LOG-014.

  "Beginning initial scan...or at least I think that's what this command line does."

  Sixteen A hummed from behind me as the grey and brown planet grew ever larger, surface details becoming apparent as we drew closer to the world.

  My eyes remained fixed to the small screen in between my hands however, focused on the lines upon lines of gem glyph code running across it. While the starfighter decidedly wasn't a dedicated exploration or even basic recon vessel, and thus couldn't give me exact readouts, it was still a military craft designed to operate in as many environments as feasibly possible, and thus had the appropriate instruments to determine whether it was flying straight into a death trap or not.

  Or at least that's what Facet 2M8R, Cut 6XC said, back whenever I managed to get the boastful Rutile to talk about her ride rather than her numerous exploits while attached to the Retaliator's fighter wing.

  I pondered whether the cocky pilot was still alive and well, considering her own craft had been one of the starfighters notably missing from the hangar.

  "The s-ship is shaking!"

  Glancing at my Batchmate, I nodded even as the cockpit's view of the world was briefly obscured by what could only really be called a grey smog.

  "We're passing through the atmosphere now, so that's to be expected. It was probably much thicker a few centuries ago, before it was torn apart by bombardment so...I guess we have the devastator fleets to thank for such a smooth ride."

  Carefully repressing the desire to shudder as the ship continued to shake further (Sixteen A was already doing enough panicking for the both of us), my attention instead turned back towards the sensor readout as the next few moments passed in an uncertain silence. At the most basic level, the fighter was picking up massively increased levels of CO2, sulfur compounds and various gasses that it just plain wasn't advanced enough to actually determine.

  The air would likely be toxic as shit. Maybe even unbreathable.

  Thankfully, we were Gems, so that wasn't too large of a concern for us. Just another point to lightform based physiology, pretty much.

  Another few moments later, and the entire cockpit finally brightened slightly as we made it past the atmospheric smog, revealing a veritable hellscape below us.

  The civilisation that had once thrived upon this planet had definitely been at the late industrial level at the very least, judging by the sprawling masses of broken, ruined remnants of alien cities scattered in between jagged mountain ranges, deep fissures and the occasional hardened lava plain.

  The countless shattered buildings had likely been a sight to behold, once. Smooth, curving things. I could only assume the massive gaping sections in most of them had been glass, long since blown out by this or that force.

  Any area that wasn't either a result of abandoned and decayed infrastructure or violent geological upheaval presented itself as a desolate wasteland instead. Gigantic, near flat areas with little else but exposed rock and barren soil to its structure.

  "Stars..."

  I nodded silently at Sixteen A's gasped exclamation, idly glancing up at the sky. What portions of the atmosphere weren't blocked by enormous amounts of dust and ash remained either insanely thin or outright nonexistent, exposing vast swathes of the world below to an utterly unforgiving sun, heating up things significantly.

  "Yellow Diamond doesn't mess around, evidently."

  And to think I'd been in the same room as the Gem largely responsible for all of this. Fuck.

  My already severe frown deepened slightly as almost black looking raindrops began to violently impact against the hull of the starfighter. Thankfully, Gems had either done away with or never even used see-through cockpits, so obscured vision wasn't a problem, considering the brackish liquid couldn't seem to find purchase on the visual sensors.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Gently banking to the left and avoiding a dangerously leaning tower of some sort, I eyed what appeared to be the skeletal wreck of a ship embedded into a city half sunken into the earth around it. The thing almost resembled the old landing vessels of Era One, if far, far longer in length.

  "I'm gonna bring us in for a landing around...there. Hopefully we can use whatever that ship was to shield ourselves from the worst of the weather while we figure out what we're gonna do."

  Yet even as we began to descend further towards the surface, part of me pondered, steadily worrying about potential complications.

  The natives had been rather decisively exterminated, clearly, and while the upper layers of the crust had likely been compromised to some degree thanks to all the damage the devastator fleets had done, the resources of this world almost certainly remained deeper within the earth regardless. A full colony may not have been possible, but surely basic mining operations could have been conducted. Homeworld always needed more raw material, after all.

  Just what could have possibly warded the Empire away from coming back to this place?

  ---

  "Brace yourself, deploying landing apparatus in three...two...one-"

  Clunk.

  I emitted a shuddering sigh as the reactor powered down, the cockpit beginning to open back up with the hiss of different pressures abruptly running into each other. Behind me, Sixteen A slowly unfolded from her scrunched up position, peaking outside.

