Well hello there, Reader. TKOP here with another brand new chapter of Clash. Today, you're in for a treat as I have concocted this story's very first fight scene. I'll move on before I start spoiling the entire chapter, so... ON WITH THE STORY!
Disclaimer: You know how this one goes.
Clash 3 – Rolling Initiative
She was, for once in her life, uncertain of what to think of the situation before her. After her co-leaders had reported the finding of the Crystal Gem temple, they had left her alone. Shortly thereafter, she had moved from the captain's quarters, instead going to inspect work in the engineering bay. When she had arrived, she had expected that the Peridots would either be working dutifully or collectively distracted by something that the Chief Engineer was doing or saying.
What she had not expected was that the engineering bay would be entirely empty. The only sign of life was the noise coming from the forge. Taking further note of the noise she had dismissed as usual for a forge, she was made certain that something was off by the sound of a Peridot's cackle emanating from within the forge.
In a moment, she moved to investigate, and was met with a sight she could not outright explain. Peridots and Bismuths, standing in a circle around the main furnace, cheering as a large slab of metal was removed from the heat. Spotting the Chief Engineer, she moved to stand beside the taller Gem. The Chief Engineer looked down at her, smirking.
"I think I can guess what's on your mind, don't worry about this; it's just a little something we're preparing for the Crystal Gems." Her smirk never left her face, and only grew wider as a fused pair of Bismuths began hammering the metal into shape.
"I'll leave you to it, then. Hopefully, if what you're making becomes necessary, it'll work as well as you're implying." With this, she left the forge behind, instead moving to the bridge of the ship to oversee the piloting crew of Nephrites.
She entered onto the bridge, and found the commanding Nephrite giving out orders as the ship shifted, landing on the surface of the moon, just a short distance from the old Homeworld moon base. The commanding Nephrite noticed her presence, gave a quick salute, and returned to giving out orders.
There was not much else for her to do on the bridge than confirm that the Nephrites were following orders. Checking the time, she began her return to the captain's quarters; after all, her Diamond had only little time to talk to any one of her subordinates.
When she had returned to the captain's quarters, she took her personal communicator from its place in the corner of the room. She twisted the device, selecting her direct line to her Diamond. The call was answered, not by her Diamond's Pearl, but by her Diamond herself. Her Diamond's face held an amused smirk as she looked at the communicator's screen.
"It seems my little Pearl has decided to go rogue, she left sometime during the night, she snuck out right past my guards, even, they say they didn't see her coming before she was leaving." Her Diamond chuckled lightly as she finished speaking. A moment later, her Diamond's face turned to stone, an uncaring mask with a serious look in her eyes.
"You realize what this means to the plan, Star, take care to see to it that nothing goes astray, we cannot afford to make mistakes. We must be extraordinarily careful with our next few moves; there is much to lose, were we to falter now. I suggest you put the Zircon to use, send her to Earth with a few Amethysts to investigate the Crystal Gems." With this, her Diamond's face returned to a slight grin and her Diamond ended the call.
As she summoned her co-leaders to the planning room, she found that she was smiling.
-Chief Engineer Peridot-
The next time she saw either of the other Gems in command was at the scheduled meeting, only a few minutes after Star had left the forge. When they'd reported the Red Eye's findings, they had also came to an agreement that they should meet in the planning room at least once a day so every member of the command group was up to date with everything that was going on.
Star was already in the planning room when she arrived, and she had to admit, the smaller Gem was looking less stoic than was usual, even going as far as having a smile crossing the visible part of her face. She sat down silently, and began overlooking blueprints on a screen she made from her right arm's limb enhancer. She mostly did so to spend the time while waiting for Blue; she had already reviewed the blueprints thrice.
When Blue arrived, she, too, looked more upbeat than her usual nervous self. Another thing to note was that an Amethyst flanked Blue as she entered. She recognized the Amethyst as the one that Blue had crashed into when they were delivering the Red Eye's report to Star. Blue sat in the empty seat whilst the Amethyst stood behind her. Glancing her way, the Amethyst gave a smirk.
"What's with your companion?" Her question was met by a turn of the head, Blue looked at her questioningly.
