Chapter Seventeen: Exfiltration
"Okay, so, not great, but this doesn't really change much," said Onyx to herself. She gazed out the nearby window as the tower she was on drifted closer to her allies. "Gotta shut this thing down somehow. Doesn't matter that it can fly, still gotta find the controls." She hurried on down the hallway, hoping not to run into any distractions. Though she knew she wouldn't be that lucky.
She hid behind a corner as several guards hurried past, shapeshifting to make herself as small as possible. She probably could have taken them, but they would only have delayed her. She had no idea what this thing was capable of, so every second counted. Luckily, all of the personnel seemed to be occupied, so she didn't have much trouble going forward.
As welcome as not having anyone to stand in her way was, something about it felt off. "Where is everyone?" she wondered aloud, looking back and forth, but finding no Talu anywhere. "Maybe this wasn't supposed to happen, and they're just as freaked out as I am!" she suggested, half-jokingly. That said, a sudden hum snapped her out of her casual mindset.
Onyx drew her weapon, partly expecting to be beset by a huge cavalcade of TLM soldiers, or at least several very big ones. But the noise, which grew into a powerful rumbling, seemed to be coming from the building itself. As though it was charging up for some insidious purpose: that its source seemed to be the core room she had just left.
With only her intuition and a skimmed report on Talu machinery to guide her, Onyx continued towards the command deck. All the while, the loud hum permeated the entire facility, having stabilized not long before. "I've got a bad feeling about this…" she muttered, passing by a window. "...Hang on, is it nighttime already? I knew this planet had short days, but–"
It wasn't nighttime. The darkness was caused by the sun and the sky being entirely blocked out by pitch black storm clouds. Wind and rain battered the troops on the ground, along with the occasional lightning strike that split the sky. For a storm to develop this quickly, especially one this intense, there was only one answer: this was the tower's true purpose.
"It's a weather machine," said a terrified Onyx. "This whole thing's some sort of weather machine! Alright, mission's still the same: shut it down, stop the storm. Probably. Hopefully." She resumed her journey, the stakes now much clearer in her mind.
Her comrades were feeling the effects of the sudden storm. Any artillery they had set up that could have stopped the floating tower were quickly ripped up like weeds, with many unfortunate Gems treated likewise. The cold and the rain led to ice carpeting the battlefield, freezing anyone it landed on in place. Even Rubies found themselves unable to simply melt through the ice that trapped them. But the lightning was the worst threat of all, striking hard enough to make craters wherever it hit, and vaporizing anything in its path. Although its targets seemed random, there was no doubt some sort of intelligence determining who or what felt its wrath.
There weren't many Talu down there, most of them likely having taken shelter, knowing what was coming. Onyx imagined the few that were unable to evacuate in time weren't faring much better than her side. Maybe that was why there weren't any guards: they had all gone to help the stragglers. Either way, it worked for her.
Soon she made it up to the control room. The door was locked, but their high tech security measures were no match for her fist. "Arright, everybody on the ground!" she shouted, expecting at least half a dozen technicians to be piloting the vessel. However, the control room was completely empty: no pilots, no guards, no anybody. "Huh. Makes this easier for me…I think." The monitors were still active, but there was nobody to man them.
Onyx went up to the centermost seat and began trying to deactivate the tower somehow. Her first instinct was to try and disable autopilot, but there didn't seem to be an autopilot. Next she tried landing the thing manually, but there weren't any control options whatsoever, even physical ones on the dashboard. Her next plan was smashing the computer to bits; perhaps unsurprisingly, this one didn't work either.
"Having some trouble?"
Upon hearing the voice, Onyx immediately whirled around, and was met with the same TLM heavy trooper that had been hounding her since she landed. "Great, you again. What do you want this time?"
The soldier was wearing a mask, but she could still tell he thought this was a stupid question. "To win–we are at war, after all. Would anyone ever want anything less?" His hand tightened around his gun's trigger, but both of them stood completely still. "As much as I prefer a fair fight, I'm afraid there's not much you can do at this moment."
