~{0}~ Present Day Beach City - December 7th
The school bell rang loudly at Rehoboth Elementary School signaling the end of another school day and soon the halls were filled with students rushing to their lockers to wrap up for the day. Outside the sun was low on the horizon as evening came earlier in the winter months, the sky was clear over the town and the snow in the school yard glowed with the sunset as if it was a sea of fire and lava. The onshore breeze was picking up signalling a snow storm was approaching to add another layer during the evening, the first wisps of clouds were breaching the horizon just as the sun dipped and vanished.
Within the comfortably heated school building an ancient gem warrior was engulfed in a fierce battle, frustration seethed in her eyes, her hands trembled with the agitation and her grip tightened on her weapon. Soon traces of crimson splashed across her nemesis as she focused her enhanced gem mind, speed, and reflexes slashing at the ancient enemy without mercy.
"If war is hell, then this must be the fabled 9th level!" the gem warrior thought to herself as she finished off one group of enemies and eyed the next group with a burning hatred.
Grading school homework, especially history reports, was a battle as ancient as the teaching profession and refined in its complex efficiency as the eons had passed. After reading a particularly frustrating report the red ballpoint pen snapped and Pearl stood up to go look out the window at the falling snow to try and calm herself back down.
"What is with students these days!" growled Pearl as she returned to her task of grading the classes most recent history reports, this time on ancient Egypt. "They just read whatever dumb thing they find online, and write some half-baked report with double-spaces and big fonts to fill the page!" Taking a deep breath to relax she sat back down at the teachers assistants desk to pick up another report. "Half the history in the researched ones isn't even correct!"
"Don't be so hard on them, they're just kids and half the point of these elementary classes is to teach the basics of how to learn, do research, and articulate their thoughts." soothed Ms Chowdhury from the other side of the desk as she diligently worked through her own stack of papers. "Besides, how do you know the history books about Ancient Egypt are wrong anyway?"
Pearl set her current paper down to look across at Ms Chowdhury with narrowed eyes and an annoyed expression on her face as she waited for the question to answer itself. "Ahem"
Finishing the current paper Ms Chowdhury looked across the table at Pearl and stared at her for a few moments in confusion. "What?, what are you gettttt...ooooohhhhh let me guess, you were there right?" guessed the history teacher as she narrowed her eyes and returned Pearl's annoyed expression.
The two stared at each-other for a few moments before giving up the act and started laughing so hard they had trouble breathing, well the human had trouble breathing.
"Actually yes, I was there, and ever since I've gotten involved with these classes I've started a bit of a crusade to correct as many wikipedia articles as I can" replied Pearl proudly.
"Ah, yes, of course, 8,500 years old so you would have probably traveled through there 5,000 years ago and seen the rise and fall of the Egyptian Empire and all that yes? How fascinating, I can only imagine what it was like!" gushed Ms Chowdhury as her eyes grew wide with wonder and her imagination began to engage to paint a picture of pharaohs, pyramids, and chariots.
"Actually I was fighting for my life and the survival of Earth during the Gem Rebellion era when the Egyptians got started. I didn't get to really tour their civilization until around what humans call the 'Late Period' of the civilization" replied Pearl as she went back to grading papers.
"Hhhmmm still that's allot more direct experience than anyone alive today has" responded the teacher. "Hey Pearl?"
"Yes Ms Chowdhury?"
"Thank you for signing on as my assistant, I've needed the help and having someone with your knowledge, OCD, and endless well of energy has been a huge help."
"It's no trouble at all, it's good to have Steven enrolled in school and socializing with other humans. After attending Connie's history class it just seemed like the natural place to be."
Nodding to each other the two returned to the task of grading homework.
~{0}~ An hour later
Grading and organizing the second batch of history reports went smoother than the first batch as the duo had found a second wind and the quality of the reports had improved. Stretching their tired arms the two leaned back in their chairs to contemplate whether to complete the next set of tasks or just call it a night and head home.
