Private/Closed Steven Universe: The Earth Mission

[Sciencewars]

After having the other gems secure the area, White decided he needed a break after being almost shattered. He walked down to the large cut of water and stared down into it. There were large, colored corals and aquatic creatures dotting the area.

These creatures were beautiful, much more than he ever saw standing next to his diamond for about 5,000 years. Suddenly, a small creature dotted past him. It looked like a silver dart, dotted with blue. It stopped for a second as White got a closer look.

It had a small, oval body, with eight long appendages coming out of the bottom of the main body. It had a silver-grey coloration with blue rings splotted across itself.

You know, this is actually quite nice.

 

[StellarWind Elsydeon]

OOC: I suppose this is not exactly in sequence, but I should probably interact with the people who are actually generally interacting, shouldn't I? XD

Tanzanite did not even get a chance to respond to the Beryl's question about how long she held that form when another gem walked onto the scene - a dark gem in a complex outfit, clawed hands, furred legs, and there was something a bit off about her proportions - like the length of her arms and legs did not quite match her body. Her core appeared to be located in her torso, a bit below the ribcage - and did not appear to have so much of a cut as a rather amorphous polish. The new arrival exchanged a few words with the Beryl - presenting a meek demeanor that appeared more than a bit rehearsed. What exactly was this gem?

"Whoa. You're a new type." she tilted her head, a two-part visor - solid, similar in texture to her armor plating and featuring four crystalline oculars the colour of her gem, similar in form and arrangement to the compound eyes of her preferred form - materializing along the sides of her head and clamping over her eyes, the two halves locking into a singular unit. The proportion issue seemed to have been a result of artificial limb enhancers rather than being part of the gem herself - and the composition... "Manganese oxides... barium... fairly uneven composition throughout... Psilomelane? I had no idea that was viable gem material. Looks like Homeworld made some advancements..."

She paused for a moment, realizing that she should probably not be talking to a fellow gem like she was a laboratory specimen - even if this one certainly seemed experimental. Visor receding back to wherever it came from, Tanzanite nodded apologetically, resting one hand on the back of her neck.

"Oh, pardon me. Composition scans have become somewhat of a second nature for me by now - I'm used to scanning space rocks, not talking to them. Name's Tanzanite, pleasure to meet you. Er, out of curiosity. How many more gems should I be expecting?"

 

[Lord Of Pain]

Cin decided to follow Psilo, he started walking while taking in the surroundings, there where many plants in different colors all around them that he was mesmerized by that he fell behind for a moment, after snapping out of his trance he started to walk again
'so far nothing' he thought, he eventually arrived to where he believed Psilo was and saw 2 other gems alongside the Prototype gem, he recognized one of them from the ship while the other was new to him, he walked over slowly, his movement similar to a wandering Wraith, his limbs movement somewhat loose and full of apathy
'greetings, im Cinnabar but you can call me Cin' he said telepathically to the other two gems

 

[Hisseki]

Psilomelane stood in shock as the purple gem - who she now knew was Tanzanite - "scanned" her, listing off the exact materials she was made of, pointing out the limb enhancers, and then apologizing for doing so.

"Er, out of curiosity. How many more gems should I be expecting?"

"Oh yeah, my crew." Psilo muttered before clearing her throat. Tanzanite wasn't hostile, the closest she was getting to that being the scanning, so she felt as if she could say at least how many there were. "Well, there's... 1, 2, 3, 4... Yeah, four more. Not including myself, Beryl, or Cin, who I noticed has arrived on the scene."

Dropping the innocent act almost completely, she slumped back into her normal stance, poking at her limb enhancers. C'mon, these stupid things should have a navigation function somewhere, I did it before! She angrily screamed at herself within her own mind. Eventually, after hitting one of the Diamond marks on her left arm's enhancer, a small screen appeared. On said small screen was a red blinking dot and a blue blinking dot. "Oh good, they're still there... oh, uh, the red dot is us, and the blue dot is the set of coordinates I was given. Do you think we should all head back? Tanzanite, as I don't see any hostility from you, I believe you can be trusted. You may come with us if you wish." Psilo informed the small group that had gathered around her, the last few parts primarily directed at Tanzanite specifically.

 

[StellarWind Elsydeon]

Upon hearing the voice in her head, Tanzanite tensed, rapidly turned her head in a whip-like motion and glared daggers at the newest arrival, her tendrils springing up like snakes, sharp tips pointing in the same direction.

"Unless you physically have no other way to communicate, get out of my mind." she growled, the last five words assuming an ominous echo, tendrils rattling dangerously, before settling down, dropping to a less vivid configuration as the gem composed herself. "Pardon the outburst. Instinct, y'see. I've had enough voices in my head to last me an epoch and I REALLY do not need another one".

The telepathic interloper was apparently a Cinnabar - and there was something off about this one. Tanzanite encountered species with reproductive polymorphism in her journeys, and the closest analogy she could muster for this gem's oddity was that its appearance was a projection of such onto the typical gem template, representing the qualities of a hypothetical opposite sex - quite the oddity for a sexless species with a vast myriad of body types as a default. Another anomaly? Was this entire crew a group of anomalous gems? Either Homeworld has become a lot more accepting of variation than when she left - an unlikely occurrence if she could think of one - or it was getting desperate. One thing for sure - with its walking stance, heat aura and telepathy, this Cinnabar appeared to have an insufferable flair - or was it flare? - for the dramatic.

"Flair, Flare, Tomayto, Tomahto." Tanzanite briefly thought to herself - or at least, an alien equivalent thereof from one of the myriad worlds she visited and had an analogous phrase, presumably with far more syllables.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the Psilomelane bringing up a map of some sort using her limb enhancers - displaying their current coordinates - Somewhere in the northeast of a certain continent, not too far away from where the continent ended and an ocean began - and another location, marked by a blue dot. She took a mental note of these locations - whatever the blue dot was, it was probably worth keeping in mind. If the Psilomelane's words about these gems were "her" crew and the coordinates being one that she was "given" - then whatever was in these coordinates would probably explain whatever these gems were doing on this planet to begin with - something that Tanzanite could not deny she was getting rather curious about.

What were the fine folks at homeworld up to, exactly?

"Lead the way, I suppose. I don't think I'm going to get much more out of what remains of my ship, anyway." The blue-purple gem replied "Was hoping to bury it in case the local lifeforms get curious, but it's little more than scrap now, anyway."

 

[Nateriety]

Beryl was admittedly alarmed by the voice of the Cinnabar that echoed her mind, but not nearly as alarmed as she was at the sudden shift in tone that Tanzanite had taken; it seemed she didn't quite take kindly to the foreign presence in her mind. Beryl was almost convinced that the blue Gem in question was about to lash out, and so she was inwardly preparing herself to step in if she had to.

Fortunately for all parties, however, Tanzanite seemed to regain composure and even apologized for the sudden outburst. Although she made if quite clear that she wasn't keen on "more" voices in her head...whatever she meant by that.

This event, however, served as a reminder to Beryl that she still knew next to nothing about this Tanzanite. Gem or not, it'd become quite clear that she possessed a vicious side to her, and she had not been entirely forthcoming in detailing her intentions earlier. There wasn't a need to raise any issues where they could be avoided, though.

"Even still, better to keep an eye on her while she's around," Beryl mused inwardly.

