Just Add Water

by Tendragos

For Harry Potter, the day aliens annexed Earth was the best day of his life. From unwanted orphan to Mage in training, his journey has led him here, to a world as blank as a white canvas, ready to be shaped and nurtured into a vibrant, thriving ecosystem. The first problem? For an ocean world, it's a little dry.

5. Chapter 5: Seeing is Believing

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Chapter 5: Seeing is Believing

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Two weeks after Dahlia had stepped into a stasis pod, the Just Before Dawn dropped out of faster-than-light travel. Normally reaching the former site of the Andromeda galaxy would have taken hours for an Imperial ship, (minutes for the Empire's fastest warships) but the Dawn had a different purpose. Most of the time it traveled slower but more efficiently than standard ships, traversing space entirely on the shed power from the magical passengers and crew. Once the Dawn had offloaded all the colonists, the ship would briefly switch to standard propulsion until it collected more passengers and had enough incoming power to resume magical propulsion. The Dawn's students weren't only from Earth, there were species from a dozen other worlds in the 'Milky Way' galaxy and many more from the different universes who had supplied the warships that had broken the enemy offensive. There were actually ten-thousand students like Harry, and he was only part of the first wave of colonists in Andromeda. Each one had been chosen for either their magical potential or the genetics of their respective species. Many species had to be kept separate because of the climates and atmospheres required to sustain them so the Dawn's different sections had different environments mimicking anything from frozen worlds to molten ones and everything in between.

Today Stalgin had the students up very early and was herding them through sections of the ship that had been sealed since they had come aboard. He would only say that it was vitally important that they witness something with their own eyes. Harry was surprised when he realized they were heading into a cargo loading area, very similar to the one Stalgin had escorted him through when he'd come aboard. The cargo bay's heavy metal doors were already open and a transparent energy field was all that kept the atmosphere in, but between Imperial technology and the magic thrumming through the ship that barrier might as well have been standard hull plating.

Harry's first thought upon looking out was that they were in empty space, the void between galaxies. While some parts of the Imperial database was restricted for the students, there was still a massive amount of information available. Harry had been studying science and he found the subject fascinating; thanks to the translation function built into his neural implant information from the Imperial database was translated until he understood it perfectly. Most of what he'd been learning was about how magic interacted with the material world, how what was could be changed. But learning about the stars and the universe itself had also been fascinating.

Stalgin began to speak and the group listened. "Before the Empire's enemies came here, this was the Andromeda galaxy. Their forces swept through and consumed it entirely and this reality's Golden Star Empire, based a thousand galaxies away, had to call for help from others; the fighting was brutal, bloody, and costly. Their offensive ground to a halt in the Milky Way galaxy and despite the Empire's best efforts a third of the planets and stars were still consumed.

"All of you are part of our efforts to fight back, to resist, and to one day stand victorious. The Dawn's captain wanted every student, every one of you who will soon be terraformers and colonists, you who are the Empire's answer to the loss of Andromeda, to watch what's about to happen. Every student is now standing in front of either a window or in an entry bay. Watch, and listen."

Harry and the others continued to look out into the blackness of space. After a few moments a voice Harry had only heard once, giving orders over an intercom when he'd first arrived on the Dawn, spoke. Harry and everyone else followed the translation appearing in front of their eyes. "This is Captain Vesik of the Just Before Dawn to Horizon Team 367. We're giving our settlers a look at what you're doing so they can grasp the scale of the New Worlds program. You have permission to take control of our primary computer for your calculations, my records say that the Dawn's computer has thirty times the processing power of your ship."

Harry was briefly distracted by that. The Dawn was an enormous ship, Stalgin had told him it had a maximum occupancy of fifty thousand crew and passengers. AI assistants were everywhere, keeping watch and helping the students learn, so it made sense the computer would be huge. Harry's thoughts were brought back to the here and now when a hissing sound came over the intercom. Oddly he could easily understand it, though the subtitles did help with a few words that simply didn't translate easily. "This is Squad Captain Lerfriss. We appreciate your intentions and the offer of your computers, stand by for three of our AI's to transfer to your computer core. You're going to cut down at least a few hours of our job here, so my squad appreciates your offer. If you release your navigation to Sthis, my team's AI will get you as close as is safe while we patch our data in."

