[More and more spacecraft continued jumping through the wormholes, their golden hulls gleaming as they filled the entire viewscreen with an overwhelming display of military might.]
["Pilot units... release the advance strike teams immediately!"]
[As High Priestess Ayesha gave her commanding order, each of the larger spacecraft mechanically separated their front sections, which transformed into independent attack vessels with deadly precision.]
["Our long-range sensors have detected that the stolen battery is somewhere beneath the planet's surface. All units, begin your descent dive immediately!"]
[After delivering this tactical command, Ayesha personally took the lead and flew her golden flagship directly toward Ego's living planetary body, though it was painfully obvious that she had absolutely no idea what kind of cosmic horror she and her fleet were about to face!]
[Kraglin stared at the massive fleet of warships flying in perfect formation toward the planet and immediately realized that something was terribly wrong. He had recognized those distinctive golden hulls - those were definitely Sovereign military vessels.]
["Uh… Captain? Captain? Can you hear me up there?"]
[Inside the diving spacecraft, Kraglin's increasingly urgent voice crackled through the communication system, but the signal was very weak and almost completely drowned out by the thunderous rumbling of explosions and engine noise.]
[Yondu maintained control of their plummeting ship while shouting over the chaos: "Why did Ego specifically ask you to come to his planet?"]
["He needs my genetic connection to the celestial light to help him systematically destroy the entire universe! He also wanted to teach me how to properly control cosmic energy!" Star-Lord explained while working the controls.]
[Yondu immediately identified the crucial tactical information, "So you can actually control this power?"]
[Star-Lord tilted his head with obvious embarrassment, "A little bit! I managed to make a small energy ball!"]
[Yondu looked at him with complete confusion, "You made a ball? That's it?"]
[Star-Lord knew that his achievement sounded incredibly pathetic, but it had been his first attempt and he honestly couldn't manage anything more complex even with intense concentration!]
["I tried my absolute best to focus on this, but a glowing sphere is all I could come up with!"]
[Yondu looked at him with a mixture of amusement and disbelief, "Did you really think about it seriously? Do you honestly think I use my head to control this whistling arrow?"]
[But just as he turned his head to demonstrate, their spacecraft accidentally collided with a massive protruding rock formation, and the entire ship began shaking violently from the impact.]
[The outer cabin wall scraped against the stone surface with tremendous force, causing a spectacular shower of sparks to fly in all directions, and very quickly a large hole was torn completely through the spacecraft's hull.]
[Fortunately, they managed to quickly adjust their flight posture and regain some measure of stability before the damage became catastrophic.]
[It was only then that they discovered their spacecraft had entered an enormous hollow cavern filled with countless tangled root systems that pulsed with organic energy.]
[And positioned in the exact center of this massive underground chamber, Ego's true core was finally visible, with more than a dozen thick and incredibly complex root systems extending outward from the central brain-like structure.]
[Mantis looked at the awe-inspiring scene outside through the newly created hole in their spacecraft, then moved to the other side to get a better view.]
["There! That glowing structure is the true core of Ego! Everything else is just extension!"]
[Gamora assessed their target with her tactical training and realized immediately that this was not going to be an easy objective to destroy.]
["The protective shell looks incredibly thick! This is going to require serious firepower! Rocket!"]
[Rocket responded with calm professional confidence: "Don't worry, leave it to me!"]
[He rapidly pressed several control buttons in sequence, then pushed the targeting joystick to gather all the spherical metal weapons into a single firing slot positioned directly in front of their spacecraft.]
[Mantis warned them with growing urgency in her voice: "We have to hurry! Ego will detect our presence and find us very soon!"]
[Yondu skillfully maneuvered their damaged spacecraft to hover in a stable position directly in front of the massive core structure.]
[Rocket pushed both control joysticks forward simultaneously, and the spacecraft's weapons systems made a deep humming sound as the metal targeting disk began rotating at high speed.]
[Brilliant red laser beams erupted from those precisely positioned metal spheres, creating a concentrated beam of destructive energy.]
[Where Ego's core was being attacked by the sustained laser bombardment, enormous amounts of smoke began pouring out, and the supposedly impenetrable protective shell was gradually being penetrated by the intense heat.]
["If our drilling laser penetrates all the way to the core itself, he will die!"]
[Rocket maintained the high-intensity firing pattern, and the protective shell was systematically melted through by the powerful laser array, forming streams of molten material that began flowing outward like lava.]
"It looks like they've provided us with a crucial tactical insight! The core doesn't appear to be buried very deep beneath the surface!" Tony Stark squinted his eyes and rapidly calculated the approximate distance between the core's location and the planet's surface based on their observed flight time and descent rate.