Psilomelane seemed to move things along, though, bringing up a projection of the co-ordinates they were supposed to be at. The very same co-ordinates Beryl had hastily downloaded into her visor back on the escape pod and had been following until she got side-tracked.

And proving to be a rather thoughtful Gem, Psilomelane had extended an invitation to group up towards Tanzanite. An invitation the latter gladly accepted on account of her ship being unsalvageable.

"Speaking of ships," Beryl spoke, a thought crossing her mind, "it'd probably be a good idea to find the wreckage of ours at some point. It might attract the attention of the native life-forms if we just leave it there. Besides, there might still be some useful bits and pieces we can salvage."

 

[Il Fantasma]

"Yeah, but where could it be?" Maw chimed in, taking a step into the clearing, standing next to Psilo but a good distance away. "From what I remember, it crashed..." she took a finger and maneuvered it around in the air, locking it on a certain point she recognized as the general direction the ship was headed during its decent, "...somewhere that way. Pretty sure, anyway." Looking over to the never-before-seen gem, Maw smiled a rather awkward smile. "Howdy there! Name's Maw Sit Sit! Y'all can call me whatever y'all wanna, 'kay?" she introduced herself, swinging her arm around in front of her, smile unfaltering. Although she had been told she didn't act like many other gems, or really any others at all, she wasn't about to change her personality after what she had gone through, so she kept her childish game up, and she planned on doing so until she couldn't any longer.

(OOC: Still dunno what happened to her, though. I'll think of something.)

 

[Hisseki]

"Hmm... I wonder... maybe my escape pod retained the coordinates for the shi- no, the ship's coordinate tracking system went down when the tech was tampered with by that... creature... hmm..."

Psilo pensively walked in circles around nothing in particular, staring at the holographic screen as it it were suddenly going to give her an idea. Coming up with a solution other than scowering the planet endlessly was her goal, but she wasn't exactly producing any results that were realistic. Everything to do with the ship's tech was out; the fact that the escape pods were even functional was a miracle in of itself. What the heck do we do now?... Clearing her throat and assuming an affirmative stance, she began speaking.

"I propose that we return to the site where we met up originally. Beryl, you have the coordinates, I assume. If not, I have them here. Tanzanite, follow me. Maw, you keep that thought in mind, we're gonna need it!" Psilo listed off commands - like a real leader! - and marched in the direction that the holographic screen on her limb enhancer wanted her to.

 

[StellarWind Elsydeon]

If Tanzanite had any doubts this entire crew was a group of anomalies - this Maw Sit Sit individual was definitely the final proof. She has never even heard of this particular mineral before - and whatever it is, it's green was not exactly an answer that she could be satisfied with. Re-enabling her visor, she performed a quick composition scan - and was surprised to find an odd mixture of silicon oxides, sodium, aluminum and chromium. Traces of Jadeite, Albite and something else blended into each other... Gems that were composed of natural mixture-rocks like this often had great potential and a fair deal of power. There was definitely more to this gem than what her appearance would suggest, but for the life of her, she could not determine its function. The personality matrix did not appear to be particularly mission oriented, either... something was definitely up with this group.

I will be watching these ones carefully. Hypothesis: they will be doing the same regarding me. Standard exploration protocol engaged: Tread carefully, observe, be prepared for anything.

Tanzanite grinned to herself, nodding in the general direction of the rest of the group and proceeded to follow the black gem, scanning the general area as she walked, being careful to remember that she only had two legs in this form. Honestly, most inefficient.

 

[Hisseki]

Stupid plants, getting in my way!

Psilo agressively hacked away at the greenery that blocked her path, trying to clear the way for everyone else. She felt like a real leader, and she wasn't about to let some greenery get in the way of it. I swear I cut these things just a second ago! Psilo thought to herself, keeping an eye on her coordinates so she didn't get lost. A few vines managed to get caught on her claws, which annoyed Psilo to no end. They were reducing her slashing and cutting ability, not to mention being extremely uncomfortable. Rather than having a tantrum, she ripped the vine chunks off of her claws and continued.

Once she finally reached the clearing that she had landed in, Psilo ran to the other gems that had stayed behind. "You guys- oh stars, uh..." she started to say, her aura of authority suddenly plummeting to nothing as she remembered the blue gem. "U-um, I-I suggest trying t-to find the ship... a-also, this is T-Tanzanite, and she'll b-be accompanying us."

At this point, Psilo wanted nothing more than to punch herself as hard as she could and poof herself, sparing herself the embarrassment. She had just gone from being a confident, almost full blown leader figure to becoming a shivering little coward. She couldn't help it! The blue gem, Blue Goldstone if she remembered correctly, could practically shatter her at any time if she was no longer needed, and it actually scared her. Shaking her head vigorously, she tried scraping up the figurative remains of her confidence. "Okay, what we need to do is find our ship. Another side goal: figure out what we're going to do, if anything, about that space monster gem. Once this is done, we can refocus on our primary objective. For now, we salvage what we can and go. Blue, you're pretty darn strong. See what you can do about the whole salvaging deal, but don't overdo it. We'll need your strength for later. Maw, you said earlier that you know the general direction in which the ship went? That's perfect, we'll need you to guide us then. Cinnabar?... uh, I'm not entirely sure of your potential, but you and White Sapphire can act as guards of sorts when we end up going. Beryl, again, I'm not sure of what you can do. For now, we could use another set of eyes keeping a lookout, other than my own. Tanzanite, if you wish to, you can help in any way you see fit: salvaging, guarding, navigating, or any other aspect that I've not previously mentioned," Psilo ordered, trying to maintain an authoritative tone while not making it sound like she was acting all high and mighty.

On the exterior, Psilo was currently calm and collected, acting once again like a leader despite her quick breakdown moment. On the inside, however, she was still losing it.

I, Psilomelane, just told everyone, everyone, what to do. That... felt... good? Oh my stars, I'm going to be shattered. I was just supposed to be a pilot!... If I end up filing a report, this will end up being excluded.

Psilo marched around in circles around nothing once more, trying to figure out if she left anything unsaid.

 

[Nateriety]

After a brief agreement between them, Beryl went along to regroup with the remaining Gems alongside Maw Sit Sit (who was quite the energetic character in her opinion), Cinnabar, and Tanzanite, being lead there by Psilomelane. It wasn't an overly long distance back, although the trek to the sight was a little delayed as Psilomelane hacked away at the forestation and greenery to clear a path for them...with varying amounts of difficulty with each piece. The black Gem was managing quite nicely after a while, though.

Truthfully, Beryl knew full well that she could have just leaped over and around the troublesome vines to make the trip much quicker for herself. She already had the co-ordinates and the general direction, and she was more than fast enough to clear the remaining distance between the two points in no time at all.

But she wasn't quite sure if the other four Gems shared her heightened speed and agility. A small part of her had considered just blasting ahead and letting them catch up in their own time, but the more rational, mission oriented part of her advised her to stay with them.

So she did just that.

But upon finally returning to the clearing, Beryl caught sight of two other Gems waiting for them. While she hadn't actually seen them up until now, she still had her briefing info about them, and was able to identify them as White Sapphire and Blue Goldstone. Surrounding the area were the remaining escape pods, which were all in vastly better shape than her own.

