Yellow Palace

The further Citrine walked through the halls of the Yellow Palace, the more squads of quartz soldiers rushing off to their own barracks; that in of itself was already telling that something was up for Citrine to assume otherwise, so the commander made haste in heading to her own office quarters stationed within the private housing district of the Yellow Palace.

With quickness in her strides, while Lapis and Spinel were not that far behind her, the commander hurried towards her office; Citrine idly glanced around as she stepped through one of the entrances that led into the private housings that were built into square columns. Already she had to get clearance from the two Carnelian Arbites, which meant Yellow Diamond no doubt involved herself in addressing the matter of the attack on her, and put the entire Palace under lockdown.

'And it wasn't just that', Citrine continued to muse to herself while striding across a bridge walkway between the squire pillars, Yellow Diamond no doubt caught onto the fact that a gem had used those new gem types on her along with the other gems that been involved in the hole attack on her, Lapis, and Spinel.

Stopping in mid stride the moment she reached her office, Citrine stood to look around an noted that there were Carnelian soldiers at each corner of the balconies, all whom kept a vigilant eye on the residential district, and was certainly not for the protection of the gems of Yellow diamond's court nor for the rest of her gems that were in the higher echelons of gem society ranging from Hessonites to Garnets.

There was a definite air of tension that Citrine could feel.

Amid her musings, Spinel spoke aloud as she had seemingly picked Pink Opal's gem back up to continue juggling it, "How long are you gonna keep Pearl in your gem, by the way?" she asked offhandedly as she whistled to herself, "Pearls after-all open the doors for their owners." she pointed out candidly.

Halting her hand in mid movement as she was about to open her own door, Citrine payed Spinel a glance with an annoyed look, "While it is a pearls duty to do such a job, it does not mean I am that lazy to do be unable things on my own while she is occupied in re-calibrating herself to reform her light-form." she stoically answer, before pressing on the door panel to open her door with a sound of a hiss.

While Citrine stepped into her domicile, with Lapis and Spinel shortly behind her, the commander glanced momentarily around to note nothing had been touched, or upturned, given the recent events; pursing her lips a bit as she strolled in while the other two found an appropriate place to sit such at the nearby couch or chair…

It took her some explaining to the pebbles how to make the couch, to the point she had to put in an order through a morganite gem to fashion something cushy to sit on; she did not get any chance of acquiring the services of Yellow Diamond's actual own Yellow morganite gem, but the service she needed wasn't that complicated to make.

Rambling thoughts aside as Citrine walked around her desk to sit down for a bit to check her mail logs. After a bit of tapping into the keyboard built into the desk, a holo-monitor beamed into existence for her to begin looking through her mail. Typing through the keys with quick fingers, while her eyes focused on her holo-monitor, Citrine noticed only one message was sent to her, and it was very recent, very very recent as in just a moment ago.

Tapping a few keystrokes to open the message, Citrine noted it was from Yellow Diamond's Pearl, a dictated message from Yellow diamond herself to call in all generals and commanders; an immediate assembly was to be had within the next hour and there would be no excuses accepted for tardiness.

Lifting a brow of curiosity, Citrine frowned to herself, before tapping a few more keys to shut her monitor off and stand up to leave, "I was expecting a message from Yellow Diamond, but not in this manner." she remarked as she snapped her fingers to earn the attention of the two gems, and pointed at them, "I'll need you to head down to the barracks and get yourself ready with the rest of our soldiers, something's come up that has warranted all of Yellow Diamond's high ranking military commanders to convene." she firmly instructed.

Standing up and brushing her pants off idly, Lapis looked back at Citrine with a surprised look, "This better not be another rebellion, I'm getting sick of those missions." she grouched.

Spinel, as she hopped off from the same couch, tossed Pink Opal's gem once more before bubbling it and putting it into her gem, "sheesh…you make it sound like there's been tons of rebellions." she remarked.

