SRL. LOG-220. (Patreon)

LOG-220.

“Now arriving at Pink One, White Diamond.”

As the stellar contours and dazzling colours of the Warp fell away to reveal the stars of reality once more, I found myself alone.

It had been agreed upon that Patina and Violet would stow away inside of my gemstone, in order to allow me to focus entirely on the matter at hand, and avoid the additional confusion of even more Gems potentially interjecting themselves into the already chaotic situation I was no doubt about to create.

“Oh…”

Yet as I stared at the primary holoscreen giving me a decent view of the solar system, part of me lamented the fact that I didn’t have anyone immediately at hand to share my reaction with, my jaw slightly slack as my eyes widened, taking in the world I had sought to return to for so very, very long.

For one, Sol had evidently gotten significantly busier than the last time I’d had the pleasure to dwell within it. My own vessel’s sensors were picking up thousands of different disparate energy signatures and readings that indicated starships or space stations, most of them swarming around various planets and moons, with a few having been drifting between positions when I had arrived.

The nearest of them had abruptly veered off course, and it wasn’t hard to guess that more than one captain had immediately recognised the tyrannic visage that had just Warped in.

Closer inspection revealed plenty of Gem ships, of course, with everything from Outworld class gunships that were little more than the technicals of space, many of them plastered with golden stars (seemed like the Crystal Gems had gotten more than a few new recruits), all the way to an entire Venatrix class battleship bearing distinctly piratical imagery that I recalled belonging to one of the more openly problematic Fight subfactions.

But there was more than that. The first ones that took my attention were of course the cylindrical, almost submarine-esque vessels that I knew belonged to the Avian fleet. Evidently they had managed to reunite at some point, with most of them currently clustered around a large pair of stations orbiting Mars, though a few were also scattered throughout other areas.

Nearby, there were also strange, blocky shapes that looked more like battering rams than vehicles designed for interstellar travel, and it was only my time spent with Yellow Diamond that let me recognise them as Quadraxian battlebarges, warships that had cracked through many an Imperial vessel.

More observation naturally revealed even more interesting things. There was a partial dyson swarm set up around the sun. Pluto had what looked like a giant gun sticking out of it. And the Earth…

…

Frozen in place, I silently regarded the monstrosity currently staring back at me with what must have been thousands upon thousands of eyes, its expression placid.

It…she…they were apparently large enough that I could make out key aspects of their lightform even as they orbited the planet. Hundreds of arms that must have been the size of small cities hung from the front half of a vaguely spherical lower body, which slowly drew upwards into a vaguely feminine torso. Across their melded ‘skin’, pupils tracked me unnervingly, and as I slowly tiled my head left, then right, I realised with a quietly mounting dread that it was very much me they were following, rather than the ship.

The Gem’s face wasn’t any more reassuring. A cracked visage that looked almost like a broken porcelain mask held what might have been pretty features, if they weren’t somewhat marred by having to accommodate so many separate patches of lightform, and it was with a shiver that I noticed a tongue briefly slip out from where the abomination’s jaw should have been, revealing a second, far larger maw hidden beneath the false head.

Remaining utterly still as what could only be the Cluster stared at me, a quiet inner voice idly reminded me that there were already various warships scrambling to intercept me, and that I was on a bit of a timer right now.

The rocket pods screaming towards my direction were kind of a clear indicator of that, the missiles having been launched from several objects which the sensors had somehow been misled into believing to be mere space debris, only to reveal themselves as small satellites.

And heavily armed ones at that.

Watching the projectiles steadily get closer, I winced slightly as laser fire began to impact off of the overshield, green flashes occasionally heralding an absorbed hit as hundreds of converging signatures that read only as robonoid turrets reoriented to focus their fire.

I’d taken the painstaking effort to try and Warp in as close to Earth as I reasonably could, having popped in somewhere adjacent to the moon, and still I was being confronted by a veritable bastion of defences intended to keep me out, or perhaps disable me before I could even entertain the thought of leaving.

Not that I could blame them. Stars, I probably would have supported the endeavor of fortifying the planet as heavily and deeply as possible…if all of those guns were currently being aimed at literally anyone other than me!

Shaking my head slightly as I watched the shields slowly overload from the impact of enough explosive ordnance to level a small city, I hurriedly considered what to do. Advancing forward would be registered as a hostile action, retreating would likely be considered in a similar light.

Just remaining in place was obviously right out, the overshield could take a lot, but it certainly wouldn’t last forever.

“...Prepare to send out a broadcast on all open channels in-system-”

“Warning, alpha-class threat signature approaching at rapid speeds.”

Pausing, I silently brought up a viewscreen to see what was charging me, only to flinch slightly at the pair of pink legs currently roaring past the significantly slower first response vessels burning towards my position.

“Oh that’s inconvenient. Forget the open broadcast-hail that ship!”

“Hailing.”

There was a light tone as my stolen ride processed the request in the midst of calculating escape vectors against a hostile solar system, then a chime.

“The hail request has been refused, White Diamond. Orders?”

Rearing my head back as the rapidly approaching set of limbs abruptly twisted about to aim the heels right at ‘my’ face, I went over several possible solutions, before groaning.

