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A long thin blade like silver and black ship slid through the earth’s atmosphere utterly ignoring mankind’s understanding of physics as it circled the globe at re-entry level speeds without forming a plasma sheath or showing any signs of atmospheric friction. The pilot of the craft calmly rotated display after display as her ship compiled a map of the planet below laying down markers over ancient ruins, long abandoned battle fields, and concentrations of life energy. There were a significantly higher number of life signs then she had anticipated, not enough to abort the mission however as the majority of those life signs were scattered, the largest group registering as five, and most others no more than two or three. Moving her hands across the consoles with deft precision she began filtering her readings.

Her target would be alone. She would likely chose an isolated location to hide her ship, which would be operating in low power if not entirely shut down. With this information she evaluated each life sign and energy reading on her map. The planet was primary covered in deep oceans that had a plethora of natural undersea caves and alcoves one could hide a ship, as well as deep canyons, and glacial tundra’s, in addition to the crash sites of ancient gem transports and warships. The number of places one could hide a ship was simply staggering, thankfully the locations of individual gems was enough to at least limit her search to a few promising places, particularly a battlefield that had both a single life sign and a weak energy reading, given the age, none of the ships there should have been active. A destination locked Black Azeztulite plotted a course to land some distance away to avoid immediate detection

The battel field was littered with the remains of ancient gem warships, transports and the weapons of the fallen, all of which was over grown by the local flora. It was as much a grave site as any Azeztulite had seen in her time. Tapping a small sphere on her waist a project of a circle appeared before her with a simple arrow indicating direction. Her tracker was somewhat out dated, having a range of only one hundred kilometres, it was unable to distinguish between a gem life sign and a power source, and beyond ten clicks it could only give a general direction rather than indicate location. Sadly her target had demonstrated considerable skill in evading detection by the newer more accurate and sensitive models. Still, two signals, one likely the ship the other Smokey Quartz herself. Either encounter would be welcome, if she found the ship she could disable and booby trap it, if she found Smokey, she could attempt to capture or eliminate her before she established contact with Rose Quartz and her rebels.

Carefully approaching the nearest of her two readings Black found a bright orange gem in shinning golden armor sitting by a fire, and while she had her back turned she spoke “I’m not in the mood for your shit Lab, so, unless you want me to poof you and dump your gem in a swamp beat it.”

“I do not identified as ‘Lab’ nor am I of the scientific cast” Azeztulite spoke in a cold monotone as she walked around the orange gem to sit opposite her on the fire she had been tending. “My name is Black Azeztulite, I believe now is when you would customarily introduce yourself”

Spessartite glared at the intruder. “I’m Spessartite” she said in a short clipped tone that masked none of her irritation “So, you’re new. Any reason I should put up with your company?” she asked as she examined Azeztulite. The gem certainty lived up to her name. The lightest parts of her were her golden irises, charcoal grey skin and the dark grey lines that traced themselves over her jet black suit. She was clearly not a gem that had spent any time on earth before, if she was lucky that meant home world had started sending gems here again, yeah, right, Spessartine knew she wasn’t that lucky. Probably another space gem looking to link up with Rose and her rebels, or maybe she was some soldier that got trapped in a cave somewhere and an earth quake shook lose enough rocks she was able to get out.

Azeztulite raised her left eyebrow slightly at the question. She was hoping this new gem would provide her at least some information before probing her. “I am here pursing a friend of mine. Her name is Smokey Quartz. She led the rebellion on my world”

Suddenly Azeztulite had Spessarite’s undivided attention “Wait, there was a rebellion on your world to?” she almost shouted in alarm. She had believed that Rose’s rebellion was contained to just this world, that it was a one off event.

Azeztulite did not even blink at the statement “You have been out of contact for some time. Yes, there were many rebellions on many worlds as a result of Rose Quartz’s actions and philosophy. On my world, Smokey Quartz agreed with Rose’s philosophy and led her forces against home world to liberate the planet and preserve its natural bio-sphere.”

Spessarite carefully looked over the strange gem. She didn’t look home world, which lent credence to her explanation, but how’d she get here then? “So, what happened there?” she asked cautiously

“I was in charge of overseeing our planets kinder gardens. And Smokey was my closest and dearest friend. I tried to remain neutral in the war, not taking an active stance on either side. At the time I could not bear the thought of harming another gem as I had personally taught and trained a large percentage of the planets local gem population, which was evenly divided between home world and Smokey.” Azeztulite paused briefly in her story and threw on a branch for the fire, but as she continued to speak Spessarite noticed that there was no emotion in her voice, she sounded like a computer. “Eventually it was no longer possible for me to remain uninvolved and I was forced to make a choice.” He held out her hands, both open palmed “Betray my home world, my people, and the gems trained and educated on one hand” she closed her left hand into a clenched fist “Or betray my closest friend and slay the beloved children I had raised.” She then turned her right hand into a clenched fist placing both calmly in her lap as she sat cross legged “I was emotionally torn apart inside. I valued all life, and could see both sides of the argument. Unable to handle the strain it placed on my heart I removed my emotions from the equation”

