Pink's Garden
Spinel
With the two Warships having crashed onto the surface of the moon that was owned by Pink Diamond to have a garden on it, the garden itself being within an enclosed area to keep the atmosphere in and allow the plants within the garden to thrive, Spinel climbed out of the bushes she jumped into to head to the edge of the Garden area and see where the ships landed at; It was for her own amusement that she lunged into the bushes, when in actuality the ships were on a crash course for the area outside the Garden enclosure.
As Spinel got out of the bushes, she soon brushed off herself before jauntily swinging her arms back and forth as she headed to the edge of the garden to see where the Warships crashed; after more than a thousand years of waiting for Pink, Spinel was excited to see some actual visitors for once, even though she lost the game of standing still for Pink. Once Spinel approached the edge of the garden to where there was a force field that held in the atmosphere for the Garden, the Pink Diamond playmate pressed her hands up against the force field and waited with baited breath as the ships outside the garden remained idle for the moment.
Just as she was about to go out and welcome the new visitors and hope she'd have some playmates to have until Pink returned, Spinel raised an eyebrow in curiosity when the ships back ends opened up; it was not long before several dozens of gems exited out from their ships and charged at each other. "What are they doing? Don't they know Pink's garden is this way?" Spinel questioned as she watched the gems collide into a fighting mess, "Wait! Why are they fighting, why are they fighting on Pink's moon?" Spinel asked herself with growing worry.
Tanya
Doing her best to get a handle on the situation, Tanya was trying to get a grasp on who it was that attacked her own ship; she sent out a retaliation force to intercept any and all enemy combatants from the enemy ship, while she herself commanded from the bridge to get an accurate understanding from the Nephite pilots on how the enemy ship forced them out of warp speed and where they landed.
While her Pearl was standing at attention behind her, Tanya paced forward towards one of the Nephrite Pilots that was able to pull up the galactic map. "Hmm…" the Nephrite began to say as she looked up at the holo-screen of her console, her lone eye honed in on the image, "Well, commander, I have good news and bad news." she uttered with a bit of worry to her tone.
Tanya walked closer and stood beside the Nephite that sat within her seat, Tanya leaned a bit forward with her hand on the console desk and her other hand on the seat of the Nephrite to get a closer look at the galactic map. "This…this is a private sector of space owned by…" Tanya furrowed her brow as she realized their situation.
The Nephrite nodded, "Yes." she began to say as she typed a few commands prompts to make the galactic map zoom in on their location, "Good News, we are within the inner colonies of the Great Diamond Empire…" the Nephrite then nervously glanced over at Tanya with her single eye, "Bad news…we are on a private location owned by the late Pink Diamond." she finished saying.
Tanya stood up from leaning near the galactic map, "How is that bad news?" she asked, with a confused look, before glancing further into the descriptor of the location they were at on the holoscreen showing the galactic map. The Nephrite chose that opportune moment to speak up and read the holoscreen on her console desk, "Restricted area, we are trespassing on a Diamond's private grounds, Pink Diamond's private grounds to be exact." she uttered with a panicked expression.
Tapping her chin in thought, while the sounds of battle could be heard outside the ship, Tanya furrowed her brow once more, "This will complicate our return to Homeworld, not only will we be late, but I'll also have to explain to Yellow Diamond of why we desecrated Pink Diamond's private moon." she sighed in irritation.
"Pretty sure Blue Diamond is the one we should be worried about." one of the other Nephrites piped up amongst the bridge crew.
Just as Tanya was about to speak up, the sound of fighting could be heard from outside the doors of the bridge. Tanya cautiously turned around while pulling out her Saber weapon from her gem on her chest to prepare for the intruder(s), the rest of the crew followed suit along with her Pearl as she rushed over to stand in front of her in a guarded manner. Under her command, Tanya instilled the fact that all the gems under her leadership had the capacity to fight, and she wouldn't waste such an opportunity for her crew to be able to defend themselves.
