Chapter 2: Finding Sanctuary
'This sucks,' she thought, sighing in boredom in the escape pod as it sped through the vast emptiness of space.
The flight so far has been uneventful. The Peridots were ordered by the highest ranking gem in the pod, that being the largest Jasper, to repair any damage to the pod repairable, and to find their trajectory to see if there were any Homeworld controlled systems in their path. So far, the search has come up empty, but the Jasper insisted that they keep searching. The Jasper had looked at each gem in the pod, and once her gaze landed on Ruby 1VZ, she stopped and stared for a good minute, before shaking her head and returned to monitering the Peridots
Ruby 1VZ was smart enough to have noticed a few things in her lifetime that kept happening. Namely other gems giving her weird looks, or treating her differently. She had thought for most of her life that it was due to her being a ruby. Rubies are runtish soldiers, that much she acknowledged despite being a ruby herself, and couldn't compete with the sheer combat prowess of larger and more powerful warrior caste gem types like Quartzes. They didn't even come close to an Onyx Honor Guard, who could take on an entire company of Quartz soldiers and come out on top with few to no scratches. The thought of a ruby defeating such a powerful gem nearly made her laugh aloud at the absurdity. No, she had asked multiple rubies of different units and different Diamonds if they received the same treatment, and their answers were no so something else was happening, and she was beginning to wonder, despite her station as a soldier.
Ruby finally began to look around at the interior of her pod, and she was surprised to say the least.
'Seriously, how big is this thing, it seemed so small on the outside. Then again I wasn't really paying mind to the size of the craft at the time,' she thought.
The craft was quite roomy for an escape pod, she was able to stretch out to the fullest extent and have some room left over in her corner of the pod. The Quartzes and Jaspers could sit upright without difficulty, and there was room still for the Peridots to bustle about with repairs and touch screens displaying equations that she couldn't even begin to wrap her head around.
She decided to try and talk to the ruby to her left, but got little more than sniffles and a few shaky sobs here and there in return. She herself was still dealing with the sorrow at the loss of the High Admiral, so she could empathise to an extent. She couldn't be seen as weak by her fellow soldiers. She would loose all their respect, she was sure of it, if she showed weakness. She had to be strong, no matter what.
"I just c-can't believe that she's g-g-gone." A voice to her left said.
She glanced back towards the ruby when she heard her voice. It was a soft one, not harsh or stern, nor grating on the ears, and it was kinda nice to listen to. In truth, she had expected to be left alone for the rest of the flight, but this was an unexpected, but not unwanted, interaction.
"I thought that the High Admiral couldn't be b-broken, because she's so awesome and like, cool. N-now, she's gone, and it hurts so much," The ruby said with a shaky tone.
She laid her hand on the ruby's shoulder subtly and gave them a comforting squeeze, offering what little she could. She was about to speak to the ruby when a disgusted scoff cut her off.
"Quit your crying. There's no place for weakness in any warrior serving the Diamonds, especially White Diamond. You're pathetic." A Jasper said with a sneer.
This Jasper had the basic characteristics of a Quartz soldier, and a Jasper. She was tall, muscular, and fierce with a mane of white hair cascading down her back. The gem wore a standard White Diamond uniform, with the insignia in the center of the chest with two shoulder straps connecting to a skin tight body glove, with minature white diamonds on the knees of the body glove. Her gem glinted in the lights of the ship, located on the soldier's left shoulder.
Ruby 1VZ knew this Jasper, Jasper 9MX, very well, much to her displeasure. They were often paired with one another on patrols and combat missions. She was brash, crude, and always looking for a fight, the best qualities for a Quartz soldier. For whatever reason, she would never be paired with her fellow rubies, despite the fact that rubies work best together amongst members of their own caste. Working with the shock troops that were Quartzes and Jaspers only created problems. Whenever Quartz soldiers and rubies worked together, the rubies would often be pushed to the side in a fight, the Quartzes preferring to keep them out of the way, while the "real" soldiers fought the enemy. She herself had been brushed to the side more times than she could count by the Quartz soldiers, waiting impatiently for an opportunity to join the battle, but the Quartz soldiers never allowed such a thing to happen.
She was about to retort to the Jasper's words, but she was cut off by the lead Jasper. "Jasper 9MX, enough!"
This Jasper differed from her companions greatly. She towered over every single gem in the pod by a good margin, was exponentially more muscular than most Quartz soldiers, and had a flowing cape pinned to her shoulders to show her rank.
She rapidly moved in front of Jasper 9MX and pointed her finger at her. "We are sperated from Homeworld forces, lost in the vast recesses of space with no way of knowing if we will survive or not, and to top it all off, we just lost the High Admiral, so I don't need you of all gems causing rifts amongst us. For all we know, we are the last of White Diamond's forces, we need to stick together, so shut it and keep your comments to yourself," The large gem ordered.
Jasper 9MX, intimidated by the sheer size of the Jasper in front of her and by her loud scolding, reluctantly acquieced to the jasper's demands.
Ruby 1VZ sighed in relief. While she was up for a fight anytime, she didn't like her odds against a Quartz soldier. Even if she fuzed with the ruby beside her, she doubted that they would come out of the fight unscathed. She felt her hand be squeezed and looked to her left and saw that the ruby had taken her hand. The unspoken thanks in the ruby's eyes wasn't missed by Ruby 1VZ, and soon her hand was released.
A sudden beep directed the attention of everyone in the pod towards one of the peridots manning the navigation holo screen. The lead Jasper, Jasper 1MX, swiftly made her way over to the peridot and the two began to discuss in earnest. Ruby 1VZ heard snippets of the conversation, but couldn't listen closer without being obvious.
"-headed straight towards a planetary satellite in orbit-"
"-planetary system? Gem controlled or-"
"-don't know, we could-"
"-that you do, we can't afford-"
"Understood, researching now."
Jasper 1MX nodded in satisfaction and returned to her seat near the Bismuth. Ruby 1VZ wasn't too sure she liked what she heard, or more specifically, what parts of the conversation she didn't hear, but she dare not ask a superior. She was a common foot soldier, and such details were above her caste. She resolved that, with her situation and social standing amongst her peers, she would wait it out and see for herself what will unveil. With that, she closed her eyes, and drifted off into nothingness.
Three and a half months later
She was awoken from her rest by a light touch on her shoulder, and she saw that it was the ruby from earlier. Her eyes shifted to the gems around her, and Ruby 1VZ finally took note of her surroundings. The Quartz soldiers were busy readying themselves, the Bismuth was sitting silently, and the Peridots were furiously working on their holo screens, agitated conversations reaching her ears about things that boggled her mind.
"We're getting close to our destination, Jasper 1MX ordered us to prepare for impact." the ruby spoke.
She nodded absentmindedly, getting comfortable again, before the word "impact" registered in her mind, wheeling back towards the ruby with the incredulous cry of "Impact?!" on her lips.
"Yes, we're about to crash land on a planetary satellite in orbit of the planet Earth. Jasper 1MX ordered us to get ready for impact, though I don't really know what that means. What does impact mean?" the ruby asked.
"It means we're about to crash!" Ruby 1VZ exclaimed.
The ruby looked to be in deep thought for a few moments, her nose scrunched up, her eyebrows pinched together, before a look of knowing burst on her face, swiftly replaced by a look of fear. She was about to nod vigorously in agreement when Jasper 1MX screamed "Brace for impact!", and then everything exploded.