The Croft Family

The Capital of the Eden Federation is not just a single planet, but rather a series of artificial super-Earths developed to fit within the same ecliptic plane as one another. Connecting the four planets that circle the large sun, is an expansive tunnel system meant for the transportation in between the Capital planets. 

The four planets are home to the Three foundational aspects of the Eden Federation while the fourth artificial planet is a residential planet. Because of the importance that those foundational aspects hold, unless one holds a position that requires permanent residence, no family or individual can live within the Capital planets.

Regardless of wealth or influence, this no residence rule has remained unchanged since the Eden Federation first began to expand its territory. Because this fact cannot be changed through outside influences, the wealthier and more powerful a group may be, the closer their home system is to the Eden's Capital system.

The group that would be in the system closest to the Capital of Eden would be the Federation's largest University, New Law University. As a space where the most elite of the Eden Federation are developed, the system that the University encompasses is naturally the largest and closest system to the Capital.

The closest systems after the University would belong to established families or clans, as well as corporations and businesses that have existed and evolved alongside the Eden Federation. As power dynamics are quick to change among the powerful families, it is difficult to really say if proximity to the Capital really denotes strength and wealth, but those groups closest to the Capital will almost always overpower those who exist in systems too far away.

Among the ten closest systems is a fairly small but compact system controlled by the Croft family. The Croft family is one of the families that first established the Eden Federation, making its position to the Capital a given. Even if it wasn't a founding family, the individuals that the family produces, be it through the main family or in one their various branch families are often amongst the strongest of those born in the Federation. 

While not as wealthy as most of the corporations and businesses in the Eden Federation, in a power driven society, strength often correlates with wealth, giving the Croft family yet another foothold within the Federation.

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50 years after the Eden Federation liberated the humans of Old Earth and brought them into the depths of the Federation, the Croft family expanded one of their own mining businesses into a system on the outreaches of the galactic quadrant that the Eden Federation governs. 

The subsidiary that handled the mining for the Croft family had seen a large jump in employment when the humans of Old Earth initially joined the Federation, and while some became miners, most established themselves into the administration side of things, using the information and knowledge that they developed over the course of their time as slaves to drive the Croft families subsidiary towards success.

One of the employees that had the most impact in this manner, went by the name of Jane. Because of the achievements that Jane made, she quickly increased her position to the point where she was managing an entire galactic province of mining operations. In the short period that she had control over all the mining operations in a province, she had already shown her proficiency in management.

The new system that the Croft family had decided to venture into was given to Jane to manage, as the province that she had control of brought in the most profit for the Croft family. Using the trust given to her, she developed the mining operations in this new system in a few short years. With the help of several scientific and tech experts, new machinery was developed to bring better efficiency to this system.

Everything changed for Jane, however, as they began to excavate on the 2nd largest planet of the system. The first report was made to her when the miners encountered a crystal that disabled one of the older machines that was being used. Jane quickly found, however, that the material would break even the newer machines that had been developed. 

Jane quickly removed all mining personnel from the planet in order to move on to one of the remaining planets, while hiring more experts to understand the newly discovered crystal. It took ten years before the experts were able to make a breakthrough, and another five before the technology needed to excavate the crystal was developed. 

Jane sent the first samples of the crystal to the home system of the Croft family. As the mining company was a subsidiary of the Crofts, Jane had interacted with the Croft family in the past, though it was just a small member of a branch family. Still, the importance of this newly discovered crystal necessitated this type of response from Jane.

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2543AD Earth Time. Croft Family System. Main Branch Planet.

The largest planet within the system of the Croft family was undoubtedly the planet that was home to the main branch. The planet holds residences for all main branch members, as well as for those who were promoted or brought into the main branch.

On top of the residential buildings, the main branch family was also home to the headquarters for all of the largest subsidiary companies under the Croft family name, including the mining subsidiary that Jane worked for.

It had been four years since Jane had first sent the crystal samples to the Croft family and it was only a few weeks ago that the Croft family decided to call in Jane for a small discussion.

The building of the mining subsidiary was beautiful. It was not tall, nor was it extremely wide. The structure of the building itself was quite compact when looking at the other headquarters surrounding it.

On the top floor of the building, was a large waiting room outside of the largest office in the building.

Sitting on a small couch was Jane, browsing through her the transmission watch on her wrist that acted as a micro-computer.

"Miss Jane." A rather large man sitting behind a reception desk called out her name. After seeing that he succeeded in grabbing her attention, he continued, "The director is ready to see you, now. You may enter."

"T-thank you." Jane was known amongst her subordinates as someone who rarely lost her composure, however today was the first time in the fifty years that she worked for the company that she had been to the Croft family system, let alone the Director's office at her company's headquarters on the main branch planet in the Croft system.

She walked in quickly, not wanting to make her boss's, boss's, boss wait any longer. As she walked in, she could see a tall gentleman inspect a blue, glass-like crystal by a window. The crystal fit neatly in the palm of his hand and Jane quickly recognized it to be one of the samples she had sent back those few years ago.

"Welcome, Miss Jane. Despite what you may think, I have been eagerly awaiting your arrival." A smooth voice trailed out of his mouth as he addressed her.

"Y-Yes?" Confusion filled her mind.

"It took a while to directly reach me, but I have been aware of everything that has been researched about this crystal for quite some time now. It is quite impressive. Have you heard of any of the results yet?"

"No, sir."

"Ah. I didn't think so, but I thought I should ask anyway. The pressure that the crystal can withstand is at a level where only a few existences throughout the entire galaxy can act on it, making its potential as a defensive resource extremely high. However, when we investigated its limitations as a power source.... That was when we received a true shock. A single crystal, of the size I am currently holding, is enough to power a Planet-Grade Ship for, get this, 200 years."

This simple statement from the director brought Jane into immediate awe. The limits of such a discovery are boundless.

The director continued by questioning Jane. "Have you spoken about the existence of this resource to anyone else?"

"No, sir. Only the scientists that helped excavate it and my direct superiors know about it, sir."

"That's good. Have you continued mining the crystal since you sent the sample?"

"I only have one small team working on excavating the crystal, sir. Without knowing its value, I was reluctant to focus on it and instead moved on to the other planets with the system. Even with the team working on the excavation, we have only mined enough for 20-25 Planet-Grade Ships. The process of excavating even a single crystal is extremely tedious without damaging them."

"That is good enough, for now. Just that alone is enough for billions in your commission. That is just how much such a crystal is worth."