A few moments later the students got their first taste of a proper heads-up-display as nine markers became visible, floating in front of them with distance clearly marked. Manipulating his interface, Harry highlighted each one in turn. One was a standard Imperial capital ship, shaped like a dagger and bristling with weapons, apparently dedicated to detecting any enemy that might show up. The smaller ship, and it was only the size of a typical six-story office building, was labeled as the Horizon Team's support ship. But what truly stole the student's attention were the other seven markers, which to the surprise of the students, were living beings flying through space under their own power, using magic to maneuver with no need for protective gear. Harry was shocked at Captain Lerfriss: The 'man' was a winged serpent with arms and an upper body structure that just barely hinted at some humanoid ancestry. He was also wearing absolutely nothing, and when Harry queried the system about that, it responded that Solar magic, which Lerfriss had an inherited talent for, worked better if there was nothing touching his scales.

Harry and the others had no idea what to expect when the seven magic users of wildly disparate species took up positions equally distant from the center of a sphere formed by tracing their location. A lot of technical jargon that didn't make sense without more context flew over the intercom, but it seemed to be mostly concerned with speed relative to something and orientation? He was distracted when Captain Lerfriss began issuing commands again. "Everyone ready? Then start!"

None of the students had any idea it was possible to conjure that much of anything, the sheer volume of the gas the seven magicals were conjuring into a massive containment shield was absolutely astounding. Thanks to the interface, Harry saw the gas was nothing but hydrogen in impossible amounts. Fleur, being a clever girl in addition to a rude jerk, asked Stalgin if the magicals were creating a nebula. When the instructor shot down that theory, Harry ran a search for stellar objects that were composed of Hydrogen. The obvious answer was still impossible.

Impossible or not however, the students watched as the seven magicals moved ever outward as the mass of the object they were creating grew rapidly. It took an hour for them, the seven of them, to conjure enough hydrogen to build a young yellow star. When enough mass was present but hadn't yet collapsed enough to ignite on its own, Captain Lerfriss ordered his team to begin compressing the gas. Everyone's interface then produced a zoomed-in image of the captain. With the hand not focused on compressing the gas, he conjured a bright ball of magic that even at a distance of thousands of miles Harry could feel the power of. It felt wild, warm, and invoked feelings of competition and the need to survive. When it was ready, and apparently just before the hydrogen ignited on its own, Lerfriss hurled the ball through the shield. When it touched the compressed gas, fire began to spread rapidly through the forming star.

Minute by minute, the fires spread not only across the surface but deep into the star as well. Harry thought the sensation of warmth, of a dozen feelings he couldn't really process, was powerful when the alien was preparing the spell, but it was nothing compared to what was radiating out from the newly-born sun. The weight of it was like a religious experience, like something was touching his soul. Fleur had sunk to her knees and was weeping openly. Harry might have said something scathing in revenge for all the hurtful comments she'd made, but he remembered reading up on her species; they had an intrinsic connection with, and had an aptitude for, fire. It took Harry some time to figure out which emotion was coming through the strongest, and eventually realized it was Hope.

Eventually the Dawn's captain spoke over the intercom, after the six other magicals helped their exhausted captain back to their ship and the AIs began stability analysis on the star. "This team is one of over a thousand now restoring the Andromeda galaxy. Over the next decade, that number will increase to roughly ten-thousand teams as the Empire's military forces are rotated off the front lines. Each new star will receive the same magic as this one, an enchantment so strong even those with no magic of their own can sense it. The flames that will burn in every star in this restored galaxy have a purpose; the magic invoked repels the forces of Entropy and the Void.

"It isn't quite enough to destroy the stronger creatures they can bring to bear, but their average foot soldier would go mad, then burn away to ash trying to fight under our new suns. Their ships will be repulsed, damaged; anything smaller than a cruiser will be disabled and destroyed. Life-Fire can only bond to a star when it is first ignited, but it is a potent defense. Any enemy that can survive these new stars, the Andromeda Fleet and the defensive installations will destroy. Tomorrow your instructors will tell you more about how your worlds are set up, how YOU will help us protect all of creation."

