Stranded Gems
Chapter 0 - The Prologue
The sounds outside were like thunder. Axes and swords crashed down as their users were swiftly defeated, the sky was lit up frequently by the blasts of cannons and it seemed like there was a never-ending rain of gems. Pink Diamond herself was on the battlefield today, and she seemed absolutely unstoppable. Her beautiful appearance remained no matter how many blows were struck down upon her, and where she walked, a path of destruction followed. Rebels fused in an attempt to stop her, but they were soon dispelled. If all of the Diamonds got out onto the battlefield, then the war would be over in seconds, but unfortunately White had to stay behind on Homeworld to keep the regular Gems in line, Yellow was busy commanding the army and Blue was still on her way to Earth. Still, the battle was sure to be over before she got here.
Especially after what Cinnabar was about to do. She had been fighting a Ruby fusion when she noticed her. Rose Quartz, standing there, out on the battlefield. Cinnabar was a tough Gem, picked out by the Diamonds as part of one of their military projects. She could take her on. She quickly shattered the Rubies and ran over to Rose Quartz, bringing down her trusty hammer without a word. But Cinnabar didn't expect a Pearl of all Gems to jump out at her. With one quick slash, Cinnabar was already defeated and as she retreated back into her gem, she made a note of the Pearl's face. She would destroy her. To be defeated by a Pearl of all things was an embarrassment.
What happened later could have been prevented.
This was it. The moment she'd been waiting for. After training for so long, the Turquoises were being sent into a real battle with none other than Blue Diamond. Turquoise herself wasn't with the rest of her team, though. She was in the Training Room, waiting for the ship to land. As she smashed targets to bits, Blue entered the room.
"9F4L," Blue Diamond spoke softly, trying not to irritate Turquoise although she knew that she would never retaliate against a Diamond. "What are you doing in here? Shouldn't you be with the others?"
Turquoise stopped for a moment to answer. "Sorry, my Diamond. I want to be as prepared as possible for the upcoming battle, my Diamond."
Blue Diamond laughed. She liked to see a Gem with a lot of passion and emotion. It reminded her of her sister, Pink, fighting valiantly to protect her subjects. She couldn't wait to see her again once the ship landed, and then they could defeat the rebels together. Turquoise noticed Blue Diamond beginning to reminisce again, so she continued training.
Dodge, kick, punch, turn, jump, dodge, smash, somersault away and over the attack behind her. Even on the hardest difficulty, Turquoise was still finding this too easy. She began to think that she'd trained a bit too much, but she swept her cyan hair out of her eyes and continued. She was agile and strong enough to hold her own in a fight, but she was still on the lean side and was worried that she'd be hit by a surprise attack at any moment, shattering her. Thinking about this, she was hit by an attack, confirming her thoughts.
After quickly reforming, she noticed Blue Diamond crying and leaving the room. She spoke up.
"My diamond," she half-shouted. "What is the matter? Were you scared I had been killed?"
Blue Diamond turned around at this, her eyes welling up with tears. She looked... terrified, in a way. Horrified, or shocked. This made Turquoise realise that this wasn't some sort of overreaction. Something serious had happened.
"My diamond..." Turquoise was anxious. She didn't know what was wrong, but she had this feeling that she didn't want to know.
Blue Diamond began to explain.
"The rebels, Rose Quartz... she's...," she attempted to say before breaking down into tears. "Pink Diamond, she's... she's been shattered..."
Fluorites scrambled around the room as they hurried to document their findings, bumping into Peridots who were busy finishing off the machine before what felt like the thousandth test took place. They had been commissioned by Amber, one of Yellow Diamond's top scientists, to build a DNA splicer with the hopes of creating a super Gem that could take on the Rebellion. They had used too many common Pearls, so were being forced to use themselves. They finished up the device, and activated it.
A huge spark of electricity and a flash of light later, and the Fluorite and Peridot being used had disappeared completely. Coughing up smoke, one of the Fluorites stood up and tried to look around.
The power had gone out. How annoying, they'd have to spent a few hours fixing it before they could experiment again. She was ready to call the latest try a failure when a shape began to take form in the containment chamber... and speak.
"Hey, what happened," it inquired. It seemed confused about something, which was understandable. "It's too dark, turn the lights back on!"
As the figure stepped into the light of a nearby window, it became apparent that the experiment was not a failure after all. This was not a Fluorite, or a Peridot. This was a new Gem. She wasn't as tall as most normal Gems, like a Peridot, but she was pretty skinny and white like a Fluorite usually is. She was also dressed in typical Fluorite clothes.
"Hey, you," she pointed to the Fluorite as a couple more Gems began to stand back up. "Who am I, and where am I?"
"Uh, you're, uh...," the Fluorite couldn't think of a good name.
"Your name is Halite, and you're in Sector 6M of the Homeworld Science Facility. Understand?" said one of the Peridots that had just woken up, quite sternly.
"Oh, uh, sure. Yeah."
Halite looked at herself and back at the Gems. She smiled.
"Heh, nice name! So, what's my purpose?" Halite inquired. She was just like all the other Gems: ready and willing to work from creation.
Amber suddenly stepped into the room. She towered over everyone else, being a little taller than the average Quartz soldier. Everybody was up now, and turned to her. Halite was intimidated, and could tell immediately that this was someone worth listening to.
"So, the experiment was a success at last, I suppose," Amber rather flatly informed everyone, clearly uninterested after so much time spent. "I'll handle this one. The rest of you leave, now."
The room was empty before Halite could blink. Smirking, Amber kneeled down to Halite's height and spoke.
"I'm sure you're afraid of me. Don't be, it's not you I'm interested in hurting. Seriously."
Nervously, Halite nodded and attempted to speak.
"So, uh, what's my-"
"HOWEVER! If you decide to interrupt me when I'm speaking like that ever again, then you'll end up where everybody else below me who has ever tried to question my authority has gone."
Silence.
"... Good. Your position will be... hm, engineer, I think. Not quite strong enough to do most of the carrying around this place, but not smart enough to do the calculations. Still, you maintain enough of those qualities to fix a few things. I'll be showing you to White Diamond tomorrow, assuming she is here, and if everything goes to plan, you'll be starting your work the day afterwards. Remember that. If you do not respond to my call tomorrow morning, I will be forced to shatter you for indirectly disrespecting a Diamond's orders. Understood? I'll be leading you to your temporary place of residence shortly, after I speak to the others. Remain here."
Halite nodded and Amber turned around and left the room. Ignoring the shouts of anger and expletives being thrown at the scientists outside, Halite looked outside at Homeworld and into space. She was excited to see the world outside, and get to working, and everything else.
The universe awaited.
What's that, you say? "Why are you replacing the chapters?" Because the old ones weren't that good, so I'm rewriting this story. I'm lucky that I only wrote a few chapters for the old story, because otherwise this would take forever. Oh well. The story is basically gonna be the same, so don't worry about that. Just a few plot twists have been changed. Oh, yeah, and welcome to Stranded Gems.
Next Chapter: The Great Escape
