Planet F78
North Eastern Hemisphere
The scene opens with the view from the bottom of a canyon of the mountainous landscape of the current planet now riddled with battles all over the world that were still being held out by rebel gems, all around the sloped walls were caves with ledges that allowed the rebel gems to mount laser light artillery cannons; some light artillery cannons were shoddily made while others were made quite well with the available Bismuth gems that joined the cause, and in the end that's all the rebels could work with to stave off the incoming storm of loyalist forces. Like a light show, multiple cannons would shoot their payload up into the sky in an arc over the mountain from out of the canyon they were in, in a vain attempt to shower the sky to take out the incoming aircraft of the invading forces of Commander Citrine.
With it being night time, the sky lit up brightly whenever the artillery cannons went off and their payload arched over the mountainous ranges of the landscape, some even managed to reach into the clouds above and light them up in; however with the laser cannons being as they are with their projectiles, you'd think the lasers would go on it a straight path and not arch over the mountain ranges, you'd be right. However with how the bismuth gems had modified them in a way to give the payloads some weight, they managed to make it so that the projectiles were ladened with plasma dissipation rounds.
From out of the peaks of the mountainous ranges, a loyalist airship came barreling over with a damaged tailfin; smoke wafted from the tailfin of the aircraft as it flew over the peaks and began to descend downwards to the bottom of the canyon. It wasn't long until a moment later, several more gem aircrafts could be seen flying over the mountain peaks, some were in better shape the first one, some were a bit damaged while the rest were in good condition to keep flying and unleash their destabilizing rounds into the artillery cannons on the ledges of the various canyons of the area.
Several airships were able to land their shots into the enemy rebels, while some were unfortunate to get hit by the artillery cannons of the rebels, sending them crashing down to the depths of the canyons below in several destabilizing blasts and poofs of gem bodies. A loud crack echoed throughout the mountain ranges, and before long, the largest of the mountains was cut down by liquid mercury.
Following the destruction of one of the larger mountains of the area, a large aircraft flew over the toppled mountain with liquid mercury swirling beneath it. In what looked like a miniature aircraft carrier, beneath the aircraft as it was flown over the canyons and mountain ranges, were four Lapis Lazuli gems standing on hanging platforms; the Lapis gems were working in unison to keep the swirling pool of mercury beneath the miniature aircraft carrier, while four more Lapis Lazulis flew alongside the aircraft as it was flown to use the pool of swirling liquid mercury as their means of destroying the mountains around and below them.
Above the mini-aircraft carrier, vee formations of three Lapis Lazulis at a time would take off and others would fly back in after completing a flyby of the area. From inside the miniature aircraft carrier, Tanya stood inside the bridge of the aircraft where it was piloted by Nephrites, and watched as her troupes of Lapis Lazuli's worked diligently to cut down the mountain ranges with their powers; the plan was simple from her point of view, use the Lapis gems ability with liquid resources to cut down land, thus with that ability in mind, Tanya effectively had the means to destroy the mountains and leave the rebel gems with no means to hide or achieve any effect gorilla warfare tactics.
At present, they were halfway through the deadline given by Blue Diamond, and so far Tanya was satisfied that they were nearly done already with combing the final stretches of the hemisphere. A stray thought passed in Tanya's mind, as she thought on how she had to convince her fellow commander, Sodalite, in using the new tools of warfare. Seeing as how Sodalite would be working over in the wide open plains of the South Western Hemisphere with various hills and the such, Tanya had proposed the gem use the current technology of gem warfare, rather than rely solely on an attrition battle of swords, spears, maces, etc.
Flashback
Headquarters
Leading the way to a specific area of her ship, Tanya led Sodalite with her into a room of weapons and the like. "I assure you, you'll need these to make your side of the conflict go smoother." Tanya insisted as she walked into the room with her hands clasped behind her back, while Sodalite followed with her hands crossed in skepticism. Both of their pearls weren't too behind in the meanwhile.