"Steven, I told you not to activate your shield at school, it's considered a weapon by the administration." Connie's scolding voice could be heard loudly in the hallway as the door to the history room banged open and the young girl stomped into the room followed by a depressed looking Steven dragging his backpack behind him.
"But those guys were being mean, especially that Donald kid with the bad hair, why had no right to throw those balls at you so hard!" complained Steven as he slumped into a chair and pulled a snack bar from the backpack.
"It was dodge ball Steven! They are supposed to throw the balls really hard, it's just part of the game!" retorted Connie as she took a seat next to him. Letting out a frustrated sigh she pulled her calendar planner from her backpack and began to scan through her todo list for the day.
"Sorry Connie, it won't happen again, I'm sorry we got held after for detention, but at least we got our homework done right?" offered Steven as he tried to mend fences with his friend.
Connie held onto her anger for a moment longer before letting it go in one big sigh, "It's okay Steven, I need to remember that you're still learning how human school works."
"Steven, you're lucky Pearl was around today to bail you out and explain things to the principal" sussed Ms Chowdhury from the teacher's table at the front of the room. From the other side of the desk Pearl mumbled her agreement and continued organizing essays having already discussed things with Steven earlier in the day.
"OH! I forgot to ask you today, Pearl, what were you doing today back in 1941?" Exclaimed Connie as she practically jumped out of her chair and ran over to the teacher's desk. "You must have been there right? You said you'd been at every major event and battle so you must have witnessed the Pearl Harbor attack right?" Connie was practically bouncing in excitement, "fighter planes, explosions, history in the making right? Besides, your name is Pearl and the harbor is also Pearl, crazy coincidence right?"
But Pearl wasn't smiling, rather her mood had rapidly switched from happy to annoyed as she set down the latest stack of papers with a loud thump that instantly snapped the excited student back to reality. "Connie, what did I say about excitement and my stories? For you it might be adventure, history, or something out of a movie but for me it's healing and more often than not grief, I'm doing better these last few months but every now and then…. well, it's still difficult."
"Oh, yes mamma, sorry mam" said Connie as she pushed down her excitement and walked back to her seat.
"Well Bird Mom, what were you doing on December 7th?" asked Steven sitting forwards in his desk in anticipation of another story from Pearl. The 'Bird Mom' nickname was the result of her increased attendance as a teacher's assistant and regular check ups on Steven, and her pronounced nose and hair style. It had annoyed her at first but she'd eventually just gave up.
"Well, for starters I wasn't at Pearl Harbor, sorry to disappoint Connie, but I was doing something that involved airfields, aircraft, explosions, gunfire, and a heavy dose of adventure." teased Pearl as she allowed her cheery demeanor and smile to return.
From the looks of Connie, Steven, and Ms Chowdhury it was clear story time had begun as they gathered around Pearl in a semi-circle at the desk. "So, if you weren't at Pearl Harbor, then where were you that involved such action?" Ms Chowdhury, "wait, hold up, let me get my tape recorder out." A moment later the tape recorder was setup and recording as Pearl continued her story.
Taking a moment to pull up the memories Pearl began in her usual teaching voice "I was in North Africa participating in Operation Green Room which was an attack on German airfields by the SAS Commando's around December 1941. It was our first successful raid under the new organization and went down in legend for the setback we caused to the German Luftwaffe"
"Operation Green Room?" queried Ms Chowdhury, "I've never heard of that before, please tell us about it, I'd love to be able to include it in next year's class lessons"
"I'm not surprised, it's not mentioned in most history books and even its online listings are pretty thin, usually just dates and a brief description of it. It was just after the first SAS organized mission November 1941, operation Squatter which was also an attack on airfields in the area but failed miserably. We had thought the newly formed SAS was going to be disbanded but Field Marshal Montgomery gave us another chance. Any questions so far?" asked Pearl to her entranced audience, besides, she needed another moment to formulate her story.
"What was Operation Squatter?" asked Steven now fully engaged in listening. Clearly the others were as well, no breaks for thought then, on-wards and forwards.
