Chapter Three

Danger Close

"Sir we finished clearing out the houses on the north side of the city and are heading your way, ETA five minutes out" Fry said over the hand held. John was glad, they were making good time. His platoon had cleared every building west side of the board walk to the hill. They had encountered little civilian presence and what little they did find was over joyed that the military was there.

John was glad that they were making good time, but apparently the video of the ship had gone viral and mass, discombobulated evacuations from nearly every town within a hundred miles had caused the rest of the battalion to be delayed. Not to mention the ship was probably going to land in the next forty minutes. Their time might be good, but it still wasn't on their side.

As John approached the foot of the hill he was happy to see that Boswer had his platoon digging fox holes and filling sand bangs. The two MGSs had been driven into holes about a foot and a half deep and surrounded by sandbags with an opening in the back. The other two Strykers had sandbags layered on top of them to act as additional armour. They were only resistant to 14.5mm round after all and the extra protection could really hurt.

"Evening sir, you enjoying the Delmarvan coastal breeze?" Bowser asked sarcastically.

"Sure as hell am, you guy operational?" Jon replied.

"Yup, the 81s are ready to drop rounds whenever. If you want I could try to ping the ship from here," Bowers said jokingly. The 32 man platoon had managed to set up a reasonably good defensive position all things considered. The Marines had dug three mortar pits, connected two, and were working steadily on the third. The position was maybe three hundred meters away from The Big Donut and had a pretty clear view of the beach where the ship would land. John looked up and notice for the first time a hand jutting out of the side of the hill. In it were what appeared to be a washing machine and dryer.

"You noticed the statute too huh," said King appearing suddenly at John's side. That man's ability to move so silently was uncanny and going to be the cause of him getting accidently stabbed.

"Yah, who'd you built it?"

"Beats me man, but maybe they can tell us.," King said as he pointed at an old van heading their way. John felt his hand subconsciously move to his rifle and he had to stop himself. This wasn't Iraq, Assyria, or Afghanistan. That van wasn't a car bomb and John really need to get used to the fact that he was back in the states.

The van was white, and had a mural of space and the words Mr. Universe printed on the side. In the front seat was a man who looked in his late forties and a kid who looked about thirteen with curly black hair and a somewhat saddened and determined expression. Two of the marines who were cleaning the mortar tubes stopped and grabbed their M16s. They hopped out of the pit and walked toward the van. The van stopped short of the small defensive position and the man poked his head out the window.

"Hey what's going on? I thought you guys were just helping with evacuations," The man shouted.

"We thought the same thing, but unless you want that thing," one of the Marines said gesturing to the ship, "to slam into the city, I suggest you get out of here and let us do our job. The National Guard unit has set up outside the Mayor's house and is going to head out in about fifteen minutes. If you want security on your way out I suggest you hurry sir,"

"Alright, thanks and we're the owners of the house over there by the way. It's just us in there," The man said and began to drive away.

" It's not just us Dad, there's Garnet, and Amethyst, and Pearl. They need to know their there, so they can help them," The boy said to his father.

"Steven I told you to stop call your, uh, cousins gemstones. Sorry sir, the people my son is talking about already evacuated early today,'

"Rrright, you have a good day sir," the Marine said with a raised eyebrow. The van drove past the small artillery position, and the son and father seemed to be in deep conversation about something. The Marines turned and walked back to the mortars they had been cleaning. The one who had spoken to the man walked towards John.

"Sir I think that we should search the house, that guy was definitely lying about there not being anyone else,"

"If we had the time I would say yes, but seeing as that thing is going to be on top of us in forty minutes best case, I couldn't really careless if someone wants to stay and watch the fireworks," John said. He made a valid point, the company had had only a few hours to prepare and still wasn't at full strength. He wanted to have O'Donnell's platoon here him, but given the fact that they still didn't know the ships intentions or weapons capabilities were, it was smart to have a platoon hanging back in reserve. At the very least if the main force got wiped out then O'Donell could by the evac some time.

"Sir where should our platoon set up?" King asked.

"Have the guys scatter out amongst the rock on the beach, and have they cover themselves with blankets or tarps. We don't know if that thing has thermals, but better safe," John said and moved to what appeared to be a large hand sticking out of the sand. He unfolded a reflective blanket from his kit and laid it on the ground. The blanket was little more than a reflective sheet of some plastic material and would cover his heat signature for only an hour at most. But that's all he would need.

