Will was dressed in his armor at the moment. With Quasar strapped to his back. It had been an interesting last few days to say the least.
Lapis still wanted to shatter Pearl. Which wasn't all that hard to understand why. Both he and Quasar were still a bit pissed.
"How could she just let him fall like that." Quasar said inside his helmet.
Will was currently using the Hermes elevator. The atmosphere slowly getting less bright as they reached space.
"Why aren't you still mad at her?!" Quasar asked him.
Will flicked his eyes to the AI's avatar that was on his visor. "Because, I know what it's like to lose control. While at may not be the same as what I went through. The same principle still applies."
Quasar's AI raised an eyebrow. "When have you lost control?" He asked.
"Gold Team." Was the only thing he said to the AI. But that's all Quasar needed to hear. He didn't know the full story. But he heard the aftermath reports.
One Spartan singlehandedly destroying several Covenant Corvettes and a destroyer. The green flaming wreckage was visible for several miles around. Several Marines thought they saw a small green star destroying an entire Covenant army before it turned to the ships.
Will put on some light music to drown out his thoughts. Quasar didn't bother to town anymore. He knew when the Spartan didn't want to talk.
Honestly he hadn't seen will like this in years. The Crystal gems and Steven had actually made him more human. But, it's like the last few days had almost made him revert back to the emotionless Spartan state. It honestly started to worry him. But they weren't up here to dwell on that. They were here to see the christianing of the Indianapolis class cruiser. A new ship of their design that was a replacement for the Halcyon class.
The eyelevator came to a stop and the airlock doors on the personnel size elevator to open. The thick airlock doors opened to the white and orange colored walls.
Quasar lit the path up on his visor. He walked down the Titanium hallways. He purposely let the thunk it his heavy armored boots on the hallway. There were a few crew that stared at the 7 foot supersoldier as he walked by.
Unlike ODST's of the main UNSC. They didn't look at him with malice and fear. But with awe. He would've been glad if he were in the mindset to care at the moment. He simply kept walking through the station. A few tried to town to him which he ignored. His golden visor not conveying any emotion of the man beneath.
There were large transparent Aluminum windows along one of the corridors that he could get a good view out into space.
But he didn't bother to look. He simply kept going toward the hangar. There was many people that stared at him when he approached the hangar. But he again didn't bother to town to them and he kept going. Quasar had already given his clearance as Admiral and he went past the security enterance to the large hangar.
The AI had already cleared the use of a Pelican to be used. So he passed by several civilian ships as well as a Corvette that took up a large amount of space.
He finally reached a Pelican that was ready to go and he walked up the ramp. The blast door closing behind him. He kept walking through the dropship and made his way to the small cockpit.
He sat down in the pilots chair and primed the fusion reactor. The reactor quickly roared to life and provided power to the ship and engines. As soon as they were to operational levels he lifted off from the hangar and took off toward the vacuum of space. The feeling of passing the oxygen barrier barely even registered with him.
He then changed course and took off toward Mars. Or at least one of it's moon's. It would at least be a 4 your trip without a Slipspace drive and the engines at full burn.
He had been flying silently with nothing but his thoughts and the cool feeling in the back of his neck that told him Quasar was there. His gem pulsed subtly under his armor.
"So, this is where your going." Said a voice form behind him. In an instant he grabbed his energy sword off his belt and ignited it. The green plasma blades erupted to just in corny of the person's neck.
It took him a moment to realize who it was. When he did he deactivated the sword and put it back on his belt.
Pearl was startled when the energy sword nearly pierced her neck. But thankfully he didn't stab her. Will simply stated at her for a few moments before he put the sword away. She then sighed and sat down in the chair next to him.
"Why are you here." He asked lowly.
Pealr turned to him with a downtrodden look on her face. "I could tell no one wanted me around at the moment. The only one who did was Steven. Garnet didn't care. Amythest is still mad and Lapis has unconcealed murderous intent." She told him.
"Can you blame them." Quasar said with a snarky tone from Will's helmet.
Pearl looked even more sad. "No, no I can't. I know what I did was wrong. But..it was just so hard."
Will kept his eyes out the window. He expertly kept the Pelican on it's descent route to the red planet. "Beating yourslef up isn't going to help." He replied monotonously.
Pearl turned to him. "I know that. But it's difficult to give up something...someone that you've loved for over 5,000 years." She admitted.
