Private/Closed Steven Universe: The Earth Mission

[Hisseki]

This RP is closed, only available to the members listed on this page: http://pokecharms.com/threads/steven-universe-rp.13707/
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"NOW APPROACHING: EARTH"​

Psilomelane let out a sigh of relief. Finally, she could stop interfacing with the gem ship for at least a moment. She took her hands out of the screen and turned in her chair, looking around the empty pilot's cabin. Solitude was something that Psilo learned to appreciate for what it was, and despite most of it being focused on piloting the massive ship, she still was thankful for it. Silence was another thing she liked, but unfortunately for her, this mission wouldn't exactly go well with silence.

This mission was a big deal, or at least it was in Psilo's eyes. It's not every day that the diamonds collaboratively select individuals from each of their courts, all for a singular mission. 'Just an Earth Mission' was not a statement that would fall out of Psilomelane's mouth for a second. It was more than just an Earth Mission. This was The Earth Mission, and she was the pilot for it! She was important! Her, the prototype, an integral part of the Earth Mission of the century! Her Diamond, White Diamond, specifically chose the prototype Psilomelane to be the pilot for one of the biggest missions of her lifetime! She squirmed in her seat with delight, just thinking about how important she must've been to her Diamond if she was chosen like this.

She greatly appreciated the ship that the diamonds gave the crew for this mission. It was one of Yellow Diamond's ships, hand shaped and quite different to control compared to the ships that Psilo had piloted previously. There were several rooms, cabins of sorts for each gem on the ship, and each crew member got their own.

Speaking of her crew, it seemed as if she never really was introduced to the other crew members. In fact, had she not been told that this wasn't a solo mission, she would've thought she was the only gem on the massive ship. Cooperation wouldn't be possible if she didn't know at least where her crew was, and what they were capable of. Sacrificing the solitude and silence of her cockpit for the greater good, Psilo hastily and reluctantly 'pulled the brakes', so to speak, of the ship and opened the door to the primary hallway.

Just in and out. In, then out. Check on the others, then back to the cockpit for me. That's all. Psilomelane repeated in her head consistently as she cautiously walked down the hall, practically one with the wall. She would just check on the crew, then go back to piloting the ship. That was all she wanted to do.

 

[Nateriety]

Beryl walked along one of the many long and empty hallways of the ship, her boots clanking softly against the floor with each step. She'd paced around the ship more times than she'd cared to count during the voyage towards Earth. While her own quarters were appropriately accommodating, and long trips through space weren't entirely alien to her, staying put in such a confined space for too long was destined to irritate her. She'd become quite familiar with the many paths snaking through the ship, although she'd elected to steer clear of a few places around the vessel; namely the rooms of the other Gems.

She'd had time to think about this mission to the planet Earth. It was apparently of great interest to the Diamonds if they had chosen to send Gems from each of their courts, and especially so if they thought the mission required sending six Gems total. Beryl knew of situations where even more Gems than that were dispatched to a planet, but none she herself had ever experienced.

For the life of her, though, Beryl just couldn't imagine what was considered so crucial.

"Thinking about it too much isn't my concern," Beryl mentally reminded herself, crushing her previous train of thought before it consumed her with curiosity. "Just focus on my part of the job..."

That's right. She'd hadn't been assigned to this crew to spearhead the mission, or to get too engrossed in the details. Her only job was to ensure the protection of the other Gems assigned to the mission. To oversee that the mission went off without too much trouble, and likely to provide some minor assistance here and there.

Not that she had seen much of the other Gems on the ship. And frankly, outside of what was required, she didn't care too much for company.

 

[Lord Of Pain]

Cin was lurking around in the shadows of the ship, it was the best way to go around while staying out of Sight, the long cold hallway stretched for an eternity as he walked and walked and walked.

"this is very unusual, gems from different courts on one mission? and as if i get along with gems of my same court" he thought to himself, he passed room after room, with his hallow expression, and skinny body he was like a wandering Wraith.

"when do we arrive anyway? we have been in this ship for a long time now" he thought as he came to a halt, resting against the wall and absentmindedly asking himself a question after the other

 

[Il Fantasma]

Maw Sit Sit skipped through the halls, familiarizing herself with parts of the ship she deemed 'important', like the locations of the windows looking out to the rather dark outside, an unwavering smile on her face. She felt completely honored to be chosen by White Diamond for this mission to Earth, after being away from Homeworld for so long. Honestly, she wasn't sure why she had been chosen in the first place, but she didn't care to remember. Maw was just happy to be there.

Anyway, Chrome almost bumped into another Gem in her frolicking, since they were plastered to the wall. She stumbled back clumsily so as to not hit them. Pulling out a boomerang, threatening to throw it, she realized that this person meant her no harm, and retracted her weapon. Haven't seen them before! she thought. Raking a hand through her hair, she continued her skipping, walking backwards once in front of the other, dark-colored Gem to face them.

"Howdy, pardner!" she mocked a southern accent, chuckling. "Name's Maw Sit Sit! Call me what-ever you like, okay?" And with that, she was off.

Finding her room, Maw ran right over to the office chair that sat in front of a desk. With the running start, she leaped onto the chair, sending it flying backwards into a wall. "SORRY!" she called loudly, just incase anyone was on the other side of the wall.

Unsure of what to do as she waited for the arrival on Earth, a really bad idea sprouted in Sit Sit's mind. Deciding to go along with it, she dragged herself, still in the chair, out of the room, using her feet to glide across the tiled(?) floor of the ship's halls, calling out a quick "my bad!" or "oopsies!" if she nearly hit someone.

Yes, some might find her childish, but she can be a force to be reckoned with if she wants to be. Just try not to get on her bad side, alright?

 

[Sciencewars]

White Sapphire was sitting in one of the viewing pods, looking down at the planet below. He had only seen it in pictures from when his diamond looked on the Cluster project.

What he was most interested in, however, was the "organic life". They were very interesting creatures, but not the purpose of thier mission. However, they never had to assume around them, as they could be "corruptions", as they were titled. Old shards of gems, taken the form of horrid creatures.

However, he was not to be distracted. He was sent to gaurd the more important gems. "Maybe I should go see them," he said, walking out of the pod door and into the main hallway, towards the cockpit.

 

[StellarWind Elsydeon]

"Huh. What's an 'Earth'?"

Solid iron inner core, liquid nickel-iron outer core. Rotation rate differential generates a particle-deterring magnetic field. Mantle composition: silicates, high magnesium and iron content. Crust composition: oxygen, 47 percent; silicon, 27 percent; aluminum, 8 percent; iron, 5 percent; calcium, 4 percent; magnesium, potassium and sodium, 2 percent. 71 percent of surface covered with liquid water. Atmosphere composition: Nitrogen, 78 per cent; oxygen, 21 percent; argon, 1%; carbon dioxide, 0.04 per cent; Trace amounts of neon, helium, methane, krypton, hydrogen, nitrous oxide, xenon, ozone, iodine, carbon monoxide, ammonia and water vapor. Distance from star within habitable zone for organic, carbon based life-forms.

Patterns of colour and light flowed across her light blue-violet skin as the sensor sweep data swirled directly into her core, the answer to her idle question filling her awareness. She spotted the nearby planet on her astrogation charts and found it curious enough to warrant more than a cursory glance. There was much that one could learn about a planet merely from a scan of its composition - and this particular scan puzzled her. How was this planet not colonized yet? Distance from what she once called homeworld was not great enough to constitute a major hurdle - and the silicate mantle would have made a very good nursery for Quartz-type warriors - and even when she was deployed all these millennia ago, the Diamonds were very keen on their colonization drives and they sure loved their warriors. But then, things might have changed in the time she's been gone. She has not had contact with any of the Diamonds - or indeed, any other gem - in a very, very long time.

There was a shift in her awareness as several of the glittering, blue-purple cable-like tendrils that connected her head to her ship's processors disconnected from their ports at the roof of the small explorer craft and connected to other ports - ones designed to change the focus of her scan. The ship itself was a little more than an array of scanners with a fast hyperlight drive, a communication array, a power source , a cloaking device and a minor grade weapon system designed to serve as a first line of defense should the vessel encounter spacefaring dangers. Functionally and efficiently designed for its purpose - get in, see what one can see, get out while reporting to Homeworld.

Homeworld did not count on space beyond the outer reaches of their burgeoning empire being stranger than even they could imagine. But then, Homeworld was never about imagination. She discovered that for herself as her experiences changed her - when she turned her back on her mission and doubled back into known space, to actually investigate and explore whatever corners of it she would have never explored beforehand.

