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History

Gah Lak Tus was an immense (approx. 100,000 miles long) collective of city-sized robotic drones that invades other worlds using a combination of envoys and a flesh-eating virus to eliminate native biological lifeforms. Following this process, Gah Lak Tus exhumes the thermal energy from the core of the dying planet. Gah Lak Tus considers all manner of organic life abhorrent, as such an instance it made when telepathically contacted by Professor X, regarding the experience as desecration.

File:Gah-Lak-Tus-(Earth-1610) from Ultimate Extinction Vol 1 5 0001.png

Original form

For millennia, the immense robotic entity called Gah Lak Tus has traveled the galaxies, destroying all life-bearing planets in its path. It bombards targeted worlds with psychic "fear" broadcasts and a flesh-eating virus, eradicating all life. It then breaks open the dying world to its core and sucks dry all its energy, leaving a permanently lifeless husk. Only the extraterrestrial Kree race learned of Gah Lak Tus' true nature and created the Eidolon Apparition "Vision" android to make contact with other worlds in Gah Lak Tus' path to warn them in hopes they may evacuate in the face of extinction.

Vision made contact with Earth in 1904 but crash-landed in the sub-arctic Tunguska region of Siberia. Twenty-three years later, Soviet explorers found the Vision in a self-repair coma. The Soviet authorities began a decades-long dissection of Vision, using his technology to supply their Super-Soldier program. Components removed from Vision were grafted onto human subjects, turning many of them into crazed monsters. When their funding collapsed after the fall of the Soviet Union, the project’s staff locked away the Vision and their experimental super-soldiers in a bunker. A decade later, the Vision repairs himself enough to broadcast to all of Earth's communications networks, even higher telepathic frequencies, hoping to warn them of the impending doom. This instead caused wide-spread panic and mass suicides. Considered a terrorist attack, General Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. assembled a covert team consisting of himself, Captain America, Falcon and Black Widow to find and silent the broadcast. Simultaneously, Professor Charles Xavier dispatches the X-Men Colossus, Marvel Girl (Jean Grey), and Wolverine to the same area to rescue what he believed was an abused psychic. Both teams fought their way through hordes of crazed superhuman horrors in the bunker to reach the partially disassembled Vision, who finally delivered its warning. Vision was taken into S.H.I.E.L.D. custody, where Wilson has worked with the android, Kree defector Mahr Vehl, and a confiscated Kree database to determine what Gah Lak Tus is and how to defend Earth against it.

File:Galactus (Earth-616) merged with Gah Lak Tus (Earth-1610) from Hunger Vol 1 1 001.jpg

Gah Lak Tus merges with Galactus

Eventually, Gah Lak Tus arrived to Earth. And as the Gah Lak Tus swarm prepared to "feed" on the planet, Earth's heroes: the Ultimates, Fantastic Four, and the X-Men readied themselves to defend Earth. Jean Grey and Professor Xavier distracted the entity by making a direct psychic contact with Gah Lak Tus allowing Reed Richards the time needed to utilize the Ultimate Nullifier, by teleporting the latent energy of a Big Bang from another universe into the heart of the Gah Lak Tus swarm, destroying 20% of its mass. Heavily damaged and "tainted" by the thoughts and emotions of humanity, Gah Lak Tus is forced to retreat.

Years later after its failed incursion on Earth, Gah Lak Tus found itself in the middle of the Chitauri-Kree War, and started attacking the respective ships of the aliens. Seconds later, a rift in the fabric of reality brought a being from another universe, which called itself Galactus. Gah Lak Tus unexpectedly took the action of merging with its counterpart, creating an even more powerful Galactus with a need to feed, who sent part of the Gah Lak Tus as his new heralds to seek and consume.[1]

When Galactus attacked Hala, the planet was defended by Silver Surfer, Nova and Captain Mahr Vehl.[2] During the battle, Mahr Vehl died of the injuries caused by the Gah Lak Tus swarm. Nova wore Mahr Vehl's armor and became Captain Marvel, using his newly vast power to unleash a powerful attack on Galactus. Thought dead by the heroes, Galactus was only heavily weakened by the attack and started heading Earth looking to consume its power. [3]

Attributes

Powers

  • Fear Rays: Gah Lak Tus can generate "fear rays" from space on psychic frequencies, rendering a targeted population permanently insane within hours. Gah Lak Tus' modules can release flesh-eating viruses capable of devouring organic life on a planetary scale within hours; the modules can also penetrate a planet’s core and tap its thermal power, transferring it to Gah Lak Tus' main body.

