The Quartizine Chronicles
A History of Rose Quartz and the Earth Rebellion
Part 4: Flame of Battle, Blood of Martyrs
"The first battle of the Earth Rebellion is also among its most famous. Every Gem knows at least the basic details of the battle, but few are properly appreciative of either its historical gravity (insofar as the ascent of Imperatrix Diamond and the pursuant history of the modern Empire is concerned), or the many tactico-historical lessons we have since learned from it. Thankfully, the particulars of the First Battle of the Sky Arena were (like most of the war), chronicled by Lapis Lazuli, a tactician-historian assigned to Earth as its Planetary Chronicler. Lazuli's writings on the war are well loved by tactician-historians and soldier-captains alike for their unparallelled attention to detail and illuminating insights into the tactical advantages and failings of both the rebel forces and our own armies. As well, Lazuli's record of the war is doubly amazing for the fact that she managed to send it to us at all: a mere two Earth days after Lazuli sent her chronicle of the war to the Library of War's receiving office, her communications line very suddenly went blank, and the internal sensors of her recording device (a mirror, given to her by Senatrix Morganite of Procyon Quintus, who was an admirer of her essays on the Earth and its enormous potential as a Gem production planet), reported it nonfunctional. Unfortunately, this means that she is very probably dead, but remember this, young tactician-historians: no Chronicler is truly dead so long as her war chronicle reaches the safe, capable hands of the attendants of the Library of War.
Now, on to the tactico-historical details of the battle. The first battle of the Quartizine Rebellion, as you are all already aware, is known popularly as the First Battle of the Sky Arena (and so it will be called for the remainder of this text). It is named, of course, for the site of the battle, the famous Quaternarius Sky Arena: prior to the war, the Quaternarius Sky Arena was best known as the home field of the now-defunct Sol Slayers (Earth's team in the All-Systems Imperial Melée League). Our forces had planned to begin the assault on Rose Quartz via the Sky Arena, pursuant to information received from a loyal informant embedded deep within the rebel army. According to the informant, Rose had established a base of operations in the Sky Arena, using its array of warp pads to transport equipment and coordinate with troops around the planet. Had Homeworld's plan been successful, Rose and whatever personal guard detail she happened to have with her would have been easily overwhelmed, very quickly ending the war in our favor. However, Rose's ability to think tactically had been drastically underestimated. It seems the former Hegemon had predicted that we might use Earth's various Homeworld Warps in our assault on the planet, and had pre-emptively rigged explosives to detonate immediately upon activation of the Homeworld Warp. This miscalculation cost us the entire forward assault detail which was to attack the Arena: thirty-four Gems were killed before they so much as set foot on Earth soil. In addition to the forward assault team, a warship had also been dispatched to Earth carrying a standard-size battle company of forty worker-fighters and twenty soldier-captains, led by one Commander Zirconia, from the Adamas 44th Spaceborne Battalion (the "Hammer of the Stars,"), for the purposes of performing clean-up on whatever remained of Rose's now-leaderless rebel forces. Most unfortunately, this effort was also duly thwarted for reasons which escaped us until very recently. The Sol System, like most Gem-occupied systems, had a network of outsystem invasion early-warning drones. Sol, being located rather far away from any enemy powers, had never gotten any use out of its early-warning network, and thus the network was not repaired when it was reported nonfunctional. Not dismantling this network when we had the chance turned out to be a major tactical failing on our part, as it would seem that Rose won the invaluable loyalty of the few engineer-researchers on Earth prior to the rebellion. These engineer-researchers apparently restored the early-warning system to proper working order, as Rose's forces were more than ready for the warship when it arrived. Arriving at what the company had expected to be a Sky Arena controlled by our own forces and exiting the warship, they instead found the Arena abandoned, with a still-smoking crater where the Homeworld Warp had been. Before the company had a chance to react, they were suddenly attacked by what veterans of the battle describe as a nonstop deluge of rebel troops, issuing forth from the surviving warp pads in seemingly endless numbers. The rebels wasted no time in pressing their advantage, and the battle company was quickly overwhelmed. Those who managed to reach the warship used the in-ship communications systems to contact Homeworld, who immediately issued the order to recall all surviving Gem troops to the ship and retreat to the nearest Gem-controlled planet. All told, three-quarters of the Gems who took part in the battle, including Commander Zirconia, fell that day. However, that is not to say the battle was a complete loss: quite the opposite, in fact, as it taught us innumerable lessons about our standard battle practices. Most importantly, the First Battle of the Sky Arena was our first proper encounter with large-scale guerilla warfare, a strategy which the Homeworld armies of the era were woefully unprepared to counter. Secondly, while there had been secession movements before on other Gem-controlled planets, those movements were much smaller and less well-organized than Rose Quartz's rebel forces: simply put, our forces did not know the size of Rose's army, and were certainly not expecting it to consist of actual trained soldiers. Finally, the Quartizine Rebellion was the first time that our own technology had been used against us, and led our engineer-researchers to begin including remote lockouts on all new technology produced, preventing any future secessionist movements from using our own warp pads against us."
