"Sorry I'm late!" Inside the castle, Carter, who was wearing a women's suit, hugged each of the three people before apologizing.
"You got here faster than I expected. You're a really busy person now!" Josh said with a smile.
That wasn't just flattery—compared to Josh, who had already "retired" from the CIA, Peggy Carter, now the leader of the IMF, was indeed very busy.
Especially since Carter wasn't just a manager—she often liked to take on missions herself, which made her schedule even tighter.
But, as a super soldier, this level of work wasn't really a problem for her.
And it was exactly Carter's hard-working spirit that made both her and the IMF highly valued by the current president, Eisenhower.
"Speaking of which, many recent cases are linked to the smart robots made by your Seven Nations United Tech Group. Many black groups aren't happy about being moved back to Africa, so they've formed several armed resistance groups. They're not a real threat, but they've caused quite a bit of trouble. On the other hand, the Russians have been making moves, too—especially in the Annam region, which is like a ticking time bomb now," Carter said.
"Oh, that's bad news," Josh said, raising an eyebrow. Right, the Vietnam War was about to start.
Then he looked over at Mar-Vell.
"What's wrong?" Carter noticed and looked at Mar-Vell, too. Seeing her old flame looking unhappy, she asked curiously.
"She got a six-month vacation and came to Earth especially to invite you to visit the Kree Empire. But it sounds like you won't have the time." Margaret explained since Mar-Vell didn't speak.
"Ah… is that so?" Carter looked at Mar-Vell in surprise.
Mar-Vell nodded a little sadly.
She hadn't seen her beloved in years and just wanted to have a nice vacation together. Unfortunately, things weren't going her way.
"Six months… that's hard. Things have been really tense lately. Even taking two weeks off would be difficult," Carter said regretfully.
"Is there really no way?" Mar-Vell asked, unwilling to give up.
"Well..." Carter didn't know what to say.
Actually, as the head of a special agency, if Carter really wanted time off, it wasn't impossible.
The real question was whether she wanted to or not.
And knowing her always-put-work-first personality, the answer was probably no.
Her hesitation said a lot already.
Mar-Vell could see that, too.
"Honestly, Peggy, I think you should go," Josh said, breaking the awkward silence.
If Carter said no to the trip to the Kree Empire, then there was no doubt that Josh and Margaret wouldn't be able to go either. Mar-Vell would probably stay on Earth with Carter.
That wouldn't do.
"Oh? Why?" Carter asked. She still really trusted Josh, her former "boss" and long-time friend.
"It's simple, Peggy. I'm sure you've heard from Mar-Vell—besides the Kree Empire, there are countless other alien civilizations in the universe, right?" Josh said calmly.
"That's right!" Carter nodded.
"Then do you think humanity will always stay trapped in this little corner of the solar system?" Josh asked again.
"Of course not. Sooner or later, we humans will head out into space!" Carter replied firmly.
"In that case, don't you think we should learn how power is spread out across the universe ahead of time to prepare for the future? Sure, Mar-Vell can show us many things, but don't you think we should see it for ourselves?" Josh said.
His reasoning sounded noble.
Carter's work in the IMF was important, but ultimately, it was still just about Earth's internal conflicts.
But a "research trip" to space? More officially, it would be for the future of all humankind.
After Josh said that, Carter couldn't think of a good reason to refuse.
"Yeah, Peggy, the things I can show you are limited. You can only really understand a lot of it if you see it with your own eyes. This is a great chance," Mar-Vell added.
"...Alright, that is a very solid reason. I'll go. You really know how to come up with the perfect excuse to take a vacation!" After thinking for a bit, Peggy Carter smiled helplessly and agreed.
"Haha, it's partly for me, too. Margaret and I really want to see what alien civilizations and outer space look like. It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. But if you didn't come, we probably wouldn't be able to go—Mar-Vell would definitely stay here with you!" Josh said, laughing, half joking and half serious.
Carter smiled at his words. Maybe it was Josh's easygoing attitude that made her trust him so much.
After years of emotional influence, Carter was now completely taken in by Josh's charm.
At this point, if Josh told her that Captain America was secretly part of Hydra, she might actually believe him.
So, the trip to the Kree Empire was decided.
Three days later, Josh, Margaret, and Peggy Carter boarded Mar-Vell's Kree cruiser.
During those three days, Carter learned that Josh and Margaret were no longer ordinary people.
At first, she was surprised, but after that, it made sense.
Although she had become a super soldier earlier and had stepped into the "extraordinary" world first—she had to admit that it was Josh who helped her take that step.
Everything she knew about the world beyond the normal one, including information about Dracula, came from Josh.
Now that she knew Josh and his wife had powers, too, it wasn't hard for her to accept.
As mentioned earlier, interstellar travel in the Marvel Universe is quite special. Faster-than-light travel requires extremely advanced technology—even a powerful empire like the Kree hasn't fully mastered it.
Instead, most space travel relies on wormhole jumping.
Of course, wormholes form in two ways: naturally or through technology.
But the second kind—manmade wormholes—are very rare. Most are natural.
