A week after the Spider Nebula terrorist attack, the leaders of the three major empires met again. This time, however, they had abandoned their suspicions and came with anger, intending to investigate this terrifying terrorist attack.
Yes, the three major empires defined the event as a terrorist attack because they knew that if it were the work of the enemy, the enemy wouldn't have done it in such a manner, nor would they have specifically gone to the scene of the crime afterwards, announcing their names.
Magic is a very amazing energy. When the investigation ship that entered the Spider Nebula saw the line of text, the brightness it displayed was definitely not enough to be clearly observed by other civilizations in the cosmos across thousands and thousands of light years.
Yet, whether it was on the main star of the Kree Empire in the Large Magellanic Cloud, or the capital star of the New Skrull Empire, or the core star zone of the Western Empire, all could see this line of text very clearly.
Although they had more advanced detection devices, it was still very inexplicable.
But it also meant something even more horrifying: many civilizations with similar observation levels could see this line of text.
It was as if someone had slapped you in the face and then wrote on the cheek that it had just been slapped.
The three major empires couldn't figure out why such behavior, other than humiliating them, had any other use.
It's not that there aren't any smart people in the three major empires. The fact that a powerful interstellar civilization has survived until today is definitely not due to luck. With just the Supreme Wisdom, they can find many flaws in this series of events.
"Don't you think all this is too coincidental?" Supreme Wisdom began.
"The recorded file we received is absolutely real," said the Skrull Empire Interstellar Colonization Commander. "That is the message transmitted back by the Polaris spaceship. The accent they used is exactly what the Skrulls use regularly during their voyage. There is nothing wrong with their language habits."
"The Skrull Empire's voyage is very unique because we didn't have a fixed main star and were always advancing. We didn't accept any outsiders and didn't allow anyone to leave the fleet."
"It was a completely isolated civilization period, so it was almost impossible for external spies to infiltrate, nor was it likely that someone could pretend to be a Skrull citizen during the voyage, and fake it so well."
Sitting across from the commander was a woman wrapped in silver armor. She was more similar to the human race in appearance, except for a triangular feather decoration on her head. She was a princess of the Shi'ar Imperial Family and a female general who commanded the second main fleet of the Empire. Her feathers fluttered slightly, and she said coldly:
"The problem must have arisen in the link where the spaceship hit the star port. As you said, the Polestar was stolen by a thief for so many years. You can't just judge the motives of this spaceship from a single message in a black box. Could it simply be an accidental incident caused by internal disputes between the Skrull Empire?"
"So, you mean to say we did it on purpose?!" The Skrull Empire's Commander slapped the table and said, "The Skrull Empire has never resorted to sneak attacks! If it had been us, how could we not have had the next step organized? And why would we lose a deputy commander and six generals in the negotiations?"
Upon saying this, the corner of the Commander's eye twitched, indicating some pain. The losses in the previous negotiation were not insignificant. They were all elites nurtured by the Empire with great effort.
Sacrificed all at once, nearly half of the senior management of the entire Interstellar Colonial Army was lost. Not only did they lose face internationally, but they also faced a lot of criticism domestically.
The projection of the Supreme Wisdom spoke in an emotionless, cold tone: "The black box is not enough to form a proper judgment of the motive of this spaceship. Faking a recorded file isn't difficult."
"However, according to the judgment of the Supreme Wisdom, the puppeteer behind the spaceship does not come from any of the three major empires. We have no need to do this, as it cannot bring us enough benefits."
"So what exactly led to the current no-win situation?" The female general of the Xiya Empire stood up and said, "In fact, the Xiya Empire is the most innocent one. We were invited by you to provide security, but you didn't tell me there was a terrible terrorist named Thanos, who not only dared to ignite a star but also dared to blow up a black hole!"
"Our security measures were impeccable, even the security base which was so close to the star was unharmed in the violent explosion of the star, if it hadn't been for that damned black hole..."
The female general took a deep breath and said, "Well, now the Shi'ar Empire has lost face, all civilizations are saying that we are not meticulous and our technology is poor. Even some civilizations that were already in talks with our industrial department about orders are now hesitating. Do you know how much loss we have suffered?"
Without the need for the female general to continue, the other two leaders also understood. The Shi'ar Empire was actually the youngest among the three major empires, and therefore their strength was also relatively weaker.
Unlike the absolute militarism of the other two major empires, the Shi'ar Empire was a civilization with a large amalgamation of different races. They were not good at the military, but they excelled in basic industries and commerce.
Commerce was very important to them, and it was because of this that they had such a great presence, inviting so many other civilizations to bear witness. But with this incident, even if some of their old customers didn't mention it, they must have been skeptical. What hurt merchants the most was a loss of reputation.
"We are all victims," said Supreme Wisdom. "Clearly, this is a trap, and each link is extremely precise. The key to all of this falls on a name. I suppose you should have seen that line of text by now."
"Your spaceship was destroyed so quickly that there wasn't enough time to transmit a signal, but my projection heard the attacker murmur a name before it vanished— 'Thanos'."
