POV Rio
I was working on terraforming when Preston suddenly alerted me to an emergency that needed my immediate attention. I left a few mages behind to keep an eye on what I had just done to make sure nothing strange happened, then I teleported to The Castle.
"What the situatuion?" I ask.
"Our long-range sensors have picked up an unknown craft entering the Solar System. Its design is also very strange," Preston reports.
"Strange how?" I ask.
He hands me the image sent by the sensors we had placed all throughout the system, and I pause for a moment.
"What the... Who designs a ship in the shape of a hand?" I ask with utter bafflement.
[Image Here]
"We'll call this ship Master Hand. If it wasn't green, I would be more scared," I comment.
"Uh... Why?" Preston asks.
"Well, if the ship were white or looked closer to cloth, then I would immediately have us evacuate this universe. I'm strong, but I'm not universe-level strong. And Master Hand would hint towards something like Galeem, and I'm not dealing with that. It straight up wouldn't be worth it," I reply.
"Do I want to know?" Preston asks.
"I'll explain it later. For now, let's try to contact this unknown vessel, but get the fleet ready just in case. This vessel is just past Pluto and likely hasn't noticed our ships on the other side of the system. If it turns into a fight, we try to disable the ship, and if they become a threat, lethal force," I reply.
We start by jamming all signals to avoid this unknown vessel from calling for help. Then Preston sends a message.
"Unknown vessel, you are in a restricted area, please identify yourself," Preston warns.
For a few seconds, nothing happens, and then we read a noticeable increase in energy in the ship.
"What the heck are they doing?" I ask aloud.
There weren't any targets for them to strike besides perhaps a drone or sensor, but that wouldn't do much. The answer comes seconds later as a beam of light shoots from the ship, except it's not heading towards us but the way they came from. I read the readings from the sensors to try to discern what they just did, but whatever they did was unlike anything we had seen before.
"Order the fleet to attempt to capture this vessel. They aren't responding, and I can't be certain they didn't do something dangerous," I order.
Our fleet closes the distance, but it still doesn't get too close. Our weapons had great range. The first volley consisted of Ion Cannons, but what happens next shocks me greatly.
"That's... Incredible! Look at these readings!" I say with a smile and an excited tone.
The Ion Cannons had hit, but the effect was almost non-existent. The material of the ship, or perhaps the design, was able to disperse or absorb the Ion Energy.
"Switch to Turbolasers! I want to see how their ship holds up," I order.
As we were attacking the vessel, the enemy ship was attempting to close the distance. The ship had no clear weapon emplacements, so I was curious to see how it would attack.
'Perhaps it grabs things?'
As I was thinking this, the Turbolasers impacted, and my smile widened even more.
"I must have that ship! Just look at this! The scans indicate the ship is dispersing over half the energy payload. And even crazier, they have no shields! What kind of civilization made such a genius creation?" I ask.
"Massive energy spike from the enemy vessel!" Preston yells.
"Full power to the shields! Double front! I want to see how effective the counter strike is," I order.
The attack takes so long that we have more than enough time to prepare. The ship forms into a finger-gun shape and fires a sizable beam of green energy. It hits the Venator and remains firing for 2 seconds before ending.
"Is that it?" I ask with genuine disappointment.
The attack looked impressive, but it was pathetically weak. It barely reduced the charge of our shields by 1%. Everyone else seemed suprised as me when it came to the less than impressive damage.
"Uh, should we continue bombardment?" Preston asks.
"Hit them with the Ruination Cannon, 50% power," I order.
"Are... Are you sure? That might not leave anything behind," Preston says, uncertain.
"It should survive, and if it doesn't, it will leave some debris to study. And if not, then it's a shame," I say with a shrug.
The Ruination Cannon was a massive cannon built into the Grand Herald's bow. Tests showed it was extremely devastating. Calculations estimated it could take down a normal Venator with a single shot. Of course not, our Venators, as we had upgraded beyond the original specs of the ship.
The Grand Herald charged up the attack, and then a bright green beam of energy slammed into the enemy ship. It seems I was correct that it wouldn't be annihilated. The beam hit dead center and basically shattered the vessel into pieces. A few scans confirmed that the threat had been dealt with. Though it also revealed something very interesting about the ship.
'It's healing?'
The ship was broken, yes, but it also seemed to be leaking a whiteish green fluid from pathways that looked similar to veins, which caused the damage to quickly heal. Not enough to get it operational, but I was becoming more and more obsessed with obtaining this ship for myself. My mind was already running through all sorts of ways this ship could do what it does.