Life was a funny thing. Gems like her emerged from the soil knowing exactly what they were meant to do and possessing all the tools required for their task. And here she was, doing something entirely different - and she never felt more fulfilled. One could argue, of course, that she was still doing what her kind was meant to do - exploring. But she was doing it for herself, for her own curiosity, and not for some bureaucrats who probably did not even bother forwarding her reports to whomever was meant to read them. She hasn't bothered for a while. Homeworld probably regarded her as lost - and she couldn't particularly say she minded.

But speaking of Homeworld - it appeared that this world was not untouched by its colonization machine after all. The surface was dotted with the occasional Gem constructs - seeds, if you will, of a nascent colony. Something, however, did not seem right - many the structures were inactive and her data indicated that they were thousands of years old. Still younger than she was by quite a bit - but assuming Homeworld's rate of technological development and estimating that they became even more efficient at colonization of new worlds in this span of time - wouldn't have this planet been hollowed by now? No, something was certainly off. Another shift, another cable sliding into a different place. Life forms. Gem lifesigns were present - scattered, confused, broken. What happened here?

Whatever it was, she had to look into it. The indigenous life was still present, thriving, and presented a fascinating opportunity for her to learn more - both about whatever happened here and about this world in general. It was just the sort of thing that she needed.

"Looks like Tanzanite just found her next haunt!" the gem explorer's face shifted to form a grinning pair of lips, as several tendrils made a rapid shift.

The explorer's course was set. She was going to land on this rock and see what made it tick.

 

[Peachy Ace]

Goldstone walked into his Quaters. She knew exactly why she was chosen to the assigned Earth Mission. Back during the Gem War, many soldier were poofed, bubbled, even Shattered. Goldstone was lucky to stay alive. She had vast earth experience. Even though he hadn't been there for 5000 years, she planed plan to be helpful, and get a rematch with Rose Quartz.

Goldstone walked out of her cabin. She wasn't very small. As she take most if the corridor as he walked through. He found himself at the pilot's room. she looked through the window. They were close. "Rose Quartz." she thought. She looked at the control panel. Resisting not to drive them into the earth's crust. She sighed as she walked out the pilot's cabin. "Where is that Psilomelane!?" He questioned. He started pacing through the many hallways.

 

[Hisseki]

As she was walking down the hall, she encountered a green gem. The gem seemed... jumpy? As soon as they saw each other, she took out a boomerang and threatened to throw it. Luckily, she didn't. Instead, the green gem introduced herself as Maw Sit Sit, though Psilo was granted permission to call her whatever she pleased. Psilo was about to speak up and introduce herself as well, but Maw simply left and entered a room, presumably her own. Within seconds of her doing this, she heard a loud bang, then a "Sorry!" from the same room. Just as she was about to return to the cockpit, Maw exited the room on a chair, using her feet to drag herself along. Psilo felt a small smile spread across her face. Given, the act was quite childish and could potentially be a danger to the other crew members, wherever they were, but it was still quite adorable to watch.

Psilo felt as if she had enough outside time, and went back to the cockpit. A gold gem and a white gem passed her by, so she noted of their existence as she walked. Another gem, a blue one, seemed rather anxious about something. Just as she was about to check on the blue gem's status, she spoke.

"Where is that Psilomelane!?"

Uh oh... Psilo thought, trying to be extra careful in avoiding the gem. The last thing Psilo needed was for someone else to be mad at her. She hugged the wall even tighter, if possible, and sprinted directly past. Okay, so a white gem, a yellow gem, Maw, and a blue gem who might be angry at me. Got it.

She continued back to her solitary cockpit of silence once again. Once back inside, she sighed again, closed the door, and began to interface with the ship. She summoned to herself a microphone that connected to speakers across the ship. "Okay, attention crew. We are now approaching the planet known as Earth. We will be landing at the coordinates provided by the Diamonds shortly, so please refrain from breaking things to ensure a smooth landing." Psilo spoke in her usual soft voice, though it's volume was amplified as it carried throughout the ship.

Things were going smoothly. Key word: were. Psilo had brought the ship into Earth's gravitational field, and proceeded to have the ship orbit for a bit until they were in an optimal position to land exactly where the Diamonds had predetermined. Everything was going great - until her scanners picked up on something. She looked around, still interfacing, for the object that the ship had identified. It was a gem according to the ship's scanners, or at least it was sort of gem-like. Halting the interfacing and, quite frankly, starting to worry, Psilo looked around for something gem-like in nature. She focused her gaze, using her Eagle Eye to detect any dangers.

It didn't take long before Psilo located a massive creature floating within the atmosphere, big enough for her to see it. It's purplish body was semi-translucent, not casting much of a shadow of any kind onto the Earth itself. The blob-like creature possessed several tentacle-like tendril protruding from it's sides, and presumably the bottom as well. It floated aimlessly throughout the atmosphere, so Psilo didn't see it as an immediate danger - until it's tendrils extended towards the ship. A low-frequency hum emitted from them, which confused Psilo. She tried to begin interfacing, but the ship wouldn't let her. Something's up, and I bet it has to do with that blob thing outside... she thought, getting out of her chair. The low tone suddenly got much, much louder, and the ship itself shook. All of the panels within the cockpit died out - Psilo had no control over the ship. The hand ship jerked to the side, following one of the blob's tendril arms as it moved. This was when she started to panic. Grabbing the microphone, she began speaking. "Attention passengers, we are having a problem. It appears that there is a gem-like creature outside of the ship. It has begun interfering with the ship's technology, and is now in control of the ship's movement. All gems are to stay on alert, just in case." Psilo spoke affirmatively into the microphone before returning her focus to the monster.

A few more of it's arms shot out, one going in a different direction and emitting the same low tone out into space. Due to her panicking, Psilomelane couldn't see exactly what the arm was aiming at. The other arms were equally divided in direction, half pointing at the hand ship, half pointing off into space like the aforementioned noise-emitting arm. Those arms that pointed towards the ship suddenly began to glow and hum a medium-pitched note. At first, there was no effect, but then the ship started to rush towards them.

They were being thrown down to Earth forcibly.

Psilo grabbed the microphone again, this time in almost full panic mode. "Attention all gems. This ship is going down. All other gems to an escape pod immediately. I will attempt to calibrate the ship's systems to aim the escape pods in a similar direction to each other, but there is no guarantee. This is an emergency situation, all gems to the nearest escape pods immediately. We will regroup at one location on Earth. This ship is going down, everyone get to an escape pod, now."

She threw the microphone aside, and hit a button on the wall. The button created a massive red panel, ready to be interfaced with. It glitched every now and then, struggling to hold it's own integrity against the power of the noisy, gem-like, ship destroying blob of death outside. Psilo interfaced with it, entering coordinates into the ship's emergency control system. Once that was finished, she hit the button again, causing the screen to vanish. She ran directly to the opposite end of the room and stepped on a specifically marked tile on the ground, calling an escape pod to herself. It had the coordinates pre-entered, almost ensuring she would land in the correct location. She entered the pod and allowed the ship to eject her into Earth's atmosphere. Closing her eyes, Psilo awaited the moment where the flying would stop, and she would either hit water or ground, hoping to herself that everyone on board heard her message and that they got out safely, just as she did.

 

[Peachy Ace]

Goldstone tripped, due the gem monster on the outside of the ship. She looked out an Open window. It was covered in a black substance. "Grr!" Goldstone growled "There's only Six of us, I'm sure that coward Psilomelane already took an Escape Pod." Goldstone growled. There wasn't a way that Goldstone could hold of the gem monster, the only option was fusion, yet she didn't want to resort to it. "Grrrr! Dang It!" She yelled. She ran back to her quarters, and pounded the ground. A green escape pod surrounded her. The ship shot her out. "If I live, this is gonna be one hell of a ride!" He smiled, as he broke into the earth's atmosphere.

 

[Lord Of Pain]

Cinnabar heard the announcement and dashed to his quarter and to the escape pod, still hidden in the shadows, what ever was happening it was causing the pilot to panic, "this isnt good at all, i hope i survive this ride...." he thought to himself as he activated his red pod and got in. the ship shot his pod out, his pod rocketed towards the organic life filled planet, "i wanted to arrive to this damned planet fast but not like this...." he thought as his pod broke through thr atmosphere.

 

[Nateriety]

Beryl came to a brief stop in the hallway. A sound reached her ears...a sort of scraping noise from around one of the corners, and it sounded like it was swiftly moving in her direction. What rounded the corner was one of the other Gems - a green one with a rather wide grin plastered on her face - speeding around on what looked like a desk chair with wheels on it. Beryl easily stepped to the side as the green Gem continued her movement, who yelled a quick "my bad!" as she passed Beryl by.

