Pyrite spotted the little green Pearl almost as soon as she finished talking to Chia. She waved to Rita with one of her free arms, calling her over. "Hey, Rita! Rally to me! To me!"
Spinel's grin doesn't change much as she launches, arms flung out to her sides in an attempt to guide her path as much as she can. She hits the ship with a distinct noise of impact, using shapeshifting to absorb most of the blow and then turning her fingers to suction pads in order to hang onto the smooth, invisible side. Which is significantly less invisible, when you're close enough to see how the light shines off it even when the ship itself is cloaked. By her estimate, Spinel is a little far back on the hull to slide down to the doors immediately, but not too far. She smirks, as the ship's shields catch an energized crossbow bolt that was no doubt meant for her. The Diamonds have probably not managed to reprogram every ship in the fleet to exclude her in the last half an hour, after all, and her position is high enough that she can probably convince the ship's computer to crack the door open. If not, well, there's Gray Pearl's key. Hands splayed out to bear her weight, Spinel starts climbing across the side of the ship so that she can drop to the ground right in front of the side hatch.
"You've got it!" Rita said as she waved back and attempted to poke a few of the smaller forces towards Iron Pyrite, utterly failing at stabbing proper. She flung the weapon wildly until she accidentally struck an unfused Ruby with the pole of her weapon and sent if flying, at which point she quickly turned her strategy into doing her best to bat the forces towards Iron Pyrite instead, laughing despite the grim situation. "Hey Pyrite, catch!" She said as she managed to hit another Ruby with enough force she popped, sending the red gem in an arch.
In answer, Chia leapt up and landed gracefully on Iron Pyrite's shoulders, her stance wide set. Continuing to fire, she scanned the crowd. They were still missing Rose, Smoke, and Carnelian ...
Carnelian could barely see over the crowd, and knew that any element of anonymity she currently had would be lost the moment she started fighting. But she had to help somehow. Concentrating, she pulled her flute from her gem. It wasn't a weapon, exactly, but it was what she had. And it felt heavier than normal. Swinging as hard as she could, she clubbed a Ruby over the head and was surprised to watch the Gem stagger. Another blow and she vanished back into her gem. Carnelian put her flute to her mouth and blew a shrill note, making some of the surrounding Gems grab their heads in pain. Maybe she could help after all.
Iron Pyrite roared with laughter when Rita started using her trident as a club to drive her foes into the fusion's waiting arms, and stomped and smashed and cut down each gem that reached her intact from the furious green Pearl. She couldn't stop smiling, and cheered as Rita drove Rubies in front of her like a rockslide. "Yeah, get 'em!" A piercing flute note made her look, and she whooped wildly when she spotted little Carnelian in the crowd, punching the air. They were only two down, now, and she filled her not inconsiderable chest to yell for her. "Carnelian! Doing okay over there?"
Chia surveyed the slightly thinning crowd. "We should consider going to the ship soon. The lower-caste Gems have left, and soon we will be dealing with aristocratic bodyguards, who may actually be somewhat of a challenge." She pondered. "If I take Rita and Carnelian, and cover you, would you be able to go and search for Rose and Smoke? The passageway is small, but you have more brute strength than I, and may withstand direct attacks better..."
Rose had found herself trapped in a corner by several Rubies, and panicked for an instant, before remembering the rock clutched in her hand. She'd begun whacking the Rubies with the rock, aiming for eyes and other soft spots, ducking and weaving through attacks. The rock rarely managed to poof the Gems she fought on the first hit, but a few hits, she discovered, and down they went. A rock was not the most effective weapon, but Rose was determined to make do. Leaping over a Ruby as she fought, she spotted Chiaroscuro Pearl and saw Lavender's gem, and smiled slightly. Apparently Lavender and one of the others had fused.
"You got it, boss!" Iron Pyrite grinned, and even if the title was scandalous, she found she meant it absolutely. Pyrite had Hematite's wisdom to keep her from going totally off the rails, practical sensible Gray had given Chia a mind like a razor-sharp arrowhead. It meant she had the best ideas, in Pyrites' personal opinion, and it comforted her (big dumb clod) soldier side to have orders. She waited until Rita and Carnelian were close enough for Chiaroscuro's arrows to cover them well enough, then broke away, the thinning crowd parting before her bulk like a panicking Red Sea. She spotted Rose fighting with her little rock, and swept away a couple of her foes before they even knew she was coming. She grinned down at Rose. "You're doing pretty good there, sweetgem. You wanna get out of here, though?"
Chia launched a volley of arrows, popping several of her closest foes and forcing the others to keep a wider berth, and then she scooped Rita and Carnelian up with her left hand (her right still holding her bow) and deposited one on each of her shoulders. "Hello friends," she said. "Hold on tight: once Iron Pyrite has Rose and Smoke we will be leaping to our escape ship." She then resumed firing, unburdened by the Gems on her shoulders, beginning to inch towards the stealth ship as subtly as she could, still covering Iron Pyrite from behind.
Rita laughed as she was picked up and took advantage of her new view point to throw tridents, allowing them to vanish once they hit targets and summoning new ones. "Great plan!
The height was dizzying but once she was assured that she wouldn't be dropped Carnelian began to appreciate the new vantage point. Doing this-whatever they had collectively done-was exhilarating. "Sounds like a plan!"
