13968/Intelligence

Intelligence
Date of Scene:	20 November 2021
Location:	Shi'ar Imperium
Synopsis:	Rocket, Gigas and Lobo go collect on a Brood Queen bounty. They find a Queen... wrong Brood!
Cast of Characters:	Rocket Raccoon, Gigas, Lobo

---

Rocket Raccoon has posed:
    In the Imperium, the war is raging. Brood have poured into Shi'ar space, and the Raken system has gotten it bad. Real bad. Glassed planet and delaying action scorched earth tactics bad. And roped into this mess, somehow, are the Guardians of the Galaxy. Because, as one particular witty member of their group pointed out, they can't exactly be picky with what part of the Galaxy they're Guarding when someone calls for help. Or, to be more accurate, as another member pointed out, they /could/, but it so happens that this part of the Galaxy was happy to pay handsomely to be Guarded. Or, to quote another member: 'I am Groot', which effectively ended the argument then and there.

    You just can't argue with that kind of eloquence, can ya?

    So here is Rocket Raccoon, on a backwater moon of a nearby system, well and truly behind enemy lines, because there was solid intelligence that one of the queens of the Brood was hiding here. Rocket's not convinced, but then there was a pretty large bounty put out on the Queen that supposedly dwelled here, so... eh. As long as someone is paying, he's going. And this time, he's bringing backup.

Gigas has posed:
More bizarre team ups than this have happened before in the cosmos.

But not many.

On the list of things that are considered 'Good Ideas' and 'Bad Ideas'..and of course it will depend on who you ask...this particular pairing has the potential to qualify for the bad ideas list but during such desperate times, beggars can't be choosers and if any observations were made of his actions and antics back on Raken 4..one can certainly count on Gigas to be a walking weapon of mass destruction when called to be. It's just a matter of making sure one aims him in the right direction. As such, when Rocket reaches out to him - in deferrence to his new partnership with Quill and the Guardians (and the potential to earn more money..) the behemoth answers and soon has arrived to the designated meeting spot via his own cargo-ship turned home-in-the-stars.

He's soon parked his ship at a safe distance and makes his way through the caccuum of space by more personal means of flight and his deep voice rumbles out over the comm systems once he draws close enough to the coodinates. "I am here. We are sure this is the place?"

Rocket Raccoon has posed:
    "I'm sure these are the coordinates we got given, yeah." is Rocket's reply, and the tone of his voice makes it very obvious that he's dubious about the accuracy of this particular intelligence. But then there are signs of /something/ living here. Even on the open plain of the airless moon, there's bits of living beings strewn around, and the fact that most of these bits are not identifiable as to which living creature they originally came from is not entirely reassuring. Whatever supposedly lives here is not far away. Or so the information says.

    Even in his helmet and void suit, Rocket is visibly armed to the canines. The blaster held casually in his hands looks like it could probably blow a Gigas-sized hole in the side of a battleship, and as per Rocket doctrine, that's the lightest of the weapons he's brought with him. If there is a Brood Queen here, he's not taking chances. Hence, Gigas.

    For when you absolutely, positively, need to make sure something is completely dead, you couldn't wish for a better team up.

    "This place is a dump."

Gigas has posed:
"Not exactly a place that is..as they say..fit for the ruling nobility class of kings and queens?" rumbles Gigas, fumbling over yet another Earth colloquiallism he picked up as he lands solidly onto the moons surface and begins treading forward with all the light steps and subtelty of a moving landmass. But one doesn't ask him along for subtle movements. Unlike Rocket, he is completely exposed to the vaccuum of space. Only the equipment used to grant him space-flight abilities existing as any signs of external technology on his form. He moves forward, confidentally taking point in case an assault does appear to try and gun them down.

"Perhaps it is beneath us?" he asks while looking over the dead bodies and wrinkling his nose abit, trying to discern a pattern to their placement or how long they've been left there. "..The Brood are unlikely to leave us alone for long, if they are here. They desire prey, too much.."

