Greetings Reader, TKOP here with my attempt at doing every smart character as smart as I can possibly write them. I will try to stick to canonical facts, but a lot of the plot hinges on theorising. It'll most likely be AU as of the first interaction with Homeworld Gems after "The Trial", but hey, it's a fanfic, I can live with that. That being said, ON WITH THE STORY!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything, like seriously, this is fanfiction on a free fanfiction site!
Clash 1 – Homeworld Task Force
"Apologies for the delay, my Diamond." Spoke a low voice. The massive chamber was silent except for the sound of the Diamond's Pearl frantically tapping on a data-screen.
"I heard what happened at the trial, and you know what I'm going to suggest." She continued. The Pearl slowed her tapping. The Pearl was apprehensive, both she and her Diamond had heard the idea before, several times, and she knew that it had never before been approved.
"Will you guarantee that this… proposal will further progress in my… endeavor?" Said the booming voice of her Diamond. The Pearl returned her focus to her data-screen.
"If you would allow me access to the best and the brightest gems under your command, I would be able to assemble a command group. I would need access to the Peridots and Zircons for that and lesser gems for guards. Little resources apart from a command ship would be necessary." Listed the low voice. The Pearl looked to her Diamond for orders. Sighing, the Diamond nodded once, and the Pearl started gathering data.
"I hope you know how much I am risking here, Star." Spoke her Diamond as she turned to leave. She knew, she very well knew, and her Diamond knew that. No response was necessary.
"Make your leave then, Star Sapphire; you will be informed of where to go when you need to be there." Said her Diamond, ending the conversation. She retreated swiftly, with only enough hesitation to be polite.
-Later-A dilapidated building-
Chief Engineer Peridot was quite a few things. She was taller than other Peridots, a defect only barely minor enough for her to still be alive. It was enough for her to be distinguishable without her Limb Enhancers and enough to stand face to face with an Amethyst with them on. Apart from her deformity, she was revered among other Peridots. The title of Chief Engineer was not an empty one, it gave her direct command over any other Peridot assigned to the same project as her, a set of limb enhancers although she was an Era 1 Peridot, and it granted her a personal guard consisting of a pair of amethysts.
The title of Chief Engineer, she felt, was not unearned. She had served competently for as long as she could remember. She had been in charge of creating many important projects during her service. Homeworld itself would be notably less impressive if she had not had a hand in so much.
Yet, even though she was both intelligent, competent and accomplished, she was no navigator, and in that important moment, it showed. She was in that moment truly lost. This, she thought, this could impossibly be where she had been told to arrive at. If anything in the upper reaches of Homeworld was run down, it was the building in front of her; there was no way that an important meeting that she had been specifically requested for by her Diamond's personal Pearl was to be held here, no way.
She was snapped out of her thoughts by the arrival of another gem, and not one she would have expected here of all places on Homeworld. A blue Zircon, looking decidedly nervous, closely followed by an Amethyst. The newcomer looked at the building, shook her head and checked a small data-screen.
-Blue Zircon-
She double, then triple, checked the data-screen; she did not want her destination to be this place. She glanced at the Amethyst that had escorted her here, and was met with a flat stare and a nod. She swallowed, adjusted her tie and looked around. There was nobody except herself, the Amethyst and an unknown Peridot.
"What are the two of you doing here?" The smaller Gem, the Peridot spoke up. The stranger looked as nervous and unsure as she herself felt. Perhaps this other Gem was in a similar situation as herself.
"I was sent here by the direct command of The Great Diamond Authority, I don't know why specifically I was ordered here but I have my suspicions." She replied. Perhaps, she thought, this was her punishment, it would be logical; she had quite obviously stepped out of line during the trial.
"And I suppose you were escorted here by your companion." The Peridot deduced. Zircon's reply was a curt nod.
They stood in silence for a while; she supposed nobody present was entirely sure that the destination set by The Great Diamond Authority could even be this place. Just as she made to ask for the Peridot's purpose here the front door of the building opened.
"Do come inside, you were invited to the building not the street." Spoke a low voice from inside. She looked around hesitantly, seeing apprehension on the faces of the other Gems present. She made to ask if they were in the right place.
"The next thing you will say is; this doesn't look like a place for Diamond business, is this the right place?" Spoke the voice from inside. The words barely registered in her mind before she spoke herself.
"This doesn't look like a place for Diamond business, is this *Gasp* how did you do that?" She questioned, her surprise very much audible. Both the Peridot standing next to her and the Amethyst looked equally surprised.
"The two of you will have to come inside for an explanation, and you, the Amethyst, will report to the Uncontested Conquest as soon as possible." Spoke the voice inside. The Amethyst nodded curtly, turned away and left.
-Star Sapphire-Inside-
She moved from the door as the other Gems reluctantly entered. She heard a small gasp of recognition as soon as the Zircon caught sight of her. With that, she glimpsed at what was to come.
