- Just above Earths Atmosphere -

A long narrow vesstle, "The Shard of Regret," exits lightspeed. It's surface seems perfectly smooth, dark and yet translucent, a perfect malgamation of crystaline and metals merged in such a way that it would be near invisible to the eye, if not for the odd glint from the sun. Gemkind knew very well to fear the black ships of the "Diamonds Executioners."

The silence in the vessel was deafening, other than the odd buzz or whirl from the consoles, it was completely motionless. At the helm was a single Peridot, her odd grumbles being drowned out by the ships acknowledgements to her commands. She taps the console and brings up a side window made from her limb enchancer augments, three out of 6 grey orbs are green and with the last floating augmentended finger she presses the three spheres. Down the hall there's a hiss, and three gemstones fall out from holserts on the wall. The stones, mix of green and red the three float suspended in the zero G for a moment, before the first hums to life.

Light burst forth and consumes the gem so only a fraction remains exposed on the forms upper back, followed by a carapace over the entire body. Its feet land on the floor with a thud and it snaps to attention. "5-1G reporting-" 5-1G looked up the hallway only to see the other two Bloodstone still aloft and the nervous peridot staring back him. He wasn't surprised, this had become usual to him. He was a runt, but if nothing else he was punctual. Shorter than his comrades, 5-1 was a stocky green fellow with peircing red eyes and slicked back hair. As if Bloodstone weren't notorious enough, this made him particularly unnerving, something other Bloodstone appreciated far more than he could.

Of the other two Bloodstone 3-9, their mentor, was alright enough. Never one for protocal which would eat at 5-1 but his loyalty and comitment to their duty was unquestionable. He'd been on numerous missions for the Diamonds and had even been gifted his own colony and pearl! There were rumors he'd been in the strike force on earth before the recall. 5-7 on the other hand, his "dear sister", well they had gone whole missions before she'd even formed. Sometimes 5-1 questioned if there was a mistake and she was from a different kindergarden.

At that moment the next gem sparked to life, light slithered and twisted around the gem till the form of a huge man stood before 5-1, small flickers of light hovered and formed around his waste, giving him a carapace only from the waste down, his gem was on his left chest but hidden under his bushy "beard."

5-1 sighed, "Sir! Protocol dictates-"

"That I wear my battle suit and I AM!" 3-9 gave 5-1 a cheeky smile and leaned into into him, "it doesn't say I have to wear ALL of it," he let out a hearty chuckle and pat 5-1 on the shoulder as he made his way to the bridge, 5-1 groaned . "Will your Sister be joining us this time?"

5-1 watched the lone gemstone floating and finally flicked to life, "guess so."

The Gem bloomed with light that formed into a femine form, red hair fell over her shoulders and tied back stopping just shy where her gem had centered itself on her lower back. A second flicker sparked to life as her carapace hugged its way around her form, although leaving her mid-drift completely exposed. 5-1 couldn't possibly understand her thinking behind that, but this was just one entry in a very long list of things the two disagreed on. 5-7 was of the opinion that the Diamonds rules serve more to guide lesser gems, much more lowly then the Bloodstones who acted for the Diamonds in all things.

5-7 just let out a huge yawn and the two approached the bridge.

"Where's the LZ?" 5-7 asked, analyzing a holo-projection of earth.

"No LZ, they have a Saphire.. AND a renagade Lapis."

"A Lapis!?" 5-1 Laughed, "That's a weird one."

"You ever fight a Lapis shiny*? 3-9's normal care free deminor was a bit more serious, as if he was lost in an old memory. 5-1 knew not to press the matter. 3-9 continued, "we can't risk the Saphire giving us away early. Nor can we risk going head to head with their big gun." He touched the Crystal Gem base on the holo-map. "We'll make the jump from orbit, hopefully taking the seer by suprise. Once we make landfall we'll go straight for the target, Rose Quartz," he tapped the holo-map, showing a full file on Rose Quartz. One image showed a beautiful woman in a flowing dress and another a small organic.

*A term used for new cuts whos gems hadn't earned their scrapes and scuffs yet.

"Which one are we looking for," 5-7 looked back and fourth between the two.

"Both," 3-9 grimly repled. "We have reason to believe Rose Quartz has fused with an organic somehow. We don't know how.. or why," the once care free mans was gone and twisted into one barely containing his disgust.

"But this is an Act of betrayal, NOT ONLY TO OUR DIAMONDS, but all of Gem kind! They threaten everything that makes us great, everything that makes us pure!" 3-9 placed his hand on the peridots head, she instinctively sat up, "The Diamonds assign each of us a task to further gemkind. What is yours, Peridot?"

The Peridot stuttered and tried desperately to choke out, "E-e-e-e-engineer!" 3-9's grin went ear to ear at the trembling Peridots fear and he snapped back to his shinies, "And what of you Bloodstone!"

"Glory to our Diamond! Honor to our facet!" 5-1 and 5-7 didn't miss a beat, they'd swore this prayer a thousand times and would say it till they shattered. The ship roared and echo'd with their fury, but 5-1 could only notice the Peridot jump and tremble even further.

