I turned it into a vivic inferno, and they hovered to feed.

The smaller Acanti were up above, devouring the ribs of their elder, up safe above the atmosphere. The Starholder was strafing lines down the bones, and thousands of Acanti were up next to them, inhaling the essence of their Ancient elder, returning his power to his people.

The larger the Acanti were, the further down they went. Vivic infernos clawed at the sky and were inhaled.

------

The many, many pustule-cities of the Brood had naturally all been crippled or outright obliterated. Countless millions of the swarm hadn’t managed to flee the world, and could only hide in the jungle and caverns excavated from acanti-flesh.

It didn’t save the Brood, particularly when the ribs began to fall.

As the Acanti feasted, they grew. As they grew, they feasted faster.

Acanti were still arriving from all across the stars, coming from distant galaxies here to join the feast of rebirth for their species and learn the Sublime Chord. Soon, nigh unto a million Acanti were swarming over the body of the Ancient, and it was actually starting to recede.

The first rib was cut through and fell, a pointed mountain toppling from the sky. The force of its impact destroyed the jungle for a hundred miles around the impact point, and the winds tore across the entire world.

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The alien jungle began to die. Die, and burn vivic, the life and biomass they’d taken from the Ancient now following it and returning to his people. More ribs followed to complete the devastation and destruction of the Broodworld and the creatures upon it.

One day after the first rib fell, a pure note resounded through the whalesong, and pure unadultered joy rang through the ether.

The Soulsinger had eaten his way down to the hidden chamber where the Starsoul had been waiting, and it had joined with the Soulsinger. Finally, the soul of the race was back with them, and their future could change.

A canyon had been devoured down into the skull of the Ancient, and the Soulsinger was within. He did not emerge, not even visible from within, and continued the cremation and feeding on his Ancestor.

--------

It took them a full week. A week to devour the equivalent of a small moon.

Acanti elders hundreds of miles long were now ranging through the skies in great numbers. A score of Pod Elders had reached a thousand miles or more, something not seen since the coming of the Brood however many millennia ago.

The Soulsinger rose from the depression where his Ancestor’s skull had been, over eight hundred miles long himself. The Starsoul of his people reverberated within him.

The planet had been returned to the largely barren rock it was before the Ancestor had crashed there. The winds of falling ribs greater than mountains had scoured the planet, and what life there was fed a vivic hurricane and was swept back to its origin by the whalesong.

The crushed and mangled pustule-cities of the Brood were compacted and devoured for their value in salvage and technology. Salvage credits for the Acanti Improvement Fund!

When they left the Broodworld behind, there was nothing to indicate it had once been the most populated and proudest hive-world of the Brood. It was an ancient rock with barely any life clinging to it once more, with only a massive continent-sized canyon in it thousands of miles long where once had rested the corpse of the Acanti Ancestor.

===========

“Still no answer from Xandar?” Richard’s brow furrowed under his golden helm.

“None, Captain,” Gwen reported calmly. “We are definitely within viable hyperwave transmission range.”

His hands gripped the chair. “I’m tempted to drop out of hyperdrive and teleport the ship directly there as soon as we are within range!” he swore, but his eyes moved to the holosphere.

Arrayed behind the Starholder were literally a million Acanti, pretty much every single one of them far larger than the ship that was leading them through hyperspace. They were already making incredible time with the Acanti Singing them a winding course through hyperspace, and it would literally only take off a few hours if they teleported ahead.

“Are you thinking they are under attack, Captain?” Peggy asked, eyes narrowed. Ripples spread through the whalesong at her words.

“Standard tactic of a system assault is to shut down hyperwave transmissions, and outgoing teleportations.” He grit his teeth and clenched his fist. “Of all the luck...”

“Outgoing teleports? Not incoming, Captain?” I inquired blithely.

He turned to look at me. “You have something?”

“You forgetting we have Thor and his Hammer on board? It’s fully capable of opening up a Portal even in hyperspace directly there. It won’t fit an Acanti, but we can certainly send through an advance delegation.”

“Who on the team?” he asked calmly.

“The Asgardians will follow Thor, as should Hercules. In a fight, they are best against infantry, so any invading landing forces. I will need to go, as I can link to Kismet, who can relay our findings. You will need to go in order for us to be considered valid and not spies. Jewel should go with us. Leave Peggy behind in command, and to serve as the cavalry if required.” I considered things. “I think all the Summers brothers who are along would be excellent in a mass combat situation, if they are willing.”

His eyes flicked over to the Starjammer, literally along for the ride, and to negotiate with the Xandarans on behalf of the Acanti. Corsair’s knowledge of merchants and trade gained through his years of piracy was coming in handy.

“Let’s go. Commander, you have the chair.”

“Yes, Captain!” Peggy confirmed. “Acanti and the Starjammer, please be informed that we may or may not be heading into a combat situation. We are sending an away team in to determine the situation.

“This sounds like an interesting situation you’re getting us into, Commander,” Corsair’s voice came back promptly.

“Captain Ryder would like to invite your boys along on the delegation, Captain Corsair,” Peggy replied.

“Oh, I don’t know. I think after a week of watching space whales grow, I think they’ve lost all their fighting spirit with our potential allies.”

“Hey!” Alex’s voice was very audible behind him.

“I might be wrong,” Corsair also admitted cheerfully.

-----------

“Mjolnir will need a focus to open a Portal to far Xandar,” Thor stated as the team assembled quickly in the hangar. “I hath never visited the fabled arcologies of Xandar,” he admitted.

“Captain, respectfully ask Mjolnir to send us to the worlds that are the home of the Nova Force, and then channel the Nova Force through him. I believe the Hammer will be able to send us there unerringly,” I said calmly.

“Aye,” Thor agreed, proffering his Hammer to Nova.

I had briefed Nova on the matter of dealing with intelligent Weapons, and he bowed respectfully to the simple Hammer. “Mjolnir, I request your aid. The home of my uniform and Nova power is our intended destination. I am hoping that this will be enough for you to send us there.” He carefully and formally laid his hand upon the Hammer and brought up his Nova power for the Hammer to feel and examine.

It trembled under the Runes he had laid his hands upon, and he withdrew his hand.

“Aye, ‘tis more than enough for mine Hammer!” Thor pronounced, and stepped forward. A flick of his wrist, and Mjolnir was spinning in his grip faster than the speed of sound, space-warping magic gathering before it with a rumbling boom.

We were all lined up behind Richard, and I was pretty sure everyone’s faces turned down when the first sounds of explosions and the screams and cries came through the Portal.

“Prepare for potential hostilities!” Richard swore, and charged through the Portal, followed by Jewel, myself, the Summers Brothers, and a bunch of gods who were finally going to get some entertainment.

=========

The X-Men #162 comic where Wolverine flees from the Brood into the jungle growing on the corpse of the Acanti Elder is a classic with some stunning imagery.