As they walked across strange looking objects to Sodalite, Tanya stopped in place and turned in place to face Sodalite while gesturing with a hand towards the nearby weapons on what looked like circular objects that held up what seemed to be six miniature barrels with a crank on its side. On the top of the strange looking weapon, to Sodalite that is, was what looked like a place for something to be placed into it. "...and these are?" Sodalite drawled out with a skeptic look on her face.
Tanya smiled rather deviously, "While gem technology in warfare was made a few steps forward, I figured there needed to be something that our ground forces could use to mow down our enemies with." she began to explain as she stepped towards the cannon-like object and picked up what looked to be a bundle of small pronged destabilizing needles that was in a box. "I've already indexed the information for our forces to instantly learn how to work these things, all that's left is for our gems to put them into actual work." Tanya explained.
Sodalite stepped forward and began walking around the cannon-like object on what looked like wheels, a long outdated form of transportation that most gems don't even know what it is with how long it's been since the advent of the wheel has been outdated by hover mechanics; Sodalite bent forward to look closer at the strange looking weapon, while Tanya stood on the other side of the weapon of war. "Are you able to show me a demonstration?" she asked with a pensive look.
Tanya preened rather devilishly, and moved to wheel the weapon out from the line of its other models to aim it at a target on the far off wall that was reinforced for this exact purpose. "Why not?" she mused as she adjusted the weapon in place, and fed the bundle of destabilizer rounds into the top of the weapon, "Now watch, as gem warfare will forever be changed from swords on the battlefield, to modernized warfare." Tanya said, before grabbing onto the hand crank on the side, and began cranking the handle around while using her other hand to feed the pronged ammo into the top of the rotary weapon.
While Orange Pearl was familiar to the testing of such a weapon with her Citrine, the other two Gems were not ready for the sound of thunderous cracks to fill the room they were in as Tanya unloaded the payload from the rotary cannon she was using to shoot down at a target down range in the room. Misty Blue Pearl let out an 'eep' and covered her ears while ducking down in fright, Sodalite on the other hand jumped back a bit in shock as she watched the amount of thunderous shocks of destabilizer rounds impact a wooden wall target. After a moment passed by, Tanya stopped firing off the rounds and stepped back to face Sodalite with a satisfied smile.
"As you can see, with range and the amount of rounds able to be fired off, no longer shall we have to deal with a battle of attrition in any further rebellious conflicts." Tanya smiled towards Sodalite.
After gathering herself to compose herself, Sodalite stepped forward to gently place her hand on the rotary cannon. "I…I don't like it…" she uttered with a conflicted look, before pulling her hand away from the weapon. She looked up from the objects and gave Tanya a questionable look, "Where's all the finesse? The glory of combat? This…this…seems far too…too…" Sodalite pursed her lips in trying to think of a way to find the right words for her thoughts.
Tanya clasped her hands behind her back once more, and lightly glared at Sodalite, "there is no finesse in war, Sodalite, there is no glory in battle…" she bitterly smiled.
Sodalite lifted a brow in confusion at Tanya, "What are you saying, Citrine? How can it not be when we fight for our Diamonds?" she questioned the Citrine gem.
Tanya looked at the now destroyed wooden wall target, "There's a saying I like to go by, Know yourself and your enemy." She spoke with a rather candid attitude, "right now, unlike Rose Quartz's rebellion those centuries ago, these rebels are being rallied by an upstart Pyrope gem." she grimaced a bit.
"Psh." Sodalite spat in vehemence, "What's that got to do with our upcoming campaign on this planet?" she questioned Tanya with a critical look and snide tone, all the while crossing her arms and tapping her foot in impatience. "Get to the point, Citrine. Why should I try to think how rebels think? They're all traitors in my eyes." she sneered.
"Rebels led astray by an aristocrat gem." Tanya tutted her with a rather peeved look on her face, "I implore you to use these Gatling destabilizers cannons, Sodalite, and when you do, I want you to look into the eyes of every rebel gem's eyes as you mow them down." she said as she looked Sodalite directly into the eyes with a dark look. "Maybe then you'll realize what I'm trying to say to you." Tanya encouraged the other Commander Gem.
