The planning for the assault was... Well Green wanted to say it was interesting, but it was mostly frustrating if he were being honest. He couldn't say that out loud though. This was one of the first time they were jointly working on something, being anything less than enthusiastic would be bad for morale. Yellow was handling the requirements, Green was smoothing over the last minute changes, and even White was helping when she could spare time. White couldn't contribute much without losing progress on the next Diamond, but that she was helping at all was significant. This was going to be one of their largest battles in the history of the Gem Authority. Assuming that the enemy responded in kind, which was something they were planning for.
Green would admit a bit of shame with the frustration if he was going to be honest. The crowning jewel of the entire work should have been their new Titan sized ship. The first of its size, the Galaxy Crusher was the pinnacle of their technology, and looked like a shining Diamond from the distance. That was if you looked at it from a distance. It was more like a moon than a ship, and was large enough that they had to worry about gravitational mass. You could fit an entire city inside the thing and have room left over. The entire design required such radically different ideals that it had stretched their abilities to the utmost. And therein lay the problem.
Oh, don't get him wrong. Green would not have allowed something so large to be made without double and triple checking everything. It's just that there were, well organics called them teething issues. The initial designs and smaller prototypes had worked fine. There was just a large gap between theory and implementation that was rendering the ship non-battle worthy. Things just didn't work the way the should at the moment. Hence Green's frustration.
Fortunately it didn't hinder their plans much. Green just needed to devote his personal attention to repairing and remodeling the thing in a quick manner. He, and several thousand Gems, were going over the entire thing to fix everything and render the ship space worthy. While they were doing that, Yellow would take the rest of their fleet and forge ahead. Having a very big ship would have been useful, but it wasn't like their forces absolutely needed it at the moment. Their newest superweapon was an extra at the moment.
Of course that didn't mean he couldn't monitor the battle while he worked. Real time communication had been setup on a nearby workstation, and he was going to easily keep an eye on things. He could even order things if he found it necessary. Not that he planned on it, but as a Diamond he was in essence one of the premier authorities and it actually comforted the Gems to know he was there.
The battle started rather quietly and anti-climactically. It wasn't surprising. Space was large. FTL came in many forms as well. It was functionally impossible to completely defend a system from everything. All defenses had trade-offs. Gems mostly focused on defending worlds with a mix of sensors, patrols, and space stations depending on the circumstances.
Shamblers seemed to do something similar based off sensory readings. Coming into the system at the edges was therefore easy and not something they could oppose. All they could do was maneuver and ready themselves to attack once the Gems approached close enough to engage.
For once, the Shambler's cloaking specialty was not an absolute advantage that let them decide the engagement. The Gems had a visible and obvious goal that the Shamblers could not move. The planet was a colony of some sort. Not their homeworld, but it had a good million inhabitants at least. The Shamblers could not escape without dooming their people, and they were doomed if the Gems got to them. Yellow was not going to be merciful.
So the Gems could and would take their time. They came into the system and gathered into formation with deliberate and obvious intent. The Shamblers formed up similarly and made to meet them halfway. For several hours the two fleets jockeyed against one another as they cautiously sought a small advantage in positioning. Scans and various probes were sent out and the occasional explosion resounded through space as something was destroyed to gain an advantage.
Battle began suddenly. There was no particular reason for it. Impatience perhaps. Both sides had each others measure and decided to accelerate towards one another. The Gems had brought over a hundred ships, included over a dozen Diamond-Hands. The Shamblers had an slight advantage in perhaps two hundred ships, but less tonnage overall due to more of their smaller ships. They were fielding their larger Diamond-hand equivalents for the first time though, and those were clearly visible, which set off warning bells.
Shambler ships tended towards black and spikey. (The spikes were made to help with cloaking.) The smallest ones had a beak-like structure for ramming. The next size up looked a lot like sea urchins. The newest ones continued to aquatic trend somewhat. They looked a bit like squids, with far too many limbs. A lot of it was cosmetic based on the scans, which was oddly similar to what their Diamond Hands were like.
Both Diamonds suspected something special from them. The energy readings and lack of cloaking made it very obvious they were meant for something else. Cloaking was harder as you went up in size yes, but there were many ways around it. Green Diamond could think up several off hand. That the ship was visible meant something. They'd find out soon enough.
The Diamond hands opened up first at extreme range. Their middle fingers pointed towards the enemy and thousands of missiles went out. Called swarmers, they were basically just clustered ammunition meant to 'paint' targets. Exceptionally dumb and cheap, they'd been specially constructed to counter Shambler cloaking and were used to great effect here.
Jammers were sent out by the enemy in reply, but with the markings from the missiles most of the ships were not particularly concealed. They were now just hard to target, and the Gems could handle hard to target. Lasers sent on wide area attacks were quite effective at mission killing ships.
Seeing this, the Shambler commander ordered their ships back before the Gems could get into range. Yellow ordered her ships to pursue, but the Shamblers had enough range that any actual pursuit would take too much time, which wasn't particularly a problem in this case. They Gems shifted targets to the planet.
Minutes passed as ships flowed through space without firing more shots. Once the Gems were close enough to the planet for it to function as a block of sorts the Shamblers attacked once more. This had been already foreseen by Yellow, and the Gems were already prepared to receive them.
More jammers and missiles were exchanged, and this time the Shamblers pushed through the initial volleys to get into range. Lasers and other, more exotic weapons flew through the void and impacted ships all over. This was when the newest ships started their attacks. They lit up with some sort of strange light, and something howled without sound.
Reality visible rippled in a wave from each of the enemy squid-like ships. The Gem ships nearest to them reported hearing screams before their communications cut out. The effected ships listed and stopped responding after that, presumably from the crew being debilitated, hopefully. The ripple spread from ship to ship, and then it hit the Diamond Hand that Yellow was on.
Green Diamond was treated to the audio of his sibling screaming in unexpected pain. All his work stopped for a moment. All the work in the nation stopped.
Then Yellow's scream turned into rage, and the ripple from the Shamblers stopped. With a ragged voice she ordered her ships and Gems to keep fighting. Some of the afflicted ships began to respond sluggishly, but not all of them. The battle had turned from a confident win on the Gem's part, to a possible loss.
At this point the second part of the plan happened. The Klingons hit the Shamblers from behind.Last edited: Jul 2, 2025 Like Quote ReplyReport Reactions:VVartech, EzertTheLizart, KyleDaScourge and 747 others
Green Diamond cursed as he evaluated the situation. He cursed loudly. He revisited old curses from humans. He invented new ones. He built an entire lexicon of Gem-curse words. He did not stop working though. He in fact accelerated his work by ripping out parts wholesale regardless of safety. The amount of electricity and radiation running through the area he was in would have fried even Gems.
"Get me half a dozen of the X-Nine sized cables, and some of the lead-alloy radiation shielding!" He called out to the rather distant aids. "Don't come near, leave it at the safe line marks."
The diamond followed up his words by ripping out another part. A block of metal the size of a small house dented in his hands before he tossed it into the waste pile. The radiation and heat in the area increased. A Titan sized ship had an immense need for power, and it had several primary reactors designed to handle it. Part of the reason the entire ship didn't work was because they weren't coordinating right so to speak. One section of the ship would get more power than the other, and that was bad when you had something this large designed to move.