'I'll have to delay the terraforming for a bit. But who cares, Earth isn't going anywhere.'
Numerous ships went to scavenge and study the ship. I wanted to preserve what I could so I could reverse engineer what they had built.
"We have... survivors?" says Lt John.
"Survivors?" I ask.
I walk over to his console and see what he is referring to, and I understand why he sounded so confused. There were survivors, and they seemed to be completely fine despite floating in the vacuum of space. They had even attempted to attack those approaching them.
'What in the? Why do I feel like I have seen these things before? Now that I think about it, the ship also seems familiar.'
As I was thinking about why I felt like I had seen these creatures before, the survivors had been attacked, and their bodies shattered into light particles and retreated to a core of some sort. Which caused me to finally realize where I had seen them before.
'Of course, the Diamond Authority! That was the enemy the Zetans had fought before. It fits so perfectly now. No wonder they couldn't kill them. I'm pretty sure gems were immortal in the show. Even if you shattered them, they didn't die.'
That left me with the trouble of having to deal with them. They weren't a threat, just an annoyance, as if their ships were on the level they just showed, then they were literally no threat to us. Even if they had hundreds of similar ships, it would be very easy to deal with them.
'I guess I'll need to question them to see what I can learn. Perhaps peaceful coexistence is possible. Even if that is unlikely.'
Once the ship had been salvaged properly, I left to look at the remains myself. I didn't bother checking with the prisoners; I just made sure that they were in containment, as I knew they could take an unknown amount of time to regenerate. I made sure everyone was made aware of what kind of creatures we were dealing with first, so we could avoid any issues.
The ship remains were... Truly something special. I know that logically speaking, an alien spaceship would be designed differently from what a human would use, but this was the first time dealing with a truly foreign design. Everything, from the smallest piece to the shell of the ship, was designed for the Gem Species. The ship was made of a crystalline gel material. This gel was fascinating to study. It could also fuse and mold easily, which helps to absorb some energy. However, that wasn't why the Ion Cannons had no effect. That was because the ship didn't have electronics. Not in the same way humans do.
'What would lead them to design them in such a strange way?'
I had some guesses, such as a lack of needed materials to craft standard electronics, or their homeworld was in a system with harsh solar activities. It could also just be due to the cost-effectiveness, as the gel was a techno-organic material that could be produced with very little input. In fact, its makeup was incredibly easy to replicate; anyone with basic scientific knowledge could do so. It wasn't perfect, though. It was quite brittle and didn't do well with physical attacks. It was also very light, which isn't necessarily a good thing. Due to its light weight, tractor beams and other gravitational weapons would be much more effective. It also made weapons have a maximum power without causing severe internal damage. The other issue was that it didn't work with shields. They interfered if you tried.
'I suppose that explains the slow speed.'
They seemed to have no issues with FTL travel, but their ships struggled to go fast, as without shields, micro impacts would constantly damage the hull. But on the other hand, it explained why the ship had those veins running throughout. The ship would self-repair the constant damage it took. Speaking of that repair fluid, it was a strange material. It stayed in a viscous state unless it came into contact with the hardened gel that the rest of the ship uses. Once in contact, they instantly congealed and fused the materials by quickly transmuting into the material it contacts. It was by far the best find of everything as I learned it could be forcibly activated and, in a way, programmed to affect other materials. Which, while not super useful for us on the ground as we have the Workshop, but for ships it can be used for emergency repairs on ships.
'This should be easy to redesign for our fleets.'
What I couldn't figure out was why they chose such a baffling design for their vessels. With the material they were using, it would make sense to reduce the area the ship takes up. But I could just chop it up into different design aesthetics.
'Hmm, I think some of those gems should have regenerated by now, and if not, then I suppose I can test some devices on them. I wonder if they can be used for enchantments?'
------------------------
Author's Note:
So yes, as OmegaAllspark guessed, the space-faring civilization based on rocks is the Diamond Authority from Steven Universe. They are honestly not much of a threat to Rio. The Grand Herald by itself could likely solo most of the Diamond Authority due to its sheer mass and firepower. They will be the last large enemy of this story. I will say now that the Diamond Authority of Steven Universe and the one in this story are quite a bit different. Besides that, there might be a slight detour with New Vegas as well, but that's about it. Until next time, Ciao.