Spessarite knew that there was no inflection in Azeztulite’s voice, thinking about it, a computer sounded more empathetic. But she could swear there was resentment in there. Or maybe it was the way the flames painted shadows across Azeztulite’s face, making her look like she was holding in her bitterness. Probably the light since she knew Azeztulite’s expression hadn’t changed since she sat down “So, then what happened?” she asked, now more interested in how this story played out

“Smokey Quartz and I each fought valiantly. However home world was winning more ground then it lost, and eventually She and the remaining rebels fled each heading for a different world hoping to link up with other militant cells to either turn the tide on worlds that were not yet lost to the rebellion, or reinforce established strong holds. After determining that the rebellion had no chance of continued survival on my world I fallowed Smokey Quartz here.”

Spessarite mauled the story over in her head several times as she glared over the flames at Black Azeztulite. There were holes in the story, things that didn’t make sense. How would other worlds learn of the rebellion? And if fighting broke out on more than just earth, why didn’t she know about it? She took orders directly from Yellow Diamond, she was privy to that level of information. Granted, she never specifically asked, but Yellow would have told her something that important. No, her instincts told her this was a trap. The story wasn’t all lies though either. This gem was emotionless. She didn’t doubt that she was part of a failed rebellion…… one that probably failed so utterly it didn’t even bear mentioning. Which meant she was a rebel looking for her leader and Rose so they could try and spread the rebellion to the rest of the Empire. Well, there was only one thing to do with traitors.

Spessarite Stood up, her golden armor shining in the fire light as the dark of the night made her black under suit appear to be made of pure shadow, she locked her eyes on Black Azeztulite she placed her hands together drawing them apart, a bright orange light growing between them until a large great sword with a double hilt, and edged secondary guard formed in the air, she caught it by the lower hilt in one hand before the blade had a chance to fall, and easily swung it into a guard positon holding it firmly in both hands. “I Am Sir Spessarite, General of Yellow Dimonds First Imperil Legion. Stand and deliver traitor or be summarily executed for your crimes”

Black Azeztulite stood calmly as if she were excusing herself from a meal. “I do not recall stating my allegiance. I fought on the side of home world against Smokey Quartz” she responded in her dead voice

Spessarite glared at her through her guard “Any proof?”

“I have not fought you yet”

Spessarite snarled “only thing that proves is that you’re either a coward or you know you’re out matched. You want to convince me otherwise, beat me”

Black nodded “Your terms are acceptable. I am Administrator Black Azeztulite of Gem colony world-449. Currently designated as Special Operations Elimination and Retrieval Unit Sigma.” As she spoke Black created a pair of armored tri-claws that stretched out from her knuckles and leapt at Azeztulite who easily evaded the clumsy swings.

Spessarite grinned. This was a gem that didn’t see much front line combat, her fighting style was terrible, her stance was unbalanced, and her swings were wide. With that she turned in place locking her ankle around Azeztulite foot and nudging her into falling backwards, only for Azeztulite to move with the momentum into a partial spin as she fell, her left hand moving to catch Spessarite by her waist long braid at which point the claws disappeared and a spiked chain materialized in Azeztulite’s right hand, which she then through around Spessarites arms to restrict their movement. Spessarite felt something after only a second of struggling. She felt heavy, like she had been fighting for a while already, eyes widening she realized this gem was somehow draining her. Her arms restricted she didn’t even try to free them, instead she let out a mule kick to her opponents side, fallowed immedatly by a reversed spin kick with her other leg to Azeztulite’s head sending the other gem flying and cuasing the chains on her arms to disintegrate. Melee was not this gems strong suit, she had just changed weapons, and she had somehow drained her of power. Spessarite was cautiously analyzing her enemy now and noticed that there were a number of metallic spheres attached to Azeztulite’s waist, likely different weapons she realized.

After spending a brief few moments airborne from the force of the kicks Azeztulite picked herself up from her unceremonious face plant, replacing her spiked chain with a pair of short swords, she then took up a more guarded stance as she observed Spessarite and looked for an opening.

Spessarite’s right eye twitched at the third weapon change. How many damn weapons did this gem have? And she didn’t recall seeing her touch those spheres even once yet. With the exception of fusions gems were only supposed to have one natural weapon unique to themselves. She needed a plan. Physical contact was risky; Azeztulite’s touch seemed to drain her somehow. But her own powers worked via physical contact as well. The difference in their skills was a wide enough margin that Spessarite doubted she’d need the edge, but if her enemy was feigning incompetence to get an opening, well, Spessarite had seen that tactic before. It took time, but fight someone who acts unskilled long enough, and your body naturally starts to underestimate them. If she focused on defensive fighting she’d never win either. She’d have to risk another drain and set up at least one contact point. Torso and head then.