Rocket Raccoon has posed:
    "Y'know, now you mention it..." Huh. Rocket looks around, scratching the back of his helmet as he looks over the featureless plain that stretches away as far as the eye can see. It's mostly grey regolith with a lot of dust. Except where the bodies are strewn around, which is mostly just dust. A whole lot of dust. Dust upon dust upon which Gigas steps.

    A moment later, there is no more dust. And no more Gigas. What there is, is a large hole leading to what appears to be a large natural cavern. Pretty large. Pretty cavern-y. Cavernous, one could say. Or, well, gigantic. Colossal might also be appropriate. Brobdingnagian for the particularly literate.

    When the dust has settled (at the bottom of this new hole), Rocket appears at the rim and peers down, shrugging, and activating his jetpack to fly down into the gloom. "Good spot, big guy."

Gigas has posed:
"Hrrnngh."

He's not exactly pleased. Disgruntled would probably be the most appropriate way to describe the look on his face as Gigas is revealed once the dust has finished settling and he can be seen comically buried in a pile of the fallen rubble, pinned massive amounts of jutting and sundered stone. His tight lipped expression soon changeas as he gets a look at the size of the cavern and his eyes slowly widen in surprise and then curiousity. A shrug of a shoulder and lift of a support pillar thick arm sends more of the rubble tumbling away as he slowly rises and looks over the newly revealed cavern. "Hmm..it would seem that there is something hidden in here after all.." he muses, stating the obvious as per usual. "Shall we proceed?"

Rocket Raccoon has posed:
    "No kiddin'..." is Rocket's almost awed response, looking around with the lights on his helmet just barely managing to reach up to the ceiling. "Now this, this is more like the place you'd find a Queen. I mean, look at it..." Yes, he does gesture to the cavern, and the tunnels that seem to lead towards it. Or out. Hard to tell. "... wide open space, grand scale, beautiful architecture, grisly decorative features..."

    Pause.

    Rocket's helmet beam had landed on what looks to be a pile of skulls. Neatly piled, it seems, but then again there's only so many different shapes a /pile of skulls/ can take. They do tend to form natural pyramids.

    Are those claw marks on the solid rock floor?

    "Yeah, I think this is the place... lead on, Big Guy, you're good at tracking this thing."

Lobo has posed:
    Approaching the moon, a lone rider cracks his neck and kills the engine, soon making his way toward the commotion.

    The Main Man was dressed to impress, in denim pants, biker jacket and various weapons hanging off of him. His hair drifting around every which way, and around his neck was what looked like a necklace, with a small silver device he was currently biting into, and it seemed this was his solution, one of the cheapest, temporary rebreathers on the market and a growing cause to space polution. But did the Main Man care? It seemed doubtful.

    In any case, the figure soon touches down a few feet away from the raccoon and the Muscle. Even in this dark environment, his gleaming red eyes were easy to spot, as well as his wolfish grin. He couldn't speak to them, but did he really need to at this stage?

Gigas has posed:
This cavern is amazing enough, true.. And those claw marks are something to consider..but it is the arrival of The Main Man onto the scene that truly shocks Gigas and he does a double take upon seeing the arrival of the other bounty hunter and that wolfish unmistakable grin. At first he's not sure if he's seeing things or not but then it dawns on him that this is quite real.

"...Wow..I guess this war really -is- going badly!" he exclaims over his commlink to Rocket. It's a sort of general message sent out over nearby signals so it's possible Lobo hears it. Or it's possible he's not bothering to listen in - and probably even more probable he doesn't care.

Either way, Gigas blinks a few times and brushes off the last bits of rubble from his freakishly gigantic torso and then begins to step forward though he gives Lobo a cautious enough wide berth before moving ahead of them both and looking down at the tracks and skulls.

"...Mmm..this is not a common trait of the Brood, no? They assimilate and create new hosts do the not? This seems more like..the lair of something rather..terrible in scope."

