I definitely didn't take a break and start testing out just how powerful the weapons were, I definitely didn't lock my eyes onto a futuristic-looking artillery cannon that the ship had in its lower area and grin mischievously. There wasn't any reason for anyone to believe that I had Amethyst go inside and drag the artillery cannon out of the ship, which was quite easy for her, even when she wasn't wearing the power armor, which she wasn't at the moment. I'd told her to take it off. She'd lifted it up with both hands and plopped it down a few feet away from where my table and the different sets of armor were set up, I'd summoned some armor stands and pieced together the pieces of the space marine armor and set them up on the armor stands.

So anyways, I completely lied. Amethyst would tilt her head down at me as she helped me stand up so that I could take a closer look at the very large and futuristic piece of machinery that looked as if it belonged back in the civil war. But nevertheless, I nudged for Amethyst to bring me closer to the weapon, it was called a 'lascannon artillery gun', and then when I was closer to the handles I reached out and grasped each with my hands.

"Set me down," I'd say as she helped me lower myself down onto my butt. "Thank you," I said while readjusting my shaky grip on the handles before pausing. I looked at my arms and could see that they were shaking, it caused me to frown. I completely forgot about that.

"My.. diamond," Amethyst would say as I looked away from my arms and looked up at her with a tilted head as she looked down at me with a concerned expression. I followed her eyes and looked down at the major fracturing and cracks on my arms, oh right, she didn't quite see the extent of what my injuries were. All she saw when I first created her was the nonexistent left eye I had because it was covered in a large crack. "Are you sure this won't harm you?"

"Well.. no," I said with a shake of my head. "..well, if I do it by myself, probably," I said after putting a hand up to my chin.

"Why don't you help me, then?" I said as she looked from my arms and into my eyes. "Just uh, here," I said while shakily pulling myself up and onto my knees and motioning for her to sit down behind me. She didn't say anything and simply nodded before sitting down behind me, and without much hesitation, I let myself fall back and plopped down on her lap. It was a much better way for me to be at eye level with the cannon while sitting, and this way the force of the cannon shooting wouldn't do anything to harm me if she was keeping me steady. "Much better."

"What else do I do?" she would ask from above me. I tilted my head up and looked at her looking down at me. "Just grab my hands and keep them on the handles," I said while turning back to them. I watched as she brought her arms up and practically engulfed my hands as she wrapped her fingers around the handles.

With Amethyst holding me steady, I took a deep breath and focused on the weapon before me. Amethyst was silent behind me, and I could feel her tense up as I prepared to fire the weapon. I took a deep breath and then pulled the trigger.

The sound was deafening, but I quickly reduced the sound in my ears, I felt a jolt run through my body as the cannon fired. A bright beam of light shot out of the end of the weapon, and I peered my head around the gun and watched as the beam collided against a distant rock formation and completely obliterated it.

"That was.." I could hear Amethyst's voice from above me and I simply chuckled. "Awesome? I know, it was so awesome!" I said with another laugh.

~Casual skip (because skips make the story more interesting!)~

Era 0 - Before Shattering(s) - Before the war between the Chaos legion and the Diamond Authority.

Approximately 20 years after Black Diamond created the first instances of the gem army and repurposed/redesigned stolen ships from the Chaos Legion and added them to the Diamond Authority arsenal.

Black Diamond has also created different sections of the gem army and has introduced the concept of warfare to the Diamonds. He has also instated the caste system in Homeworld just like the original HomeWorld, with the Diamonds being at the top and the other gems following suit.

He has also made sure to train up and create specific commanders and generals of specific gems for each branch of the Diamond Authority military that he is to create.

He has also trained and worked with the rest of the diamonds in order to help them build up their personalities, they've come a long way since when he first poofed their gems into existence.

The diamonds were hesitant and cautious over the idea of leading an army, much less an entire empire of gems, but with enough work, he finally got them to a point where they were ready. And he was finally able to fully introduce them to the army that he built up pertaining to lore and from the things that he took liberties with.

-Troop types-

Gem soldiers - these are the regular and common type of gem that would be seen on homeworld and in the army, mostly used for heavy lifting jobs and as infantry.

Commandos - Common gem soldiers that receive more intense training than the regular ones.

Marksman - gems that specialize in long-range weaponry, e.g. Snipers.

Heavy gunners - Gems chosen to wear large and modified hulking suits of stolen Space Marine armor that only use lascannons and rotary cannons.

Spartans - Gems that are specifically chosen by Black Diamond to be fitted with armor that vastly increases their speed and strength. (Derived from their UNSC counterparts).

Gem Marines - Gems that are outfitted with the stolen and rebranded Chaos Legion armor taken by Black Diamond.

