Chapter Thirteen: Sublevel X
Homeworld, surveillance headquarters, Sublevel X.
The four Gems stepped out into the room, Cairngorm leading the way. The other three were marveling at the many experiments present within, with a combination of wonder and unease.
"Yes indeed, this place is off-limits to just about everyone," Cairngorm explained. "Only a very select few are allowed down here!"
Onyx glanced around, noticing a surprising lack of personnel. "If this place is so secret and stuff, where's all the guards?" she asked.
"Like I said: select few only," Cairngorm said. "This wing is restricted to only the highest-level personnel, like myself! Not bragging or anything, it's just true. Anyways, let's move on."
She set off down the hallway, leaving the others to follow. "So...exactly what is it that goes on down here?" asked Pearl. She wasn't entirely sure she wanted to know the answer.
Cairngorm shrugged as she walked. "Don't know, really. Little of this, little of that. Just because I can come down here doesn't mean I do. It's my job to 'collect and relay information,' not ask questions. But there is something I'm pretty sure we'd be interested in."
"And what is that?" Tanzanite asked.
"It all started a couple months ago," Cairngorm began. "The Science Minister was down here working some sort of experiment with My Maxixe. I wasn't involved, but I had some new information on the Interlopers to deliver. I was supposed to come down, tell My Maxixe, and leave. But, as a spy, my natural curiosity got the better of me. I overheard Heliodor talking about something I probably shouldn't have."
"Which was?" asked Onyx.
"I have no clue," Cairngorm admitted. Onyx, Pearl, and even Tanzanite visibly deflated. "No, I mean, not entirely," she continued. "I didn't know what most of what she said meant, but I did hear something about something called 'Project: Giganova.' Whatever that is, she seemed pretty secretive about it. It must be important."
"And we are here to find out more about this project?" asked Tanzanite.
"Yup," Cairngorm said. "Heliodor was making absolute sure she was alone when she was talking. She said...she said it could end the war."
"Pretty lofty hopes," said Onyx. "Where should we start looking?"
"Down here." Cairngorm led them to a computer terminal at the end of the long room. "This is where all of the info the Grand Spymaster's spies collect goes. Info on Project: Giganova should be here, too, but it'll probably be encrypted. Tanzanite, think you could manage?"
"It is possible."
After Cairngorm got her to the files, Tanzanite took over. She extended her hands over the console, and her fingers extended, snaking their way into the machine. "I have...located some hidden files," she said, her eyes flashing. "They are...heavily encrypted, however. This may...take a while."
"What exactly are we supposed to do once we figure this stuff out?" asked Onyx. "Say we find out what Project: Giganova is. What then?"
"Whatever we can," Cairngorm said. "We take what we already know about the Interlopers and Teptromina and all that, and use it to help."
Onyx shrugged, shaking her head, as she wandered off. "Not much of a plan, but whatever. Let me know when you're done here."
Pearl, unable to really do much to speed up the hack, decided to follow her. She was able to get a closer look at some of the strange experiments the room was filled with. Most weren't too different than things she had already seen, not to say that made them any less unsettling. Of particular interest were the creatures floating in giant tubes. They looked like organics, but on closer inspection, they seemed to be made of stone.
"What are these things?" Pearl wondered aloud.
Onyx took a closer look. "Looks like a proto-Gem to me," she said.
"A what?"
"Proto-Gem. They're...actually, I don't really know what they are exactly, but they live underground, in the tunnels and caves near Homeworld's core. Some people think they're what Gems used to be. This one looks like a Shale to me."
"How do you know so much about them?" Pearl asked.
"Emerald," explained Onyx. "Back in the day, a while before the Earth War, she went through this whole phase where she wanted to learn as much about proto-Gems as she could. She was obsessed with the things!"
"Huh." Pearl examined the creature. "I wonder why?"
"Beats me," said Onyx. "She did always like organics, and proto-Gems are sorta similar. Maybe you can ask her one day."
Tanzanite continued trying to crack the encryption. "How's it going?" asked Cairngorm.
"More difficult than expected," said Tanzanite. "These are the most...secure defenses I have...ever come across. I cannot...bypass the firewalls."
Eventually, after trying for a while, Tanzanite was forced to withdraw. Her fingers retracted as she staggered back from the computer. "Tanzanite, are you okay?" said Cairngorm, holding her arms out to catch her.
"Yes, I am fine," Tanzanite said. "It is odd: the files on Project: Giganova appeared to be disguised as glitches in the system. As such, I was unable to retrieve any useful information. I did uncover one useful tidbit of information, however."
"And what might that be?" said Cairngorm.
"Specimen B-18," Tanzanite replied. "Whatever it is, it knows something."
Cairngorm looked off in the distance before walking away. Tanzanite followed. "Let's see...section B is right here, so 28 would be...this one."
On the table marked 18 was an Interloper; a Raptor, to be specific. Oddly, unlike the other Interlopers situated around the room, this one showed no signs of damage, even minor. Nevertheless, it sat completely still, just as dead as the rest.