Psilomelane after overcoming a short bout of nervousness (that seemed to crop up when she looked at Blue Goldstone, for some reason), she seemed to become more confident in herself; giving out objectives and suggesting different roles for each Gem in the party to assume before they made their way anywhere else. She did seem rather un-informed about the abilities of each Gem, however (lack of information seemed to be a theme of sorts, Beryl noticed), but she did her best to make sure each member of the group had use.

"Very leader-like, for someone who wasn't too sure of herself a moment ago," Beryl thought to herself, but otherwise had no objection. It wasn't her job to lead, after all. "I can do that," she said in response to the suggestion that she serve as an extra lookout.

 

[Sciencewars]

"Well, look who didn't shatter. " White Sapphire said sarcastically. The noise of the overly-ecstatic gems could make was astounding. Turning around to view the group, the white gem was suprised to see that the supposed owner of the smaller spacecraft was actually another gem, a Tanzanite.

"Oh, and look what we have here. What are the odds of another gem crashing on the same planet, the same landmass, being attacked at the same time and the same creature?" White said, sitting back down by the water. "I mean, I'm not complaining, but it's a little strange. It's not my place to be complaining. Name's White Sapphire, call me White. Pleasure to meet you or whatever."

The gem looked back into the body of water, his reflection shimmering against the colors. It was colorful, every living thing holding a part, yet not in anarchy or in the midst of destruction or chaos. It was everything that he would want for Homeworld and more, even if he might never get back.

 

[StellarWind Elsydeon]

The Psilomelane certainly made a rather effective weed whacker, even though it definitely wasn't her primary calling. But at the very least, she knew where this group was going - what with the navigation equipment and all. Tanzanite's scanners provided her with a much broader range of sight, but she was still limited to the lines of sight her oculars provided - she could invoke a similar overhead view navigation system once, but it required her having an eye in the sky, so to speak - and hers was janked beyond repair now. Note to self: construct and deploy microsatellites. But then, maybe those would draw too much attention to her presence on this world - she noticed it had a rather large system of primitive satellites already, probably developed by the local sentients. Huh. Maybe she could tap into that network. Even though gem technology - while even the gem technology of her time was far more advanced than any of these objects, Tanzanite took pride in her ability to make do with what she had access to - and tapping into the signals could be easy if she could find something to use for reference about how the locals did it - if they did, anyway.

And maybe she could emulate whatever the hell these new gem systems were, too. What did they base their navigation systems on? Good grief, look away from homeworld for a few tens of thousands of years and this happens. If she were to hypothetically return to homeworld, she'd have a lot to catch up on. Of course, that was a huge hypothetically. She had no intentions of getting herself harvested for breaking protocol - as outmoded as her protocol was.

Besides, there were more interesting things to explore.

Finally, the group arrived at its destination - a place where the forest gave way to a rocky shore, complete with tide pools. Two additional gems were on the scene - the final members of the Psilomelane's party, she supposed. Surprise surprise, they were both warrior types - and surprise surprise, they were both anomalous as well. One of them was blue, agitated looking, carrying itself with a slightly exaggerated sense of self importance, and had the body template of a quartz warrior - though a quick composition scan showed its core to be some form of artificially-synthesized silicate glass. One thing was certain, though - its presence made the Psilomelane nervous, considering how her confidence wavered again for a moment.

The other gem - who was gazing into the tide pool when they arrived - was some type of corundum and reminded her of a very, very pale Ruby. And this one apparently presented the same sort of polymorphism anomaly that the Cinnabar did, too. Was this some kind of a Homeworld initiative to clear out anomalous gems without outright shattering them? That was fairly unlike homeworld - there had to be another purpose. But what was it?

The very, very pale Ruby proceeded to introduce itself as a White Sapphire with a great deal of attitude. Tanzanite couldn't help but roll her eyes under her visor. She wasn't sure if the small warrior-type was implying anything by its comment, but she had a feeling that pointing out that she has been around for long enough to know that when probability was concerned, the universe had a nasty habit of eating plot-convenient coincidences for breakfast (and that it was always breakfast somewhere) would probably not go well. She opted to take the higher ground instead and simply ignore it. She had a feeling that if it was actually a Sapphire or some sort it possessed some form of precognitive ability and was probably had a plan of action for possible conflict - and verbal sparring with an opponent that might be a few steps ahead of her was not exactly what she would call productive use of her time.

Fortunately, the Psilomelane seemed to get a grip on herself and started making suggestions for more productive use of everyone's time. She was right - hanging around in a clearing with a bunch of half-busted escape pods would not exactly be constructive. Tanzanite had to admit that she was quite curious about an opportunity to examine the crashed vessel and its new technology for herself - at the very least, she could give her own equipment an upgrade if she could wrap her mind around it. The black gem had no idea what her capabilities were, but she knew exactly what she wanted to do.

"I'm an explorer gem, so needless to say, exploring is sort of what I do best. These," she pointed at her visor "Can do more than just quick composition scans - Point me in a general direction and I could probably help in tracking down the shipwreck. Probably best if I help with the navigation front."

 

[Lord Of Pain]

Cin has been very quite that it surprised him that Psilo even remembered his existence with them, he knew his escape pod was not a scavengerable option since it was under water, unless one of the gems here could breath under water.

'Guard duty, my chance to stay out of sight as usual, thank the stars' he thought to himself, he watched and listened as the other gems moved around and talked, he looked around and searched for the high ground, after all if he was to be the gem of few words that he is he would have to keep an eye out while being out of range of unwanted conversations.

He looked in White Sapphire's direction and then at Beryl before telepathically telling them "ill guard from up high".

As those words left his mind and slipped into theirs his gauntlets and jaw where summoned and stretched his hand in the direction of the top of a tree, his clawed fingers shot out revealing the chains that hid within, soon after grabbing onto the tree top the chains started to retract and in a flash Cin was already up on top holding on to the trunk.

 

[Sciencewars]

Guard duty? White could take that, no problem. In fact, his whole view was just the open ocean. The water clashed on the rocks he was on as the trees whistled through the woods. He then looked up at the massive atmosphere of Earth and all the things in it, including the massive corruption, now hardly an inch wide from his view.

Suddenly, a sharp tinge went through his mind. He knew this feeling. His future vision subconsciously told him things when he was either Very relaxed or in some form of combat, as well as displaying the future a short while ahead if he was fighting. A sinking feeling meant something would happen to whoever he was guarding or himself, an uplifting feeling meant he would succeed in whatever his task would be, and this pain in his gemstone?

That meant danger in the near future. The team needed to be ready for it.

White scrambled to his feet and yelled to the other gems on his team. "Guys, something is coming. We need to be on alert." White Sapphire explained quickly. "I don't know what it is, but I presume it's another corrupted gem monster. We need to stick together."

 

[Nateriety]

"I'll guard from up high," echoed Cinnabar's voice in Beryl's mind just a second before he retreated above, using a combination of his extending limbs and concealed chains to hastily pull himself to the top of a nearby tree.

Beryl supposed she would have to get use to the telepathy thing when Cinnabar was around. But she could already see the benefits of having someone around who could communicate without actually having to verbalize; a silent Gem who could move around unnoticed, able to provide warnings and information to the group without ever having to reveal his own location. While Beryl wasn't sure of his combat capabilities yet (but he had to possess some, due to his Homeworld given 'Warrior' status), she figured someone with abilities like that could also double as an excellent scout or stealth/ infiltration type.

