34The Elsewhere Saga: Ruby-A-Go-Go!
Chapter 1: New Place
Homeworld, Capital District. Era 2, Year 5,744.
In the heart of Homeworld, activity whirled everywhere around a group of five Gems. The red Gems stood outside of a big black building, waiting for something, each in different ways. One of these Gems, a Ruby with her gem on her chest, paced back and forth in front of two large doors. She wore a yellow visor to signify her position as captain of the group.
The other Rubies waited as well. One, her gem sitting on her arm, stared and growled at passersby, who in turn paid her no mind. Another, with her gem on her stomach, peered down from atop an overpass, throwing chips of pavement down at Gems below, careful to duck out of site if she hit her target. The last, a timid young thing with her gem on her leg, sat nervously next to her commander.
The commander, however, was not a Ruby. She was red as well, but she was much larger. In addition to her gray-blue hair, two locks of it sticking up as if to imitate horns, she wore an oval gemstone on her left cheek, and a black jumpsuit. The larger Gem leaned against a wall impatiently.
After a while, the double doors slid open with a hiss. Out stepped a fifth Ruby, wearing a grimace and a gem where her left eye would be. Once she stepped out of the room, her fellows crowded around her.
"Well? What happened?" the navel Ruby asked.
"Is it over? Is she dead?" the arm Ruby asked.
"Do I have to go in next?" the leg Ruby asked.
"Stop crowding her, you all!" the chest Ruby said, shooing her compatriots away from the new arrival. "Though, you should tell us how it went."
"The Diamonds said I'm not allowed to talk about it," the eyeball Ruby responded in a gruff voice. "All I can say is that Rose Quartz won't be bothering us anytime soon!"
The other Rubies murmured praise and approval to their companion, before the larger Gem quieted them down.
"All right, enough fraternizing, you lot," she said.
All five Rubies turned to face her, and saluted. "Yes, Red Lace Agate!" they all said.
Red Lace Agate continued. "With Rose Quartz condemned, maybe now we can finally put this nightmare behind us. Now, let's get you to your next assignment."
With that, the six Gems walked away from the black building, boarded a monorail, and headed back to base. They were none the wiser that "Rose Quartz" and a friend had escaped from the courtroom, but that is another story altogether.
Pisces Sector, Combat District.
The five Rubies had recently returned from what their Agate referred to as an "extended" mission to Earth. She preferred not to describe her Rubies' shortcomings, at least not to anyone but them. While they had failed to retrieve Jasper as they were ordered to, they had brought to Homeworld's attention that there was still an active cell of Crystal Gems on Earth, including their leader, Rose Quartz. Their higher-ups had decided that this was enough, as more activity from the enemy faction would make getting Jasper back difficult, especially for such a ragtag bunch of Rubies. Instead, they were to be reassigned.
As the five milled around doing nothing in particular, a door slid open, and Red Lace Agate entered. "Fall in, Rubies! Your new orders are here." The five of them stood at attention before their commander, waiting to receive them.
"Right," she said, opening the file on a holoscreen. "The five of you are to be transferred to an open guard position on Rulax-14, effective immediately."
The Rubies' captain's eyes widened to a comical degree. "What!?" she suddenly shouted, startling her youngest subordinate.
Red Lace Agate had expected this reaction. "Yes, yes, I know, but I don't want to hear any whining! I've got enough to deal with as it is, what with the Era-2 Rubies coming out the way they are."
The Ruby wearing the visor clarified, "Oh, I would never complain, My Agate, but...Rulax-14? Why do they even need guards there?"
The Agate strolled over to the exit. "Look, I didn't decide where to send you, I just send you there. Now, get moving! I've got stuff to do."
The squad of Rubies were unceremoniously sent from the room, where they were to board a ship to take them to their destination.
Rulax-14
Out of the many colonies and planets under Homeworld control, Rulax-14 was certainly one of them. In fact, it is still debated to this day, mainly among bored Gems with nothing better to do, if it qualifies as a small planet or a large asteroid. Nevertheless, it was the location of a communications array, which necessitated guards. A small transport ship broke through hyperspace, and began its descent.
"Well, this is your stop," the ship's Jadeite pilot said as they landed. She sounded bored just being there. The five Rubies exited the ship, which quickly took off again, hesitant to spend more time than necessary on the planetoid.