"When Star called me here, she said to bring an Amethyst whose prowess I have faith in." Turning to look at Star, she was met with a nod. Returning her gaze to the Amethyst, the warrior Gem's smirk widened into a smug grin.
"Your report seems accurate, but it would be most prudent to confirm the location of the Crystal Gems more accurately than we have. I suggest sending Blue Zircon there, as she has the greatest investigational skills among the Gems onboard, with an Amethyst to act as a guard." The plan, to her, seemed reasonable, the comment on Blue's skills investigation wise was likely true, and it seemed logical to her to send a Gem made for combat to act as a guard for a Gem that was not made so. She had only one suggestion.
"Following the logic behind sending a guard, wouldn't it be wiser to send a group of Amethysts instead of just one?" Star nodded thoughtfully at the question, whilst the present Amethyst's smile faltered slightly.
"More than one Amethyst would be too noticeable, it would be the best option to go unnoticed but have a backup plan." Blue voiced her thoughts and the Amethyst's smile returned in full force.
"We could send a group of Amethysts somewhere else to serve as a distraction, but the Crystal Gems would most likely go into high alert because of that, so it wouldn't help stealth in the long run." The other Gems nodded at this, and it seemed that a plan had been formed.
"Well, if there's nothing else, I'll add that the project in the forge is coming along great, and will be ready in just a few days." With that said, she rose from her seat, and made for the door.
"Before you go, keep in mind that we cannot simply destroy the Crystal Gems, our Diamonds want to investigate them, to make sure that Pink Diamond's murderer is made known to them, and is met with a fate worse than shattering." Star stood as she spoke, radiating an intensity that made the intent behind her words sufficiently clear.
"We cannot shatter them outright, but we must make it certain that we are seen as a supreme threat, any willpower they possess will eventually falter and crumble under pressure and in the end, someone will tell us the whole story, and everything our Diamonds want to hear." Her hair moved from her face for a split second, and there was a fire in her eye as it stared intensely at and, she felt, through her.
"Diamonds' will be done."
-Garnet-
It was in the dark of night she knew they would come; she saw darkness around their future selves. There would not be many; she hear only two pairs of footsteps in the sand. They would be spotted, and the faces of the Gems they would see would take them by surprise.
As she sat in the Temple, meditating under the hopeful gazes of both Steven and Connie. Her future sight allowed her to see many things to come, countless outcomes to her every action, and tragedies that would never come to pass whilst she was there to warden her fellow Crystal Gems, but what it was not, was perfect, she wanted to see futures regarding Homeworld's next move, and that she saw, but she could not discern what Gem types would be there to greet them.
"How does future sight even work? I get that you can see what might happen, but… I mean… what are the limits? Is there a science behind it? Does it just work? How can you see something that hasn't happened yet?" Connie, it seemed, was in an awfully disruptively inquisitive mood. She had already answered a multitude of questions in the past hour as best she could. Some of the highlights were about the chemical composition of Gems comparatively to gems, the nature of their faster-than-light engines, and the exact details of the Homeworld caste system.
"Image a car, with you and I in it. The road we drive on is time. You are busy unwrapping a present, the present, and do not see where the car is going. I am sitting next to you, and I too am infatuated by the present, but occasionally, I look out the front window, see the street signs and maybe even tell our driver where to turn. Padparadscha, an off-color Sapphire who sees the past is looking out of the back window, too occupied with the car behind us to look at the present." With that she paused, letting the information sink in. Connie looked thoughtful, and Steven started doodling what would eventually be labeled the "Time Car".
"Keep in mind that in this example, I'm not the one driving the car, no one is, and instead, it's one of those self-driving cars. I am simply a tad more aware of the road going by, and can tell the car to go another route if I think it is going the wrong way." She smiled; it was rare that she got to share exactly how it was to look into the future. Sapphires were often isolated or at least detached from other Gems, as the Gems around them commonly deemed their way of thought strange, and as a result, many Sapphires accepted the path they saw and developed passive and inactive personalities.
"Connie, ask your parents to sleep over, there's guests coming in the evening, Homeworld guests." She knew they would come that night; she had seen the starry sky and recognized with little difficulty the location of the stars, the phase of the moon, and from that, the date.