"Wait...since when was it my place to pretend I'm a tactician or something?" Beryl inwardly asked herself, quickly shaking her thoughts away with a barely noticeable scowl. "Forget it. It's probably a stupid idea, anyway. Better to focus on just doing what I do best."

Beryl noticed another of their party, the White Sapphire, scramble to his feet with urgency. He spoke a quick warning to alert everyone to some kind of incoming danger. The Gem admitted that he wasn't entirely sure what the threat was yet, but assumed it was another of those corrupted Gems.

And Beryl wasn't sure if she imagined it, but a strange tenseness seemed to overtake the previous mood.

Regardless, her 'threat-response' senses kicked in, her eyes glancing in every direction in search of movement, straining her ears for any sounds she didn't recognize. And while part of her was confident many of this team would be able to look after themselves, she did remind herself to keep an eye on the higher priority Gems. They had already crashed, so she wouldn't rightly allow another screw-up by failing her one main priority: the ensured safety of those capable of carrying out the objective.

Until something happened, she waited. Perhaps one of the others would have a few ideas.

 

[Hisseki]

Psilo freaked out momentarily as she received word that something was coming. She put one hand over her gem, preparing to summon a weapon if needed, while holding the other hand out in front of her, claws ready to hack and slash. Her mind threatened to collapse with fear, but she felt like she had to maintain the leadership position, and therefore the confidence that it entails.

From across the forest, a good distance away, Psilo could've sworn she saw a large chunk of puffy something, looked like one of those things in the sky, move gradually closer to them. Not lowering her guard, she walked up closer to it. She got practically within touching distance - and that's exactly what the massive beast did. Using a horn that Psilo hadn't seen before, the large monster swiped at her, shoving her back a good distance and onto her bottom. A low-toned growl exited it's mouth as it turned to face Psilo once again. It made a few puffing noises before charging at her. This time, though, she was more prepared. Jumping to her feet, she sprung forward at the beast, and at the last second, jumped over it. As she was in the air, she noticed something triangular in shape on the monster's back...

"It's a gem! Er, it was a gem. It's one of those corrupt gem monsters!" She called out to the rest of the group after landing on her feet.

Disregarding her ability to summon a weapon, she rushed at the beast with her claws. She expected to nail the gem with one good hit, but what she didn't count on was the monster's reflexes. Just as she was about to hit it, it took a sharp turn away from her. It skidded to a stop before turning towards Psilomelane, who was already charging at the beast. She managed to get close enough to hit it, but the beast itself was fast. Every strike that she tried landing was countered by the large horns of the giant greenish-white gem beast. One hit did connect after a bit of clashing, but the beast also succeeded in hitting Psilo. The puffy monster skidded backwards a short distance, otherwise unfazed. Psilo, on the other hand, was knocked backwards, sprawling on the ground in front of White Sapphire. "Gck!... Okay, guys! Get that gem!" She ordered, pointing at the gem beast with one claw, not getting up from the ground.

The monstrously large beast let out a loud and heavily distorted bleating noise before lowering its head and charging forward at the group of gems.

 

[Sciencewars]

As if on cue, his enemy broke out of the forest with a massive.. roar? White Sapphire couldn't care less, however, as after Psilo crashed at her feet, he jumped into action. Running at the massive ball of deadly puffiness, he narrowly dodged a horn and ducked other the other, swiping at the creature's face with his fist. The punch barely connected and the creature reared back, preparing to strike again.

Suddenly, an image flashed in his mind's eye. One, the creature attacks with its horns, then strikes again with a kick to the eye. Two, it attacks with its horns, and then charges. Both strikes would be able to connect if he didn't act. However, he wondered; which one would happen? However, he couldn't wonder for long, as a horn hit him in the gut, and he slid backwards. It kicked back at charged at White, the deadly horns in front of the strike.

What do I do? What do I do? Thoughts raced in his mind, the creature growing closer. He had to settle on something. Finally, he planted his arm into the ground, gem facing the monster. Anyone who never heard of a White Sapphire would had thought he was insane, but he had a plan.

As the creature reared up and crashed to the ground, a flash of white went through the area. Pentagons, the same shape as his gemstone, crawled up from the ground as time seemed to slow. They formed a rectangle, the same shade as him, with a clear front. The lines separating the shapes cleared up as his feet dug into the dirt below. The rectangular shield clanged, sending a horrible noise through the area, as the monster headbutted into the weapon. White's knees bucked, and he flew backwards at the other gems, narrowly missing them and slamming into a tree. His shield crashed next to him, degenerating into a mess of pentagons that then vanished. The monster crashed as well, stunned, but not yet defeated. He slumped down, tired from overusing his future vision. However, he was still awake. "Guys, now's your chance! Get it!" He yelled weakly.

 

[Nateriety]

It startled just about everyone when a large, round shaped creature coated in layers of puffy fluff and sporting a set of deadly horns made itself known. The beast was, at least in Beryl's opinion, rather unsightly. And it didn't seem too coherent, snarling and making a rather odd 'bleating' noise. It was far too feral to even attempt speaking too.

"It's a gem! Er, it was a gem. It's one of those corrupt gem monsters!" Psilomelane called out as she sprang away from the creature.

The first ones to engage the creature was Psilomelane and White Sapphire. The two of them seemed to attempt close-quarters combat with it, with both attempts seeming fairly fruitless: the creature seemed much stronger in 'physical' terms than the two Gems, and was able to knock them away rather effortlessly. White Sapphire was able to stun it for a couple of seconds, though, summoning a rectangular shield of pentagons before him to deflect a direct charge from the monstrosity.

Beryl growled as the resulting noise from the clash was near deafening to her senses. But she forced herself to push through it, and noticed that White Sapphire had fallen to the ground in exhaustion once his shield collapsed. "Guys, now's your chance! Get it!" he yelled weakly.

"My turn, then!" Beryl declared, before springing into action.

The creature was regaining its footing, managing to roll onto its legs after being tipped onto its side from before.

But Beryl moved to secure an attack from the side before it regained its awareness. Since physical attacks had proven fairly ineffective thus far, Beryl tried a different approach. Her core glowed with a yellow light as she felt her energy building up, taking form in her right hand. Leaping high into the air, Beryl threw a bolt of her yellow energy towards the beast, watching as it ripped through the air with a whirring sound.

And she smirked when the results proved sufficient; a direct hit sending it careening and tumbling violently, one side of its fluffy exterior noticeably damaged.

But what she didn't expect, however, was the creature to recover as quickly as it did, flipping itself upright mid roll...and it was mad. Well, even more so than before. It turned in Beryl's direction and charged, horns first, with surprising speed.

Reacting, Beryl leaped backwards, leading the creature in circles as she deftly danced around it. A mixture of training and instincts kicked in, allowing her to evade the onslaught of sweeping and slashing attacks the Corrupted Gem threw at her. It wasn't leaving an opening to retaliate in its fury. And although its attack patterns were relatively predictable, a few of the monster's attacks came too close for comfort, with one of them even grazing Beryl's left arm.

It seemed really keen on stomping her into nothing right now...which gave Beryl an idea.

"I'll draw its attention!" Beryl yelled as she threw herself out of the way of being crushed, keeping the monster's focus from the other Gems by provoking it with another, although much weaker, blast. "Find a weak point if you can! If we can cripple it, all of us should be able to finish it off!"

