Chapter 3
Earth
Garnet watched as Steven and Connnie were playing a made up game, something about detectives and a big mystery to solve, smiling at their laughter. It reminded her of Ruby and Sapphire's relationship, the relationship that made Garnet...well Garnet.
She was reminded of a time when their Steven was a little babe swaddled in a blanket, laughing at the jingling of keys. Now look at him, growing up little by little. She almost wished for the times when all he could do was coo and wiggle around, but she pushed those wishfull thoughts away. She wouldn't trade her Steven for anything.
As she observed the two play, the tell tale signs of a vision made her smile vanish and her body tense in preparation. In her vision, she saw a large, round object crash violently into the moon, and a large ruby emerge from the object. This ruby was large, larger than she remembered a ruby being, with some kind of weapon strapped to her back. Before her vision ended, she saw the gem make her way to the Moon Base, and it was over.
She called up Pearl and Amethyst and quickly told them of her vision, then with an urgency, they raced to the warp pad, quickly telling Steven and Connie that they'll be back in a minute, and warped towards the Moon Base.
They had a visitor to greet.
The Moon.
Ruby 1VZ opened her eyes to a scene of destruction. The inside of the pod was heavily damaged, multiple panels were missing, exposing the sparking wires inside. She looked to the front of the pod, seeing the main console utterly smashed and ruined. What she didn't see, were her comrades. There were no Quartz or Jasper soldiers, nor did she see any Peridots, and she couldn't find the ruby anywhere. Then she saw them. Scattered all over the floor were the gems of her comrades, the Jaspers and Quartz soldiers, the Peridots, and the singular ruby near her side of the pod. She sat there in shock, not quite believing that she was the sole survivor. Then she had another issue. Where were they? She decided that she needed to scout the area, to make sure that they weren't in any danger or enemy territory. So she made her way to the entrance of the pod, pulling the blaster rifle out of its sling on her back and readying it to be safe, and in the distance she saw a large structure that was vaguely familiar to her, but she couldn't place what made it familiar. Ruby 1VZ decided to check it out.
She leapt out of the pod, and was met with the uncomfortable feeling of near weightlessness. She disliked going out in space. It's mostly due to her discomfort from the lack of large amounts of gravity, but it's also partially due to her bad experience with the vacuum of space, and nearly consigning herself to suicide by floating too far from anything to grab onto during a siege of a rebel outpost on an asteroid. A large Quartz soldier saved her from the near infinite void, and she resolved to never allow that to happen again. She set out for the large, towering structure and got the nagging feeling that she was being watched, but couldn't find where it was coming from no matter which direction she looked, so she decided to disregard it. As a soldier she had more important matters to attend to.
She arrived at the large structure, the massive doors casting a large shadow. She put her rifle into its sling and put her fingers between the doors and began to pull with all her might, slowly pulling them apart, creating an opening that she slipped into, the doors slamming together behind her with a mighty bang. The ruby began to venture into the structure, going through winding passages and corridors. She projected a light from her gemstone in the middle of her chest, a cherry red, to help her find her way to the command center. Along the way, she saw multiple murals, some depicting the colonization of a planet, some depicting the Diamonds in all their glory, and others depicting a rebellion of some sorts, but from where, she couldn't make out.
Homeworld had crushed numerous rebellions since she had first been created. From the first moments since she popped out of the ground, all she knew was war. Her home colony of Atticus 9 was besieged by a rebel armada and were invading the planet's surface. She along with a company of rubies and a platoon of Quartz soldiers had managed to defend their Kindergarten, and later help in repelling and ultimately destroying the rebel forces entirely thanks to Imperial reinforcements from the Diamonds. From there she had participated in innumerable campaigns against rebellious worlds and rebel cells, all of them ended in victory. Except this one. She didn't know why these rebellions happened, perhaps a defective gem inspired others to question the rule of the Diamonds, and to try and think of something better than the Diamonds, to attain "freedom" through armed rebellion. Or maybe they were just defective, as the Authority couldn't make gems like they used to. Though of course, nothing was better than the Diamonds. They were perfect in every way possible. She couldn't see the reason for rebellion. It was perfection to serve the Diamonds, as they were created to serve a purpose. What better way to live your existence than to serve your purpose and to further the aims of your race and empire? To betray one's race was idiotic, especially if it was for ideals, unnatainable, immaterial things that can't be observed nor touched, yet was worth killing your own kind for. She scoffed at that.