"That one was... Maw Sit Sit, if I remember my briefing correctly," Beryl thought, a small scowl finding its way onto her face as she watched the mischievous green Gem glide away on the chair. "I've heard of eccentric Gems, but that one is just immature."

Shaking the thought away, Beryl just kept on walking.

But she soon passed another Gem: a dark colored one who seemed to be a little nervous from the way she slunk along. What was interesting about this one, however, was the fact that her hands were clawed and her legs looked matted with fur. Beryl passed the Gem by, neither of them saying anything, but merely acknowledged one-another's presence.

"That one must be Psilomelane. Hard to miss with that...distinct appearance," Beryl concluded, matching the look of the black gem with the information she had about the other Gems. "Seems a little shaky, but at least she seems to be taking this seriously."

Beryl kept her eyes out for the remaining Gems, but didn't quite see any of them. They were either in their quarters or in some other corner of the ship. She supposed it didn't quite matter right now, since she'd likely be seeing plenty of them on the ground.

The speakers sounded with some slight static just then, the voice of Psilomelane echoing across the entire craft. "Okay, attention crew. We are now approaching the planet known as Earth. We will be landing at the coordinates provided by the Diamonds shortly, so please refrain from breaking things to ensure a smooth landing."

So they were close to the planet, were they?

"Good. Starting to get a little sick of this ship," Beryl thought, glaring at the dull interior of the craft with disdain. She decided now would be a good time to start moving back to her room in order to prepare for landing. But, suddenly, the lights flickered wildly, followed by the ship violently shaking. Beryl jolted, but she managed to keep her balance, quickly assuming a guarded stance out of reflex and instinctively looking around for any visible source of disturbance.

"Attention passengers, we are having a problem. It appears that there is a gem-like creature outside of the ship. It has begun interfering with the ship's technology, and is now in control of the ship's movement. All gems are to stay on alert, just in case."

"What?!" Beryl grit her teeth, turning in the direction she knew the nearest viewing bay to be. She sprung from her spot in a flash, speeding through the halls quickly enough to appear as a blur, directing herself to an open bay to view the space outside. She stopped herself almost effortlessly, but needed to adjust her balance due the increasing instability of the ship. "What is that...?!" Beryl grimaced with widened eyes.

Her gaze landed on a massive creature. From this distance it appeared to be a purplish looking blob drifting about the Earth's atmosphere. A few tendril-shaped appendages belonging to the creature seemed to have a constrictive hold on the ship. Upon closer inspection, it didn't seem to be doing any structural damage to the ship itself. But whatever it was doing, the ship was losing power and was starting fall.

At an alarming rate!

Psilomelane's voice broadcast across the ship once again. "Attention all gems. This ship is going down. All other gems to an escape pod immediately. I will attempt to calibrate the ship's systems to aim the escape pods in a similar direction to each other, but there is no guarantee. This is an emergency situation, all gems to the nearest escape pods immediately. We will regroup at one location on Earth. This ship is going down, everyone get to an escape pod, now."

Glaring intensely at the distant creature causing this issue, but realizing there was nothing to be done, Beryl turned on her heel and shot away from the viewing pod. Increasing speed as the ship further began to destabilize, she deftly navigated the hallways at high speed, only slowing up when she reached the room she'd called her own for the trip. In the interest of time, Beryl decided not to open the door with the correct code.

So she instead elected to break through the door with a swift blast charged and thrown from her right hand.

Running into the room, Beryl quickly located the emergency console and slammed her finger down on the Escape Pod button. In a yellow light, a hole opened in the floor with a short drop leading into the small pod. She wasted no time leaping into it.

The pod blasted off, falling away from the ship and towards the pretty blue planet below. The Pod's instructions kicked in, directing it towards the pre-entered landing coordinates the pilot had supposedly entered. Beryl sighed in annoyance, but leaned back into the seat regardless. "Well, just great! Not even landed and things have already gone sour! Well...I guess the only way is down."

 

[Sciencewars]

As he walked down the main hallway, White felt a small rumble. Before he assumed take it was just the Maw Sit Sit he saw earlier, the entire ship rocked as he looked out the window. "I can't believe it..." He said to himself as he saw the creature. There, in the core of it, was the gem that confirmed his suspicion.

"Attention all gems. This ship is going down. All other gems to an escape pod immediately. I will attempt to calibrate the ship's systems to aim the escape pods in a similar direction to each other, but there is no guarantee. This is an emergency situation, all gems to the nearest escape pods immediately. We will regroup at one location on Earth. This ship is going down, everyone get to an escape pod, now."

That message played again and again over the intercom, and white listened. He worried about the gem on the cockpit, which he presumed to be the Psilomelane he saw earlier. Luckily, the cockpit has an emergency pod, so the gem inside should be fine. He rushed to his room and entered the emergency escape code as he was emmased b a ball of green and fired out at an alarming rate towards the uncolonized planet. Out the window, however, was something very interesting. Another craft, one coated with ancient gem technology.

Well then...

Atleast I'm not alone for the ride.

 

[Il Fantasma]

"Attention passengers, we are having a problem. It appears that there is a gem-like creature outside of the ship. It has begun interfering with the ship's technology, and is now in control of the ship's movement. All gems are to stay on alert, just in case."

"'Interfering with the ship's technology'?" Maw said out loud from one of the hallways. As quickly as she could, she glided over to the nearest window, still sitting on the chair, and looked out to see a huge jellyfish-like creature floating close to the ship. Her eyes widened as she watched it shoot its tentacles out at the ship, and could hear the captain's next announcement:

"Attention all gems. This ship is going down. All other gems to an escape pod immediately. I will attempt to calibrate the ship's systems to aim the escape pods in a similar direction to each other, but there is no guarantee. This is an emergency situation, all gems to the nearest escape pods immediately. We will regroup at one location on Earth. This ship is going down, everyone get to an escape pod, now."

"WAH!" Chrome yelped as she felt a rush of the ship being hurtled down to Earth. Standing up, she bolted in the direction of the pods, like the captain had said to do. Actually wasting the time to look back at her chair, she yelled, "I'm so sorry, chair! Save yourself!" And with that, she bolted off.

It only took her a minute to find the remainders of the escape pods. As fast as she could, Maw flung herself into a purple pod, closing the door/hatch and pressing a button. The pod shot out of the side of the ship, got caught in Earth's gravitational pull, and was sucked toward the lively planet. A question popped into Maw Sit Sit's mind as she flew through the air:

"WHERE AM I GONNA LAND!?"

Not knowing where exactly she would be, she forced herself to bury her face in her hands, awaiting impact.

 

[StellarWind Elsydeon]

Well, this was certainly not the smoothest situation she's ever got herself into.

Shortly after entering the planet's upper atmosphere, her sensors registered an anomaly. Two anomalies, actually. The creature was the first thing she noticed - an enormous floating gelatinous organism of some sort, tendrils emerging from its side and emitting an eerie tone, with a frequency that made her feel uneasy. The second disturbance was a sturdy-looking hand-shaped object of a type that she could not, for the life of her, identify. Neither of the anomalies appeared like they would have originated in a world of this profile - and what's more, the radiant core within the creature appeared eerily familiar.

"What are you?", she mumbled, shifting her tendril connections to change her scanner input - and once the composition scanner input came in, she could not help but feel even more uneasy.

This creature was a Gem. But at the same time, not a gem. This thing was feral. Savage. Operating on little more than instinct - or so it seemed. This gelatinous hover-sac was not a form it assumed by will. Cross-reference: vague gem lifeform traces from prior scan, confused, broken. Some form of monstrous degeneration? Was this something that naturally happened to gems on this world? Was this the reason the colonization project here was aborted? Or did something else cause this to happen?

And then there was the other thing. The Hand. It was not a life form of its own right, but seemed to have a power source and a whole plethora of complicated systems that implied this was a ship. And what more, it carried additional gem life signs. Quite a few of them, really. Remnants of the old colony project? No, that could not be it - considering the apparent date of the gem structures on this world, this ship was too advanced to be any colonial leftover. It made her ship - a state of the art explorer ship at the time of her deployment - look like two sticks and rock tied together with vines in comparison. Part of her was almost jealous.