Rocket Raccoon has posed:
    "Yeah, you can tell when something's so far gone it can't be saved. There's little signs, here 'n there. Oh, hey Lobo, didn't see you there." Says the raccoon who had been looking /right at him/ the entire time. But that is probably the limit of the banter, because as Gigas has rightly pointed out, this isn't typical Brood behavior. Or even deviant Brood behavior.

    Whatever this is, it's probably huge. And monstrous. And hungry. And feeding on victims that look suspiciously humanoid on a moon devoid of life.

    "Y'know, I thought that bounty broker looked a bit shifty. Didn't haggle fer more 'n half an hour, shoulda known they were up to no good."

    Another glance at the pile of skulls. Humanoid skulls. Some are still wearing bits of what may have been space helmets.

    "Whatever, let's kill this thing and get outta here." So Rocket sets off towards a corridor, on the sole premise that the floor leading up to it is stained in gore.

Lobo has posed:
    Every step from the Main Man is kicking up funky moon dust, except for the steps that crunch through bone as he stomps through skulls that he -surely- must have seen earlier. But, even as ice forms in his hair and a thin sheen of frost develops over his body when he doesn't actively move and break that coldness up, it seems he doesn't particularly care.

    In fact, dropping to one knee he grabs one of the skulls, looking at it to check for punctures or fractures, before giving the forehead a sniff. Even as he did this, mainly for theatrics, those red Czarnian eyes were taking in every detail of where they walked, right brow raised as he tried to get a read on the situation...just what kind of trap were they about to stomp into? Lobo of course didn't mind stomping into traps, but it was just nice to know ahead of time.

Gigas has posed:
Well Gigas' eyes can glow too! -- And they ..don't really do much for him other then give him a cool look and perhaps give a sign of how riled up he is and the riled up the animating cosmic energies inside of him may be. He's otherwise limited with his vision and unable to pierce the darkness to far ahead of where the unusual trio is headed. That it's a trap is clear to even him though, but he seems unperturbed about it all and boldly moves forward.

"Prey set up by the one who gave you this bounty? Someone sending victims off to a more dangerous foe or pet in order to satisfy it or fulfill some sort of deal?" he guesses, "Perhaps he thought you easy prey or wanted somethign particularly famous - though surely he'd know you had have contacts to call on for assistance.." he nods towards Lobo, "Or that rumor of the bounty would bring dangerous hunters."

He then grins cheerfully and starts forward rapidly, "Well..let's spring the trap!"

Rocket Raccoon has posed:
    "Or someone who thinks I owe him money, or who owes me money." There was always that possibility, given the world in which Rocket usually lives. But he hasn't been dead broke for a while, and these days everyone pays up nicely and on time when his invoices come in. Something about a reputation for sudden and creative violence towards deadbeats...

    The lights mounted on his helmet shine a good long way into this tunnel... these tunnels... this /warren/. It's too big to be a maze, but you'd be amazed at how many tunnels there are. After a brief pause and a shrug, Rocket follow the blood trail, casually cycling his blaster to full power. "Or someone who really wanted me gone from the front line for a while, knowing I'd bring backup." Oof. When those cogs start spinning, they spin quick.

Lobo has posed:
    Up ahead in the distance, he saw a shimmering light. With that, Lobo turns his attention to both Gigas and Rocket(fighting the urge to squint and shield his vision from Rocket's various technologies burning bright in the darkness), he clicks his tongue and winks at the two of them, before pulling his lever action from behind his back and walking confidently toward whatever it is in the distance. Yes, Gigas could be a useful shield, but it should never be said that The Main Man hid behind anyone unless he specifically was gonna betray them later. And since he had no immediate plans for that, he was leading the charge like a gawddamned man.

    Besides, nothing down here was living besides the three of them. He was fairly sure this hunka rock was dead and empty. Nothing could change his mind of that.