Armored division - gems that are specifically chosen to maneuver and pilot heavy armored vehicles.

Pilots - Gems that pilot anything ranging from a simple drop ship to a cruiser.

General - A gem that is in charge of a squad of gem soldiers.

Commander - A gem that is in charge of a large group of gem soldiers with corresponding generals that report to them.

Shipmaster - A high-ranking gem that is able to command its own flagship and a small fleet of varying cruiser types.

-Homeworld Gems-

Generally the same as the ones seen in the show, ranging all the way from the lowly pebbles to the noble and mighty Diamonds.

-Roles -

Administrators

Agents

Architects

Aristocrats

Builders

Captains

Commanders

Elites

Entertainers

Guards

Kindergarteners

Lawyers

Leaders

Managers

Officers

Overseers

Philosophers

Pilots

Rulers

Scouts

Servants

Soldiers

Supervisors

Technicians

Terraformers

Warriors

-Ship types-

Ranging from supercarriers to the smallest scout ship, all pulled from varying sci-fi and video game worlds.

Supercarrier - Gigantic vessels that fill almost every role that is needed of them from their fleet, there is usually a high-ranking gem soldier either commanding the ship or in rare instances, a Diamond aboard.

Battleships - Slow-moving heavily armed and armored warships that are mainly used in the front lines of space battles. Many are armed with varying amounts of M.A.C Cannons.

Pelican - Much like the Halo counterpart, it is a small and quick ship used for troop and vehicle transport. It can be also used as a fighter aircraft.

Shield ships - Unlike the regular ships that have their own shield generators, these ships are mainly focused on forming at either the center or the front lines of every battle, they are usually paired up with the battleships.

Destroyers - medium-sized vessels used to engage enemies at a closer range, with their armaments being more of a medium-distance to close-distance weaponry.

Corvettes - Small, fast, and nimble ships designed to be used for reconnaissance and confusing enemies with their onboard EMP devices.

Cruisers - Larger than destroyers but not as armored, serving as the highly modular part of the fleet, where they can fit almost any purpose.

Frigates - Light vessels that are faster than the other ship types, they are mainly used to scout out possible threats and to monitor the outer lying expanses of the Diamond Authorities territory.

Diamond Ships - These are the ships that were most commonly seen in the Steven Universe show, where each Diamond had a personal ship that was in the form of different body parts. Highly trusted and secretive gems pilot these ships that Black Diamond himself chose, they are outfitted with an incredible amount of weaponry and armor, yet still, retain the speed that would outclass every single ship in their arsenal. Including the frigates. Black Diamond's personal ship is an outlier since he never plans on using it unless there is a mass conflict in that he has no other choice but to use it.

Era 0 -

So I did some mining off-camera.

Anyways, asides from the fact of my very bad Minecraft joke, I'd actually made some huge progress on my goal of establishing Homeworld. I realized that I'd made it a bit too heavily referenced by other sci-fi material, specifically in the ships and military, everything else was my own design and some roman/greek inspired things. Looking back and taking cues from the show, I saw that one of the gems mentioned that Homeworld wasn't as advanced as it was in the modern day, with how Peridot regards some of the leftover tech on Earth as severely outdated.

So I figured that I would just I don't know, demilitarize Homeworld after the war with the Chaos Legion. But I had more than enough time to not dwell on that fact at the moment, I was more focused on watching with such glee as literal spaceships flew to and from the expanses of space. It was making me so giddy watching a frigate, which I took from Halo, hovering in low orbit.

I was currently leaning against the balcony that was connected to my own room this time, I'd transferred out of Blue's embrace after a while of proving to her that I would be able to handle being by myself instead of being watched 24/7. So now I was in my own room that I'd built further away from where all of the other Diamonds had their own rooms, it was built-in a tower-like fashion because I didn't have any other ideas for an exterior. But for the interior I had a lot of ideas, I had to stop myself from designing it like a room that I dreamt of having back on Earth and arranged it to look like something you'd see in a fantasy TV show. Though there were instances of technology, such as the light switches and holographic panels that I can use as a communicator or as a tablet.

I'd added on to the city part of Homeworld, particularly a sectioned-off area that was dedicated to manufacturing and innovating new technology that could aid in the war effort, and while the war hasn't officially started yet, I'd ingrained the idea of warfare into the gems that I created so they wouldn't experience shell shock.

But I wasn't focused on that either way, I was more focused on the cool spaceships. As I said before they were going to and from Homeworld because I was currently in the process of populating a newly built defense station that would hover over the planet. Much like the planetary defense platforms you would see in most modern sci-fi games, it was a massive structure that was in the shape of a ring surrounding the planet. The ring itself was fitted with a shield generator that would surround the planet at will, it also had numerous amounts of weaponry to defend itself and a few different docking stations that could support the landing of cruisers and smaller aircraft.