"New readings from the front-lines!" One of the tech Gems had to practically scream to be heard due to the distance.
Green looked that way and onto the screen the Gem was holding up. It was very far away, but he could still see and process the information. He cursed again.
"Cracking degenerate wastes of biological sludges are using a psionic attack. The warships don't have the scanners to give more information." In retrospect they should have assumed the enemy would have something exotic up their sleeves. "Send an order to have a science vessel in the reinforcements. It will be a fat target, but we need better readings anyway!"
Thankfully the updated information formed a less dire picture than he'd expected. Yellow's resistance to the psionic screams had allowed the Gems to rally somewhat. The Klingon's backstab had also caused the Shamblers to flinch so to speak. Not because they did that much damage, but they had rather forced the Shamblers to split their attention. The constant jamming they used helped the Klingon's stealth as well, which made the fight a lot more even than it would have been.
Of course that didn't mean that the enemy would let the Gems win. They had a say too, and they were going to say it loud. Once it became obvious that something was stopping their attacks they shifted their focus to it immediately. Yellow's ship became the priority target. Which left the Gems with a serious issue tactically.
Yellow could not retreat. The newest Shambler weapon started off dangerous at range and only grew stronger as you got close. It pierced through armor to disable both Gems and Klingons with relatively little failure. Yellow was the only counter their forces had, and the enemy knew it. Losing Yellow Diamond would be very, very bad and everyone knew that. Which put the Gems on the backfoot. They now had a very obvious and vulnerable weak point.
Fortunately for the Gems, the Shamblers could not easily destroy Yellow's flagship. Diamond-hands were insanely durable for warships, and the articulated fingers made them actually a bit difficult to properly attack if you piloted them correctly. A good pilot could shift the hand and fingers to have the fingers take the most damage when needed. A hand on a defensive position was therefore neigh impossible to bring down quickly. It could still be worn down, but that would take time. This didn't stop the enemy from trying.
Ships practically threw themselves at the Diamond-hand, and the hand in turn pulled back as much as it could while the rest of the fleet moved to protect it. This extreme reaction simply provoked the Shamblers still more. There was a vulnerable target in front of them, and all their instincts said to kill it. The battle became focused around Yellow, and ships exploded as they fought at knifepoint right above the planet. Several were forced down into the turbulent seas and swamps below before both fleets had expended their easily used assets and withdrew.
The pause, such as it was, wasn't done on some verbal exchange. Both sides were basically just wounded enough to feel threatened, but not wounded enough to be really vulnerable. On the Gem's side, the focused fire on Yellow's ship had made the Diamond-hand nearly inoperational. On the Shambler's side, they'd taken significant casualties to their chaff and didn't appear to be eager to fight without that screen. The Klingons had been savaged enough that they didn't get a say in things.
Green let himself breath a sigh of relief once it became apparent that they would have time to intervene. He looked at the reactor and frowned. Reinforcements were already being called up, and he was feeling extremely useless at the moment. His mind went through options.
"Remind me why we're not bombarding that planet again?" He called out.
"They have planetary shields! Also, you said it yourself, you need weapons designed for bombardment, and we never bothered with that!" One Gem called out.
It hurt a bit to be reminded of that, but Green understood it. They had methods of rearranging planets actually. There were several Lapis on Yellow's warships just for that. Those things just took time and orbital superiority. They also didn't account for the blasted shields.
"I swear, the one time you need bigger booms." Green muttered to himself and grabbed at a power cable and focusing again on repairs.
Based on what he was seeing the planet was more an obstacle than a defensive fortification. There were a few orbital guns, but they had limited arcs of fire. The Gem fleet was in orbit on a blind spot while they focused on quick repairs. He had a sneaking suspicion that the enemy was doing the same thing. There was also a good chance that there would be a lot of ground conflict now while the fleets stared down one another. He could already see reports of that now.
This was shaping up to be a long battle. He believed that favored his side, but it was very hard to tell based on the nasty surprises the enemy had cooked up. The enemy had shorter supply lines as well, which could be a problem.
"Report again! Repairs are underway on Yellow's Hand. A significant portion of our Gems landed on the planet! The enemy appears to have kill zones that the shields aren't covering!"
"Of course they do." Green grumbled to himself. He'd actually designed a bit of that himself on his planet.
You couldn't shield the entire planet. It was too big. What you could do was shield the important areas. The rest would be kill zones, or impassible terrain.
"The Klingons have landed all their forces and are aiding ours!" Another Gem called out.
Green Diamond paused in his repairs as he considered that. Then he shrugged to himself. He couldn't say that the Klingons lacked bravery. They'd actually do better there than in orbit at least. Like Quote ReplyReport Reactions:EzertTheLizart, KyleDaScourge, Happerry and 778 others
Oog did not like this place. He did not like emer-gen-cy landings. He did not like crashing. He did not like that he had to go out into the rain and water because uglies. It was wet and squishy. Even with pretty shiny water lady pulling the water into the air and throwing it, it was still wet. He went squish squish when he walked, and was mildly afraid of falling over. He would likely need help getting up, because the mud was so muddy.
He was also not very happy with the new people. The shouties with pointy weapons. They were nice, but they were so enthusiastic. Oog was very happy taking his own pace. Shouties ran everywhere. At least they were happy, even in the wet stuff.
"Come brave Oog, another battle awaits!" One of those shouties said and hefted his pointy weapon.
"Am coming, am coming." Oog replied back and carefully squished through the wet ground.
He had to admit he liked the armor now at least. The big boots made it so that he didn't have to worry about going sinky and it was keeping him dry. Not that he minded getting wet, but there was getting wet and dealing with this stuff. Mud everywhere. Oog liked being Oog. Oog did not want to be a mud-ball. That chafed after awhile, and the leeches were not fun.
Uglies interrupted Oog's nice thinking and not-so-nice stroll. At least that was easy to fix. The club came up and went down. Uglies went squish while shouty shouted. Oog was quite happy with his results, but had to admit that the uglies were less squishable in this mud. They could go hidey hidey and drag you into the water like they did with a lot of shouties. Oog really liked that his armor made that hard. It was heavy, and the shinies said it had 'an independent air supply.' Whatever that meant. Oog guessed it made him not drown like what the ugly was trying to do to him!
The orgryn grunted as he pulled himself out of the mud while keeping a grip on one of the Shamblers. The thing had gotten clever and tripped him in an attempt to bring him under. It had not helped. To the side a Klingon shouted and then gargled as he went under from another Shambler attack. Needles were flying everywhere, then Oog grabbed several parts of the Shambler with large meaty hands and pulled them apart. Less needles were flying soon after.
Oog grunted again and moved to the shouty still playing in the mud. He reached down and carefully pulled the shouty up. The ugly was dead, and the shouty wasn't shouting. That was bad. A few slaps on the back had him coughing up water. That was good!
"Hahah! A fine battle!" The shouty said after another cough.
Oog gave a grunt before commenting. "Try not to fall down next time."
"Sometimes you have to meet the enemy on their level!" Was the jubuliant response. "And look! The heavens light up to commendate our victory!"
The Ogryn looked up. It looked like falling stars were coming down. His eyes narrowed. He remembered something like that. Something that the shinies had told him at some point? The falling stars were coming closer. Oh yeah, re-in-forcements!