Thus with the doorway leading into the bridge opening up with the sight of the intruder, a gem that looked to be a Red Hessonite, and dozens of enemies and allies fighting throughout the hallways, Tanya had to hold up a free hand to halt the Nephrites from jumping into fighting; Tanya held her Saber in a ready position directed at the Hessonite, while said Gem gave her a dark smile. No one said a word while the fighting in the background went off, everyone seemed to wait with baited breath on who'd initiate the first move or say something.
The Red Hessonite gem was the first to initiate the confrontation by sprinting towards Tanya with a Cutlass sword in hand, the gem's speed was fast in how fast she closed the gap between the two. With Orange Pearl guarding her commander, she took up arms with her shield and spear as she readied herself; Tanya however noticed something odd in the enemy gem's cutlass, her eyes narrowed as the blade on the enemy's weapon was the same as a destabilizer blade. Whoever she was facing, they somehow got their hands on the new technology that she had been putting into use throughout the recent century, and that meant she wasn't dealing with some run of the mill rebel force.
Just as Orange Pearl was about to block the cutlass sword with her own shield, Tanya sprung forward and quickly pushed her pearl out of the way before blocking the Hessonite's weapon with her own Saber Sword. While her Pearl seemed to look upset at being pushed aside and on her rear end on the floor nearby, Tanya glared at the enemy gem before her as they pushed against the other's sword. "You!What are you doing here?" She questioned the Hessonite as she pushed forward while running her static energy along her sword to withstand the Cutlass destabilizers held in the grasp of the enemy gem.
For once, the Hessonite finally spoke as they circled around each other while clashing against the other's sword with their own, "Oh Citrine, you didn't think our last stint on Homeworld would be enough to get rid of me, would it?" She challenged back with a chiding smirk as they clashed some more before leaping away from each other to momentarily take stock of the other's ability in combat, all the while holding their blades up in a defensive manner. "You thought you could embarrass me in front of the Diamonds after the campaign on Yellow diamond's fifth colony." she challenged Tanya with a snarl. "But fate has granted me the honor of finally giving me the chance to have my vengeance upon you!"
As Tanya and Red Hessonite circled around each other, Tanya spoke up next, "It was your fault you fell for the rebel's trap on that planet, don't pin the blame of your arrogance on me!" Tanya snarled back as the two ceased circling around each other, and tensed up for another round. "I wasn't about to be dragged down by your failures, that is why I came in to clean up your mess before the allotted time was up to finish the campaign!"
"Raagh!" Screamed the Red Hessonite as they both lunged at each other and began trading blows at each other's blades, "Get cracked!" She yelled heatedly as they swung their blades against the other, cracks of destabilizing energy went off as their blades clashed. The two went into a flourish exchanging blows of their weapon at the other, the air around them was filled with static discharges of destabilizer energy as the two clashed their blades into each other.
With a flourish from Tanya, she flipped over Red Hessonite after striking another swing at the gems Cutlass sword. Tanya swung her Saber down while upside down in the air, only to have Red Hessonite block her attack by raising her weapon above her. Just as Tanya landed behind the enemy gem and swung an attack at the Hessonite's back, the enemy gem was quick on the uptake, quickly turning around to block with her cutlass. The amount of force Tanya applied to her blow caused the two gem's weapons to cause a tiny eruption of static sparks of destabiliser energy that fell around them to the floor.
Both combatants leapt away to gain some ground before initiating another round; Tanya glared balefully at Red Hessonite, "If only you applied this much effort back during your time as the rebel's captive, maybe then you'd have been a force to be reckoned with." she quipped with a disappointed frown as they stood across from each other.
Red Hessonite smirked back at Tanya, and used her free hand to put it into her gem in her eye socket, before pulling it back out covered in a yellow glove. "Oh I'm a force to be reckoned with, and I have you to thank with your weapon ideas you so graciously come up with for the Diamond Empire." Red Hessonite remarked as she aimed her glove covered hand at Tanya with her fingers stretched out at her.
