I sat back in the pilot seat, now scrubbed clean of dust, cables rerouted, panels lit with a soft amber glow. The smell of old steel and reactivated systems hung in the air. My fingers hovered over the console, now familiar, like the keys of a long-forgotten instrument.
"MeLLo," I said.
"Initiate full system diagnostics. I want to test everything... shields, engine, ram, life support, maneuvering thrusters. Priority on internal safety."
"Confirmed," MeLLo replied.
"Beginning staged startup. Stand by."
A slow pulse began under the deck. Like a heartbeat. My ship’s heartbeat.
Panels shifted along the inner hull. A transparent shimmer radiated across the cockpit view. The ship was suddenly silent, no ambient wind, no external noise. A perfect bubble.
"Energy shield active," MeLLo reported.
"Full coverage. Thermal diffusion nominal. Impact resistance… considerable."
I tapped the console. A display showed it could hold against a small kinetic strike for nearly six seconds. That was unheard of in this class size.
"Activate the forward ram."
The nose of the ship split slightly, and the drill assembly extended... four reinforced hydraulic arms locking it forward. The core spun once, whining low, before stopping.
"Torque integrity at 92%," HaPPi said brightly.
"We’ll need more lube, but she drills just fine!"
No weapon systems. Just a drill. A blunt message.
"Main engine test. Thrust level: minimal."
The rear of the ship shook as the main engine engaged. Stabilizers kicked in. Dust scattered behind us in the hangar, but we didn’t budge... anchored by landing clamps.
"Engines running smooth," MeLLo said.
"Ion compression pattern stable. Estimated thrust-to-mass ratio exceeds baseline."
I watched as fresh air cycled through the vents. Filters kicked in. The lights adjusted to human preference. The bed even warmed slightly.
It felt like… home.
"Life support active. Cabin pressure optimal. Oxygen scrubbers stable," HaPPi chirped.
"Let’s try a shimmy," I muttered, gripping the control stick.
I eased it left... there was a soft hiss, and the ship shifted gently. Right. Forward. Back. Smooth as silk.
"Maneuvering thrusters functioning at 100%," MeLLo reported.
"Reaction time: 0.7 seconds. Excellent for low-G handling."
I leaned back, exhaling hard. Everything worked.
It wasn’t a pretty ship. It didn’t look like a legend. But it moved like one. Felt like one.
"This thing’s not just built to survive," I whispered. "It’s built to win."
HaPPi chirped in delight. "Ready for the action, Captain?"
I stared out past the shield, toward the burnt-orange sky above.
"Almost," I said.
"But first… let’s get some tools probably needed in space."
All I needed was a decent torque stabilizer and some fusion connectors. Maybe a hydraulic wrist if we were lucky. More hands, I’d told myself. We needed more hands.
The scrapyard outside the station stretched like a frozen wave... ships cracked in half, towers of alloy bones stacked to the sky, time-scarred droids forgotten in the dust.
MeLLo guided me to a derelict service hangar built into the rock wall. It looked untouched, sealed behind emergency locks, maybe since the Collapse.
It took me three hours to bypass the doors without triggering internal failsafes. Inside, it was quiet.
A row of decomposing maidroids sat docked along the wall, power long gone. Most were fried. Outdated shells. But in the far bay, two remained intact.
It Covered in dust, yet undamaged. Their chassis shimmered faintly under my flashlight.
"HaPPi, MeLLo… you might want to see this." Their holograms flickered into life on my wrist display.
"What are we looking at, Master?" HaPPi chirped, tilting her projection.
MeLLo responded before I could. "Core frames. Advanced type. Gen-IV maidroid combat model, dual-core processor, skeletal reinforcement. This… is not junk."
"Let’s get them online."
I spent the rest of the day patching in external power. Rerouting old processors. Rebooting dormant systems. And then, I opened the AI housing bays. Each unit had a cradle waiting for an AI core.
Although, for some reason i hesitated. "You sure about this?" I asked aloud. "No turning back after this."
HaPPi was already squealing."Oh! Oh! I want the white-pinkish one! Please please please!"
The unit she referred to had soft, matte-white plating, a sleek combat frame, long pastel-pinkish white hair, and digitized yellow eyes flickering faintly behind closed lids. Agile, lean. Expressive. It looked like her, but just physically real.
"I'll take the black hair one," MeLLo said flatly.
"Sleek, simple, practical."
Her choice was similar in build... same efficient frame, but coated in dark graphite alloy, long black hair, piercing soft-blue eye diodes still dormant. Cool. Stoic. Sharp-edged.
The Sisters.
I installed their cores and backed away. Both bodies shuddered once. Fingers twitched. Eyelids opened.
Two voices, now not from the speakers... but from the units themselves.
"Woooahhh! Master!! I have arms!!" HaPPi shouted, doing a spinning somersault on reflex and accidentally crashing into a wall. "Oww! That was AWESOME!"
MeLLo stood upright immediately, checking limb articulation. "Calibrated. Body response: optimal. I can work with this."
The two turned to look at each other. There was a long pause. Then HaPPi hugged her. "Sis!"