Connie did as Garnet asked, and went outside the door with her phone, leaving Garnet and Steven alone. Garnet peeked at the drawing Steven had made, she didn't need to, she had seen the complete picture already, but she felt a need to see him making progress.
"I think it needs more colors." Steven's wish was fulfilled as she grabbed a handful of colored crayons from nearby and handed them to him. She smiled again as he filled out the white spots on the drawing with various colors, from blue to red.
-Connie-
"No mom, this is really important… yes! Fate of the Earth important… no, really, mom, I'm not exaggerating… can you please just bring my pajamas… love you, mom." When the elder Maheswaran had responded, she ended the call. She sighed, her mother was really trying, but it was understandably hard for her to fully comprehend that her daughter was the student of and friend of a group of ancient alien rebels who still fought against warriors from their home planet occasionally. Mentally, she added that they also had precognition, shapeshifting, immortality, faster-than-light travel and giant evil overlords.
Thinking about it, her life really had taken a turn for the bizarre since she had met Steven. Her life had been quite ordinary before, the parts of her life that had been the furthest from normal before had been that they had moved around a lot and that she was at least as smart as her parents. Now, she was being trained in sword fighting by Pearl, a literal alien who had been around since before the pyramids were built. Her best friend was the half-human son of the leader of a rebellion that had been through a millennium long war. On top of that, her most common mode of transport was a magical pink zombie lion with a pocket dimension in its hair.
She did not have a problem with the way her life had turned out; it was exciting, far more so than her life before, it was nice having friends for once, and on top of it all, she made a difference. She wasn't just the nerdy kid in class anymore; now, she was Connie Maheswaran; Crystal Gem and protector of Earth. She was glad to have met Steven, and the thought brought a smile to her face as she walked back inside the beach house.
Steven was lying on Garnet, on the couch, crayon in hand, drawing what looked like a fancy car. Garnet was sitting under Steven, one hand placed somewhere inside his hair. The rest of the Crystal Gems were nowhere to be seen, most likely in their respective rooms, or the bathroom, in Peridot's case. She sat in the couch next to the two present Crystal Gems on what little space there was left on the couch.
"My mom's bringing my things so I can stay over tonight, I hope there's room enough for me to sleep." Garnet glanced briefly at Steven's bed, and then at the couch before returning to envisioning the future. Steven looked up from his drawing with a thoughtful expression.
"I'll take the couch, you can have the bed; it's comfier." He smiled, and that, she returned. Garnet looked up with a slight smile. The scene seemed serene, that is, until Peridot burst from the bathroom with all the subtlety and grace expected of her, which was none.
"Any new developments regarding the Homeworld invaders?" The question was half-yelled as Peridot slid to a halt in the middle of the room. Garnet looked at the Gem technician for a moment before nodding.
"They will arrive tonight, and there will only be two; they most likely want to remain unseen, which has failed already." Peridot grinned at the news; it was nice to know that they were not going to face an army, yet.
"Do we know which types of Gems are coming? A Jasper would be a much bigger problem than, say, a Ruby." She could have sworn that she for just a moment saw Garnet's face shift into a grimace before she responded. Peridot was visibly unaware of any wrongdoing on her part.
"We don't know, but the logical choices would be an observant Gem, and a warrior Gem that has a darker coloration than, say, a Jasper." Peridot nodded in response, quite oblivious to what seemed to be a jab at Peridot's earlier statement.
"So first, an observant Gem, that doesn't rule many Gems out, but it suggest… maybe a Nephrite? Second Gem is easier to discern, a warrior Gem with a coloration that allows for stealth at nighttime strongly suggests an Amethyst." Garnet nodded at the statements. Connie herself could feel a few questions ready to be answered; what is a Nephrite? Did other Amethysts look like the Amethyst she knew? Which Gems were ruled out due to bad observational skills?
She felt her phone buzz, and she was taken away from the conversation. It was her mom, having left a text informing her that her things had arrived. She shot up from the couch and made for the door. She looked over her shoulder and called out.
"My mom's here with my things, I'll be right back!" With that said, she strode for the door. She only managed to hear one more thing before she left.
"What's a mom?"