With a loud thrum of destabilizing static, arcs of yellow lightning sped towards Tanya; Tanya's mouth however curved into a rather rueful smirk as she quickly used her own free hand to project a yellow curved barrier around her palm to direct the attack away from her and explode into the ceiling. Red Hessonite was shocked to see such a thing, before seething at the Citrine gem before her. "What!?" she shrieked, before amping up the power on her glove and attacked Tanya with it once again.
Acting quick once again, Tanya reinforced the barrier around her palm with another barrier and redirected Red Hessonite's attack away from her; the attack was redirected into one of the windows, and exploded through the window with a loud shattering crash, allowing the lightning to harmlessly dissipate outside as the vacuum of space sucked the air out. As blast windows closed on the shattered window, the vacuum of space from the moon's empty atmosphere no longer sucked the air out of the bridge.
As Tanya and Red Hessonite stared each other down, a bright dot in outer space seemed to shine a bit more in the intact windows of the bridge. On one of the holo-screens of the bridge, it showed an incoming celestial object on a collision course with the moon; the screen showed the amount of time left until the collison, and it was soon. One of the Nephrite's took notice of the holo-screen, and began working on figuring out the exact collison spot of the celestial object.
Back with Tanya and the enemy Hessonite on the other hand, they began taking their fight against each other out through the hallway as Tanya put the pressure on Red Hessonite to get her out of the bridge and away from the crew and others; with a flourish of attacks with her Saber, Tanya swung upwards with her blade, only to be met with a parry of Hessonite's own Cutlass as she countered back with a downswing next.
Tanya performed her own parry of the attack and brushed the attack aside, the two began trading blows into the other's weapon once more as they traveled through the hallways outside the bridge. "Did you really think I wouldn't come up with a safeguard against my own weapons?" Tanya chided Hessonite with a snarl of disappointment.
"Don't talk to me as if you're better than me!" Hessonite refuted back as their swords let off sparks as they clashed their weapons against each other, "You're a mere thousand year old gem, I won't be shown up by some young upstart gem, just because our Diamond Favors you more, doesn't mean you can go around changing things!" she spat back with heat in her tone as they continued to trade blows.
As Tanya blocked an attack from Red Hessonite, she quickly thrusted her free hand out at her enemy's chest with static emitting off of her palm. Hessonite was quick to act and blocked with her gloved hand, their palms bounced off each other in a loud sparking boom. "Change is needed, If I am to be efficient!" Tanya said back with a heated look in her eyes as they swung their respective blades at each other. "I can't get anything done if Gem society is always stuck in the old ways!" She challenged Red Hessonite.
"Then obviously Yellow Diamond made a mistake making you!" Hessonite spat back as she feigned a thrust attack with her Cutlass, before promptly swinging her blade up at Tanya's arm holding her weapon.
Tanya flashed a satisfied smirk at Red Hessonite as she leaned to the side in anticipation of the feigned attack, and cartwheeled flipped out of the way from Hessonite's true attack. "Careful Hessonite, those are some treasonous words you got there." she warned as she followed up her movement with a flurry of ex slashes towards Red Hessonite, who blocked each one with some ease.
"I won't have to worry, not if I take you out myself!" Red Hessonite affirmed with a gleeful look as she tried her best to get an edge over Tanya in their heated exchange of words and weapons, "With you out of the picture, Gem society can return to what it once was!" she crowed in delight.
"I'm afraid you're too late." Tanya glowered back with a snarl of her lips as they traded more blows against each other's weapons, "you can't just go back to how things were, too much improvement in gem society has been made to make it more efficient!" she denied back at Hessonite through the sound of their weapons clanging against each other. "I won't let centuries of my work be undone! I've worked too much! What can you say you've done, other than wallow in damaged pride of being tricked by rebels?" Tanya challenged back.
"Raagh!" Yelled Red Hessonite as Tanya finally pushed her over the edge of rationality by reminding her of her embarrassment and failure, and overextended herself with a thrust of her Cutlass. Hessonite had to watch with anger, shock, and fear as her attack missed, and Tanya deftly parried her attack aside with her Saber and thrusted her blade into her chest with a loud static sound.