"So, what's so special about this one?" asked Cairngorm.
Tanzanite stepped closer to the robot. "I do not know. It seems to be connected to Project: Giganova in some way. I will need to access its memories." As she did with the terminal, Tanzanite extended her fingers into the machine's head. Her eyes began glowing again. "I am now seeing what it saw."
"And what did it see?" Cairngorm asked.
"Hold on," said Tanzanite. After a moment, she spoke again. "This unit was among others sent to investigate Homeworld activity in the Imperia Nebula. A small scouting party...their search ended in the Mieren system. They were shot down approaching Mieren-VII."
"The Mieren system? That's strange," Cairngorm said. "Why be so protective of Mieren-VII? We don't even have an outpost there. There's not even a communication hub there like on Rulax-14!"
"The Interloper ship crashed on a nearby asteroid," Tanzanite continued. "This unit was the only one undamaged. Strangely, it activated self-termination protocols before the ship could be scavenged."
"Doesn't seem that strange," said Cairngorm. "It probably just didn't want Homeworld finding it and getting access to its secrets."
"Active or inactive should not have mattered to an Interloper," said Tanzanite. "As I am now, they would have been able to access its data regardless. I see no reason for it to have...Oh no…"
Cairngorm looked up in concern to see Tanzanite disconnect from the inert Raptor. "What? Why 'oh no?' What's wrong?"
Tanzanite backed away from the Interloper. "The self-termination was a temporary measure! It was waiting for an opportune moment to-"
Glowing red light returned to the Interloper's darkened eyes. Immediately it sat up, its arms converting into blasters, opening fire. Tanzanite was already far enough to avoid being hit, but Cairngorm was not. Several of the rapid shots collided with her, knocking her to the floor. The Raptor jumped to its feet as the rockets on its back flared to life, launching itself into the air and away from the two.
"Cairngorm, are you injured?" asked Tanzanite.
Cairngorm scrambled up and hurried to cover next to Tanzanite. "No, I'm fine," she said. "Just a light-wound."
Hearing the noise, Onyx and Pearl rushed over. "What the void did you two do?" asked Onyx. "How did an Interloper get in here!?"
"It was in here already, dormant!" said Tanzanite. "It was waiting to reactivate itself!"
Cairngorm summoned her sickle. "Come on, we have to stop it before it can do anything!" she said, running after it. The others followed.
They soon found that the Raptor had made its way to the computer terminal Tanzanite had been using earlier. It placed its hands over the controls, red sparks shooting out of its fingers. These spread throughout the device, a series of strange markings appearing on the screen.
"What's it doing?" Pearl asked.
"I don't know, but it won't finish!" said Cairngorm. She hurled her sickle-it embedded into the screen, inches from the Raptor's head. The Interloper looked up at it, then turned to face the Gems.
Seeming to realize it was outnumbered, the Raptor decided not to fight. Instead, it knelt down to the floor, placing its hands on the ground and sending a surge of the red sparks forwards. Everyone braced, but the sparks weren't heading for them. The surge split into two, flowing towards and through the numerous other contained Interlopers. Just like the first one, the damaged machines' eyes returned to life. They began breaking out of the wires that held them, focusing on the Gems.
Onyx summoned her hammer. "Great! Everyone stay together, this could get bad!"
As the initial Raptor took to the air once more, the newly-risen army of mangled Interlopers moved towards the four Gems. Some limped, some crawled, others still dragged themselves. Those that could, of which there was an unfortunate amount, opened fire. Onyx blocked most of the blasts, while the other three got to cover.
"That flying one's not giving up!" saud Cairngorm. "I think it's trying to access our servers!"
Pearl had taken out her blaster. "Can it? If Tanzanite couldn't find anything, then-"
"It will most likely upload a virus of some kind," Tanzanite said. "I did not want to cause unneeded damage, though I suspect it will have no such scruples."
"Luckily for us, I'm not about to let that happen!" Cairngorm spun her sickle, before she and the weapon vanished. Pearl could faintly hear the sound of retreating footsteps.
Onyx carved through the Interlopers in droves. But the more she crushed, the more seemed to appear. "How many of these frackin' things are there!?" she yelled. "This seems like an excessive amount for just some research!"
"Stay here!" Tanzanite ordered. Pearl shot at a few approaching robots as Tanzanite grabbed a fallen one. As she had done before, she inserted her fingers into its head. The dead Interloper raised its arm, firing on its fellows as Tanzanite directed.
As Pearl focused on the robots approaching from the front, she was unaware of those approaching from behind. A metallic arm suddenly wrapped around her, pulling her down before she had a chance to scream. She tried to fight it off, but more and more Interlopers surrounded her, piling onto her.
Her blaster arm was pinned down, so she couldn't shoot them. Although her other arm was free, she wasn't strong enough to push them off. Unable to think of anything else, she reached down to her stomach, where her gemstone lay. With a glow, the pink bubble was removed. And Emerald's gemstone was free.