Gah Lak Tus has recently acquired the powers of Galactus after merging with him:

Galactus is able to employ the near limitless cosmic energy within him to produce virtually any effect he desires. A few of the abilities he displayed are:

  • God-like Strength: Galactus possesses an astronomical amount of super-strength.
  • God-like Stamina: Galactus can partake in physical strenuous action, like battles, for an undefined period of time.
  • God-like Speed: Despite his size, Galactus can move at speeds that greatly surpass the speed of light.
  • Invulnerability: Galactus is immune to all diseases, ailments, and toxins, and, he is nearly impenetrable towards almost every force.
  • Levitation: Galactus can traverse or glide through the air using sheer willpower.
  • Size-Alteration: Galactus can manipulate his size, density, mass and ratio at will, allowing him to reshape his body to any physique type he wishes. In fact, being a force of nature, and not a purely physical entity, every sentient race across the universe sees Galactus in a different form.[4]
  • Molecular Restructuring: Galactus can manipulate, reshape and rearrange the molecular complexions of any organism, allowing him to rebuild or redesign things internally.[5]
  • Matter Transmutation: Being a cosmic being, Galactus can control matter in any object which allows him to turn something tangible like lead, into something intangible like water.[6][7]
  • Cosmic Teleportation: Galactus can make himself, other people, and objects appear anywhere in the entire universe that he wishes with a mere thought.[8][9] He has even teleported an entire galaxy.[4]
  • Cosmic Force-Fields: Galactus can erect near-impenetrable energy shields.[6]
  • Cosmic Energy Projection: Galactus can project supremely powerful energy emissions with incalculable concussive force.[10]
  • Interdimensional & Intradimensional Portals: He can create wormholes between dimensions and within dimensions.[11][12]
  • Cosmic Telepathy: Ability to read or communicate with other minds across universal distances.[13][14]
  • Cosmic Telekinesis: Ability to move virtually unlimited amounts of mass through mental concentration.[15]
  • Cosmic Awareness: Galactus can sense disturbances or changes within the cosmic ether on a universal scale.[16]
  • Resurrection: He can raise the dead.[17]
  • Creation: Galactus can create complex, sentient, biological or bio-technical life-forms from nothing.[18]
  • Soul Control & Manipulation: Galactus can control and manipulate the souls and spirits of living beings at will.[14] He uses this power to alter the memories and emotions of others.
  • Recreation: Being a cosmic being, Galactus can create an entire Solar System, including populations, the planets, etc. in every detail. [14]
  • Power/Ability Bestowal: Galactus' heralds, whom he has endowed with a minuscule fraction of his cosmic power, are able to manipulate matter and energy in ways that are far beyond human comprehension.
  • Vitakinesis: Galactus is able to heal himself and others from all physical wounds although this may simply be molecular reconstruction.

Weaknesses

Cosmic Hunger: Galactus requires unknown energies obtainable only from a certain type of planets in order to sustain his life. The suitable type of planet need not to be one where life is present, but it must have the potential to support life. When recently sated Galactus is incredibly powerful; however, the longer he goes without feeding the more his strength, power, and cosmic awareness wane. Indeed, over one month after consuming a suitable planet his power will have already been reduced exponentially, although in such a hungered state his powers are still far beyond mortal comprehension. In recent times Galactus has been known to go without feeding for numerous months at a time bringing him to the brink of death and reducing his power to such a degree he actually becomes partially susceptible to direct attacks from superhuman teams such as the Shi'ar Imperial Guard, Avengers, the Fantastic Four etc although even in this significantly weakened state of power, he is still more powerful than the superhuman teams combined and still one of the most powerful beings in the Universe. When the universe was still young, Galactus could go without feeding for over century before his hunger weakened him to a significant degree, why the intervals between his feedings has decreased over the millenia is unknown.

Trivia

  • Ultimate Gah Lak Tus destroys planets not only to feed on the planets thermal energy but to also eliminate the threat of the sentient species themselves who disgust, feeding on a planet simply provides him with enough energy to continue his travels, prior to merging with Galactus.
  • According to Mahr Vehl the Swarm was built by the Ancient Kree Eons ago to "purify" the universe, and wipe out all their enemies. Sadly it got away from them and evolved over time into its current form. [2]

See Also

Links and References

References

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