(A/N: Round two. I should point out that the following stories I publish will be used to establish context; providing background information for a larger story I have in the works. Again, shout out to Missie2.)

. . . . . . . . .

Was this worth it?

Yellow Diamond seemed to think so.

Topaz, however, believed her superior to be completely cracked for assigning THIS as a mission.

It was listed as a simple recovery job: Locate the target, successfully subdue it, and deliver it to Yellow Diamond alive.

Topaz grimaced.

If only it were that easy.

Leave it to Yellow Diamond to assign a suicide mission.

RE-4257 was a dead world, glassed by Homeworld over two thousand years ago. Topaz remembered when life flourished on this miserable rock, an ecosystem sporting some of the most beautiful organic life on this side of the galaxy.

Oh, she remembered it clearly; she was a part of it after all.

Team 36, one of the top ten groups at the Akios Military Academy. It was a battle school that integrated both gems and Arcadians into the same social environment, the first in the galaxy to do so. A shining example of cooperation and trust between two great galactic nations; The Diamond Authority and the Arcadian Republic.

Those were good times for Topaz. As a student at Akios, she was seen as an individual, a free thinking person, rather than just another cog in the machine. The Arcadian-ran facility made her feel like she belonged, made her believe that her thoughts and emotions had value, not just simple chemical imbalances in her gemstone.

She'll never admit it, but she loved this planet, that academy.

She wanted to protect it.

She almost did.

But you can't go against your own kind.

In the end, she joined the invading gem forces in their surprise attack on Arcadia, wiping the planet clean of all life.

And look where it got her; Admiral of her own fleet, highest ranking gem in her sector, full retirement benefits, anything a gem could ever ask for.

It was bittersweet.

But she made her choice.

Why these thoughts were becoming more prominent by the moment was a mystery to Topaz, given her current situation.

Separated from the main landing force, all communications to and from her ship being jammed, and the reconnaissance squad she had lead out here had been blasted to rubble. All thanks to the target she had been tasked to capture.

It had lead her and her team right into a trap, Topaz's arrogance becoming their downfall.

She was the only one who had managed to survive.

And now, she was being hunted, across a dead world that she had once almost considered home.

"How poetic" Topaz murmured, grimacing as she swiftly made her way across the barren landscape.

She began to wonder why she took this mission in the first place.

To prove something to herself?

To give herself some sort of closure?

Or

To try and prove that she was the only gem who could take down the Promethean?

She remembered her conversation with Yellow Diamond with the utmost clarity.

. . . . . . . . .

"My Diamond, forgive my skepticism, but this simply cannot be true!" Topaz exclaimed, disbelief. "What you've assigned to me…it… it can't be real! It's a legend! A myth! Something the veterans tell the new gemlings to keep them awake when they enter their rest pods! Surely, those scouts must have been mistaken?!"

Yellow Diamond exhaled slowly.

"Topaz," she began "I understand your…skepticism… I wouldn't believe it either if I hadn't seen… It…. with my own eyes. However, these reports, along with the captured images, point to the undeniable truth that this creature is real, it is still at large, and it needs to be captured."

Topaz sat, awestruck. "Captured, my Diamond? You mean you want this thing alive?

Yellow Diamond nodded.

"An being that can evade numerous attempts to capture it, as well as bringing hundreds of gems to their knees, is certainly something worth studying, wouldn't you agree?"

Topaz couldn't argue with her logic.

"However" Yellow Diamond began to speak, "As one of the only gems I can truly trust to carry out this mission… there are certain details about this entity that have been purged from public record. I am only telling you these things out of crucial necessity. Of course, I can count on your complete discretion regrading what I am about to tell you, correct Topaz?"

Topaz felt her chest swell with pride. "Of course, my Diamond!"

Yellow Diamond nodded, "Excellent."

Making sure the integrity of their privacy was assured, Yellow Diamond activated her holoscreen, pulling up the aforementioned images of Topaz's target.

Topaz gasped.

"That's impossible." She breathed.

There, on the screen, was the hulking form of a bipedal creature. It stood close to 6'2'', clad in some sort of battle armor. Its head was encased in a helmet, face covered by a tinted visor. It had a gem under its foot, a Jasper of all things, weapon pointed directly in the defeated gems face.

Topaz's attention, however, was drawn to the emblem on the thing's shoulder.

Yellow Diamond sighed

"As you've noticed, Topaz, your target is an Arcadian."

Topaz could only stare.

She had worn that symbol herself once upon a time.

"But, they were all killed on Arcadia! I was there! The remaining fleets were hunted down and destroyed!"

At this, Yellow Diamond grimaced.

"As I said, what I am about to tell you does not leave this room."

Topaz nodded, hanging on to the edge of her seat.

"First of all," Yellow Diamond began, "This 'Promethean' is an individual you knew quite well…."

. . . . . . . . .

An hour or so later, Topaz had finally reached the outskirts of the demolished city, checking her communication cuff to see if she could make contact with the ship.

Jammed, still.

Cursing she looks up, down the long avenue lined with the husks of burnt out vehicles.

She was hoping to avoid this.

The landing zone that Chalcedony had chosen was only a few kilometers away, just on the other side of the crumbling metropolis. Her reconnaissance group had managed to skirt around the city at first, making the use of the ship's Hover Bikes to move quickly.

Topaz had wanted to spare herself the sight of what she had helped accomplish.

But with those destroyed, and with a relentless pursuer on her tail, Topaz came to the conclusion that she had no choice but to travel the most direct route back to the ship.

Even if that meant trudging through a tomb.

She pressed on, her fear contributing to her desire to move quickly.

She couldn't let him find her.

Not with the vendetta he had against her.

She'd end up like the others for sure.

. . . . . . . . . .

So

.

.

That's it for Chapter One. Hopefully you enjoyed it, either way, the next chapter will provide a lot more clarity the situation. Again, criticism welcome, help me better my shitty writing. Kudos.