Spessarite charged Azeztulite, swinging her great sword from her left side with one hand forcing Azeztulite to block the blow with both her smaller lighter swords, as the three blades met she made an open palm strike on Azeztulite’s solar plexus before dropping her sword and allowing it to disintegrate, the sudden loss of counter force caused Azeztulite to stumble to the left, as she did Spessarites now free hand shut up between the crossed short swords, her almost curled fingers flicking up suddenly as they approached Azeztulite’s jaw, forcing her head up and allowing for a second palm strike on her throat, Spessarite fallowed up her combo with a leg sweep to further destabilize Azeztulite’s balance, before rocketing her opponent to the ground with an elbow strike to the lower back. This was the point where most gems would just fall, Azeztulite however didn’t do that, somehow she managed to remain focused enough to absorb elbow strike and move with it, landing herself on all fours like a feral animal rather than laying prone for a fallow up beating, braced as she was on the ground she threw herself out of arms reach and re-evaluated her opponent.

Azeztulite was fully aware of her limitations. She was only moderately skilled in melee combat. The risks and rewards of continued close quarters engagement were dwindling. It was hard enough to grapple an opponent under normal circumstances, and this was a warrior class gem that specialized in front line combat. If she wished to reduce Spessarites ability’s to enough to force her capitulation she would need to create an opening she could exploit. Azeztulite dropped her short swords and aimed her left forearm at Spessarite as it transformed into a black cylindrical tube with a glowing aperture and a simple display on the inside of the barrel closest to her elbow “Blast mode” she said in her level unchanging computer monotone. As the words left her mouth a light chime came from the arm cannon as it fired a dark sphere at Spessarite

Spessarite blinked at the new weapon “Another fucking weapon?” as the cannon shot traveled towards her Spessarite drew her sword again, far faster than before and proceeded to slice the shot in mid-air “What are y…. wait blast mode?” she gasped in realization as her blade pierced what resembled a cannon ball the projectile explode on contact sending her flying. Great. Guns. Now the bitch had fucking GUNS. More specifically a cannon. A god damn fucking cannon for an arm. As she picked herself up Spessarite grumbled, not missing that Azeztulite had said ‘mode’ meaning the thing had more than one firing option to it. Of COURSE she’d be a damn gunner who could lie and act like a crappy melee fighter and carry around a damn armory’s worth of weapons. Taking a deep breath she calmed herself. ‘Anger is a fire, it can strengthen you or consume you’ she reminded herself. As Spessarite rose from the ground she quietly whispered to herself “Ok Spess amateur hour is over. Mercy if for your friends, not the enemy”

As Spessarite turned to charge Azeztulite she found the gem had fired another cannon shot, this was clearly not aimed at her but rather the ground near her which quickly exploded, forcing Spessarite to change her course to avoid being caught up in the blast. In fact as she charged at Azeztulite her opponent kept retreating backwards and firing cannon shots at equal intervals, one shot every one and a half seconds. And each shot was aimed at the ground beside or in front of herself, never directly at her. It didn’t take Spessarite long to work out why as the air was quickly filling with dust and light debris that clouded her vision. She hated gems like this. It wasn’t a ‘bad’ tactic to blind your opponent and attack from their flank, or use the cover of smoke to beat a hasty retreat and re-evaluate your options but it always left a bitter taste in her mouth when this happened. So blinded Spessarite closed her eyes and carefully gripped her sword in her left hand, holding the right out to her side. She had already marked her target; she just needed to zero in on her….

After completing her bombardment Azezulite took a small disk from her belt and placed it on her right temple and tapped it once. Immediately a pale sky blue visor covered her eyes and revealed Spessarites location in the dust cloud. She had fought Smokey Quartz enough to come equipped with countermeasures to the usual hit and run tactic’s Smokey favored. Moving through the cloud quietly she approached Spessarite from behind only to jump back as the gem almost instantly turned with the point of her great sword homing in on Azezulites own neck. She grumbled as she fired off another few cannon shots in the general area as further distraction and to intensified the smoke cloud, as expected Spessarite turned towards to explosions. This time sneaking in from the side moving towards Spessarites outstretched searching arm, as she grabbed Spessarites bicep a giant sword came flying at her from through the smoke making a be line for the center of Azezutlites chest, which she only barely avoided by the slimmest of margins.

Spessarite groaned. Every time that gem grabbed her she felt her strength being sapped, and it was a lot worse this time, which meant the effect probably magnified itself with each use. Spessarite swung her sword testingly though the dust cloud “ok, slower now. And not as strong. But not by much hmm” she said to herself as she contemplated her enemy’s pattern. Explosions rocked the landscape creating more dust to keep her blinded. It was clear that Azezulite could see her somehow, probably some tool, and she preferred a hit and run pattern, meaning the initial melee was probably just to test the waters” as Spessarite went through her opponent’s actions she flung her sword in a circle around herself pre-empting another attempted grapple and forcing Azezulite into a retreat again. “Can’t stay defensive, her tactic revolves around outlasting her opponent’s and wildling them down little by little. Can’t risk her touching me either though.” It was a bit of a paradox, Spessarite admitted to herself, but it had a simple enough solution as she created another great sword and charged in the direction she threw both swords forward then created two more.

