The fleet exited slip-space above the system of Garinol. The lead ship, the flag ship for Grand Admiral Malik, now entered orbit around the planet. Within the small fleet of 30 ships, they began to take in information of the system. On the command bridge, everyone within the bridge were going over the incoming information. “I want detailed scans of the nearby moons and the production of stations.” The fleet slowly drifted apart as they moved into position. The ships soon begun to harvest from nearby asteroids, within orbit in the solar system. Nypherian fighters soon left their respective ships and began to fly towards the planet. The fighters flew through the atmosphere and began to open scanners.

The stations began to take form, as they are being placed in strategic places around the system. Gordon Malik looked over the information on both the solar system and the early information about the planet, Garinol. “The system holds only one true habitable planet. Information also shows that there are planets that have valuable resources. The information on the planet is spotty at best. There are high electrical storms that are making our scans, useless. “he said, closing the scans. He got up from his chair and walked over to the 3-D map, “Send in more scouts. I need information on this planet”

With the data coming in on the planet and ground surveys reporting in every hour. The situation on the planet soon became clearer. On the main ship, Grand Admiral Malik and the scientists were discussing the findings on the planet. “The atmosphere is decaying slowly, much of the wildlife has died away. Bringing in civilians here would be a death sentence.” “This is not the first planet like this we have come across. We have the technology to bring life back to the planet.” “What of the animals? Plant life isn’t the only balance it needs. If the environment doesn’t have the animals it needs, regardless of the plant life, it will fail.” Malik listened to the scientists bicker amongst themselves. They all had points and they all seemed to not figure it out. Now, he was also oblivious to how they could fix things. It then suddenly hit him, “What if we bring animals to the planet. If we can’t bring them, we can clone them.” Malik said out loud. He meant to say it to himself but it was now too late.


The scientists looked around at each other. They were quite for some time before they said anything. “That would make sense. If we replace the missing links and fill those gaps the previous animals had left. We can still focus on creating new planet life and focus on growing the animal life. If we can do that, we can bring the planet back.” The other scientists agreed and talked amongst themselves. “Ok, we need to grab the strains of DNA from our registry from other worlds and bring them here. This system has not changed priority. This is no longer just a civilian system. This will be a research system as well. I will send information to the High Command to begin new operations. This is when the real job starts”

Within the planet of Garniol, they began to detect large sources of underwater oceans. Though, getting to these sections of water would be greatly challenging. On the surface oceans, Grand Admiral Malik had ordered the AQUA series to fully scan the oceans. The AQUA B135A’s and the AQUA C1276’s now cover the oceans of the planet. They began to scan the bottom of the oceans, looking for any valuable resources. “I want to keep things at a fast pace. We need to get a full grip on things before we make any more moves. Continue with the scans and begin to build underwater cities and research facilities.” Gordon Malik said through the network systems. The message would reach every system and AI on the planet.

The fleet that orbited the planet had made about 30 battle stations that orbited the planet. The Weapons platforms had also been finished with about 60 of them. They had been built the weapon platforms along with the stations. The fleets soon had completed preparations to fire AI systems within the ocean, just like they did on Xarn. One of the large ships opened one of their missile bays. It exchanged the corrosive missile and loaded in the AI system that would build within the oceans. It fired the system and it traveled towards the planet, crashing into the ocean. There, it would begin its operations and build.

“How is everything sea level?” Malik asked as he paced back and forward in front of the data screen. The command deck is as busy as ever. With the new operations within Garinol, and new forms of resources were being discovered; things looked up. “Sir, operations have begun. We have facilities being formed on schedule and blueprints for the rest are now complete. Shall I upload them into the network?” “Proceed, Warrant Officer”. The rest of the Warrant Officers began to upload the data within the network. These new updates filtered within the AI networks and soon they updated their building schematics. The probes moved about within the bottom of the ocean, adding the new additions to the base.