"You! You're Star Sapphire!" Spoke the Zircon, surprise and recognition clear in her voice.
"Indeed, I am Star Sapphire, as for how I predicted what you would say, the answer is precognition." She sat at the far end of the table that had been placed in the room, making a gesture to invite the newcomers to sit.
"I suppose you wonder why you have been summoned here." She spoke as the others sat. The two of them glanced at her and each gave a nod of confirmation. In response, she gleamed into the near future.
"Is this my punishment?" Questioned the Blue Zircon, fear and resignation evident in her eyes.
"No, this is not a punishment; you are here by the merit of your millennia of competent service to Homeworld, not by your failures and shortcomings." She said in response to the question that would have been asked.
"I don't need to tell you how you have been useful to Homeworld for the last few millennia, you know that yourselves, but I feel that it would be most prudent to inform you that your work has not gone unnoticed." She informed them, a small smile adorning her lips. They looked back at her with surprise in the Peridots case and nervousness from the Zircon.
"You have over the years proven time and time again that you both are valuable assets to our Diamonds; Peridot, for centuries you have been one of the first to be called to work on problems that need to be solved with skill, and you, Zircon, you realize that you have been making waves amongst our Diamonds in the recent past." The Peridot looked pleased with herself whilst the Zircon swallowed audibly.
"Now, you are to prove, beyond any reasonable doubt, that you can be assigned to a task and not simply succeed but go above and beyond any results your peers would achieve." With this, she began her presentation of the assignment itself.
"Your assignment concerns the Crystal Gems, a small group of rebels that is based on the planet Earth and which is currently led by the infamous Rose Quartz." This was met by clear surprise from each of the gems before her.
Such was to be expected, as neither of them were combat-oriented in any way whatsoever. One was a senior technician and engineer, while the other was an experienced lawyer surrounded by controversy. To be told that they would be assigned to something that involved a notorious rebel group would be understandably surprising. Before she went on, she peered into the future.
"Did you know that Homeworld has made repeated attempts to capture the Crystal gems?" She asked, her tone clarifying that it was a legitimate question and not just a stated fact.
"Yes." Answered the Peridot. She looked to the Zircon.
"I did." Voiced the Zircon. This, she thought, was good to know.
"As you already both know, Homeworld has on multiple occasions attempted to bring the Crystal Gems to justice, but they have so far managed to outsmart all forces sent to capture them, and thus, avoid justice so far." She made eye contact with each of them in turn as she spoke, hoping to impress upon them the seriousness of the situation.
"The hope is that we can manage to outsmart them in turn, which is why we have assembled what we perceive to be the most intellectually capable task force Homeworld has to offer." The realization hit them visibly; they would be trusted to outsmart a dangerous group of rebels that had managed to overpower one of the most decorated Jasper generals Homeworld had seen in multiple millennia.
"That task force is the three of us, with assistance provided by the dreadnought flagship the Uncontested Conquest, which is why you've been summoned here; the plan was to keep this to ourselves, if anyone outside the taskforce, the Uncontested Conquest and the Great Diamond Authority were to hear of this the backlash would be immense." Both nodded in understanding at this, it made sense, were the proud Jaspers or worse, Emeralds, to be made aware of a Sapphire, a Peridot and that Zircon leading a task force against the Crystal Gem rebellion, they would be far from happy.
"That being said, if there is no further questions, I believe we can, and should, continue this meeting aboard the Uncontested Conquest." With this, she stood, and so did what was now her colleagues.
-Chief Engineer Peridot-
It was unexpected for sure, as a Peridot, albeit one of extraordinary skill, to be called to end a rebellion, with a Zircon and a Sapphire, it was simply unheard of. She was not one to question the will of her Diamond, or the other Diamonds for that matter, but she was certainly close to doing so now. Nevertheless, she could see how it made sense, if brute force had proven ineffective, would it not make sense to attempt an intellectual approach, and it made sense to choose her specifically, for there was few who could boast to equal her mental prowess.
"So what was that about punishment?" She asked, attempting to make small talk as they walked. Blue Zircon flinched slightly as she heard the question. Touchy subject it seemed.
"Zircon, this concerns you, answer it if you will." Answered Star Sapphire. Mentally she noted to make nicknames for the gems that would be her companions… no, her teammates for the duration of the imminent assignment.
"The short version is that I, during the trial of Rose Quartz where I was assigned as Rose Quartz' defendant, managed to offend both Yellow- and Blue Diamond by way of overzealous defense and accusations that would be deemed traitorous in the mind of any sensible Gem." Blue Zircon's explanation was met by silence. A few moments passed in disquieting quiet as she thought of a response.
"Just who did you accuse of what to offend both of the Diamonds in the room at once?" Again, her prying was met with a flinch. Blue Zircon took a moment to look over her shoulder nervously.