Azezulite circled her enemy from a distance. She was skilled, able to detect her approach and counter almost as soon as she got within striking range. As she neared her target ready to grapple her a giant sword flew through the heavy dust straight for her chest, and as she span to avoid it, the blade curved through the air forcing her to arch herself backwards only to still be cut across the chest as the sword flew by. Before Azezulite even had time to fully recover Spessarite was charging her, a great sword in each hand as she roared. The moment Spessarite was able to make out Azezulite’s form she began swinging her two great swords, pushing Azezlulite back. So long as she kept the pressure up Azezluite couldn’t grapple her, and so long as she stayed in close the arm cannon wouldn’t be a problem. Sure the freak could summon all kinds of weapons but she was terrible in a melee.

Unable to move fast enough to retreat, her foot-work to sloppy to out maneuver Spessarite, no openings to grapple, Azezulite summoned up a hexagonal shield in her right arm and began blocking, taking a step back with each heavy blow from Spessarites massive great swords. What happened next was inevitable, the battlefield was covered in pock mark craters from the constant bombardment of Azezulites cannon shots, Azezulite herself was entirely focused on defending as she lost ground, and so, Azezulite took a step back and rather than brace against ground her foot fell through the air, she tumbled down the small crater, her shield vanished and Spessarite lopped off her arm as she chased her prey into the hole. Spessarite released her extra sword then aimed her blade at Azezulite “Yield” she commanded.

Azezulite was without emotion. Her mind was a thing of pure logic. She calculated her probability of victory. It was low. She calculated her odds of survival. That was unacceptably low. Spessarite was a loyal soldier of Yellow Diamond. She believed Azezulite to be a rebel; traitors were to be killed on sight. Surrender was not an option. “Beam Mode” with that her arm cannon changed slightly, the aperture shrinking as the barrel extended. She then fired the arm cannon as Spessarite pushing her back. Beam mode lacked the raw power of cannon mode, but it forced a retreat as Spessarite began blocking the continuous beam of light with her sword, Azezulite moved back as well and took up a bracing positon. Her body was destabilising now, she could feel herself flickering. After only a handful of seconds the shot pierced through Azezulites sword and struck her bracers as she crossed her arms.

Azezulite began panting. Beam mode was powerful, arguably more powerful then blast mode as the longer she continued to fire, the more powerful the beam became, unfortnatly the strain it put on her body also increased the longer she fired it. Only two seconds had passed since Spessarite had lost her sword, she could feel the beam on her armor getting stronger as it broke down the plates of her armor. Without a weapon she charged forward still blocking then pivoted on her heel to deliver a back handed fist to Azezulite who stopped firing as Spessarite turned and managed to duck under the blow and spin herself behind Spessarite, opening her mouth Azezulite caught Spessarite’s long braid in her teeth and held herself behind Spessarite as she began firing her arm cannon again. Spessarite screamed, she could feel herself weakening as Azezulite held her braid in her mouth, and she could feel the beam from her arm cannon slowly chipping away her armor at an ever increasing rate, try as she might she could not strike Azezulite now, her arms didn’t bend that way, the positioning was to awkward. Before Spessarite’s body was pierced by the cannon beam she saw her body start to destabilize, becoming grainy and semi-transparent, and then she poofed, her gem falling to the ground before Azezulite who fell to her knees afterwards.

Azezulite managed to pick her rather weary self-up and carry Spessarites gemstone away from their battlefield, and into one of the more intact gem ships, she carefully navigated her way to the bridge and then into the remains of an old strategy room. Azezulite placed Spessarites gem carefully on one of the chairs around the broken table, then took up the seat opposite that, collapsing she waited, her one arm hanging limp, her head lolled off to the side, mouth askew, eyes unfocused, legs bent to the side, she looked like a puppet with its strings cut. Azezulite was running on fumes, her body was unstable and required now thanks to the lost arm and required most of her concentration to maintain, in addition her beam cannon had drained most of her stamina. Sitting like this was all she could do until she properly regenerated, unfortunately her own regeneration took significantly longer than that of most warriors, averaging about a day and a half. So she waited for Spessarite to return first.

It took a time but after X Spessarite’s orange gem began to glow with a golden aura as it levitated off the seat, thin tendrils of light began to trace out a humanoid form growing in thickness and intensity until a flash of amber light filled the room and Spessarite again stood tall in her golden armor, her long braid hung over her shoulder as she looked around in confusion at the room. This was not the battlefield where she fell. She then saw Azezulite lying in the chair opposite her, she had managed to place her arm cannon on the table and it was loosely aimed at her, but it was clear to Spessarite that Azezulite was in no condition to put up anything even resembling a fight now. “You didn’t shatter me?” she asked in half disbelief and half shock that the gem was still corporeal in her condition.

“Told you. Not Enemy. Home World Sent.” She struggled with each word, eyes unfocused “You. Believe me. Now?” her speech was getting worse, more distorted.