Will and Quasar knew of Pearl's infatuation with Rose. It was plain as day to see when they first got here.
"You have no one but yourslef to blame. You did nothing for eons. You literally had thousands of years and you couldn't admit it. So it's your own fault for being like this!" Quasar told her.
Pearl closed her eyes. "I know." She said lowly. She rested her head against the controls of the Pelican.
"I had several human lifetimes to feel her. But I was to much of a coward. Then in my blind want to have her back I let the most important person to me nearly die."
This surprised the Spartan a bit. He honestly wasn't expecting her to admit it.
"Did you apologize to Steven." He asked in his monotonous tone.
"Several times. But he didn't care that I messed up. He was concerned with my own wellbeing before his own." She said with a sad smile.
Will kinda expected this. "That kid's to nice for his own good. One day it's gonna get him into a situation we can't save him from."
Pearl brought her head up and looked down to the red soil underneath them. "If I slept. That would fill my every nightmare." She confessed.
Will brought down the Pelican to a smooth landing. "Last thing I need is something else to have nightmares about." He told the pale gem. He walked down the short status to the armory and walked out through the troop bay. Pearl got up and followed behind him.
"I sometimes wish he was born fully human. Then we wouldn't have to worry about Steven putting himself in danger, just to help us." Will said.
Pearl on a normal day would argue against this. But now, she almost agreed. Why did he have to out everyone else's safety before his own. He's even more stubborn than Rose and Greg. But more kind than both combined.
"Kids gonna keep doing it. Why do you think were building a next generation Mjolnir armor. We want him to be safe." Quasar said from the helmets speakers. Will opened the troop bay compartment and the air was partially sucked out. He barely felt the suction but Pearl had to grab onto something. He walked down the ramp and Pearl followed suit. Her gem adjusting for the slightly lower gravity.
"Why aren't you more angry with me?" She asked.
The Spartan stopped, he slowly turned his visor to her. "Because, I know what it's like to be blinded. I've never known love. And the closest thing I had to a family was my old teams. But the only survived was one person. So when they died, i went...overboard." he said.
Pearl felt bad for the Spartan. She had known about the war. But he never told any of them any personal details. "What happened?" She asked cautiously.
He hung his head. "All but Naomi died. Three friends, family gone. I went berserk and let's just say you could see the fireballs and carnage form space." He finished.
"I'm sorry, I didn't know. I can't even remember how many friends were lost in the rebellion. The numbers that you lost. I...can only imagine." She said.
Will stopped and looked to her. "I know she was o
Pink Diamond." He said simply.
Pearl looked at him and her eyes widened. Will continued to speak. "So does Quasar, she told us on the night that we arrived on earth. It was a trade for our secret."
Pearl flaked down and sighed. "I see, She didn't want anyone to know. And to answer your question...I don't know anymore. Can we please stop talking about out pasts. I've gotten enough skeletons out of the closet for a human lifetime." She said.
Will simply nodded. He had enough of talking about the past as well. "We're gonna need to tell him sometime. I can only imagine how they'll take it. And while I may not agree with her plans, I can see why rose did it. It simply didn't end the way she planned." He finished.
Pearl just looked to the massive construction yard in corny of her. "I know, I simply hope they don't take it to hard. After all, some secrets can destroy this GS that have been built so long." She said.
Will's eyes trailer to the other side of his visor. "Yeah."
They walked in silence for a few minutes. Pearl noticing that the terrain steadily got more and more inclined. She guessed it must have been some sort of crater or volcano that they were walking toward.
The ground had finally leveled out and Pearl could see part of a canyon form. But as she got closer she saw that this wasn't a canyon but a crater of an old volcano. She gasped in awe as she got closer to the edge and could see down.
"The Olympus shipyards. Powered by a volcano to provide the necessary heat and power to construct ships." He said as he walked to the left. Pearl glanced to where he was going and followed. He stepped an a grey platform that appeared to go down into the volcano's mouth. She stepped on it and it went down. She glanced around and saw several other platforms in the mouth. Some were very large to probably accomodate cargo.
She looked around the volcano and saw several ships. Quasar spoke form his helmet speakers to tell her what each one is. "The four small ones are Blitz class Corvettes. The 3 larger ones are 2 Paris class frigates and a Halberd class destroyer. And the largest one is where we're going." Said the AI.
She could only imagine the destructive power of these ships. She could see the barrels of the destroyers MAC guns. And the four smaller ships almost looked like a Homeworld destroyer.