She came across what she inferred to be the main command center, multiple ascending steps leading to a large throne. In front of the throne was a large, curved, square terminal. Probably the main terminal of the entire compound. The ruby ascended the stairs and accessed the terminal by tapping it. She needed to see if she could get a distress signal to any nearby Homeworld system, they needed to get back to the fleet. To the Diamonds.
The computer came online, showing a holo projection of an empty command screen. She typed in the command to bring up all historical data, from the bases' conception, to the abandonment of the facility. On her way here, she took note of an ancient mode of travel, a warp pad. It was useful to the ancient gems, establishing an almost instantaneous form of travel, able to move cargo and soldiers quickly to where they are needed. This was most effective during the expansion period of the empire, when ships were too slow to move objects and troops quickly from place to place on a planet's surface.
The computer, began to bring up a long list of records, from its conception ten thousand years ago, to its abandonment only a thousand years ago. She made sure to start a long range scan to see if there were any systems nearby as she watched this. She did just that and she clicked on the file, and the holovid began to play. The planet appeared to be untouched, unspoiled by large structures. Then archaic ships flew from the moon facility, and landed on the planet's surface, immediately setting up kindergartens on the planet. She gasped. It was the planet Earth, the failed colony of Pink Diamond, and the origin of the rebellions raging across the Homeworld Empire.
It was recorded in the logs that there were sentient life forms on the planet, a species of ape known as homo sapiens, or more commonly known as humans. She wrinkled her face in disgust at the biological data these ancient gems recorded, from their lifestyle, to their eating and waste disposal, she nearly hurled at that bit. But the worst of all came, their breeding habits. As she read this tidbit of information, her eyes grew wider as her shock and disgust grew. She finally switched from that document back to the colonization process, her cheeks flaming, steam coming from her ears.
'I never want to see anymore data on these 'humans' ever again. If this small article was based on primitives, I can barely grasp the horrors of their advanced descendants.'
She shook her head to clear her mind of those thoughts, and resumed watching the holovid. The planet's surface on some continents appeared to have ancient gem buildings, signs of colonization. She saw the establishment of a couple kindergartens, power generators for the many buildings that were sprouting up all over the planet, and the establishment of a few bases of operations, where the Diamond the planet was assigned to could administer the colony and quickly respond to any situtation that arose. Pink Diamond was assigned this planet, and the ruby bowed her head in sadness.
Pink Diamond,the pseudo daughter of the Diamonds, beloved by all for her happy, go lucky attitude, was shattered on this planet by the wretched gem Rose Quartz. She gleaned this information from the coversations of older veteran gems of campaigns that predated even her creation. They had seen it with their own eyes how Rose Quartz, leader of the rebellion, ruthlessly shattered the young Diamond, no mercy upon the traitor gem's face as she committed the deed. Most gems weren't even aware of the 'Gem War' as it was referred to by the older gems. Apparently information on it was locked up under lock and key by the Diamonds personally. She wasn't even supposed to know it even happened, let alone the gritty details. The older gems that had one served under Pink Diamond, now assigned to other Diamond Divisions, still grieve like it happened yesterday. She was reminded of the High Admiral, and then reminded of her fallen comrades, and broke down into tears. Since there was no one around, she could finally express her grief fully, sobs wracking her body, her tears forming a small pool at the base of the terminal. She cried for what seemed like forever, but eventually her sobs died down to sniffling, and finally stopped with heavy breaths. Ruby 1VZ composed herself, glad that she allowed her grief to show in a secluded spot, and resumed watching.