 

[Peachy Ace]

Blue Goldstone smiled. He found it amusing ripping pieces of the former ship apart. He had ripped a few parts out, until Psilomelane leaded 2 gems into the forest. Blue Goldstone didn't follow, as she was doing her own thing for now. Now she was left with the White Sapphire, whom was gazing into a pond. "Um, What is she doing?" Blue Goldstone questioned. She ignored it, and continued to tear the ship apart. "They better be back soon, Im not comfortable being left with a person half my size." Blue Goldstone grumbled.

Blue goldstone sighed, picking up a pile of the Ship. "Alright, Im done, are they back yet?" Goldstone asked White. After she finished her sentence she looked to the forest, watching the three gems come out, along with two additional gems by side. "There were 7 of us right?" Goldstone asked, confused a bit.

(Not my greatest post, hopefully I can pull out a better one, when I have the chance.)

 

[StellarWind Elsydeon]

As if to prove Tanzanite's thoughts regarding the universe's sense of plot convenience, a Wild and Wooly Hoof-Beast of some definition stomped out of the forest - and it didn't even take a composition scan to tell this was another one of those corrupted gems - the thing's core was right in its back, nestled within the greenish-white cloud-like wool that covered most of its body. It had powerful looking legs with sharp tipped hooves, and some very impressive horns - which it proceeded to put into use. The Psilomelane, White Sapphire and the Beryl were drawn into combat fairly quickly - the White Sapphire, she noted, seemed to have a fairly effective shield, and the Beryl was quite graceful in combat - but neither of the gems appeared to really do much more than anger the creature further.

"I'll draw its attention! Find a weak point if you can! If we can cripple it, all of us should be able to finish it off!"

Axiom: A gem's weakest point is its core. Observation: Exploitation of core as weak spot impossible due to thick wool cover. Secondary observation: Creature appears to charge first and ask questions never, horns provide impressive defensive barrier, frontal approach inadvisable. Observation: Creature currently in pursuit of Beryl. Back exposed. Potential target detected.

Tanzanite grinned.

"Alright then. You want to dance?" she murmured, hair-tendrils rising once more, tips sharpening as she locked her sights on the beast. Energy flowed through her body as several arthropod-like appendages tipped with hooked blade-like claws sprouted from her spine, teeth sharpening once more and a pair of new mandibles - sickle-like, larger, sharper and more mobile - extended from the sides of her face.

"Let's dance."

Spreading the blade appendages to the sides of her body, the Tanzanite sprung to action, propelling herself with a leap onto the wooly creature's back, sinking all the appendages into the thick growth and grabbing for purchase, smaller claws clinging against the larger ones to grab hold of individual tufts. Tendrils fanning out, the blue-purple gem emitted a trillling war cry and burrowed into the creature's fur, cleaving through layers of the substance with her mandibles - projection or not, it felt more like fibers of metal than anything else - scrambling for purchase with tendrils and claws as she threshed on through the thick growth, aiming for the triangular gem core that her scanners could detect. She had no doubt the beast had a good idea of what was going on, but whether or not it had some strategy to deal with something burrowing through its defensive coat beyond angrily bleating like crazy, it clearly did not seem to think of it yet. Good. That provided her sufficient time to clear out even more of this stuff.

And there it was, the core. A triangular cut, opaque, greenish-white lump - a nephrite of some sort - with the same deep sense of innate wrongness that she felt from the gelatinous creature that took her ship out. Mandibles snapping open and closed, Tanzanite cleared a largish round patch of wool from around the gem - if what she had in mind would not work, the least she could do is give the rest of these gems a target.

"How's that for shear forces?" the gem grin turned even more predatory as she positioned herself, rearing up, glaring at the gem core as her tendrils fanned out. When she would strike, she would sink her tendrils into the non-flesh around the core, grab it and tear it out.

At least, that was the plan. When the wispy wool of the beast suddenly stiffened and sharpened into a host of sharp needles, she had to let go of that plan - and of the creature, for that matter, leaping off the creature's back and onto a nearby tree before a rain of needles flew every which way, leaving the creature's wool thinner - and some of the nearby trees and rocks hissing as the needles that hit them evaporated into a hissing, greenish-white corrosive mist. She did not escape the blast unscathed - her core was safe, but her form took a few needles in the blast, and blackened patches appeared in her plating where the gas evaporated. She felt weaker - much weaker - but nothing that won't recover after a while. She hoped none of the other gems got caught in the blast - and though, to her dismay, the creature's wool was already starting to grow back - her predatory grin came back when she noticed that whereas its regeneration was rapid where the creature shed its fur of its own volition - its growth was much slower and far more disrupted where she harvested her path. Which meant that at least ONE of her goals was achieved.

Now it was up to the others.

"There's your weak spot right there!" She called out, her form re-absorbing the mandibles and most of the blade appendages - save two, which she used to support herself in the same manner her other form used its own "Now nail that baastard!"

 

[Hisseki]

Just as Psilo managed to pick herself back up, she was forced to dodge quite a few needles. She sidestepped by most of them with relative ease, scanning the area for the source. The source just so happened to be the gem beast that they were fighting. Beryl and White Sapphire had done some damage to it, but none like Tanzanite. Admittedly, it was kind of scary to Psilo, watching the purple gem fight, but it was effective.

"There's your weak spot right there! Now nail that baastard!"

Tanzanite's yelling snapped Psilo out of her thoughts of conflicted admiration. Holding both of her hands in front of her gem, she grabbed the air in front of it. A light shone from her gem as two blades started to form in her hands. Once the light faded, they revealed two partially curved blades, tonfa blades. Psilo smirked, trying to mimic Tanzanite's menacing one from seconds prior but failing. "Yeah, I'm on it!" Psilo yelled back to the purple gem as she dashed forwards at the greenish-white monster.

The corrupted gem took note of the approaching assailant, and had two options. One was to allow the attacker to slice through it, effectively poofing it. The other was to attack, but during the retaliation, she risked being poofed, or worse. The gem chose the latter of the two. Another bleating noise echoed from its maw as it attempted to swipe at Psilomelane. "Not this time!" She yelled as she somersaulted over the horn, hacking at it with her tonfa blades.

The gem beast shrieked, knowing exactly what was about to happen. Its defenses had been breached, and now all it could do was wait - but it wasn't about to do so without some form of struggle. Psilo had landed on it's head, so it shook as wildly as physically possible. Psilo let one of her blades dissipate as she grabbed on tightly to the wooly hair of the beast, making her way to where she had spotted the gem's core. Once she found it - which wasn't hard thanks to the marked area that Tanzanite had put there - she raised her tonfa blade and struck the area around it, using the curve of the blade to attempt to pull the gem from it's monstrous form. "Al... most... there... got it!!" Psilo yelled triumphantly as she removed the gem from the beast.

The monster stopped moving for a moment before exploding in a massive cloud of greenish white dust. Psilo, clutching the gem with both of her hands and letting her other blade disappear, fell to the ground with a metallic thud, the metal sound due to her limb encasement/enhancers. Panting slightly, she stood back up, holding the gem high in the air. "I got it! We did it, guys!" She cheered triumphantly.

Then a thought occurred to her. "Um... so... what do we do with this? I-if we bubble it, where's it gonna go?" She asked, staring at the strange opaque gem that she had just forcibly retrieved. "If we don't bubble it, then what'll we do with it? If we leave it out, it'll just reform..."

