#anyway. i love 'em. fathom is a cool name. i remember liking it as a name a few times on fake breeds in the suggestion forum a ways back

[bluebrine]

did not anticipate my like decade+ old FR dragon wishes to ever actually come true... like WHAT do you mean there's going to be a new modern water breed, that can't be real.... we all know that's nought but a ol' sailor's tale, 'aye............ /shakes head solemnly, takes a long drag on my pipe while looking to the sea beyond the horizon/

[e350tb]

Steven Universe: Marooned Together - Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Four

A lot can change in five years.

New Earth grew every day - for the first time, proper buildings, built from proper materials looted from Homeworld’s abandoned colonies across the universe, had sprung up. There was the hospital, four storeys tall, vibrant with white electric and blue-green neon lights (nothing particularly new, but of much greater quality than what existed at the Diamond’s Lament.) The Museum of Earth had moved to a bigger, more permanent building after the find on the swamp world ,as well as a few other successful recovery missions since. There was even permanent housing going up, replacing the old shacks and shanties. The streets were being paved, the lights no longer flickered on occasion - the time of scavenging and making-do was finally coming to an end.

It was giving way to a new age of uncertainty.

Captain Franks was determined to expand the human resistance. New uniforms were being rolled out - a standard grey jumpsuit, augmented with body armour and a helmet that was longer at the back, covering the ears. Recruitment was being handled by Commander Lewis, who pulled  heavily from the young humans of New Earth; the ones who didn’t remember their old homeworld, whose minds could be filled with stirring tales of human culture and wisdom.

What Franks didn’t know, of course, was that she augmented these teachings with a faint hint of human exceptionalism. Franks believed he was getting soldiers. He was actually receiving fanatics, something he would have noticed, had he bothered to check. But he didn’t mingle with the ranks; he was too busy trying to dream the next big strategy to fight back against Homeworld. He was completely oblivious to his growing cohort of underlings who hated, hated gems - and weren’t impressed by his soft stance towards them.

Garnet was doing very well for herself these days - she had one of the first apartments on New Earth, although she was often away. Sometimes she went on her own scavenging voyages; others she joined Amethyst’s crew in pirate raids. Sometimes she even helped Simon out at the Diamond’s Lament, or ran errands for Jeff. Often, she simply chilled. It was a pretty good life.

And yet, she saw darkness ahead.

Today, she stood next to Peedee and Blue Pearl as the Human Resistance marched by, band playing and boots stomping on the dark-blue tarmac-like surface of the street. The small groups of gems and humans that watched them march by regarded them with suspicion, even fear, but the Resistance marched regardless; for most of them, this was a show of force. Take note gems; our time will come.

“Dickheads.”

Peedee’s whisper was quiet and venomous. It also wasn’t an uncommon sentiment. With the exception of Franks, who either could not or chose not to see the behaviour of the underlings, the people of New Earth knew exactly what sort of person marched before them.

“And Jeff lets them march,” replied Garnet, crossing her arms.

“He has to,” replied Peedee, “They’re the biggest defence force we have, even though they’re next to useless. If Homeworld comes, we’ll need ‘em. Jeff wants to set up community defences, though; some kind of, I dunno, Home Guard?”

“I’m worried,” Blue Pearl said softly, “That they may be getting out of hand.”

“Me too, Bloop,” replied Peedee warily, “Me too.”

Garnet said nothing, her face set in a deep frown as she watched the last line of troops pass by. One soldier turned his head, and their eyes briefly met.

It took a lot to unsettle Garnet. The contempt in that man’s eyes was just enough to do so.

“...aaaand… done.”

Stevonnie stepped back, casually tossing the old bucket to the side as they inspected the sandcastle they and Lapis had built.

It had been a long time since they’d had a mission, and if they were honest, Stevonnie had enjoyed the break. While they didn’t regret helping Amethyst with pirate raids, scavenging about with Jenny and the other extraction teams, or keeping Captain Franks from getting himself killed, the little moments they spent with Lapis on their island were often the most special.

Now was one such time. They had spent the morning building a sandcastle with an old bucket and spade. Stevonnie had built the castle proper - Lapis had manipulated water to ensure the sand was just damp enough to stick, as well as filling moats and waterwork around the structure. The end result was quite nice - a moated castle with a few little streams running through it, centred on a big, multi turreted keep in the middle.