The mining of resources was going along smoothly, with shipments almost weekly full of precious metals, new soldiers, technicians, pilots, and new models of ships and weapons. Then the shipments started to lessen, going down to a shipment a month, then a year, then it finally stopped altogether. Revolts across the planet quickly gained a foothold, capturing numerous bases across the planet's surface, many casualties resulting in those defeats. Many times she noted that these mini rebellions could have been squashed, nipped in the bud before they could take root, but every time Pink Diamond's forces got anywhere near close to capturing the rebels, they dissapeared, unable to be tracked or captured. Then the identity of the rebel leader was found. It was a Rose Quartz gem, a defensive, healing gem that wasn't made for frontline combat. This Rose Quartz however, was different from the rest.
This Rose Quartz was a master tactician, outmaneuvering and smashing Pink Diamond's battalions with somewhat relative ease at every turn. There were a few pitched battles where Pink Diamond's forces were able to take victory, but those victories couldn't stop the rebels from attacking with increasing ferocity. The imperial gem forces were driven from multiple holdings and territories to their final stronghold near the northwestern land mass The rebels laid siege to the fortress, slowly driving back the Homeworld gems until they were at their citadel. There is where it happened, the unthinkable shattering of Pink Diamond, right outside the citadel's gates, outside of her Palenquin no less. It made no sense to her as to how the rebel leader got to Pink Diamond, let alone shattered her. Diamonds were the toughest, most powerful gems in existence. No one could come close to their power, much less shatter them. Yet that fact was proven to be false in a most horrendous fashion.
She took a break from watching the holovid to check on her search. So far, the scanner had found nothing as of yet, but she had to keep trying. Certain events however, would prevent her from accomplishing her mission. A beep from the terminal and a small window with text on it revealed to her that a warp signature was headed her way and fast. She closed all the programs, made sure to erase all evidence of her activity here and raced to the exit. She heard the musical notes of the warp pad, and knew she wouldn't make it to the exit in time, so she hid behind a pillar, hoping and praying to the Diamonds that these gems didn't catch her.
What kind of gems would the arrivals be? Would they be Rebels? Psychopaths? She hoped for the former but prepared for the latter. She peered over her hiding place to discover a few gems, three in total. There was a pearl, wielding a spear, an amethyst holding a flail in her hand, and a gem she has never seen before, towering over its two companions, huge red spiked gauntlets covered her hands, dark shades hiding her eyes. The smaller two gems began to make their way to the outpost, while the towering gem stood there at the warp pad, looking around the structure's many pillars and corridors. She didn't really want to be gawking at them, she just wanted to get out of here and as far away from them as she possibly could get.
"Garnet, the command console is this way, you looking for something?" asked the quartz, curiously looking at her tall companion.
The gem, referred to as Garnet by her companion, suddenly locked her gaze with hers, and she froze in terror, one thought running through her mind. Her death. Then, the gem turned to look at her smaller companion, shaking her head no as she made to catch up, the trio entering the base. Ruby 1VZ slumped down behind her pillar, chest heaving, her form shaking from the terror she experienced. If she had even twitched, she was sure she would have been exposed and then shattered by the gems. Ruby 1VZ had never seen such a gem, and it's cold, calculating gaze behind the shades terrified her, as if she could see into her very being and pick her apart piece by piece. She shakily made her way to her ship, closing the entrance, and promptly screamed.
"Oh my Diamonds that was close! If that gem gave away my position, I would've been captured or worse!" she exclaimed.
She paced around the ship, working off the terror and fear she still had. Finally calming down, she decided to calm down from her near death experience, and began to plan on how she would get back into the base without the rebel gems noticing. All the while she hoped that her comrades would reform sometime soon, she needed some company.
This took me a bit to write, sorry for its shortness for those who expect long chapters. Blame it on writer's block. Leave comments, criticisms of any kind, I have thick skin, and leave any oc's and suggestions on how I could improve my writing style, as I don't want to write garbage and call it a good job. Ciao