Gigas has posed:
Gigas purses his lips slightly and arcs an eyebrow as Lobo saunters past him and begins to make his way further into cavernous warren. He glances over to Rocket briefly and then finally simply shrugs - seemingly quite content to let Lobo take the lead as perhaps he's seen something that either of them haven't. After all..Gigas has punched him before and..he basically just got right back up so he figures why not let someone else take the first hit for once. He's never one to turn down favors. Especially where Brood weaponry -might- be involved.

"Very well!" he exclaims after letting Lobo get a few paces ahead and then turning to fall in step behind him.

Rocket Raccoon has posed:
    There a return shrug from Rocket before he too turns and follows Lobo. When in doubt, always let someone else spring the trap for you, that's just basic common sense among rogues.

    The tunnel continues, intersected every so often by another giant thoroughfare that a small starship could probably fit through. Or a medium sized one, if it didn't care about the paintwork.

    But whatever Lobo might have seen, it doesn't look like anything is there, except for another rockfall. Grey regolith, surrounded by dust. No heat signatures, no movement -- wait! Something just moved. One of the rocks, absolutely, positively, moved.

Lobo has posed:
    The second he saw movement, Lobo snapped his fingers to get the attention of the two other hunters. A moment later he realized that wouldn't work, what with them being in a mostly soundless environment, so instead he held up a finger to try and signal something. 'Wait', maybe? Or 'up'? Lobo definitely meant 'wait', but how could he possibly convey that?

    Looking down at the pile of rocks, he furrowed his brows and tried to remember which one it could have been...or, was it something under the rocks? twirling the lever of his boomstick in order to load it with style, the Czarnian Hate Machine took two big booted stomps toward the movement he saw last. And a moment later...kicked one of the rocks.

    His eyebrows furrowed even more, so he gave another kick, this one hard enough to bounce one of the stones off a nearby wall, and perhaps send it unintentionally back toward the other two. Oops, supposedly.

Gigas has posed:
At times oblivious, Gigas does not note the initial rock movement but he does see when Lobo makes his arm gesture and he turns, swiveling his monolithic body in the direction of the czarnian as he make his way towards the rocks to investigate in his own unique fashion.

Gigas frowns, lightly. Though seemingly affable most of the time..patience is not one of his strongest attributes. "Perhaps the time has come to simply bring this place down." he muses into his comm while offering Rocket a sideways glance and then another glance towards Lobo just as the rock goes tumbling in his direction. He reaches a massive hand out for the incoming rock while also frowning just a touch deeper. "Yes, I think an utter razing to the ground may be in order."

Rocket Raccoon has posed:
    The rock, when meeting Czarnian boot, cracks. This isn't entirely unusual behavior for certain kinds of rocks, but this rock then oozes something. Something thick, something... yolky? The one that gets punted to the wall doesn't, in fact, bounce, except for a few fragments which Gigas manages to field as they come at him. No, that rock *splats* against the rock wall, and something slithers to the ground.

    It's almost translucent, and vaguely spider like. If, for some odd reason, you could imagine a spider with an elongated abdomen and a pair of scything claws ahead of the usual eight legs. The thing is about the size of a human child, or one adult Rocket Raccoon, and doesn't seem to be moving now.

    "Huh..." Rocket kneels by the thing and looks it over, tilting his head to the side. "Rataxian cave spider. These thing are s'posed to be extinct this side of the quadrant. Shame, 'cause the mandibles are worth a fortune on the black... market..."

    Wriggle wriggle wriggle. The rest of the rocks move again, and one or two start to crack.

    The entire cave seems to shudder for a moment. Dust falls from the ceiling.

    Faster than could perhaps be credited, Rocket stands, turns, and start sprinting the way they came, not even pausing as he primes a grenade and tosses it over his shoulder. "RUN YOU IDIOTS!!"

Lobo has posed:
    Not on their comm systems, Lobo couldn't hear that great piece of advice. But he did see a grenade enter his field of vision and instantly his instincts took over, rolling backward and squeezing off two scatterblaster shots by the time he came to his booted feet. Already he was turning and running back toward the entrance, he had to find the passage back, to the place his bike was before.