"Operation Squatter was a failed attack in November 1941 where the SAS squads were going to parachute directly onto the airfields, throw some bombs around and then escape. It didn't work as most of us only had limited parachute experience and so most were injured before the raid even really began, our aircraft was coincidentally the same damn Bristol Bombay transport/bomber that we used in Poland wasn't adequate for the cargo or jump and finally most of the cargo and supplies failed to deploy or land near where the troops were. To top it all off a blizzard blew in and the German's were ready for a fight."
"The SAS was almost ended that day. I lost allot of friends in one sudden flash" grumbled Pearl as memories of the raid began to surface. Bodies in the sand, lost friends, the few survivors nearly frozen to death from cold struggling back to base and dozens more lost or had injuries that meant they could never fight again.
"Sorry to hear that P, truly, but you said Green Room was a success right? How did that go?" prompted Ms Chowdhury, seeing the distressed look on Pearl's face she gently patted the gem's shoulder which seemed to help her recover her senses and continue the story.
"We had left our base of operations by jeep earlier in the week while working with the Long Range Desert Group under the command of David Stirling and arrived at the first of four airfields along the Libyan coast on the evening of the 7th. The going had been slow as we could only travel at night and had to be somewhere with shade and cover by daybreak as the Luftwaffe were regularly patrolling the skies and while our camouflage was good we didn't want to test it more than necessary."
"The Luftwaffe were the German air-force yes?" interrupted Steven as he pulled a history book from his backpack and began to flip through it looking for the chapters on 1941.
"That's correct Steven, good studying" complemented Pearl as she continued her story. "Where was I? Oh yes, we arrived at the first airfield in the evening and prepared for the attack. The plan was for one group to dispatch the centuries, another to sabotage the aircraft, and a third to cause mayhem on the way out to sow confusion and cover the escape. It worked perfectly."
"On the night of the operation we sneaked into the air base on our bellies moving as silently as we could, always behind cover and mindful of the ever present search lights and roaming guards. Fearing being spotted we made sure to dispatch the roaming perimeter sentries then on entering the airfield proper we found that each aircraft had a dedicated guard protecting it. I guess they were suspicious and wanting to not be caught unawares after the failed raid earlier."
"My group was in charge of sabotaging the aircraft, the men of the first group were silently dispatching each plane guard ahead of us and we followed behind placing timed explosives on each aircraft, by the time we got to the end we'd run out of devices and I used my gem strength to just smash up the last planes controls and engine."
"Wait, you mean to tell us that you did all of this, sneaking past the guards, dealing with dozens of alert sentries at each aircraft, then smashing up another… all without sounding the alarm!" said Ms Chowdhury with no small amount of awe and disbelief in her voice. Connie and Steven just stared at Pearl as if she was telling a wild fairy tail from a story book.
Seeing their expressions filled the ancient warrior with pride, the raid had had ugly parts in the killing of the guards by un-sporting ambushes and the destruction wrought by the necessity of war. But the sheer accomplishment of it all was something she was immensely proud of.
"Thats correct, we did it all without raising the alarm; at least not until we were ready to. Once we were sure the main objective of destroying the aircraft was completed we moved onto the secondary, general mayhem. At the signal the Jeeps we were using for transport drove into the airfield with their mounted heavy machines guns blazing away. Their muzzle flashes lighting up the night like rapid-fire strobe lights as they blasted pretty much everything that looked important. Fuel tanks, service trucks, hangers, ground vehicles, and any German personnel who tried to fight back or didn't take cover. One Commando stormed the pilots barracks with grenades and his personal machine gun; I thought it wasn't very fair or sporting to deal with the enemy pilots that way but he had a point that without qualified pilots to fly them any replacement aircraft would be useless to the enemy."
"So what happened after you went loud? Did the Germans counter attack at all?" asked Steven, he was completely caught up in the story as his eyes glazed over with an overactive imagination. He was probably imagining a scene out of a movie and it wasn't that far off.
"We only left after we had used up most of our available ammunition, the Germans were to busy fighting fires, explosions, and dealing with burning aircraft to worry about chasing us beyond the edge of the airfield as we escaped into the night."