With a loud crash and explosion of steam several gems landed in the distance nearby the downed ship. The explosion of heat and sound was immense as Rubies used the heat of their entry to flash-boil everything around them. Following them Quartzes landed with less impact and hefted their personal weapons, using them to clean up anything the flash heat and pyromaniac Rubies had not caught. After that landing Topazes dropped, and then finally an Emerald.
"All right! This is now the property of the Diamonds! All forces except for the Rubies gather. Rubies, you know what to do!"
With a loud laugh the Rubies fused and began to burn things. Behind them the Lapis that had crash landed with the ship continued to pull water from the surrounding area, but shifted her focus. The hovering mass of liquid shifted into several balls. With a look of concentration the Lapis gestured at one of them. The ball responded to her command and flew through the air like an artillery shot before landing even more explosively, causing damage to one of the areas that the Shamblers were using as cover. That damage magnified when the Lapis caused the water to swirl and return.
"Ho!" The Klingon shouted. "Haha! Now this is a battle!"
Oog shrugged. "Is ok." He looked through the mud and found his club before hefting it and moving towards the Emerald. Everyone was supposed to gather, so he was going to gather.
More artillery shots began to be traded between the Lapis and the ground forces of the Shamblers. It was not going well for them. The Lapis, especially once joined by her siblings, was simply able to outtrade them. Oog couldn't see the specifics, but as an expert rock thrower, he knew that if your opponent could catch the rock you weren't going to have to have a good time. The shiny blue ladies were catching all the shots and throwing them back very quickly. It was a bit scary. That was a lot of water!
"Defender Oog!" One of the Gems called out as the Ogryn got into range. "And a Klingon friend! We're glad you landed correctly. The teleporter will be setup soon, but I want you both over here and sitting down." The Quartz looked over Oog.
"Why should we?" The shouty asked while Oog did as requested.
"Because I can see several needles in you. If you can't feel it it's likely because the nerve endings are dead." The Quartz responded in a matter of fact tone. "Be glad I know some organics thanks to Defender Oog here." She gave Oog a slap. "You should also be glad you have such a strong and reputable warrior with you! We don't title all of our big lugs you know. Oog is good at what he does."
Oog let the words wash over him. He didn't get half of them, but he didn't much care. He knew the drill.
"You did not tell me that you were famous my brave friend!" The Klingon shouted.
"So uh..." The Quartz paused as she manifested several large needles. "Normally I stick this into Oog here and pull out the needles before sending him back. I think it might not work for you?"
"Bah!" The Klingon grabbed at a needle still embedded into his skin. "It is either this or dying from the unworthy poisons they use." He pulled out the weapons along with what looked like blackened flesh before the Quartz stuck him with the medicine she had.
Oog didn't know that much. He was pretty sure that shouties were not supposed to look like that from being poked with the good needle. The shouty looked like he was vibrating in place for a moment. Then he saw some movement in the distance and hefted his weapon. A few seconds later the shouty was running at the enemy with his weapon held up high.
"Huh..." The Quartz said after a moment. "Is that a good thing or bad thing?"
"Oog doesn't know. Oog doesn't care. Do we have some rations?" He asked instead. "Oog is hungry."
"Sure thing Defender. We're going to need you out in a bit, but we'd like to have our forces gathered some. We want this area ours before pushing into the enemy cities and getting information." The Gem said with a grin.
Behind them people shouted, Shamblers screamed, and the Lapis practiced 'special terraforming.' More Gems dropped in from orbit and then the teleporter came online. At this point ground forces began to pour in and the battle was well and truly joined in both land and space. Like Quote ReplyReport Reactions:EzertTheLizart, Sovereign Of All, KyleDaScourge and 791 others
Twenty hours had passed since the battle had started. Twenty hours of methodic poking and prodding at one another to look for weakness. The number of skirmishes were frequent, but inconclusive. The casualties from each clash were small at best. The Shamblers seemed to be trying to tease out what was causing their super-weapon to be less effective, and the Gems were mostly content to just keep them away.
On the face of it, this seemed like a losing position on the Gem's end. A defensive posture ceded the initiative. Their goal however was the planet. Furthermore, their goal was not necessarily to kill the Shamblers on the planet, though that would be nice in their eyes. Their central task was instead to find more information on their enemy. Actually getting into the uninhabited areas and capturing unsanitized data would allow them to target the enemy far more effectively in the future. Had they not had a Diamond in the mix, it would have been acceptable to lose the entire fleet for that, though only barely.
It was painful for the Gems to admit it, but without that data the Shamblers were likely going to win. The cloaking combined with the lack of knowledge let them strike at will with absolutely no meaningful retaliation. The Gems could defend every single attack and still lose. They absolutely needed a way to strike at the enemy properly.
This was why Yellow was being stubborn, and why the Gems were being defensive. The space battle might have been at a stalemate, but their ground battle was going extremely well. Something interesting was being discovered there. The Shambler's anti-infantry was exceptional on a small scale. As the scale magnified the ability to easily down a Gem with a volley of needles became less of a factor. Gem exotic abilities and ability to easily re-arrange the battlefield gave them unmatched superiority. The teleporters magnified the effect. The ground game was therefore becoming a serious Gem win. So long as the Gems denied orbital superiority, they would win the fight handily.
Everyone knew this state of affairs could not continue. The Shamblers would not allow it. The victory was all balanced around Yellow Diamond. Should she be taken out of the battle the Gems would lose this battle. Should she be captured, poofed, or shattered, the Gem Authority would very likely crack in a national sense. The only thing keeping the Shamblers from suicidally attacking was the lack of forces and the uncertainty of what was countering their weapon.
Reinforcements for both sides seemed to change the equation at first. More Diamond Hands from the Gems and more Screamers from the Shamblers came into the edge of the system. Accompanying the Gem side were several Science Orbs, with scanners already going full blast. It seemed as if the stalemate was going to break just from that, as both fleets responded immediately.
Yet instead of another vicious clash, the fleets became even more cautious after a few maneuvers. The new reinforcements on the Gem side did not have the protections offered by Yellow Diamond. They knew it, and the Shamblers suspected it based on how they moved their forces. Positioning became extremely critical. If the Screamers got into range of the reinforcements they could cut them to pieces. If the reinforcements linked up, there was a good chance they could just force the Shamblers away from the planet.
It was a cat and mouse game with the highest of stakes. The reinforcements orbited the system three times while slowly maneuvering this way and that way, attempting to link up with Yellow's forces still above the planet. Yellow's forces in turn stayed right above their ground forces, practically daring the enemy to attack them while they guarded their fellows below. All the while the ground forces continued to advance and slowly began to break the Shambler defensive positions.
The thing that changed the entire factor was sudden. A shift and an FTL signal right next to the Shambler reinforcements. There was a visible confused shuffle from their ships as they realized it was not their forces coming in.
A second later a massive ship appeared right next to the Shamblers. The Galaxy Crusher took the stage. A ship the size of a small moon, it loomed practically right next to the Shambler forces, alone and undefended. There was a visible pause from the Shamblers as they seemed torn between attacking and fleeing.
On the bridge, connected to several wires, Green Diamond watched them carefully. The Galaxy Crusher was still technically non-functional. There were still inoperable systems in several areas. However, abusing the abilities of a Diamond had allowed them to make it functional. Tying himself into the systems as an additional reactor backslash processor was not going to be feasible in the long run, but for a battle like this it was fine.
