On the rim of the Andromeda Galaxy, the planet Godthab Omega is a refuge for outcasts, exiles and space-criminals, a world of shanty towns governed by the blade and fist of Gamora and her Graces. Into this hotspot comes Ronan, disgraced Supreme Accuser of the Kree Empire, looking for Tana Nile. Instead he finds his old ally Korath the Pursuer, along with a lost troop of Kree Star Corps, holed up in the town of Abyss – a town overflowing with random violence and conflict.

Gamora sets her agents in town, the space pirate Nebula and the armoured Stellaris, to keep tabs on Ronan – but instead Nebula starts a fight! She is soon overpowered by Ronan and the Star Corps, while Korath is thrown from town and buried under the desert sands by Stellaris, who then grabs the injured Nebula and flies back to Mt Virago. Korath wakes up to find himself in… a 1950s diner from Earth, occupied by a red-and-gold figure who asks him what he thinks of ‘the art’. Called Glorian, the mysterious being seeks validation for shaping Godthab Omega and stoking the flames of conflict; when Korath rejects his requests, he angrily teleports the Kree back to Abyss to rejoin Ronan.

Seeking vengeance on Ronan, Gamora gathers her Graces and enters Abyss, only for Nebula to turn on her and attempt to convince the Graces to become her new pirate crew. She is humiliated by Gamora and spurned by the Graces, and angrily leaves on her own path as the women join battle in Abyss. Ronan throws down with Gamora, but first sends Korath to investigate Mt Virago and find information on Tana Nile. The geneticist flies off, seeing that Abyss is surrounded by a growing bubble of energy, within which reality is starting to warp and shift, but continues to Mt Virago and copies data from Tana’s computer – which then transforms into a Rigellian Recorder android and attacks her!

Within the increasingly hallucinatory landscape of Abyss, Glorian laughs and reshapes reality as Ronan and Gamora engage in epic battle. Nebula tries to steal Ronan’s ship, but the energy field activates its security functions and the ship chases her back to town, shooting at her all the way! She sees Glorian and manoeuvres the ship to crash into him – but he’s unhurt and furiously blasts her, leaving her almost dead. Realising that they are being manipulated, Ronan and Gamora cease fighting, and Ronan (assisted by the returning Korath, who defeated the android) uses his Universal Weapon to enclose Glorian in a field of order, counteracting his chaos and forcing the mad godling into a dormant state (a giant floating cube).

In the aftermath, the battle over, Gamora points a gun at Ronan’s head – and an Annihilation Wave fleet, commanded by one of Annihilus’ queens, approaches the planet in search of this source of reality-warping energy…