In the light of early morning, the giant ship really did look like a sleeping organism. Its four hinged legs dug firmly into the ground while the front of the ship appeared to kneel towards the sun, creating a looming shadow down behind it. Its gray, disc shape was windowless, with no openings aside from a jagged hole in the center; the holes' origin was clearly unnatural as it seemed to have been caused by a sudden force applied from the inside. Surrounded by others like it, the vessel remained frozen, and has probably been frozen for over a million years, never changing its position despite the elements and despite times' destructive grip. While a far cry from the current transportation system used by homeworld gems, the space vessels still had a grand presence in the jungle, like that of graveyard statues. They stood as a reminder of the long evolutionary history that the gems had with earth, and how long it really has been since the last time earth was the central focus of homeworld domination.
The area was usually quiet, but today there was an abundance of noise that echoed throughout the dark jungle, most notably inside the skeletons of the ancient ships. Heavy metal footsteps resonated along the circular halls of the vessel, though the sounds were uncoordinated. There was a buzzing noise coming from the control panel at the center of the metal vehicle, with occasional beeps and tinks indicating that the machine was alive, or at least looked like it was. The source of the racket was not so much the machine, but the person inside. She rummaged about the control panel's boards, clicking random buttons and removing different colored wires erratically; her green, disjointed fingers picking through the rusted metal and vines to salvage whatever spare parts she could find. Her irritated, nasally voice spouted all sorts of insults that were aimed at no one in particular, but the gem didn't seem to care if anyone heard her at all. Frowning exponentially at the mess that was the circuit board, she growled at the moss-covered machinery, then slammed her fist onto the humming panel, which released sparks in protest.
" Stupid crystal gems! Messing with my machines, getting in the way, now taking my foot too! Gah! "Why do they keep messing with my things!?"
She slammed both of her hands multiple times before finally resting them flatly on the gray board, tapping her floating digits against the hard surface so that the only thing she could hear is the drumming sound of her fingertips. The green colored gem glared at the board with mounting frustration, as the memories of those impudent beings was enough to make her grit her teeth and blood boil. With her anguished cry getting no response, she sighed heavily, then turned around and leaned her back up against the panel before crossing her footless leg onto her thigh and getting back to work.
The crystal gems have once again foiled her plans at destroying them, this time with the prehistoric ship being unwilling to cooperate. Almost captured, the green gem was only able to fly to safety because she gave up her foot, and while she could release her physical form and get a new one with all limbs in tact, it was incredibly risky to retreat into her gem when she was stuck on an unfamiliar planet with four enemies after her. The best thing she could do for now is simply use the ships wires and cords to create a makeshift foot until she is safe enough to regenerate. It didn't take her long to finish, and once she screwed in the last part she gently put the new foot on the ground and shifted her weight to the part to see how it will hold up. It didn't match in color with the rest of the gem's body, a dull gray that looked out of place along her green and yellow clothing; she used plating from the ship to cover the entanglement of wires that connected to the ankle, but the cords were still somewhat exposed at the joints. Once she saw that it held up well, with no unevenness and had general stability, she sat back down on the control panel and thought of what to do next.
She had already sent out an S.O.S to Yellow Diamond, but it has already been over a week since then and still no sign of a rescue ship. It could be that the signal never reached homeworld- being that homeworld hasn't communicated with earth until quite recently; if that's the case, then the gem needs to find another way to get off this planet. She rested her chin on the palm of her hand and stared blankly at the wall as she continued to formulate some plan of action; her fingers from her other hand continued to drum against the panel.
" Those clods...ill get them back for this. Yellow Diamond will be so impressed when I capture all four of those pests and present them to her. Jasper won't even know what to do once she sees that she has failed a simple mission. I cant wait to see how devastated and petrified she will look."
The thoughts were tossed over in the green gem's mind, her frown turned into a wicked grin at the thought of her escort- so aggressive and so careless- looking up to the respected leader of homeworld with fright. She created so much trouble on the ship, always bossing her around, toying with her things, and then giving her orders against what Yellow Diamond had planned previously, oh how she wanted to see that gem on her knees, begging for forgiveness and admitting her guilt in front of the one and only, Peridot. But for now, she had to actually catch the gems first.
"Not that it would be too difficult; after all, im way smarter than those four lumpy clumpy clods." She cackled as she imagined their mortified faces. " They are as dull as dirt." Her elbows against her knees, folding her fingers into each other as she attempted to figure out just how exactly she was going to do that.
" I cant take them out as a group, I need to take them out individually. They won't have as many defenses that way- but I need my pod and robonoids back."