Probes began to build in different sections of the ocean. Each city “sections” are meant to have a different purpose. Each section are divided within three sections. The first is the civilian section, this is where the people live who do work within the other two sections. The Civilian sector consists of Scientists and the families of the scientists. The second section is the research center. The research center is the main focus on the planet. The research center is used to study the new forms of energy within stones or crystals. Studying said crystals to learn on how to harness their power and blend with the current Empire’s energy sources. The last section is the military sector. This sector houses the Eclipse Division military force within the planet. They watch and monitor everything within the bottom of the ocean.

With the ground team scouring the landscape, there have been specific spots on the planet that seemed to emit a powerful type of energy. The grounds crew lead Warrant Officer stopped and mapped out the locations of said readings. “I want these spots marked for scans. If they cannot scan because of the interference. Let me know” he said to his crew. As they got to work, the scans wouldn’t even penetrate the grounds. The Warrant Officer had to leave the area for the Vid-com to work. Admiral Malik appeared on the channel. “Sir, I request permission to dig in marked grounds. All scans have failed. There is something blocking or interfering with out scans.” “Go head Warrant Officer, let me know once you find that source of interference.” The Warrant Officer saluted and went back to work.
 
During the duration of excavations, they came across these red diamonds. When they met the sunlight, they began to emit red mist. The electronics began to go haywire. The crew looked at each other and they knew they were looking at something that could be magical. Reports were sent and Malik looked over the reports. “Get me Elias, he will definitely want to see this. Send word now.” He said to his information officer. “I wonder what possibilities you can bring us. What secrets do you hold?” he said to himself as he looked over the information about the Diamond.

"I find my way back to Nypherian space," Elias grumbled, "And the first thing they ask me to do is check out this half dead planet." The wizard casually skimmed through dozens of data logs the Nypherian probes had sent in. Reading through the hourly checks had gotten irritating, so he took to reading the most recent logs as they came in, hoping they would provide more detailed information he would have otherwise missed out on. Though much of the more technical information simply washed through Elias' mind, not leaving him with any semblance of understanding. Elias ended up strolling aimlessly down the Nypherians' signature matte gray hallways in hopes of finding the research station he had been asked to.

"Oh this looks interesting," Elias said as he stepped through the doorway to an impressively large research laboratory. Alien instruments mixed with highly advanced variations of lab equipment Elias thought he recognized from high school science class lined tables while cabinets full of supplies floated lazily above. In the center of the room sat a much larger, circular table with several chunks of red crystal sitting upon it. A member of the Nypherian high command stood observing it, Elias approached the man and racked his brain in an attempt to recall his name before it was too late.

"Hello there Admiral Malik," Elias said before reverting his gaze back to the red crystal. "What can you tell me about this thing you've called me all the way out here for."

" Charming as ever, Master Elias." he said as he pointed his finger, gesturing to the room. "Notice nothing is working. The rock prevents electrical equipment from working. It also has a magnetic field with it that also releases magical energy. Now, observe.” He said as he opens a covering that shines sunlight on the jewel. It begins to glow red and release a red mist. All the light flicker and dim. Lord Srox walked into the room, pausing to look at the Rock. She looks up and at Elias. “Ah. Bambi, for once you arrive before I do.” She said as she walked around to the other side of the table. Malik cleared his throat, “It still makes me wonder, My lord, why you insist on calling him a baby deer.” Srox tried to smoother her laughter. “For so many years, I kept him in the dark on what that word means. “she said, finally laughing at loud.

Malik shook his head, failing to get the humor. “The Rock also has magical properties. We don’t know what it does or what other powers it may hold. It seems that from the obvious, it can turn the radiation of the sun into a large electromagnetic field. Able to block all our scans. We had to dig and guess where it is. It was only easy because the entire planet seems to be covered with these rocks.”

"Of course you name me after something stupid." Elias let out an exasperated sigh and shook his head. "Are you sure you ouldn't have picked something cooler? Like a wolf?" The wizard shook his head in irritation before focusing back on Admiral Malik's explanation of the situation. As it turned out, the Nypherian survey teams had found some kind of red crystal that fouled up any electronics it came near provided it was exposed to sunlight. A strange and oddly specific property for what appeared to be naturally occurring mineral. More interesting, though, was the red mist that seemed to seep out of the rock. A seemingly more mystical property of the rock.