Spessarite nodded

“Good. Must regenerate.” As the words left Azezulites lips her body dissolved into smoke as her gem fell onto the chair she was seated in

Description
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A long thin blade like silver and black ship slid through the earth’s atmosphere utterly ignoring mankind’s understanding of physics as it circled the globe at re-entry level speeds without forming a plasma sheath or showing any signs of atmospheric friction. The pilot of the craft calmly rotated display after display as her ship compiled a map of the planet below laying down markers over ancient ruins, long abandoned battle fields, and concentrations of life energy. There were a significantly higher number of life signs then she had anticipated, not enough to abort the mission however as the majority of those life signs were scattered, the largest group registering as five, and most others no more than two or three. Moving her hands across the consoles with deft precision she began filtering her readings.

Her target would be alone. She would likely chose an isolated location to hide her ship, which would be operating in low power if not entirely shut down. With this information she evaluated each life sign and energy reading on her map. The planet was primary covered in deep oceans that had a plethora of natural undersea caves and alcoves one could hide a ship, as well as deep canyons, and glacial tundra’s, in addition to the crash sites of ancient gem transports and warships. The number of places one could hide a ship was simply staggering, thankfully the locations of individual gems was enough to at least limit her search to a few promising places, particularly a battlefield that had both a single life sign and a weak energy reading, given the age, none of the ships there should have been active. A destination locked Black Azeztulite plotted a course to land some distance away to avoid immediate detection

The battel field was littered with the remains of ancient gem warships, transports and the weapons of the fallen, all of which was over grown by the local flora. It was as much a grave site as any Azeztulite had seen in her time. Tapping a small sphere on her waist a project of a circle appeared before her with a simple arrow indicating direction. Her tracker was somewhat out dated, having a range of only one hundred kilometres, it was unable to distinguish between a gem life sign and a power source, and beyond ten clicks it could only give a general direction rather than indicate location. Sadly her target had demonstrated considerable skill in evading detection by the newer more accurate and sensitive models. Still, two signals, one likely the ship the other Smokey Quartz herself. Either encounter would be welcome, if she found the ship she could disable and booby trap it, if she found Smokey, she could attempt to capture or eliminate her before she established contact with Rose Quartz and her rebels.

Carefully approaching the nearest of her two readings Black found a bright orange gem in shinning golden armor sitting by a fire, and while she had her back turned she spoke “I’m not in the mood for your shit Lab, so, unless you want me to poof you and dump your gem in a swamp beat it.”

“I do not identified as ‘Lab’ nor am I of the scientific cast” Azeztulite spoke in a cold monotone as she walked around the orange gem to sit opposite her on the fire she had been tending. “My name is Black Azeztulite, I believe now is when you would customarily introduce yourself”

Spessartite glared at the intruder. “I’m Spessartite” she said in a short clipped tone that masked none of her irritation “So, you’re new. Any reason I should put up with your company?” she asked as she examined Azeztulite. The gem certainty lived up to her name. The lightest parts of her were her golden irises, charcoal grey skin and the dark grey lines that traced themselves over her jet black suit. She was clearly not a gem that had spent any time on earth before, if she was lucky that meant home world had started sending gems here again, yeah, right, Spessartine knew she wasn’t that lucky. Probably another space gem looking to link up with Rose and her rebels, or maybe she was some soldier that got trapped in a cave somewhere and an earth quake shook lose enough rocks she was able to get out.

Azeztulite raised her left eyebrow slightly at the question. She was hoping this new gem would provide her at least some information before probing her. “I am here pursing a friend of mine. Her name is Smokey Quartz. She led the rebellion on my world”

Suddenly Azeztulite had Spessarite’s undivided attention “Wait, there was a rebellion on your world to?” she almost shouted in alarm. She had believed that Rose’s rebellion was contained to just this world, that it was a one off event.

Azeztulite did not even blink at the statement “You have been out of contact for some time. Yes, there were many rebellions on many worlds as a result of Rose Quartz’s actions and philosophy. On my world, Smokey Quartz agreed with Rose’s philosophy and led her forces against home world to liberate the planet and preserve its natural bio-sphere.”

Spessarite carefully looked over the strange gem. She didn’t look home world, which lent credence to her explanation, but how’d she get here then? “So, what happened there?” she asked cautiously

“I was in charge of overseeing our planets kinder gardens. And Smokey was my closest and dearest friend. I tried to remain neutral in the war, not taking an active stance on either side. At the time I could not bear the thought of harming another gem as I had personally taught and trained a large percentage of the planets local gem population, which was evenly divided between home world and Smokey.” Azeztulite paused briefly in her story and threw on a branch for the fire, but as she continued to speak Spessarite noticed that there was no emotion in her voice, she sounded like a computer. “Eventually it was no longer possible for me to remain uninvolved and I was forced to make a choice.” He held out her hands, both open palmed “Betray my home world, my people, and the gems trained and educated on one hand” she closed her left hand into a clenched fist “Or betray my closest friend and slay the beloved children I had raised.” She then turned her right hand into a clenched fist placing both calmly in her lap as she sat cross legged “I was emotionally torn apart inside. I valued all life, and could see both sides of the argument. Unable to handle the strain it placed on my heart I removed my emotions from the equation”