“There we go,” declared Stevonnie, “Castello de la Lazuli is finished!”

“Castello de la Lazuli?” quizzed Lapis, “Not Stevonnie?”

“Nah, nah,” replied Stevonnie, “See that tower?” They pointed to a particularly tall one. “That’s where Princess Lapis Lazuli lives. She’s been locked in there by an evil prince called… uh… Prince Kevin.”

“You really don’t like the name ‘Kevin’, do you?”

“Nope!” said Stevonnie cheerfully.

Lapis nodded, crossing her arms.

“I don’t get it,” she said, “Why doesn’t Princess Lapis control the moat water to make a giant fist and punch her way out?”

“Uh, um…” Stevonnie snapped their fingers. “A terrible curse! Kevin hired a fearsome wizard called… called Marty to enchant Princess Lapis so that she couldn’t do that, and… and so she could never walk away from the castle, or she’d fall asleep forever!”

“Sucks to be her,” said Lapis, “So how does she get out?”

“There’s a bold knight!” replied Stevonnie excitedly, “And their name is Stevonnie! And they go on a quest to free Princess Lapis from the spell! And, uh, they have their noble friends; Lady Peridot, the Dread Pirate Amethyst… uh… Garnet, who’s too cool to have a label…”

“Makes sense.”

“Anyway, they make it to the castle, and they fight this huge dragon!” continued Stevonnie, “But then it turns out the dragon only wants to make friends, so Garnet teaches it the power of friendship and love. And then Stevonnie enters the castle and fights King Kevin…”

“Wasn’t he a prince?”

“He promoted himself. Anyway, there’s this big fight, and Stevonnie stabs him in the spleen…”

Stevonnie mimed a stabbing motion.

“...and they go up the tower to Princess Lapis,” they continued, “And they’re there - the, uh, the moon’s shining in the window, and… um…”

They ran a hand over the back of their head.

“I… uh… didn’t think of how to end this,” they said, “I mean, how do you break a curse, right? You, uh, you gotta… um…”

They blushed, clearing their throat.

“...you know, I’ll work it out later,” they shrugged, “Point is, day is saved. Everyone lives happily ever after.”

“Wish our lives were like that,” muttered Lapis.

“Hey.”

Stevonnie put their hands on Lapis’ shoulders and smiled.

“Maybe we’re just still on the way there?”

There was a long silence, save for the sound of the light breeze on the beach. Stevonnie’s face felt hot - must be sunburn, they thought - and yet there seemed to be a strange tension in the air, one they couldn’t quite pin down…

“Stevonnie! Lapis! Y-y-you-I-they need you on New Earth!”

Stevonnie turned, watching Lenny scurry down the beach from the direction of the warp pad. They couldn’t help but feel a strange sense of… disappointment? Why, they couldn’t fathom.

“What is it, Lenny?” they asked.

“W-w-we found an in… an installation!” replied Lenny, “Ye-Yellow Diamond. Could be weapons plans! Amethyst and Franks are organising a r-raid!”

“You mean Amethyst��s organising a raid and Franks is getting in the way,” said Lapis dryly.

“I… yeah,” nodded Lenny, “Any-anyway, they want you to c-come over for a briefing, i-i-if you’re not in the middle of something or anything!”

“I…”

Stevonnie looked down at the sandcastle, up at Lapis and then finally back towards Lenny. They felt themself deflate for just a moment, but again, they couldn’t pinpoint exactly why.

“...sure thing, Lenny,” they said at last, “Lead the way.”

The briefing took place on the bridge of Franks’ flagship, the Lawrence - a place that could be described as overwhelmingly, depressingly grey. To say it was monochromatic would have been too kind; it was three-dimensionally bleak. The interior looked not unlike a submarine: dark, covered in red buttons and glowing screens, and more than a little claustrophobic.

Franks was seated in his captain’s chair, Commander Lewis poised dutifully to one side. Stevonnie waved as they’d entered - if looks could kill, the one Lewis shot their way would have obliterated them at an atomic level. Amethyst, Peridot, Lenny, Garnet, Jeff and Jenny sat around the conference table, looking over a crudely drawn map of a star system.