The rest of the day was spent in the view of the new star, as the team in space switched out exhausted members for fresh ones as they worked to build the planets around the new sun. Once a planet was complete, twenty-one giant black rods were taken from the Dawn or the other ships and were driven deep into the surface by the magicals during their short breaks before constructing another world. The students' interfaces tracked dozens of satellites, constructed and launched from the three ships taking their positions above the new planets, the tags labeling them as 'Defensive Arrays' or 'Magnetic Field Generators.' Always seven magicals worked together as they conjured enough stone for seventeen planets and gave them thin atmospheres; each planet set in orbits carefully calculated by the Dawn's computers. It occurred to Harry that they probably didn't even need seven of them to conjure these planets out of nothing, it was just easier to work the magic to contain and compact the rocks with seven points working together. The Golden Star Empire could do all that, could have one team among a thousand others create an entire solar system from nothing in less than a day. And they were still in danger of losing the war.

~/*\~

That evening after dinner, Harry sat down at the desk in his room. Without much else to do, Harry started typing out letters to Sirius and a number of pen-pals he'd gained recently. The advantages of technology, Harry thought to himself as he copied and pasted the description of the day's events to each letter. Rok, one of the AIs that assisted the teaching staff, had seen Harry looking glum since Dahlia had gone into stasis and arranged for him to start sharing letters with four girls from England that he would have gone to school with if the Empire hadn't annexed Earth. Harry had been hesitant at first, but had eventually given in. He knew what Rok was doing, distracting him and hoping to lay the seeds of future relationships, but he didn't mind all that much. It was… nice, getting to know people who were his age and hearing about the changes on Earth from a perspective other than Sirius'.

~/*\~

The next day, as morning dawned in the land where Harry had been born, Sirius Black, Hermione Granger, Fay Dunbar, Katie Bell, and Padma Patil each saw they had a new message. Eagerly pausing to read it, each of them saw Harry's opening lines after the salutation. "Today, all of the students on the Dawn were escorted to a window for something the ship's captain wanted us to see. I watched seven magicals conjure hydrogen in impossible amounts and ignite a new star…"

~/*\~

"As you saw yesterday, when the Empire builds solar systems it creates as many planets as possible. There's a wide range of magicals that can live in different climates, and each planet is meant to support a different environment. The closest worlds to the sun are usually hot worlds of molten stone. The farthest are worlds of ice that never melt. Your group will be somewhere in the middle, and after reviewing the AI's initial choices, and in some cases arguing for different ones, we've hammered out what planet each of you will be living on.

"Each of you will receive a residence, a modular starter home. Each one will include an automated infirmary, bedrooms, a kitchen, and numerous other rooms whose purpose you will decide. In the storage rooms will be six months of preserved meals and six months worth of nutrition bars that contain perfectly-calibrated nutrition for your individual species. There's also at least a few spaces to grow your own food indoors. Now, I'm going to announce what type of world each of you will be living on. Pay attention and ask any questions now, because the Dawn has already begun transferring settlers to new worlds. Your group will be leaving the Dawn sometime in the next four days."

Most of the assignments were less interesting for Harry personally, it turned out he was near the end of the list. Everyone was going to be in pairs initially, one boy and one girl. There was an imbalance in the genders and it turned out that more girls would be borrowed from other groups. Also, the Empire apparently planned on both sending more paired groups and giving incentives for the existing groups to recruit more girls from some system that would be explained later. Apparently Earth's current social norms were not shared by a lot of other species and the colonists would be 'strongly encouraged' to form a family structure that had more in common with a pride of lions than a pair of swans. (In part, this was to accommodate all-female species like Kitsune or Veela.) He focused his attention on the projection of the second-to-last world, which was apparently going to be a forest world with many lakes and rivers, and the world just a little further from the system's star than his. "Victor, you're on the planet displayed here. You've been assigned Shandris Stormrage, Madral's older sister; she's been trained extensively as a druid which should be invaluable in creating the forests of your world. She'll join us tomorrow."

