*** Full extract from a Descendant high commanding officer during an operation, in collaboration with Union and Republic forces, overseeing the Battle for Caladis against Homeworld’s Kybran Seige Army ***
*** Year 8091/2012 Earth Time ***
I look back now...and it’s almost unreal to believe that this cursed world was once the birthplace of our Sacred Order; our sanctuary and refuge for the faithful, the forgotten, and the persecuted, human and gem alike.
This world, much like Ody'n Prime and Drax, has changed hands many times. We used it as a haven. The Republic used it as a prison world. And now these Homeworld heretics wish to use it as a mining colony for their own purposes. Of course, the Republic themselves used their prison labor to conduct mining operations of their own, but that’s not something they would teach in the SGR history books.
Whether it’s mining for minerals or harvesting new gems, what’s the difference really? Maybe the Republic doesn’t kill their slaves in the end, but honestly it’s still getting harder to tell the difference between the two anymore.
Both sides want to pretend that their vision of the universe should trump all else, both are elitist pigs, both sides try to protect their image in the face if their own atrocities, and they both go so far as to pretend that they have a set of principles when it comes to war, expansion, and conquest...as if anyone should ever expect them to follow those rules themselves when the chips are down.
There’s even word going around in the void that Homeworld now pronounces that they only conquer worlds with “no intelligent life” as if to erase all of their past crimes in the galaxies beyond...
(scoffs)...What a load of shit!
It’s awfully convenient that they’re the ones who get to decide arbitrarily whats worthy of being intelligent and what isn’t. It didn’t stop them from committing genocide across the Andromeda galaxy while hunting us down one by one. It sure as hell didn’t stop them from coming back for us now!
At least the Republic has the spine to openly display their misguided biases and brutality for the universe to see...
(sigh)
At least they make an attempt to stand by their principles, misguided as some of them may be. More than I can say for these purist gem blasphemers, who judge and dictate the galaxy as they see fit, still acting as if they see themselves as equals to the Requian Gods themselves.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Another century...another war...another tyrant...only this one refuses to know when she’s been beaten.
During the civil war, we spent decades and countless lives trying to take back our Father’s land from the SGR and their relentless dogs. With the help of Commander Cyrus’s leadership and The Father’s vision, we had some success. While we were never able to take back the entirety of our holy world, we were able to get the Republic’s attention, even after we were forced to surrender.
We were finally given a chance to rebuild, and possibly a chance to seek a peaceful redemption in the eyes of everyone.
Yet in the span of a week, the indiscriminate destruction of Homeworld’s vanguard fleet destroyed nearly everything we had gained. Countless efforts, the sacrifices of many a loyal human and gem, many of my own friends, most of them innocent...all lost for nothing...
An atrocity that Homeworld will not simply wash away like all the others...and one they will live to regret! One way or another, the will of the Union and the Descendants will be reborn; we will rejoice, and the gemstones of our oppressors will be shattered and spilled in a sea of fire! We will force the Diamonds to see their precious perfect kingdom crumble piece by piece from beneath them, and then they too will lie shattered in the ashes!
A United Andromeda defeated the Diamonds once before through rebellion and revolution, we will do it again...only this time we’ll finish the job, with or without the help of the SGR...
...or Pink Diamond.
Still it doesn’t make the chaos we face today any easier, or any less unsettling...
It was Cyrus’s plan to provoke Homeworld back into the theater of war, through the illusion of perceived weakness. Everyone always knew that Yellow Diamond would return one way or another to finish what she started, but I always had my own unsettling doubts about Cyrus’s intentions.
Homeworld did return, but at what cost?
Not only has everything we have build for the last two centuries now more in jeopardy than ever, but we are now left at the mercy of one Regime facing off against another. In the aftermath of the civil war, we became yet another vassal state to the SGR, and the scars on both sides haven’t even had the time to start to heal.
Yet here we are once again, forced by fate, to align with one monster in order to defeat a bigger one...
Caladis was among the first of many worlds to fall under Homeworld’s rapid invasion force, and they attacked without mercy. Even the mighty bulwark of the Republic’s armored might was thrown off balance by the initial attacks. Not that it slowed them down for very long. In no time at all, Chancellor Reiben’s response to the conflict was as swift and ruthless.
Of course we didn’t want to be left standing on the sidelines, watching as the two Titans skirmish and squander over our hard fought gains. But then again...our involvement wasn’t entirely by choice.
The Chancellor felt that since this war was caused by our own actions (not that she was entirely wrong), she felt that the Union should be the ones who would have to pick up the slack and do most of the dirty work, but for none of the rewards.
Caladis would be retaken from Homeworld, but the planet would lay entirely in the Republic’s hands.
More sacrifices and lost souls wasted away for nothing...
But at least with Caladis, the planet was among a small handful of worlds that the Republic would spare no expense in retaking. I guess “an example was to be made” as the arrogant Chancellor would put it.
I guess the one shining light in all of this, as much as it pains me to say, was that there was as much grief as there was relief that the SGR wasn’t shooting at us for once.
A selection amongst the Chancellor’s finest in her council would accompany my forces to Caladis to retake it: The 58th Mechanized Regiment of the Lunar Wolves Valkyierian Stormtroopers led by their Quartz Corp Marshall herself, Serena Quartz, and their Sentinel Force Commander, Reyna Vance.
The Valkieryan Congressional Guard...their elite reputation precedes them in the eyes of most. I personally find them to be overrated: Pampered jar headed Pearls and Lapis Lazulis with more specialized armor, weapons, ships, mechs, tanks, and resources than sense, and yet just as ruthless and unforgiving as their yet superior Quartz Marine counterparts.
Despite our best efforts to retake the world, they would be the ones to take all the credit...and the gains. And that reality alone will be what forever pains and haunts me the most...
Nonetheless...
I will not allow my faith to linger. I still believe in The Father’s vision without question as he believes in me, and despite my doubts with Cyrus and the Union’s plan, I will still trust her judgment...
...for now.
*** High Confessor Lapis Am’byr Slavic Lazuli ***
The Prophet’s 1st Shadow Company
The Right Hand of The Father