Eventually the Shamblers made a decision. They blitzed the Galaxy Crusher with all their reinforcements. The forces around the planet likewise began to move as well, and Yellow Diamond gleefully moved to engage them.
The previously almost orderly lines turned into a brawl. Green himself could see little of it. All he could hear was screaming and all he could feel was pain. Several of the Shambler superweapons had turned on him and his ship, and they hurt. Had he been in charge of the ship, it would have been an issue.
As it was, he just listened and focused on resisting. That was difficult, but not insurmountable. He could even pay some attention to the battle as he fought on a front he hadn't even known about before this battle.
A Galaxy Crusher was a new ship. It had a variety of functions. It functioned as a hanger for smaller ships, it functioned as area denial, and it even had a secret weapon so to speak. Most of that was not operational at the moment. What was operational was all it's weapons and armor. Rushing it was the exact opposite of what you wanted to do.
The first thing the Shamblers had to get through was a wall of missiles and lasers. Every angle of the Galaxy Crusher was covered, and the very bottom point had a special feature. It was a laser that had a range of light-seconds. Combined with the still active Science Orbs, the Shamblers were absolutely savaged upon approach. Their weapons practically splashed off the armor. Some of them hit, but the first layer was an ablative regenerating mix of shield and matter. All of the damage was inconsequential.
Ramming the massive thing did even less than damage. The second layer, beneath the armor, was filled with automated defenses. Several of them had been specifically designed to deal with the disruptive techniques the Shamblers favored. Dead-drops and simplistic traps hindered them and let the Gems reinforce at their leisure. The Galaxy Crusher had so much internal space that it would take hours to actually get to anything vital anyway.
In essence, throwing themselves at the ship just let it grind them down. Gem ships were already brutally hard to destroy. This was partially why the Shamblers favored disabling and boarding. The Galaxy Crusher made even those tactics impossible. They were learning that lesson painfully.
This did not mean that the enemy lacked options though. Green could visibly tell when they concluded that they could not actually destroy his ship in a speedy faction. Their forces pulled back and tried their best to ignore the long-range laser to focus on retreating. The ships likewise engaged with Yellow Diamond painfully pulled themselves back, though not without heavy casualties.
With a soundless whimper the Shamblers retreated, ceding their planet. Perhaps they thought they could return before the planetary shields were dropped, but they underestimated the Gem's commitment. With the teleporters and unhindered access to the orbitals, the ground battle took only a few hours to conclude.
The end result was a complete extermination of the Shambler population and a full capture of all their infrastructure, including several un-wiped databases and computers.
----
Battle of Screams: A battle in which the Shamblers revealed a battleship designed to attack psionically. Devastatingly effective, the only initial defense was Diamonds mentally resisting the effect.
Screamers: Shambler Battleship. Has roughly the same tonnage as a Diamond-Hand. Dedicated to using a special weapon that attacks mentally. Initially debilitating, extensive exposure is lethal, even to Gems.
Galaxy Crusher: A ship the size of a small moon. Extremely defensive orientated, destroying one requires dedicated weapons, and extensive time. Rather slow and sluggish, the best initial tactic for countering one was typically just avoid it. The long-range main weapon was dangerous, but could be endured for small periods of time. The ship is designed to be a fortress to support others, without them it's a weighty obstacle. Like Quote ReplyReport Reactions:EzertTheLizart, Sovereign Of All, KyleDaScourge and 747 others
The Klingons have made two requests." Green had not expected a sort of statement like that in the aftermath of the battle.
"Is there are reason I'm getting these requests?" The diamond asked curiously.
His Pearl shrugged uncomfortably. "You are the leading expert, and they aren't military questions. Those have already been fielded while we do the cleanup and recovery."
With a slow nod Green looked around the area. They were in one of the relatively cleaned up cities to do some checking on a device that had been found. There was significant battle damage still remaining, but the bodies had been removed and the traps had been disabled. The bodies would be autopsied and then incinerated when possible. Some of the Shamblers' deaths had been messy, especially in several of the shelters. The assaulting Gems and Klingons had not been merciful.
"The request?" Green asked.
"They'd like an official statement to not give their warriors stimulants, and for a list of the chemicals that were used on them. The request was phrased as politely as they could, and rather unusual as well, which I think is why it got passed to us." Pearl responded promptly.
Stimulants? Green made gesture with one hand and was handed a pad with the actual information on it. He scrolled through it. Apparently some of the Klingons on the ground had been given the cocktails he'd had designed for the Ogryn after they'd gotten hit by the needles. This was mildly amusing, though also worrying. What was more impressive was that they'd survived afterwards. Apparently Klingons could handle multiple heart attacks. Considering the stims had been made for an entire different species and for something triple their body weight, that indicated a rather insane level of durability.
"Give them the full list, and see if we can have a few Bloodstones learn some medical information for them so we can treat them if something similar happens again. Also yes, I suppose I'll have to say it, don't give organics medicine not designed for them." Green finally said with a small laugh and a shake of his head.
"It will be done my diamond." His pearl responded with a small bow before continuing. "Would you like a report on the ships in orbit?"
"Are they safe to board yet?" Green asked back.
"No. The two Screamers that were deemed possible to board and recover are still being swept. The lesser ships have been cleared though. ETA is another fifty hours before we can safely say that the ships can be investigated safely."
Consider they'd torn one of the Screamers in half, this was actually mildly impressive. The Shamblers were very good at scuttling their ships when they needed to, and were frighteningly good at leaving behind traps. Fortunately Gems were better at countering the traps. It made things take longer but that was it.
"I'm only interested in the Screamers. The rest can be handled by the others. How are the casualties?" The diamond eventually asked.
"We have the shattered tallied. After-action review indicates it's mostly from the Screamers getting too close and continuously firing that weapon." Pearl's voice was grim.
Green Diamond sighed and picked his way across the street. On one hand that hurt. On the other hand, it was a wonder that they had so few casualties really. He chalked it up to a combination of Gem durability and their victory. It wouldn't do to really focus on it though, they would be far from the last.
After a moment of wandering, Green grumbled and pulled off his ever-present glasses. He really should have asked for a guide or better directions. His eyes traced through areas before he found what he was looking for. He put his glasses back on and began to walk towards his target properly. Behind him his Pearl and his guards trailed without words. As he looked he noted the damage.
There was extensive water damage in several places. Lapis imitating artillery essentially. Several buildings had collapsed from something hitting them very hard. One or two had been burnt to the ground, though that was rare. Shambler cities seemed to have a lot of water in their makeup. They likely had more trouble with mold and slime than fire, which probably disappointed the Rubies.
They were going to spend months examining what had happened and what they could do better. Well, Yellow was. Green was going to look over the technology, and he already had something lined up. One of the shelters had been a power plant with some very complicated shielding. He had a sneaking suspicion of what that was.
Eventually Green found the already pried open doors of the proper area. More water damage indicated it was a place that had been flooded. There was some heat damage as well. The reports were that a Lapis and Ruby had boiled the defenders alive before sweeping them out. Green let himself acknowledge that his people were essentially killing the men, women, and children Shamblers without hesitation or remorse and moved inward.
