Chapter Text
Life is precious, and always an uphill battle, as many have stated. If the fight is easy, you need to go back. Life will not be easy. Love will not be easy, no matter what you do. Love and life can be compared to a battle, for equality, for notice, for care, for existence. Two worlds hang in the balance of the actions of the two who engage in this fight called love, and sometimes, the worlds of others.
And sometimes the whole world.
This battle starts as the ground seemed to press down on the bunker, which it quite literally did. The air and the inhabitants were choked with dust from the world above. There was a constant hum of overused technology and footsteps that echoed through, urgent voices seemed to buzz through the shelter. This was half the life of a Loyal soldier, or one such as her rank. The other half of her life was on the field, risking her sorry ass for what her parents, and grandparents even, had gotten her generation into. Fighting seemed pointless to some after so many years, and many wanted to give up. But not her.
Peridot wanted to win. A violent passion was embedded in her since birth, a miracle seemingly to some. Generations were shrinking dramatically. She was ferociously loyal, and had fought her way to the top. She was mostly tech smart, but that was handy on the field. Not just a few times had Peridot been the one to turn the tide of battle by using her small robots and drones. She had ended fights that lasted months, and was well-respected for her abilities. It would be a lie if she said she wasn't proud, but the girl's main focus was winning this stalemate which had tangled the entire Earth into a two-sided bloodbath.
A small piece of machine buzzed in her ear, alerting her to a message.
"Peridot, I want to talk to you in my office, for Operation Epilogue." The voice was hollowed by the earpiece's constant use and damage.
"Yes, Jaune." She hissed dutifully, before calculating her location. The bunker was a messy tangle of tunnels and corridors, rooms upon now-empty rooms and plans upon failed plans. Years of information and events had accumulated, and some paths had been so walked-on the wear was visible on the dull concrete. Some lights were flickering, others dead completely.
Peridot's hands fixed her uniform, a mixture of grey, black, and shades of a yellowish green. Her vision was corrected by large pair of glasses of she secured to her head with a band. Her feet clicked on the paved floor, a fast ticking noise in the eerily empty halls.
The girl's destination arrived in her path. Behind doors, a faint clicking noise pecked at the stagnant underground air. She timidly knocked the door, preparing herself for the conversation, like many others before that had taken place in this room.
"Peridot." A stern, yet terrifyingly calming voice reverberated through the panels of the doors. It seemed to jolt her bones into a stiff posture. "Come in."
Peridot complied, reaching for the handle. The door creaked with age as she opened it, squeaking and breaking the eerie silence that had set upon the bunker, which usually had bustled in the past.
The leader of the New World, Diamond Jaune, was a regal woman. She was tall, and her unusual eyes had a way of boring into those who beheld them. Peridot was barely of status to be able to even look her her, and the Queen was so amazing she understood why. Despite the fire being thrown at them she remained calmed and retaliated with even more power. No one questioned her decisions. She was the most rational being Peridot had ever met.
"I assume you've been working on your assignment?" The woman's voice was taut.
"I-I did. My Queen."
"Good. I would like your full report."
Peridot nodded and projected the points she intended to make in front of her from the small holographic lens on the side of her glasses.
"What you want to do is entirely possible. It will just take work. We need at least 2 other soldiers, maybe one if we want to be discrete and someone to place the disc I've been working on into one of their machines. Any will do, whatever ship, vehicle, or building with the right port will work. Then, what I've done to it will do exactly what you requested. The disc is pretty much done itself."
"Excellent work, Peridot." The leader hummed, seemingly pleased. Her eyes glinted as the prospect of winning was drawing nearer than ever.
"Just doing what is expected of me, my Queen." The girl muttered, collected, but a but flushed with pride at the praise from one so high up.
"How long will it take to finally implement it?"
"Maybe, after acquiring the soldiers, explaining, adding final touches, and maybe a little testing further than I've already done, I would say maybe 2 weeks at the latest.
