Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 2: 20 New Details Just Revealed

It turns out it's all Rocket's fault.

Initially, the Guardians are hired by Ayesha and the Sovereign people to deal with the Abelisk, which has been eating the Sovereign's power source. Unfortunately, things go wrong when it's revealed that Rocket has stolen some of the same power source batteries, thanks to their value, which Ayesha takes as a betrayal and an insult to the honour of her people.

She then calls upon the Ravagers to chase and capture the Guardians as punishment for Rocket's crimes, and James Gunn is very clear that the link between the two villains will be much more organic than that between Ronan and the Ravagers in the first film:

"I think the main thing that was different, and this is really important to me, was to be able to make the story one where the personal story of the Guardians and the villain agenda, plot, was all about one thing. And that was important to me. It wasn’t like “oh, here’s our characters on journey with each other while they’re fighting this big bad that’s doing whatever he or she is doing, and just that’s it.” Which honestly, the first movie if there was one thing that I- It’s fine, but it is, kind of, two separate stories there’s Ronin taking over this planet and murdering the universe, and then there’s these guys who through that journey get to know each other and come together. In this movie all of those things are a little bit more interwoven. It really is all one story. And that is, to me, a lot more satisfying way to tell a story."