War, blood, death... The battlefield is riddled with the remnants of dead and dying gems, screams echo across the battlefield, shouts sound out as gems fight for their lives. It's horrible. Stumbling over a hill, I am met by the enemy. They draw their blades and rush towards me, murder in their eyes, but a shell falls just behind them and throws them over me. They land, gems cracked, dying. I run across the battlefield, skirting skirmishes and avoiding intermittent mortar fire, trying to survive.
Suddenly, I hear a loud whistling from above, high pitched and grower louder and louder. A massive sphere falls from the sky, the game-changer, the Disruptor Bomb. The initial impact shakes the earth and throws gems to the ground; I am thrown into a large mortar crater, a fact that saves my life. As the waves of fire and energy and death roll over the landscape, I shudder and cower down just barely safe. When the last pulses fade from the land, and it is safe to move, I raise my head over the edge of my crater to see nothing but destruction and death, the scattered weapons of the countless gems killed over the course of the battle and by the Bomb.
For hours I stumble across the war-torn landscape, looking for any signs of life. I crest a hill and see a group of gems huddled together. One in particular catches my eye as I fall down the hill, shouting out, "Pearl!" As I fall to their feet, I look up, hoping to look into a familiar face, but what I see makes a scream catch in my throat. Pearl stands, her form riddled with corruption, her gem cracked, clawed fingers grasping for my face and the gem on the back of my neck.
With a scream, I sit up in my bunk. My eyes are wide and frantic, looking around my surroundings as I pant in fear. It's the inside of a small, one-man ship, little more than a modified skiff. The inside is painted a dull gray to match the gem on the back of my neck and contains the bunk I rest in, a weapons locker, a cockpit, and two hatches, one to the outside, one to the storage room below. Rolling out of bed, I rub my face to wake up and push strands of hair out of it as I shift and stretch, settling the shorts and shirt I wear to bed before shifting them out for a pair of jeans and a muscle shirt. I open the door of my locker, revealing a number of gem weapons, some mementos, a large black leather coat, and a mirror.
A tall, toned male gem looks back, with slate gray skin and eyes of a lighter shade. My hair is black, the sides shaved to leave only a strip down the middle, the long locks rough and unkempt as I run my fingers through them to tame them, even then falling over to the left. After pulling on a pair of black fingerless gloves and grabbing my coat, I head to the cockpit, playing the messages. For the most part it's people who either I owe money or they owe me money. Then, one catches my attention.
"Ghost Quartz, this is Peridot 43B from the Diamond Authority. White Diamond requests your presence on Homeworld within three cycles of your receiving this transmission. Failure to comply will result in depreciation of payment. End transmission."
Sighing, I send a confirmation ping before starting up my ship, the Phantom, and piloting out of the asteroid belt I'd settled in for the night. "Guess it's time to head home.
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A/N: Alright, here's a sorta teaser for a new fic I'm working on for my gemsona, Ghost Quartz. ( art/Gemsona-Ghost-Quartz-542125859) Before you say anything, yes, this will be an OC-centric story. The actual Crystal Gems won't really pop up for the first few chapters, but trust me, they'll be there. Depending on what sort of response I get, I plan on posting the next chapter next Saturday. If I get a lot of response, I might post sooner. So, read, review, tell your friends, and thanks for reading.