The logical conclusion was that this was a much newer vessel - and these gems were coming TO Earth from somewhere. Why was anyone's guess - probably sent by one of the Diamonds for some reason or another. Whatever it was doing here, it was not going to do it for much longer - there was a rapid flow of energy from the hand-ship into the creature and back - this former gem was draining its compatriot's ship of its energy and assuming control of its systems somehow. Scanning? Feeding? What was it doing? And what was that accursed tone-

... Her peripheral vision caught the approaching tendril and she reacted quickly, flying into a string of evasive maneuvers. She's escaped situations like this narrowly before - but the more she moved, the louder the tone got, and the less responsive her ship became. She was trapped in the same way this Hand-Ship was - and judging by the movement of the tendrils - for there were more than one now, for both ships - she had a feeling she knew where this was going. She could notice a few escape pods emanating from the hand ship before disconnecting her head-tendrils from her ship's systems to avoid whatever was happening to it from happening to her as well.

The former gem hurled both vessels - ancient and new - towards the ground at a rapid velocity indeed. Within the rapidly descending ancient explorer craft, its occupant curled into herself, adjusting her body for optimal shock absorption and protection when the crash did happen, pondering, briefly, how the likelihood of her being capable of repairing this vessel were probably fairly slim - and how she should probably figure out an exit route as soon as possible, provided her gem survived the landing intact.

Gems lack the plethora of bodily functions that the organic residents of the planet Earth have developed their rich library of expletives based on. Neither do they have anything resembling Gods or Devils, Heaven or Hell - save for the Diamonds, of course, who could very easily be either depending on their mood at the moment.

This can be an exceptionally frustrating thing when one is rapidly hurtling towards the surface of an alien planet, and no words exist in one's vocabulary to express exactly how one feels about the situation.

Tanzanite settled for "Oh, jank it." as she sealed a panel or two of armor over her gem, tucked her head into her protective plating and made a mental note that if she ever makes it out of this alive, she's going to track down this gem beast and converse with it in the same manner the Shatterclaws of Zalatarii 7 did.

It involved a lot of claws and shattering. These creatures liked to tell it like it is.

 

[Sciencewars]

The small vessel was slamming to the planet at an alarming place, with a few other pods rocketing to around the same area. The area was a large continent, with a split down the middle. From the briefing, this was called "Australia". Hopefully, he and the other gems could meet up and repair the ship.

But then there was the outsider. A lost gem. It was pure luck that they was attacked by the same creature, a corrupted gem. The communication technology would be erriparible, but luck might be on their side if she was still connected.

That is, if he wasn't shattered before he got there. Pain was erupting across his pentagonal gemstone, like his form might destablize any second. He was almost there, about to land in the cut of liquid that spread through the continent.

The braking mechanisms kicked in as the pod slowed to a stop, ejecting the small gem out onto the shoreline. "Time to group up... They better not die out here, because I know that will happen with some of them." White said sarcastically to himself.

 

[Hisseki]

Psilo didn't bother opening her eyes. She didn't want to see where she was. She didn't want to check if the other gems got out of the ship. She literally just wanted to shut her eyes and look at absolutely nothing until she landed. Then she would worry about other things.

As the speed of the pod increased due to the Earth's gravitational pull, she felt an exponentially growing pain in her oddly shaped gem. She didn't open her eyes just yet to see what was happening. Rather, she put her hands over it and hoped for the best. It wasn't until she felt her pod slow down that she opened her eyes. Upon doing so, she realized that the seal for the door was slowly opening. She had made it onto Earth without shattering! She was still somewhat high up, so she waited until she was somewhat close to the ground before coming out of her pod. Once she rolled out of the spherical escape pod, she looked around for others. There was water nearby, and close to the water was a white gem, the same one from earlier on the ship. Hesitantly, Psilomelane walked over to the gem, still somewhat shaken by her atmospheric entry via escape pod.

"H-hello there. I-I'm Psilomelane, the pilot - er, former pilot of the ship we were on. I-I'm really sorry for what happened, there was really nothing I could do..." Psilo said to the gem in a voice that was quieter than she hoped, keeping both hands behind her slender figure and poking at the metal limb enhancers surrounding them. "I should've acquainted myself with the crew prior to takeoff. D-do you know how many others there were?"

Psilomelane looked around for any other gem escape pods. If there was one, there were sure to be others. What she saw was a field of plants, small, blade-like golden plants, simply swaying in the wind. Psilo was tempted to bend down and pick some up, but she resisted the urge to do so in favor of ensuring the safety of her crew members. I really owe them all an apology, I could've handled things better, but I didn't. She thought, not yet extending an arm to the white gem. "Again, I really am sorry for what happened. Who might you be, exactly?" Psilo asked, tilting her head to the side to emphasize her confusion.

 

[Sciencewars]

After taking in what happened, White looked up at the figure above him. It was the Psilomelane from earlier, the "prototype", as his diamond described her. He listened to her apology, worryingly. "Umm... Hello. 'Names White Sapphire, call me White." White Sapphire said to the figure, atleast twice his size. "And it wasn't your fault. It was the corrupted gem. They used to be members of the rebellion, but were damaged from the war and turned into these... Creatures."

White got up and took a breath, and looked at the Psilomelane, called "Psilo". He then added, "We should go find the others, especially that Maw. Don't want anyone dying."

 

[Peachy Ace]

Goldstone landed relatively close to the two gems. She climbed out of the escape pod, and looked around. She saw two gems, one being the Psilomelane. "You! What happened!" Goldstone yelled. She summoned her Axe, the handle was Blue, with a bit of gold that swirled around. She knew that she shouldn't off been against her crew members, but wanted to be respected for the time being. "Grr, What is the mission!!!" She yelled, at the Psilomelane. Back on Homeworld, she had been assigned her own pearl, being an Elite. He would usually tell at her when she was stressed, and the Pearl didn't seem to mind. Now he was more stressed and needed to yell at someone, so he chose the Psilomelane.

 

[Lord Of Pain]

Cinnabar's pod raced towards the ground at extreme speeds, all he could do was to cover his gem and wait.
As his pod started to slow down he slowly took his hand off of his gem, waiting for the right time get out, "let's hope I'm not alone" he thought to himself absent mindedly, he was only brought back to reality after his pod crashed into the center of the water body that split the continent.

After a few minutes after his pod had sunk five red pointy tipped claws attached to chains shot out of the water and latched onto the closest solid object around, Cinnabar finally managed to pull himself out of the water and onto land, his gauntlets and jaw mask disappearing as he flopped onto the ground, his eye catching sight of 3 other gems nearby.

 

[Nateriety]

"WARNING! MALFUNCTION DETECTED IN POD STABILIZERS! UNABLE TO ACTIVATE BACK-UP THRUSTERS! CALCULATED TIME UNTIL COLLISION: 2 MINUTES AND 39 SECONDS!"

A red warning light blinked on and off as the pod continued to rush towards the Earth, only continuing to pick up speed due to the newly added factor of the planet's gravitational pull. Unable to initiate the stabilization thrusters to slow the descent, or the course correction protocol to make sure the pod landed on the specified coordinates, Beryl cursed to herself as her escape pod continued to spiral towards the ground without direction or control. She was rushing closer and closer towards impact.

And unless she did something, Beryl figured she might not survive said impact.

"Okay, I don't have a lot of time! I'm going to have to make a manual exit once I'm close enough to the ground. But first," she thought to herself, her eyes drifting to the pod control panel.

She quickly input a series of commands into the panel. In response, a small slot on the side of the panel opened that boasted a circular port for external devices to use. Beryl momentarily removed the yellow visor from her eyes and connected the panel's circular port into a hollow spot in the visor. Both the visor and the panel screen completed a connection, the screen confirming that the panel was ready to interface with the external device. "Computer! Time until collision?!" she demanded.

"WARNING! NEW CALCULATED TIME UNTIL COLLISION: 1 MINUTE AND 30 SECONDS!"

With little time to waste, Beryl set to manually locating the coordinates stored inside the control panel. While the pod had made initial direction towards the coordinates, it was likely to land some distance away from the exact spot without the guidance of the course correction protocol. With that in mind, not wanting to wander aimlessly, Beryl's immediate solution was to upload the coordinates into her visor. She'd be able to make her own way to the intended spot once she had direct access to the information...assuming her make-shift exit strategy worked, of course.

"Alright, got it!" Beryl inwardly praised as the coordinates uploaded to her visor. "Computer! Status report!" she yelled.

"STATUS: POD STABILIZERS ARE OFFLINE! ALL EMERGENCY SYSTEMS ARE OFFLINE! PROJECTED DAMAGE UPON IMPACT: CRITICAL! NEW CALCULATED TIME UNTIL COLLISION: 38 SECONDS!"

