EBL suddenly stopped mid-stride and raised a fist. "Do you hear that?" she asked.
NYV listened intently for a moment. "No, it's quiet and peaceful tonight," she replied.
"We can't hear the ship!" EBL hissed. She looked around, trying to find it in the nearby skies. "That's not good."
"Well, it's a quiet ship though, isn't it?" she shrugged with a smile. It was always hard to tell if she understood how dire a situation was or wasn't.
EBL tapped the diamond on her uniform. "LGY, respond."
Silence.
"LGY, respond! Are you still piloting the ship?"
More silence.
EBL grumbled, and tapped the diamond again. "Squad, listen up: LGY has been dematerialized and our ship is disabled or hostile. Mission is now 'hot' - repeat, mission is now 'hot'. If you see anything move: shoot first, question later."
"Yes, EBL!" three voices replied, and quickly followed by RME: "Hey- HEY! I SEE SOMETHING."
PSSEE'PSSEE'PSSEE... Heavy blaster shots rang out from nearby and ceased as quickly as they'd begun.
"RME! Have you found the target?" EBL demanded through the firing in her receiver, but got no reply. "RME! ...DCC, report!"
"E-EBL!" DCC's voice was agitated. "Help! We're under att- RME? RME!"
"We're on our way!" EBL barked, motioning to NYV to follow as she started running. "Watch your step and find a secure position!" The two of them ran into a cloud of dust that hadn't been there a few moments ago, towards DCC.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
That one had been too close, Peridot thought, as she sent the second bubbled Ruby back to the barn. It was too early to use the smoke dispensers, too early to fire up the many tricks and traps she'd hidden. They had a good field commander, clearly not either of the two she'd poofed so far. And if she was smart enough to start looking for traps - or worse, avoid them - things would end very, very quickly.
This Ruby, 'RME', had been quick on the trigger and started firing when a thrown rock hit the ground. But she'd also been foolish, blindly chasing after a distraction into a cloud of smoke, not looking where she was stepping, and falling into a pit unhelpfully lined with pointy sticks. Her partner had been less hasty, and from where Peridot could see, was also the leader during their first visit to Earth.
Steven had called that one, 'DCC', 'Doc'. And sometimes she wondered if the Crystal Gems would have called her that too, if they hadn't started calling her 'Peridot'.
She looked at the notes she'd scribbled onto her arm while listening in on the Rubies' comm channel. (It was an Earth custom to keep track of enemy names that way in this sort of situation, according to a 'holiday movie' Amethyst had suggested.) 'LGY' was the one in the ship, 'RME' was the one she'd just destabilized, 'DCC' was wearing the Leader Visor, and 'EBL' was their leader for now.
There was something unusual about that. Those identifiers weren't cuts; they had to be code names. Era 2 doctrine had standardized the practice of same-typed gems referring to each other by cut amongst themselves, and gem type to unknown outsiders. Since the Rubies had all introduced themselves as 'Ruby' for the baseball game, that custom hadn't changed since her defection.
No, code names had been discontinued after Era 1. They were a useful means of identifying allies in an unknown situation but, the thinking went, promoted an unhealthy individualism counter-productive for group cohesion. That sort of duplicity wouldn't naturally occur to an Era 2 Gem...
And all that together pointed to an Era 1 Ruby in that squad: 'EBL', their leader. They were being led by a Gem who wasn't concerned with proper procedure and was willing to buck the rules on their own initiative. EBL could think for herself - and that being the case, it had truly been a blunder to reveal the traps so early. She would have smacked herself in the face from the realization...
...if she hadn't been hiding under another rock, no more than 10 feet from where the three remaining Rubies were regrouping and securing their surroundings.