The Assassination of Yondu was a planned murder of Yondu by Nova Corps as a part of Irani Rael's plan to surrender Xandar to Ronan the Accuser.
Background[]
- "Xandar's on the brink. Yondu got himself caught up with some dark forces on the rise, and if I'm right, Xandar only has until dawn."
- ―Irani Rael to Nebula[src]
Despite their alliance, Ronan the Accuser betrayed and killed Thanos, before leading his forces on a full-scale attack on Xandar. The Nova Corps was overwhelmed by Ronan's army, so Irani Rael was forced to lock down Xandar with emergency planetary shield to stop the invasion. Although the planet was safe, the shield was designed to last half a century and could not be overwritten manually, so Xandar and its people were completely isolated from the rest of the galaxy. Five years of isolation caused a spike in crime rate and civil unrest, with the Nova Corps failing to handle it all. Rael eventually reached out to Ronan and offered to bring down the shield and surrender the planet to him, while Ronan would keep her in charge. In order to deactivate the shields, Rael realized that she needed a cyborg to rewrite the shield's mainframe and decided to manipulate Nebula, so her plan could succeed.[1]
Assassination[]
While Irani Rael was working on her deal with Ronan the Accuser, she found out that Yondu managed to steal the source codes for the shield. Yondu was unable to escape and was killed by Nova Corps but Rael decided to use it to her benefit, knowing that Yondu and Nebula had a past. The Nova Corps dumped Yondu's body on the street and planted his Yaka Arrow with shield schematics with him, knowing that Nebula would try to investigate Yondu's death on her own.[1]
Aftermath[]
Nebula finds the shield codes on the Yaka Arrow
- "This was all a setup. Giving me the Yondu case, pointing me to the shield codes. All so you could start an invasion. You swore an oath to defend Xandar."
"And look where it got us. The world's falling apart." - ―Nebula and Irani Rael[src]
When Yondu's body was "discovered" by Nova Corps, Garthan Saal feigned ignorance in regards of the case, which prompted Nebula to proceed on her own. She found Yondu's Yaka Arrow with shield codes but was not unaware of their true nature and her attempt to run them through Nova Corps' database ended in nothing. Nebula talked with Rael about the case, and she said that Yondu's death is a sign of an imminent catastrophe that would ruin the entire Xandar, expecting that Nebula would conduct her own investigation.[1]
Nebula approached Howard the Duck to find out about the codes on Yondu's arrow, and Korg recognized what they were, leading Nebula to believe that someone is orchestrating an invasion on Xandar. In an attempt to prevent it, Nebula decided to break Yon-Rogg out of jail so he would her reach the Xandarian Mainframe Core and bypass the security systems. Nebula successfully acceessed the core with her cybernetic enhancements, however, Yon-Rogg betrayed her and used Nebula to make the core implode. Nebula then found out that he was working with Rael who made a deal with Ronan to surrender the planet, and ordered to get rid of Nebula now that she was no longer of use.[1]