"Computer! Bring the collision countdown on the main screen and open the pod door at ten seconds!" Beryl ordered, slipping her visor back over her dark yellow eyes as she re-positioned herself so her feet were planted against the back of the pod.

"ACKNOWLEDGED!"

As requested, the countdown timer appeared on the screen, the number appearing at first being thirty. Beryl took a moment to adjust herself before her gem started to glow with rapidly charging energy. She focused on equally spreading the building power around her entire 'body'. As such, a light veil of yellow seemed to cloak her with an audible whirring noise accompanying it. And then, her eyes once again fell on the timer. She had to get this just right.

The number struck ten and a sharp gust of wind blasted into the pod as the door dislodged from its fixed position, falling away into the unknown below.

"Now!" Seeing her window, Beryl launched herself out of the opening, her momentum carrying her out into an openness above a forest of some-kind. A stream of water ran through the wooded area and stretched as far as her eyes could see, all the way to open fields of green further beyond the trees. And the sky! Such a...beautiful, pleasantly blue sky! For just a moment, Beryl seemed to forget the tension of the situation.

But her senses kicked back in as her yellow veil dissipated and she started to fall.

Fortunately, having timed her jump, her fall wasn't too far towards one of the higher reaching trees. She managed to direct her descent towards a rather sturdy looking branch, landing safely, albeit a bit roughly, onto it.

Finally, she released a breath she wasn't aware she'd been holding, standing to her full height and gazing out across the far reaching woodland. She'd survived! Admittedly, all of that could have gone much better, and she'd been temporarily separated from the rest of the Gems. But she wasn't damaged! She wasn't shattered! And that alone was a silver-lining to the awful disruption that had occurred minutes ago.

"Speaking of," she muttered to herself, glancing up to the skies, her eyes seeking the shape she'd seen in space...but it wasn't visible to her anymore. "Just what was that, anyway?"

Shaking her head, Beryl remembered she still had to regroup with the rest. Assuming they had a better time landing then she did, they'd likely be near the intended landing spot. Her visor flashed through a couple of separate programs before bringing up the coordinates she'd retrieved, a marker pointing her in the direction she needed to go.

And through some stroke of luck, it wouldn't take her too long to get there if she moved quickly.

"Guess I'd better get moving!" she stated to herself, leaping down from the tree branch to the ground below before bolting off at speed, making sure to keep her movement just steady enough to avoid any trees in her path.

 

[StellarWind Elsydeon]

As the dust of the crash settled, it was apparent that the explorer ship - or what was left of it - was in a sorry state indeed. Impact with the ground left a small crater all around it, and bits and pieces of struts and nacelles were scattered all around, some shattered and bent in fairly unnatural directions. It was testament to the craftgemship of the vessel's engineers that the main body remained in one piece, though the piece in question was heavily dented and jutted awkwardly from the surface, its front firmly lodged in the ground in what was definitely not a graceful angle.

For a moment, there was silence. Then a loud thump came from the interior. And another. With each thump, a spot what was once the roof of the ship bulged outwards a little more - until suddenly, with the loud creak of metal and complex crystalline polymers, it was pierced by something from within. A blue-violet, curved bladelike claw - with a mildly serrated edge and the texture midway between metal and the chitinous shell of a crab - began tearing through the dented material, at times cutting through its surface like a can opener, at time sawing through what was, internally, stronger support struts. It worked patiently, cutting the roof of the ship open along a path - before receding.

There was a terrible noise as something punched the cut roof open and the ship's occupant burst out of the space within like some kind of insect emerging from its cocoon - an armor-plated creature, its body a myriad of scintillating violet-blues and black, currents of light violet-blue energy running along its plates in a manner that was not quite circuitry and not quite an organic neuron web. It had at least four arms attached to an almost humanoid torso, The lower pair of its arms tipped with the same blade-like appendages it used to cut through the hull and normally used as another supporting pair of legs, while the upper pair tipped with more human-looking hands, albeit with the backs of the hands forming a shield that protected the fingers when punching the craft's roof open. A wild mane of plated tendrils, undulating independently like a nest of snakes, emerged from the back of the creature's head and cascaded along its back and neck, and the head itself supported an array of compound eyes set around a teardrop shaped gem. The creature turned its head to the sky - a beautiful blue sky, save for the thing floating in the distance that just placed it in this predicament - and its elaborate, protective mandible-covers snapped open to reveal a lower face not unlike that of a human save for the sharp teeth, thin dark-painted lips contorted in anger.

"YEAH, YEAH, AND YOUR ORIGIN STRATUM TOO!" she yelled, shaking a fist at the floating creature in the distance, before realizing the absurdity of the situation.

"Heh. Old Gem Yells at Cloud. There you have a tale for the ages." she smirked, and proceeded to extract the rest of her body - a chimeric mishmash of features she enjoyed in all the creatures that she has emulated across her journeys - from the remains of her ship. Normally, she would have scanned the planet from orbit, catalogued a few interesting creatures and used their forms to attempt to blend in, sampling multiple forms of life for a while until she felt like moving on. This time, she did not get the chance - but had a feeling that if these monstrous gems roamed the planet, she should be prepared with a form that would give her somewhat of an edge. Her current shape provided her with a fairly even blend of speed, power and protection - and she could always adapt to a new structure if such was required. And honestly, for all its segmentation, it had an elegant sort of flow to it.

First thing's first, though. She really did need to check What on Earth - to coin a phrase - could be salvaged from the ship she's called home for all these years. Likelihood that much of use remained was low, but at the very least, she should probably cover her tracks and hide the remains somewhere where it wouldn't disturb the local ecosystem too much. Mandible-covers closing, Tanzanite got to work.

 

[Hisseki]

"You! What happened!"

Psilo's head snapped towards the direction of a booming yell, and found it's origin in the angry blue gem from on the ship. She was being directly addressed by her, which already scared her, but then the blue gem pulled out her weapon - an axe - which caused Psilo to squeak in fear, hiding behind White Sapphire in vain due to her height. Don't shatter me!! Psilo thought in fear, the thought echoing in her head repeatedly until she calmed down. She stayed behind White for a few extra seconds before realizing that she looked really stupid, hiding behind a gem that was half her height. She stood up, cleared her throat, and began to speak. Her voice was still quiet, and now it was shaky as well, but she felt the need to speak anyways. "E-excuse me, I-I must apologize f-for the crash, I-I had n-no control over it. Y-You do, however, have e-every right to be angry w-with me. I c-could've handled the situation better, I see that, but that's currently i-in the p-past," she said to the axe-wielding gem.

"Grr, What is the mission!!!"

"I-I personally was n-not given the details of the mission. I-I was told someone else would have those details. I was simply to escort them to Earth, then assist in any way possible." Psilo admitted, scratching the back of her head awkwardly.

She wasn't wrong. When given the instruction to go along with others on an Earth Mission, she was told to pilot the ship and help in any way needed. That was all. There was no specific mission goal given to her at the time. Taking a few steps back, she giggled awkwardly in the hopes that the blue gem wasn't even angrier at her. "I-I was actually hoping someone e-else knew, but... maybe we c-could focus on finding the others now?"

 

[Sciencewars]

"Hey, guys, no need to fight. I was completely briefed on the mission." White said after Psilo apologized. "We were sent to check on the cluster project. However, the materials needed were located on the ship."

White scratched his head as he thought about what to do. He then stated, "Let's try and make a base. After that, we might be able to contact Homeworld. We might be able to use the organic plants here to build a fortress. The mission right now cannot be completed."

Right now, he only had one job- protect the other gems, make sure nobody is shattered. That's what he was doing for thousands of years. It would be harder now, as he had to keep track of 5 gems, and make sure no corruptions or wildlife attacked.

 

[Il Fantasma]

"OW!" Maw yelled as she leapt from her speeding, purple escape pod, landing in a group of trees. Her pod landed in the close-by water, causing a massive splash. After the sound died down, she yelled again. "Worst. Landing. EVER! But it does feel nice to be back on Earth!" Carefully, she climbed down from her high-up spot, away from the view of everything she had not bothered to look at. Once her feet touched ground, voices could be heard, coming from somewhere not very far away, by the sound of them. Is that the others? Chrome wondered, pushing through the trees.

From what it looked like, a couple of the gems were fighting over something. Storming over, wanting none of this at the moment, Maw Sit Sit stood inbetween the gems, arms out in front of each. "Hey, HEY! Break it up, you two!" she yelled for a third time, imitating authority. Noticing another gem also trying to stop the argument, she nodded in their direction, before repeatedly looking from one gem to the other, brow furrowed, arms unwavering.