I'd be up there actually taking part and overseeing a majority of this stuff but I was still hindered by my injuries, sure I was able to (barely) walk, but I wasn't able to do much of anything without irking the cracks that littered my body. So Yellow Diamond had, not asked, demanded that I stay out of these affairs until I was properly healed. And with all the other Diamonds of Yellow's demand, I was forced to relent and sit.

But I wasn't really going to let myself be torn away from any of the military stuff since I still had that secret shipyard that I'd made for myself when I was hiding all of this away from the other Diamonds. So I could busy myself with toying around with new weapons and ship ideas without the risk of garnering the Diamond's concerns.

Anyways, I looked up at the sky and squinted my eyes, my vision going farther and farther until I was finally looking into the planetary defense platform. My eyes landed on Yellow Diamond (she was in her giant form because she liked the authority that it gave her) and Citrus both standing and watching as ships landed and dropped off Gems soldiers and all sorts of weaponry that I'd sprinkled in, be it Warhammer or just ones I stole from other franchises. Yellow pearl was standing with a small holographic tablet in her hands as she followed Yellow around. Amethyst was also up there with them as I'd appointed her the commander of her own squad of gem soldiers, mostly jaspers and other amethysts.

Citrus and her got along pretty well since they were both one of my first-hand creations, the two shared similar thoughts and opinions on things that I found amusing to listen to from all the way here.

I sighed and blinked my vision back to normal and turned around, I limped my way back into my room and just about flopped onto my king-sized bed. I wanted to take a nap because naps were always good but was stopped when a knock at my door sounded and I let out a small sigh before lifting myself up and out of the bed. I limped over to my door and opened it, not before shaking my head and letting my 'Diamond' persona take over. I looked up and noticed that it was a pearl, Blue's pearl.

I'd given the Diamonds pearls, though chose not to give one to White as I still wasn't sure about her fluctuating temperament and emotions sometimes, I and the other Diamonds were still working with her on that. They'd only recently stopped hovering around me whenever she was close to me. Then I just snapped three pearls into existence, pink pearl, blue pearl, and yellow pearl. I didn't give myself a pearl because I didn't want one.

And since I figured that later on White would take Pinks's pearl after she hurts her and replaces her with the Crystal Gems pearl, which then would make White's pearl Volleyball. Confusing? Yes.

I smiled up at her as I fixed the fabric of my robe. "Hello pearl, is there something that you need?" I said in my soft tone.

She responded with a small nod. "The lustrous Blue Diamond requests your presence in the throne room," she said in her quiet voice.

I nodded. "Alright, help me please?" I said while stepping out of my room and letting the door close behind me.

I looked from my left to my right and also gave a smile at the two tall gems that were guarding either side of my room, they were both onyx's in order to best suit my dark complexion. These two were part of my court and also a part of my personal guard, the two were fitted with redesigned roman praetorian guard armor, much like Citrus's greek inspired armor, though theirs were more futuristic. And instead of a spear like Citrus, I'd decided to give them guns, because guns were awesome. Capes were also awesome.

"My Diamond," both of their deep voices greeted me as they bowed. "My lovely protectors, you can take a break while I go visit Blue," I said with a close-eyed smile before turning my attention back to pearl.

"Of course, my Diamond," she gave me a small smile before offering her hand down to me, which I took in my own as she nodded and turned as we walked down the hall that lead to my room.

"Thank you pearl," I said as she lead me.

"Have you made any new drawings?" I said after a few moments of silence. To which she blushed and briefly looked away before nodding her head, "yes, my Diamond."

"I'd love to see them when I get the chance," I said with another smile as we reached the end of the hall pearl pressed a pad on the wall that slid the door open, leading into a room with a warp pad. She walked up the steps to the pad first and outstretched her hand to help me up them, I thanked her once again before we both stood on the center of the pad as she waved her hand. A holographic tablet materialized and she tapped a few symbols on it before we were immediately warped to the throne room.

Pearl helped me step off the warp pad and led me over to where I could see Pink and Blue talking with each other, they chose not to use their giant forms at the moment and so it was easier for Pink to run over to and pick me up in her arms. Her spontaneous behavior caused Blue pearl to slightly recoil from the surprise before shaking her head and resuming her professional posture. She hugged me close as I simply grinned through the painful sensation that was caused by my cracks.

"Hi Pink," I said to her very enthusiastic greeting.