Lapis crossed her arms and expressed an annoyed look, "It's not that, it's that whenever Citrine borrows the Lapis Lazuli's from Blue Diamond's court, Lapis's M3 and N1 always come hounding me to ask what it's like serving under Citrine, and what's it like doing things other than terraforming planets." she explained with a deadpan look afterwards.

Citrine, just as she approached her door, glanced over her shoulder to look at Lapis, "Aren't those two from Era 2?" she asked idly, curious if she was speaking about the two more notable Lapis Lazulis that would always be among the first Lapis Lazulis that volunteered to be borrowed.

With a bored sideways look back at Citrine with her arms still crossed, Lapis nodded her head once, "M3 and N1 are new by about five hundred years. right around the time you submitted a request for Lapis Gems to be temporarily used in times of wars." she explained.

"hm." Citrine noted with a hum, before resuming her exit from her office domicile, with Lapis and Spinel not far behind her.

While the commander made haste in making way towards the Palace's auditorium, a place big enough for Yellow Diamond to walk through and be seen by all her gems, a fact that really it was just a normal sized room to the diamond, Spinel continued to talk to Lapis out of curiosity.

"So…is it any better than terraforming planets?" Spinel questioned Lapis as she and her trailed behind the commander.

With a flat look while staring forwards as she walked, Lapis shrugged with her arms still crossed, "You'd be surprised how long it takes to terraform a planet with water available, otherwise, doing the deed with my own water ends up taking an extremely long time…it's also one of the reasons why I think my gem type might be phased out someday." She added the last part as an afterthought.

"I sincerely doubt that." Citrine spoke aloud while her back was still facing Lapis as the commander continued to walk forward, earning a surprised look from Lapis, "You think the Diamonds want their colonies terraformed faster, but that's farther from the truth, when you look at it objectively."

"Huh?" Spinel questioned with a confused look, staring up at Citrine's back as they all walked through a doorway of the palace's residential district, "What are you trying to say?" she asked.

Without looking back at her, Citrine answered Spinel, "The Diamond's have all the time in the universe to multitask between their colonies in the making, their courts, and many other trivialities, so it is safe to assume that time is not an issue for us gems, given the simple fact that we do not age like organics."

Continuing in her strides, Citrine glanced over her shoulder to look at Lapis, "So, I don't know where you get that your gem type might get phased out, gem tech only goes so far, and even if there was a replacement for Lapis Lazulis, the ability to control water is a very valuable power that should not be squandered." she explained, before looking back forward, not noticing the tint of dark blue hues on Lapis's cheeks.

"Gee…" Lapis remarked with a sideways look while rubbing her arm nervously, "I never thought about it like that." she humbly said.

Making a confused look, Spinel thumbed her chin before speaking her mind, "What about those lava using gems? I never saw any gems like them before." she noted in a curious tone.

With a thoughtful look up, Lapis thought on the question, before glancing back down at Spinel walking beside her, "It's probably Yellow Diamond's attempt at a Lapis variant, the ability that is."

"I wouldn't blame the idea of making such a gem." Citrine idly added in her own thoughts in on subject matter, "Yellow Diamond does own a few volcano moons, with one planet that is full of active volcanoes, so it wouldn't be that far of a stretch that those gems would be an attempt at terraforming such planets and moons without the worry of a Lapis's water getting evaporate from the extreme heat."

"Volcanoes are not that difficult, really." Lapis corrected Citrine with a haphazard shrug at the glance sent her way from the commander, "It's the planets that are completely mired in volcanoes and magma, it's one of the reasons why my Diamond handed off one of her planets to your Diamond. It was an unappealing planet to her, and held little to no gem resources to make the gems that would have been appropriate for her Court."

"You talk as if you were there at the time." Spinel commented with a curious tone, eyeing Lapis, "I mean…were you?" she followed up by asking her.

"It was my second planet at the time to terraform, but Blue Diamond withdrew us Lapis's before we started any work on it." Lapis answered the court jester casually.


