The group entered the mines with the gems leading the group, they were soon joined by Nico and the commander, Nico was carrying a motion tracker device. It immediately caught Amethysts attention "What is that?" she asked curiously, "This is a state of the the art motion tracker, it will tell me if there is anything moving in front of us." Nico said as he kept looking at the device "Can I hold it?" she asked, she would love to have it for her pile, Nico took a quick glance at the commander her death glare said everything. "As soon as this mission is over I will get you one." Nico said through a small smile "I promise.".

"We still don't know who you are." Pearl said looking at the commander.

"That is classified." commander shot back coldly "All you have to know is that we are working for Theodore.".

Nico went ahead of the group with his tracker ignoring the bickering of the Pearl and his commander, he was followed by Rose, "So what is this temple?" Nico asked to break the silence "It used to be an armory, Homeworld kept most of its weapons in this temple." Rose spoke "We came to secure them so they wouldn't fall into the wrong hands.". She decided to change the topic "You look very young to be a soldier.", Nico chuckled "What gave it away, my height." he said through a laugh"Lets just say it wasn't my original choice to be a soldier.", this awakened her curiosity "What happened?" she asked.

"A war happened." he answered with now a much more serious tone "A civil war, to be precise, I was sixteen and unfortunate enough to be conscripted. They gave me a gun and sent me to the front to kill my former countrymen... I even knew some of them. After we lost I just could not get used to the peaceful life again.", "Why not?" Rose wanted to know more, in her eyes he was still a child.

"Wow, you sure are nosy." Nico continued "Well lets just say I fought for the people who did very bad things, even I did things I am not proud of. People tell you that you will be welcomed like a hero back home, all lies they hated me back home for fighting for the wrong side. So when I came back home Theodore contacted me and told me he wanted me for his army, I needed the action in my life again and the pay is great, so here I am fighting for the right side this time."

Their conversation was interrupted by a loud ping, Nico stopped dead in his tracks "Multiple movements in front of us! They are heading right towards us!" he yelled back at the group behind them. Rose glanced at his device it was full of dots heading towards them, the soldiers quickly made a firing line in front of the gems, "Get ready, I want short controlled bursts!" commander Sasha ordered "Nico distance, now!".

"Twenty meters!"

"Eighteen meters!"

"Seventeen meters!"

"Fifteen meters!"

"Ten! Here they come!" He shouted, putting his motion tracker back and took aim.

Centipede-like creatures charged towards the group screeching "Open fire!", the soldiers opened fire and the monsters started poofing one by one, but they still had the numbers. The soldiers had to walk back and shoot so they wouldn't be overrun, the gems took this as a signal that its their turn now and rushed past the soldiers with their weapons ready "Watch your fire!" Sasha ordered "Don't hit the gems clear shots only!". The gems and the soldiers made quick work of the remaining monsters, after the job was done the Crystal Gems started bubbling the gems that covered the floor.

Rose soon heard shoots behind her as she bubbled a gem, when she turned around she was disgusted and outraged to see what the human soldiers were doing, they were smashing the gems into pieces.

One of the gems regenerated and tried to make a run for it, unfortunately it didn't make it very far it got shot by one of the soldiers "Look at that." he said as he reloaded his weapon "Taking it like a champ.", the creature tried to limp away before being gunned down by the man. Nico walked over to the gem preparing to shatter it, he was suddenly stopped by Rose "Stop!" she was disgusted by these actions, "Mam' trust me we are doing them a favor." Nico placing his pistol back into its holster "They are nothing more then rabid dogs, that need to be put down before they hurt someone."

"They are not animals!" Rose had enough, she bubbled the gem, "You really don't like gems do you." Garnet said in cold and calm voice as she looked at Nico "The doctor said you had a past with them. What happened?" Nico"s eyes widened, it got really quiet after that.

"You say they are not animals." Nico decided to break the silence "You know during the war I had a team, we have been instructed to lead a group of refugees to safety. During the trip we had to hide in a temple just like this one to evade a company of insurgents, that's when your precious gems came and..." he stopped, Garnet could see his tears, even though he was trying to hide them.

He took a big gulp before continuing "Our guns didn't stop them they just...They tore right through my team and went straight for the civilians. Men, women and even children those monsters tore them apart. All forty of them, if Theodore and his men hadn't showed up, they would have torn me apart too."

"So tell me Rose, why should I show them any mercy!" he shouted.

Rose got quiet after that, she could see he was far beyond saving and filed with hate "You don't have to be like them." she spoke softly " You are all better then this."

"It takes a monster to kill a monster Rose." Nico said with a cold voice "Please don't try to get psychological with me.", after that he just took out his motion tracker and went ahead with Sasha, followed by the soldiers. "I will say it again, I don't trust any of them and this just proves my point." Pearl said looking at the shards on the floor "They are no better then the Homeworld.", "Let's get going, we can't let them reach the armory before us." Rose said before going after the group.