"I have a request." Said the Queen, disregarding her statement with a flick of her slender wrist.
"Y-yes?" She stuttered, off guard. Had she messed up? Said the wrong thing?
"In case of emergency, the disc cannot respond to changes, is this correct?"
The woman looked at her like a tiger stalking it's prey, which was only seen in pictures.
"No, it can't. I'm afraid that I can't figure out how to make it react to such a large scale to throw off an entire half of the world, if the mission was any smaller... Or if the situation wasn't so desperate. It can do what you want it, just relying on no significant disruptions."
"I need you to go. Instead of the disc. With one soldier."
Peridot, the head of the Tech Squad, go on a mission. Like this. She was combat trained, but she would clam up in the moment if anything happened. She wasn't as reliable as the disc, which was already stated to be unreliable by the Queen.
The news hit her like a punch, and she practically lost her composure. Her, Peridot, out there? She spent lots of time on the field, but this... It was high stakes. The entire fate of the world rested on her small shoulders. She would rather it rely on a disc which would not be punished if it was broken. Panic grasped her chest, threatening to brim over and strangle her from inside.
"Do you not know what to do, Peridot? Was I incorrect in my hiring?" Diamond Jaune's voice became icy and threatening.
"N-no. I know what I'm doing." The girl jumped to defense. She had a rank and Empire to defend.
"I will do it."
The tall woman stood, towering over the small Peridot by a good foot or so. "Good." She murmured, walking to one side of the room. Diamond began to access a few digital files, before selecting a profile. "I will assign Jasper to you for this mission."
Peridot nodded, waiting to be dismissed by the wave of her pale hand. Almost every Loyal who was not deployed was pasty and pale. Most had retreated to bunkers similar to this, only leaving to get food and to fight occasionally if it came near them.
"Peridot. I know I'm doing the right thing by choosing you. You will be remembered for centuries for your bravery, and for stopping the 5th World War. You will do it." These words, though thoughtful, seemed to lack compassion.
"Yes, My Queen." Peridot nodded dutifully before scrambling to the door.
"In exactly 48 hours meet me here, ready for your mission. I will have equipment prepared for you sooner than that."
With a nervous "thank you", the girl darted out of the well lit room to her own quarters. Her simple housing was different than the rest, due to her status. Most shared rooms, and there were crowded areas with up to 75 beds in some sections. That was the norm, and she was just lucky.
As she arrived, Peridot nimbly pulled out her wrist from her tight sleeve. In it was embedded a green chip, that had a glassy surface and metallic bottom. Like every other Loyal, she had this form of identification. It was given at a certain age, and it certainly hurt like hell to implant, but it was secure. It tracked her health, if she was alive, and scanning it allowed access to certain places. Removing it would be painful, and if done, your life would be presumed over for lack of vital signs coming from the monitor.
She slid her wrist under her door handle, which it scanned and let out a whir as the iron door opened.
Inside, everything was gray. Her life was monotone and grayscale. A bed lay in a niche in the wall, and there was a simple seating area with a tiny kitchen. She never used the kitchen, all meals came from the dining area. There was a small cube, which projected a hologram. Since television no longer existed, there was only three options for channels. One for communication with any selected member of that bunker or approved member of another, news, and pictures of nature how it used to be. Peridot usually left the news on.
On a counter there was a single picture. It was of her and her family. In the outside world, smiling. By an ocean. When vacationing was still possible, 16 years ago. Peridot had been only 5, yet her memories were vivid of it. Now here she was, 21, without parents, and on a possible suicide mission, even if to save the world from destroying itself.
God, she was possibly going to seriously piss off, or even encounter Blue Diamond's daughter. Blue Diamond was the leader of the rebels, and unlike Diamond Jaune, would fight herself. She had fallen in one fateful battle, and her daughter was said to now leader with a new type of ferocity.