John weighed down the corners with sand, and removed his entrenching tool from his belt. He unfolded it and began to dig a shallow foxhole. Something just big enough for him to lay down in. Just as he finished digging to dig he noticed three women standing on the beach facing the ship. One of them was easily six feet and that was before you added the massive afro, her body a mix of red and black. The other was a maybe five foot something, pale, and extremely skinny. The last was short, with long, flowing hair and her skin a deep purple. But that wasn't what peaked Johns interest. No, it was the fact that on the skinny and short one he could see gemstones, planted in their bodies. The skinny one had what looked like a pearl on her forehead and the short one some kind of purple diamond in her chest.

"What the fuck," John muttered to himself as he watch the purple and ivory gems bow and begin to dance. Their styles were completely different, the ivory gem's moves deliberate, smooth and graceful. While the purple one's were much more serpatic, and unfocused. The two moved towards each other and then their gems and bodies began to glow. Their bodies shifted, as though made of liquid or molten metal, and then began to phase into each other. Soon the mass of light that was once the two women grew and began to take shape as a massive person.

John and the Marines around him watched in amazed silence as a twenty foot tall woman appeared before their eyes. She had two pieces of hair running down the sides of her face, a massive billowing amount down her back and four slender arms, two on either side of her body. She opened her eyes and faced the red and black woman, easily dwarfing her.

"Sir you orders," King asked, knee deep in his own foxhole.

"Hold fire, who or whatever they are, they're not hostile," John said. This was certainly going to be an interesting night.

Peridot watched the as two gems below her, an amethyst and a pearl, from a cross gem fusion. She couldn't help but curl her lips in disgust. On homeworld even speaking of such things could cause grave punishment, and actually doing them. Now that was a quick way to get shattered. She watched as the fusion materialized a bow and fired an arrow made of pure energy at the ship. It broke apart into many smaller arrows, all of which slammed themselves into the hull with little effect. The entire ships armour was designed to defect energy based weapons. What did these stupid clods expect to happen.

Peridot chuckled as the fusion fired another arrow, which had the same effect. She looked to find which room Jasper was in and was pleased that the soldier was retrieving their informant. The Lazuli gem had been difficult to say the least, not even flinching at the mention of being shattered. But once the idea of being placed in some sort of object that would have forced her to talk was brought up, the gem became a well of information.

Peridot had never asked what had happened to the Lapis Lazuli on Earth, and honestly couldn't care less. She had however learned that the gem had been placed in a mirror at one point and used as a tool on Earth before the colony was abandoned. Apparently she had retained consciousness during her time spent as the object. The idea of such a thing did frighten Peridot and for a brief moment she wondered if all gems used as power sources experienced the same thing, but the thought was quickly pushed aside. The idea that the Diamonds would allow such a travesty to take place was unthinkable.

Peridot got up from her chair and proceeded to walk towards the ship's top most intense. She still didn't understand why Jasper demanded that they come out of that exit. After all they would need to jump down from the top of the ship to land on the beach. But Jasper had insisted that doing so would create, what had she called it, a shock and awe effect. Peridot shook her head, the nuances of warfare were beyond her. She was a technician and well she did know how to use the weapons systems in her limb enhancers, she had never bothered to learn any real strategy. Such things were for soldiers like Jasper, to make them feel like the barbarism of warfare they were made for had some sort of intelligence involved.

Peridot stopped at the lift shoot and waited. It was only a few minutes before they would touch down and she really could wait to get this ordeal over with. She looked up as Jasper walked towards her with the blue gem in tow. The soldier entered the lift with the Lazuli and Peridot followed. The ship hand landed and the fingers came down on the beach with a thud. The lift shot them up to the top of the ship and moved them across it's surface. So they would come face to face with the Crystal Gems.

John almost jumped out of his vest as a pink lion with the kid from earlier on it's back appeared out of a worm hole. The kid stopped and said something along the lines of stay here and ran towards the three gems on the beach. "This dad keeps getting weirder and weirder," John muttered to himself.

