May The Best Empire Win!

In September of 1980, a dramatic scene unfolded in space, as the X-Men were taken aboard a Shi'ar ship and ordered to turn over the woman named Jean Grey, who at the time was the embodiment of the Phoenix force. The Shi'ar ruler, Lilandra--recently witness to damning evidence that Phoenix had not only destroyed one of her Empire's vessels and its crew but also caused the destruction of an entire world and its population when she consumed its star--was adamant that her order be followed without delay, so that the threat of Phoenix could be ended (which implied Jean's death); but Charles Xavier, the X-Men's leader, invoked a Shi'ar challenge which would allow the X-Men to fight for Jean's life.

Before Lilandra responds, however, there are other empires, whose leaders have been made aware of Phoenix's transgressions, that wish to weigh in on the matter.

And so the challenge is accepted, with the Shi'ar Imperial Guard assembling to battle the X-Men in accordance with the challenge's terms. Both teams are transported to the surface of Earth's moon--specifically, to the "blue" area, which contains the ruins of an ancient Kree city and retains a breathable atmosphere; while joining them on the surface are the Kree and Skrull envoys who are tasked by their superiors with ensuring that the X-Men lose their battle (while making sure they stay off Lilandra's radar, if they know what's good for them).

With both teams deciding to split their forces and encounter their mutual opponents in teams of two or three, it's inevitable that the Skrull and Kree warriors will come across X-Men members in whatever area of the buried city they decide to head toward--and that indeed proves to be the case, though they both discover that two of the Guard have already dealt successfully with Storm and departed. However, during the course of the battle, Storm's partner, Wolverine, was accidentally hurled into the nearby home of the Watcher (whose domicile is also on the moon), and was abruptly ejected--and he remains unaware of Storm's fate, until it's nearly too late.

With a good deal of enmity remaining between both Kree and Skrull races from the stalemate that resulted from their previous war, it would seem our envoys' pressing task has been pushed to the back burner in favor of waging their own private war here and now. But while their superiors might otherwise be displeased that they've shirked their responsibilities regarding the X-Men, they will come to see this outbreak of savage violence between their emissaries as an opportunity that could settle their conflict once and for all.

Though they could hardly expect their two combatants to end up becoming... wedding crashers.

It perhaps speaks well of both Bel-dann and Raksor (the Kree and Skrull fighters, respectively) that their fighting skills and tactics are such that their skirmish yields no quick victor. But that being the case, their combat continues, eventually taking them further (and deeper) from those who wage their own battle in these ruins--becoming oblivious to all other concerns but their own life-or-death struggle, as well as the passage of time (which in our case brings us to around mid-1982).

Yet in the interim, there are significant events and decisions that have either taken place or are taking shape. The fate of the Phoenix has been tragically decided; but another fateful decision to come directly involves the still-fierce battling between Raksor and Bel-dann, who are interrupted by the Watcher and brought before those who have taken notice of their long, unyielding fight and now move to give it official sanction, toward a resolution that raises the stakes of their engagements considerably.

But as we've learned, another event has taken place which both empires have apparently disregarded in their deliberations--the exodus of Attilan, the city of the Inhumans, from Earth to the moon, coming to rest in the blue area and burying the ruins of the Kree city forever. Somewhere beneath those ruins, Bel-dann and Raksor still wage their battle, the outcome of which will now have galactic ramifications; yet two years later, there is a celebration taking place in Attilan where all assembled are blissfully unaware of the warfare below, and throngs of crowds are engaged in a far more joyous affair.

But there is another reason the Inhumans will mark this day--because the Kree and Skrull warriors who clash beneath them are and have been concerned only with their own struggle which will decide the fate of two star empires, even when that conflict finally erupts into a city whose entire population is now in danger of becoming casualties of war.

Consequently, those warriors are outraged when the Inhumans as well as the Fantastic Four follow the trail of the cataclysm to beneath the city's foundation, where both Raksor and Bel-dann consider them to be intruders interfering with events far beyond their purview and must be dealt with accordingly, and quickly. It goes without saying that these "interlopers" are completely surprised by the presence of such foes, as well as taken off guard by the level of their aggression and ferocity (and certainly their training); but when the FF and the Inhumans begin to show signs of effective resistance, both Raksor and Bel-dann, who by now have mastered the art of retreat, realize that these engagements are wasting precious time and effort that should be expended in their own fight, which must take precedence.

With the Kree and Skrull warriors now a clear and present danger to Attilan, if only in terms of fallout from their ongoing battle, it's left to the FF and the royal family to put the pieces of the puzzle together. Soon enough, that discussion factors in the Watcher, the chosen arbiter of this new Kree-Skrull war's outcome (if and when it arrives) and who has demonstrated in this story that he can still sufficiently spin his role of noninterference to allow what we Earthlings would call "leeway."

At first, the plan which Reed speaks of appears to involve herding the two combatants into the same area, where they can both be overwhelmed and taken down at once. Given the odds against them, and without the element of surprise in their favor, the end seems to be in sight for the years that Bel-dann and Raksor have spent fighting their long conflict--unless their mutual foes make the mistake of underestimating them.

"We might escape these outsiders... to continue our battle in peace." The irony of Bel-dann's words practically leaps off the page, of course, though perhaps these men have found their ultimate purpose in these catacombs, however futile and meaningless it may seem to an observer (even perhaps to their superiors, whose patience you would think has surely been taxed by now). Nevertheless, they're words that strike home for both of them--and in turn, they rally to strike back at those they consider inferior to them in every way.

Unknowingly, however, Bel-dann and Raksor have been part of the solution--one designed to save face for both empires, and hopefully remove the specter of war from the ruling seats of Kree and Skrull alike.

(Of course, this could be seen as just another stalemate--
but I won't tell either empire if you won't.)

BY THE WAY:

When was the other instance when Sue's force fields were used to disguise defeat as a victory?

The answer next, when we tackle a new Marvel Trivia Question!