"Pink, be mindful of his injuries!" Blue's concerned voice caused Pink to loosen the hug and look over at her as she quickly walked over to us. I also gave her a smile as she gently extricated me from Pinks's grasp and set me back down on the floor, though she kept a hand around my own as she looked down and inspected my injuries. "Are you alright, Black?" Her hand ghosted over my facial cracks and I simply let out a small chuckle as I gently grabbed her hand.

"I'm alright, Blue," I said while turning to look at Pink's downtrodden expression. "Pink didn't harm me in the slightest, I quite enjoyed her hug," which caused her to smile back.

"Well, if you say so," Blue said with more concern in her tone.

"It's not like I'm gonna do what White did, Blue," Pink said in a very out-of-pocket statement.

That caused Blue and I to pause and turn to look at her. She simply tilted her head in response to our looks, a smile still on her face. Pearl looked on in slight confusion.

"Um, what did we talk about sensitivity, Pink?" I said.

Pink's smile faltered slightly as she realized her mistake. "Oh, sorry. I didn't mean it like that," she said apologetically.

Blue let out a sigh, "It's okay, Pink. Just be careful with your words."

I nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I know you didn't mean it that way, but we need to be mindful of how we talk about each other's experiences."

Pearl piped up causing the three of us to look over at her, "I'm sorry, I don't understand. What did White Diamond do to cause you to almost shatter?" she said in her soft voice and curious.

Blue and I exchanged a look, unsure of how to respond to Pearl's question. It wasn't a topic we liked to discuss, especially not in front of Pink.

"Pearl, it's a long story," I said, trying to downplay the severity of what had happened.

But Pink, being Pink, jumped in before I could say anything more. "It's not that long, Black. White hurt him, and he almost broke. Like, literally broke," Pink explained, gesturing towards me.

I winced at the memory, feeling the cracks on my skin ache in discomfort. Blue put a comforting hand on my shoulder, I took a deep breath and took a moment to think.

"White has come a long way," I said after a moment, trying to defend her. What she did was a cause of me not properly being able to handle her emotional outburst. "It's not her fault."

Pink looked apologetic for bringing up such a painful memory, but I knew her well enough to know that she couldn't resist a little drama.

"I know that White has come a long way, but it doesn't change what she did," I said firmly. "And I don't want to talk about it anymore."

Blue nodded in agreement, "Black's right. Let's change the subject."

Pearl looked at us with concern, "I'm sorry if I upset you my Diamonds. I just wanted to understand."

"It's okay, Pearl," I reassured her. "White just made a mistake in the past."

Pink rolled her eyes, "Whatever. I still think it's messed up that she did that to you."

I felt a bit exasperated, but I took a deep breath to calm myself down. "Like I said, it's not her fault. I didn't explain her own growing powers and garnered the results of that."

"I understand that, but it doesn't excuse what she did," Pink argued.

Blue stepped in before things could escalate any further, "Let's just agree to disagree, okay? We all have different opinions on this matter."

I nodded in agreement, glad that Blue was there to diffuse the situation. "Thanks, Blue."

Pink shrugged, "Fine, whatever. Let's talk about something else."

"Maybe why you called for me?" I said going back to the main topic and looking at Blue.

And just like that, the tension dissipated, and we moved on to a different topic. But I knew that the memory of what had happened with White would linger in the back of my and everyone else's minds.

Blue shook her head and took my hand as she led me along, with pearl and pink following behind. "Well, I called you because I was wondering whether or not these drapes that Pink and I created look nice hanging over our thrones."

Oh, alright.

As we approached the thrones, I couldn't help but notice how the drapes added a pop of color to the room. "They look great, Blue. Nice work, Pink," I said, admiring the craftsmanship. She really did have a talent for things like this.

Pink beamed with pride, "Thanks, Black! It was a fun project."

We continued talking for a few moments before Blue brought up another topic.

"Yellow has decided that she wants to take a fleet of ships to explore the territory beyond our planet," Blue said as I looked at her with a bit of surprise. I didn't know that.

"I see," I replied, processing the information. "That's a big undertaking. Does she have a specific plan in mind?"

Blue nodded, "Yes, she's been having some peridots make use of the scouting pods and has mapped out a few areas of interest. But she wanted to get our input and make sure we're all on board with the idea."

"I'll have to talk to her about it," I said as I brought a hand to my chin. "I think right now," I said before turning. "Can you help me to the warp pad, pearl?" I said while holding out my hand.

"Oh yes, please tell White that I would like to talk with her when I get back," I said as pearl took my hand and led me to the warp pad.

Blue and Pink looked at each other for a moment as I took the warp pad up to where Yellow was.

I wasn't quite sure how I was going to work around this but I knew one thing, the barrier was coming down.