The place he found was as described and documented. A complicated mass of shielding and wires around a very small core. The voltage the wires seemed to be rated for was disproportionate. Whatever was in it was... Well, Green had a guess.
Green removed his glasses again and looked over the place. Then he closed his eyes briefly at what he saw and took a deep and unnecessary breath. One thing at a time. There were a significant amount of traps that needed to be defused. An almost excessive amount really.
Explosives, a few bits of sabotage, no less than three things that would cause a self destruct. All of it was relatively easy to dismantle when you were something like what Green was. Green took his time to disable them, being extra sure that he wasn't making any mistakes.
A few hours later, he could find nothing else that would stop him. Green reached forward and began to rip off the shielding with equal care. The metal buckled under his grip and he pulled it off very slowly.
Inside a glittering ruby-colored Gem sat. It was covered with several bands and connected to several clamps, almost pristine looking.
"Hello Ruby J-Three-Nine." Green said softly as he pulled the Gem out. "Hmmm."
"Is she all right?" Pearl asked softly.
"Looks like they're using these bands to keep a Gem from reforming and provide interfaces. It's not particularly efficient for what they're using it for, but it does keep them from shortening the life of the Gem and I don't think she was aware at all." Green chuckled and shook his head. "I think that's unintentional though. These were likely just the easiest ways of restraining them."
Very, very carefully Green pried the bands off the Ruby and looked her core over again without his glasses on. He then nodded and handed it to one of his bodyguards.
"Hand that off to a Bloodstone and have them give it a full examination. Let the Gem reform and debrief them." Green ordered seriously. "Also emphasize that nothing that happened to them was their fault."
The Topaz saluted. "Yes my Diamond."
Green Diamond nodded and turned back to the power station. Gems were more akin to batteries than power generators, but they stored so much energy that they were functionally identical. He was just going to double check everything to be certain that was what was happening.Last edited: Jul 2, 2025 Like Quote ReplyReport Reactions:VVartech, EzertTheLizart, Sovereign Of All and 777 others
Green Diamond wanted to say that their victory over the Shamblers had been the turning point. It was most certainly the point where the Diamond Authority was able to attack rather than defend. Calling it a turning point felt like something too strong. The Shamblers were still attacking all over. The loss at the planet, if anything, seemed to galvanize them and they were taking damage all over Gem territory.
What was worse was that they had figured out what allowed the Gems to defend against the Screamers. This made actually fighting them only possible with Yellow or Green Diamond on the field. There was naturally a significant risk to fielding what amounted to a strategic asset continuously. Having only one or two 'main fleets' so to speak worked in games. It did not work in real life. They needed coverage.
Fortunately Green Diamond had quickly been able to find something. The idea had come from the Screamers even. The core part of the Screamers had been a Gem that served as an amplifier. As infuriating as the discovery had been, it let him know that Gems could interact with psionics. They didn't know the mechanics, but they had a handy example right in front of them that they could touch and adjust. Green was confident that he could understand anything he could interact with. All it would take was some time.
Admittedly his progress was significantly helped by just stealing information. The data they'd gotten from capturing the city had been rather immense, filled with some things that the Shamblers took for granted and had therefore not bothered to censor. Corelating, coordinating, interpreting it all would have taken a normal person years. It took Green a few days, and a little bit before a year had passed he had something that would work.
"All right, test one thousand, six hundred, five." A peridot spoke into the microphone. "Is the subject ready?"
"Ready!" The ruby saluted.
"First test, needle resistance test."
Several hundred needles flew through the air all towards the standing Ruby. Several sparked as they impacted, and the test subject flinched instinctively. That didn't hinder the test at all. Some of the projectiles embedded themselves in her form, some deflected off, but once the test was done she had a good few dozen inside her lightform. She was still standing though, unpopped and whole. The first time this had happened.
"Test... Success." The peridot said slowly as if she did not believe it herself. "Ruby, status?"
"Bit of pain feedback." The test ruby replied and held up a hand, a needle slowly popped out as she watched. "Umm, and a needle fell out?"
"Prototype Five-six-eight-one was designed to have you instinctively shapeshift to reduce damage and remove impaled weapons. That was far slower than projected." The peridot frowned at the readings. "Do we confirm this as a success still?"
From the side Green nodded his head slowly. "We varied the programming for each variation. This one tried to do everything, so I'm more surprised that the shapeshifting works at all. Doing too much often has it all fail. Significantly though, she didn't pop from the needle discharge."
"Yeah!" Ruby shouted with a grin.
"Check the charges and replace them with the same variation." Green Diamond ordered. "Call that test a success with caveats."
"Yes my Diamond!" The tech in charge saluted.
Several small gem-like attachments were pulled off the ruby and new ones were placed on them. The test was repeated several times, to similar results. There was some excitement in the testing group as it became apparent that they'd finally found a hint to fixing one of their more vexing problems.
"Endurance testing." Green cut the celebration short with those words and everyone went right back to business.
The Gems promptly rearranged the firing range. The test ruby was changed out. More of the same prototype were set onto the Gem's form. The needle launchers were rolled up and the ordinance checked. Then the firing began. One volley, two volley, three volleys. Then a very familiar poof as the test ruby's form dissolved.
"That's..." Green frowned at the poofed gem. "It's far better at least."
"The charges on the prototypes are still above half." One of the techs said. "It looks like the energy couldn't be grounded fast enough."
"I suppose it's too much to ask for invincibility." Green Diamond sighed and gestured to his people. "Standard test spread. Honestly we can consider this a win even if that's all it does. We can refine the effect now that we have a test example."
This was the tedious part of testing. How long between volleys, how many needles, and so on. Did the charge matter? Did the angle the needles stick in matter? All of that needed to be answered. The conclusion took several days, but broadly speaking, a Gem could take three volleys in short succession before poofing with their current prototype. Two volleys and a few minutes had them stay around. Green considered that acceptable. That didn't mean they were done with testing. There was still one more weapon to test against.
Everyone moved to the next testing field. There, in the corner was a massive mess of wires around a small seat. Somehow it looked ominous even though it was just a seat and wires. There was a sort of air of pain around it, and the quartz moving to sit on it looked as if she was trying to psych herself up. No one commented on her hesitation. If anything, the Gems looked respectful.
"Scream test initiating. Low intensity." The tech in charge looked very unhappy as she started the test.
Green Diamond hated it himself. They could replicate the psionic attack somewhat with that accursed chair, but it required a gem being an amplifier, and it hurt both the gem doing it and the gem being tested on. Fortunately it was just pain. They could handle it if they were careful and did it briefly. No one wanted to chance something lengthy and risk someone shattering.
Listening to a Gem in pain never got easier either. The Quartz serving as the amp was experienced enough to just grunt in pain, but Green still remembered the way everyone screamed eventually. Psionic attacks bypassed a lot more than just armor apparently. No amount of willpower or endurance could withstand whatever this monstrosity did.
The ruby involved winced slightly as the effect started and slowly hefted one arm, then the other. "It seems ok?"
"Testing paused. Indications of resistance. This means we can try the next step. Quartz, are you able to continue?" The tech in charge asked.
"Count of ten, then go. Skip to high." The quartz grit out.
"Amplifier indicates switch to high intensity. Switching in ten, nine.." The tech counted down as both the ruby and quartz braced themselves. "Three, two, one... Start."