"Oh yeah? And what's stopping me from demolishing everything in here? No way to pilot this thing without the controls, yeah?" The two combatants began to circle each other, eagerly waiting for the other to strike. Onyx had her hand ready to draw her weapon at a moment's notice.
The Talu laughed. "There's no way to pilot this thing anyway. Once the storm starts, the machine only shuts down once everything in its path has been razed. Even if you beat me, there's no saving your comrades."
"Well…we'll just have to see about that!" Onyx dove behind one of the controls, to which the trooper responded by firing a shot. As Onyx planned, it blasted apart the computer, though it did nothing to stop the weather machine, as he had said. Which meant it was on to plan B: Onyx summoned her hammer, hurling it at her foe.
Despite his enormous weapon and bulky armor, the trooper was easily able to sidestep the weapon, responding with several more blasts. By now, the control room was entirely wrecked, giving Onyx little place left to take cover. Instead, she went on the offensive, leaping out from behind a monitor and trying to wrest away the trooper's weapon.
He was much more dexterous than he looked as well, grabbing a handful of her hair to pull her off of him. As she tried to grab at the gun, her efforts caused it to fire, blasts of plasma repeatedly exploding against the walls. And while they held, the same could not be said for the window. The wayward shot smashed through the glass, instantly bringing the storm into the room. Hurricane-force winds whipped through the chamber, threatening to pull the two of them out.
"I hope you weren't planning on going outside today!" he taunted, having to shout to be heard over the wind. "The weather's not good for it!" Onyx held on to a nearby terminal, but its damaged state meant it didn't hold on for long, being pulled up out of the ground. She tried clawing her way to safety, only to be met with a boot to the face, sending her careening towards the window.
Onyx caught herself at the edge, looking down towards the ground far beneath her. A fall from this height would certainly destabilize her, if not shatter her outright, and the storm would most likely finish her off if she survived. Just as she was about to pull herself up, she saw the glow of a plasma shot ready to fire directly at her. In a panic, she dropped down, the blast sailing past overhead–but now she was speeding towards the ground. She frantically clawed at the ship's side, eventually managing to find a stable handhold. "I hate this planet!" she yelled.
The trooper was not finished with her yet, as he appeared on the edge, aiming his gun down at her. The angle was awkward, leading to several shots that didn't come anywhere close to her. Still, she pulled herself closer to the surface, just in case a wayward shot came too close for comfort. Eventually, he decided to abandon the gun altogether, tossing it back into the room. Instead, he pulled a small device from his belt, and leapt after her.
A blade of glowing blue light extended from the device, with which he caught his fall by piercing through the hull. Once near her level, he began climbing after her, laser-knife at the ready. Realizing she had nowhere to go, Onyx looked around–she soon caught sight of a grate some ways away, hopefully leading to an air vent. Just as she started climbing towards it, she felt the searing hot blade digging into her shoulder.
"That's the problem with you Gems!" the trooper said, shouting over her cry of pain. "Your loyalty is meaningless! We fight because we believe in our cause–you fight because you're slaves!" He climbed onto her back, holding on by her hair, and repeatedly removed and stabbed the blade into her. "Just machines, going through the motions!"
"Would a machine do this!?" she asked, and let go. As she sped towards the ground with her captor in tow, she acknowledged internally that it wasn't the best plan, but it was one she stuck by. Many potential handholds raced past, but she refused to stop her descent until her hanger-on let go.
"Are you insane!?" he yelled. "You'll kill us both! How is that good tactics!?"
"It isn't!" she shouted back defiantly.
Not willing to make like a meteorite just to kill one Gem, the trooper leapt off, once again catching himself with his knife. Silently relieved, Onyx grabbed hold as well, only barely catching herself. There wasn't much space left between her and the bottom; if she let go now, there would be nothing to catch her. Just as she was about to climb back up, she took a boot to the face.