As Red Hessonite heaved in pain from impaled on Tanya's Saber, as would any other gem with the capability to sense pain, she hunched over while Tanya leaned in to whisper into her ear with a rather rueful grin, "I'll be sure to pass on your recorded words to Yellow Diamond." She stepped back from Hessonite as she collapsed to her knees, "you're…nothing...but a pebble, compared to them." Hessonite spoke once more, before poofing with a wide dangerous smirk.
Tanya blinked at the last words, "Them?" She questioned, the Hessonite could mean anything by what she meant; Shrugging to herself, "I'll figure it out myself, nothing a bit of memory scanning can't fix." Tanya thought to herself as she walked over to the Hessonite gem on the floor and picked it up, before bubbling it.
As she finally came down from her battle high, a sensation she wasn't sure why she'd feel as a Gem of all things, but Tanya finally realized where her fight with Red Hessonite took them through to; Tanya glanced around her as she held within her grasp the bubbled Hessonite, she was now inside the hanger bay where there was onlookers about with wide eyed looks. Deciding to break the awkward silence between her and the rest of her gem crew that was stationed in the warship's hanger bay, Tanya spoke up with a firm tone. "Don't just stand and gawk now, We're still under attack, get back to work!" she ordered snappishly, and just like that, the gems within the hanger bay went to and fro to assist in ending the little skirmish against the enemies outside.
"Feh." Tanya muttered as she turned around, only to see that the hallway leading into the hanger bay was stricken with slash marks and damage from her little scuffle with Red Hessonite. "Oh…" Tanya blinked, before her vision spotted the sight of Orange Pearl coming around the corner in the hallway, and into the hanger where she was. "How is everything, Pearl?" Tanya asked as she met her Pearl halfway, with Orange Pearl looking up and down at her before breathing a sigh of relief.
"I thank the stars, My Citrine." She remarked, as she placed her hand on his chest in relief. "Why would you push me out of the way like that?" she questioned her Citrine, "I could have taken the blow for you, and given you the opportunity to easily dispatch that Hessonite!" Orange Pearl fretted.
Tanya rolled her eyes at her Pearl's antics and insistence to sacrifice herself for her, "But then I'd be stuck without your help for a good while till you reform yourself." she quipped back with a rather amused smile back at her as she passed by her Pearl to head back to the Bridge and get a sitrep of the status outside the ship.
Orange Pearl had the decency to blush at Tanya's chosen words, and cupped her cheeks in embarrassment, "Oh…" she remarked as she turned to follow after her Citrine, "Oh, by the way!" she added in saying, "I forgot to mention, the Nephrites have made a diagnostic check on the ship." she reported to her Citrine as she walked up behind Tanya.
Tanya glanced over her shoulder while she continued to walk towards the bridge of the ship, "excellent, and how soon can we leave?" she questioned her pearl.
Orange Pearl nervously tapped her index fingers together as she continued to walk after her Citrine, "Unfortunately, a week's time." she answered, before adding in more to say, "and I don't mean to add more bad news, but a comet is on its way to collide with this moon we're on within three days."
"...Did they get the projection of the damage, and where the comet will impact this moon?" Tanya asked with a trepid tone as she paused in her steps.
Her Pearl proceeded to gleam a smile back, while clasping her hands behind her back an cheerfulness as she momentarily stood on her tiptoes "Oh yes, We'll be safe, the projections given by the Peridots on deck have calculated that the comet will shatter the moon, but the surface we are on and the nearby Garden in proximity to your ship and the other ship's crash site will be safe."
"...There's a garden on the moon we crashed on?" Was all Tanya could ask through her crashing mind of all the bad news she received from her Pearl.
AN; Going back through the Steven Universe Movie, I realized Pink Garden was not in fact on a moon, but a shard of what looked to be a moon. So without bothering to retcon what I wrote in the previous chapter, I went ahead and made a reason why Pink diamond's garden is on a shard of a moon.