"Hmph." Sodalite adjusted her monocle-like object on her eye, and gave an eye roll. "I don't see why not, but I'll appease your meager whims." she snapped back, before both took their leave from the room. "Now how are we going to settle the means for capturing the Pyrope gem?" The Sodalite gem commander questioned Tanya as they left the room with their Pearls in tow.
"Not to worry." Tanya responded as they left the room, "I have my best Onyx Quartz gems on the job." she smiled back rather fiendishly back at Sodalite.
Present
As Tanya stood within the bridge of the miniature aircraft carrier, Orange Pearl walked to her and handed over to her a dataslate pad. "My Citrine, here are the incoming reports on Commander Sodalite's forces…it seems she's faring well overall, but she seems to have yet to use those Gatling Destabilizers you offered her."
Tanya raised a brow at the information, and took the offered dataslate pad from her Pearl. "Hmm." She murmured out as she read the reports of Sodalite's end of the conflict on the planet. "I knew I should have given her the rifles…but thought otherwise…" Tanya murmured to herself, before thinking inwardly, " then again, Sodalite is a bit of a traditionalist, judging from her character…I was pleasantly surprised she even thought to accept the idea of using the gatling destabilizers…" she tapped her chin in thought while holding the pad in her other hand up for her to read through the reports.
"Regardless…" Tanya sighed as she offered the dataslate back to her pearl, who took it back with a simple smile as she stood back behind her Citrine to await her further orders, "At least she's still successful without them…I just thought I'd give her an advantage over the rebels." Tanya spoke aloud with a rather disappointed look on her voice. However, contrary to what the data had read, Sodalite was waiting for the right moment to use the rotary cannons of destabilizing destruction.
South Eastern Hemisphere
Sodalite was confident she didn't need the weapons offered to her by Yellow Diamond's Citrine Gem, but she wasn't one to deny an offer to have something to help her forces as a last resort. At the present though, with how the battle of attrition was going, Sodalite figured she would have her gems lure the remaining rebel forces in a tactical retreat of her own forces towards the direction of where she had the Gatling Destabilizing guns set up and ready atop a range of hills. Manning the rotary guns were her Blue Jasper soldiers, and they were just now finishing on placing the bundled pronged ammo into place within all the gatling destabilizers.
In the distance, they could all hear thundering rush of incoming forces head their way, and over the hill came Sodalite's own remaining force of blue Amethyst gems; it wasn't long before the large crowd of amethyst gems split up and and continued to run passed the row of rotary cannons, and before long the sight of various rebel gems came pouring over the hills with their weapons raised and eager expressions of victory. "Fools…" Sodalite sniffed with a haughty expression, and raised her arm up to ready the Amethyst gems manning the Gatling Destabilizer guns. "Ready!" She yelled over the cacophony of the rebel gems' war cries as they charged down the hills and across the plains towards them.
"Aim!" Sodalite yelled throughout the loud sound of warcries of rebel gems, She made sure to bother and look into the eyes of every rebel gem as they courageously charged at them from down the hills, across the plains, and up the next set of hills towards where they were. "Fire!" She yelled once more.
As one, every Blue Amethyst gem cranked the levers on the rotary guns and unloaded their ammo into the incoming crowd of rebel gems charging over and up towards them; a cacophony of thunderous and static explosions lit up the area and grounds, form after form of rebel gems poofed from being pierced by the pronged needles into their forms. Sodalite in the meanwhile focused her eyes on the incoming crowd of rebels, some of the rebels retreated in fear from seeing the devastation to their allies, while most others kept coming in hopes their numbers could overwhelm what was happening to them.
"They have a rather fierce look in their eyes…I'll give them that…but they are still rebels nonetheless…" Sodalite sneered inwardly at the dwindling forces of rebel gems as their forces were being shredded by the rotary cannons unleashed upon them, dozens of poofed bodies filled the ground. "But this…this doesn't feel right…there's no honor in this sort of thing…it's just…" Sodalite began to become conflicted as such a one side show of force as the rebel forces dwindled ever more from the onslaught of the cannons given to her by Yellow Diamond's commander Citrine.