The voice trailed off, her rigid body finally moving from her sitting position and beginning to walk to the entrance of the homeworld ship. She knew the crystal gems had her weapons- she knew it was them when she returned to the corn field where she crash landed to find her escape pod missing. She needed them back, and she couldn't use the warp pads since the group was now tracking her that way; she realized that too. It was obvious after she put some thought to it, how else would they have known her every movement? She can't afford to play into their hands.
Despite wearing her visors, the gem's eyes squinted in the presence of the sun's light as she exited the vessel, and now stood to look at the trees surrounding her and the giant machines. It disgusted her, the fact that the ground was wet and unsteady, the sun was unrelenting, "only truly primitive species would like this overgrowth of...botany" She huffed, clearly vexed by the commonality of it. Its not that Peridot hated organic life, she simply found it unnecessary, just as how she found eating and sleeping unnecessary. Technology could be useful and reorganized to fit whatever you need; plants and animals were a waste of space that were neither useful nor easy to organize.
The sulking green alien wandered around the woods, looking at the tinted foliage that mimicked the color of her uniform. While she had no idea where she was going, she knew better than to stick around an area that her adversaries have already infiltrated. She really was quite defenseless, and she knew it. Peridot was a native of the technologically advanced homeworld; she never had to deal with true, hand to hand combat when all she had to do was vaporize her enemies with her ship. Though the manic gem is lucky that she does have a few defenses, it would still be incredibly difficult to use the new weapons with what little experience she has against the crystal gems, since they seemed to have had a large amount of experience in battles from long past.
"But..." the gem looked thoughtfully towards the brush ahead before stopping in her tracks." If I could befriend them...i might be able to catch them off guard." She placed her finger to her mouth and tapped the corner of her lip, further examining the idea. That wasn't a bad idea after all. If successful, she could gain temporary protection from the elements, her pod and robonoids would be back in her possession, and they would be easy to capture. And most importantly...she could build a ship that can take her home if rescue never comes.
While Peridot disliked the idea of having to conduct herself with the gems, its becoming apparent that she doesn't know how much longer she can handle staying on this miserable planet without falling into despair. She raised her hands to her visors as she felt her eyes water at the prospect that she might never go home. Can she really stay on this planet, with all of its simplistic life forms and dangerous rogues? Live out her existence with no purpose other than to watch time go by?
"Of course not! Yellow Diamond needs me! I need her!" The gem retorted, her voice leaving a shrill sound in the trees. She fumbled with her visors and wiped away the excess water on her eyes with her arm before placing the transparent screen back on her face. Peridot wanted to go home, and that means that she will do whatever it takes to get there. She won't die here, not on this hunk of rock.
" But how will I convince them?" a mumble arose from her trembling lips. "How will I get them to trust me?"
She pondered the question continuously, but it it may be easier than she thought.
"The Steven seems like a good start. That little imp seems easy enough to convince...hmm that seems reasonable, he never made a direct attack on me, and he seems friendly enough..." Although the little gem was also the one who made a big ruckus on the ship, and led to the situation that Peridot is now facing.
She walked around clumsily until she picked up an uncharacteristic gritting noise against her boots-the smell of salt assaulting her nostrils all at once. The trees had seemingly moved aside to reveal an ocean, with white sand that disappeared under the water towards the outcroppings that stood near shore; it was an endless view of bright blue water. Peridot never recalled a beach being near this site, but then again, it wasn't that important either. It looked peaceful, but somehow she felt an unpleasant knot in her stomach; despite the beautiful view, there was something wrong here. It might have been because she felt exposed, but she also noticed the waves were behaving strangely; they were coming out of seemingly nowhere. To her left, Peridot saw that the waves were small and relatively slow as they hit shore, but on the other side, they were consistently rough as they bashed against the large outcrop. Huge bubbles burst far out in the surf, forming a circular ring shape where the waves were being created from. The turmoil in the waves, and the slight shaking of the earth made her feel more vulnerable then she had wanted to be. The gem removed her visor to get a better look at the water, and could feel her shoulders stiffen and arms tighten as they hugged close to her body, while her legs remained unwilling to move from their slightly bent position.
She didn't know what is was, and yet already her body was preparing to flee as her hands turned into small fists and she leaned towards the forest, preparing to make a run for it. It didn't look like the crystal gems, it didn't look like anyone she had seen before. The gargantuan dark shape swung at the water in the ring of bubbles, but it was still to dark to see clearly. She felt the nervous feeling go from her stomach to the back of her spine, and crawled up until it reached her neck where she felt it tighten around her chest. There was a buzz in her limbs and her pulse raced as she felt herself unable to look away at the form with her wide, terror stricken eyes. She trembled when it dawned on her that this was a monster.
But what she didn't know,
was that is was Malachite.