“Oh screw it. Forward!”

Leaning my head in the same motion, I felt the ship mimic me, advancing towards the incoming ram attempt even as my intent was registered, the overshield whirling around to focus itself at the front of the hull in a brilliant flash of green.

The subsequent impact was violent enough that I was damn near thrown out of my seat, talons desperately gripping onto the arm rests as I was granted the lovely sensation of a kick right to the fucking face.

“Warning, overshield system is at fourteen percent charge. Recommending immediate evasion protocols-”

A raised hand silenced the VI, even as I took in sharp breaths, slowly but surely tilting my head back forward to reorient the ship into facing the pair of legs once more.

They were motionless now, hanging a mere kilometer away after having bounced off without making so much as a dent. Gritting my teeth slightly, I gestured towards one of the screens depicting a diagram of the other vessel, exasperation leaking into my tone.

“Hail them again and keep doing it until they answer! Broadcast on all local channels if you need to!”

A moment passed in silence as we remained still, two Diamond ships facing off against one another.

And then, mercifully, a familiar voice erupted across the connection.

“How dare you come here, after everything you’ve done!?”

Inhaling deeply as a small secondary holoscreen popped up, displaying an angry pink visage, I did my best to inject a confident smile into my voice, even as her eyes rapidly widened in response to my appearance.

To my own amazement, I actually succeeded, and on a pure whim, casually lifted a hand, two claws spread apart in a ‘peace’ sign as I did so.

“Surprise. It’s Viri, please stop kicking me. I come in peace, and all that.”

My hands moved in time with the words, claws swiping at controls and making truth of my statements as I kept a wary eye on the first responders currently closing in on us both, most of them proving to be other Gem vessels.

“Kind of awkward to explain over a call, but I sort of maybe hijacked White’s ship? The rebellion is still accepting liberated Imperial assets, right?”

Bewildered silence followed even as I settled back into my command throne, feeling the radiant halo of light that had been wrapped around my head throughout my time spent controlling the ship flicker away into nothing.

I was done piloting for now. As much as it burned a part of me that was worryingly difficult to pinpoint as foreign, a certain level of trust had to be exchanged at this point, if I wanted to actually step foot on Earth again.

But that thought didn’t hold my attention for long. Nor did the countless immediate return signals being sent out from nearby parties who had likely picked up the open broadcast. No, my sole focus at the moment was on both the Diamond in front of me, and oddly enough, the Cluster, its prismatic hair that must have been the size of a small ocean floating around behind it like a veritable sea of light.

Slowly but surely, one of those titanic arms rose upwards, a hand composed of a dozen different melded colours reaching towards the being’s face. Then a single finger extended before it tapped the largest nose available twice, its owner smiling at me as they did so.

Huh.

“...Viridian?! Is that-but you…why do you look like that? Wait, how do I know this isn’t some kind of trick?!”

Turning my attention back towards the current matter at hand, I shot Rose (stars, she looked different, evidently I wasn’t the only one with an altered lightform running around considering just how pink she currently appeared) a look, even the pleasant buzz of my persistently positive mood failing to halt the annoyed frown overcoming my previously serene expression, a roll of my eyes completing the breakdown in decorum.

“Oh for-fuck it. I’m not White, Rose! Tell your people to chill out before they start shooting at me again!”

The Diamond in question stared dumbly at me for a long, long moment, before the connection abruptly cut out.

…Well alright then.

—

The followup to my (rather brief) confrontation with one of the strongest beings in the Sol System was silence.

Lots, and lots, and lots of silence. It took nearly an hour of that silence before Rose’s ship abruptly veered away, the ambient chatter the VI occasionally reported indicating that there were a lot of signals flying back and forth from between her and the veritable swarm of other ships filtering into close range.

First contact came with a curiously angular craft propelling itself towards the headship on relatively primitive engines, one that was currently being bombarded with signals as everyone else seemingly started doing the equivalent of shouting at it all at once, even as the quiet but insistent chime of an incoming hail finally broke that persistent quiet.

It was a long and narrow tube of a thing, bristling with visible point defence turrets and what suspiciously looked to be some kind of spinal mounting, possibly for a railgun or something. Still, all it took was a quick swipe of my hand to answer the connection, before a voice echoed over the call, tinged with a weird echoey effect.

I knew for a fact the headship had no flaws (White wouldn’t allow that, the narcissistic bitch), so the issue must have originated from the other vessel. Still, the slight interference wasn’t too much of a problem, leaving me to lean back in interest as a voice I didn’t recognise spoke up.

“Imperial vessel, we request that you power down all shields, weapons and engines. A boarding party has been assembled to ascertain your true identity, escorting an individual who believes she can verify you. Rose Diamond has vouched for you. If you are who you say you are, you will comply. Failure to do so will likely result in an immediate resumption of hostilities. Upon successful identification, you will be taken into Coalition custody, and we will then call for a representative of the Crystal Gems to determine the situation."