 

[Sciencewars]

After being nearly missed by a shower of acid, White finally woke up enough to hear Psilo celebrating and cheering. The giant monster wasn't running rampant and instead in her hands, form destabilized. Only after did he hear the question that she said did he speak up.

"Umm.... We should bubble that. We don't want it running rampant, even if we don't know where it goes." White explained before getting up and running some dirt off his gem. "Hmm. If there's one, there is probably more. Some kind of shelter is needed. Maybe we could use the ship parts?" He yanked a small piece of broken metal out of the ground. "It seems to be sturdy enough to resist whatever these things can throw. What do you guys think?

 

[Lord Of Pain]

Cinnabar saw the battle from up high, he was about to jump off the tree to join but failed, looking at his gauntlets he saw that his claws dug too deep and where now logged into the trunk, after a few yanks he saw it useless

Suddenly an ear piercing noise was heard which caused his legs to slip and leave him hanging by one arm, he tried to pull himself up but in vain, 'what rotten luck' he thought, he looked back at the other gems, the horned fluffy beast was gone, a gem was visible in Psilo's hand

'Great..... I missed out....'

He thought as his fingers slowly detached and started to extend the chains within, he was soon on the ground with 5 chains connecting him to the tree, he started to pull in hopes of freeing his fingers from the tree.
He did partially succeed as his chains successfully retracted, but soon was hit in the face with a chunk of wood that was ripped off of the tree and still stuck on his fingers, with a grunt of pain he looked at the wood, though his lower face was covered showing nothing of his face but his eyes and above, his eyes showed his anger and it was raging like wildfire, he set the wood ablaze setting his fingers free before putting the flame out, he heard Psilo's question and thought about it, he then answered her by telepathy saying "there is a fifty fifty chance it can breath under water, I can hurl it into the sea, if it regenerates and can't breath we are good, however if it can then it will still take it time to get out, by then we would have a shelter and we would be ready"

 

[Hisseki]

After receiving a verbal suggestion from White Sapphire, along with a mental one from Cinnabar, Psilo decided to bubble the beastie without sending it away. An almost pitch black bubble appeared around the gem, said bubble levitating beside Psilo's head. "Corrupted gem beast: detained. Now, where were we... ah, yes!"

Psilo turned back around, a boost of confidence from beating the gem evident from her stance and expression. "Maw, you've still got directions. Beryl and Tanzanite, you keep a look out for any more of those corrupted gem beasts. White, Cinnabar, you keep your guards up. There's probably more of those things here. As for Blue, I believe Blue is still gathering parts, we should go get her... or here, how about this. Uh... Beryl! If you would go and retrieve Blue or something, then meet back up with us, that would be great. I believe there is a tracking system on this gem tech..." she stated, poking at her limb enhancer.

Eventually, the holographic screen from before popped up. The same dots from before sat exactly where they should on the screen. "Beryl, if you activate your visor, I think, and don't quote me on this, that the two navigators will sync up and display each other's coordinates. Not sure how yours works, assuming it's the visor, though... if you can't go back and get Blue, then I will, no problem there." Psilo said, sort of mumbling the last part.

Psilo turned to look at the bubble that floated beside her. No way was she sending this thing off anywhere until they established some form of base somewhere on this cruddy planet, but that was aside the point. They were currently trying to find the ship. "Hm... maybe Blue already found it and we didn't notice?... Hm. Well, Beryl, you have the original coordinates of our landing point. You can go check there, then meet up with us at the ship. Unless, that is, you don't want to," she said, gaze still locked on the dark bubble that surrounded the newly captured gem.

 

[Peachy Ace]

"Umm? What?" Blue Goldstone was mostly confused. Psilomalane's crew went into the forrest for what seemed to be five minutes, then comes out with two other gems, along with a Giant Corrupted Monster that attacked the gems, then a explosion along with a gathering on what to do with the gem. "Um, Hey?" Blue Goldstone smiled awkwardly, raising her hand in the air. She used ShapeShifting to extend her hand making it easier to find her, although she was only a few feet away.

Blue Looked at the Bubble from a distance. "A Gem?" Blue Goldstone questioned. He couldent quite see, considering he was a distance from the crew. He awaited the Crew Members to come over.

 

[Nateriety]

Beryl, having done her part as distraction, looked on as Tanzanite and Psilomelane finished the job. Soon enough did the corrupted monster's projected form vanish in a poof of smoke, leaving behind only it's core.

Everyone here (or at least, most of the Gems) seemed able to hold their own in a fight. Psilomelane was surprisingly vigorous despite her initially fearful and nervous demeanor, and White Sapphire's shield proved to be an exceptional tool...only it seemed he needed a little more mastery over it, as one use had put him out of commission for the rest of the scuffle. And then there was Tanzanite, who acted with an alarming level of speed and efficiency; managing to remove the beast's protective layering with those blade like appendages of hers...while feeling the need to make a pun at the same time (which Beryl's eyelid twitched at).

The others didn't jump into the fray in time, it seemed. Cinnabar looked as if he wanted to, but had gotten his claw-hook things unceremoniously stuck into the tree and wasn't able to free himself in time.

A small discussion arose with what to do with the Corrupted Gem Core. Beryl considered voicing the option to simply shatter it, but nobody else seemed to even discuss crossing that line, so she didn't say anything. She instead watched as Psilomelane bubbled the core, but did not send it away.

With that settled, the matter of finding the ship resumed. Psilomelane suggested that Beryl go find Blue Goldstone and catch-up to them once she did: even coming up with the idea to synchronize Psilomelane's Limb-Enhancer Tech with her own visor as sort of a tracking device between the two points.

"Well, I won't have to go too far to find him...considering he's right over there," Beryl said dryly, jabbing a thumb in the direction of Blue Goldstone, who was stood a distance away from them, but was otherwise in plain sight. The Gem in question had even shape-shifted his arm into the air to grab their attention. "I believe he might be a little confused. I'll go tell him what the plan is, and then we can get a move on. Although, as for my visor, that gives me an idea."

Beryl pushed a button on the side of her visor, re-activating a display she had previously turned off and begun to re-calibrate the device wordlessly, as it was partly connected to her energy-core and thus was able to be controlled mentally. "I'm going to suggest that everyone here who has tech that can serve as a communicator to sync-up with everyone else. Having a channel of communication with each other might help if we ever get separated, and we can use the signals to track each other if needed."

With that, Beryl moved from her position, quickly crossing the distance between the group and Blue Goldstone, skidding to a halt in-front of the latter once the gap had been closed. She turned to address the larger Gem.

"We're moving to go find our wrecked ship," Beryl explained quickly, not wasting time on formalities or details she currently deemed to be of less importance. "Before you ask, we do have an additional member right now. Save any questions about that for now. I'm sure Psilomelane or someone else can fill you in properly once we find the ship. But for now, let's get moving."

 

[Peachy Ace]

Blue Goldstone smiled as Beryl walked over, then explaining a fairly simple task, along with bringing up the sudden seventh gem. "Yea, I wanted to talk about that?" Blue Goldstone smiled, then Beryl suggested talking to Psilomenane. Blue Goldstone smiled, as currently Psilomelane was probably the most easy to approach to her. "Thanks." She smirked, then walking over to the group of gems who were staring at the Gem bubbled by Psilomelane.

