Plant life also had to be split to avoid lazy parasites. Woody growths solved the structural problems, as for the gametes a new transportation method was tried, the sperm was given active qualities to reach it's egg. Many species succumbed to this method, it was far more difficult to implement than first thought.
Active systems also had to be devised to transport embryos, other problems included lack of nutrients. The rocky surface was inhospitable to fledgeling life. Mold became necessary, follow up by fungi, plants that didn't necessarily use the sun secreting acids and then dying and creating rich nutrient beds.
More millennia came and went and the diversity of plants increased, the golems faithfully monitored the progress. Every climate, had its own "flavors" of life. Some failures included the plantimals they did not complete well and failed after a few dozen generations.
The problems of excessive wastes was becoming evident, dying plants were piling up and causing large waste piles and diseases. A new type of scavenger had to be engineered. Small and highly reproductive, with a short life span and huge appetite.
Unfortunately the idea rather backfired. The new insects became a plague upon the land . Unlike the sea creatures natural checks and balances failed, the majority of the land was stripped bare. Many species went extinct. Sea creatures were modified to breed upon land to feed on the new insects. These lead to amphibian life, living on land and water. The interior remained barren and dead until animals could keep the insects at bay.
The amphibians gave rise to the saurians and again experiments in size and shape again spanned more and more epochs. Intelligence was at last achieved as draconic saurians flew amongst the lizard races. Their awareness of the golems and progenitor was supressed so their development could be studied. They preyed upon the local wildlife but never seemed to become moral. The standard they set never surpassed that considered valuable.
They formed no civilization, nor had complex emotions, no morals or honor, they were lustful and greedy, frequently turning on each other. They were allowed to continue in fringe areas, but shooed away from important areas, often forcefully.
The thunder lizards developed intelligence and many good qualities, the earliest becoming predators, the latter flight. The mezzanine lizards developed space travel and left the planet in search of a paradise more suitable metabolism.
Their emotions were nearly non-existent, no love or heat, only logic and need, although aware of the source and the golems the actively avoided them.
It seemed as if they had a parelel agenda. Again no emotions made them little more than golems in the eyes of the progenitor.
It looked again at itself, it had aspirations and goals, emotions and needs, and perhaps even a little vanity. Why did it leave it's appearance unchanged? Perhaps it just hadn't occurred that others might look upon it one day. It decided to become beautiful, altering the reflective properties of its outer shield. Henceforth it would be the progenitor crystal!
It played it's capstone with rare metals, the outer layers were totally corrosion proof, and shine with a golden glow. Beams of energy could be seen entering and leaving it as it performed its duties. As time passes everything changed, except the crystal.
The continents spread, driven by the currents of magma from the machine residing in the core of the world.
The asteroid posed its first real surprise since the arrival of the black hole. The golems were occupied collecting samples, and there had been a distracting burst of solar activity, occluding the ever present orbital gaze of the orbital network. Sneaking in from the Ort Cloud, it landed near the equator, vaporising the seas, the axis of the planet was altered as the core mechanism faught to correct the rotation.
Many golems were lost, machines vanished, species after species died as the atmosphere was covered in dust and plasma. The crystal was plugged into darkness as the capstone was damaged unexpectedly. Repairs would take some time. It sat in the darkness waiting. The first ship that located it reported in.
Millions of years of progress wiped out in an instant.