The Gems wandered in the general direction of recognizable civilization, where they found another Gem waiting for them. She was another Agate, with green skin and short brown hair in a bun behind her head. Her gem was a rounded triangle speckled in white, brown, and green, on her left shoulder.
"Ah, you must be the new guards! It's about time you got here!" she said. She was wringing her hands nervously, several strands of hair out of place.
The leader of the Rubies walked forward and introduced herself. " Ruby facet 98SK cut 2RH, reporting for duty!" The other Rubies followed her example.
"Yes, yes, I'm glad you showed up," she said, waving her hand. "I'm Moss Agate, the one in charge of this…" She struggled to find a suitable word, before settling on "...station."
The Ruby with the eyeball gem stepped in front of the captain. "Moss Agate, might I say it's an honor to serve you, and we'll happily assist your operations any way we can." Her leader looked at her quizzically, while the two youngest members of the squad giggled to each other.
Moss Agate was unimpressed. "Uh-huh. Well, let me show you to your posts."
With that, the Gems began a trek down the main street of the installation. To their sides stood several maintenance hubs and subspace radio towers, and beyond that was the bleak expanse of nothing but rocks for miles around. Aside from a handful of Peridots, and Moss Agate herself, the Rubies were the only Gems on the small satellite.
In front of them stood a fairly large building; nowhere near the height of some of the skyscrapers on Homeworld, though at three stories tall, it was a good deal larger than the other buildings nearby.
"This is the main archive, the most important building on this entire Diamond-forsaken void-hole," Moss Agate explained, who clearly wasn't happy about being stationed here either. "That's fancy talk for it being the only one worth guarding, which is what you're here for. Every transmission in this entire quadrant comes through this station, and is stored in there, making its security an absolute necessity."
"But, who are we guarding it from?" the youngest Ruby asked naively.
"That is a wonderful question," Moss Agate replied, exasperated. "One would think this place's location would be security enough, but of course it has to be maintained, and obviously the Peridots need some kind of supervision!" Her voice was filled to the brim with sarcasm. "Ugh, I can't deal with this right now. Have fun." She stormed off, leaving the tiny red troopers to their duty.
When the five of them entered the building, only arm-Ruby took her position immediately, standing still near the door with a dutiful expression. Leg-Ruby stood next to her, not really knowing what to do, while eyeball-Ruby went to investigate upstairs. Meanwhile, navel-Ruby went over to look at files of previous transmissions in the archive's library. Her crewmates accounted for, chest-Ruby stood in place at the center of the room, surveying. "That Agate seems a little high-strung," she said to herself.
"Mm," Navy agreed. "She doesn't seem very scary, either. Most Agates I've seen have been scary, but she isn't."
"You aren't scared of Red Lace Agate," Doc said back.
"But she is scary. I'm not scared of her, but she is scary. Moss Agate looks scared instead of scary."
While the two conversed on, Leggy and Army still stood guard at the front of the room, the former attempting to imitate the latter's demeanor. Meanwhile, upstairs, Eyeball stood looking across the lack-of-scenery, moping.
"Nothing but lousy rocks and dust for miles," she muttered. "This is the worst! I fought in the Earth War! I should be out there busting up Interlopers, not standing guard over this lousy excuse for a lousy outpost!" Despite her complaints, she knew exactly why they were here: they had failed in their assignment. Returning with valuable information about their previous enemy did not make up for the fact that they had failed to bring back one of the greatest soldiers in Homeworld's history.
"And I never even got to meet her…" she murmured.
Downstairs, Doc wandered through the halls of the archives, looking for anything out of the ordinary. How she would tell the ordinary from its suspicious counterpart she didn't know, but as a leader it was important to seem confident in front of one's subordinates. She meticulously checked every nook and cranny she found, until one seemed to stand out from the others. Hidden behind a shelf of data pads sat a familiar looking door. The reason it looked so familiar was that it bore a sigil that Doc had not seen in a very long time: Four diamonds forming one larger diamond, the lowest among them pink in color. Whatever was behind that door, it was from Era-1.
That's weird," Doc thought to herself. Should we look inside? No, it's probably a secret. She began to walk past it, before doubling back. Then again, we are here to be guards. We wouldn't be doing our job if we didn't guard in there, too. She ran off to round up the rest of the Rubies, intent on unlocking the mysteries of this mysterious door.
