the list went on as Daniel finished reading all the things Tickles deemed worthy and while walking down said "these strange phenomenons are not that interesting, but some of this unknown stuff in this treasury is, where is this place?"
a map appeared in his mind and a redpoint was straight in the middle of a giant desert
Daniel looked at it and asked "what are its defenses?"
the map was zoomed in and soldiers, turrets, and armored tanks appeared, the maru's he had were more than enough to take care of them, but he had to finish project cloudtrain first, so he could haul back the things he wanted, 3 or 4 cargo sections would be enough and since he had already programmed for more than 7 empty sections he just had to proceed
he put aside the 'shopping' trip for the moment and went to have lunch, afterward he continued work on the shield and docking systems, while sister chaos went back to manage her territory, being so wast it took a while, and she had to make preparation to concentrate her attention on earth
luckily an answer to his previous query had been found in the form of titanium alloy and aluminum composite
so while they were having lunch, he had already sent the maru's to gather these materials, many planes were built with this sort of material, and since they were mostly abandoned, Daniel was sure the retakians won't miss them too much, they would obviously find out but just to feel a little better he stole the planes of one of the 'bad families' so who cares
and with 4 days left before Tickles ability recharged again, and 8 before his wormhole ability charged, Daniel was working on finishing project cloudtrain
while Tickles was already building the hulls, the docking system had reached the test phase, the next day Daniel started working on the energy shield
after two full days of little to no progress, Daniel thought about it and decided that the only way to make it in time was to use Tickles's ability like he previously did with the geneticist toybox, so he had him build the best version of the shield he could make a blueprint off, and went back to the docking system
after a day The docking system was finally complete, after a full round of ten thousand dockings was completed it still worked even if it needed some maintenance, and Tickles ability was almost charged, after a few hours tickles fattened up again becoming 1.030 kg and a lot of information about low-third stage energy shields entered Daniel's mind
with this new knowledge in a day, he had perfected a new and improved shield that reached the high-third stage and made a complete blueprint of the cloudtrain v1, so after building the fake locomotive, the rest was all the same, and in two days Tickles had already built the locomotive and 4 sections
Daniel who was busy with some other preparations, as soon as 5 sections were ready sent the maru's and the cloudtrain to liberate the things he wanted, while he happily ate breakfast with sister chaos
at the first light of dawn, a cold wind was still blowing through the air, moving some sand
a group of soldiers was patrolling around a big concrete wall that hid a bunker, where the 'bad families' were hidden in luxury
alas, they were standing between Daniel and the things on his shopping list, and after their heinous crimes, Daniel didn't think of them as humans and had no qualms erasing them in exchange for the items he wanted in the vault
there were several soldiers on the towers inside the wall, armed with rifles, while on the ground there were even some tanks and sandbags covers where soldiers were chatting
honestly, no one expected this place to be attacked, according to the scientist the world was about to finish anyway, so why would anyone bother
but on the horizon a weird train appeared, flying in the sky, on the sides of the train, 6 big robots were escorting it like guards, and before the soldiers could do anything, the train section separated and started flying in formation while firing around the soldier, then from one of the robots a voice came who said "flee or die"
the soldiers apparently weren't convinced because one shot was fired and every soldier followed the example
the robots had tried to warn them, but the retakian soldiers were too stupid, since the fight was inevitable the robots started firing, while the train section acted as a fighter plane making sweeps
the battle was unfair and while the soldiers were decimated, the only things that happened to the maru's were scratches on the hull, and a bump caused by a tank before it was destroyed
the retakians elites even tried to bribe the robots with slaves and gold and beg for their life, but Tickles had no feelings for anyone other than Daniel and mercilessly exterminated them
after capturing the bunker, the robots started to load everything, in the train adding some extra things Tickles deemed curious and thought that Daniel would like
there were no reinforcements for this bunker, the only witnesses were a group of 4 soldiers in a jeep that had just come back from their families that lived in the nearest city, but all that was left were debris and death, the robots and the train had already disappeared in the air and went back to the squatter lab
Daniel was happy with this booty, not only because in the middle of it there were some interesting objects of technological nature, but also because he got all the souvenirs he needed in one swoop
but since he still needed 4 days before he could use his ability, he decide to do a good old technology test like in the hazard room
sadly he only had a couple of dozens of objects here, and since this was just a post-industrial technological planet, he didn't expect much to come out
sister chaos was curious about what he was doing, so she sat beside him as a spectator, a maru was given the task of bringing out the objects one at a time, and just like before the show started
Tickles immediately entered the first object, but it wasn't anything interesting, just an old, broken computer, that wasn't native to retak, but it wasn't advanced enough either, Daniel had Tickles save the data, then threw it in the recycle pile