Spessarite knew that there was no inflection in Azeztulite’s voice, thinking about it, a computer sounded more empathetic. But she could swear there was resentment in there. Or maybe it was the way the flames painted shadows across Azeztulite’s face, making her look like she was holding in her bitterness. Probably the light since she knew Azeztulite’s expression hadn’t changed since she sat down “So, then what happened?” she asked, now more interested in how this story played out

“Smokey Quartz and I each fought valiantly. However home world was winning more ground then it lost, and eventually She and the remaining rebels fled each heading for a different world hoping to link up with other militant cells to either turn the tide on worlds that were not yet lost to the rebellion, or reinforce established strong holds. After determining that the rebellion had no chance of continued survival on my world I fallowed Smokey Quartz here.”

Spessarite mauled the story over in her head several times as she glared over the flames at Black Azeztulite. There were holes in the story, things that didn’t make sense. How would other worlds learn of the rebellion? And if fighting broke out on more than just earth, why didn’t she know about it? She took orders directly from Yellow Diamond, she was privy to that level of information. Granted, she never specifically asked, but Yellow would have told her something that important. No, her instincts told her this was a trap. The story wasn’t all lies though either. This gem was emotionless. She didn’t doubt that she was part of a failed rebellion…… one that probably failed so utterly it didn’t even bear mentioning. Which meant she was a rebel looking for her leader and Rose so they could try and spread the rebellion to the rest of the Empire. Well, there was only one thing to do with traitors.

Spessarite Stood up, her golden armor shining in the fire light as the dark of the night made her black under suit appear to be made of pure shadow, she locked her eyes on Black Azeztulite she placed her hands together drawing them apart, a bright orange light growing between them until a large great sword with a double hilt, and edged secondary guard formed in the air, she caught it by the lower hilt in one hand before the blade had a chance to fall, and easily swung it into a guard positon holding it firmly in both hands. “I Am Sir Spessarite, General of Yellow Dimonds First Imperil Legion. Stand and deliver traitor or be summarily executed for your crimes”

Black Azeztulite stood calmly as if she were excusing herself from a meal. “I do not recall stating my allegiance. I fought on the side of home world against Smokey Quartz” she responded in her dead voice

Spessarite glared at her through her guard “Any proof?”

“I have not fought you yet”

Spessarite snarled “only thing that proves is that you’re either a coward or you know you’re out matched. You want to convince me otherwise, beat me”

Black nodded “Your terms are acceptable. I am Administrator Black Azeztulite of Gem colony world-449. Currently designated as Special Operations Elimination and Retrieval Unit Sigma.” As she spoke Black created a pair of armored tri-claws that stretched out from her knuckles and leapt at Azeztulite who easily evaded the clumsy swings.

Spessarite grinned. This was a gem that didn’t see much front line combat, her fighting style was terrible, her stance was unbalanced, and her swings were wide. With that she turned in place locking her ankle around Azeztulite foot and nudging her into falling backwards, only for Azeztulite to move with the momentum into a partial spin as she fell, her left hand moving to catch Spessarite by her waist long braid at which point the claws disappeared and a spiked chain materialized in Azeztulite’s right hand, which she then through around Spessarites arms to restrict their movement. Spessarite felt something after only a second of struggling. She felt heavy, like she had been fighting for a while already, eyes widening she realized this gem was somehow draining her. Her arms restricted she didn’t even try to free them, instead she let out a mule kick to her opponents side, fallowed immedatly by a reversed spin kick with her other leg to Azeztulite’s head sending the other gem flying and cuasing the chains on her arms to disintegrate. Melee was not this gems strong suit, she had just changed weapons, and she had somehow drained her of power. Spessarite was cautiously analyzing her enemy now and noticed that there were a number of metallic spheres attached to Azeztulite’s waist, likely different weapons she realized.

After spending a brief few moments airborne from the force of the kicks Azeztulite picked herself up from her unceremonious face plant, replacing her spiked chain with a pair of short swords, she then took up a more guarded stance as she observed Spessarite and looked for an opening.

Spessarite’s right eye twitched at the third weapon change. How many damn weapons did this gem have? And she didn’t recall seeing her touch those spheres even once yet. With the exception of fusions gems were only supposed to have one natural weapon unique to themselves. She needed a plan. Physical contact was risky; Azeztulite’s touch seemed to drain her somehow. But her own powers worked via physical contact as well. The difference in their skills was a wide enough margin that Spessarite doubted she’d need the edge, but if her enemy was feigning incompetence to get an opening, well, Spessarite had seen that tactic before. It took time, but fight someone who acts unskilled long enough, and your body naturally starts to underestimate them. If she focused on defensive fighting she’d never win either. She’d have to risk another drain and set up at least one contact point. Torso and head then.