High intensity was as high as they deemed safe. It was still a crippling sensation. Test subjects reported blurred vision, inability to control their motor functions, and eventually poofing as something overloaded internally. This was actually less intense than the reported Screamers at full blast, so their little test wasn't exactly like being hit by one. The Quartz still let out a pained scream as she tried to endure.
Yet the agony served a point. The ruby target staggered. For a moment she seemed as if she was going to drop down, but she still stood. Even better, she was able to walk towards a dummy console and put in commands. For a long moment all the gems held their breath, and then the hard-stop hit. The testing ended with the ruby still standing and flexing one hand.
"Still hurt a lot, but I wasn't on the ground." Ruby said after it stopped.
"Charge of the Reinforcers are down significantly." One of the techs said.
Green Diamond grinned. "We'll count that as a success. I want as many labs as possible on this. We have seven days to refine it, then we'll ship it immediately. Thirty minute breaks every twenty hours." He paused and looked at the trembling Quartz. "Except you. One test every hour for a Gem in that thing. Volunteers only, and again once every hour, no exceptions."
The words barely needed to be said. Everyone moved with absolute purpose. This was important to all Gem-kind. Like Quote ReplyReport Reactions:VVartech, EzertTheLizart, Sovereign Of All and 749 others
Things changed after the Lightform Stabilizer was created. No longer forced to stay on the back foot, the Diamond Authority could now advance towards their enemy. This did not mean it was easy. The Shamblers were vicious in their attacks, becoming more and more fanatic with every passing battle. This had very painful results. For the first time in their history, the Gem population was not steadily expanding. The sheer attrition was enough to cause casualties.
Yet this did not mean the Gems were losing the war. They were in fact winning steadily. It was just that the Shamblers were not making it easy at all. Painful lessons were being accompanied by hard battles. Victories were more common, but losses did happen.
Looking back on it, Green considered the years after his creation a bit of a blur. His moments of rest were few and far between. Every part of him had focused on trying to find another war-changing discovery. Dissecting the Shamblers piece by piece and making conclusions in rapid fashion to little effect. The entire empire was likely feeling similar. There was a sense of pressure and for the first time the Authority started to creak from maintaining the war footing. They were far from buckling, but it was almost novel to find that they had a limit.
As grim as it sounded though, the Shamblers were feeling more pressure. The grinding attrition favored Gems more. Their war machine was not built to handle what the Gems could throw at them again and again. The only reason they lasted so long was because their offense was frankly superior in all respects to the Gems. Their surprise attacks and raids were sometimes cripplingly effective, and Yellow Diamond had suffered more than one close call before she'd shifted to staying in her Galaxy Crusher full time.
Ultimately in the end this all just delayed the end. The only reason the Gems had not begun razing the enemy planets in mass was because they didn't quite know how much the Shamblers had. Green Diamond's people had identified the homeworld soon after the Battle of Screams. They had a measure of what planets the enemy had. They just needed to be sure they would win when they attacked in full. That time took longer than they would have liked, but it happened.
The final fleet was not a small thing. It was double the size that was used at the Battle of Screams, with one fully fully functional Galaxy Crusher. It represented the full might of the Gem Authority, with some of the ships defending White's work contributing. (The only reason why this was allowed was due to another being built and given to White as a defensive measure.)
Needless to say the Shamblers were very aware of the fleet. Once it became obvious they were gathering, the Shamblers had attacked elsewhere, attempting to divert and disrupt the forces. This had resulted in several Gem losses, but ultimately failed to stop the muster. Now the Gems had the Shambler's measure, and were ready to attack.
Thus it was that several centuries after the Shamblers had been discovered that the last battle for the fate of their race began.
"You really should not be here." Yellow Diamond noted clinically as they began FTL transit.
Green Diamond shrugged in return. "I believe this will be necessary. If there's a time to use it, it's now."
The other diamond's hands clenched slightly, but she nodded in reply. They couldn't actually allow any chance of failure here. There was a distinct chance that the enemy had one or two last tricks up their sleeves. Using foretelling had produced inconclusive results. There was something about the future battle that made it impossible to predict. This wasn't actually unexpected. Sapphires had extreme trouble predicting Diamonds, and battles in general had too many variables to properly predict. (They'd actually been suffering a bit of a prestige loss due to this.)
Time passed as they waited on the bridge. There was an almost silence from the Gems crewing it. The commands and messages were quiet. There was no conversation at all. All that existed was a grim wait.
It was almost a relief when the FTL stopped and they could see the enemy's home star in the distance. There was a distinct feeling of anticipation now. Sensor readings were already being shouted out as the enemy's fleet was observed.
"That is a lot of stations. Less ships though." Yellow observed. "Yet... It feels like there's less than expected."
Green grunted. "Estimates are they should have double this."
Force wise they had a good guess as to the Shambler forces. They had been expecting almost all hands to defend against this attack. As it was, this force could defend against their fleet, but they could not win.
"Where is the trap?" Yellow breathed out.
"No other forces on the rim." One of the sensor techs reported.
"Have the Science Orbs do a circle with an escort. All other forces close in to the halfway point and wait. We have time. Mines at key reinforcement points." Yellow gave orders rapid-fire.
The Shambler fleet had obviously seen them. They simple drew closer to their planet rather than sally to meet them. This was very, very different than their usual method of war. Green stepped to the side and looked at the various readouts.
"About half the ships the enemy is fielding are older models." The diamond observed. "Did they pull out decomissioned ships?"
"I would guess we broke them, but I'm not going to let pride cause me to make mistakes. Defensive posture. Are the Science Orbs reporting?" Yellow asked.
"Nothing on their sensors. The only thing unusual is a few constructions nearby the local star." One of the Gems said.
"Hmm?" Green turned to that report. "I... Don't know what that is." He said after a minute. "It's not a weapon. It's not any tech I am familiar with. It actually doesn't look like anything advanced at all. If you ignore the fact that it's close it just seems like it's supposed to drop something into the star."
"Could they be planning on weaponizing that?!" Yellow latched onto one idea with alarm.
Green ruled that idea out immediately with a shake of his head. "Not with what they have there and their technology base."
For a long moment Yellow paused and looked over the bridge. She shifted in her seat slightly before snarling and standing up. The bridge turned to her in confusion. Green raised an eyebrow as she approached him and held out a hand.
"There is a trap here I can't see. Lets do that thing early." Yellow said.
"You're sure? Remember the mental state is important." Green noted.
"Get a harmonizer up here and we'll get it started." The diamond ordered with a small flush on her face. "Look, if all I need to pay is some embarrassment to win the fight, then I will do so."
Green Diamond nodded slowly and reached out his own hand. While the action was very simple, what was actually occurring was anything but. Fusion was the signature Gem action, and two diamonds doing it in public said something. What it said would be up to the Gem, but on the eve of this battle they could not take chances. It was with this mindset they fused and the gestalt Gem took control.
Gold Diamond opened her eyes after the flash had finished and took a deep and unnecessary breath. "Gold Diamond taking command." She said simply and summoned her weapon. "I will be ascending to the top of the Galaxy Crusher to better aid the battle. Once I am there we will advance."
