Chapter Fourteen: Corvus

The bridge of the Soul Evaporator.

"So...how close are we?" asked Onyx.

"Not far, this says we're only a few light years away," said Pearl. The pink Gem was holding on to a holoscreen that displayed a map of the galaxy, with a beacon indicating their destination: Emerald.

All out of ideas, Emerald's crew had retreated to Homeworld to ask for help retrieving their commander. Just as Amethyst had predicted, those that they had talked to seemed reluctant to help. Everybody they asked was either busy looking for suitable planets to colonize, fending off Interloper attacks, of some combination thereof. Bixbite was currently on the frontlines, Maxixe was working overtime monitoring for Interlopers, and the current Supreme Admiral was occupied with chasing down one of her stolen ships. Even Morganite, fond of Emerald as she was, couldn't do anything to aid them.

"I'm sorry, dahlings, I wish I could do more," she had told them. "I don't have any soldiers to lend you, and I'm far too busy to come myself. Perhaps you could ask Goshenite?"

Ultimately, it was Heliodor who proved to be the most helpful in their endeavor. As soon as she was told about the situation, she immediately produced a solution.

"I was worried something like this could happen," she said, "so I installed a tracker inside Emerald's exo-shell. Here." Heliodor produced a holoscreen that would allow them to learn Emerald's exact location. "This should help."

Tanzanite took the device. "Thank you, Heliodor. This will be extremely helpful in-"

"Wait."

Everyone turned towards this voice. Goshenite, the Supreme General of Homeworld, approached, accompanied by a hulking red Topaz. "G-Goshenite," said Tanzanite. "Is something wrong?"

"It is," said the white Gem. "If Emerald's gone and gotten herself captured, and you're planning on storming the Interloper stronghold, you're going to need backup. And that's where I come in."

"You're coming with us?" asked Onyx. "I woulda thought you'd be too busy with the Interlopers."

"My duty is to protect Homeworld from attack," she said. "So long as the Interlopers do not come here, I am free to do as I please. And that includes rescue missions." She looked up at her massive champion. "Are you prepared to go into battle once more, Topaz?"

The Gem in question grinned. "Made ready, My Goshenite."

And so, the two ships set off in the direction of Emerald's beacon; the Soul Evaporator and the Xenocide. Upon reaching it, they both disengaged hyperspace. The ships halted, and the sight of a giant space station came into view. It was surrounded by Interloper ships, but something about it was familiar: namely, that it was Gem in origin.

Onyx looked out at it with shock. "That...that's a Gem research station," she said. "What business do those tin cans have holing up in one of those?"

"That isn't just any station," said Tanzanite. "That's Research Station Corvus. The same one that disappeared years ago."

"Huh," Onyx said. "Well, now we know where it went."

"What do we do here?" asked Pearl. "There's too many of them to take on."

A communication came in from the Xenocide. "That's what you think, little Pearl," said Goshenite. "All hands, get ready for all-out attack!"

Aboard the Pandora's Box.

Although neither Gems nor Interlopers needed to breathe, both of their ships contained air ducts. After all, there were far more gasses than oxygen, many of which could potentially deadly even to inorganic lifeforms. Making ships without a way to filter these out would be foolhardy at best.

Emerald crawled through the ducts, her Citrine legions close behind her. She peered out through vents, but saw nothing but Interlopers through each one. "No good; keep going, we're bound to find one eventually."

"My Emerald? How can you tell which way we're going?" asked a Citrine. "How do you know we won't just end up back in the same spot as before?"

"It's all about orienting yourself," she replied. "For example, these ducts were designed to filter out gasses that are heavier than air. We just need to keep going down, and we'll eventually reach the bottom of the ship, where we can jump to the station." She looked through another vent, and groaned. "Of course, the real hard part is finding somewhere that isn't guarded!"

This continued for a while. Just as Emerald was considering just going in guns blazing, something shook the entire station. "What in the-are we under attack?" asked Nines.

"No, I think they are," said Emerald. Indeed, alarms had begun sounding around the station, with Interlopers rushing to their battle stations. This could be their chance. After waiting to make sure no more of the robots were using this particular hallway, Emerald popped out the grate and crawled out from the vents, followed by her troops. "Come on, let's find some way to get off this...place…?"