 

[Hisseki]

"I-I wasn't- but-" Psilomelane was going to comment on Maw Sit Sit rushing in to break up a fight between her and the yet-to-be-introduced-to-her blue gemstone. With a sigh, she stood more assertively, clearing her throat and muttering an "ow" to herself as she hit herself in the mouth with her metal limb enhancer. "Our primary objective is to find the other gems. There was a gold gem that I don't see here, and I'm sure there were others."

Halfway through her instructions, her shy nature returned to her, becoming evident in her tone of voice and her stance. "U-uh, th-there might've been more... th-then the objective w-would be to find the ship wreckage... b-but there's th-that other thing that the gem monster pointed at..." She droned off to herself, pacing around aimlessly as she spoke.

Maw was there, White was there, and the blue gem was there. The golden gem was nowhere to be seen, and Psilo could've sworn she heard more pods eject from the ship. She was extremely curious about the other object that the space jelly monster pointed at. She couldn't see it in perfect detail, but it was definitely something. Maybe someone here knows a bit abo- "Ah!"

Psilo yelped as she fell into the water, lost in thought. Quickly, she scrambled out of the water, readjusting her limb enhancers and patting her legs dry. She continued walking around, playing off the situation as if it were nothing. Outside, she looked calm and pensive. However, in her head...

Omigosh, that was stupid, I can't believe that happened, I looked so dumb! They probably think I'm stupid or something! The blue one is probably gonna want to shatter me even more now! This is horrible! Maw might be immature, but that was foolish of me! Oh my stars...

Psilo's mind raced as she tried to keep her lost-in-meaningful-thought appearance, this time paying extra attention to her surroundings. "Uh, d-do you guys have any ideas on what to d-do?" Psilo said aloud before resuming her pacing.

 

[Nateriety]

Rushing through the woods while deftly avoiding the obstacles of nature, Beryl followed the directions her visor displayed for her, keeping note of a small number that counted the estimated time of arrival based on the current speed she was moving at. The timer currently sat at nine minutes and thirty-three seconds. She was making good time, but she was already preparing to make a break for wherever the ship crashed in case none of the Gems were at the coordinates. That's likely where they would all go at some point, if only to see if there was anything that could be salvaged from the wreck.

But that's when a loud noise nearby reached her ears.

"YEAH, YEAH, AND YOUR ORIGIN STRATUM TOO!"

"Huh?" Beryl twitched, skidding to a stop and turning in the direction of the sound. She strained her ears to see if she could hear anything else, but no other noises seemed to occur. "Could that be one of the others?" she asked herself with a raised eyebrow.

Her visor beeped a few times, alerting her to her sudden decrease in speed and change of direction. The estimated time in the corner switched from a specific designated time to a question mark. "Looks like I'm making a detour," Beryl muttered, deactivating the directional marker for the time being.

She took off into the new direction, moving much slower than before so she would have an easier time spotting the owner of that voice.

After a short distance, Beryl reached a clearing of sorts with an open space amidst the trees. And in the center of this clearing she saw a figure...and a rather strange looking one, at that. A being plated in blue and black armor of sorts with a total of four arms, small streams of violet coursing through its plating, and a wild head of plated tendrils that seemed to double as its hair. It stood over something - a small wreckage of sorts that had been mangled and torn open - and seemed as if it were intently inspecting the remains.

Rather curiously, those remains didn't look like anything Beryl had seen in recent times. It wasn't nearly large enough to be the ship she had 'arrived' on. And it definitely didn't look like an escape pod, either.

Not only that, whoever this figure was, it didn't match the data she had on any of the Gems she'd accompanied to Earth. But judging by the wreckage, it was safe to assume that this one only just arrived on the planet...and likely got dropped down here in the same manner she herself did. A few different possible approaches raced through Beryl's mind.

She thought about attacking the blue and black figure before it was aware of her presence, but quickly discarded the idea. Beryl might have been a Gem tailored to combat, but she'd be darned if she got lumped in with the average war-brutes of Homeworld. She liked to use her head as much as her battle skills. She'd fight if she had to...but only if the strange figure gave her good reason to.

She also thought about just leaving it be and resuming her original path. Whoever this was, they weren't part of Beryl's crew, and therefore didn't fall under her original orders at all. But she'd be lying if she said she wasn't somewhat curious. And besides, perhaps this figure knew something about the planet or, even better, the strange shape that had caused the disruption to the mission.

Any information on pertaining to that thing would appease Beryl...if only so she could use it to hunt the creature down and tear it to pieces. "Oh, yeah, that'd be satisfying. It'd serve it right for almost getting me killed!" she thought.

And so, ultimately, she resigned herself to a less hostile approach in deciding to converse with the strange shape in the clearing. She cleared her throat.

"You there!" she called out to the armor plated being, hoping to catch its attention.

 

[StellarWind Elsydeon]

Oh wonderful, an interruption.

Tanzanite has barely managed to dismantle whatever usable parts her former craft held when someone decided to catch her attention. Turning her head at a 180-degree angle, she surveyed the interloper with her array of oculars. Visible light spectrum input indicated a slim, golden, white-haired figure clad in some kind of light armor. Input in other spectra painted a different picture - a projection emanated from a square-cut mineral formation located on the figure's right hand. Beryllium, Aluminum, Silicon, Oxygen... This was another gem, a Beryl of some sort, apparently - and judging by the fact it didn't attack first and ask questions later - and the fact that it was actually capable of asking questions in the first place - it was actually in possession of its mental faculties.

She hoped so, anyway. Who knew what sort of surprises this planet could hold.

"Hail, stranger." she nodded, mandible-covers opening once more to reveal a sharp-toothed grin, as she turned the rest of her body around to face the new arrival "I take it you're not one of the natives."

 

[Lord Of Pain]

Cinnabar saw as the 3 gems argued and a 4th one came in, he started to push himself up back to his feet and wandered towards them, his blank red eyes looking for one gem to the other

"Looks like I'm not the only survivor.... weather that Is a good thing or a bad thing is depending on the situation.... This situation? A good thing" he thought to himself as he kept walking, the atmosphere around him warmed by the heat emitted by him, he decided to address them all together to avoid having one of them look mad, even if it made them all look mad, "hey, if I'm right you are all from the ship that got attacked and had its crew evacuate it, I'm from that ship, the name is Cinnabar but call me Cin" he addressed them telepathically

 

[Peachy Ace]

"Grr." Goldstone growled. He held back his wrath. "The Cluster is st the center of the earth? Isn't it." Goldstone asked. He clenched his fist. "He didn't have Limb Enhancements, or any tech given to him. He was a full on brute. Not being the 'sharpest tool in the shed, he grabbed his axe, and swung at the ground. He hoped to dig down deep enough to get to the cluster. He looked up. "Come on! Start Digging! If you don't, well never get to the cluster!" Goldstone yelled.

Goldstone kept digging until he realised. "Wait a minute! The Escape Pods!" He yelled. He looked at his. It was no good, considering he had punched a hole through the top. He growled. "Check your escape pods!" He commanded. He wasn't sure if he was the leader, or who was, but he wanted to tske charge for the time being.

 

[Hisseki]

Psilomelane physically jumped as someone contacted her telepathically, apparently a gem by the name of Cinnabar, or Cin. Needless to say, she was surprised by not only the sudden appearance of someone who wasn't noted by her on the ship, but also the telepathic method of communication used and the sudden increase in temperature brought on by the gem's presence. Turning fully to Cin, she mouthed her name to the red gem, as well as the name "Psilo", which is what she preferred to be called.

Another thing that shocked her, albeit not as much as Cin, was the fact that the blue gem began to dig at the ground in a vain attempt to reach the cluster. "Y-you aren't gonna get anywhere like that. The cluster i-is very far down... just normal digging won't get you anywhere." She said, flinching as he ordered her to check the escape pods.

Psilo scurried over to her escape pod and stepped inside. Most of the technology within it was frazzled from the sudden ejection from the main ship, but she was still able to interface with the pod. She pulled up the monitor outside of the front of the pod, making it display a map of the cluster's current location. In a slightly warped tone of voice, she spoke, her words appearing on the screen. "This is the map I was provided of the Cluster's location. It's deep. We'd need to drill down to check on it physically, and if we chose to do so, the materials were on the ship. What is our next course of action? I was not made to lead, only to provide tech support." Psilo informed the group.