Blue Palace

Blue Pearl did her best to shift through the data logs that she had been granted access to to assist her Diamond in organizing what forces were available to assist Yellow Diamond's military forces; while the amount they had available compared to what Yellow Diamond has, who was in charge of objectively the military of the empire as a whole, it did not mean the other Diamonds could not send a few troops of their own to aid in stomping out any means of the enemy that had so boldly attacked the eastern edge of their empire.

Blue Pearl's eyes looked down through her hair as she traced her finger along the screen of her holopad device, with frown, she noted that the only available forces they had other than Sodalite's armada, were Dumortierite and Sapphirine, the other five commanders were on the list of embezzlers and traitors to the blue council.

Dumortierite, she was her Diamond's first commander, and Sapphirine was made during her Diamond's process of creating her sapphires. Both gems remained steadfast in loyalty to their Diamond along with sodalite.

Looking up to her left to speak with her Diamond, Blue Pearl calmly spoke, "My Diamond?" She began to question, announcing that she had finished what she was tasked to do, earning her Diamond attention with a cursory glance from her desk, while Pearl's own was seated down beside the desk of Blue Diamond.

"You've finished compiling the list I needed?" Blue Diamond questioned with an air of authority, expecting an immediate answer going by the stern expression on her Diamond's face.

Blue Pearl lifted her holo-pad and slid her finger along the screen for her to be able to send the information to the monitor atop Blue Diamond's desk for her perusal, "The only ones left available aside from Sodalite, are Dumortierite, and Sapphirine." Blue Pearl calmly answered.

Blue Diamond's brow furrowed in annoyance before relaxing it back a bit, "I see…" she sighed irritably.

Pearl watched from below as her Diamond went through a few motions of calling the two commanders in, and after a few seconds, two images of Blue Diamond's other commanders rang in on a split screen video call. Dumortierite was on the left screen, while Sapphirine was on the right, both gems were in the midst of commanding their own troops within their ships, before taking quick notice that their Diamond hotline connected them into an immediate call with their Diamond.

"My Diamond!" both chorused and simultaneously saluted Blue Diamond. Both gems were about to speak one after another, but Blue Diamond cut them off with an authoritative voice and look.

"You will both skip the pleasantries." Blue Diamond spoke tersely without giving either gem any room for words, "I require you both at homeworld within the timeframe of its complete rotation, do not be any minute later." she commanded strictly.

"By your command, my Diamond!" Both gems once again ended up echoing each other, before both commanders devolved into issuing out rushed orders of getting their ships going, right before the call was cut off by Blue Diamond.

Once the video call disconnected, Blue Pearl waited for her Diamond to tell her what she needed done next, as she clasped her hands onto her lap.

It wasn't long before her Diamond made a look of realization, before looking down at her, "I almost forgot, Pearl, please send my Lapis gems back to that Citrine gem, now's not the time to terraform, so I suppose she can borrow them for a bit longer…" she ordered her pearl, before looking forward in thought, "Quite curious I never thought a Lapis gem would be appropriate for war…" she remarked.

After a few more seconds passed while Pearl stood up from her desk to leave, Her Diamond made a look of realization before she looked down at her with an expectant look, "Oh, and while you're away, see to it if you can travel over to the Yellow Palace in time before Yellow sends her forces off."

Pausing in her steps as she gave Diamond her attention, Blue Pearl stared up at her, "My Diamond?" she questioned.

With a sideways look at her own monitor of compiled data logs, Blue diamond spoke with a curious tone, "I am now more curious than ever, about what that Citrine spoke of about the Art of War. I would like you to ask if she has anything written up on it in time for this event." Blue diamond finished explained as she looked down at her pearl.

Blue Pearl bowed to her diamond as any pearl would to their owners, "By your command, My Diamond." she calmly replied, before making haste in exiting the room to do her Diamond's bidding.

While Blue Pearl exited the office of her Blue diamond, said Diamond leaned back in her chair to think for a bit, "Would an art for war even apply against organics?" She questioned herself, trying to grasp what if anything was there more than simply throwing soldiers at a problem. If anything, the Rose's rebellion was already a lesson in itself.