Blue Goldstone ahead already forgot who was the new addition. When Blue Goldstone was on the ship he really only knew Psilomelane, Blue Goldstone hadn't interacted with the other gems much either. It wasn't Beryl, Goldstone figured. It could of been Maw Sit Sit, or White Sapphire, it could of even been Cinnabar, but for now Blue Goldstone was unsure.

Blue Goldstone finally made it to the group, it being a fairly long walk. Blue Goldstone took a glance at the gem. "Am I the only one who thinks we should shatter it?" Blue Goldstone asked. Every poofed Gem felt soo useless to Blue Goldstone. She wanted to shatter any poofed Gem when she had the chance, although she was sparred during the Gem war.

"Err, that's besides the point. Well surprisingly I counted and we now have a seventh member, though due to my dullness I don't know which is the new gem. You mind pointing it out?" She asked. She was acting much more modest than she was before, it was probably the stress of just crashing into Earth's crust.

 

[Hisseki]

Psilomelane hit herself in he head as she was told that Blue Goldstone wasn't very far off. This, needless to say, made her feel like an idiot. She approached the blue gem, confidence still at an all time high. "Well, Blue Goldstone, the new gem is this one," she stated, pointing to the purple gem, "and her name is Tanzanite. She's not hostile - well, to us."

Psilo spun around on her heels for a second, finally stopping and facing Maw Sit Sit's direction. "Mmkay, Maw, you said you know which direction the ship fell in, right? I think you're gonna have to lead us there... I already said this. Idiot! You can't even remember what you said just a few moments ago? Gah!" She said, starting to talk to herself.

She walked off in no particular direction, grumbling and mumbling to - er... at herself, really. Though, her self-anger was cut short by - lo and behold - more vines. She got caught in the vines again, and out of shock, hacked and slashed at them with a yell. Once she was free, she brushed herself off, then walked back to the group as if the last ten seconds didn't exist. "Ahem, as I was saying. Maw, lead the way! We should advance sooner than later!" Psilo said, pointing to the green gem and accidentally knocking the bubble containing the gem they had beaten towards her. "Oops, my bad. Whatever, let's get moving. The less time we waste standing still, the better!"

 

[Il Fantasma]

(OOC: When you don't get notifications during an important thing... My bad! Sorry 'bout that! )

BIC:
Unsure of how to react after basically all her fellow Gems sprang into battle the moment an unknown creature made an appearance, Maw Sit Sit only watched, wide-eyed, the Corrupted Gem Core get pummeled. "I didn't help why, exactly?" she asked herself, still pointing in the direction she remembered the ship had crashed in, unsure of why her weapon did not come in handy at that time. "Next time there's a meanie..." she said to nobody in particular, drawing her attention from the general group to Psilomelane herself, since she had spoken to her.

"Yup! Got it right here!" Maw responded, motioning to her outstretched finger and arm with her head, before she was told to lead the group. Beside herself, she took a shuffling step in the general direction, then a small step, picking up her foot, before she basically glided over to the patch of vines she had been pointing to. With a smirk, Maw Sit Sit looked back to Psilo, a determined gleam in her eye, as she placed her free hand on the left side of her chest, where her green-and-black gem was located, pulling a similarly-colored, sharp-edged boomerang seemingly out of thin air. "Y'know all that hacking you were just doing, Cap'n? Yeah, this is a bit easier, I think."

Drawing back her arm, having switched the hand she pointed with with the hand she held the boomerang in, Maw released the weapon, watching gleefully as it soared directly into the vines, cutting a nice, partial path for them all to take. This would have to be done a few times over, since there was more forest to traverse through than how far she could throw, but Chrome was perfectly fine with that. Marching through the path, she caught the dull, rounded end of the boomerang without looking at it, motioning for the group to follow her, but to stay back a bit, so she could do some more cutting.

 

[StellarWind Elsydeon]

The Psilomelane's second strike at the corrupted gem was much more effective than her first attempt - and it was she that brought the rampaging corrupted gem down. A brief discussion followed, after which the black gem encased the creature's core in an equally-black bubble. A stasis field of some form? Curious. Tanzanite wondered whether she could replicate the effect.

And speaking of effect, one of the anomalous warriors - the one who so rudely intruded her mind earlier - was apparently kept out of playing any effective role in this battle by having unceremoniously caught its overly elaborate claw-chain-mechanisms in the tree it chose to co-opt as a guard spot. This one definitely put more stock in its perceived appearance than in being actually effective - which was certainly in line with the behaviour of certain reproductive polymorphs she's encountered in her travels and shared traits with it.

And then there was the other warrior - the Quartz That Wasn't. Perhaps getting involved in salvage work cleared out whatever agitated that one before, as the gem appeared to have completely shifted in personality - and also appeared to be entirely confused about the situation it was in... and about which of the gems in this group did not actually belong. The gem in question did however show somewhat of a cruel streak in suggesting the shattering of the corrupted gem core. Dull and violent. Lovely. The temptation to grow a small facsimile of a tropical tree with frond-like leaves from her body-projection's primary sensory cluster was overpowering, but she resisted it nontheless - something told her there would be plenty of time for facepalms later.

Besides, it appeared that the Psilomelane just did that for her. Something told her the black gem was really not used to being in her current apparent leadership position - and considering the less-than-graceful tantrum that followed, she was probably kicking herself for not being particularly successful at a part she was probably not designed for. What was her type designed for anyway? Questions upon questions. Recommendation: do not be quick to judge. We are dealing with anomalies that have been allowed to continue functioning here. Probably more in common than more typical homeworld specimens.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the Maw Sit Sit, who apparently materialized some form of a bladed boomerang and proceeded to clear a path through a cluster of vines, taking the lead - presumably towards where she claimed to have seen the ship crash.

Tanzanite shrugged her shoulders - and her blade appendages - and retracted the latter, proceeding to follow the green one's path. Recovering the blades certainly speeded her regeneration process. For the best, really, burned black stains on her armor were not her look at all.

 

[Peachy Ace]

"Hmm, a Tanzanite?" Blue Goldstone questioned facing the Purple Gem. He felt like an idiot considering she could even tell who was the seventh crew member, and he felt even more stupid that he did nothing to help what so ever.

She felt like introducing herself to the new crew member, but rather not embarrass her self in front of the entire crew. Shed rather say later than now.

She then directed her attention to Maw Sit Sit, who was cutting vines with her boomerang. "So the ship is back there?" Blue Goldstone questioned. She chose not to question, as really they had nothing to lose. She followed behind Chrome slowly, as their could be more corrupted monsters lurking. She grabbed her Axe, and looked around as she was pretty paranoid.

 

[Nateriety]

It seemed that the group was beginning movement to the ship.

Following Blue Sapphire back into the group after establishing contact, Beryl remained quiet for the most part afterwards as Maw Sit Sit began to work on cutting a path through the greenery, leading the way to the ship.

Beryl did briefly consider assisting in the task, but she hadn't the cutting tools to do so effectively. And while blasting through the trees and vines was always a possibility, she quickly dissuaded the notion on two simple counts; blowing things up randomly was bound to disturb whatever called this habitat home, and using her energy reserves so flippantly would only exhaust her within maybe a minute at most. She'd already had to engage her core's powers a couple of times within the last few hours alone. They were all minor-to-mid level charges, true, but still more than she'd used in a while.

And she had to consider the possibility of more threats lurking in the area. Couldn't let herself burn out in such perilous circumstances.

So she hung back, allowing the more equipped member of the group to start carving a path forwards, all the while keeping her eyes and ears out for any sign of danger or intrigue.