Spessarite charged Azeztulite, swinging her great sword from her left side with one hand forcing Azeztulite to block the blow with both her smaller lighter swords, as the three blades met she made an open palm strike on Azeztulite’s solar plexus before dropping her sword and allowing it to disintegrate, the sudden loss of counter force caused Azeztulite to stumble to the left, as she did Spessarites now free hand shut up between the crossed short swords, her almost curled fingers flicking up suddenly as they approached Azeztulite’s jaw, forcing her head up and allowing for a second palm strike on her throat, Spessarite fallowed up her combo with a leg sweep to further destabilize Azeztulite’s balance, before rocketing her opponent to the ground with an elbow strike to the lower back. This was the point where most gems would just fall, Azeztulite however didn’t do that, somehow she managed to remain focused enough to absorb elbow strike and move with it, landing herself on all fours like a feral animal rather than laying prone for a fallow up beating, braced as she was on the ground she threw herself out of arms reach and re-evaluated her opponent.

Azeztulite was fully aware of her limitations. She was only moderately skilled in melee combat. The risks and rewards of continued close quarters engagement were dwindling. It was hard enough to grapple an opponent under normal circumstances, and this was a warrior class gem that specialized in front line combat. If she wished to reduce Spessarites ability’s to enough to force her capitulation she would need to create an opening she could exploit. Azeztulite dropped her short swords and aimed her left forearm at Spessarite as it transformed into a black cylindrical tube with a glowing aperture and a simple display on the inside of the barrel closest to her elbow “Blast mode” she said in her level unchanging computer monotone. As the words left her mouth a light chime came from the arm cannon as it fired a dark sphere at Spessarite

Spessarite blinked at the new weapon “Another fucking weapon?” as the cannon shot traveled towards her Spessarite drew her sword again, far faster than before and proceeded to slice the shot in mid-air “What are y…. wait blast mode?” she gasped in realization as her blade pierced what resembled a cannon ball the projectile explode on contact sending her flying. Great. Guns. Now the bitch had fucking GUNS. More specifically a cannon. A god damn fucking cannon for an arm. As she picked herself up Spessarite grumbled, not missing that Azeztulite had said ‘mode’ meaning the thing had more than one firing option to it. Of COURSE she’d be a damn gunner who could lie and act like a crappy melee fighter and carry around a damn armory’s worth of weapons. Taking a deep breath she calmed herself. ‘Anger is a fire, it can strengthen you or consume you’ she reminded herself. As Spessarite rose from the ground she quietly whispered to herself “Ok Spess amateur hour is over. Mercy if for your friends, not the enemy”

As Spessarite turned to charge Azeztulite she found the gem had fired another cannon shot, this was clearly not aimed at her but rather the ground near her which quickly exploded, forcing Spessarite to change her course to avoid being caught up in the blast. In fact as she charged at Azeztulite her opponent kept retreating backwards and firing cannon shots at equal intervals, one shot every one and a half seconds. And each shot was aimed at the ground beside or in front of herself, never directly at her. It didn’t take Spessarite long to work out why as the air was quickly filling with dust and light debris that clouded her vision. She hated gems like this. It wasn’t a ‘bad’ tactic to blind your opponent and attack from their flank, or use the cover of smoke to beat a hasty retreat and re-evaluate your options but it always left a bitter taste in her mouth when this happened. So blinded Spessarite closed her eyes and carefully gripped her sword in her left hand, holding the right out to her side. She had already marked her target; she just needed to zero in on her….

After completing her bombardment Azezulite took a small disk from her belt and placed it on her right temple and tapped it once. Immediately a pale sky blue visor covered her eyes and revealed Spessarites location in the dust cloud. She had fought Smokey Quartz enough to come equipped with countermeasures to the usual hit and run tactic’s Smokey favored. Moving through the cloud quietly she approached Spessarite from behind only to jump back as the gem almost instantly turned with the point of her great sword homing in on Azezulites own neck. She grumbled as she fired off another few cannon shots in the general area as further distraction and to intensified the smoke cloud, as expected Spessarite turned towards to explosions. This time sneaking in from the side moving towards Spessarites outstretched searching arm, as she grabbed Spessarites bicep a giant sword came flying at her from through the smoke making a be line for the center of Azezutlites chest, which she only barely avoided by the slimmest of margins.

Spessarite groaned. Every time that gem grabbed her she felt her strength being sapped, and it was a lot worse this time, which meant the effect probably magnified itself with each use. Spessarite swung her sword testingly though the dust cloud “ok, slower now. And not as strong. But not by much hmm” she said to herself as she contemplated her enemy’s pattern. Explosions rocked the landscape creating more dust to keep her blinded. It was clear that Azezulite could see her somehow, probably some tool, and she preferred a hit and run pattern, meaning the initial melee was probably just to test the waters” as Spessarite went through her opponent’s actions she flung her sword in a circle around herself pre-empting another attempted grapple and forcing Azezulite into a retreat again. “Can’t stay defensive, her tactic revolves around outlasting her opponent’s and wildling them down little by little. Can’t risk her touching me either though.” It was a bit of a paradox, Spessarite admitted to herself, but it had a simple enough solution as she created another great sword and charged in the direction she threw both swords forward then created two more.