-Peridot-
Fifteen minutes later, when Connie had returned from wherever she had gone, Peridot was left with a confusing explanation from Steven and a link to the Wikipedia page for humans from Connie.
Choosing to research this side venture at a later date, she went to the door in the back of the beach house; she had been drawing schematics before she went outside the bathroom, and she felt a need to get them looked over by another Gem she knew was technologically competent, and the only one available to her at the time for those purposes was Pearl.
For a moment, she stood in front of the door, before she turned around, marched in front of Garnet, looked her dead in the visor, and opened her mouth.
"I'll help." Garnet said nothing else before moving a lightly protesting Steven off herself and standing up. Again she found herself looking up at the fusion, she was reminded that without her Limb Enhancers, Garnet was almost twice her height.
Garnet walked to the door, Peridot only a few steps behind, held up her Gems to the door, and with a shining light from the two corresponding gemstones on the door, it opened to the room she had been in whilst bubbled.
"It shouldn't be hard to find Pearl's room." With that said, Garnet returned to Steven and Connie, and Peridot walked into the bubble room.
The room was, as last she had seen it, filled with bubbled Gems, most of them likely corrupted. Unlike the first time she had been in the room, her thoughts were occupied by the thought that this was the work of the Diamonds. The corrupting light had hit both Homeworld soldiers and Crystal Gems. It seemed unnecessarily vicious to use a weapon that, though it did not kill, transformed allies and enemies alike, indiscriminately, into monstrous and mindless killing machines.
Garnet, it seemed, had been correct in her previous statement, in that it was not hard to locate Pearl's room. Moving through a tunnel leading outside of the bubble room, she had entered into what looked to be a large open area, filled past sanity with scrap and junk. From there she had first seen what she had assumed was Pearl's room, based mainly on the assumption that her eyesight had not degraded, and that the shape she saw atop one of the pillars of water was indeed Pearl.
She set off for Pearl's pillars, her way only slightly obstructed by the senselessly tall piles of randomly assorted items. Then, in a moment of unawareness, she fell, having tripped on something that had gotten loose from one of the piles. She looked to see what had been the source of her misfortune, and was greeted with an unexpected sight.
"Heya P, what'cha doing in my room?" Amethyst reverted from the shape of what she had recently learned was called a banana, or more accurately, the peel of one. Peridot took a moment to dust herself off before responding.
"I'm simply passing through; I'm going to get Pearl's input on some schematics I've drawn up." She began walking towards Pearl's room again, now however, Amethyst followed her. She looked back, and Amethyst gave a grin before opening her mouth to speak.
"Don't think about me, I'm just here to annoy Pearl 'till she tells me to go do something." Amethyst looked oddly proud at that statement, as if it was some great feat to annoy Pearl. Peridot sighed and hastened her pace.
"Are you at least going to do as she says when she does get annoyed enough to do so?" She looked back at Amethyst, who had adorned herself with a smile that Peridot had come to recognize as a warning sign for more of Amethyst's antics.
"Not a chance."
-Blue Zircon-
Roaming Eyes were never meant to be luxurious vessels; they were simple transports and aerial reconnaissance units, but still, they had enough room to carry multiple Diamond-sized Gems, albeit uncomfortably. They were useful even in covert operations as they were relatively small and lacked much of the flashiness commonly associated with Gem ships.
The Roaming Eye departed from the ship as the planet's moon hang almost directly above the location of the Crystal Temple. The journey from high orbit to just off the coast that housed the Crystal Temple lasted only seconds.
Surrounding the cliff into which the Crystal Temple was built was what seemed to be a human settlement. They landed outside a human building with a large ornamental ring on top of it. Their Nephrite pilot opened the door to allow them access to the outside world.
8XJ was the first one outside, looking uncharacteristically serious as she scanned the surroundings for any sign of the Crystal Gems. Just as she herself stepped outside, the door behind her slid closed and the Roaming Eye rose to the sky. It would stay close enough to see what was happening, yet far enough away to remain unseen.
She looked through the glass front of the human building, and it seemed empty, there were visible light, but they were turned off, and in addition, there were no humans in sight. 8XJ entered her field of view in the mirror image of the glass, and gave a nod, signifying that there was no sign of the Crystal Gems.