Stalgin paused for a moment, and flicked his fingers at the projection to bring it to the next world. Two worlds were visible now, one almost entirely blue and dotted with islands, the other looked to be barren rock. As with all the other worlds Harry had seen so far, this was the current planet and what it was intended to look like once the terraforming was complete. Quickly taking in the notes just under the projections, the planet currently had about eighty percent of Earth's gravity and had the same density of air on the surface as some of Earth's taller mountains. (Breathable, but it would take some getting used to.) It was also a little closer to the local sun, so the world would be warmer too. The 'after' projection stated that the 'finished' world would have ten percent more gravity than Earth, making it a larger planet than his homeworld. It was funny, despite living on a large island, he'd never been to the ocean or a beach, but eventually that would be all he'd see.

"Madral and Fleur are the first group, Harry you'll be with a young woman named Sethria that's currently in another training group. The Dawn's fabricator is going to create a replica of a sailing ship out of materials significantly stronger than wood for both of your groups. Both ships will be set in rock so that when the water levels rise they will simply float out of the moorings holding them upright. The ships will have all the same features as the homes others will receive."

Stalgin adjusted the projector and the 'before' version of the student's planets appeared in front of each of them. After a moment to let the students take in their worlds, Stalgin continued. "The Dawn is going to dump its holding tanks over these worlds, that will provide trace amounts of water for you. Mostly that's just so the ship doesn't have to carry the extra mass and because there's absolutely no water in the atmosphere right now. Don't expect help from other groups, different groups are usually placed as far away from each other as possible to encourage ley-lines to begin forming as you release magic into the environment. In order of importance, your goals will be to conjure water, grow some plant life, and expend as much magic as you can.

"Magic that creates electricity is also important because none of these planets have an active magnetic field yet, they're reliant on the satellites' shield to protect you from the solar winds. Other ships have already placed 'Spike' devices that will create a planetary magnetic field, but you'll need to charge them. The sooner the magnetic fields are active the less energy the satellites will need to expend. In case of an enemy raid breaching all the other defenses, these satellites also include a tactical planetary shield and weapon emplacements, so you want their energy reserves as full as possible. The Spikes are designed to absorb almost any kind of energy, even just raw magic, and use it to transmute a healthy planetary core, so travel to one and charge it directly when you get the chance, but remember that conjured electricity or lightning is the most efficient type of energy for the spikes to absorb. As you remember, your implants are constantly collecting one percent of your body's magic. On your new worlds that magic will be used to improve the existing satellites and stations in your new star system. Once the rest of the infrastructure is in place, your magic will be used to build an orbital shipyard. As the population of your planet rises, these shipyards will expand until it has the size and mass of Earth's moon. At that point, the new mass in orbit will maintain your world's magnetic field."

With all the students now having been informed of their worlds, Stalgin moved his lecture to the 'carrot' that would motivate most of the hard work the students undertook in the future. Technically, this wasn't just for them, every Imperial citizen earned rewards and necessities in the same way. "However, you aren't expected to work for nothing. Every action you take on the surface that enriches the planet with magic or makes the surface livable will earn you credits, the currency used by the Golden Star Empire.

"You can use these to purchase a nearly endless selection of items, creatures, passage for additional settlers, spell books, and rituals. For the last one it is extremely important that you think carefully before performing any of the enhancement rituals, most of them have positives and negatives. Each home will include a technological marvel that allows small items to be sent to your locations by a trans-dimensional magical network. You'll have a small one in each of your homes and a map for the locations of the seven larger ones for people and other large objects on each world. Each of the seven larger Transmaterial hubs will also have a standard Imperial fabrication and transmutation unit. These units can construct any clothing, furniture, tools or such that you require; you simply need to reach a unit and add material, then provide the magical energy required to transmute and assemble whatever you need.