Upon hearing this, the supreme commander of the Skrull Empire frowned, saying, "Who is Thanos? Some bumpkin from a neglected corner of the universe? How dare he devise a plot that could embarrass all three Great Empires?"
The Supreme Wisdom's enormous green face narrowed its eyes, he said, "The cosmos is vast with countless civilizations. The Three Great Empires might not know every one of them. We are not familiar with the name 'Thanos', but what he mentioned in that sentence tells us exactly who he is."
The Supreme Commander and the female General of the Skrull Empire exchanged a look and simultaneously exclaimed: "The Infinity Gems!"
"Ah, I remember now!" The female General's voice suddenly heightened, she said: "He is that mad Titan, isn't he?! I remember clearly because my father mentioned him to me..."
"It was said that a certain mad Titan wiped out the entire Eternal Titan Family, and then he started to frantically search for the Infinity Gems throughout the cosmos." The female general shook her head pondering: "But those are tales from the Milky Way, I'm not certain about the details. We all know the Milky Way is filled with nuts, I can't even remember the Titan's name..."
"The Eternal Titans should be a branch of the Eternals family, right?" The Skrull Empire's supreme commander asked as he frowned: "If I remember correctly, they are similar to Asgard, they were all born with Divine Power..."
"According to the Kree Empire's database, they were not a prosperous race and most of their activities did not go beyond the Milky Way. They have not developed a truly expansive interstellar civilization like the Three Great Empires."
"Before they embarked on interstellar colonization, some of their activities suddenly stopped. Later on, we learned about the extinction of the Eternal Titan Family. However, the name 'Thanos' was never officially recorded in the database."
"Later, one of our Sentinel Robots stationed in the Solar System was obliterated. General Ronan from the Accuser Team went to Uranus to investigate and there we encountered an attack from the Eternal Titans. Only then did we add the name Uranus to our database. We also recorded he had a son, named Thanos..."
"Later on, we received news from the Elder Council of the Universe that a purple-skinned Eternal Titan was searching for the scattered Infinity Gems throughout the cosmos, and for that, he had attacked many civilizations..."
The voice of The Supremacy was always cold and impartial, his tone never changed but he explained things quite clearly.
Thanos's background is actually simple. The Celestials came to Earth to modify life and created the Eternals Family. A branch of the Eternals family, the Eternal Titans, fought each other in a bloody war, leading to the extinction of 90% of their own population.
But this actually had nothing to do with Thanos. Thanos is merely not quite mentally stable, or perhaps it was said that he was once bewitched by Death and he personally wiped out the Eternal Titans.
After hearing The Supremacy's rough description, the female General of the Xiya Imperial Family frowned and said: "He wants to search for the gemstone, let him be. Why does he have to mess with us? We don't have any Infinity Gems. Wait, don't tell me you guys..."
The female General narrowed her eyes, showing an untrusting expression. She was sure that the Xiya Empire definitely didn't possess such gemstones, but she couldn't be sure whether the other two members held such gemstones.
In her logic, Thanos, planning such a large conspiracy, can't be shooting aimlessly. He deliberately left that sentence behind, it must not be without foundation. Perhaps the Kree Empire and the Skrull Empire have the Infinity Gems, which is why Thanos set his sights on them.
The female general sneered, "Don't think I don't know, you guys have been planning to create a Universe Cube. What, are you now interested in the Infinity Gems? Is an ordinary interstellar war not enough for your ambitions?"
The other two parties also had their suspicions. The Supremacy knew that the Kree Empire did not possess any gemstones because he could explore the minds of each member of the Kree Empire, hence he was not worried about anyone hiding anything.
But the Supreme Commander of the Skrull Empire was not sure if the Empire had any gemstones. After all, apart from the Interstellar Colonial Army, the Skrull Empire also had a Guardian Army, a Construction Army and so on.
The structure of the New Skrull Nation was very complex, with many institutions vying for control. The Supreme Commander of the Skrull Empire was not sure if anyone amongst them had taken the Infinity Gem and attracted the attention of Thanos.
"Regardless, he shouldn't have pissed off the Three Great Empires. This time, if we do not retaliate, our names as the Three Great Empires will be sullied by a purple-skinned lunatic."
After the statement by the Supreme Commander of the Skrulls, the other two nodded. Regardless of whether the other two parties have obtained any gemstones, that is not a reason for Thanos to launch this terrifying attack, resulting in a loss of face for everyone.
Even if they have lots of scores to settle between them, they must first crushed this pest that was buzzing around them, unaware of its impending doom.
The female general was the first to sneer, she said, "I will persuade my father to use the commercial networks of the Xiya Empire to search for traces of Thanos. Sooner or later, we will dig him out..."
"That's too slow." The Supreme Wisdom spoke: "The Accuser Team of the Kree once brought back the body of an Eternal when they headed to the Solar System. We researched and sampled its genes."
"I believe, we have sufficient technology to trace these genes, locate Thanos directly, and make him understand that the Three Great Empires are not to be provoked."