Missing Peace: Chapter 44

Opal let out an exhausted sigh as she flopped into a sitting position on the grass of the enclosure. The Gems of her Quartz attackers lay haphazardly in the field around her. It had been a gruelling fight, but she had managed to poof all of them. She wasn't used to feeling tired; usually she didn't exist long enough to feel the fatigue from a battle, given Amethyst and Pearl's lack of desire to be her for long periods. As she sat, taking in the pleasant if obviously synthesised air as she stretched her aching arms, she heard a burst of static from off to her side. He eyes darted over to it, revealing the source to be one of her communicators, which had been knocked from her hand during the fight. Getting clumsily to her feet, she scrabbled over to it. Finding that her hands were too large to properly pick it up, she sighed. "Time to go again" she said to the empty room. One brief flash of light later, Amethyst and Pearl stood separately in the grassy chamber. Pearl picked up the communicator and played the last transmission. It was just the words she had been hoping to hear: "Everyone, this is Lars. We are go for phase 2…"

She let out a sigh of relief. At least one part of the plan had gone as intended. With the hostages freed, one huge problem was off the table, and that would allow them to be a lot less delicate from here on. She produced a second communicator out of her Gem. A far cry from the plastic walkie-talkie in her left hand, this one was halfway between crystalline and metallic; technologically in another league. A Diamond Line communicator. She activated it, and tapped her foot impatiently as the holographic screen formed out of it. A second later, White Diamond's face appeared on the screen. "Pearl, what's going on over there?" White blurted out, sounding concerned. "The hostages have been freed" Pearl replied, keeping her answers brief for time's sake. "We're go for phase 2." "Understood" White said, before closing the channel.

Diamond Fleet:

The titanic Diamond willed two more screens into existence with a thought, bearing the faces of Yellow and Blue. "I've just got word from Steven's team" she said, more confident now that she had received some good news. "Order your fleets to move in." Yellow and Blue nodded, this time leaving the channels open. They would need to be able to reach each other quickly for the upcoming battle. A few barked orders to the fleet later and they were ready. The gravity drives of Hundreds of Gem ships lit up in unison. Had there been air in space to carry the sound, it would surely have been deafening. The Diamonds' ships linked together in their mech configuration, sans legs, due to Steven's ship still being on Earth. The bizarre floating torso moved to the head of the pack, as the last few ships aligned themselves to their course heading. Since the battle above Homeworld, extensive efforts had been taken to ensure that there were no Facet 31 moles on-board any of them. The ships were being operated by skeleton crews of only the Diamonds'' most trusted loyalists. "All captains report ready" Yellow informed White over the comm. "Alright then" replied White, staring out of her own viewscreen with determination. "Let's go and put an end to this." In unison, every ship in the fleet engaged their gravity drive, and stretched off into the distance in a distorted coil. "Hold on Steven" White thought to herself. "We're coming."

Human Zoo:

"Status?" Rose asked the Peridot operating the console to her right. "We should be ready to initiate the firing sequence in less than two minutes" replied the mousy green Gem, not looking up from her screen. Rose wandered back over to the main viewer, to stare one last time at the visage of Earth. In a way, she almost missed it. This was the planet she had been born on; that she had lived on for years; that she had made all her happiest memories on. But it was also the one that had been the cause of all her pain and suffering, and therefore it had to go away. The planet shone blue and green on the display, almost mocking her with its vibrancy. Soon, all the green on its continents would be turned to brown, when Rose's weapon decimated the planet's organic life. She mused that that would make the planet much easier to look at. Just as she was about to turn back to the Peridot for another update, the sky outside the viewscreen lit up, as it was filled with the lights of a thousand Gem ships dropping out of gravity drive. Once the entry pulses faded, Rose was able to see the full scope of the threat. The Diamonds' entire fleet was hanging in the sky surrounding the zoo. Her eyes widened in shock. She had ordered that all the Crystal Gems be neutralised, save for Pink's team, and Sapphire had told the Quartzes exactly where to find them. No-one should have been alive to signal the Diamonds, unless something had gone wrong… "Red alert!" yelled her right-hand Quartz from behind her, as Peridots and Rubies scampered around the bridge. "Battle stations! All ships defend the weapon!"

Outside the station, the ships of Facet 31's fleet flared into life; save for those which had had their vital components stripped out to modify the zoo. Breaking from the planetary rings which had been their hiding place, they formed up around the weapon. They were easily outnumbered ten to one by the Diamonds' fleet, and in many cases were outmatched too, but their crews were more than willing to go down fighting for the sake of Rose's plan. Steven felt a mix of emotions as he watched the opposing fleets stare each other down. On one hand, the fact that the Diamonds had even showed up meant that the zoo's humans were safe. No-one on the away team would have signalled the fleet while the hostages were still on-board. It also meant that the odds were now firmly in their favour, and they now had a real chance of stopping Facet 31's weapon. On the other hand, this wasn't the outcome he had hoped for. Another battle just meant that more Gems were going to get hurt. He had truly hoped that he could resolve this without another fight. What Facet 31 was doing was wrong, but none of its Gems deserved to get shattered for it; they had been pushed down this path because of the war, just like every other Gem threat he'd ever faced. If all his foes before them had been redeemable, he had to believe that they were too, and he truly hadn't wanted to see it end like this. If there was still even a tiny chance of talking his way out of this, he had to try.