The space wormhole near Earth naturally belongs to the first kind—one that formed naturally. It was located between Earth's orbit and Mars' orbit, making it extremely well hidden.
According to Mar-Vell, she discovered this wormhole by accident while chasing a fugitive. She followed it and ended up finding Earth.
She later found records of Earth from a thousand years ago in the Kree Empire's database, but those records didn't mention this jump point.
And because of her friends like Carter and Josh, Mar-Vell chose not to update the Kree about it.
After hearing her explanation, Josh understood—if not for his presence, the jump point would have been reported.
This explained why Mar-Vell had come to Earth randomly in the original storyline to study the Tesseract and develop faster-than-light engines, as well as why both the Skrulls and the Kree knew about the jump point and could arrive on Earth so quickly.
But now...
Soon, the spaceship entered the jump point. After a brief moment of disorientation, they emerged into a completely new and unfamiliar starfield.
"This is the Tri System. In Earth terms, it's Brand 2147. It's about eight light-years away from the solar system," Mar-Vell explained as she opened the protective panel on the ship's viewing window and looked out at the glowing star and colorful sky.
"This is an old star system, and there's no life in it."
"It's beautiful," Josh said, standing by the window, amazed by the stunning view.
Margaret leaned against him, equally captivated by the scene outside.
They had both seen space before—over the past few years, they had explored the entire solar system.
But this was their first time outside of it, and the difference in scenery was clear.
If even Josh and Margaret were amazed, then Peggy Carter, who was in space for the first time, was completely mesmerized.
"Haha, space really does look amazing at first," Mar-Vell said with a smile. "But once you've seen enough of it, all that's left is loneliness."
Having spent most of her life drifting through the stars, she was used to such views.
"But this star system is still a nice place, isn't it?" Josh said meaningfully.
"Maybe. But it's too remote. It doesn't have much development value," Mar-Vell replied casually, missing his hidden meaning.
The next jump point was in deep space, beyond the Tri System—about 20 astronomical units away (A/N: 1 AU is about 149 million kilometers).
With Mar-Vell's ship flying at 800,000 Mach, nearly light-speed, it would take about a day and a half to reach it.
After enjoying the view for a while, Josh found an excuse to take Margaret back to their room to rest. Mar-Vell also switched the ship to autopilot and escorted Carter back to her room.
The two women hadn't seen each other in years, and it didn't take long for sparks to fly.
Meanwhile, in another part of the ship, Josh wasn't just relaxing.
"How's the situation?" he asked as soon as he entered his room. He walked over to the desk and tapped a recorder sitting there.
It was the latest portable recorder model developed on Earth.
However, it didn't use cassette tapes anymore; it ran on optical discs.
Under Josh's influence, Earth's technology had gone through multiple major revolutions in just the few short years since he arrived in this world.
Don't even mention color TVs—personal computers and mobile phones were already becoming common.
After all, intelligent robots were also being gradually introduced, so it's easy to imagine how far other technologies had progressed.
While it might not have reached the level of Josh's original 21st-century world, it was at least comparable to the technological level of the 1980s to 1990s.
This recorder was one of the few devices Josh brought on board under the pretense of "listening to music."
But it only looked like a recorder on the surface.
With a few mechanical clicks and whirrs, it quickly transformed into a small robot—a mini Transformer: Frenzy, one of Soundwave's cassette warriors. (TL/N: Mini-Cassettes also known as Cassette Warriors, Infiltration Troopers, or simply Cassettes are Transformers whose alternate mode is an audio cassette)
"Master, I've already cracked this ship's entire control system and extracted all its data," Frenzy reported.
"Mar-Vell didn't notice a thing. While I can't be sure if the Kree Empire's technology is inferior to ours overall, I can confirm that this particular ship is barely on par with our landing craft."
In just a few short hours since boarding, Frenzy had secretly taken over the entire ship.
"Excellent. Send word, tell them to move," Josh ordered, nodding with satisfaction.
"At once, my master!" Frenzy replied, transforming again into a radar-like antenna.
A series of signals were transmitted through the ship's communication system and traveled across the vastness of space back to the solar system.
At the wormhole's location—an area that had seemed still and empty—a ripple flickered briefly.
A massive fleet of hundreds of starships emerged from the void.
"Move out!" came the command from the bridge of the largest ship. Vereesa, who wore elegant leather armor and carried a longbow on her back, issued the order.
This was the First Ranger Fleet of Ouroboros.
The first space fleet of the Ouroboros organization.
Vereesa was its commander.
With her order, the ships entered the wormhole in an orderly fashion.
Soon, they arrived at the Tri System.
Because Mar-Vell's ship had already moved on—and the entire ship was now under Frenzy's hidden control—and because Mar-Vell herself was "busy" with Peggy Carter, she had no idea any of this was happening.
The fleet quickly set up defensive outposts around the jump point and began dispatching scout ships deeper into the region.
Once the First Ranger Fleet secured a foothold in the Tri System, more transport ships arrived from the solar system through the wormhole.
This star system was directly connected to Earth via the jump point and absolutely had to be under human control.
Naturally, this star system would become Ouroboros's first colony.
And as for the original "owner" of this system—the Kree Empire?
Who cared?
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