@cachetheperidot
"I'm here, let's get this over with."
First there was nothing.. No voice, no sign of life.. Silence.
Then, rumbling comes from below the orange gem as a ship forced itself upwards through the desert and out of the sand. It was.. A lot larger than most would expect.
After a moment, a door slid open on its belly, engines bellowing mockingly loud, beckoning the orange gem forward.
-Cautiously, Jasper walks forward, her guard up and muscles tensing, ready to strike if need be. The inside of the ship is massive, and the tidiness is almost eerie. Jasper cranes her neck to scope the perimeter.-
The moment she had entered, the door slid shut with a loud thud, entrapping the quartz in darkness. Silent darkness only broken by the occasional flickering of green imbedded in the walls. Impossible to see shapes very well without the glow of her gem. And even then, the interior remained mostly unknown.
A loud buzz filled the room and Jasper felt something ram into her side with a snarl, pressing the orange gem into the ships wall with inhuman strength. Only illuminated by the flashing green lights along the walls and Jaspers own gem, a hollowed eyed face with daggered teeth and many limbs. Nightmarish body horror of gems forced into one mangled beast.
An intercom came to life somewhere in the pitch black.
' My apologies.. Though I need you weakened in order to.. Restrain you properly. '
-Jasper is dazed, but her rage is still strong, and she kicks the amalgamation away. It crawls off, invisible once more in the dim lighting of the ship. It's dark and hard enough to see as it is with just one usable eye. As the intercom assaults her ears, the creature once again lurches from the shadows and jagged claws rake at Jasper's back. The wounds sting with pain, but worth it now that she knows where the gem is.-
"Hnn, HYAH!"
-With a mighty heave, Jasper whips around and grabs one of the stray limbs, slamming the creature into the ground. This fight is far from over, however, and Jasper knows she's at a disadvantage.-
The mass of limbs and rustling movement evolved into screeching that shook the ships interior.. Then it went silent. Almost entirely too silent.
Something answered.
Flaring up into rattling cries of a shrill monsterous chorus in every direction, bursting Jaspers ears. Each voice louder than the last, as if fighting to be heard over the agony that was their existence. A loud crash hit the wall next to the orange gem, and a claw slashed across her side from the opposite of the ringing bang. Tearing, ripping; digging deep like a hand floundering for someone anyone to take them out of mass of fractured minds they were drowning in.
Slicing into the light that was untainted.
-Jasper joins the cacophonic chorus with her own screams of agony. She clamps her hands over her ears and veers desperately in an attempt to avoid the sharp appendages of the creature as they relentlessly seek her out. The large quartz is stabbed with yet another claw, but this time she fights through the pain and grabs ahold of the limb, yanking it as hard as she can in a frenzied attempt to rip the gem apart. She can only say one thing over and over, as she continues to scream and rip at the various appendages, tears streaming down her cheeks all the while.-
"Please hold on... I'll get you out..."
Jasper had managed to damage one of the abominations enough for its form to dissipate in a thundering poof, causing an uproar from the other poor souls mashed together. A fairly familiar one with a split face launched like a blur infront of Jasper and scooped up the gen that had poofed into its maw, what followed was a sickening crunch as the monster attempted to consume the shards of the damned to try and reclaim what was lost of its own mind. Only to be swept away by some large hulking hand in the dark; dragged off with hissed crackles.
Suddenly the lights flickered on, and Jasper got a good view of the forced gem fusions cowering away from the sudden brightness. Several of them were poofed from their own frantic moving trying to attack Jasper,
Most of those very shards were trampled or in the process of being eaten by the remaining few. The air filled with a sick sense of loud crunches and buzzing of teeth against crystal, churning up what resembled a cloud of glitter.
It was a bloodbath only gems would know. And as the creatures finally growled and called loudly in dismay backing into the dark corners left, the intercom flickered back on.
' Seems you lived.. Good.. Proceed. '
A door the quartz solider hadn't seen in the pitch black opened with a mechanical hum beside her.. A dimly lit hall.
-Jasper's hand shades her face as the lights come on, and what she sees absolutely sickens her to the core. Tears are pouring from her face, and she's frozen, afraid. The large quartz has witnessed a lot of horrific, disturbing events, but none quite as viscerally repulsive as the scene unfolding. To further her pain, Jasper's pretty sure these are Era 1 gems. She's certain she just saw bits of an amethyst and a citrine devoured before her very eyes. She thinks of her old friend, Sunspot. She thinks of her annoyingly kind sister. Her hands are trembling as the voice crackles around her once more, and she squeezes them into fists to stop them. No time to be afraid. Silently, she makes her way down the hall, stumbling ever so often from the overbearing shock.-
The door slid shut behind her as she walked, ensuring the fusion beasts could not follow. The hall stretching for what felt like ages, before it opened up into a semi-dome interior with quite a few machines. Mainly for manning and controlling the ship.
And in the center of it all, stood Cache with smaller robonoids by her side, tilting her head back to stare at Jasper with a bored expression.
"You're stumbling, Red."
The peridot commented, retrieving her hand from the larger orb shaped machine at her feet. The one hovering nearby zoomed forward to scan Jasper quickly, a green light covering the large gem in the span of seconds and snapping images while zipping around the soldier, creating a small buzzing sound like one of those annoying earth mosquitos.
-One look at the peridot's insufferably smug face, and it takes all of Jasper's willpower to hold herself back. Especially when she hears such a sentimental nickname being used in such a mocking tone. As desperate as she is to tear this sicko to shreds, she doesn't want to risk any sudden moves towards someone so unnerving and unhinged.-
"Tch. I'm fine. "
-She straightens herself out instinctually to let the scanner do its work, determined not to let the wear show on her face and in her movements. She can still fight, if need be.-
"My feed of the hall said otherwise. Eyes dilated, heavy breaths, a look that read.. 'I cannot look away'... And the tears.. You seemed.. Afraid?"
The question came out less quizzical and more of a mock interest, tilting her head back to a screen that pulled up infront, typeing something Jasper couldn't see. It hadn't helped that the spinning blade of the robonoid examining her had gotten in her face, as if to eye her gem as the scanner focused in on just that.
It beeped, then lifted the front of its legs toward the orange quartzes gem-- Distributing a small zap, as if to test the sensitivity of the damage.
"Now, remind me of why you are turning yourself over to me? I seem to have... Forgotten."