Onyx tried to grab at the trooper, but he leapt out of her reach. While she struggled to climb, her ascent made more difficult by his interference, the storm continued to rage. Thunder, wind, and rain buffeted the battlefield, all but churning the land up into a crater. She had to stop this thing, no matter what it took.
The trooper was just as set on completing his mission as she was hers. He dodged past Onyx's reaching arm, clinging to her once more. He knew she wouldn't let go at this height. "It was a noble effort, but this is where we say goodbye!" he said, piercing his knife right beside her gemstone, and trying to pry it out.
Her body wracked with pain, Onyx tried to grab at him, but he only pulled harder. As her surroundings were momentarily illuminated by a lightning strike, Onyx got a sudden idea. "Yeah: Goodbye!" The handle of her hammer extended just far enough for her to grab it, holding the weapon skyward.
"Oh, and what do you expect to do with–" Her plan worked, as the makeshift lightning rod had attracted a bolt. Hundreds of volts ran through her hammer, which also meant they ran through her, the hull, and her enemy. The shock was too intense even to cry out, as the both of them simply went limp. But whereas Onyx kept her grip on the tower, if just barely, the trooper went unconscious, letting go and falling to the ground below.
For some time, everything went blank. All she could see was whiteness, and all she could hear was a faint ringing. Before long, sight and sound returned, and Onyx began to remember just where she was. With all the strength she had left, she raised her other hand, grabbing onto the next handhold. Before long, she grabbed onto the next, and the next, and she was heading for the vent once again.
Despite being totally spent, her sense of duty carried her all the way back up. With a bit more effort, she managed to tear the grate off its hinges, squeezing into the vent. "Just a…bit longer…" she reminded herself. "Everyone's…counting on me…" Inch by inch, she made it through the narrow passageway. After tearing through another grate, she slumped to the floor, allowing herself to return to full size. But there was no time to rest, as she had made it to the core chamber.
There it was: the power source of the entire machine. Take that down, and everything around it would follow. Fatigued, injured, but no less determined, Onyx balled up her fist and drove it into the side of the core. She was met with nothing but a pain in her knuckles and another shock, thankfully much smaller than the one outside, but still enough to make her recoil.
Instead, she summoned her hammer. Swinging with all her might, the weapon crashed against the core again and again, but all the damage it did was superficial. She did manage to knock a panel loose, but it didn't seem to have any effect on the tower's performance. She did all she could, hitting it as hard as she could, until it felt like her arms would fall off. Eventually, she couldn't hold the hammer anymore, and it fell to the ground.
"Gotta do something," she mumbled, barely able to stand up. "Gotta do…wait…I know!" Refilled with vigor at her new idea, she hurried up the stairs, back to the control room. Hopefully it was still there, and if it was, hopefully it would make a difference.
Soon enough, she was there, and sure enough, there it was: the heavy trooper's blaster, thankfully heavy enough to have avoided being blown outside by the wind. Onyx grabbed it, and half ran, half slid back down the stairs to the core room.
Luck was again on Onyx's side, as the gun wasn't too difficult to figure out. Holding it steady, she took aim at the hole she had made as it charged up. "Come on, please work, please work!" Once it was ready, she fired a shot into the damaged bit.
Work it did, nearly blowing a hole clean through the core. The entire vessel shook, and the lights flickered as sparks rained down on Onyx. But despite that, the storm outside showed no sign of stopping. She charged up another shot, letting it loose into the widening gouge. The ship quaked again, creaking as it began to lose altitude. Steeling herself, Onyx charged up the gun one last time, and fired.
Finally, the core began to go unstable. Sparks and bolts of electricity shot from it as it began to tilt and creak, before finally crashing to the ground. Onyx quickly darted into the hallway to avoid being crushed. One by one, the lights went out, as the tower began to tilt. Its thrusters had failed, and it was falling to the ground. Onyx had done it.