As the amount of rebel gems dwindled down to the dozens, Sodalite had had enough of such a one sided affair with a look of conflict in her eyes, "Cease firing!" she yelled over the cacophony of the gatling destabilizer guns, and in quick succession, her Blue Amethysts ceased firing into the incoming crowd of rather courageous rebel gems in Sodalite's eyes…a rather traitorous thought in Sodalite's mind, but let it be said she's never gonna let any-gem know.
"Charge!" Sodalite followed up yelling, and pretty soon a new wave of her Blue Amethyst Soldiers charged passed the cannons and down towards the remaining scraps of resistance. With her job done in making sure the battle was won, Sodalite turned in place and made for the nearby temporary headquarters in the distance. "I looked in their eyes, and all I saw was a reminder of our time on Earth, Citrine, what in blazes do you mean by, 'know your enemy'?" Sodalite questioned her said as she thought back grimly of how fierce Rose Quartz's forces fought with such ferocity and vigor for some inane reason she could fathom.
" I'll have to admit though…" Sodalite continued to think to herself, in the far off distance, she could see her Pearl waiting for her by the entrance of the temporary headquarters that was simply an angular dome with a hexagonal doorway that Misty Blue stood at attention as she approached the building. " Those rotary-like cannons are handy, but they change gem warfare far too much…are chivalrous days of armed combat over with on the horizon? I shudder to think what else that Citrine gem has up her sleeve."
"Ma'am." Misty Blue Pearl greeted her Sodalite, as she approached the entrance, the sound of the battle from whence she came from could be heard settling down as her forces grinding the forces down with sheer numbers on her side. " I do wonder though, Citrine said she had her best Onyx quartz gems on the job to collect the traitorous Pyrope…are they that good?" Sodalite pondered to herself as she and her pearl stepped into the temporary headquarters of the hemisphere she was in.
Pyrope
"Gotta leave! Gotta leave!" Pyrope panicked as she did her best to run toward the outside of her private island, and out to the skypad where her personal spacecraft was ready for take off. "Just gotta wash my hands of this and flee somewhere far away! Yes, somewhere far away, maybe to the other galaxy!" she assured herself with a panicked and nervous look, alluding to escaping to the milky way galaxy.
As Pyrope rushed to the exit while hefting up the hem of her dress to run faster, she did look behind her to see fast moving shadows throughout the hallways of her private building. Just as Pyrope reached the exit, she attempted to press her hand on the small console on the wall for it to open up to her hand on it. "What the?" she questioned herself as the door did not open. Pyrope tried several more times to slam her hand on the wall's console to the doorway, only for the doorway to never open. "What's going on here!?" she shrieked in fear and worry.
Just as she turned around to try another exit, her vision was filled with the sight of dark clothed gems with their head wrapped in dark scarves to conceal their faces, "Wha-" was all she got to say before one of them rushed in and stabbed her in the torso with a daggers sized pronged destabilizer. "No-" She shrieked, before her body poofed, and all that was left of her was her pyrope gem clattering to the floor.
A few days later
Blue Diamond
While things were being finished up around the world with putting out remnants of any more rebels, Blue was rather happy to hear things were coming along smoothly; she was also happy to hear Yellow's Citrine gem managed to acquire the traitorous Pyrope gem in a timely manner, now all she had to wait for was to exact her duty as a Diamond and shatter the upstart gem of her court.
As she sat within the assembly hall of Yellow's Citrine's ship once more, she was brought out of her musings once the sight of the Citrine Gem entered in through the entrance to the assembly hall; within her hands was a bubbled Pyrope gem, and Blue couldn't help but smile in satisfaction at a job well done by such a gem. Once the Citrine made her way past her own guards, the commanders stood straight and presented the bubbled Pyrope gem to her. "Your radiance." she spoke with a clipped tone, "I give you the gem in question that started all this."
Blue smiled, "Excellent, well done, Citrine." she spoke softly, before reaching out to grab the bubbled gem to shatter the nuisance.
With a conflicted look though, the Citrine gem spoke up out of turn, "A suggestion, if you would allow!" she quickly spoke up.