"The Blitz class actually has reverse engineered Gem tech in it. Such as the 2 heavy plasma cannons on each side of it's hull. We're actually working on putting warp pads into each ship for repair departure and entry into the ships." Will said.
Pearl looked to him. "You've been studying gem technology?" She asked.
Will turned his visor to her. "Yes, we needed to be prepared for Homeworld. But the only thing we had to judge strength is you guys, corrupted gems, and crashed ships and structures. Although in impressed by the ability to make your ships bigger on the inside. That probably takes lots of advanced quantum mechanics." He said.
"Yes, but why havent you told us this." She asked.
Quasar answered. "How would you have taken it if we said we were dismantling gem technology and sites to figure out how they work and use them for our own gain." The AI said monotonously.
"Actually, I would've helped you." She said.
Will and Quasar looked at her with a bit of surprise. "What, no care about cultural heritage?" Quasar asked.
"Damn heritage, the gate of earth is on the line. I would happily sacrifice that to keep the earth safe." She told him.
Will was proud somewhat. While he was still a bit mad at her. He had an inkling of respect for her. He could respect that.
"What are we here for?" She asked in a more upbeat mood.
"We're here to see the UNSC Indianapolis leave it's shipyard. The first cruiser to be built." Will said.
They finally reached the bottom of the falcons and Pearl could feel the heat it eminated. She noticed that all the work being done was by people in exoskeletons and small robots. She even saw a few that looked like robonoids.
"How long has this been here?" She said as she looked around in wonderment.
These shipyards have been active for about 2 years. Most of the ships here are nearing completion." Will said.
Pearl could only stare at the massive amounts of machinery on these huge ships. The sheer size of the ships from far away hid it somewhat. But up close they were huge.
Pearl then looked forward and saw the massive ship in front of her. It was at least 4 times larger than the others. And in large white letters on the side read Indianapolis.
"This thing is even bigger than the ship you came here in." She said.
Will simply looked at the large ship they were nearing. Up close it almost blocked out the diminished sunlight form standing in its shadow.
"Yes, the Indianapolis class is 1.9 kilometers long. Armed with dual burst MAC guns. Able to fire 3 600 ton ferric tungsten slugs before recharge. Protected with up to 3.2 meters of Titanium B battle plate that's able to with stand many times higher temperatures than normal thanks to Homeworld metals. It also has 200 Archer missile pods with 60 missiles each. 400 70 mm guns. 4 Onager class railgun's. 600 laser defense turrets. Many types of fighter craft and all protected by a shield system. It would be one of the most powerful ships in the UNSC navy. But it'll be dwarfed when the Arcturus and it's class are done. As well as dreadnoughts carriers and supercarriers." He said.
Pearl looked to him eyes wide. "That amount of firepower could take on a rebellion era Homeworld fleet."
Will walked down the now open ramp onto a viewing platform to get a good view of the ship.
"I'm worried about how well it'll go against modern Homeworld ships. I'm worried we can't prepare fast enough. Because even with a several decades of shipbuilding with the UNSC's entire industrial power the Covenant still tore through them like tissue paper sometimes." He said to the gem.
"Homeworld isn't the Covenant. They may have existed for far longer, but they are smaller. Last time I was there they only had 3 dozen planets." Pearl told him.
He looked to the gem as the various workers moved away from the ship all around it.
"Yes, but they had 5,000 years. They could span the entire galaxy or several for all we know. And that possibility is what scares me." He said as his grip started to rent the Titanium hand rails.
"Well, if hey havent changed the way they colonize. Then they could only have up to a house meter world's even under their control. And only possible 60 that are fully colonized. Gem colonization means the eradication of all plant life and it has been fully used for gem production. Where then it's remains are turned into a place for gems to live." She explained.
Will turned back to the Indianapolis. "That eases my fears somewhat. But either way we need more time."
Pearl looked toward the ship as well. "We most likely never will have enough time. We never do."
Both sat in silence as the Indianapolis came to life for the first time. The cruisers slowly lifted itself off the ground with the reverse engineered gravity engine's. Once it was several hundred feet in the air the large engine nozzles roared to life. First being a dark orange before quickly Being overtaken by a light blue. The control flaps of the engine then controlled the exhaust of the fusion reactor into usable thrust and the mighty ship took off into the sky.
"Wether we survive or not. We will not go down without a fight."