John watched from his covered position as the ship landed and the three beings stepped out from the ball that had moved across the palm. The green one said something to the orange one and she pulled a blue being from behind her. John noted that both green and orange aliens had gems mounted on their heads, and the blue one in her back. The three gems who had been on the beach each yelled something inaudible at the landing party. The trio jumped down from the hand and the orange gem said something two the green one.

"There's no fucking way that a ship that size has only three of them on it," John thought. The thing was massive, if it took a handful of sand from the beach below it, it would dig a new shore line. The green gem opened up a holographic screen and suddenly the ship moved, It changed shape until the hand was pointing at the three gems and the boy on the beach like a gun. The index finger began to glow brightly and then a beam of light fired out of it towards the small group. Before it impacted the boy jumped forward and all John heard was a massive gong like sound echo across the beach.

John covered his eyes to avoid sand getting shot in them and looked up to see the three gems and the boy standing behind a massive disk shaped pink shield, embossed into it what looked like a rose. The shield then closed and the boy collapsed on the soft sand. The green gem then struck across the screen in front of her and the ship fired a barrage of light towards the defending gems. The tall one jumped forward, grabbing the boy on the way and covering him from the explosion, just in time.

The kid looked up to see the orange gem standing over him. As she began to step towards him the tall gem rushed forward to punch the invader, her hand enclosed by a massive gauntlet. The invader materialized a helmet and meet the tall gem head on. The two bounced away from each other, and the orange gem flicked her wrist and what looked like a cross between a taser and a long dagger appeared.

The tall gem rushed forward again. But the invader predicted this and backed just out of the range of the tall gems punch, slamming the weapon into her abdomen. The tall gems body sparked with electricity briefly and then straight cracks began to form across her. Her limbs began to break apart, and then she disappeared in a puff of white smoke, two gems falling to the ground where she stood a second ago.

The large invader stepped forward and lifted the boy off his feet, the other two gems rushing forward to stop her. She briefly spoke to him and then slammed her forehead into his face. The boys body when limp and the orange gem tossed him like a rag doll into the hands of the green gem, telling her to put him on the ship.

John rose from his position as the purple and ivory gems ran forward to combat the invaders. Before he could line his sights on the enemy, the purple gem swung a whip at her. The warrior sidestepped and grabbed ahold of the whip has it sailed past. She pulled violently on the whip and the purple gem was flung through the air like a child's toy, her body slamming into a small outcrop of rock with a dull thud.

The ivory gem rushed the warrior and attempted to slash across her chest. The orange warrior jumped back and brought the purple gem around like a flail, her body sailing past. The whip acted like an over sized bola and wrapped around the ivory defender's body. The invader then swung both of them up into the air and slammed the down into the sand. She continued to do this until the two gems bodies evaporated into clouds of smoke.

The whole melee took less than three minutes and John could only watch in stunned silence as the invader picked out the two gems. He was finally snapped out of his trance by the beep of his radio. He pulled the handheld from his belt and clicked the speech button. "This is Hunter actual, send traffic,"

"Sir this is heavyweight actual, we are ready to drop, call fire when ready," Let. Bowser said over the mic.

"Roger heavy, hold fire till my mark," John then switched to the channel that his sniper team was on, "Eagle eye this is Hunter actual, take the shot on the green gem. Shatter protocol is not in effect, how copy"

"We copy Hunter, taking the shot," the marksman replied.

Peridot dragged the Steven towards the gem landing ship. How could this be a gem, it was so heavy. She groaned had his feet dig into the sand.

Peridot felt something slam into her left limb enhancer and stumbled backwards, her left arm sparking. She looked down and was surprised to see a small hole had been ripped into the top of her limb enhancer. She stopped for a minute and puzzled over how it could have gotten there. As she began to get up she felt some small dart past her and slam into the sand, just where she had been sitting a moment ago.

Peridot dug in the sand for a quick second and pulled a small cone of of shiny brown metal. She inspected it momentarily and then same thing small hit her in the back and shot through her body, making a small divot in the dirt in front of her. Her chest was suddenly on fire and she had to resist the urge to retreat into her gem. She could feel the liquid energy contained inside her form began to spill out.

