Chapter 05

I t was pure chaos. Down below, Minn-Erva could see the semblance of order crumbling all around her. The Torfans, already agitated, were now pressing down against Starforce. She could hear repeated cries of “Stay back!” and “I don’t want to hurt you!” crackling over her comm.

The situation continued to escalate, and Minn-Erva raised her rifle slightly, prepared to fire.

Suddenly, she felt a hand on the barrel of her weapon, pushing down.

Att-Lass.

“They’re locals,” he explained, trying to put Minn-Erva at ease. “I found two dead. No green. They’re just starving.”

Minn-Erva said nothing, just kept staring through her weapon’s sight gauge down at the impending disaster. She could see Korath and Yon-Rogg. Bron-Char, too. Then, someone else holding a pistol appeared in her field of view.

Att-Lass.

That meant that one of the Att-Lasses within her vantage was a Skrull.

And Minn-Erva was sure she knew which one.

She simply heard the sound of the weapon being drawn; she didn’t need to see anything. That same moment, Minn-Erva was on her feet, and grabbing the weapon away from “Att-Lass.” The imposter struggled for a moment, and then Minn-Erva butted him sharply with the head of her rifle.

“Att-Lass” attempted to regain his footing, as Minn-Erva aimed right for him. The fake grabbed another sidearm and tried to shoot the Starforce sniper, but he wasn’t nearly fast enough.

Minn-Erva had already fired.

The blast hit “Att-Lass” in the chest, dead center, sending him backward. Minn-Erva watched as the familiar features of her teammate seemed to melt away, twisting, turning, until the skin turned from blue to green, and the chin took on a distinct ridged look. The entire visage appeared almost reptilian in nature.

A Skrull.

Minn-Erva cursed.

Vers had broken away from the group, despite what Yon-Rogg had told her. They were to stay together. And a part of Vers really wanted to follow that order.

But an even bigger part of her wanted to show that she had what it took to be a part of Starforce.

Inside the temple, Vers had been following Soh-Larr’s beacon as it blipped on her forearm console. The spy was definitely inside, and close. The signal was growing stronger and stronger, and Vers thought she saw something behind a large rock just up ahead, a shadowy figure. It didn’t look like a Torfan, but she couldn’t really tell in the dark.

There was only one thing to do.

“HGX 78,” she recited. It was the first part of a code—a call-and-response the Kree forces used to determine if one party was a Skrull or not. By uttering the first part of the code, Vers would await the other person to say the second part. If they got it right, then they were Kree.

If not...

“TRT79-VVX6,” came the reply, as the figure stepped out of the shadows. His clothes were in tatters, and he had something wrapped around his head.

So far, so good , Vers thought.

The Torfans had crowded around the Starforce fighters and were now wielding blasters.

Because they weren’t Torfans.

There had, in fact, never had been any Torfans at all.

They were Skrulls. And the Starforce team was surrounded by them.

They descended upon Yon-Rogg, Bron-Char, Korath, and Att-Lass, while Minn-Erva tried to draw a bead on them from her sniper’s nest above. With all the fog and smoke from the fire, it was difficult, but Minn-Erva had experience and impeccable aim on her side.

She let loose a series of blasts that threw the Skrulls off balance, giving Yon-Rogg and his crew time to counterattack.

Immediately, Yon-Rogg fired beams of energy at a group of Skrulls, using its force to lift them into the air and hurl them toward the temple. Then he suddenly remembered.

The temple.

Vers.

He had to warn Vers.

“Come in,” he shouted into the comm. “Skrulls!”

“It’s an ambush!”

Vers heard Yon-Rogg’s voice over the comm, as she stared into the face of Soh-Larr right before her.

Before she could do anything, however, Soh-Larr reached up to her neck, attaching something to it. Vers’s body went limp, and she lost all feeling in her limbs, as she collapsed to the ground. Purple energy from the device on her neck surged through her body, disrupting her nervous system, rendering any movement quite impossible.

“Back to the Helion ,” came Yon-Rogg’s voice over the comm-link once again. “Come in, Vers!”

So that was it. Ambushed by Skrulls, Starforce was now forced to retreat to the Helion and leave the planet. There was nothing Vers could do now; she was unable to even move her arm to reply to Yon-Rogg.

All Vers could do was look at “Soh-Larr,” who wasn’t really Soh-Larr at all. His form shifted and changed, revealing a tall, imposing, green-hued Skrull standing over her.

“How did you... know the code?” Vers managed to ask.

“How about I tell you my secret,” the Skrull said, “when you’ve told me yours?”

Vers closed her eyes for just a moment. Then everything went black.