“Stevonnie, Lapis,” nodded Franks, “Take a seat.”

They did as they were bid, and Amethyst stood up.

“Alright, here’s the sitch,” she said, “Jenny found a new space station Ol’ Yeller’s building in one of her mining systems. Some kind of weapons lab or something, maybe. Anyway, we sent it to some of the ‘Dots on New Earth to analyse. Lenny?”

Lenny stood up, biting her lip nervously before beginning.

“Th… uh… C got a little t-team going,” she said, “Uh, Peridot-RFD, P-Peridot E Cut…”

“Get on with it,” snapped Lewis.

“Hey, these Peris deserve credit!” replied Amethyst.

“We’re planning a mission, not giving participation trophies to a bunch of little green…”

“Commander Lewis, that’ll be sufficient,” interrupted Franks, before Amethyst could disembowel the commander, “Continue?”

“Y-yes, th-th-thank you,” said Lenny, “I-I-I b-believe the s-s-station is a… is a platform to r-research bi-biological and geoweaponry. L-like… like…”

“Like the Cluster,” said Stevonnie, their tone grim.

There was a long silence, and the air coalesced into something thicker, an impossibly heavy vapor that was near-suffocating.

“Y-yes,” replied Lenny, “Like the Cluster.”

“Which is why we have to blow this thing to hell,” said Amethyst, pounding her fist into her palm, “And as badass as most of us are-” She glanced ever so briefly to Franks and Lewis, “...we’re gonna need some help. So we’re bringing in the HR.”

Lapis rolled her eyes, and Stevonnie fought the urge to chuckle - thankfully, Franks didn’t seem to have caught that.

“The Lawrence and the Crystal Avenger will keep Homeworld’s fleet assets busy,” said Franks, “Using the following battle strategy, our ships will…”

“Did he really just say fleet assets?” Lapis whispered as Franks carried on in the background, “What even are those?”

“Ships, I think,” Stevonnie whispered.

“Well why doesn’t he just say that?”

“I think he thinks it makes him sound smarter.”

“...which should divert the attention of their battlewagons,” finished Franks, “Garnet?”

“We’ll come aboard in two teams,” said Garnet, “Jenny and I will sabotage the chemical storage lab, while Stevonnie and Lapis will destroy their record files. The HR will cover the shuttle bays so that we can escape when we’re done.”

“If I may,” Lewis butted in, her face set into a frown, “I don’t believe the HR should be used to babysit some-”

“You may not, Lewis,” grunted Jeff, “One more thing; if you find any evidence of non-gem captives in Yellow Diamond’s possession, we need to know. Anyone we can save, you know?”

“Got it, Jeff,” said Stevonnie, “We’ll keep an eye out.”

“Very good,” said Franks, “We’ll sail in twenty-four hours. Dismissed.”

He got up, marching out of the room with Franks at his heels. For a few moments, Amethyst stared after him.

“Dude knows we hadn’t actually finished, right?” she asked.

She shrugged and turned around.

“Okay, one more thing, guys,” she said, “Peridot?”

“A couple of our scavengers have seen an unidentified object that occasionally approaches New Earth, but then immediately turns around,” said Peridot, “It could be a Homeworld scout.”

“Or it could just be a UFO,” shrugged Jenny.

“It’s unidentified, it’s by very definition a UFO,” said Peridot testily.

“Yeah, but it could be-”

“It is not the Roswell Aliens!” shrieked Peridot.

Jenny chuckled, sitting back and crossing her arms.

“Whoever this is, we kinda wanna know who they are,” added Amethyst, “So they at least stop creeping on us or whatever they’re doing. So if you find any files about them on Yellow Diamond’s Biological Funtime Base, let us know.”

She got up.

“Okay,” she said, “Now you’re dismissed.”

The assembled gems and humans left the room, Stevonnie trailing at the back. Briefly, a scrap of graffiti carved into the table gave them pause.

PIRATE BITCH = NEW NECKLACE WHEN LEWIS TAKES OVER

They frowned deeply. They’d have to bring this up with Franks, and they resolved to do so as soon as they got back…