"At the peak of a rant focused around the impossibility of Rose Quartz' guilt in the case of Pink Diamond's murder, I managed to conclude that the only ones capable of shattering Pink Diamond under those circumstances would be one of the other Diamonds, and I told them that, directly." It took her a few moments to process the information. The silence that laid over them was deafening. Then, the silence was broken. Hysterical laughter rose from Chief.
Chief could barely keep up with the other two gems as her laughter grew uncontrollably. Blue Zircon kept her head down, looking somewhere between embarrassed and nervous. Passing gems gave them odd looks at the borderline painfully loud laughter that Chief let out. Star Sapphire seemed unfazed, no doubt a result of thousands of years of experience with various eccentric gems. Slowly though, her laughter faded.
"How… how did you… how did you manage to conclude that, and… and how did you get convinced that it was a good idea to tell not one but two Diamonds that to their faces?" And with that, she returned to her laughing fit. Blue Zircon opened her mouth, likely to explain.
"You were about to begin a lengthy explanation of you rationale, I feel it would be prudent to inform you that we would reach the ship before the end of your imminent tirade, where you would be cut off by the Peridots working near the entrance." Star Sapphire cut in. From what could be seen of her face, she looked thoroughly serious.
"I propose that you wait until we have more time to spare before you summarize your… hypothesis." Star continued and ended the conversation. It was only about half a minute before they reached the colossal hangar that served as the resting place of countless Homeworld ships of various size and purpose.
By far the most impressive of the vessels in the hangar were the personal ships of the four Diamonds; even Pink Diamond's ship was kept in pristine condition, by the direct order of White Diamond. Second only to those was the Uncontested Conquest, an ancient Homeworld warship designed to lead entire fleets of lesser ships. It was more than gargantuan, with a length of just over three miles. It was designed during the height of the Crystal Rebellion and had been in service for the last four millennia. Its defenses were nigh impenetrable, just its shields requiring as much power as a fully operational lunar base. Its only real weak point was that it lacked much in terms of aggressive means, having been designed as a command ship and not battleship.
Chief Engineer Peridot knew all this and more about the ship before them. Of course she did. How couldn't she? After all, this was her magnum opus. She chose not to resist the urge to gloat.
-Blue Zircon-
The following minutes were insufferable, the Chief Engineer had begun boasting about the ship they were to use and she grew perpetually louder in her gloating, somehow managing to excite herself further with every exaggerated claim. It only became worse when they reached hearing distance of the Peridots that were working near the front of the ship. It took them little time from hearing the Chief Engineer's boasting to realizing that the Chief Engineer was the creator of the colossal mechanical monstrosity before them. They swiftly joined in; praising both the Chief Engineer and the ship she had designed.
The torment came to a halt when the Chief Engineer went another direction from them, her going to oversee the on-board engineering bay, them going to the bridge of the ship to introduce themselves to the navigational and piloting crew.
After making an introduction to the small crew of Nephrites, Star Sapphire provided her access to a file containing the layout of the obscenely huge spaceship. They then parted ways, Star Sapphire leaving with the promise of her being summoned to the planning room when they departed from Homeworld.
Not being assigned to an immediate task for more than a few hours for the first time in centuries, she took a few minutes to simply stroll through the expansive hallways. It was odd really; a Zircon's life was never one of luxury or even much comfort. It was such a minor freedom really, but it felt so exhilarating, knowing that there was, for just a moment, nothing to attend to, no gem to defend in court, only whatever she so desired… within reasonable limits of course.
She found her way to her personal quarters and after lounging for as long as was bearable; set off to look at other parts of the ship. She passed several Gems as she wandered, mostly Amethysts and Peridots. There was a noticeable lack of any higher-ranking militant Gems, but it made sense, it fit Star Sapphire's earlier explanation; most Gem officers had a tendency towards pride and would have a fit working under a Sapphire, a Peridot and a Zircon.
It was then that her data-screen received a notice, the ship was to depart, and that meant that she would be needed in the room simply labeled planning room. It was not a small room, not quite as big as her new personal quarters but size was not what made it stand out, rather, it was the room's location. It was on the highest point of the ship and to add to that it was only accessible through Star Sapphire's personal quarters.
She felt the entire ship shift around her as it took off from Homeworld. The course was set, and she knew that they had just passed the point of no return… or well, no return until they had succeeded, she supposed.
Then, she just had to find her way to Star Sapphire's quarters. She was faced with another challenge, for though her deductive skills were great, too great some might argue, she was not a navigator, that was Nephrites were made for. That and piloting in general she added.
"Need a little help?" She turned toward the voice. It was an Amethyst, the same one that had escorted her to the earlier meeting place. Amethyst Facet-5 Cut-8XJ, or just "8XJ" as she had previously introduced herself, stood in front of her, the Gem on her left shoulder clearly visible, a slight curl to her hair and a knowing smirk plastered on her face.