This alone was enough to remove Pearl's attackers. The massive body formed out of light, taking the form of a gigantic monster. Once color returned to the light, Emerald raised her head. Her innumerable eyes saw Onyx. And Tanzanite. And Pearl. And all three were being attacked by Interlopers.
The beast that once was Emerald roared, lunging at the machines. She tore them to pieces with her claws and teeth, their blasts doing nothing to her.
Tanzanite looked up in surprise as Onyx staggered back. "Emerald!" the latter exclaimed. "Pearl, did you…?"
Pearl stood up, picking up her blaster. "Yes. And she's going to help us."
With Emerald, Onyx with her hammer, Pearl with her blaster, and Tanzanite with her scavenged puppet, the pair began to beat back the oncoming hordes. Meanwhile, Cairngorm fought off several Interlopers herself as she gave chase to the runaway Raptor. She sliced her way, unseen, though any that got in her way as she followed.
When she finally caught up to it, the Raptor had gotten to another terminal. Same as before, red sparks and strange symbols covered the device. And same as before, Cairngorm hurled her sickle.
This time, the Raptor was wise to her tricks. It turned and caught the weapon in midair before it could hit it. Although it couldn't see Cairngorm, it knew she was there, opening fire on the seemingly empty space.
Nimble as she was, the Raptor had thoroughly saturated the area with plasma-she couldn't dodge them all. Forced to her knees by the attack, Cairngorm became visible again. The Raptor prepared to finish the job.
"Not yet!" Cairngorm flung a second sickle at the Interloper. It simply batted it aside, preparing to fire. Cairngorm had only used the weapon as a distraction, now charging at her opponent barehanded. An unwise move, as the Raptor just caught her by the throat, holding her aloft. Its jets flared, carrying the two upwards.
Grabbing futilely at the Raptor's hand around her neck, Cairngorm seemed to be out of options-seemed. She was not as unarmed as she had led the Interloper to believe: her hand seemingly clasped around nothing, she swiped her arm in front of it. A large cut appeared through its middle, as both fell to the ground.
The Raptor landed on its back; Cairngorm landed on her feet. The sickle she held on became visible again in her hand. She ran at the Interloper, driving her weapon downwards and finishing the job.
With her foe vanquished, whatever it had done to the computer stopped. The same couldn't be said about its reanimated armies, though Emerald and the others were making short work of them.
"I do not see any reinforcements!" said Tanzanite. "This appears to be the last of them!"
Onyx climbed onto a shelf, jumping down hammer-first. "Ha! They should start making these things out of tougher stuff!" She bashed another group of Interlopers aside with a swing of her weapon.
"Just a little while longer!" said Pearl. "We're almost there!"
Emerald skewered a Predator with the spines on her tail, hurling it at an approaching group. She shook off a Scavenger clinging to her leg, easily crushing it beneath her claw. More still surrounded her, climbing onto her en masse.
Throwing her head back, Emerald let out a powerful skyward roar. Her body surged with electricity, destroying the robots clinging to her. The volts arced all around her, surging towards and through every Interloper in the area. The three Gems braced, but the voltage avoided them, attracted to the metal of the Interlopers. In one fell swoop, none remained.
"That works, too, I guess," said Pearl. She laughed, running over to Emerald. "Good job, My Emerald! You got 'em all!"
Emerald, despite her beastial exterior, leaned down to nuzzle the pink Gem.
As the three took a moment to catch their breath, Cairngorm rounded the corner. "Did...did you take care of 'em?"
Tanzanite scanned the broken masses of metal and wires that surrounded them. "I believe so," she said. "Did you stop yours?"
"Yup! Killed it before it could learn much. Unfortunately, we weren't able to learn much either…"
"Not at all," said Tanzanite. "We now know that Project: Giganova is located on Mieren-VII, or at least heavily involves the planet."
"Hey, that's pretty big!" said Onyx. "Now, whaddya say we get out of this place?"
"Fine by me," Pearl said. "Come on, My Emerald!" She ushered the monstrous form of her former master towards the elevator.
"You know, you should probably put her back in a bubble," said Cairngorm. "It'd be kinda hard to hide her otherwise, even with my powers!"
"Don't worry, I will," Pearl said. "Just a little bit longer."
"You know, Mieren-VII is not a large planet," said Tanzanite. It should not take us long to locate Gem activity on the surface. If it is on the surface, of course."
"Yeah, this should be no problem!" said Cairngorm. "For once, things are finally looking up!"
The elevator doors opened. They had not yet reached them.
"Aw, shard…"
A large battalion of Blue Quartzes flowed out through the doors, aiming their weapons at the group. Everyone but Emerald froze, who growled, but Pearl was able to calm her. Two figures different than the rest stepped forward: Science Minister Heliodor, and Grand Spymaster Maxixe. Neither of them looked happy.
"Um...hello there, My Maxixe!" said Cairngorm. "Now, I know this looks bad, but I have a perfectly reasonable explanation for all of this! It's kind of a funny story, really!"
Maxixe scowled at her. "Well, if it isn't my favorite spy," she grumbled.
"We're in big trouble, aren't we?" asked Onyx.
"Very," said Heliodor.