It was a quiet walk towards the temple, after a few minutes of walking they entered what appeared to be a pyramid in a massive underground cavern, "This is Alpha team we have reached the temple." Sasha spoke through the radio "We will let you-. Can anyone else feel that?". The ground was shaking and it got worse as time went by "Earthquake?" one of the soldiers asked, soon his question was answered when a massive centipede-like creature burst out of the ground roaring.

"Oh come on!" one of the soldiers shouted before opening fire, the whole squad started focusing fire on the giant monster, but it had little effect "Commander we need the big guns to take it out.". The monster ignored the bullets and started attacking the soldiers, throwing some of them to the wall.

The gems charged the monster with their weapons, Amethyst closed the monsters mouth with her whip, Garnet smashed its head down to bring it down.

It was in great pain and with its last strength he broke free, fleeing underground again, before Rose and Pearl could finish it off. Now it started bringing the cave roof down on the group, "Its gonna bring the who the place down!" Sasha shouted "Grab the wounded and lets get the hell out of here! NOW!", the men picked up their downed friends and ran for the exit. "Lets go we are almost there!" Rose said, she too was holding one wounded trooper that took a brow to the head.

The group managed to get out, but the mine entrance behind them collapsed, the medical staff that was in the camp took the wounded and carried them to their tents "What happened?" one of the soldiers asked. "There is a big gem in there." Nico said as he coughed "Dam thing almost buried us in there.".

Suddenly large cracks were heard coming from the mountain and the gem emerged again, but this time instead of attacking it let out a mighty roar before heading east completely avoiding the camp.

"Where is it going?" Amethyst asked as she looked the creature burrow itself underground again, "It could be heading towards that village we passed by when we were coming here." Nico said as he looked at the commander, "Get the helicopter ready!" she ordered to some soldiers "Monte, Nico and Lopez with me that thing must not reach the village!", she turned around facing the gems "You should come to.", the Rose agreed. She didn't like the methods of these humans, but she wouldn't stand idly by and let innocent people get hurt.

The selected team rushed towards a large clearing were a Blackhawk helicopter was waiting for them, Monte and Nico took positions on the mounted machine guns, whilst the Sasha and Lopez were checking their gear. The helicopter quickly took off towards the village "Keep your open!" Sasha said to Monte and Nico "I don't want that thing getting a jump on us again.". They arrived at the village faster then expected, unfortunately not fast enough, the once peaceful village was turned into a ruin. "Do you see anything?" Lopez asked Nico, there was a short silence before the answer "Nothing, it might have left.".

"I sure hope so." Monte thought out-loud, "Commander do you want us to check for survivors?" One of the pilots asked, but before she could answer the helicopter suddenly got hit by something and started spinning out of control, Monte was unable to keep a strong grip and was sent flying out of the helicopter "Everyone hold on!" the pilot shouted "This is Cobra one, we are going down, I repeat we are going down!". Nico started slipping and would suffered Monte's fate Sasha didn't grab hold of him. The gems too were ejected out of the crashing helicopter. When they hit the ground they heard a loud crash and saw smoke coming from the village square.

The gems ran towards the crash site, the helicopter crashed into a building in the village square and was surrounded by rubble, Nico was standing over Lopez who dislocated his arm and suffered a few bruises.

"Where is the commander?" Rose asked worried, "I'm alright." Sasha said as she was helping one of the pilots out of the wreck, his leg was broken "Unfortunately Monte and Marcus are not.". There was a loud poping noise and Lopez's screaming coming from behind them, Sasha placed the hurt pilot down on the ground and kicked a door in dragging the wounded soldier inside and placing him on the couch. The gems followed her, "Nico come on man." Lopez said as he grabbed Nico's shoulder "Marcus is dead, lets get out of the open or we will suffer the same fate.", with that Nico silently went inside the house with Lopez.

"Well, this looks bad." Lopez said holding what used to be a rocket launcher "We should just wait for extraction, so we don't end up like Monte and Marcus." he was quickly silenced by Sasha's death glare. "If you don't mind, me and the gems are going to take care of this." Rose said before opening the house door "Pearl are you ready." she said with a smile, this made Pearl's eye widen, she almost cried, "Yeah time to smash stuff!" Amethyst cheerfully said as she left the house with the crystal gems. The three soldiers just watched from the house with confusion "Are they stupid or just suicidal?" Lopez said in disbelief.

"Crystal Gems." Rose said with a smile "Lets show this monster it choose the wrong prey.", with that they summoned their weapons as the ground started shaking again and out rose the massive creature responsible for this destruction.

AN:

Well here is the second chapter. I will continue this story, but I haven't figured out my posting time. This story will be updated as soon as it is possible.

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