Peridot clutched her chest and grabbed ahold of the Steven, dragging him much more frantically. She struggled to keep her form together as she limped to the the transport. More of the small metal fragments slammed into the ground around her. She cried out as another chunk embedded itself in her right limb enhancer and settled halfway through her foot.

She finally pulled herself and the Steven on to the ship and closed the door. The Lauzi ran in behind her and more of the metal chunks slammed into the ship. Three of them struck the blue gem in the back and she let out a faint cry as her form dissipated in a flash of smoke. Her gem fell to the floor with a clink and Peridot reached over, pulling the gem out of the line of fire. Two medical robinoids flew over to her and began their diagnostic.

"Carry these two to cells and begin the take off sequence. Wait until Jasper is onboard to leave," Peridot told the robinoids and closed her eyes, letting the world fade away.

John rose from his small foxhole, took a knee, placed the sights of his carbine on the orange gem, flicked it to semi, and fired. The pin struck the primer of the bullet, exploding the powder and sending the 5.56mm round spinning down the barrel. The small metal fragment accelerated towards the gem and slammed into her chest. She stumbled, and lifted her head his direction. Her eyes burned with anger and fury, and she began to move toward John and his platoon. The Marines around him opened up and soon the gem was taking fire from all sides. But the bullets bounced off her with little effect and as she gained more speed she jumped forward. Her body tucked itself into a ball and it speed at John, a cloud of sand forming behind it.

John jumped out of the way as the ball of energy smashed through the piece of statue he had just been behind. He rolled and flicked the fire selector to auto. John took a knee again and dumped the remainder of his clip into the warrior as she moved past. The ball slammed into a two man foxhole behind John's former position. The Marines inside tried vainly to escape, and the hole exploded in a wall of sand.

John looked up to see the gem holding the battered body of a PFC in her hand, it's face to disfigured to identify. The other Marine, a female corporal, attempted to crawl away. She only got a few feet before the invader slammed her foot onto her back, pancaking her chest between the kevlar plates. John watch in horror as the gen threw the limp body of the PFC and another foxhole and began to charge it's direction.

She then charge the fox hole the paniked machine gunner and his assistant desperately trying to get their M240 out from under their dead comrade. She grabbed the main gunner by the arm as he was pulling his M9, and hefted him twenty feet into the air. His body landed on the roof of one of the Strykers as it was moving to help with a sickening thud/crunch. His body slid off the side, blood oozing from his mouth. She forgot the other Marine as the Strykers M2 began to open up on her, the .50 caliber round hitting her with enough energy to push her to the ground. She then rolled quickly to the side, and zig zaged till she was on top of the APC. Her fist grabbed ahold of the fifty mount and ripped it from the vehicle. She then grabbed the breech block with both hands and slammed the barrel down into the crew compartment like a spike. The barrel drove through the armour plate and a blood curdling scream was heard from inside the APC. The gem smiled, ripped the wrecked gun from the vehicle and tossed it into a squad of Marines running to help, crushing the chest of one of them, and breaking the legs of another two.

She slammed her fist into the hole twice and pulled the metal aside, peeling it back like a sardine can. The invader ripped the uninjured crew man out, grabbed him by the legs and twisted. John flinched at the sickening crack of the man's spine breaking.

John dropped his M4 and drew his sidearm, a Colt M1911A1, and fired every last one of the eight rounds at he gem, each one slamming into her back. John quickly reloaded both of his firearms and began to move back. He called to King, "Tell the MGS to throw a HEAT, and a KEP at that ship. I don't want that thing taking off,"

John then began to fire short bursts at the gem as she moved towards him. It was clear that the rounds stung her, but they did little in the way of actually slowing her down. She was massive, clearly built for fighting. Her arms were about as thick as John's head, her shoulders flat and broad, and her fists big enough that she could crash a watermelon or his skull in each. As she drew close John knew it was only a matter of time before he would have to go hand to hand. As she moved closer John fired the last few rounds of his clip and felt the bolt lock open. He moved his hand from the trigger and wrapped it around the butt stock, holding the small carbine like a staff. She was on top of him and John brought the but of the gun low, making it look as those he was going to slam it into the stomach. AS she moved her hand to intercept the blow, John changed direction, bring the buttstock up. It connected with her jaw, with a satisfying crack. The gem stepped back rubbing her chin.