"I am aware," MeLLo muttered, not resisting.
"You are impossible. But… functional."
I smiled, letting the moment happen. With them mobile, everything changed. We weren’t just a man and two floating AIs anymore.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
We were a crew now. With real hands. Real steps. Real presence.
"You two ready to help me prep for departure?" I asked.
MeLLo nodded. "We’ll need to reinforce the landing clamps, recheck the reactor pressure, and calibrate gyroscopes before any vertical thrust."
HaPPi beamed. "I’ll sweep the cargo hold! Also, I want to decorate my pod. Can I have stickers?!"
I exhaled, grinning. "Let’s get to work."
We were running out of daylight, but none of us cared anymore.
The ship, our ship was purring like a sleeping cat now. MeLLo was in the engine room checking stabilization coils while HaPPi helped me rebolt the starboard clamp.
I never thought I'd say this, but having two fully mobile combat-grade droids made everything about this bizarre survival... better.
No more yelling across static to a floating orb. No more slapping panels alone.
Just us. A strange little team. Then they left.
No warning. One minute they were arguing over coolant efficiency, the next they were just... gone. No ping on the wrist console, no sensor trail.
I felt it again. That cold slip of unease. Don’t panic. They’re your crew now. They know what they’re doing. I kept working.
Three hours later, I was tightening the fuel lines when I heard footsteps approaching. Not metallic steps.
Boots.
I looked up.
My jaw actually dropped.
There they were... HaPPi and MeLLo. Still unmistakably them, but different. Skinned. Covered in synthetic flesh that mimicked human features almost perfectly.
Their eyes still glowed with those telltale neon hues... yellow for HaPPi, soft blue for MeLLo, but the rest...
"Ta-da!!" HaPPi spun around dramatically.
"Do we look COOL now or what?!"
She had shoulder-length pastel-pinkish white hair, loosely to the side. Skin pale, like porcelain, smooth with a faint blush tone.
A narrow frame, but athletic. And she wore a snug black jacket over a patched utility shirt and cargo pants, salvaged from somewhere, probably from the same locker as the jackets.
MeLLo stepped forward beside her. Taller. Black hair straight. Pale but with sharper features. Her expression stayed neutral, even if her eyes studied me like a scanner. Same jacket, fitted perfectly.
"You found skin-mod overlays," I said, still blinking.
"Correct," MeLLo replied.
"Medical-grade synthetics. Still viable. Installed with full joint mapping and humidity sensors. HaPPi insisted we personalize."
"...And the jackets?", i asked.
"Style upgrade!" HaPPi said proudly, tugging hers by the collar.
"We found a locker room in the northwest ruin. Two jackets. Fit like destiny!"
MeLLo nodded. "They fit our chassis. Coincidence. But beneficial. I no longer appear... threatening. As much."
I rubbed my face with a groan and smiled under my palm. "You two—", I paused, then chuckled. "You’re terrifying.”
"Thank you!", they said in unison. One cheerful. One deadpan.
I leaned back against the fuel hatch, watching them settle beside me. HaPPi perched cross-legged on a crate. MeLLo simply stood, arms folded.
"So what now?" HaPPi asked, swaying slightly.
"We’ve got the body, the brains, the jackets. Do we just… fly off into the stars?'
"Not yet," I said, glancing at the ship.
"One final check. Then we break orbit."
I could feel it. The weight of it. We were close. No alarms. No enemies. Just the quiet push of preparation. The world outside was still... expectant.
We’d slept in the dirt. We’d rebuilt a forgotten weapon. And now, we had a crew.
I stood.
"Tomorrow," i said, tightening the final bolt,
"we leave the ground."
A day passed.
I stood at the foot of the boarding ramp, watching the twin moons rise. The sky was dimming fast, the stars beginning to bleed through the burnt orange clouds above. HaPPi and MeLLo stood beside me, both in their new skin, black jackets fluttering faintly in the breeze.
I broke the silence with a smirk.
"At least with you two looking like that, we can docked at a civilized planet and stroll through cities without causing a panic."
HaPPi grinned. "Oh, we’re totally gonna blend in. Maybe I can get street snacks! Ooh, can we go shopping—?"
MeLLo interrupted. "...and not draw attention. That’s the point."
Their dynamic hadn’t changed. Just evolved.
We boarded. The ramp hissed shut behind us. Inside, everything was humming, quietly alive. Lights glowed low amber. The bed was secured. Cargo latched. Fuel tanks full.
I slid into the pilot seat and exhaled.
"Final checks," I called out.
"Landing clamps disengaged," MeLLo replied from the co-pilot panel.
"Stabilizers steady. Gravity anchors green," HaPPi chimed in.
I flipped the overhead switches. A soft rumble built in the deck plating.
The ship shook once. Then again. A gentle upward nudge.
The junkyard below began to shrink, scattered parts and rusted towers fading beneath us. No dramatic explosions. No enemy fighters. Just… lift.
The sky changed color as we rose. Orange to purple. Then deep navy. The horizon bent. My fingers tightened on the controls.