the maru brought out the second object, which turned out to be a spaceship outer hull chunk, sadly nothing useful just a hull piece, but daniel was curious by what type of material that was and saved it, after all, it may be useful in the future
the third object was for the recycle pile, and so were most of the other ones, till object number 16, which was a big phaser weapon, clearly too big for a person to hold, it was probably mounted on some kind of vehicle
but for some reason the retakian thought that it was a battery, still Daniel was happy, it would be a perfect addition to the maru v4, and daniel immediately decided, that this was the next thing Tickles would consume with his ability
the search continued, but all the other objects were junk, luckily some of them were made of rare materials, so after being recycled, they were stored back inside the cloudtrain which now had 3 empty sections, 2 sections that contained the fish tanks, a section and a half containing anchor sand and racer bronze, and another 2 sections had other materials and the souvenirs, plus a section that was turned in a lab, and the fake locomotive, every section had solar panels and 20 batteries, and with the new materials it came out even better than Daniel expected, he now needed a grand total of 11 sections, each one 8 mt long and 6 mt in diameter, it was already an 88mt long train so Tickles went back to work
in the previous two days daniel had made a pellet machine blueprint, what he came up with was a machine that processed and turned any meat into pellets, it was a disgusting and quite gruesome process, but the fishes wouldn't know any better, so it was good enough for a rushed job the important thing was that it worked, and since he still had 4 days to lose, he started thinking about his specimens
leaving them inside a simple tank, was not good enough, he needed somewhere that could simulate their natural environment for them to survive and be able to reproduce, and each species, needed a different environment, pressure, and temperature, the carps also needed some plants, the eels needed a dry season
he needed something, that could simulate the right environment, so he got to work on a new idea, the environmental cells, that would simulate any environment he needed for the fishes, luckily it wasn't too hard, he already knew about water filtering and temperature control, he even added a pressure system, fake vegetation, and an automated feeder
Daniel still had to work on the dry season part, but making 3 out of 4 happy seemed a good enough result for two days of work, even if he used blueprints he already had that needed just little tweaks before being put together
while Tickles built the environmental cells, the maru went to catch some toxic fishes to pelletize, when he found non-toxic food he could feed them that, but for now, there wasn't much of a choice
while he worked Daniel was spending some time with sister chaos before his departure
the days passed quickly and the cloudtrain was ready, the fishes were being transferred in their new and improved tanks, and even the mushroom boxes were brought on board, and the drop was almost charged
sister chaos also understood, that it was coming the time for Daniel to leave, and she was worried, even if he was resourceful, he wasn't strong enough to boldly explore the universe, so she said "I can take you to verulus if you want, or send a rabbit with you, the universe it's dangerous and you aren't sure that you will end up at home"
Daniel smiled and said "I appreciate the thought, but I'm fine, I can feel it, it will bring me where I want to go"
sister chaos realized she couldn't convince him and said "look how cute the rabbit is, she wants to go with you" while holding a red rabbit facing him
Daniel patted the rabbit's head and said "it's not necessary, I have faith in my ability"
sister chaos sighed and said "since I can't convince you, take this as a farewell gift," she said while giving him a strange square made of metal, then continued "I only know that it's technologIcal, but have no idea about what it does, it's better in your hands than taking dust with me"
Daniel accepted it, tickles entered, but it was beyond its abilities, another row of question marks was the only response he received, so it ended in the Train lab, then sister chaos said "until we meet again, my friend" and went to the nest she prepared in these last few days near that planet called earth where the experiment was going well, leaving Daniel shooked since they could talk literally at any time
still, Daniel was happy enough, he and sister chaos became really close friends over his period here, but the train was ready, and he had everything he wanted from this planet, so he was ready to go home
before leaving, he decided to leave an itchy and 2 maru's and ordered it to use the things he left to make a cloudtrain section to charge the batteries, and keep tabs on the situation, so that if needed, he could intervene in the jellyfilter project to help the humans here, now that the guilty were unfortunately trampled during his shopping
the other 4 maru's, crouched inside an empty section, with everything ready, Daniel looked at the cyan drop in his body, that in less than an hour should be full
he started thinking about his experience here, the food was horrible, and the technology pitiful, but at least it was safe, he hoped that the next time he went out, he would find some better technologies and adventures
the drop was soon charged, and differently from what daniel believed, it didn't activate on its own, he looked at it for a while, but nothing, why the first time it activated on his own would remain a mystery for now
Daniel chuckled and nodded, it was better if he didn't have to 'catch the train' every time, so he actively tried to activate the drop, and threw it out, once again the cyan water like energy exploded and then collapsed forming a cyan puddle, so Daniel boarded the cloudtrain, and drove it in full of confidence