She caught herself glancing at some of the scenery a little longer than she should have, though. Admittedly, between the green forest and the blue sky, and that pleasant breeze she could lightly feel on her projected form, this place actually seemed rather...nice. If the circumstances were any different, she might have allowed time to herself in such a place.

She shook her head though, her moment of distraction minor enough that none of the others should have noticed it...unless they were looking at her really hard. "Don't get carried away, Beryl. Just stay focused."

 

[Lord Of Pain]

Cinnabar followed Maw sit sit and the other gems following her, his gauntlets dematerialised along side his Jaw mask, he thought of how they have been attacked by a corrupted gem moments ago and that there are probably more

'Possibly thousands, the stars know what happened to turn them into these things... but that isn't important, what's important now is watching out for trouble'

Cinnabar noticed that another gem was a bit distracted, but appeared to be the only one to notice, which was understandable, after all he was looking around carefully for any danger, every detail counted, even those regarding his fellow gems, at least it currently was, until he was to be given another job to do

 

[Sciencewars]

Heh. That's Maw for ya.

Not one to stray from the group, White Sapphire walked over to the entrance of the pathway Psilo and Maw were carving. He had to admit, that boomerang did its job, slicing like a Jasper through rebels. It honestly was fun to watch the vines fly around, and the Maw seemed to enjoy it as well.

Suddenly, White remembered the suggestion Psilo made about the communication tech. Sadly, there was no need for communication on Homeworld, atleast not for White. He had never been given any technology from anyone. However, he had an idea.

White looked over and confirmed that his escape pod was still available, floating slightly above the tide pool. The enterance was still hanging open, and it hadn't stopped floating yet. Therefore, it was functional. Taking a short leap, he landed in the pod and adjusted himself into his chair. The controls still seemed to be online. However, he had come for one thing- the small speaker on the left of the panel. He quickly yelled to his crew, "Guys, look what I got to work!"

 

[Hisseki]

At the sound of yelling, Psilo flinched, prepared to hack and slash once again with her bare claw-like hands. The loud voice turned out to be none other than White Sapphire's, who had gotten an escape pod to function. Doing her best thumbs-up gesture, she held her hand out towards him. "Nice. If you can, bring it with us, it could help," she instructed.

As time passed, Psilomelane was slowly but surely adjusting to the leader role. At the current moment, she felt a bit better about taking a leader position, the moment when Maw called her "Captain" still replaying itself in her head. A gem could get used to this kind of status... she thought to herself, smirking slightly as she continued walking. Maw's boomerang cut a more or less clean path in the supposed direction of the ship, which was great. It meant that navigation would be easier, as well as meaning there weren't any vines to ensnare her anymore. Occasionally, the remnants of vines attempted to grab her head and arms, but Psilo simply shoved them aside as if they were nothing more than dust. Constantly checking her screen, then looking forward, she addressed the rest of the group without looking back. "Are all of you doing okay? Anything worth noting, enemies, more of those corrupted gems, anything?" Psilo asked, a hint of impatience laced throughout her voice.

 

[Sciencewars]

After getting the close-to-pristine escape pod to function, Psilo, who had taken the leader role, ordered him to bring it along. "Oh, of course!" White responded. Stretching out his (rather short) arms, white bubble formed around his hands as the machine sprouted legs and clanged onto the ground.

Operating the machine was second nature to him. It took a few minutes to fully figure it out, but soon enough it obeyed his commands perfectly. Activating a button next to the speaker system, a small screen displayed, showing a group of bright red dots. The clear windshield rose up into the top of the machine. "Ready, team?" White questioned through the speaker, which was linked into the other gem's devices.

Hands outstretched, he commanded the machine to charge forward. It soon charged into the forest, slicing through the vines and forming a tunnel directly next to the other gems. Tilting it to the left just a smidge, the tunnel soon curved directly behind the other gems. "Sorry for that, just wanted to test this baby out," He apologized. "Now...

Let's go."

 

[Peachy Ace]

Blue Goldstone turned over to White Sapphire, who had managed to take control of the Escape Pod. She smiled, then frowning as White Called out a few words.

"Ready, Team?"

This put a little concern into Goldstone's mind. She frowned. "Um, what do you mean by that?" She asked, then was overwhelmed as the Escape Pod started charging towards the group. She frowned. "Ahh!" She yelled, then ducked for cover, behind a log. She then realised that the Pod wasn't after them, White Sapphire was controling the Escape Pod to clear a path, or to Blue Goldstone it seemed. She let out a sigh at her own Misunderstanding, then stood back up, a bit embarrassed. She then looked around, a tunnel was cleared out fir them, thanks to the smaller White Gem. She Frowned.

"Well that's one Problem taken care of."

 

[Nateriety]

Beryl watched with a raised eyebrow as White Sapphire, in a crude method of test driving, tore the functional escape pod through a series of trees before coming to a skidding halt behind the group.

"Sorry for that, just wanted to test this baby out," White Sapphire apologized. "Now...let's go."

"Right. The sooner we find the ship, the sooner we can plot our next move," Beryl stated, once again glancing off in the rough direction the wrecked ship was supposed to be. She did wonder if perhaps some other nosy life-forms had found the wreckage already. And if so, would they be advanced enough to comprehend exactly what they had stumbled upon. She'd never been to Earth or looked into what was known about the planet too closely, but she remembered small details; specifically that "Humans" were supposed to be quite simple.

She was probably thinking about it too much.

For now, she'd stick to the simple task she had been suggested: follow along and keep an eye out for anything of interest. Between herself and the rest of the group there was probably nothing too major to worry about, but it never hurt to be cautious.

 

[StellarWind Elsydeon]

For lack of anything better in particular to do - and definitely out of curiosity about the gem ship and its rather anomalous crew - Tanzanite followed, for now - keeping a good look around and scanning her environment for any further surprises. The next surprise, though, actually came from within the group itself.

"Guys, look what I got to work!"

Turning her head at a 180-degree angle, Tanzanite spotted the White Sapphire - who has apparently managed to get one of the escape pods this motley crew crashed in to some form of operational order - and a very brief warning later, charge ahead to carve a path through the forest. Good grief, so much for the local ecosystem. There was such a thing as being excessively destructive, and this sort of behaviour was certainly not conducive to her observations.

Then again, she should have probably considered herself lucky - if things have not gone the way they apparently have, there'd be nothing to observe here but hollowed out rock. She's seen enough of those in her early voyages as the explorer craft was still within the empire's immediate sphere of influence. Of course, as far as Homeworld was concerned, the entire universe was their sphere of influence - but then, what reason would they have to think otherwise? They've not seen what she has seen. She found herself briefly wondering what would have happened if they did. Yellow Diamond in particular would probably blow a nitrogen inclusion and have her personal Pearl polish it before anyone noticed, all the while looking like a deeply offended Zhirrapha with exquisite eyelashes.

Zhirrapha were what exorbitantly tall, long necked, yellow and fairly ridiculous animals from a planet she has once visited were called by the sentient natives of that particular planet. If there were any creatures like this on this world that would serve as a more apt analogy, they escaped Tanzanite altogether, although something told her that she probably should have been familiar with one for a reason she really couldn't place.

Mental note for later survey: locate local biosphere equivalent of the Zhirrapha. It is probably named something entirely different. Odds otherwise are astronomical.