Command Post, Do You Copy?

Cry For Help

"Command Post 4 Control Room, this is a pearl speaking."

"Hi, my name is-"

"Citrine was right. You do sound annoying." The pearl informed her.

Peri seized the radio. "Listen here! It's getting dark, I'm stranded out in this gem forsaken outpost and I just want to come home!" Shouting at a pearl wasn't going to help her but she didn't care anymore. Someone somewhere had to be able to send her help or something of that sort.

"It's too stormy out to send help to rescue your sorry butt."

"For a pearl you sure are sarcastic." She slumped against the wall again. "I just want to go home."

"Sorry but that's not going to happen. Weather in the southern outposts are too unreliable. You will most likely be stuck there for days." The pearl chipped back, snarky as ever.

"Would you like me to come shatter your gem?" Peri seethed.

"I'd like to see that happen." The pearl cooed. "Oh wait! You're stuck at the old quartz facet. Have fun trying to strangle me now." The line was left open and the voices of at least three gems, pearls no doubt, filled the radio with howling laughter.

"If you won't send someone to rescue me I'll rescue myself." Peri growled under her breath. Standing, she left the corner. Most gems could use their gem as a flashlight. The imperfections in Peri's gem left her with a dim green light barely worth concentrating her energy on. She looked around. She could get out; the doors weren't snowed in yet. She also wasn't above breaking the windows if she had to. The walk back to even the closest command post in the blowing wind would most likely drop her core temperature to a point that would put her gem at risk of shattering due to the extreme cold. She had to get back fast or find a way to stay warm. Neither of which seemed possible.

Just as things were seemingly bleak she found a command post map. There was another much closer to the outpost. She grabbed the radio and tuned it. "Command Post 15 do you copy?" Nothing but static was her only reply. "Command Post 15 do you copy?" She knelt in front of the desk. "Command Post 15, this is Peridot. I'm sending out a cry for help. I'm stranded and I need to get back home." She held the radio with trembling hands. The outpost was so old that it didn't take much weather to make the building vulnerable to the storm.

Peri could feel the room getting colder. Desperately she tuned the radio again searching for a signal before ending up back on the same frequency of the closest commanding post. "Command Post 15, this is a distress call. Please, the weather's getting worse and I'm stuck... I need backup, a way to get out of here. I need to know if your post is operational.

Nothing but the sound of static filled the room. Peri dropped the radio. She pulled her knees to her chest and felt sorry for herself. A lot of gems were out to get her and she'd fallen for one of their desperate attempts and trying to get rid of her. It was nearly dark before the radio came on. Peri jumped a bit as she grabbed at the device. The static turned to a garbled voice. "This is Peridot! Peri!" She corrected herself, never knowing who might recognize her name. The voices seemed to fade back into a nothingness of static. Command Post 4 was her closest option. The others along the way had been burned, destroyed, left to decay, or abandoned altogether.