John slid both his had up the gun to the barrel shroud and brought it around. It hit the side of her head, breaking the stock in two. The weapon was now a awkward club. John threw the broken carbine to the side and redrew his pistol. He fired two quick round at the gems face one connecting, the other hitting her helmet. He jumped back and drew his Ka-Bar in his left hand. He flipped the blade to the backwards position and wait for her to make her move. None fo the other Marines dared fire, for fear of hitting John. She rushed him, the taser dagger combo in her hand. She made a stab attempt, but John sidestepped and leaned in trying to slash her side.

She dodged expertly to the side and moved back. As John brought his pistol up to fire she ducked and the three .45 round sailed over her head and out into the ocean. She rushed him again,this time from his right. John knew it would take to long to bring his knife around and instead tried to pistol whip her.

The gem moved quickly out of the way and brought her fist up. The blow connected with Johns helmet and threw a couple of feet back. The world went black for a second as John rolled across the beach. He got up slowly and knew something was off. She was pulling her punches, trying to get a feel for their combat style.

John felt something loose in his mouth and spat a tooth on the sand. He rose slowly to his feet, and took his position. The two resumed their dance of death, both bobbing and weaving with the others movements. But John was only stalling. He heard the sound of the 105s firing and briefly turned to see two rounds slam into the back of the ship. The HEAT hit the ship, leaving little more than a small bit of the hull deformed. The KEP round however pierced through the hull of the ship with ease, it's depleted uranium penetrator wreaking havoc on the ships internals. That second was all the gem needed, John felt another fist hit his helmet, and the world went black.

Jasper watch as the Marine few back and came to rest on the ground. He was still alive, but his face was now swollen and bruised. As she walked towards his limp body, deciding whether she would taking him on the ship or crush him here, she heard a high pitch whistle behind her. Jasper suddenly felt something big rip through the left side of her body, and watched as her arm was seared from her. She fell to the ground, clutching what used to be her shoulder.

Jasper briefly considered her options and finally made up her mind when she felt more of those metal chunks hitting her back. She ran forward, scooped up the limp human's body and ran to the ship. More of the rounds hit her back as she pulled herself aboard. She heard the ship's engines starting and let out a sigh of relief. Humanity had changed in the last thousand year. Yellow Diamond would be very interested in the mission report.

As the ship began to lift of Jasper could hear the sounds of explosions slamming into the ship's hull. Jasper had underestimated her opponent and paid the price. Still she had gained something. She looked a the body of the Marine. Yes once he woke up they would talk. She would need to know everything he could tell her. The ship turned and she could hear the gravity engine begin to power up. In a few days time they would be in Homeworld space and Rose could finally pay.

Rose would be put on trial and shattered. Jasper smiled at the thought. Soon the murderer of her Diamond would be brought to justice. After so long she would finally pay. Jaspers smile faded as the ship lurched, and a wave of pain shot up her side. A medical robinoid was examining her as the whole ship suddenly stooped above Earth.

"Of course," Jasper said to herself. The human cannon that hit the ship must have damage the engine. They could still get to home world, but it would take years to get there without the gravity drive and if the entire engine was shot, then they were stranded.

King watched in horror as the ship turned and pointed towards the sky. The weapons platoon dropped mortars on it like rain, but they did little more than leave small dents. The MGS fired another KEP round at the back of the ship and King was pleased to see that a small explosion occurred after impact. They had kept the ship in orbit atleast. The engines then revved and the ship shot into the sky.

So there's three, and yeah I know that the beach fight scene was a little rushed at the end, but I felt that it was going on a little too long and so on. Any way for anyone who is wondering, the reason the HEAT round didn't penetrate and the KEP round did is because i believe that Homeworlds ships and shielding would be designed to stop energy based weapons, seeing as we've never seen them use kinetic energy weapons. The KEP round uses a solid projectile to go through armour, were as a HEAT round uses a directed explosion. I also would guess that the ship had some sort of shield around it that would have been weakened by both Opals arrows and the HEAt round. It would have been broken by the KEP and that would allow the mortar rounds to make dents in the hull.

Other than that quick explanation I got nothing else for yah. Please leave a review with any suggestion, comments, or criticism you have.

Sincerely

Joel B Atwater