    And already, he was regretting his lack of cardio as thick Czarnian sweat mixed and intermingled with the thin frost constantly reforming across his body.

Gigas has posed:
"Oh my." understates Gigas, putting in his performance for 'Deadpan reaction of the year.' "..Eggs! Lots of..eggs!"

Eggs holding these kind of critters? Yes this was very much about to become a 'nuke from orbit situation.

The giant turns, bringing up the rear at first but then springing forward as his gigantic legs coil and then launch him in a short jump with the intention of using that to propel him forward and over Rocket's position to get ahead of the trio.

He didn't acount for the intensity of that explosion or the shockwave accompanying it to come rolling outward at him in mid flight. It sends him tumbling forward, rapidly, like a gigantic muscled out of control missile, limbs flailing and body cartwheeling from the force of the unexpected blast as he crashes through bits and pieces of the cavernous halls.

Rocket Raccoon has posed:
    A mass of translucent, vaguely arachnid bodies begins to boil out of the tunnels. Silent, fast, running on walls and ceiling as the trio make it a short way before a whole host... nay, a whole BROOD of Rataxian cave spiders seems to have them cut off. Which is when, through a rather magnificent shot, Lobo shoots Rocket's grenade out of the air.

    A grenade, thrown in haste, by a bounty hunter who has never understood the term 'overkill'. A bounty hunter who, sometimes out of sheer boredom, makes explosives that can crack moons. The explosion is, in a word, magnificent.

    There are several benefits to this. For one, they no longer need to worry about the cave spiders that came in behind them. Those are very much gone. The cave spiders in front of them, likewise, are swept up in a maelstrom of overpressure and incandescent gases that scatters them ahead of the three hunters, all in various states of rapid disassembly. And finally, rounding off the good news, the three hunters find themselves moving a lot faster than they thought they ever could.

    The slight drawback is, of course, that they are pretty much just being blown away by a gigantic explosion. Blown up, one might say. And blown forwards, sideways, and wherever the pressure wave takes them, until they are spat out at an appreciable fraction of the speed of sound into the main chamber. Sound, of course, which does not exist on this airless moon.

    On his way past, Rocket plows through the pyramid of skulls and manages to get his legs pointing in the direction of travel enough to risk hitting the jetpack at full boost. Fun fact, jet packs rely on exhaust to propel themselves. Equally fun fact, this is problematic when the jetpack is moving faster than its own exhaust.

    Luckily Rocket crashes into what turns out to be fairly frangible rock, ending up imprinted starfish-style about two feet deep. Equally lucky, he is missed by a matter of two feet by a ballistic Gigas. He can't quite see Lobo, but Czarnians are made of strong stuff, and as he's trying to work out which way is up, Rocket is fairly certain they all survived that.

    "... Frick..."

    Eloquent.

Lobo has posed:
    Shortly behind Rocket, a large man-sized hole explodes from one of the cavern walls, as Lobo smashes through into the main chamber, rolling to a smoking bloody heap until he's twitching and face down on the ground...or, is he? Well, his upper half is face down. His waist is Tiffany twisted in a horrific looking way until the Main man pushes himself off the ground, and instantly flips himself until all of him is facing the same direction. There he lies on the ground, clothes shredded and covered in moon dust and spider guts, and about half of his face currently a blood-covered yellow skeleton. Pink and red muscles knit themselves across bone like living spider webs, his rebreather long since gone as he lays there for a few moments. Maybe he was vibing. Or maybe he was waiting until his torn back muscles and spinal cord repaired themselves.

    In the meantime, from a jacket pocket he produces a brown paper bag, bringing it to his mouth and letting that act as a makeshift rebreather for the time being. Suddenly, the Main Man had a time limit.

Gigas has posed:
The blue tinted colossus is about as durable as any could imagine. He can slug it out with the strongest in the galaxy. Hell he could put his name down on the fight card for 'Galaxy's Strongest' and be a contendor in the widely broadcsat Pay Per View event. Thus riding such explosions and enduring such circumstances is well within his capabilities.