The diamond followed her words with action, leaving the bridge and heading to the elevator that brought her to her destination. The top of the Galaxy Crusher was a large and flat plane that was so large that normal sight couldn't see the edge. It was also studded with small defensive fallback points so that it could function as additional defenses, or viewpoints like she was using it for right now. Gold gave the entire field a look before nodding and connecting herself to the bridge.
"Gold Diamond in position. I will now give the order to attack." She said very simply. "Advance and destroy."
With that, the last real battle of the war began. Like Quote ReplyReport Reactions:liquid_oni, EzertTheLizart, Sovereign Of All and 780 others
As their fleet advanced Gold Diamond narrowed her eyes. Green's peerless special skill had been lessened in her creation, but it still existed in her. Thus she could see the entire enemy composition even if it was light-minutes away. It made little sense to her as well. Green could confirm that half the ships were outdated things that had likely been pulled out of storage. Yellow's tactical estimate was that even with the stations the Shamblers had a very high chance of losing with this force. The enemy knew them and the numbers they brought to bear. The Gems had given up trying to keep fleet movements secret. The Shamblers were just too good at observing them in that context. This was an obviously telegraphed weakness.
The most obvious reason for that was therefore it being a trap. But where? Gold looked to the star again. That was where it was coming from. The tactical positioning made it obvious. What wasn't obvious was the how it was a trap. Green's memories indicated what it would take to weaponize the stellar object. What she could see indicated that the infrastructure was just too small for something weaponized.
"Incoming... Missile?" A transmission from one her Gems made Gold switch her focus.
She could understand the confusion now that she could see it. It looked like a repurposed troop transport of sorts. The Shamblers had slapped so much armor on the ship that it was more a flying rock than anything else. Her gaze could see something highly energetic inside with an odd radiation profile, but the composition made it so that actually exploding the thing would just make a small cloud of matter and nothing else. A marker perhaps?
"Destroy it." Gold ordered. Best not to let it get close in her opinion.
A small swath of missiles flew out and intercepted the large shuttle storage with little trouble. The dimensional sheering made the armor completely worthless, and the shuttle was destroyed not even halfway to the fleet. The energetic material spilled out in a glittering cloud so far away that their fleet barely even needed to re-rout to avoid it.
Movement out of the corner of Gold's eye made her look at the sun again. Something was shifting in it and she braced herself for the attack. Even braced though she could barely contextualize what it was. Her eyes saw it but her mind could not interpret it. A large line of black stretched from the sun to the mass of glittering matter. Some sort of FTL, but of an unfamiliar sort.
The being stopped at the glittering dust and it's form shrank somewhat. It shifted and swallowed the matter in a single bite, allowing Gold to see the thing in full. It resembled a centipede superficially. A massive many-legged thing made of indecipherable black matter. It was long and thin, but also so large it could likely coil around the Galaxy Crusher with segments to spare. Still wreathed in remnants of a sun's heat, it twisted around itself with twitchy and erratic movements. It didn't so much as float through the void as claw against reality with each leg. An ominous feeling pressed against Gold's mind as she watched it move. A psionic feeling of danger, as if the creature's very presence radiated threat.
"Composition is too different from Shambler technology... Too organic adjacent as well. A space beast of some sort?" Gold tentatively concluded before her eyes widened and she called her weapon. "Bridge, initiate the shunt procedures. Stand ready to use it to avoid a lunge!"
Credit to the crew, they did as ordered immediately. The secret weapon that Green had installed on the Crusher drew power just as the centipede thing shifted and twirled around itself, acting in an unnervingly organic fashion. It was a centipede looking for more prey made large. From a distance it was disturbing to see, but it was worse to Gold. It was a mass of black matter that made no sense and moved far too fast.
Between one twitch and the next the centipede turned towards the Galaxy Crusher and almost seemed to look at Gold specifically. That feeling of danger sharpened to hunger and Gold knew it had a new target. It's form lengthened again unnaturally. Countless segments clawed through reality in a nauseating and terrifying display. The centipede became infinite and crossed the gap in an instant.
The Galaxy Crusher's crew reacted before it moved thankfully. The shunting technology flared, and centipede's lunge missed as the Crusher simply disappeared for an instant. A second later it appeared in a different area in space. The Quick Shunt installed by Green had functioned exactly as required, giving the Crusher the ability to move to another place instantly. He'd not designed it for something like this, but it would work all the same.
"All fleet members, attack the Shamblers fleet. This ship will distract this thing. Designation..." Gold examined the thing as the focus on her weapon shifted ominously. "Star-Eater."
Her vision was having trouble analyzing it, but she could tell that much. The black matter it was made of was already absorbing the last bits of heat from the sun. It was now absorbing the faint energy in the void around it. It saw Gold as the next snack. Fortunately it didn't seem that intelligent. The way it moved and attacked hopefully indicated an animal sort of instinct.
The Galaxy Crusher's weapons fired off as the focus on Gold's weapon shifted. All of them hit. Lasers, directed energy weapons, missiles, all of it. The Star-Eater didn't even seem to notice it, shifted with a bit of confusion before finding Gold again.
Gold's weapon fired then. The focus on the lense lanced out and drew a pencil thin line around parts of the beast. The almost microscopic lines glowed with power for an instant, and then exploded with extreme force as the transformed matter reacted to itself. Small chunks of matter flew off as the Star-Eater's outer layer fractured.
"That should have penetrated more." Gold noted to herself.
Her weapon transformed everything in a wide area into a form of her choosing. Turning it into a self-reactive explosive compound was easy. It would have bisected another creature. It just gave the Star-Eater the equivalent of a shave. The problem wasn't with her weapon. She needed to analyze the matter more.
"Star Eater is attacking again."
The shunt fired up again and dodged the next lunge. Gold shifted her stance and fired off another ray while the Crusher fired off more attacks. Again Gold's attack was the only thing that did anything, but whatever the hyper-dense matter was, it was extremely resistant. Gold was confident that she could analyze it enough given time.
She wasn't going to be given time. As the beast twitched and turned in on itself it almost seemed to come to a decision. It reared back for another lunge and the Crusher shunted once more, but the thing's strange FTL did not stop. For one second, then two, the crawled through space. An infinite amount of segments and legs consumed the space around the Crusher. It swirled around and around the ship everywhere and nowhere at once. It surrounded Gold and her crew and then stilled with it's maw right above Gold.
If there was a hell, it hovered right there now. A furnace of heat and cold hovered above the diamond as she stared up. Her eyes saw everything. It was a massive annihilation that would consume everything about her. The mandibles snapped closed and impacted the sides of the Galaxy Crusher. Armor built to endure anything only caused it to slow, not stop. The titan's frame screamed and the Star Eater's maw twitched as it closed further.
Gold did not panic. Her weapon flared with light and she raised it up. She stared into the maw and calculated angles. Analsysis would not work here, not in the time she had. So she would have to stress her components and herself. Full power flooded through her body and her weapon almost seemed to tremble.
From the outside it was just a flash of light. Almost simple really. A flash around the segment where the 'neck' met the 'head' of the centipede. It did not show the total erasure of all connections between those two parts. The body of the Star Eater flinched back, and the head remained embedded in the Crusher, two seperate and distinct parts now.
Flames erupted from the body of the Eater. It thrashed and spewed out super-heated star matter. The ominous feeling of threat turned into a feeling of pain, and then nothing as the body shifted and lengthened once more. The headless thing was not dead, but it was injured enough that it wanted to flee, and so it did. The body moved to the star and hid, leaving the head still in the Galaxy Crusher.