Although his calculations weren't perfectly precise, he didn't require overly exact data for strategic planning - just a reasonably accurate estimate would be sufficient for their purposes.
The Earth-based team had already calculated that attempting to destroy Ego directly from the exterior would be extremely difficult. It wasn't that such destruction was impossible, but Ego would actively fight back and resist any external attack. This wasn't an ordinary planet they were dealing with.
They had developed a sophisticated decapitation strategy, with the Nova Corps fleet and Yondu's Ravager forces attracting Ego's primary attention and defensive capabilities, while the core Avengers team used the Rainbow Bridge to break through directly to the planetary core.
Since they couldn't determine the exact coordinates of Ego's core structure, they couldn't use the Rainbow Bridge to launch a direct assault on Ego's consciousness. If they failed to kill him in a single strike, it would only lead to a catastrophic imbalance in the cosmic energy of the Nine Realms.
So in their carefully planned operation, Captain Marvel would deliver the experimental black hole bomb that Tony and Rocket had developed directly into Ego's inner core. If the black hole bomb couldn't completely destroy Ego's consciousness, Thor and Captain Marvel would deliver the killing blow with their combined power.
However, this plan contained a significant flaw - the black hole bomb was extremely unstable in its current prototype form, so the assault team couldn't carry it directly on their bodies during the dangerous infiltration and would need to have it pre-positioned in a secure location.
Then, after Captain Marvel and Thor reached the designated target coordinates, either Wanda or Doctor Strange would open a precision portal to transport the black hole bomb directly to them, allowing the team to complete the final placement procedure.
After that, the entire team would need to escape through the portal as quickly as physically possible. Rocket's preliminary calculations estimated that the actual lethal killing range of this black hole bomb would be approximately 300 meters, but the gravitational distortion field could potentially reach 10 kilometers or even more!
Why were these merely estimates? Because this was an experimental weapon that Rocket had designed and built under extreme time pressure. It had never been tested under controlled conditions and his projections were based purely on theoretical calculations and intuition.
Afraid that the black hole bomb alone might not be sufficient to kill a cosmic entity like Ego, Rocket had also prepared a secondary conventional explosive device, modified from arc reactor technology. Its destructive yield was approximately equivalent to a medium-sized atomic bomb.
If this type of weapon were ever used anywhere on Earth, even Tony Stark would face court-martial proceedings. Only Rocket had been brave enough to suggest deploying such devastating firepower in a populated area.
Even Rocket himself felt that this level of destructive power might not be sufficient and had wanted to create something significantly more powerful, but unfortunately they simply didn't have enough time for additional research and development.
[At this critical moment, Kraglin's voice came through the communicator again with much greater clarity, "Captain? Are you receiving me?"]
[This time, without the interference of background noise and explosions, Yondu finally managed to hear his transmission clearly.]
["What's the situation, Kraglin!"]
[Seeing that Yondu had finally responded to his urgent calls, Kraglin immediately delivered his warning: "Hey! Remember that arrogant golden woman Ayesha and her people?"]
[Yondu couldn't understand why Kraglin was mentioning Ayesha at such a critical moment, "Yeah! What about her?"]
["Uh…" Before Kraglin could finish delivering his warning, Yondu let out a scream of pure terror as if he had just seen a cosmic nightmare.]
["Oh! We're completely screwed!!!"]
[On their starboard side, they could see an enormous number of Sovereign warships flying in attack formation directly toward their position.]
[Star-Lord turned his head and his eyes widened in shock and disbelief. He immediately yanked hard on the control joystick, causing their spacecraft to suddenly lean back at a steep angle and begin a desperate escape maneuver.]
[Everything happened so suddenly that he didn't even have time to signal Rocket to cease the laser bombardment, which left a long, deep scar burned into Ego's protective shell before they broke off their attack.]
[Rocket quickly realized what was happening and immediately shut down the laser weapons systems.]
[Star-Lord took control of their damaged spacecraft and began a frantic escape flight pattern around Ego's massive core structure. Behind them, densely packed Sovereign attack craft pursued relentlessly, and a continuous barrage of energy projectiles flew past them with deadly precision.]
[Very quickly, one of the enemy shells scored a direct hit on Star-Lord's spacecraft, and the entire vessel began shaking violently from the explosive impact. Gamora, Drax, and Mantis lost their grip on the ship's interior and fell through the hole in the hull toward the cavern floor below.]
[Only Nebula and Baby Groot managed to maintain their hold on secure objects and remain aboard the fleeing ship.]
[The three falling Guardians expertly adjusted their body positions during their descent and landed smoothly on the rocky ground. They immediately looked up to see Star-Lord's spacecraft being relentlessly chased and attacked by the golden swarm.]