-Excerpt from Tactical History of the Empire: A Primer for Chronicler-Class Gems
BattleComm Remote Battlefield Communications System, v. 3.7.1
Opening Communications Line...
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Line Open. Communications Begin.
WARNING: THIS LINE HAS BEEN HIJACKED BY UNIDENTIFIED NON-IMPERIAL FORCES. UNABLE TO VERIFY USER IDENTITIES.
To Prime Node: RECEIVER 3233.5610.4545 DESTROYED. PARAMETERS MET. REMOTE WARNING SYSTEM ACTIVATED.
To Secondary Node: Pearl, one of the Homeworld Warps was just destroyed. We're being attacked! I need you to tell me which one it is. Are you near a data hub?
To Prime Node: I am, Rose. Read me the receiver number, please.
To Secondary Node: 3233.5610.4545.
To Prime Node: That's...the Sky Arena warp. They're attacking the Quaternarius Sky Arena! Do...do you think they know about our forward base?
To Secondary Node: We can only assume so, which means that we very probably have a spy in our midst. But that's the least of our worries right now.
To Prime Node: What do you mean, Rose?
To Secondary Node: I mean that I think this might have been intended as some kind of lightning raid on our base. Which would mean the second wave is probably inbound, and not through the warp system this time.
To Prime Node: So they have a warship on the way.
To Secondary Node: Knowing the Authority's standard operating procedure, indeed they do.
To Prime Node: Understood. What are your orders?
To Secondary Node: First, contact our spies. Tell them to take up position in the Sky Arena, positions that won't get them noticed by anyone coming in from above. Then, send out an all-points message to every commander of every one of our battle companies across the planet, and tell them, no matter what base they and their company are stationed at, to fall into battle position in front of the nearest warp pad that connects to the Sky Arena. The moment the warship lands and Homeworld's forces begin walking out into the arena, the spies will send another all-points to our commanders, telling them to begin pouring through the warp pads nonstop.
To Prime Node: So we're going to overwhelm them?
To Secondary Node: Exactly so, but with an additional element of surprise.
To Prime Node: Brilliant, Rose! Absolutely brilliant! This day, victory shall belong to the Crystal Gems!
To Secondary Node: Please hurry, Pearl. I don't know how much time we have.
To Prime Node: Of course. I will not delay.
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Line Closed. Communications End.
"Audio Log of Commander Zirconia, Homeworld Date 15/21, Imperial Year 30,623:
On the approach to colony world Earth, a small planet far outside my or my battle company's usual theatre of operations. One wouldn't think, just from looking at it, that the planet was of any particular importance, but this world, filled with more than enough incredibly fertile rock to make it a major Gem production planet, is one of the Empire's crown jewels. I must say, I am deeply saddened that I must now fight one of the Hegemons I have spent my entire existence serving loyally, but traitors to the Authority must be dealt with swiftly and efficiently. I know this well, but it won't make this job any easier. It seems we have begun entry into Earth's atmosphere, so I must go. I shall report again after the battle."
-Last audio log entry by Commander Zirconia, Adamas 44th Spaceborne Battalion, 6th Battle Company