Type: Planet in the Microverse

Environment: Earthlike

Dominant Life Form: Aegians

Significant Inhabitants: Unidentified refugees (including "Red-head");
    visited by Beyonder, Micronauts (Acroyear, Bug, Huntarr, Marionette, Scion, Solitaire)

Significant Locations: None named

First Appearance: Micronauts II#14 (November, 1985)

History:
(Micronauts II#14 (fb) - BTS) - Marionette, when she was younger as Princess Mari, had visited Aegis when it was a blue-green planet.

(Micronauts II#14 (fb) - BTS) - Years later, the Pain generated by the Homeworld from Karza's slaughter of its population swept across the Microverse, inundating hundreds of worlds and civilizations with pain, including Insectivorids, inducing madness and suicide. The surviving beings from these worlds fled to Aegis because of its distance from the trouble and its capacity to hold large numbers of refugees. However, with over a trillion different beings congregating meant that they could be seen from space as dark patches. The planet also had fungus growing on it that could be consumed by many of the arriving aliens.

(Micronauts II#14) - In the Endeavor II, the Micronauts, under the leadership of Scion, were escorted by the Wanderers' descendants to Aegis. Scion also sought to steer away from the Pain. As the Micronauts approached, they saw the dark patches of beings from space plus thousands of abandoned spacecraft that added to the planet's yellow ring. The Endeavor II landed and the Micronauts were met by the faces of hundreds of exiles and refugees. The team heard one group of Insectivorids relate their account of the Pain attack.

    Later, while the other Micronauts sat around a fire, Bug crept away and reflected his situation near a cliffside building by the water in the light of a reddish moon. Scion then used one of the Keys to the Enigma Force to transform Bug before walking away. Solitaire then went off to retrieve Bug, but her scream alerted the other Micronauts who came running to see Bug encased in a golden cocoon, which was in turn surrounded by a virtually impenetrable force field. Utilizing her shapeshifter abilities, Solitaire forced her way in and used the bond between Bug and Marionette to free Bug, who remembered nothing. The Micronauts then retreated inside their ship.

(Micronauts II#15) - Still on Aegis, Marionette relayed her personal shame at how an alien friend called Diarmid had sacrificed her legs so that Marionette, as Princess Mari, could walk again.

(Micronauts II#16) - Scion spoke to some forlorn Insectivorid refugees and covered the recent history of the Micronauts.

(Secret Wars II#6 - BTS) - The Beyonder saw the Microverse and the trouble it was in, and answered Scion's distress call.

(Micronauts II#16) - Meanwhile, still on board the Endeavor II on Aegis, the other Micronauts rallied around Marionette and comforted her in her grief. Solitaire, in particular, helped Marionette to recover.

A sudden Mayday signal had the Micronauts sweep aside their immediate concerns, and they rushed off in a hovercar to investigate. About twenty miles away at the nearby refugee camp, they discovered an enormous starship beginning to take off. Unfortunately, this starship lay in the middle of an encampment, its drive piles used to power the refugees' facilities. The Pain had started to arrive, and a small red-skinned alien was at the controls seeking to escape. Acroyear, Bug and Huntarr recognized the peril of the refugees and that thousands would die if the alien continued with the launch, so all three leapt onto the spacecraft and ripped at the walls so as to reach the bridge. They soon arrived and the alien threatened to flick a switch that would make the engines go critical. Bug jumped at the alien but his punch to the alien's head caused it to fall back, pulling the lever as he fell. The engines blasted, flattening and devastating the surrounding encampment. However, the engines stopped blasting and the three Micronauts returned to the hovercar, then noticed Scion and the Beyonder below. They landed the hovercar and confronted the pair.