"Your goal will be to become as self-sufficient as possible as quickly as possible while still assisting the terraforming. All of you have earned credits these last eleven months for conjuring materials and the excess magic taken from your implants. You'll gain access to the credit marketplace one day before you leave the Dawn. It's tradition for the teachers to give you two useful items, so wait to purchase anything until you receive your gifts. The credit rewards for various actions on the surface are not static, they will change based on the planet's needs. The AI in your dwelling's computer will keep you apprised of that information, but be aware that any AI that lives in a magitech computer tends to acquire a personality. Be polite and respectful or be prepared to deal with a planetary overseer that doesn't like you.

"That's all for today. You are dismissed, I would recommend you spend time with your partners and spend the day racking up a few more credits to spend later. The Dawn's primary AI wants more water and raw electricity but please only supply the second in our casting range."

With that, the class began to file out. Harry was disappointed he had to wait to meet the person he'd be working with. (And also disappointed he wouldn't see Dahlia for a few more years, he was already missing her terribly.) Madral got his attention. "Harry, want to meet me on the range in half an hour? I need to talk to Fleur and Victor for a moment."

Nodding his agreement Harry left Madral to speak with the two students who he would have competed against in the Triwizard Tournament in another life. Feeling like burning some energy, Harry jogged to the cafeteria and used his shirt as a makeshift bag to collect enough snacks for four people from the fruit bowl the cook left out so the students could have something to eat whenever they needed it. None of the fruit was originally from Earth, but Harry enjoyed it anyway. Especially the slightly tart one that was like a firm blueberry the size of his fist. Apparently the ship had its own farm where everything they ate was grown and it was maintained by people conjuring water, soil, and nearly any form of energy to convert into synthetic sunlight. Now that Harry thought about it, all of the colonization supplies were probably made the same way, no reason to haul supplies across the universe if the Dawn could simply manufacture what was needed when it was needed.

Stepping into the range where students practiced potentially dangerous spells, Harry set the fruit down and bit into his favorite while activating his holographic interface. As he ate he brought up the instructions for a fairly simple lightning spell. He needed to remember to get the actual name of this fruit; he already had two small bushes he'd grown from seeds in his room. For the moment lightning was worth more credits than conjuring water and he knew the water spells backwards and forwards at this point, even the ones he wasn't strong enough to cast yet. Plus he expected to get rather tired of conjuring water given that he and others were meant to turn bare rock into a water world.

Half an hour later, just as Harry was getting the hang of a spell that sent a lightning bolt coursing away from his wand, Madral walked through the door followed by Fleur and Victor. Since they had watched the task force build a solar system out of matter literally taken from nothing Fleur had been far less abrasive. Harry was still wary of her, but she was making an effort to get along. Harry knew that she had been going through a lot; unlike him, she actually had a loving family she'd had to leave behind. Harry had gotten to know his godfather from their chats and letters, but since he'd never known the man before leaving Earth he wasn't sure how he felt about leaving Earth behind. If the Empire hadn't come, would Sirius have rotted away in Azkaban forever? Even if he'd escaped, how could he ever have convinced me to believe he was innocent? No matter what, I'll be grateful to the Empire for giving him a trial and his freedom, for getting him Justice. Just like they gave my aunt and uncle Justice.

From what Harry knew, the Empire hated separating people like they had with Fleur, but making sure Earth's species survived if the world fell was more important. (From what he'd read, Veela were an easy species to transplant to other worlds because despite looking completely human most of the time, they were magical creatures who would give birth to Veela daughters or the very rare non-Veela son. According to the lecture on reproduction, the way Veela biology worked was that they took a few traits from their father but still gave birth to a beautiful girl.) Harry just wished Fleur hadn't lashed out at others to make herself feel better.

Gradually the four of them fell into a pleasant conversation as they sent lightning and water coursing towards the other end of the room. Victor wanted to know more about Madral's sister and Fleur wanted to at least be friendly with the person she would be stuck with for a very long time. (They had all met Shandris before, her group was 'next door' and Harry's group often used the Dawn's nature area at the same time as Shandris and her fellow students.) Madral seemed stressed, but buried his emotions like usual; Harry had learned that Madral was a very private person.

