Alright, chapter uploaded on the 21st.

A large ship burned it's way through the vast emptiness of space. Accompanying the large vessel was a large convoy escorting it to a jump point. One such ship was a cruiser that currently held a very annoyed captain. Jet Plumbum, captain of the MNS Metallurgic of the First Fleet of the Metaloidian Navy.

-"The solar system that held the two budding empires was a bustling hub for the both of them."-

The ship had many of the standard features of a heavy cruiser in the Metaloidian Navy: heavy shielding from redundant shield generators, large battery for any and all threats, and a tractor beam with storage capacity for debris that could be converted to either standard ammunition or for striking rounds

-"With the agreement that had been made by the leaders of the two civilizations put forth regulations and laws of how the two could interact. It was seen by the two leaders that their subjects and cultures would not be able to function properly if they interacted in any way that wasn't official or formal. Along with that came the agreement that if the two ever saw conflict against each other, that it would bring the end of both empires. This brought upon the embassies that stood on the home planets of the two."-

The source of the annoyance was the Captain's historical log reader. The thing was one of the first off the line and allowed him to keep up with any and all events that he would be missing in real time for their recording and release to the Metaloidian public. The problem was that it's interface no longer responded to any commands, and now it was reading off everything in it's memory banks.

-"With the Gem Homeworld the member of the Metaloidian empire that was stationed at it's embassy was Noric Steele. On the planet of Metaloidia stood the embassy palace of a lower level Demantoid and her assistants."-

Another problem was that it wasn't sorting from public access and military standard and the two ended up getting mixed together. Sure this wasn't a problem now since the only one listening to it was him, but it would pose a worsening problem if it continued.

-"It was in the cycles of time that had passed since the two began expansion that brought the newest change to the system itself."-

Then came the slightly restricted information on the occurrences of the neighboring empire of Gemkind.

-"Homeworld was able to incorporate some asteroids that had been in orbit of the system into their planetary orbit. They were able to convert them into functioning space ports and assembly yards for extraterrestrial craft."-

-"With these in a safe orbit from the planet, all the while in a maintained distance that would negate the need for interstellar communication, the ports could handle all the ships being launched from Homeworld in the name of expansion. What made them perfect for the Gem Empire was the communications array that was able to be stationed on the asteroids. From there any message could be sent from Homeworld and broadcasted on any and all communications channels of the Gem Empire. The material extracted from these asteroids was able to be funneled to the production of ships and building more of the surface of Homeworld."-

-"For every ship that left the atmosphere of Homeworld they'd have to make a stop at these asteroids for one last check on their systems and equipment. The terraforming of these asteroids into workable stations was not a difficult task as many of the Gems that specialized in the formation of Kindergartens were able to use their skills in creating a Gem hospitable area for the stations."-

He'd called for one of the engineers to come to his private quarters to fix this. He activated his personal access to the database to distract himself from this repeated information, the screen of Alon jutting from a space on his desk to have the images projected within it. From it he was able to monitor the workings of the ship from his own personal office.

-"Metaloidia also had their share of development. Sure there had not been that many ships casting off from their space ports, but there was more arriving and leaving than their sister planet. This was due to a major advancement in the technology of Metaloidia as a whole, with the discovery of the development of other materials other than metal, stone and metallic substances being a huge step forward. While the Metaloidian Empire did not possess the same or similar gravitational manipulation technology that their sister civilization possessed, the crew stationed for the operation made up for it by quite literally "working harder, not smarter." Sure this was extremely primitive but it was through the use of their ion and fusion thruster technology based on the "Hand of Ferrou'' that they were able to station a moon into their orbit from a collection of asteroids that had been outside the system. The object was large enough that it could have been considered a planet, just for the fact that it orbited the extreme gravity well that is Metaloida that it was considered a moon."-

One thing that Jet found quite annoying about some of the civilian reports was that they were so willing to dismiss the accomplishments of their own people and oftentimes undermined the advances in technology that they made with those made by the Gems.

-"It was the use for the moon that differed from the other empire that inhabited the system. Due to certain regulations that were put in place by Ferrou, the manufacture of certain materials and parts were prohibited on the surface of Metaloidia. There were even parts and machinery was banned from ever entering the atmosphere. At first the moon was used as a checkpoint for ships entering and exiting the planet, but with the rise of contraband being left on the moon it slowly became a manufacturing plant for the materials that were allowed on the planet's surface while the manufacture of them was prohibited."-

So many of the civilians would just look at the "what" of things and would even think of the "why" of things. Did they not notice the harmful effects that had occurred to the settling teams? The ones that were issued to the public went into enough detail of the hazards of certain substances on the Metaloidian body.

-"A problem that was faced almost immediately was the lack of an atmosphere on the moon. Unlike their neighbors, they did not possess many of the skills to terraform the planetary body so there were some problems."-

-"Sure it was large enough to be rounded by its gravity, and it had the potential for an atmosphere. It was just the fact that the gasses present on the object only had enough gasses present for an exosphere."-

-"And the dust, the dust was the worst. It was such a pain for the havoc that it caused for many of the ships and equipment stationed there. Almost every rotation there'd be a large coating of dust either on or within the systems. Yes, it wasn't all too hard in getting it out of there but it was such an annoying step that most would just eject the stuff right when they'd come close to exiting the exosphere. This only ended up in thick coverings of the stuff falling back on the stations and ships whenever one took off."-

Was this supposed to be a report from an individual on the ground? Because no official report would have talked about the situation in that way.

-"The solar wind wasn't too bad. Metaloidians were able to "feed" off the energy from the charged particles, shame that Metaloidia had a planetary field that blocked out a large portion of it. The only reason they were able to gain energy from their old system center was because the sheer amount of blackbody radiation charged everything before the planet was fully formed and continued its barrage until their departure. It was only from the solar wind and the cosmic radiation that was so readily available that Metaloidians were willing to station themselves on the planetary body."-

-"The development of an atmosphere on the desolate surface was quite difficult with many workers accidentally becoming cold welded to pieces of equipment. Those suits really worked wonders when it came to preventing this, it was just that the suit itself was vulnerable to this and would require denser films be placed on the materials to prevent the problem from occurring."-

-"Magnetic field generators were placed at equidistant parts of the planetary body and linked together for a defense against the solar wind. Orbiting the moon were an array of satellites for the purpose of providing shielding from the solar wind. This led to the harnessing of the energy from the solar wind to be sent to converters on the surface in the form of lasers."-

The engineering technician was greeted to this as Jet was working a schematic on a holographic display.

"Sir." The technician began, "What seems to be the issue?"

"Playback on the reader is malfunctioning and I'm expecting the announcement to be coming through soon." Jet responded, "At least this one records all of the incoming reports."

Right as he finished this the sound of static ripped through the previously playing record. This was broken by a voice that was different from the other reports.

"-Announcing on all Metaloidian frequencies. In accordance with the new temporal cycle charting system, the challenges of Ferrou shall commence after a hundred of the newer standard cycles have passed after the most recent one. The next challenge of Ferrou shall commence in one cycle from this message's release. All are required to attend the challenge.-"

The next chapter will be posted on the 31st.