Gray nanomist descended from space. The yttrium gas ore that had leaked again when the ship reverted was the first thing the Nanite Gray Tide reached.
Everything left on the planet's surface was disintegrating.
Rocks visibly crumbled into grains of remarkably uniform size, which then turned to powder and vanished into the gray tide.
Nanomachines enveloped the entire planet, devouring all matter from the surface downward.
The entire planet began shedding countless wisps of silver-gray mist, like an effervescent tablet dropped into water.
The nanomachines clustered together through magnetism, forming two enormous conduits on an astronomical scale that linked the Heart of the Forge to the planet housing Augs's base.
The sight was utterly bizarre.
The smaller planet was rapidly dissolving, its scattered matter flowing continuously through the conduits of silver mist to the Heart of the Forge.
Vast quantities of excess gray tide surged underground, draining rapidly into six immense metal shafts like water rushing out of a full basin after its plug was pulled.
These metal shafts, each two thousand kilometers long, and the enormous underground metal supports that separated the surface from the core possessed staggering mass and structural strength. Behind the metal walls of every shaft were numerous embedded gravity-control devices.
These materials were rapidly broken down and used to rebuild the missing sections of the Heart of the Forge's hull.
The entire planet soon began exhibiting abnormalities as it lost mass.
The planet's outer structure no longer had enough mass to withstand its inner layers. Under normal circumstances, it should have immediately begun collapsing and disintegrating, sending vast quantities of matter plunging into the planetary core.
But the nanomachines covered everything.
The outer geological structure was devoured before it even had time to collapse.
Within minutes, the planetary core, along with the surrounding starport and