"Shandris is my closest sibling in age, but I'm actually a lot closer to a few of my older ones. She's… driven. When you have thousands of siblings, it's hard to stand out, and Shandris wanted, more than anything, to be respected for her own reputation, not our parents'." Seeing the disbelieving looks, Madral shrugged. "My parents have another kid every few years and they've been married for five millennia now. Just don't disrespect Shandris or try to deceive her and you should be fine."

From there Madral cast a long chain of spells downrange, briefly leaving everyone's hair standing on end until the ship absorbed the static energy. Everyone put their backs into their magic for a while. Now that the instructors had informed them about the credit system they had permission to access their credit totals, and seeing them gradually tick up was a great motivator. Fleur was the next to speak as the group took a moment to catch their breath and rest with conjured water and some fruit. "You have certainly grown since we came here, Harry. You have nearly caught up to the older students in power, but your reflexes are superior. If nothing else, I am glad that you are reaching your potential."

Harry nodded. "I've been working hard, there's no such thing as 'too powerful' when we're alone on a new planet. How did it feel, that spell they used to ignite the star? I felt it too, but you have a connection to Fire that I don't."

Embarrassed, Fleur only thought for a moment before answering. "Overwhelming is the best word. Fire… is so much more than just flames, it is passion, it is the universe's heartbeat, it is Life. It is hard to imagine what living under a sun with that spell will be like, but I look forward to finding out."

Victor spoke next. "Not so angry about being sent here anymore Fleur?"

The teenager was quiet for a moment as she thought. "I'm still mad, but not at the teachers or the ship's crew. I… It's just the scale of the war that hit me. Unless we're being lied to, this war consumed two galaxies, the ones closest to our own. There's even a lot missing from our own galaxy now. I… If I'm angry at anyone, it should be at those killing people I suppose. I still miss my parents and sister, letters and the occasional video-call just isn't the same. What about you, Stormrage? You've always seemed the most comfortable with this, even more so than Harry. I can understand why Harry didn't mind leaving Earth, given how he was treated but…"

Sitting down against the wall, Madral sighed. "My home world, Azeroth, isn't a peaceful place. About a year before the Empire found us, my people were attacked by an insectoid race called the Qiraji and their silithid war beasts. We were managing to fend them off well enough, but then as our military was focused on the war in the south of our continent, we were assaulted by a spider-like race called the Nerubians from the north. Then, just when we and our allies were managing to hold our own again even with the Nerubians burrowing up from underneath us at every turn, another force came from the east. A race called the Mantid attacked from the air in an endless swarm led by elite warriors, their forces killing and eating everything and everyone…"

The purple teen was silent for a moment. "My dad and his brother hadn't liked each other for thousands of years before I was born, but when they got a report that something powerful was controlling all of these creatures they went out together along with their most elite soldiers to end the war. Illidan Stormrage has long been a hero to our people, our champion, the greatest battle-mage our people have ever produced. Uncle Malfurion is widely known as our world's most powerful druid.

"...Dad stumbled home without his army, missing an arm and covered in blood with his nearly-dead brother slung over his shoulder. Uncle Malfurion came so very, very close to dying, but mom managed to heal both of them. Before that, I'd never imagined that anything could beat my dad, but the Old God C'Thun managed it. From there our armies lost ground every day, and when the Empire's first scout ship descended through the atmosphere and immediately started bombarding the enemy lines Dad had given up hope of winning and instead was trying to use magic to send us kids somewhere safe.

"It turned out that the Old Gods were creatures of the Void, and thus the enemy of the Empire. A week after the first ship found us, and that brave little scout ship spent that entire time darting around our battle-lines, dulling every enemy charge that would have overwhelmed us, a dreadnought arrived and began firing from orbit as it sent down more soldiers than our army ever had. After the war was won and the Old Gods destroyed, my world joined the Empire without a second thought. Our world got the same medical miracles you've been given, and we volunteered as many soldiers as we could without threatening extinction. Instead, the Empire explained that they wanted our world to become a supply hub for materials and magical species. The night they signed the agreement, I remember my dad being angry that he would be forced to take more wives to increase the Kaldorei's numbers; he'd only ever wanted mom. She just laughed and told Dad she loved him, and that wasn't going to change even if he impregnated every woman on Azeroth at the behest of the Empire."