She stopped interfacing with the pod, shivering as the map disappeared. Psilo clumsily stumbled out of the pod, almost falling flat on her face. With a yelp, she steadied herself, then brushed herself off and stood up straight. "I-if we really were digging, I think these would help," Psilo said sort of proudly, holding up her claw-like hands, "these can tear through metal. It would hurt, because it's still my hand, but I-I can do it... if we needed..."

 

[Peachy Ace]

"So we have the coordinates of the Cluster? Good, were gonna need it!" Goldstone smiled. He walked over and examined Psilomelane's choice of Defense Mechanism. He smiled as he was imoressed, by the look, sturdiness, and sharpness of the blade. " Haha! Nice! Way better, than what those Rubies can Make. Making weapons out of thier own gem. Carving out thier gems. In the end they can only make a short knife!" He smiled. Goldstone looked at some of the ship parts, that fell into the atmosphere. Some Giant, some small pieces. "That thing is really doing a number on the ship." He sighed. He grabbed a giant peice of Titanium, he ripped off of one of the ship parts? "He smiled. He pounded on the ground with the Titanium. It doesn't bend. "The materials here are all we need!" Goldstone smiled. He started ripping off other pieces of the former ship.

 

[Sciencewars]

Not being suprised at all by any of his crewmates' odd behavior, White decided to speak up in the chaos. "No need to use any digging tools right now. We have no way of digging that far down without protection, and if we called for Homeworld, we would probably be shattered. Our main job is to find our last crewmate- Beryl- and survive." White explained. "We have to make the best out of this."

Suddenly, a shout rang out. You there! Echoed through the forest as White caught the direction. "Guys! I think I found them... We need some people to guard the ship remains, though. I will stay here. I'm sure four gems can fight a couple of monkeys." He commented as he walked over to the pile of metal and pointed in the direction of the shout.

 

[Nateriety]

"Hail, stranger. I take it you're not one of the natives."

Beryl did well to hide her surprise. Not only did the strange figure respond perfectly, but when they turned around to reveal a smiling face she was shocked to see the teardrop shaped Gem located in their forehead. "Then that means this is...another Gem? Not a kind I recognize, or at least not in the shape this one is boasting," she thought, more and more questions racing through her head. Beryl wanted to ask who this Gem was, why she was here, if she'd been sent to aid the mission, and if she had then why wasn't anyone else informed. She wanted to ask all of that and a little more.

But she knew better than to just blurt all of that out and demand answers. During her time body-guarding, she'd been around the diplomatic types long enough to pick up some tricks. Rapid-fire questioning and expecting perfect cooperation from a stranger wasn't likely to work out well. Patience and tactfulness was required.

"You're right about that one," Beryl answered, looking over the blue and black gem with a studious eye as she did. "I can only assume the same about you."

Beryl then noticed the shape in the sky again. She couldn't see it before when she 'landed', but looking up now she could see the distant outline of the creature that'd cause the wreck, or the multiple wrecks, far above. And if she squinted, it looked as if it were inching away, its tendrils propelling it through the air as if it were an aquatic species moving in water.

She jabbed a finger to point out the shape. "I assume that thing did you in, too?"

She also took a second to look over the wreckage the blue plated gem was stood next to. It looked much smaller and, from what was left to discern from the mound of scraps, quite old. Possibly a few thousand years old. Whatever the ship was, it wasn't anything Homeworld was using at the current time. The more Beryl noticed, the more questions she found. But she'd have to save those for later in favor of more pressing matters.

"So, who are you?" Beryl asked, returning her gaze to the other Gem again. "Did the Diamonds send you?"

 

[StellarWind Elsydeon]

Huh. So, this gem was also a new arrival to Earth - and by her questions, Tanzanite gathered that she was one of the gems that were on board that hand-ship that suffered the same fate as hers. Explained why she seemed so interested in the remains of the explorer craft - the thing would have probably been ancient by her standards. Then again, that might have been an assumption. She had no idea when this gem was made - only that her ship was new.

Best to obtain further details should the opportunity present itself.

"I'm Tanzanite. And yes, that rather inconsiderate gelatinous individual up there -" she pointed at the floating creature in the distance with one of her sickle-arms while her more humanlike arms settled into what would be a frustrated arms-on-hips stance had her projected anatomy been a bit more standard "Is why my ship looks the way it does. Tens of thousands of years we've been together, her and I, through phenomena that don't even have designations, and what does her in, in the end? Some kind of insane gem-derived space jelly. Which is not even in proper space."

She huffed, letting the sickle-arm drop back to its more typical supportive role on the ground, mandible covers closing for a moment as she mumbled something that sounded somewhat like I'm too old for this coprolite under her breath, before the opening again.

She paused for a moment. Probably best to be careful with direct answers. Homeworld was not a big fan of Gems making their own decisions in my day. If this one's is the right kind of overzealous fanatic, things might get violent and an unnecessary battle right now would not exactly be a good use of my time, especially if she has backup.

"Anyway." she said, stretching "As for your other question, didn't the Diamonds send all of us somewhere? That's sort of what they do. I'm an explorer-type gem. I just somehow managed to end up here while, you know, exploring. You could say I haven't been in the neighborhood for a while, though. A very long while."

Yes, that would probably be sufficient. And provided a nice segue to boot.

"Speaking of, considering you seem to be a bit more informed about this part of the Galaxy at the moment - I picked up a few old Gem structures on this planet in a scan before this thing happened. They seemed pretty old by now, and seeing how this planet is still, you know, in one piece... Any clue what happened here?"

 

[Hisseki]

"Shout? I didn't hear anything... oh my stars! Did the crash make me lose my hearing!?"

Psilo went into a state of panic for a moment. They were going to shatter her now that she lost her hearing! She was useless now! She didn't hear a single shout! There was not shout anywhere, but White Sapphire heard something, and it didn't seem like White was lying. Psilo turned to look at each of the gems that were close to her, panic evident through her gaze. One still had their weapon out, while the rest didn't. Speaking of, Blue Goldstone had assumed that her hands were her weapons, or so it sounded. Regaining control of her mind, she sighed before looking off into a forested area, the place where White was pointing. She would've mentioned that her hands weren't gem weapons, but she didn't feel like doing that. It seemed to make Blue Goldstone happy, so she let her think that they were weapons.

Walking off in the direction of the forest, she signaled for the rest of the group to follow her. What exactly compelled her to take the front lines, so to speak, eluded Psilo's knowledge, but nevertheless she continued. She trekked through the forest a decent distance before getting caught in some vines. Losing her cool for a moment, she wildly swiped at the vines with her clawed fingers and let out a yell, ripping the vines to shreds. Once free, she covered her mouth in regret. If there was anything in that forest, it probably heard her, and whether or not anything around her would be hostile was unknown to everyone, Psilo included. She stood still in an almost predatory stance, looking around slowly for any signs of movement. Bringing one hand in front of her gem just in case she needed her real weapons, she used her other hand to quiet her group. The last thing she wanted was for them to make more noise than she did.

 

[Il Fantasma]

Once the others informed her they they were in fact not fighting, Maw Sit Sit dropped her hands to her sides, a very slight blush of embarrassment crossing her face for a split second. Although she was not one to openly show her less-than-positive emotions, blushing seemed to be a thing that happened often to her, and she didn't like it one bit. Psilomelane headed into the forest, and after a brief hesitation, the green-and-black Gem followed suit, making sure she would not walk into her like she almost did earlier. As they walked, a thought entered her mind- her chair. Man, she missed that thing. Feeling guilt push her other feelings aside, fear soon took over as Psilo crazily swung at a group of vines with her claws(?). Holy- Dang! And to think I could've used my boomerang for that! Quick and efficient! she thought, patting the sleeve on her belt the weapon usually resided in, fixing her tucked, bright red shirt by tugging on it lightly. As soon as Psilo covered her mouth, Chrome decided that it may be a good idea if she did the same, moving her violet bandana from around her neck to over her mouth and nose as a sort of muzzle- she didn't want to be the cause of another beast attacking them! Standing nearly perfectly still, Maw darted her eyes around, looking for any sign of anything that may've heard the snapping of the vines.

 

[Nateriety]

"Hmm...that wasn't very specific. But I don't want to risk antagonizing her right now, so I won't press for details. I can wait for a more appropriate timing," Beryl thought, mulling over Tanzanite's, as she'd called herself, answer to her inquiry.

Suddenly, a small detail that slipped her concerning the gelatinous creature floating far above suddenly struck her, prompting her to snap her head upwards once again. "Wait, you said that thing is Gem-derived?" Beryl asked, her curiosity piqued. She hadn't been given ample time to study the creature up-close when she first saw it, so she wasn't able to discern too many specific details about the creature by the brief moment she was able to glance at it back on the ship. But upon hearing the term 'Gem-derived', a realization came to fruition. "Then that must be one of the corrupted Gems I'd been warned about."

