Since the Petrachelys's hyper-space engine could only be used for itself, and it had no way to cover the extra space like a barge, Hao Ren could only temporarily leave the golden giant ship here, allowing autonomous robots to work on it while slowly repairing it. Anyway, it was impossible for the ship to start on its own: The data terminal had confirmed that part of the main control systems of the golden battleship had been severely damaged. Just below the control hall, part of the facility disappeared, leaving a black hole behind. It was probably destroyed by Vivian accidentally when she opened the teleportation portal.
Hao Ren let Petrachelys drop several autonomous robots and a production module on the surface of the golden giant spaceship. These autonomous robots would start trying to repair the ship and complete a full exploration of it after they left. Since there was no technical data on the rebels in the database, those autonomous robots would probably completely dismantle the damaged parts of the golden spaceship and replace them with new ones. And as they had to write compatible protocols at the same time, it would take a little more time.
Hao Ren stood on the bridge of Petrachelys and watched those autonomous robots and production modules unfold automatically. "We can go back first," he said, "after the spaceship is repaired, it will go to Crapple Research Station on its own. The data terminal should have set its host."
As soon as he had finished speaking, a blue light flashed across the bridge. The data terminal just came back from the control center of the golden giant ship. It fell on Hao Ren's shoulder, yelling, "Yes yes? Did you just mention me?"
Hao Ren pushed this noisy data terminal away from his ears and asked, "All done?"
"Oh, yup," the data terminal said while jumping triumphantly. "I rewrote the ship's host. The ship is now fully under control, except that the engine unit and the main power furnace cannot be activated. If you don't believe me, look—"
The data terminal was floating in the air, calling the shots like a remote control. The lights on the outside of the golden ship immediately responded to the data terminal. "You see, I told it to turn on the headlights and it turns on the headlights. I let it open the shield and it opens the shield. I told it to open the hatch door and it does so. I told it to..."
The glowing grid in the back of the golden battleship flickered wildly for a while, and then, suddenly, all the lights went out.
"Oh, it crashed. I forgot the engine was offline," the data terminal shook awkwardly and said, "it's easy, just restart it."
Hao Ren looked strangely at the data terminal which looked quite excited and asked, "You look like you're in a good mood. What's up?"
"You see that too?" The data terminal flipped happily in the air, said with a high pitch, "It's a spaceship! A brain-wrecked spaceship! A spaceship that can't move! I can become the host of this spaceship! With this stuff, I don't have to fight for the slot with Nolan anymore!"
Nolan was concentrating on checking her power unit. When she heard this, she looked up oddly and said, "You also know that's how you usually get that position?"
For a long while, Hao Ren remained speechless while looking at the super-excited data terminal.
The data terminal was still shouting happily, "Although this ship is technically a little old-fashioned, it is at least a battleship! It looks awesome! And the key is that I finally proved one thing, that is, as long as I'm determined, I can evolve into a battleship host…"
Watching the data terminal kept talking cheerfully to itself, Lily poked Hao Ren's arm and asked, "Landlord, is it infected with the virus?"
Hao Ren grinned and said, "Haha, nothing. It just goes crazy."
The data terminal was not finished yet. It suddenly rushed to hao Ren and said, "Oh! And I have to give this ship a name! How about Pattianne? Commemorating my first evolutionary success... You can call it Hao Ren if you like, but you have to paint me on the ship..."
Hao Ren finally had enough. He grabbed this noisy guy and stuffed it into his dimensional pocket and yelled, "This is a damn research material, you idiot!"
The voice of the data terminal continued to echo in his mind, "It's okay, the research material can also fly. I'm very practical..."
"Why such a high-tech gadget doesn't even have a power off button!" yelled Hao Ren.
After Hao Ren finally overpowered the data terminal (on the surface), Y'zaks coughed softly to attract their attention. "Ahem, so we just go back?"
Hao Ren patted his head, ignoring the ceaseless noise in his mind, looking up at the holographic projection in front of the console desk.
Those probes and UAVs had completed a rough scan of the nebula. No active target was found within the scan range. Just as Lemendusa said, after the interstellar barrier was breached, all the treacherous children and guardians had gone to the last line of defense of the Star of Creation. There was only a burning, barren battlefield left in the Solenne Galaxy.
Such a vast battlefield could, of course, hold other clues. At least they could salvage a large number of weapons and equipment from both sides of the battling parties here. Moreover, there were some small strongholds and ecological planets in other parts of the nebula that were built by the guardians (though all of those planets had been burnt). These remnants were all important. Through them, it might be possible to restore the respective civilizations of the guardians and those treacherous children.
Hao Ren nodded to Nolan and said, "Connect the UAVs fleet."
A moment later, a constantly changing face appeared on the holographic projection, which was the collective consciousness of the UAVs fleet. As the drone fleet grows, the collective consciousness grew smarter and stronger day by day. It now even went to the Imperial Data Network to collect news that it was interested in, or made short films of interesting phenomena it stumbled upon during the expansion and posted them on public channels. Occasionally, it would also have heated discussions with UAVs fleet of other universes. But anyway, as soon as Hao Ren called, it would appear immediately.
"Hello," the collective consciousness greeted Hao Ren with a flat voice, "I am waiting for the command."
Hao Ren nodded, pointing to the star map next to him and said, "Increase the detection priority of Solenne Gateway. I want you to build a UAVs nest in this place and explore the galaxy as an important relic. The key is to restore the civilization that has existed here. If you find something special, send it to the Crapple Research Station."
"I understand. Do you need to build a sentinel lab in the UAVs nest? It can improve the efficiency of research."
"You decide," Hao Ren said while scratching his head, "you grow up pretty fast. You can make your own judgments about the basic infrastructure projects."
The collective consciousness accepted the command and began to direct the carrier 'nesting' near the Solenne Gateway to the galaxy. Next, the nearby UAVs would take the Solenne Gateway as a new home. They would build a large UAV base in the depths of the oblique nebula and, as Hao Ren ordered, excavate and salvage all the man-made remnants of the galaxy.
Let's hope that there was something in the fragmented spacecraft and the burning planet that worth the effort.
Finally, Hao Ren had set up several building units and a space-time beacon on Solenne that had been turned into ruins. Although the planet was completely destroyed, it was at least a relatively stable foothold compared to other parts of the oblique nebula, and it had a slight chance to be rebuilt and rescued. So, Hao Ren decided to make Solenne a 'small station', just like he did in Tannagost.
Of course, it was impossible to expect the planet to be able to recover just like Tannagost. They probably could only build a ground station there.
After issuing the repair order for the golden giant ship, arranging a plan for the UAVs fleet to nest locally, and setting up a base on Solenne, Hao Ren finally confirmed that he had done all he could do there, and decided to return home.
But first, they had to go back to Crapple research station to put the treacherous prisoner that Lily had captured in a suitable place.
It's time to utilize the prison system in that place.