  "...This place is horrible."

  I followed the Pearl's gaze, staring at the bubbling pool of...something we'd landed next to. We were in the shade now, the broken form of the wrecked starship shielding us from one side, and the shattered remnants of what might have been some equivalent to skyscrapers covering us from the other.

  "...Yeah. Yeah it definitely is."

  My hand grabbed onto the edge of the cockpit, and a second later I was gracefully flipping myself over it, landing amidst a wide patch of grey, loose soil.

  "B-be careful, we don't know what might be out here!"

  I made to respond, only for a small patch of colour to catch my eye.

  It was just a single strand of it, but the simple looking plant was unmistakable, even on an entirely different planet.

  Grass. Not the beautiful shade of green that I remembered from my memories of Earth, but certainly attention grabbing nonetheless. If I wanted to place a name to it...

  "Vermillion."

  "What?"

  Blinking, I glanced back at the red Pearl behind me.

  ...Vermillion.

  Hm.

  My arm slowly reached out, and as the Gem hesitantly extended her own arm, I nodded firmly.

  "Vermillion. That's...that's your name now. No point in using Batch codes if it's just us, right?"

  Sixteen A-no, Vermillion looked at me, surprise and...something else, evident on her face, but she didn't argue. She took my hand and carefully stepped out of the starfighter, her eyes darting around the unfamiliar terrain.

  "Vermillion..." She repeated, testing the word on her tongue. "I...I like it."

  I smiled, relieved that she'd accepted my mostly impromptu identifier. "Good. It suits you." She was the exact same shade as the grass, for Stars' sake. Of course it suited her.

  Regardless of my internal thoughts, we both just stood there for a moment, taking in the desolate landscape. The bubbling pool beside us hissed and spat occasionally, the liquid within glowing faintly under the dim, ash-clouded sky. The air (from what I could tell at least) was thick and metallic, a stark reminder of the planet's unknown, but very clearly violent history.

  "I don't see anything dangerous." I said, blanky staring at what parts of the horizon weren't obscured by the massive starship resting behind us. "But...we should probably keep an eye out regardless. Anything that might have survived sustained orbital bombardment isn't something I'd love to run into."

  Vermillion nodded, her eyes wide with fear. But there was a small sense of curiosity there too. One that I shared.

  I just really hoped it didn't get us killed out here.

  The grey soil crunched beneath my dancing shoes as I began to make my way around the pool of mysterious nasty juice, hearing my fellow Pearl slowly begin wandering after me.

  ---

  We'd eventually made our way towards the remains of the possibly maybe skyscrapers, their twisted forms jutting into the sky like skeletal fingers. As we approached, I continued to notice more patches of that same red grass appearing here and there. It seemed to thrive in the shadow of the ruins, adding an eerie splash of color to the otherwise monochromatic landscape.

  Part of me was already debating whether I could get away with trying to enter one of the buildings when Vermillion gasped, the sound failing to cover up the noise of something else.

  Metallic clinking, mixed with the sound of scrabbling talons impacting against whatever material made up the buildings around us.

  Grabbing hold of my Batchmate's shoulder, I quickly pulled her down with me, going fully prone as a shape began to make itself apparent.

  It looked like a predator, even as it steadily continued to crawl up a nearly vertical wall. Quadrupedal legs ended in sharp, clawed appendages that easily sunk into the stone-like material of its perch, a long, segmented tail occasionally swaying behind it.

  My eyes widened at just how metallic it looked. Artificial, even.

  The upper portion of the crawler, including its back and shoulders seemed to be covered in large, angular looking armoured plates. But it was the hide, sinewy and muscular that drew my eye the most. Dark and almost woody in terms of colour, contrasting with the armour around it.

  It was some kind of machine, clearly, and I did my best to press myself and Vermillion even lower into the dirt as a single glowing blue light, possibly some kind of eye, turned to briefly glance in our direction. A long piece of metal, shaped almost like a beak, barely avoided scraping against the wall 'below' it, the rest of the construct's head encased in an angular, helmet-like structure that eventually tapered to a sharp point along its elongated 'skull.'

  A cybernetic sounding chitter escaped the machine, before it finally looked away and continued moving, eventually forcing its way through a large breach in the building it had been scaling.

  Slowly, I ran my hand along a shaking Vermillion's back, patting the Pearl on the shoulder and beginning to get back up as I whispered under my breath.

  "Back to the ship. Slowly."