Gold Diamond frowned as she stared at the thing still in her ship. She opened up a communication line. "Can we move?"
The resulting pause was very long. "I do not believe so My Diamond."
The diamond turned to examine the damage. She took a few steps and found herself right next to one of the mandibles. It took a moment of debate with herself before she slowly reached out and poked it with her staff. Nothing happened, though she'd half expected it to do something.
"Well this is going to be awkward." Gold muttered to herself as she tried to decide what exactly she should do next. Like Quote ReplyReport Reactions:liquid_oni, EzertTheLizart, Sovereign Of All and 719 others
The Small Child has been forced back." The thought message was sent with an air of resignation and a mild tint of despair.
The council slithered in place at the news. Several shuffled and wrung their tentacles. One of the true hunters ground his teeth. They all knew it had been a possibility, but to see it done? That meant many very unpleasant things.
"Their gods are still not superior." The high-priest declared with an intense feeling of devotion and rage accompanying the thoughts. "The Small Child is the least of our gods. That it responded as we wished was a blessing in itself."
The military leader sighed in response. "That we misidentified their gods and the power behind them is our sin I know. We thought their naive declarations simple propaganda. We thought them weak prey. Instead they were simply leviathans that cared naught for our bleeding bites until they saw us and swatted us. We must accept the wound and move on if we are to live."
"I still say that we should have curtailed the hunter-thrill-killers." The civilian leader shot back, his thought's behind the message bitter.
"Hindsight does us no favors. The decision was made generations ago. None of those responsible live. And you still use the reactors and thought-seasoning that came from those hunts." One of the other council members responded and ground his teeth more. "As it is, we must enact the last resort as planned. I agree we must move on lest we become prey ourselves."
"Yes. Let us start the vote." The military leader said with grim finality.
The vote was rather perfunctory. Better to die than be captured. There was a long history of horrible things being done to those who were captured in war. Predators becoming prey was just how the world worked, and there was some honor in preventing the enemy from gaining something from your death. The vote was unanimous.
"The thought-singers will be given the order then." The military leader said with another sigh as his life seemed to leave him. "With this we condemn our people. I will be one of the foci as agreed earlier. Let the blame for this lay on me."
"You did what you could with the forces we had. The hard-prey's sudden change was outside your purview." The high priest consoled. "I will petition the Great God to remember you. He has spared a mote of interest in our trials."
"Yes, a mote." The military commander paused and flicked a tendril before continuing. "No, I am bitter, never mind me. I knew as I tore the previous commander apart for weakness that this could come. Let me believe I lay down my life to feed our children instead. That is the more traditional sacrifice is it not?"
"We will overlook your weakness. We have all been struck. We are losing our ancestral home and being forced to flee." The civilian leader said with his own bitter feelings on clear display. The rest of the council allowed the words and feelings, as frankly anyone happy would probably have been set upon out of rage. "For the second time we are weak. If this wound was not one effecting all of us, we would all be on the dining table. As it is, that we have a last resort is because of your planning. We will hide in the muck and heal. There is no shame in that."
"Hah!" The military leader gave a short laugh before shifting around and leaving the council. The rest let him. The next meeting items did not need him.
Instead he swam through the halls of the ship with little more thought or emotion. This was the end, and all he could do was steel his thoughts and ready himself. He had few regrets. Perhaps he could have done things differently, but he'd inherited a mess and had been tasked to kill a leviathan. All hunts could end in failure, as biter as it was. He boarded a shuttle and gave the order to depart.
Under cloak the shuttle flew through space towards the destination. A hollowed out asteroid, hidden above their precious home. Cloaked and inert, it had almost nothing to allow it to be detected. There was no atmosphere, barely any power, and none of the accursed hard-prey's real bodies. Their last resort had been built here and carefully, carefully hidden.
A few thought-singers were waiting. Proficient in psionics and given extreme training and modifications, they were barely considered true-hunters anymore. They were devoted to that strange plane of mental power, and didn't quite exist in reality. Their thoughts were feather light, and they often needed to be reminded to eat. They knew their duty though.
The military leader was brought to the center of the asteroid and placed into the foci. The singers arranged themselves around it. Silence resounded in the void as they reached out and touched. Thoughts started to link up, and they stretched downward.
Fear met their minds, and the military leader felt himself hunger. Were he in the room he'd be restraining himself from attacking. This was normal. Fear and pain were the greatest spices they could imagine. True hunters disciplined themselves and understood that those emotions did not mean prey. The mistake of the Klingons had taught them that lesson.
Reminded of their first wound the leader felt his hunger disappear. They now had two wounds didn't they? Two scars. What lessons would they learn? He could not say. He focused along with the thought-singers, and tied himself to the fear and desperation of the people he'd left on the planet. The dregs, the fanatics, the confident. It was a mix of their best and worst. The ones that had stayed behind for one reason or another.
Some could feel what was happening and allowed the link with grim acceptance. The rest were involuntary. It did not matter, once the mechanisms were started, they could not be refused. Dotted across the planet they hummed to life, and the thought-singers guided the newly awoken weapons.
The psionic gestalt grew until it touched all the True-hunters on the planet. Then it enacted its terrible purpose. The life and power off all the participants was pulled into one point. Millions upon millions of life was snuffed out in a moment. It was almost like they were eaten, but not quite. It was more a theft. Ultimately the leader found it unpleasent to have all of this. He could almost feel the thoughts of those sacrificed. This was no successful hunt. It was just a mass murder.
Yet with that murder came hope. The military leader focused his thoughts, and with the help of the thought-singers guided that power into one purpose. It swirled along the psionic plane. It twisted, and then it released.
On the planet, each of the beings the Gems called Shamblers died. Their computers twisted. Their records shifted. It became impossible to tell where the others had fled. The fleeing Shamblers were concealed from all senses and eyes. The fantastic power of Gems would not be able to pierce this shroud. The Shamblers for all intents and purposes were no longer possible to detect.
The diamonds found this result quite irritating, but were forced to content themselves with destroying all infrastructure. The Shamblers without their home planet had no logistics to wage war anymore. They would still be killed, but the war as it was, was over.
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Lightform Reinforcers - A semi-psionic tool that uses a variety of functions to allow a Gem's lightform to absorb more damage than normal. A cross between armor and a personal shield, it's customary for a Gem to wear one while not in battle. They must be recharged periodically, but are otherwise very reliable as a personal defense. A battle loadout usually consists of 4-5. They do not stack, but they lose charge when functioning.
Juvenile Star Eater - A creature found in the Shambler's home system. Appearing as something akin to a massive centipede, this monster is capable of FTL and is made of a hyper-dense and nearly impossible to analyze matter. It is also still growing, and is believed to be a very young version of it.
The Shroud - A final weapon used by the Shamblers. This device killed all their local population and made the rest neigh indetectable through every means. It's likely done as a way to prevent their new home world from being discovered, as there's high evidence of a diaspora. This has destroyed their ability to wage war though, so the Gems are tentatively pleased. The power will run out after several centuries but the Gem leadership is not confident of finding them after that should they not attack again. Like Quote ReplyReport Reactions:AWatcherSan, EzertTheLizart, Sovereign Of All and 689 others