They moved along the beach, staying close to the side of the cliff. They were alert, and when a flash of light came from just around the cliff, they stopped for a full minute before resuming at a reduced pace. They eventually reached a small rocky outcropping only a few steps from the cliff. It was large enough to conceal them from view, and with that in mind, they moved behind it.
They kept silent, and the result was an eerie void where normally there would be something, anything really, to take their minds off the tension in the air. From their location, they could see the house part of the Temple, and seeing the lights on did nothing to ease the tension in the air.
Further out was what looked like one hand of the Temple, broken off from the rest and partially buried in sand. They moved outward, with the hand as their destination, it would serve as a preferable vantage point. They hoped to get a better look at the inside of the residence, from a safe distance.
They arrived at the hand, but rather unfortunately, they were not capable of observing any part of the interior. They waited for a few moments, thinking of what to do next; the remaining ground in front of the house was an open field of sand. Then, their collective train of thought was completely derailed as the door to the Temple opened and a small shape stepped outside.
"Is there anyone out there?" Neither of them recognized the voice, and neither did they recognize the shape of the small silhouette. She concluded after a moment of thought that the person who had stepped out of the Crystal Temple was a juvenile human. She used a single finger to tell 8XJ to stay silent, and received a nod.
"I'm over here, is there anyone else there with you?" As she asked, she hoped that she had not made a huge mistake.
"No, my family is sleeping, who are you?" She looked at 8XJ, and was met with a shrug.
"I'm Blue, do you live here?" The human closed the door behind her, and looked in the direction of the hand.
"Yes, my family and I have lived here for a few years now." She sighed, knowing that what she was about to do might be incredibly dangerous.
"I'm coming over there, I just want a closer look at your house; it looks quite unique." She whispered for 8XJ to stay put, and moved from behind the hand toward the house.
"Please don't come any closer, mom told me not to let strangers in." She cursed under her breath, even if the Crystal Gems were not there, she would rather avoid alarming whoever was there.
She was just about to respond when she saw a glimpse of a silhouette within the house. She stopped halfway between the house and the hand. She recognized the silhouette, it was Rose Quartz' new shape, which meant that there was Crystal Gems there.
She froze as she realized it; they had waded right into an ambush. Her senses were on high alert, and for just a moment, she heard something above them.
She turned, and ran, not a moment too late as a massive impact cratered the sand where she had stood moments ago. It was the Crystal Gems' infamous fusion, Garnet. There was only barely a moment where she was the only one running, before Garnet behind her broke into a dead sprint.
If she had had a heart, it would certainly be racing, and she felt panic well up inside her as the gauntlet-wielding fusion quickly gained on her.
Then, with equal momentum, 8XJ burst from the buried hand, and the two warriors collided with enough force to be felt several feet away.
8XJ, with her whip, managed to keep Garnet at bay as she had the reach advantage; however, it seemed that Garnet had the advantage in every other aspect.
8XJ twirled her whip aggressively, and made countless attacks whilst slowly backing away to keep the distance. Garnet, however, seemed to have no problem with this as she blocked each and every strike with one of her gauntlets, both arms moving as a blur as she steadily pushed forward.
As 8XJ realized that she wasn't going to win the fight by continuing this same attack, she leaped backwards and initiated a spin dash.
Garnet seemed unfazed, and slowly walked toward her rapidly spinning opponent.
8XJ moved with incredible speed as she spun toward Garnet, but just as the fusion warrior would have been hit, she sidestepped the attack.
The follow-up was even more devastating as Garnet delivered a powerful punch to 8XJ's side, which sent the Homeworld Gem flying. After multiple seconds of airtime, 8XJ landed in the sand next to Blue, and her body dug a crater into the soft ground.
8XJ slowly got up; she was not quite done yet. She seemed exhausted, likely from being hit in the side in the middle of an attack. Garnet, on the other hand, seemed no more tired than when she had sprung her ambush.
Then, as the situation was starting to look bleak, it got worse; another person, about as tall as the Crystal Gem fusion, joined the fray, standing next to Garnet.