It doesn't mean he enjoys all of it.

In fact, he most certainly did not enjoy this. The impact, in particularly, drives him head first and upside down into a collapsing wall of the cavern. The second time something similar has happened to him since this journey began, and he is completely buried and lost to sight for a few moments before finally emerging and dragging his immense frame up to about the level of his waist, in the pile of debris.

"I believe you should better check the references of those who bring you jobs, in the future." he rumbles flatly into the comm sys at Rocket." There is a pause as he drags himself fully from the rubble, "We should destroy this place."

He then sees Lobo's....reconstruction effort and he just sort of stares in open fascination before saying over his comm towards Rocket, "He is tough! But I think we are out of time now."

Rocket Raccoon has posed:
    "No frikkin' joke." Rocket grouses, digging himself out of the hole he made, literally and figuratively. He gives his blaster a few experimental blows with his left hand, and sees the powercell boot up again. Always a good sign. He figures they're gonna need it. "Big guy, grab strong an' silent there, an' let's get moving, 'cause..."

    RUMBLE*

    From the very far side of the cavern, more of the Rataxian cave spiders emerge, a veritable deluge of them. But that's not the biggest concern right now.

    No, the biggest problem is that a cave spider that has to crouch to get into the cavern is coming straight for them.

    "... Mama ain't happy! To the surface! Go, RUN!"

    A blast from Rocket's blaster screams away into the gloom, and scores an incandescent groove into the translucent body of mama spider. It only seems to make her angrier.

Lobo has posed:
    uring this time, Lobo was starting to feel his legs again, the comforting sign of pins and needs going all through his thighs and calves even as he felt his toes wriggling in excitement. Of course, he didn't hear the conversation between the two Guardians, but from all the way down the corridor, he saw the glow of something hot...and something big. His eyes just register the movement of things that look like spider legs, things that are much bigger than he previously remembered, and decided that it was time to book it.

    And so, the best bounty hunter in the galaxy, assassin to royalty and scourge of the cosmos, flipped over face down and used his right arm to claw his way across the cavern floor toward, hopefully, some sort of freedom. Given his mostly dead lower half and his left hand doing the important job of keeping his air supply to his mouth, his right arm was working overtime. Fair to him, with that mighty strength he was practically bounding. Except, of course, there was the thing chasing them, that was probably faster. This could be bad...

Gigas has posed:
The goliath stares at the horror unfolding behind them all and is the last to begin moving as Rocket and Lobo race away. Turning, he sees the opening back to the surface in sight and a sudden flex and boudnign of his legs sends him hurtling through the air towards his bounty hunting partners. A painful pang of altruism causes him to lunge with one arm for Lobo, grabbing at the remains of the jacket and the Czarnian - or rather what there is of him to grab and, presuming Lobo doesn't attempt to resist the assist, he makes for another leap to grab for Rocket.

A third bound would then send the trio hurtling upwards for the cavern entrance and beyond as Gigas, when motivated to do so, can make a certain Jade Giant nod with approval at his abilities to cover great distances in a single bound. If nothing else it will serve to give them a moment of respite before the creatures themselves can make the surface. Or it just might end in dismal failure as the universe does so love thumbing its nose at the Guardians and their allies and rivals.

Rocket Raccoon has posed:
    You would think that someone of Rocket's size would despise being picked up and carried away at speed. And, on the whole, you would be correct. But in certain cases, certainly in cases of allies, more often than not Rocket will allow himself to be grabbed. More than that, he's more than happy to use the added elevation to lay down fire from an angle he usually can't achieve on his own without a jetpack. In short, as Gigas leaps for the exit with Lobo and Rocket, the raccoon has turned himself into a very efficient, and very angry, gun turret.