Peridot had the pleasure of being in a battle with Blue herself, and she was quiet yet determined. People said that the child was insane, driven by rage from her beloved mother's death. No one knew her exact age, or where she was born or who even raised her. That was the most terrifying part. They didn't know anything, and any who encountered her were terrified by her. She could go against a machine gun with a knife, and win. It seemed impossible, but there was evidence that the daughter had actually done that.
The small blonde let out a moan, and fell into her bed, succumbing to the black sea of rest before the mission. It was so rushed, anything could fail...
____________
It was the set time. The promised supplies had been delivered to her room, and Peridot was now dressed in a self-camouflaging vest and pants. She had a gun, ammunition, other fancy tech, food, and a knife. As supplies dwindled, knife and sword fights, though primitive, were becoming increasingly more common. The thought made her scared.
Peridot had her disc with her as well just in case, along with the necessary tools to hack a network and tear it down.
Taking a deep breath, the girl sighed. She felt like she would be sick, honestly. There was a chance she would get caught, though likely not. Radiation could get to her. It might not work. If they were attacked, the intended discreteness of having only one soldier could backfire horribly.
"It's now or never." She said, setting her jaw and grabbing the family picture from the surface of her table.
As promised, the top solider Jasper and the Queen were awaiting her as well. No one talked, but simply they acknowledged each other as Peridot and her larger counterpart entered the elevator to the hangar.
"Best of luck to you." Called the Queen before they began the ascension.
The rest was a blur. Getting into the drone, taking off. Sailing into the land that lay ruined and deserted. Trees patched a few areas, as did most likely toxic water. There were destroyed building clusters, and even a few ragtag survival camps for those who weren't fortunate enough to get to a bunker or a remaining civilization. The sun glared down on the terrain, burning through the land to scorch rock and sand.
"Look. There." Jasper interrupted her thoughts. It was perfect. A building with the rebel symbol sprayed onto it. Not all rebels were discrete about their beliefs, and these clearly weren't. The place actually looked empty. It also looked destroyed, even. Windows broken, missing, and dusty. The walls were cracked, and the place was in bad shape. Most likely attacked and abandoned. It wasn't unlikely, there had been countless battles over time and surely not all were accounted for.
"Let's land." Muttered Peridot.
"I will drop you, I think it's empty and I want to survey for anyone else who may come. I don't pick up life on my sensors, and the place is practically leaking sand."
"Okay." She hissed. "But if I say anything to you besides 'it worked or didn't work', come in and help."
She knew the soldier wasn't watching for her. Peridot knew Jasper probably didn't care about watching her. She was an elite soldier. The best. The Queen's most trusted. She was valuable and needed alive.
She was dropped by a harness, which she detached with ease before heading to the building. The girl was on edge. She was 21 and about to change the world. The only way to do so was through the doors, the doors of which she almost tore open.
Taking her knife, she proceeded through the corridors of the empty building. No one had been here for a while, and everything was old here. Archaic computers, desks, a control room. Rooms were sacked for supplies, and cabinets flung open. Gruesome splatters of dried blood even stained some areas of the floor and wall, proving her battle theory. This would terrify most normal people, or people before the war, but Peridot was desensitized to gore and blood after her years.
And there it was.
A computer lay to the side of the mess of computers and parts, once used for hologramming plans maybe. It was perfect for what she had to do. This one wasn't damaged at all, unlike the others.
She reached into her pouch, grabbing for all the little tools she needed and a little, but strong, antenna.
Finally. Finally. Finally. She was going to end this and be victorious. The girl, using her tools, was able to get it up and on a generator. She scrolled through the old interface, coding, typing, squinting. So close, so close. Just minutes away from victory. She couldn't mess up, no, not now. This was easy to her, she knew exactly what to do. Echo the signal, tear them down. She would be a hero, and she would save the entire damn world when she succeeded. There was no room for chance. So, so close to finally ending the stupid 35 year war. She could do it, if she succeeded, this would surely, without doubt, destroy all current Rebel tech.
A large boom shook the entire building.