"Sounds like it was a success, just how well did your SAS squad do?" asked Connie, somewhere along the way she had taken out her laptop and was taking notes again.
"Well, we destroyed around 60 aircraft, wrecked the base to a point that the enemy couldn't use it for weeks which in turn gave a nice boost to the regular army groups in the area." revealed Pearl with a proud smile but it didn't last long as new memories of the after raid began to surface."
"I know that face, Pearl what happened after the raid? I assume it wasn't something good?" queried Ms Chowdhury as she scooted a little closer to the downcast gem. For a moment it looked like she might break down in tears but she soon recovered her composure with an obviously fake smile.
"Yes, the German's didn't need to chase us to get their revenge, the desert took care of that for them." replied Pearl sadly. Shaking herself a little to push the memories back into storage she forcibly perked up her voice and expression so the others wouldn't worry for her.
"But, that's a story I'll tell you another time as we're getting ahead of ourselves, Last I checked we were discussing the start of the war in 1939 and I was telling you about how my Command Squad was trying to avoid a clash with the enemy as we beat a path to safety." prompted Pearl as she stood up from the desk and began to help Connie and Steven pack up their things.
"Good idea, it's getting late anyway, goodness it's almost 8pm, we have to get you kids home!" explained the teacher as she rushed over to the phone to call the children's parents. "Don't worry about your parents, I live near your area Connie and there is room enough in my van to give Pearl and Steven a ride home too, is that acceptable?"
"That will work fine, besides, I need to rest myself a bit, telling these stories isn't easy for me either." agreed Pearl as she stretched her arms again and willed her body to relax again.
A half hour later the group was piled into Ms Chowdhury's van and were carefully making their way through the darkened streets. Luckily everyone was able to make it home before the snowstorm arrived to dump enough snow that school would be cancelled the following day.
000 End bonus chapter 10
000 Author's Notes
This was surprisingly easy to write, it almost wrote itself, didn't even need to make a story outline like usual and the research went very quick.
To my readers I want to extend a huge THANK YOU !. Every review, every new follower/bookmark/favorite, every uptick in the view counter, every new country-IP I see. It all makes me want to continue the story and write even more, to add more details, to expand the characters, to imagine more things for Pearl to encounter on her adventure.
So thank you, yes you reading this, you are the reason I continue to write.
Please like, favorite, subscribe, and above all, Please leave a review to let me know how I'm doing or to suggest story ideas.
History Notes
* Rehoboth Elementary School - real place, I used the location in the "Veterans Day" bonus chapter and it made sense to use it again for this chapter.
* Bird Mom - some meme that got started up based around Pearl's appearance in the cartoon and her behavior around Steven like a protective mother bird. I imagine that if Pearl was real her nose wouldn't be quite as pronounced and her hair wouldn't be quite as triangular.
* The SAS officially formed in 1941 just in time for the North African campaign. Their success was so good that Hitler himself took notice and passed special mandates that SAS members were to be interrogated, tortured, and killed wherever possible. Fortunately that didn't stop the SAS from wrecking the German airfields regularly, messing up supply lines, and more.
* Ms Chowdhury - fake person but partly based on the name of my Jr. High School teacher who's name I can't remember. We always called her "Chowder" like the soup but I think her name was supposed to be French and 'Chowdhury' was the closed match I could find.
* Field Marshal Montgomery - Leader of British operations in North Africa and one supremely capable strategist and leader. Go read up on him, he's an interesting person.
* Operation Squatter: 16-17 November 1941 - this was _THE_ first official raid by the newly formed SAS in North Africa. It went pretty much as Pearl described it and was a total disaster. Only 22 men made it back to base and they were a mess.
* Operation Green Room: December 1941 - This was the first of the successful SAS raids when they took more charge of the mission planning, its equipment, and execution. I was genuinely surprised by how very little information was directly available online about this specific operation. There are plenty of photos and legends about the raid (the guy killing the pilots in their barracks building is legend, not fully confirmed, same with the plane guards) which was frustrating as all heck as I'm trying to keep the story at least a little bit based on real history.