Azezulite circled her enemy from a distance. She was skilled, able to detect her approach and counter almost as soon as she got within striking range. As she neared her target ready to grapple her a giant sword flew through the heavy dust straight for her chest, and as she span to avoid it, the blade curved through the air forcing her to arch herself backwards only to still be cut across the chest as the sword flew by. Before Azezulite even had time to fully recover Spessarite was charging her, a great sword in each hand as she roared. The moment Spessarite was able to make out Azezulite’s form she began swinging her two great swords, pushing Azezlulite back. So long as she kept the pressure up Azezluite couldn’t grapple her, and so long as she stayed in close the arm cannon wouldn’t be a problem. Sure the freak could summon all kinds of weapons but she was terrible in a melee.

Unable to move fast enough to retreat, her foot-work to sloppy to out maneuver Spessarite, no openings to grapple, Azezulite summoned up a hexagonal shield in her right arm and began blocking, taking a step back with each heavy blow from Spessarites massive great swords. What happened next was inevitable, the battlefield was covered in pock mark craters from the constant bombardment of Azezulites cannon shots, Azezulite herself was entirely focused on defending as she lost ground, and so, Azezulite took a step back and rather than brace against ground her foot fell through the air, she tumbled down the small crater, her shield vanished and Spessarite lopped off her arm as she chased her prey into the hole. Spessarite released her extra sword then aimed her blade at Azezulite “Yield” she commanded.

Azezulite was without emotion. Her mind was a thing of pure logic. She calculated her probability of victory. It was low. She calculated her odds of survival. That was unacceptably low. Spessarite was a loyal soldier of Yellow Diamond. She believed Azezulite to be a rebel; traitors were to be killed on sight. Surrender was not an option. “Beam Mode” with that her arm cannon changed slightly, the aperture shrinking as the barrel extended. She then fired the arm cannon as Spessarite pushing her back. Beam mode lacked the raw power of cannon mode, but it forced a retreat as Spessarite began blocking the continuous beam of light with her sword, Azezulite moved back as well and took up a bracing positon. Her body was destabilising now, she could feel herself flickering. After only a handful of seconds the shot pierced through Azezulites sword and struck her bracers as she crossed her arms.

Azezulite began panting. Beam mode was powerful, arguably more powerful then blast mode as the longer she continued to fire, the more powerful the beam became, unfortnatly the strain it put on her body also increased the longer she fired it. Only two seconds had passed since Spessarite had lost her sword, she could feel the beam on her armor getting stronger as it broke down the plates of her armor. Without a weapon she charged forward still blocking then pivoted on her heel to deliver a back handed fist to Azezulite who stopped firing as Spessarite turned and managed to duck under the blow and spin herself behind Spessarite, opening her mouth Azezulite caught Spessarite’s long braid in her teeth and held herself behind Spessarite as she began firing her arm cannon again. Spessarite screamed, she could feel herself weakening as Azezulite held her braid in her mouth, and she could feel the beam from her arm cannon slowly chipping away her armor at an ever increasing rate, try as she might she could not strike Azezulite now, her arms didn’t bend that way, the positioning was to awkward. Before Spessarite’s body was pierced by the cannon beam she saw her body start to destabilize, becoming grainy and semi-transparent, and then she poofed, her gem falling to the ground before Azezulite who fell to her knees afterwards.

Azezulite managed to pick her rather weary self-up and carry Spessarites gemstone away from their battlefield, and into one of the more intact gem ships, she carefully navigated her way to the bridge and then into the remains of an old strategy room. Azezulite placed Spessarites gem carefully on one of the chairs around the broken table, then took up the seat opposite that, collapsing she waited, her one arm hanging limp, her head lolled off to the side, mouth askew, eyes unfocused, legs bent to the side, she looked like a puppet with its strings cut. Azezulite was running on fumes, her body was unstable and required now thanks to the lost arm and required most of her concentration to maintain, in addition her beam cannon had drained most of her stamina. Sitting like this was all she could do until she properly regenerated, unfortunately her own regeneration took significantly longer than that of most warriors, averaging about a day and a half. So she waited for Spessarite to return first.

It took a time but after X Spessarite’s orange gem began to glow with a golden aura as it levitated off the seat, thin tendrils of light began to trace out a humanoid form growing in thickness and intensity until a flash of amber light filled the room and Spessarite again stood tall in her golden armor, her long braid hung over her shoulder as she looked around in confusion at the room. This was not the battlefield where she fell. She then saw Azezulite lying in the chair opposite her, she had managed to place her arm cannon on the table and it was loosely aimed at her, but it was clear to Spessarite that Azezulite was in no condition to put up anything even resembling a fight now. “You didn’t shatter me?” she asked in half disbelief and half shock that the gem was still corporeal in her condition.

“Told you. Not Enemy. Home World Sent.” She struggled with each word, eyes unfocused “You. Believe me. Now?” her speech was getting worse, more distorted.

Spessarite nodded

“Good. Must regenerate.” As the words left Azezulites lips her body dissolved into smoke as her gem fell onto the chair she was seated in