This always annoyed 5-1, bloodstone carried a heavy burden, this much was true. To snuff out insurection against the Diamonds before it could spread, to this end they would go to any length to see their mission succeed. They were brutal, yes, but always for the Diamonds, and always for the people. Without the Diamonds they would not have purpose and without purpose they would be little more than stones. Many gems didn't see eye to eye with the bloodstones on this, though surely most of the empire would truely be loyal to the Diamonds, not many would be near as faithful or zealous as the Bloodstones. They were political officers, designed for the task of maintaining morale throughout the empire at any cost or any manor, and to this end they'd earned more fear than respect from their fellow Gems.

3-9 closed the holo-map, "alright, lets get started. The longer we're up here, the better chance the Saphire has of detecting us." The three bloodstone made their way to the center of the long tube. A quick flash popped as the Peridot sealed her cabin with a light-shield, and then the wall split, straight down the middle. There was a brief pull for the little gas in the chamber depressurizing, but then nothing but the cool void. He looked down and for the first time saw the earth, it was beatiful, like a Black Opal floating in space. He was so lost he'd completely missed 3-9 and 5-7 jump towards the planet. It was silent, even peaceful, one of the nice things of space is all the chaos of life just sort of fades away, but it wouldn't last.

As they broke atmosphere things would get more heated, literally, and though they'd done this a thousand times it was always 5-1's least favorite part. He felt his gem begin to heat up, his form was catching a lot of flak. He sharpened his carapace to let him cut through the air, 5-7 did the same, 3-9 just took the brunt of it in his normal form. The older cuts really were a whole different breed from them, he thought. Suddenly as they just cleared the worst of the atmosphere he saw a massive blast of light come from the earth.

"Get down!" 3-9 screamed as he crashed into the two 5's. The massive blast ripped through them shattering their carapace armor, but the bolt actually hit 3-9 who almost froze is the sky, the force lifting him back up. 5-1 could only stare in horror as he watched his mentor float lifeless for those instants and then start falling.

"He hadn't dissappated," 5-1 thought to himself. That's good. Maybe it wasn't as bad as it looked. 5-1 rolled back over to see 5-7 frantically looking for where the shot came from, but it was miles of beach still much to far to make anything out. Then, another bolt exploded from the ground, but this time they were ready, the two 5's soared around it. And then the next. Finally they could see the source, a large gem shrine forged on the beach. The ideal was to land just beyond the fortress, but there was an organic city on the side. They couldn't take the risk of sympathizers and rolled towards the dense vegetation beyond the city. It was a hard landing, 5-1 clipped a tree while decending into the forest and tumbled to the earth and came to a hard stop in the trunk of another tree.

"Ugh," he pulled himself free with a ugly groan. "You alright 7..?" he looked around but couldn't see her anywhere. He switched to his comm, "7 report in." It was dead, only for seconds, but it felt like a lifetime. "I'm fine," buzzed through, a huge relief came over 5-1. "Entroute to your position. Have you reached 3-9?" 5-1 sat silent, he had to muster the strength to call back, "Negative, 3-9 MIA." 5-1 Pulled out his comm, the Bloodstones all had IFF trackers, but 3-9 was no where to be found.

On the other side of beach city, Garnet sat perched on one the shrines hands. Cannon shouldered, she heaved from exaughstion as she scanned the sky for the would be assassins. Steven, Amethyst and Pearl, burst through on the arm,

"Garnet, what's going on-" Pearl started but was cut off.

"There's no time, take Steven and get as Far away from here as possible!" The three sat in silence. "Now!" Garnet urged, but Steven pushed forward.

"No Garnet! We're a team and if something's bothering you-" Steven didn't even notice he was suddenly falling back. He looked up to see Garnet pushing him away. Pearl caught him before he reached the ground, again the three stood in silence as Garnet dropped the cannon to the ground. Tears streamed down her face, "you have to go.."

Pearl wanted to know what was going on, but this seemed serious, she picked Steven up under her arm and ran to the warp-pad. Amerthyst stayed behind, stone faced she asked, "what''s going on?"

Garnet desperated clambered for the words hoping in some desperate plea if she just didn't say it perhaps it wouldn't be true, "Homeworld.. Has sent assassins after Steven."

Amethyst smiled, "Yeah but.. It's nothing we can't handle right?"

Garnets third eye looked up from over her visor and the two sat in complete silence. Amethysts face turned to dread, the silence was all the confirmation she needed, things were truely dire. "What are you going to do?" Ametheyst said in a hushed tone.

"Stall them," Garnet forced her self to stand tall. "I'll buy you three the time to find somewhere and hide." She paused and removed her visor, "Amethyst. These gems are not like anything we've ever faced. They are shatterers, here for Steven and they will let nothing stand between them and their mission. Once you through the warp-pad, you must destroy it, you cannot risk them getting to Steven!"

"But what about-"

"Amethysy listen to me," Garnet grabbed Amethyst shoulders. "Unless I give you the all clear, you can never come back here. Do you understand.

"Y-yeah." Amethyst could barely choke the words out. The two sat in a silent farewell, before Amethyst ran toward the warp-pad. And just like that, the three were gone.

Garnet stepped back into the center of the massive hand and looked up to see a lifeless figure falling towards the city and with a loud explosion toppled several buildings. She crouched down and launched herself towards the city with all of her strength.