LOG-134.

  "Red's up, someone grab her."

  Blinking behind the safety of her helmet, the Tourmaline accepted the hand of a nearby Quartz, allowing the dark blue Gem to pull her to her feet.

  "What…what just happened?"

  The sight of her leader turning to glance at her brought with it a sensation of clarity, as the daze of what she was fairly certain was a destabilizer's sting began to fade away.

  Her breakout. The brigade. Bixbite.

  The crimson (much like herself, actually) Gem in question stared at her for a second, fanged countenance seemingly searching for something, before she quirked a brow.

  "Shook it off?"

  Nodding, the Tourmaline allowed her weapon to manifest with a flash, the familiar sensation of her gladius bringing with it a feeling of comfort.

  "We breached the ship, I took point…an Agate got me?"

  The malformed, distinctly unstable Beryl acting as her makeshift commander grinned at that, even as the immense cannon taking the place of her missing arm continued to charge up with its telltale whine.

  "Good to have you back. Don't worry, I gave her some cracks to remember you by."

  The statement was punctuated by a disgustingly familiar sound, and as Red's eyes fell down to glance at Bixbite's feet, she resisted the urge to frown at the shards currently being ground into little more than dust beneath a merciless heel.

  "What is our operational status-"

  Her question was interrupted by the 'Scarlet Emerald's' foot finally crunching the gemstone into nothing, before the near deafening whine of her arm cannon finally reached a crescendo, the rebellious experiment turning and firing down a hallway.

  Red couldn't see the results, but judging by the brief bout of Quartz-like screams she'd just heard, it hadn't ended well for the enemy.

  "We proceed as planned, with some minor modifications. Those pretty little Pearls have given me some rather useful info! And a request!"

  Falling into line behind the Beryl, alongside the dark blue warrior that had joined their cohort for this latest ship theft, Red lessened, keeping a wary eye out for any additional defenders as they proceeded down a long hallway.

  "That being?"

  Bixbite's grin was positively vicious as she braced the barrel of her cannon against a sealed bulkhead, that same damned whine building up as she spoke.

  "Rumour has it that the Diamonds ain't as unified as they seem! Blue and Yellow Courts ain't communicating as much, which leaves room for our particular brand of rebellion! Fawn has a better use for this freighter than we do! And I'm inclined to agree!"

  Turning her head back as the climax came once more, Red allowed the flash and sizzling explosion of a door being melted through to wash over her, before turning back and following behind Bixbite and the other Quartz as they stormed into what was unmistakably a bridge of some sort.

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  It was almost habitual at this point, stepping forward and allowing a flurry of laser fire to impact uselessly against her armoured lightform, a pair of Peridots sharing at her in wide eyed shock.

  Well, right before a lower powered crimson blast sent over her shoulder reduced one of the green Gems into a screaming pile of shards, with the other dropping her holdout blaster, throwing up her arms and pleading surrender seconds afterwards.

  "And what does that mean?"

  Ignoring the visceral sound of the blue Quartz lunging forward and ramming an axe into the ship technician's shoulder, she watched as Bixbite settled down in front of the primary console, cannon resting atop of it while her remaining hand went to work.

  One eye turned to glance at her, that same fanged grin returning to its owner's face.

  "We're gonna up the pressure, keep the Imps on the backfoot and arguing amongst each other over who should have done what. As for how that's done?"

  The dull sound of the freighter they were inside of reorienting its point defence weapons away from the squadron of Roaming Eyes they'd used to ambush it in deep space, and instead towards its token escort of fighters heralded a sinister chuckle from the off colour Beryl, even as she finished inputting new commands into the ship, a new route appearing on one of the navigational screens and a thrum announcing the vessel's newly restored movement.

  "Well, we're gonna go drop this glitch on an Imperial colony."

  Oh dear…

  —

  "All in all, casualties within Yellow Six's crown district are…significant, my Diamond. Though the damage to the surrounding infrastructure is significantly more permanent."

  My assessment earned a long, long sigh from the Diamond currently leaning forward within her throne, fingers pressed sharply to the bridge of her nose.

  "Tell me, exactly, how something like this could have happened."

  Staring at the reports sent to me by what must have been a very harried Beryl, (or whatever Gem was in charge of such a thing), I clicked my tongue.

  "...There isn't enough information to many anything more than a guess of things, my Diamo-"

  "Viridian."

  "Right away, your radiance. As it stands, the vessel was, well, not where it was supposed to be. Recovered data from the rear half of the bridge, alongside markings and general identifiers indicate it was a Blue Court freighter, intended for a completely separate delivery."

  I kept very still as a singular blazing yellow eye turned towards me.

  "A Blue Court vessel."

  "Yes, my Diamond."

  "And the crew? Surely someone survived the crash?"

  "I'm terribly sorry, my Diamond, but the front end of the thing was practically vaporized on impact, which in turn held the vast majority of the crew's stations. If anything survived, it's likely just shards. Of course the situation is ongoing but-"

  I shut my mouth as a crack echoed through the air, part of Yellow's throne's armrest sloughing off, having evidently been crushed by her ever tightening grip.

  "So we have no way of knowing what actually happened."

  "...Yes, your radiance."

  Watching the enormous Gem slowly lean back into her seat, I idly reached over towards my collection of screens, sending out a request for a Bismuth to come and handle the armrest situation, before turning back to stare at my ever tiring owner just in time to catch another sigh.

  "...Blue's Gems are suffering."

  Tilting my head slightly at the rather abrupt change in topic, I blinked questioningly.

  "My Diamond?"

  The golden matriarch leaned forward, face hard, and I had to struggle not to make a face as two parts of myself fought each other. One whispered of the haunting statistics I'd just read out, of Gems who didn't know any better and who had been hurt for reasons far beyond them.

  "Her Gems, Viridian. They're suffering. No purpose. No organisation. Perhaps this was pure incompetence. Perhaps her Court is so far out of order that an entire freighter crew managed to accidentally perform an orbital kinetic strike on one of my colonies."

  But the other screamed of Earth. Of Brim, and Vermilion, and Emerald, and of the home that I couldn't bear to see burned and ripped apart. It roared of the goodness that was the Diamond Authority fracturing, of the countless lives being spared because of the damage.

  "But no, I don't think so. Gems do not crash freighters. Not accidentally. And certainly not in such a blatantly suspicious way."

  That voice spoke of the greater good, and promptly smothered its counterpart as a result.

  "Rebels, my Diamond?"

  Yellow stared at me for a long moment, before turning to look at her still clenched fist.

  "Most likely. But in the end, they're a symptom of a fundamentally weakened system. A single Sapphire properly performing her role should have predicted this. A message could have been sent to my fleets, and an Emerald would have been dispatched to not only prevent this attack, but recover the freighter and bring the criminals to justice."

  I almost stepped back at the abrupt crackle that surrounded the now raised limb, before putting that instinct back in its place. There would be no moving, not unless I chose to.

  "The Blue Court is flailing. An entire quarter of our Empire, left leaderless because the Gem who is supposed to be holding them together, supposed to be leading them, has proven herself inept."

  Bringing up a hand to adjust my sash slightly in response to what I was pretty sure was the air itself recoiling away from the display of pure power, I bit out a response.

  "Then what is to be done, my Diamond? The datawork alone this mess is going to result in is…well."

  I held fast in response to the blazing gold orbs turning their attention back towards me, and even more importantly, kept the smirk off of my face as Yellow's frown only deepened with what I could tell was resolve.

  "We're going to pay my counterpart a visit, that's what."