    The Beyonder listened to Huntarr tell of the plight of the refugees, and instead of generating new shelters for those displaced by the ship's engine blasts, the Beyonder recreated the entire community as if nothing had happened. Bug was jubilant as he thought that he had been to blame for the destruction. The Beyonder then asked the Micronauts if there was anything else that needed to be changed, and they reflected on all the devastation and emotional injuries they had sustained. Scion told the Beyonder of the huge mycelium growing under Aegis' surface, which was a network of plant tendrils that supplied food to the refugees, but that this had been failing the beings. The Beyonder instantly recreated the plants that had since perished by boosting the mycelium. The alien races, including possibly an Aegian with light blue skin, all rushed to the Beyonder and thanked him for his gift. Seeking to assuage Acroyear's doubts, the Beyonder then restored Marionette's use of her legs and restored Huntarr to his human form while still retaining his mutated abilities. Scion then escorted the Beyonder to see what else could be done. Acroyear asked Biotron to monitor the Beyonder.

    With the other Micronauts remaining at the refugee camp, Bug tracked Scion and the Beyonder back to the Endeavor II and, while hidden from view, overheard the Beyonder tell Scion that he agreed with his plan. Previously on the side of the Beyonder, Bug was then shocked to hear the Beyonder say that he had just destroyed three planets, Darijan, Athaurus and Hytras, which killed off a hundred billion beings (although unbeknownst to Bug, this had actually been done to generate a firebreak to slow the spread of the Pain across the Microverse; also Scion was aware of Bug's presence). Bug immediately alerted the Micronauts to return to the ship.

    Huntarr, back in his mutated form, and Acroyear were the first to arrive and, with Bug, attacked Scion, who easily held them off with a personal force field. The Beyonder then stepped in and froze the three attackers because he did not see the fighting to be beneficial. Scion then explained that the Microverse was dying, that Karza's slaughter of Homeworld's population had caused Homeworld's worldmind to go mad, generating madness and pain that infected the Spiral Path and corrupted the Enigma Force. They were then released from their stasis fields. Solitaire and Marionette, newly arrived, sided with Scion, but Bug, Huntarr and Acroyear stood against him. Then all five, connected by Huntarr, launched a united destructive force against Scion, who was smashed to pieces. Acroyear commanded the Beyonder to leave and he did so. Acroyear then took charge and told the Micronauts that they were headed back to Homeworld.

    After the Micronauts had departed, the Beyonder, still on Aegis, resurrected Scion, who took on a new form. Scion thanked the Beyonder for his help in the theatrics in getting Huntarr to "fully activate" the Micronauts. The Beyonder then transported Scion away so that Scion could continue in his efforts to save the Microverse.

Comments: Created by Peter B. Gillis (writer), Kelley Jones (pencils) & Danny Bulanadi (inks)

Profile by Grendel Prime

Clarifications:
Aegis has no known connections to:

• Aegir - Asgardian god/giant of the trackless seas, old friend of Odin, father of Rana and possibly Saga @ Thor I#307/2
• Aegis (Trey Jason Rollins) - New Warriors, former ties to gang members, discovered breastplate formerly worn by Zeus + Athena + Jason + Achilles + Theseus + Odysseys + Perseus, deliberately chosen by Athena @ New Warriors II#0
• A.E.G.I.S. of Earth-AEGIS - ruled Earth with an iron fist in alternate reality in which Dark Angel had prevented Mys-Tech from ever coming into existence @ Dark Angel#6/2
• Aegypta of Homeworld in the Microverse, capital city of Sandzone, birthplace of Barons Karza and Zebek @ Micronauts I#24/2
• Any other "Aeg-" character/place.

    The unidentified alien was one billions of refugees who had journeyed to Aegis to escape the Pain that was sweeping the Microverse. Sensitive to the encroaching Pain, the red-skinned and blue-armored alien sought to escape Aegis in a massive spacecraft, which was being used to power the facilities of one of the refugee encampments on the planet. Madness had set in when Acroyear, Bug and Huntarr arrived to stop it. He threatened to launch when Bug leapt and attacked the alien, knocking him backward, flicking the lever to activate the engines. The blast devastated the surrounding encampment until the Beyonder caused the engines to stop. Acroyear then carried the unconscious alien to the Micronauts' hovercar, after which he was probably sedated and returned to his fellow refugees on Aegis.

    He was over 4.5' tall, with an oversized head and thin arms. He was not a skilled warrior as Bug was able to knock him out with just one blow.

Micronauts II#16

images:
Micronauts II#14, p4 (planet)