"Fascinating," Elias said as he observed the rock more closely. He reached into his satchel and pulled out a short length of white chalk. "Let's see if any of my divination can do better than your newfangled computer stuff." He began drawing out a rough circle on the table around the stone, marking it with simple runes representing sight and understanding. Once complete, he sat cross legged facing the center of the circle and meditated.

"Nothing's happening," Elias said after an hour passed. "I've tried every method I can think of with that circle and not a single ounce of sight is getting through." He stood up and picked up the rock. "And that leaves me with one final idea," He raised it above his head, "We gotta smash this thing." The wizard gathered a quick burst of magic energy to boost the throwing speed of his hand and flung the rock at the laboratory floor.

Malik went to try and stop Elias but it was far too late. Once the rock hit the ground, it didn’t shatter but released a giant shockwave of energy. The force was so intense it threw everyone off their feet and onto the ground. Malik and Srox picked themselves up. “Wonderful job Bambi” Srox said as she brushed herself off. Malik cleared his throat before he said anything. “Yes, well I wanted to warn you before. We had tried that already. It seems once the rock is met with any kind of “force” it releases the energy it had stored through the absorption of the suns radiation. We have predicted or estimated that the rocks are millions of years old.” He paused and didn’t know why he thought of it sooner.

“Though, this gives me an idea. What if we can enhance our scanners, to the point that we can get around future interference's that we may come across. We also could use these rocks as an unlimited energy source. Fueling future cities by using the suns cosmic rays.” He said out loud. Srox laughed, “Or, we can see if Elias wants to hit the rock again and fall on his ass.”

"They would make pretty neat batteries," Elias said as he scrambled back to his feet, "But they do seem a bit on the volatile side for an empire built on machinery." He strolled forward to observe the now dead chunk of crystal laying on the floor. "Besides, do we really know how to get energy free from this thing?" He picked up the rock and placed back on its central table. Mist and a red glow began emanating from it again. "Back on Earth, there were plenty of methods for storing energy in crystalline structures, but they typically had to be cut or constructed by hand." Elias placed his satchel on a nearby table and began sifting through the bag's contents. "But this thing seems to be able to absorb whatever radiation comes from this place's star, your scans, and my magic." He pulled a common synthetic crystal, the sort you could buy at any gift shop, and tossed it towards Lord Srox "Here's a magic battery. I was going to see how much magic it could hold until it exploded, but I shouldn't have put in nearly enough energy to make it volatile. Hopefully." He began putting a bunch of magical junk back into his bag. "It could be fairly similar in structure to those red crystals I think."

“The thing is, this crystal releases its energy once it meets force. It’s very much like your battery and it can charge itself once it hits sunlight. We could find a use for the Minerals. At the same time, this planet is surrounded by magical properties. With the rising vote to ban the use of magic within the Empire, we could have them live here on this planet.” Srox only glanced towards Malik after he brought up the Magic Ban. She knew how Elias felt about the vote, and didn’t want to upset him further on the subject. Though, she had no issue with the ban personally but she had issue with the pressure it put on magic users living within the Empire. “We could forward the idea within the Senate, I am sure High Command won’t have an issue with the concept. It seems similar though to internment camps but they would be getting their own planet.” Srox said as she placed her left hand on her chin. “It could turn into a new market for the Empire.” Malik added.

"A planet exclusively for magic users?" Elias said. He stared out a window to the planet below. "It'll take quite a bit of terraforming. Are you sure your tech can manage that with all the crystals down there?" 

The concept of having a planet exclusively for the magic users of the Nypherian Empire sounded great in theory. A place where those of magical power could gather and share their knowledge while only being a threat to themselves. But Srox also had an incredibly fair point. The magic users would be forced on to this new planet. A proposition many would readily resist.

"This had better be an awfully good planet if we're going to get all the magic users here," Elias said as he continued gazing down at the nearly dead planet below. "I could probably help. Play as a symbol of magic for the rest of the empire, but I don't know. I've never been one to socialize all that much." The wizard shrugged and returned to the central table. "It's all up to you guys though."