Spinel ignored the ongoing battle behind her and slid down the side of the ship to where the hatch was located. She banged a hand against the side of the ship, where identification would normally allow her to open it, to no response. Growling, she attached her hand to the smooth side again and tilted her head back to look at her companions. "Hatch is here!" she shouts across the melee. "Going to need a trick to get it open, though!"
Chia heard Spinel's cry, and turned her head. It is clear, unfortunately, that several nearby Aventurine parking-lot guards also heard, and have turned to see the tiny Spinel, drawing their weapons. Ah well - it was too much to hope that the plan would not be discovered. "Pyrite, hurry!" she shouted across the battlefield, where Pyrite had found Rose. She took out a couple more combatants, then looked to her passengers. "Don't let go," she said, "I've never done this before." And with that, she swirled into a arabesque-pirouette, clearing a larger ring around herself before propelling her momentum into a jeté towards the ship. She cleared about half the distance in one, and upon landing, she sank into a deep plié before repeating the motions, landing on top of the stealth ship after the second jeté. She shot the nearest Aventurines, in quick succession, before kneeling on the ship and reaching over to palm the panel Spinel had indicated. Nothing. Chia frowned, and slid off the ship, standing beside it. She shot several more Aventurines while pondering, and then set Rita and Carnelian down, close to the ship. "It appears we need Gray," Chia said, almost sadly. She closed her eyes, exhaled gently, and her body glowed brightly as the fusion came to an end, leaving Gray and Lavender standing side-by-side.
Gray was suddenly herself again, and it was the strangest thing she'd ever felt. She had no time to ponder that, however, and she leapt as high as she could, slapping the panel that should have opened. This time, it did, glowing briefly in tandem with her gem, and it slid aside, revealing the interior of the ship. Gray, without further ado, jumped again, grabbed the lip, and hoisted herself in, turning around to offer a hand to the others. "Get in, we don't have much time!"
Lavender was still briefly stunned, a blush on her cheeks. She already missed being Chia, but... She got into the ship quickly with Gray's help, turning to help the others up as well. Her voice was strangely breathless as she said to Gray: "That was awesome."
Gray's gem flashed a little when she helped Lavender up. "...yes," was about all she could come up with in response to Lavender. She would have more to say at some point - she missed having Lavender's ease with conversation as a part of her - but right now, right now she had a ship to fly. She left Lavender to help Rita, Carnelian, and Spinel in, and she went to the cockpit. The ship was not huge. It was larger than a personal shuttle, but smaller than a regular transport. It was a slimline craft, a fairly narrow teardrop shape, and the inside was compact by necessity. This was not a luxury ship: it was a long-distance deep-reconnaissance ship. Every square inch of wall had something in it, or on it. And it was very clearly expensive. Gray found the cockpit with little trouble. It was obviously a ship meant to be manned by no more than two people: the living quarters and storage were in the back of the ship, the cockpit at the front. She slid into the pilot's seat and scanned the controls. Standard. A few extra settings for stealth, which was to be expected. Not a whole lot in the way of weaponry, but that was no surprise - there was no extra space for fancy weapons systems, nor the necessary power storage, nor the cooling arrays. This was a ship you were supposed to hide in. She flipped on an exterior camera in time to see Spinel jump into the ship, Rita and Carnelian already in. Gray cycled through the other cameras quickly to see if Iron Pyrite was anywhere close, with Rose and Smoke - no, not yet, it looked like perhaps they'd gotten caught up somehow. A mob was rapidly amassing around the stealth ship: the remaining Aventurines were torn between guarding the ships and dealing with the intruders. Gray made their decision easy, sealing the hatch from her controls and throwing the ship into its startup procedures. Within seconds - Diamonds this was an expensive ship - they had lifted off the ground, and Gray was retracting the landing gear and hovering a few meters off the ground, out of reach of the guards. She swiveled around and brought up her camera array on her main viewscreens. Iron Pyrite was still under the main arches of the Rebels' Square - she could fly through, certainly, she'd done riskier maneuvers, but she would literally have to catch the gems on the ship. There was no way the fusion would make it through the hatch - Hematite would be a tight fit, but if they were going to make it to Melon's ship with any sort of cover, they'd have to squeeze. Gray lifted a little more, gauging flight paths, weighing her options. It would probably be easier to loop over the top of the square, and navigate the arches from the smaller side first, catching Pyrite and the Pearls on her way out. That way she would have less mass to think about when maneuvering. She slid the engines up, pulling into a smooth arc towards the top of the square. She had to hope that she'd be able to avoid any fire within the arena, or that the stealth systems held up under close quarters. They'd been quite good when the ship was immobile, but that never held so well in practice ...
Melo stumbled a bit when the ship lifted. What was that? She ran over to the living quarters' door, and peeked through it to see a handful of gems standing around. Where was Labradorite? Had something happened at the execution? Who even were these gems? Melo tried to close the door quietly, but in her haste, it made a bit of noise. So, like she was designed to do, she ran and hid.
Spinel is the last of the small group on board, swinging her feet into the hatch from above rather than dropping down and entering normally, and so she's midway between the cockpit and the living quarters when she hears the sound. "Someone's aboard," she calls to the others, before turning in that direction. She doesn't draw her rapier - it's a little hard to have a sword fight in a tight hallway, though she's managed before - and instead calls out "Show yourself!" with every bit of authority she's ever had in her small form.
