As the young six ventured deeper into the mantle, they picked up a strange readout on their display screen. They didn't understand what static was supposed to signify, because it never appeared during the training. They radioed Mission Control to get advice, but Neighsay could only recommend trying to go around. Sandbar realized that static meant there was nothing solid. In other words, they were headed towards a huge pocket of empty space.
"We can't go around it. This is too large, and we turn too slowly. We have to drill through it.", Sandbar said in a shaky voice.
Neighsay warned them to be careful because he had not designed the ship to fly. When they pierced through the outside wall of the air pocket, they instantly felt gravity pull them forward in their seats as the ship fell downward. They saw growths in the space that looked like crystals, and then they hit a ledge and started sliding. Moments later, they were stopped when the ship was jolted to a halt. Something had jammed her drill and kept them from moving.
"Whatever's got us jammed up is inside our laser array. I am shutting them off. We're not going anywhere until the debris is cleared.", Smolder said as she turned off the lasers.
After putting on helmets to complete their suits, Ocellus, Yona, and Gallus exited the ship and shone spotlights. There was a huge crystal in front of the ship, which was what had jammed them, and there were thousands of crystals all over the place where they had ended up. While Yona started kicking the crystal to break it, Gallus picked up samples of the crystals, and Ocellus made a report on the stunning truth.
"We are inside a massive geode. However I don't understand how it survived down here with all of the heat and pressure. Gallus has taken samples for research. Yona has broken down the crystal that jammed the laser. I am coming back in."
She got inside just in time, because lava started flowing in from where they had drilled into the geode structure while Yona was freeing the ship. The lava had reached the foot of the ledge they were on when Silverstream closed the hatch. As they drilled deeper after leaving the collapsing geode, they found themselves surrounded by giant black crystals on their screen. Yona studied the screen for a minute, and came to realize that these were massive diamonds. Smolder said Silverstream were getting the timers ready for the explosives that they were using to restart the core. They had finished latching the case shut when they heard something strike the outside of the ship. In the cockpit, an alarm went off to signify a hull breach.
"BREACH!! Rear compartment, get out now.", Yona cried.
Smolder said Silverstream got both themselves and the timers out and into the next compartment before the bulkhead doors had closed. The compartment was jettisoned to avoid damaging the ship. The Young Six soon reached the core at long last. They were compelled to do quick calculations because they sped up in the outer core without warning. It turned out that the outer core was less dense than they thought. Their original plan to detonate all of the explosives in one spot would not work. They started working on an alternate solution to restart the core.