    Blasts ripple along the carpet of Rataxian spiders that are coming to snack on the only available food source on the entire moon. They run over their own casualties, squishing them in the process, and climbing up and over each other to reach their prey, coming up short.

    A sprinkling of high explosive grenades effectively turns them into chunky soup.

    Mama spider, meanwhile, was becoming more enraged as time passed. Still digesting its last meal to enable her to lay more eggs, she didn't take kindly to having most of her new brood being blown up or shot to pieces. Heat, light, movement, it all translates to one thing in the spider's mind: food.

    Blast after blast impacts the creature's armored plates, even as one of its mandibles suddenly scythes towards Gigas and cargo.

    For once, Lady Luck has rolled the dice and Rocket's result has come up all sixes. A lucky blast takes the mandible in the joint, halfway up its length, and the thing snaps off. With a quick snatch, the bounty hunter grabs it just as the three hunters sail through the opening and return to the surface, Gigas-express style.

    "Bounty complete, let's get the frick outta here!"

Lobo has posed:
    Lobo hasn't been just sitting back and doing nothing. While tucked beneath one of Gigas' mighty gentle armpits, the ghost-faced killer is fiddling with his belt, pushing buttons that glow and pulse and, as soon as the three enter the cockpit of that ship, Lobo pushes another button even as he wrestles out of Gigas' embrace to flop on the floor like a fish.

    Outside, Lobo's faithful bike is now flying close behind that commandeered Shi'ar spacecraft, rotating its lazerturrets behind to fire at any approaching target, be it ship, Kryptonian or giant space spider. The guns of that bike were heavy duty weapons, and even if they couldn't kill the beast, Lobo was counting on them at least acting as a strong deterrent.

    Speaking of, the bounty hunter was currently lying on the floor, face already grown back even as he gives a raspy chuckle.

    "Well, I think this is goin' well so far."

Gigas has posed:
The giant remains silent, even after Lobo speaks, though he slowly turns his head towards the bounty hunter to stare at him and then he just looks away and back out of the ship hangar doors towards the smouldering ruin of the cavern entrance. A deep thoughtful frown on his face as he ponders these events and mulls over them in a carefully constructed mental sequence of events. He then speaks: Rocket might remember these exact words from events on Raken 4.

"..That was not a Brood Queen."

So that's two for two on Rocket and mis-identifying Brood Queens and Gigas being involved in it as a result. "..You're making that a habit."

Rocket Raccoon has posed:
    "Yeah yeah yeah..." Rocket concedes, throwing the snapped off mandible onto the floor of the purloined Shi'ar shuttle he's using as his private ship while the Milano is needed on the frontlines. They won't miss one... they're getting these things blown up by the dozens every day. "Ain't my fault this time. Bounty seemed legit..."

    And he makes a mental note to bring this up when negotiating his fee for completion. Final pay is going to have to include an 'I'm very upset' bonus unless that bounty broker wanted to find a Rataxian spider egg in his home one day. "Anyway, that was a queen. Just the wrong Brood. See? Gettin' closer every day."

    When Lobo speaks, the Raccoon stops on his way to the cockpit to look down at the Czarnian. "Wouldn't complain if I were you. Minimal effort, still enough to qualify for a share of the bounty. I call that lucky."

    And the words 'as per frickin' usual' can be heard muttered as he goes to the cockpit to get the frickin' hell away from this moon.

Lobo has posed:
    By now he'd managed to work up to a sitting position, and as Rocket moves toward the pilot's station, Lobo had even graduated toward crawling on his hands and knees until he reached the head, then and only then did he pull himself to his feet even if he swayed violently from muscles that were still forming. Belt unbuckled, the door closed and locked behind him as he focused, but his muffled voice could still be heard as he called out.

    "Who's complainin', geek? Stomped a few babies, made an ugly mother cry, now I'm makin' a little money as I does my part ta save the galaxy from the Brood? This's been a good-ass day, all things considered."

    Then a few moments later.

    "Ey, you got anythin' worth drinkin' in this flyin' birdcage?"