Beryl, having had her turn to ask questions, carefully listened to Tanzanite's inquiry about the planet. "Well, I'm a little less informed about this planet than some of the Gems I arrived with might be, but I'll tell you what I know: this planet was to undergo the usual colonization process over 5'000 years ago...but a Quartz Soldier by the name of Rose Quartz decided, for some reason, that the Earth was worth protecting. She lead a rebellion, and this act started what we now refer to as the Gem War. It lasted for a long time, or so I hear. Long enough for several Gem structures to be built and many old artifacts to be abandoned here. In the end, Homeworld retreated, and the Diamonds...did something to the planet. Something that transformed the Gems left on the planet into, well," she paused, once again gesturing to the floating being in the sky, "abominations like that one."

Beryl folded her arms, mulling over what to ask about next, or even considered asking Tanzanite about the idea of going after the corrupted Gem far above...somehow. Beryl figured that between herself, Tanzanite, and the rest of Gems (once Beryl had regrouped with them), they would figure out a method of bringing it down. It might not have been the most pressing matter right now, but it'd make her feel good to get some comeuppance.

However, her ears picked up a sound in the distance. Something quite far off...but it sounding like distant voices and snapping vines. She turned her head in the direction of the noise. "Hmm...either some native life-forms are getting curious or, more likely, the other Gems are moving this way."

 

[StellarWind Elsydeon]

Well, that was certainly the last thing she expected. An all out rebellion involving more than a few individuals was exceptionally rare - unprecedented, in fact, as far as she was aware - though to be fair, who was to say how much has Great Diamond Authority kept hidden to keep an illusion of unshakable status quo. And for them to essentially pull out the nuclear option, so to speak, and abandon the planet meant that these rebels were doing quite well for themselves, too - that would surely take a great deal of resourcefulness and adaptability, and Tanzanite couldn't help but feel respect towards this rogue faction - even though most, if not all of them, have probably degenerated into these 'corrupted' gems the Beryl mentioned.

But something bothered her about the explanation - if the rebellion was suppressed through transforming all Gems on the planet into mind-broken monsters, why would the Diamonds just abandon this planet afterwards? Homeworld's armies were surely powerful enough to clear out a few monsters and continue with the plan. Which meant there must have been a reason the colony was abandoned after the Diamonds personally got involved.

It could be that whatever the Diamonds did had knock-on effects that made the planet unfit for future gem growth, burning it out for future colonization. But that did not seem right - the Diamonds were anything but careless and she doubted they'd burn out a resource-rich planet just to prove a point. That is, unless something else was going on here - and a swirl of fascination and curiosity rushed through her core. Either way, looks like some interesting things happened in this sector while she was away.

And the noises in the distance suggested to her that something was about to make things even more interesting.

"Either way, we're expecting company." Tanzanite nodded "I should probably shift into something a bit more standard - the last thing I need is one of your companions mistaking me for another one of those corrupted gems and attacking before asking questions. Hold on a moment, It's been a while since I've used that form."

Suddenly, the gem was aglow, the energy rivulets along her body intensifying in radiance and frequency before her entire form was awash with light. Her current, alien body plan receded into her core and soon replaced with a different projection altogether - the typical gem template, two eyes, two arms, two legs. She had a willowy sort of frame, and what could be seen of her skin - her hands and face, mostly - was a light shade of violet-blue. Most of her, however, was covered in some kind of light plated exosuit with a similar structure and texture as the plating of the form she usually wore, and her hair was still the same array of plated tendrils - though it seemed to shift around independently a bit less.

Tanzanite's new formed opened its eyes - purple-blue in hue - before she realized that she forgot something. A nose popped out of her face where there wasn't one before and her teeth shifted in structure to not be pointy anymore.

"Done." she murmured "I think. Ugh. This will take some getting used to."

 

[Hisseki]

Psilomelane looked around for a moment. Maw Sit Sit had approached her and quieted down, which was good, but Psilo was still very, very cautious. She slowly made her way through the forest, being extremely careful not to make any extra noise. A light shone through the trees and greenery, a purplish one, that caught her attention. When she looked in it's direction, she found something that shocked her, enough to cause her to audibly gasp.

There was the gold gem from the ship, confronting what looked like another gem. The other gem was purple and had hair that was... strange... almost like cords of some sort coming from it's head. After some observation, it didn't seem to be hostile, which relieved her, but it also seemed like both gems were on high alert - probably due to Psilo's little scene earlier.

She had two options at that point: Attack them, or simply approach them peacefully, because standing still wasn't going to do anything if they knew something was there. They would eventually investigate, so it was better to come out of hiding while things were still remotely passive. Waving back to the rest of the gems, Psilo used her claws to hack her way out of the shrubbery and into the clearing.

"A-ha, th-there you are. Y-you're the g-golden gem from th-the ship. I-I do s-sincerely apologize f-for what happened o-on the ship... who is this? I-is she hostile?" Psilo asked, legitimately curious about this other gem.

She was compelled to approach her, touch the tendrils of her hair, but she resisted the urge to do so. Instead, she tilted her head to the side a bit and put her hands behind her back. Trying to look as passive as possible, she blinked a few times and stared not directly at the purple gem, but a bit away from her. I admit, my "innocent" act needs work, but it's not like I really needed it before now, so... whatever. I'm just keeping my claws crossed that nobody gets hurt right now. The last thing I need is an injury before the mission gets underway, Psilo thought to herself, shaming herself mentally for her less-than-decent acting skills.

 

[Nateriety]

Beryl had to shield her eyes from the glow of Tanzanite's core, the brilliant flash of violet light overwhelming her sight. Her natural, ingrained instincts were compelling her to leap away from the source; a reflex of self-preservation against those in the past who had, unwittingly or not, used her enhanced sight against her. But she fought against that urge with the knowledge that there was nothing to evade right now, but all the while cursing how pathetically sensitive to enhanced light sources she was. It was such an annoying drawback.

The light receded fairly quickly, however. And when she was able to remove her arm from her eyes, Beryl's sight landed on the newly shifted form of Tanzanite, who had changed from a bizarrely unique form to a much more standard one. "What a radical change in form..." Beryl thought, frankly amazed. While there were a few details left unchanged, such as the color palette and the plated hair, the features that had been changed were so vast that, if Beryl hadn't witnessed Tanzanite's initial form, she'd have sworn that she was looking at a different being entirely.

"Done." Tanzanite murmured "I think. Ugh. This will take some getting used to."

Beryl raised an eyebrow. "That previous form is your preferred state? How long have you held that form for?" she asked, intrigued.

Shape-shifting was a common Gem ability, sure, but holding a different form for too long was utterly taxing. Beryl herself had timed her longest shape-shift at just under six minutes. She had such difficulty extending it past that point, although she theorized that her inner energy reserves were tailored more towards her power, thus being too overclocked for such a specific and precise art as shape-shifting.

Either that or she was just generally inept at shape-shifting. She preferred to think it was the first thing, though.

A rustling from the side snapped her awareness back into form. Chastising herself for getting carried away, Beryl turned towards the noise, ready to spring into action on the off-chance that what arrived into the clearing turned out to be hostile.

But when the familiar black gem with the clawed hands, Psilomelane, emerged from the shrubbery, Beryl settled. "Oh, it's just you."

"A-ha, th-there you are. Y-you're the g-golden gem from th-the ship. I-I do s-sincerely apologize f-for what happened o-on the ship... who is this? I-is she hostile?" Psilo asked, seeming to be extremely nervous.

Beryl found this behavior somewhat unfitting for a Gem. In her experience, most Gems were either cold and calculated, boisterously confident, or just relatively expressionless. Emotions linked to weakness or hesitation were generally ground-out on Homeworld. The Diamonds ensured their empire was strong and efficient...so how those few Gems with 'deficiencies' slipped through the cracks eluded Beryl. It could come down to the simple fact that they were low on resources, however.

"Don't apologize. There wasn't much we could have done against that thing by the time we saw it," Beryl responded, shooting yet another dark look up to the floating shape drifting further into the distance. "We'll get it back. Mark my words..." she hissed venomously, mostly to herself. But she brought her attention back to Psilomelane's inquiry about Tanzanite, "But right now, you have no need for alarm. She's not hostile. In fact, she seems to be in a similar situation to our own."

She folded her arms. "And it's Beryl, by the way," she quickly added, identifying herself in response to being called Golden Gem.