Ceasing herself from grabbing the bubbled Pyrope, Blue raised an eyebrow at the Citrine gem's abruptness towards her, she'd let it fly for now seeing how since she was able to successfully bring the Pyrope gem to her, "Yes…what is it?" she asked in an impatient tone.
"Rather than…shatter her…" The Citrine began to respond to her, while still holding the bubbled gem up to her, "I suggest we make a public trial on homeworld, and make an example out of her." she bargained with Blue.
Momentarily glancing to the side in thought, Blue thought to herself before looking back at the Citrine gem and pulling her hand away to listen more to what the gem had to say. "Go on." she inquired with a look of expectation towards Yellow's Citrine gem.
Citrine brought her arms down, but continued to hold onto the bubbled pyrope gem, "Yes, rather than publicly shattering this pyrope gem, I suggest after the public trial, you punish this pyrope gem by putting her to work as a lowly pearl equivalent, make her regret her decisions in the long term rather than swiftly executing her in the short term." the Citrine gem suggested with a straight face.
Placing her index finger on her chin while glancing to the side in, Blue thought to herself of how the idea would work out…yes, that seemed rather appropriate. Sure, she could shatter the gem like she did to so many gems before, but that wouldn't exactly send a message to any of the gems in her court in the long run. New aristocrat gems would be made later on down the line, and none of them would learn from the past mistakes of what happens when a gem from her court decides to be a little upstart and try to rebel.
"Might I also suggest I run a memory scanner on this gem?" the Citrine gem suggested, earning a look from Blue as she brought herself out of her thinking.
"Hmm?" Blue pondered the question given to her, "For what reason?" she asked with a critical gaze directed down at her.
Citrine offered a simple smile with a nervous look, "Too many reasons, if I'm being honest, But I need to know, er, we need to know if she's in cahoots with any other aristocrat gem of your court."
Blue thought about the question, and she did hear that not all of the aristocracy were present on homeworld for Yellow to skim through the memories of…yes, mayhaps she was too eager to shatter the gem afterall. So much can be accomplished with keeping the upstart pyrope intact. "Very well then." Blue smiled rather magnanimously down towards the Citrine gem before her. "Be sure to keep the pyrope within your briggs, under tight security." she ordered the gem before her.
As the Citrine gem bid her well and took her leave, blue stood up and made way for the larger door exit, "Come pearl." she spoke softly, it was time to leave this gem forsaken planet. what was once an opulent planet for her court, Blue now supposed she ought to assign for the planet to be harvested for its resources and become an actual gem colony. A few orders were all that were needed, and she could have the planet turned into a proper colony within a few centuries.
Unknown
In a hangar where outer space could be seen with a simple force field cutting off the outside to the inside of the place, a certain Blue Demantoid could be seen watching a group of spaceships in the depths of space warp off to intercept a certain target the Blue Demantoid had in mind for her private forces. "What are you doing?" a soft voice spoke up behind the Blue Demantoid.
"Gah!" Blue Demantoid angrily yelled as she whirled around to face the intruder, only to stop herself from yelling once she saw whoever crept up on her. The Demantoid gem began to look nervous at the White and Grey Sapphire that managed to creep up behind her. "Grey! Wh-wh-what are you doing here?" she asked.
The White and Grey Sapphire momentarily looked out where the personal ships of the Blue Demantoid disappeared out into outer space, before turning her head back once more toward the Demantoid gem. "They'll fail…" Grey simply told Blue Demantoid with a calm tone of indifference.
"You don't know that!" Blue Demantoid angrily pointed out at the White and Grey Sapphire, "You Sapphires aren't always right, you know!" the Demantoid gem spat with annoyance.
"...correct…" Gray Sapphire responded, "But the chances of them even succeeding is quite low…."
"grrr…I never asked your opinion!" Blue Demantoid said back to gray in a heated tone, before storming off, "I will have that Citrine gem disposed of! Mark my words!" she yelled back as she left the hanger.
Once Blue Demantoid exited the hanger, Grey Sapphire faced her head towards the exit of the hanger that led out into outer space. "...I will have to say…Yellow seems to have created a rather interesting specimen of a gem…" the White and Gray Sapphire spoke to herself with a rather unsettling, wide smile.