The newcomer wielded a shield, much as she had heard Rose Quartz had, and… Rose Quartz's sword? The infamous Diamond-shattering blade? Perhaps this new fighter was Rose Quartz's true form, and the smaller one she had seen on multiple occasions now was simply a disguise. If it was, she noted that it was an effective disguise, as the two forms only had few similarities.
The two Crystal Gems separated, likely preparing to flank the two Homeworld Gems.
Then, just as the two warriors had gotten far enough apart to flank the two of them, the clouds parted, and through them came crashing down a shape neither group had expected; the Roaming Eye transport.
It came with blinding speed, and before anyone managed to react, it crashed into Garnet, burying both her and itself deep into the sand.
It rose slightly, and moved quickly toward them. The door on the Roaming Eye opened, and just as it moved past them in a blur, 8XJ leashed onto one of the seats inside the shuttle.
8XJ grabbed her arm, and without warning, they went flying. They flew up, turned around, and fell through the door, into the Roaming Eye.
As the Roaming Eye sped off from the planet, they slowly got up. She looked at 8XJ and received a wild grin in return.
"She's getting promoted, right?"
-Pearl-
When Homeworld had first attacked, their world had turned to chaos, and it had been so for the first few years of the rebellion. Then, they had learned, their mistakes made them wiser, and they had embraced the chaos of war. They had reveled in it, made it their ally.
Homeworld had armies; Homeworld had trained warriors, warships and weapons. However, they had held the advantage from the moment that they had abolished traditional warfare. They had become shadows, smoke and mirrors, where Homeworld had thought themselves safe, they had struck with force. Wherever Homeworld's armies had gone, they had followed, unseen, unharassed and ready to attack.
Deception had become their modus operandi, their way of warfare; they had staged battles to expose weakened forces elsewhere. Some prideful Homeworld warriors had said that they had abandoned honor, in reality, what they had done was accept that an open battle was not a fair fight, and made a fair fight out of what seemed unfair to the rather narrow-minded Homeworld officers. They had fought smart, and it had turned certain loss into a pyrrhic victory.
Now, it felt like those first few years, when they had still attempted to outfight Homeworld rather than outsmart them. They had driven off the invading force, but their attempt at misinformation had failed spectacularly and Garnet had been poofed.
She did not fault any of the Crystal Gems; she faulted the lack of communication that had led to half of the Crystal Gem fighting force to be away from the battle during the action.
The fight itself had been going great until the very end, and then, it had only gone so horribly wrong because of a factor that everyone in the fight had most likely forgotten to take into account.
The fight had almost been avoided altogether, were it not for how senselessly perceptive Zircons were. They had expected any type of Gem that was seen on the front lines and was also less oblivious than, say, an Agate. What they had not anticipated was the inclusion of a Zircon, the lawyers of Homeworld high society, in the Homeworld fighting force.
"Hey P, did Stevonnie tell you if they recognized the Amethyst?" She was taken out of thoughts by Amethyst, who had already been pestering her for the last hour.
"No, why don't you go ask them, I have to have a word with Peridot." She made eye contact with Peridot as she said this, making sure that she knew to stay. Amethyst shrugged and walked off in the direction of where they had last seen Stevonnie.
"Peridot, can you tell me how long Homeworld has been using Zircons in frontline operations?" Peridot gave her an odd look.
"You're kidding. I have never heard of any Gem officer using a Zircon, of all Gem types, outside of established Gem colonies, let-alone in a frontline mission." She sighed; she had thought so.
"That means that the commanding Gem is using irregular tactics, which then means that we can't simply rely on our experience in fighting Homeworld commanders." Peridot grimaced; they needed good news, not this.
"You can still make use of some of your experience; we just know that just because Homeworld commanders in the past have tended to do one thing, it doesn't necessarily mean that this commander will do the same thing." She smiled slightly.
"I guess on the bright side, we are better off having realized this early in the fighting instead of being tricked at every turn for a longer while." Peridot nodded confidently, and she couldn't help but share in that confidence; they had done this before, they just needed to be adaptable.
Her smile widened; adaptability had been the trait that had led them to victory in the war. Amethyst, Steven and Connie returned and quickly noticed the uplifted mood.
"Can we get donuts? I'm hungry and-" He was interrupted by a yawn.
"I'm tired too."