The rebellious quartz only had one planet to rebel off from, while homeworld and its many colonies had countless soldiers to overwhelm the planet with; the only problem was, they treated the problem as an insignificant one, and now they were dealing with the consequences.

"Would things have been more different, if we sent more, or took it more seriously?" Blue diamond asked herself with a somber look and sighed sadly, before correcting herself with a stern look.

"No. no more of that, I can't keep beating myself up about it! Pink wouldn't want me to be eternally sad!" She chastised herself, almost feeling the heartache at mentioning Pink, but the thought of how bad her court became, roused her back from her depression.

Sitting up straight, Blue Diamond resumed the task of organizing the digital data through her monitor of what worlds and moons of hers were in disarray, so far she's already found out that half of them were in dire need of visitation to inspect what officially needs replaced and torn down, others were in need of her presence to see how far the progress of the colonies have done in creating gems.

Very little could create era one gems, so the majority of gems from now one would always be era two gems, that would end up needing limb enhancers to compensate for the loss in stature the gems would be able to project as their hardlight bodies.

Blue Diamond released a tired breath as she continued to work at her desk, it was going to be a long day before she could do anything else other than go over each and every datalog; if she wanted to do this right, and repair her court, she needed to be diligent and thorough.


Yellow Palace

With the sound of soft thumps of her feet touching the ground, Yellow diamond marched herself in her auditorium with her fists clenched. So much has happened with the last few days, an invasion on the eastern rim of their empire was not on her list of an expected outcome. Her face was stern as she was greeted by a chorus of 'My diamond!' by every general and commander of her army.

A cursory glance from her saw that all were standing at attention from their stone seats, holding the diamond salute while giving her their undivided attention. Among them was Citrine, which soothed her mind somewhat that her most accomplished commander in recent thousand years had made it back in time.

"Don't bother sitting, I need all of you ready to leave post haste within the day's end." Yellow Diamond instructed without skipping a beat while taking her cursory glance off from her Citrine gem to look at the rest of her military leaders.

As Yellow Diamond stood at the center in front of all her subjects, she stared down at them all, "As of now, we are treating a current invasion of the eastern rim as a threat, and shall deal with it as such. And no, It is not another rebellion." she explained loudly.

Some murmuring broke out, before Yellow Diamond spoke again, letting the little insubordination go for now, she'd hunt them down later and punish them for not being silent and breaking protocol. Presently, they were under attack, and she had no time to deal with minor annoyances.

"At present, the eastern rim of our empire has been attacked by organics." Yellow Diamond explained, and followed up with an explanation before more of her gems started murmuring in surprise to each other, "An organic species from the Dagon Sol system, to be precise. They seemingly advanced far enough within the span of ten thousand years."

Yellow Diamond paced to the side for all of her gems to see the massive holoscreen blip into existence behind, showing the solar system under attack, and the neighboring solar system that was the Dagon sector. "For this reason, I will have half of you initiating a counter attack." she palmed the screen from emphasis, but ceased her hand from going through the holoscreen at the right moment. "The rest of you shall take up defense. I will NOT tolerate any attempts of glory seeking. This is not going to be a repeat of the Rose Rebellion. I want this done quickly and efficiently." she ordered out authoritatively.

Yellow Diamond narrowed her eyes and swept her gaze over her gems, "DO. I. MAKE. MY. SELF. CLEAR!?" she yelled out.

"YES MA'AM, BY YOUR AUTHORITY MY DIAMOND!" Every gem shouted with practice ease programmed into their gems, a very basic thing all gems had in addition to help them know which diamond they belonged to and how to operate as a gem that they came out as.

That of course, was just one of the simpler things about a common gem, the rest came naturally with experience and the time they lived. It was just another reason that she lamented having lost many era one gems during the Rose rebellion.

Experience always won out, but apparently it didn't help matters when it involved a gem versus gem war. Now they had to deal with organics…