…That was a man’s voice. Just who was this guy? And those Coalition and Diamond parts certainly sounded interesting…

“Well, that’s a rather tall ask, considering the sheer amount of firepower currently pointed in my direction. I was speaking to Rose just a little while ago, may I at least have your name before we proceed?”

A pause followed, possibly to allow whoever was on the other end to either consider the request, or to communicate with his superiors. It didn’t take him very long to respond though, maybe a minute at most.

“...You may address me as James Flaherty, current acting Captain of the Arizona.”

Raising a brow at the surprisingly ordinary title, I pursed my lips, considering my options while posing another question to stall for time.

“Picking up a lot of chatter being directed at your ship. Sounds like your pals aren’t too happy about this little manoeuvre of yours.”

“Everyone is arguing, and I’m willing to trust the Diamond who’s been protecting humanity since we were throwing sticks at each other. Will you comply?”

“Hm.”

As much as it slightly rankled, compliance was probably the smart move at this point. I’d survived the initial onslaught and successfully made an attempt at identifying myself. Rose had seen me with her own eyes.

While I didn’t have enough information to make a confident assumption, I could guess that the Diamond had likely run in on her own in some foolhardy attempt at taking out ‘White’ before she could hurt anyone, only to be immediately shouted back into waiting at the rear lines, given her sheer importance to the wider rebellion.

That meant it was all just down to proving I was who I said I was, at this point. Flaherty’s boarding party was likely going to consist of either volunteers or robonoids, someone or something considered expendable enough to throw at a potential trap. More a glorified probe than anything else. Plus whoever they’d brought along that was claiming they knew me.

…Alright.

“Alright.”

“Alright?”

Repressing a twitch of my lips, I nodded, before abruptly remembering that the Arizona decidedly didn’t have a live visual connection to make the gesture worth anything.

“Alright. I’m powering everything down. I’ve been sitting here for like an hour and I want a donut. Please don’t blow me into space scrap, thank you very much.”

It was a small bit of theatre, considering that I could theoretically reactivate every single system aboard the headship in less than a second if truly needed, but it nonetheless proved slightly nervewracking (for a given value of the word, considering I didn’t those anymore) watching the overshield flicker out, leaving me exposed.

Thankfully for my future prospects, the Arizona didn’t open fire with its turrets, instead coming to a stop perpendicular to the literal face of my own vessel, rather blatantly lining itself up with the mouth I had commanded to open prior to switching everything off, all as hundreds upon hundreds of additional vessels continued to position themselves around my own, forming a blatant killbox.

Staring intently through the onboard surveillance visors as a docking collar set into place around the entrance, I idly clicked a pair of talons against one of my seat’s armrests, ignoring the holes the digits had previously carved into being and waiting to see who would take the risk of coming through first.

Said clicking stopped entirely as a dozen armoured figures rushed into the hangar bay hidden behind the ship’s lips, spreading out with guns raised and hands making rapid fire gestures.

Five fingered hands. If the advanced looking spacesuits, with their wonderfully familiar golden bubble visors hadn’t been enough to tip me off, the state of their anatomy and the identity of their captain was more than enough to finish the job.

I’d been boarded by honest to stars astronauts. Human astronauts. On a human warship.

Simply fascinating.

My slight smile twitched as another trio of figures stepped in behind the organics, and it was with some small level of bemusement that I watched three almost artificial looking lightforms march forward, taking point and beginning a steady advance through the halls, their fleshy allies following quickly behind them.

Evidently, someone had found the Light Prism on Earth, considering its projected soldiers were up and about. Good for them. And behind the constructs strode in another, distinctly familiar figure, glancing around with nervous eyes.

“Hm…far away from the Confluence, aren’t you Truce?”

Still, from there it was only a short while until the boarding party made it to the bridge. I’d opened up the way for them, after all. Ordinarily, they would have needed to breach through over a dozen bulkhead level doors while being attacked by countless interior defences.

Those defences were currently offline with the doors they protected unlocked, permitting a steady pace until finally, the first of the spacemen stepped into the bridge, compact little gun twisting about to point in my direction.

Fucking hell, they really had just sent a bunch of guys with peashooters to their possible deaths.

Still, we were all here now. Watching the man from my position atop the command throne, I very slowly raised a hand, before offering a little wave.

The subsequent staring contest thankfully didn’t last very long, with the organic moving further into the bridge to allow three more of his kind to join him, along with a pair of Prism soldiers.

And then I was raising both of my hands, relaxing fully into my seat and watching curiously as the group surrounded me, whatever chatter they were sharing hidden beneath their golden visors.

An idea formed, and for a brief moment I dismissed it, thinking that it would simply complicate things, but I was done scrutinising my every single action for imperfection or signs of treason. I’d done everything I could. So this would either work, or it wouldn’t.

“Yo...take me to your leader.”

The golden visors snapped towards me in an instant, the humans looking at me for what felt like minutes, but whatever tension I felt evaporated when I noticed that the shoulders of one of them had begun shaking in suppressed (and very possibly relieved) laughter, even as the unmistakable lightform of an old student of mine stepped past the amused marine, the face of the Pearl in question utterly gobsmacked.

“Viridian?”

How utterly fun.