"Rose, please" he said pleadingly, "stop this. You know you can't win against those numbers. I know what Pink did was wrong, but you're not going to fix anything by getting yourself shattered!" Rose turned to face him, but instead of the white-hot anger he had expected to see on her face, which had been her response the last time he had tried to reach her, she instead wore a smug grin. "Why are you so sure that I'm going to lose?" she replied. Despite her cheerfulness, there was a chilling edge to her words that indicated that they were far from empty talk. She turned to one of her Peridots. "Activate our defences! I want that fleet held back until the weapon is ready!" The Peridot worked a few controls, and a low, gentle tremor rumbled through the station for just a moment. Steven and the others couldn't see what had happened, but the Diamonds and their fleet had a very clear view. All over the outside of the zoo, parts of the modified areas had opened up, revealing massive laser turrets. Evidently the parts scavenged from Facet 31's fleet had included many of the ships' weapons arrays. Watching the sight on her viewscreen, White's eyes widened. Tapping a console to her right, she opened a fleet-wide channel. Unbeknownst to each other, White and Rose gave the order to their fleets in unison: "Open fire."

In an instant, the sky around the zoo came alive with thousands of beams of light. Ships ducked and weaved past each other, the Diamonds' fleet doing their best to dodge the zoo's weapons. Those that weren't fast enough were taking heavy damage; clearly the zoo's turrets had been augmented almost as much as the main weapon. The Diamonds' fleet was returning fire though, disabling many of the smaller Facet 31 ships which were placing themselves between the attacking fleet and the zoo. The Diamonds' ship flew on a direct intercept course for the zoo, flanked by a few smaller ships to protect it from fire until it got in close. Once Yellow deemed that they were close enough, the ship raised her arm, opened the hand, and let out a searing blast of energy from the palm. As the zoo rocked from the impact, everyone in the command centre was knocked to the floor. In an instant, Connie was on her feet, ducking away from the arm of the Quartz soldier that tried to recapture her. Noticing that she was free, Steven and Bismuth reacted only seconds later, summoning their weapons and jumping free of the main pack of Quartzes. As Steven ran towards Connie, Rose dashed to meet him. He barely lifted his shield in time to block a swing her swing. "Don't think that this changes anything Pink!" Rose snarled through gritted teeth. "My weapon will be charged in mere moments. Your fleet won't be able to stop me in time, and after that, none of this will matter!"

Sun Incinerator:

Lars and his crew stared out at the battle unfolding around them. In seconds the tranquillity of the planet's rings had turned into chaos. The zoo's humans huddled at the back of the bridge, terrified by the spectacle going on outside. Lars hated to leave his friends in the middle of such carnage, but he knew his job wasn't done yet. Turning to his crew, he began shouting instructions: "Rutile, lay in a course out of the system and activate gravity drive! We need to get these humans away from the fighting!" The twin Gems inputted commands into their console at dizzying speed. "Course laid in captain." "Engaging gravity drive." The Sun Incinerator turned hard about, and angled itself towards an empty passage between the rocks and ice of the ring system. Just before the gravity drive engaged, Lars took one last wistful look out of the viewscreen. "Good luck Steven. You're gonna need it."

Escape pod bay:

Lapis and Peridot felt the vibration as the station shook around them. There was no mistaking it: the battle had started outside. As terrifying as that prospect was, it did at least make it clear that word of the hostages' rescue had reached the rest of the team. "Come on!" said Peridot, locating the way towards the command centre and gesturing to Lapis. "We've gotta go help Steven!" Lapis didn't move from her position. Instead, she eyed up one of the escape pods, and a mischievous grin flashed across her face. Seeing Lapis smile was a rather rare and pleasant sight, but Peridot questioned whether now was the appropriate time. "Um…Lapis… are we going or what?" she said, perplexed. "Actually" replied Lapis, still smirking "I think we might be more useful out there."

Power Distribution Room:

Dalton and Li were knocked off their feet as a blast rocked the station. Their guns fell from their hands with a clatter. "Urgh, what the hell is going on out there?" Dalton said predominantly to himself. A second later, he came to his senses, and remembered what he had just been doing. He snapped up into a seated position, so see Li scrambling for his gun. Dalton's eyes darted around the room, but he couldn't immediately see his own weapon. Left with little other option, he got to his feet and charge at Li. Just as Li was about to reach his gun, Dalton tackled him, and the two slid into the back wall with a thud. Dalton clambered on top of Li and did his best to restrain the younger man's limbs, but it wasn't an easy task. "I won't let you throw our species to the wolves for the sake of a few alien lives!" Li shouted, practically foaming at the mouth with rage. He lifted his leg and kicked Dalton in the back with enough force to knock him off, before scrambling to his feet. He turned to walk towards his weapon again, but Dalton grabbed him from behind, in an effort to restrain his arms. Li jabbed his shoulder backwards into Dalton's ribs, knocking the president away, before wheeling around and landing a left hook to his jaw. Dalton had taken a few hits like that in his time, so he remained on his feet. Wiping a drop of blood away from his lip with one finger, he stared at Li and gave a slight smirk. "Guess we're doing this the hard way."