Emerald had noticed the familiar architecture of the station. While much of it had been covered up with Interloper technology, it was unmistakably a Gem research station.

The Citrines had noticed this as well. "Emerald...you don't think this is Research Station Corvus, do you?" asked Nines.

"If it was, it would make too much sense," said Emerald. The station was then rocked by another explosion. "Come on, let's go!"

The group hurried through the halls of the station, careful to avoid being spotted by any Interlopers. Not that it was that hard; most of them seemed to be occupied with fending off the attackers.

"I hope that's the rescue party," said one of the Citrines. "Or at the very least, a Gem legion."

"It had better be!" cried Emerald. "If there's somebody else in this war that nobody told me about, I don't know what I'll do."

The group continued onward. Lining the halls were glass tanks containing samples of organic life; largely just plants and the like. Clearly, judging by how well they were being kept, the Interlopers were using this station for the same purpose as the Gems were: research on organics.

Unfortunately, the group soon ran out of luck. In their haphazard rush through the halls of the facility, they soon ran directly into a squad of Interlopers. Both teams stopped where they were at the sight of this unexpected foe, before being filled with a renewed vigor. Emerald struck first, summoning her twin blades and hacking the nearest Scavenger to bits. Her Citrines opened fire as well, but it was too late to stop them from raising the alarm. Even after Emerald had shocked the rest of them down, more were on their way.

"Hurry! This way!" shouted Emerald. She led the Quartzes down the pathways to where she was certain they would find some way of egress, but none appeared. More Interlopers blocked their path, but they were quickly either dealt with or avoided. That is, until they encountered a Carnivore.

The gigantic machine loomed over them, its cannons aiming towards them. "Shard, not this way! Back, back!" Emerald yelled. About half of the Citrines followed her, the others either continuing to run towards the Carnivore, or splitting off in another direction.

More explosions, this time from inside the station. The Carnivore had discharged its guns, smashing through the walls and floor. Emerald stumbled because of the shockwave, sending her careening down into the lower floors.

After getting her bearings, Emerald stood up. Wherever she had landed, it was noticeably darker than the upper levels. The lack of commotion led her to believe that she was alone, as well.

Something moved in the rubble near her. Emerald readied her blaster, but it was only Nines. "Don't shoot, Emerald!" she said.

Emerald sighed, putting her arm down. "Okay then, status report," she said, looking up at the light pouring in from above them.

Nines shrugged. "To be honest, I'm a bit lost myself. That Carnivore let loose, and everything just...went. We might be the only ones down here. Oh, hang on…" Some of the rubble moved, revealing two more Citrines. "Okay, so that makes four of us. Anyone else?"

One of the Citrines shook her head. "Doesn't look like it, Nines. Hopefully, everyone else ended up in a different hole, because if not, then they got lit up."

"Either way, we need to keep moving," Emerald said. "If this station is anything like the others I've been on, then the core is near here. We should be able to shut it off manually."

"And how would we manage that?" asked the other Citrine.

Emerald summoned one of her blades. "We break it."

Fortunately for the four of them, there weren't any Interlopers down in these lower levels. Emerald led them towards the core by memory, which was fortunately better than her memory of the upper floor layout. However, where the core should have been, there was instead something else; something far different.

"I don't understand...the core should be right here," said Emerald. "Did they move it?"

"Probably," said Nines. "Still, what is this thing?"

Not a core, the machine that was in its place was unlike anything Emerald was familiar with. The most notable feature was the multitude of long cables running down from the ceiling and into an object at the center, which couldn't be seen, as it was too dark. Whatever this object was, it seemed to be emitting some kind of hissing sound, like it was taking in and then expelling air.

"Shine some light on it," said Emerald.

The Citrines did so. The lights from their gemstones revealed the object to not only be moving, but alive. As in, an organic. The lifeform had clearly seen better days, as it was only still living due to being hooked up to a machine. Any sort of limbs it way have had had long since atrophied, and a mask had been placed over its mouth. While none of the Citrines knew what to make of it, Emerald was quite familiar with this being.

"Tenrit?"