Madral looked up at the ceiling and blinked the tears out of his eyes; the others pretended not to notice. "My world's safer than it's ever been, my parents aren't going to kill themselves sending me away or going out in a blaze of glory, and the next time demons invade they're getting a star shoved through their portal. I… I miss my siblings and my parents and my people and my world, but so many are alive now that wouldn't have been… I can't be ungrateful that I didn't have to watch my mom and dad die. It's hard, but that's life.

"They haven't fully explained why they're putting us on these words, but my home-world has the same purpose. These ships that they use to wage war across the universe, across every universe, a lot of them are built in magically powered shipyards. Azeroth has over a hundred stations in orbit now, the magic from the taps," Here, the Kaldorei teen tapped the beads visible around his neck; the same beads every magical on the Just Before Dawn had half-sunken in their skin. "in my people and others is collected and directed there, then it's used to conjure material, refine it, and build it into warships. Each shipyard produces a warship every three months; half of them go into the general war fleets and the other are assigned to securing my reality and spreading the Empire."

The four sat there quietly for a moment, before Harry got up and began throwing lightning downrange again. The others joined him shortly and they worked in silence. After another rest and some more fruit, there was a notice that the Dawn was reducing the credit reward for lightning, so the four students switched to water. It became something of a competition, one that Madral easily won. Compared to the first week of class though, it was much closer. Despite the three extra years of magical schooling, Harry was close to matching both Fleur and Victor. Together they flooded the range and the outside hall. Eventually Stalgin found them and directed them to bed, convincing both Harry and Victor that they should try to make a good impression on their partners tomorrow.

~/*\~

Newsreels: Imperial Manufacturing

~/*\~

"Greetings. I am Professor Lenois Windrunner and this is another informational recording on the common technology of the Golden Star Empire." Once again, the golden-skinned elf was sitting behind a desk in an office with a terrific view of a gas giant. "Tonight we'll be discussing Imperial manufacturing, something even the newest Imperial citizens of the Empire soon take for granted. There are two types of construction technology commonly used in the Empire, and we will begin with mundane manufacturing techniques.

"Where magic and conjured material are not available, especially in solar systems unsuitable for habitation, there is a three-step process. First, material is mined, with special efforts being made to collect certain materials that are difficult to synthesize. Once collected, the material is refined; this process begins with the simple removal of impurities and continues with the transmutation of common elements into the rarer ones required for more complex devices. Transmutation without magic is achieved by combining existing atoms into more complex ones through a complicated, energy intensive process. Once all of the needed materials are present, an Imperial Fabricator unit constructs the material in layers, bonding the material together until it exists as a single piece without any seams or connections. Military hardware, along with other precision instruments are constructed one molecule at a time, producing an item with superior strength and durability. Most consumer goods, while sturdy and well-made, are not built to this exacting standard."

The elf paused and took a sip of water. "Where magic and conjured material can be found, a more efficient process is used. Material, conjured or not, is transmuted by specialized focusing arrays which channel harvested magic to create the needed materials, which are then assembled into the correct form by a Fabricator before a final application of magic is applied to harden the final result. That final step creates an object that is two to five times more resistant to damage than standard manufacturing. Even completely mundane-manufactured warships feature magic-forged hull plating wherever possible. In combat, not only are warships forged from magic physically tougher, but they resist damage from magical sources in a way that the mundane-forged do not.

"This is why the Empire allocates so many resources to cultivating populations of magicals in any species with the ability. Not only is it the only path to victory, it is the only path to survival. And we will survive. No matter how many dark days lay ahead, we will stand as one Empire united and one day our children or our children's children will stand victorious under the light of the Golden Sun."

~/*\~

A/N: Stalgin: "Here are the planet assignments. Victor, you're on Arboreal. Fleur, Harry, Madral, you're on Archipelago."

Also, if you're wondering about what happened on Azeroth, during the War of the Sands, C'Thun wasn't an idiot and sent his army to rally all of the Old God-created races under his banner. It didn't go well for the defenders.

(That was a Civilization V reference btw; good game and pretty cheap on Steam.)