"Mission…accomplished," she said quietly, curling up next to the wall. Ideally, this was to better survive the crash, though she wasn't entirely sure she would make it out. But seeing as she had just saved everyone down there, that was just fine with her. "Adamantem in Eternum."
The tower crashed to the ground, tearing itself apart on impact. It ripped through the grass and dirt as it dug a crater into the earth, its deteriorating hull broken apart both by the impact and the explosions as its inner workings gave way. Until finally, it ground to a halt, and everything was still. The wind slowed, the rain stopped, and the clouds gradually began to part.
The door to her personal shuttle slid open, and Yellow Pearl stepped out onto the planet. "This place has seen better days," she said to herself, after examining the carnage left behind in the machine's wake. Flanked by a battalion of Citrines, she made her way into the encampment.
Her approach was noticed by the commander, a battle-scarred Onyx. "Pearl, welcome," she said, saluting. "Er, is Her Brilliance attending to other matters?"
"Indeed she is," said Pearl. "I am here in her stead. Now, I understand you have successfully managed to take Djeroh for Homeworld, correct?"
"We have, and it certainly wasn't easy," she said. "The TLM deployed some manner of weather manipulation device. It was only thanks to one of my soldiers that we were able to survive. You think it looks bad now? This would have been much worse if that thing was allowed to run its course!" They approached the wreckage of the tower, where several Gems were digging around in the scrap.
Yellow Pearl pointed to one of her Citrine guards. "You, take notes." The Quartz nodded, and proceeded to do so. "Salvage what you can from this device. My Diamond was curious just how the Talu managed to harness the weather, so this will be of great interest to her."
The Onyx nodded. "We'll be sure to do that, but we're also looking for her. P7J…she's the one who took it down. She was still inside when it crashed. We're hopeful her gemstone survived, but we haven't found anything yet…"
"Mm-hmm, mm-hmm," said Yellow Pearl, barely listening. "Now, the core is probably shot, so just take whatever's left. Whatever kind of firing mechanism this thing has is the real area of concern, so that should be your main focus. Try to–"
"Commander! We got something over here!" shouted one of the Onyxes. There was some commotion as she returned to the ground, holding something in her hands. The Gems all returned to their commanding officer with the hope that their comrade was okay. "I think it's her!"
The iridescent black gemstone was unmistakably an Onyx, no doubt P7J. "No cracks, shine looks okay," said the commander. "Everyone get back, give her some space!" They set the gem on the ground, standing back. All of them stared at it, hoping she would come back to them. All the while, Pearl continued talking.
"...possible they've gotten some assistance from the Kalderians, but we can't be sure. Needless to say, we should probably wrap this up before the leaders of the TLM get wind of our–What's going on, are you even listening to me?" Pearl turned around, and was suddenly privy to a glow coming from the ground. "Huh?"
Onyx's gem had begun to shine, ascending into the air. The glowing extended outward, taking shape into her body. Before long, she was back on her feet, looking good as new. "Hey Commander!" she said cheerfully. "Did we win?"
Upon seeing their comrade back together, the other Onyxes swarmed around her, overjoyed to see her back. Her commander pushed past the mob to personally congratulate her. "We certainly did, in no small part to you! If you hadn't taken that thing down, there's no telling what would've happened to us!" The Onyxes lifted her up, parading her around the encampment like the hero she was.
Pearl followed after them. "So, Onyx P7J, was it?" she asked when she caught up to her.
"It sure is, Ma'am," Onyx said. "What can I do for you?"
"My Diamond will be very interested to meet the Gem who managed to disable this weather device," she said. "In fact, I'll see if I can schedule the meeting right away." She pointed at another Citrine. "You! Schedule the meeting." She headed back to her ship, her entourage in tow.
Onyx was stunned silent upon hearing this. "A meeting…with Yellow Diamond herself?" She stared off into space as everyone chanted her name. Clearly, there were big things in store for her, and this was only the start.