I caught a glimpse of HaPPi’s face reflected in the glass, eyes wide, hands clutched to the armrest like a child on a theme ride.
And MeLLo... stoic, but her eyes never blinked.
We broke the atmosphere.
The stars burst forward.
Alarms flickered off, one by one. Pressure normalized. The hull stabilized with a solid thunk. Everything settled.
I leaned back in the chair.
Weightless. Quiet.
"We’re in orbit," I whispered. Then louder, "We did it."
MeLLo nodded. "Trajectory stable. No atmospheric drag. Main engine ready for full burn."
HaPPi clapped her hands. "We’re FLYING! Like, really flying! In SPACE!"
I couldn't help it but grinning widely. A part of me still thought I’d wake up in my gaming chair with an empty Vanta can in my hand.
But this wasn’t a game.
This was real.
Our ship, triangular, hard-edged, scarred but fast... drifted into the stars. And for the first time in my life, I wasn’t running from something.
I was heading toward something.
Suddenly, the smooth hum of the engine was interrupted by a sharp, low bzzzzt from the control panel.
My fingers froze above the throttle. A red warning flashed on the screen... bright, urgent.
I blinked, staring at the blinking message as the AI systems whirred to life.
"MeLLo," I said, trying to stay calm. "What is that? Who’s locking weapons on us?"
"Scanning... " MeLLo’s voice was grim. A moment passed, then.
"Two ships, Captain. Corvette class. Pirate markings. They’re closing fast. They have locked targeting systems. We need to take action."
I ran my hand across my face. Pirate ships. Great. But then I remembered. There was no canon. No lasers, no missile bays. Just that drill at the front of the ship. I forgot that this ship made by that Vanta addict, he coded this during sandbox gameplay. We we're just roleplaying and he suddenly came with this mountain killer ship.
"Let's see what it can do, HaPPi," I called, leaning forward.
"Initiate combat maneuver. We’re going to use the ram."
Her voice was electric, a mix of excitement and pure energy. "Got it! This’ll be so fun!!"
The two pirate ships were closing in fast. I could see them now on the outer monitor... angular, rusted ships, all jagged edges and heavy plating, an unmistakable sign of makeshift pirate tech.
"Locking in the trajectory," MeLLo said, voice clipped. "Calculating speed…"
I clenched my fists around the controls. "You two ready?"
HaPPi giggled. "Always!"
"Executing now," MeLLo said, voice steady despite the urgency.
I slammed the throttle forward.
The ship lurched forward, faster than I expected. The corvette ships hadn’t anticipated that level of thrust. We weren’t just moving, we were charging.
I watched the pirates' ships approach, getting closer... closer... then...
BOOM.
The impact hit like a thunderclap.
I barely had time to react as the ship’s drill-ram hit one of the pirates head-on, its reinforced nose slicing through metal and bulkhead like paper.
I felt the vibrations run through the hull, almost as if the ship itself was enjoying it. The pirate ship crumpled. Sparks flew from the control panels as systems failed.
I didn’t even slow down. The ship kept ramming forward, hitting the second pirate ship with a sickening crunch. I could hear HaPPi squealing in excitement through the comms.
"Did you see that?!" she shouted, barely able to contain her joy. "It was like a monster truck in space!"
I didn’t have time to laugh.
The second pirate ship disintegrated on impact, the drill tearing through its core with devastating force. There was no explosion, no fireball. The pirates didn’t get the chance to retaliate.
The ships were gone... broken apart, scattered debris in the vacuum. Just us now. My hands were still gripping the controls, adrenaline pumping in my veins.
I let out a shaky breath. "That… was... unexpected," I muttered to myself.
"Pirates neutralized," MeLLo said, her voice almost indifferent. "No further threats detected."
I couldn’t help but let out a low laugh. "Yeah, I didn’t think it was that effective."
HaPPi chimed in, still bouncing with energy. “It was perfect, Captain! You just… obliterated them!”
I glanced at the sensor readouts. The ship’s hull was intact. No breaches. The drill was still functional.
I looked at the two AI figures standing behind me, or more accurately, their physical forms now.
"This ship was never supposed to exist," I muttered.
"It was supposed to be a cheat… a code Marcus made when he was high."
But neither of them heard me. They were still too busy celebrating the destruction of two pirates in space.
But they didn’t need to know. Not now. Not ever.
The ship's engine purred again. The stars stretched out before us. And despite everything, despite the fact this ship shouldn’t have been real, it had done exactly what I needed.
The silence after combat was almost more deafening than the battle itself.
I sat there, staring at the blinking icons where two pirate ships used to be. Now, just scattered metal and cooling fragments floated outside the viewport, shattered hull plating, burnt circuitry, loose cargo tumbling in slow, lazy arcs.
I flicked a switch. "Deploying looter drones," I said aloud.
Two hatches beneath the hull hissed open. From within, a pair of spherical scavenger drones detached and zipped silently into the void, their arms already extended and scanning.
MeLLo approached the console, her expression unreadable. "Good decision. Some of that wreckage may contain shield capacitors, propulsion couplings, or power cores. At worst... credits."
"...Or parts for sale," I added.
"We’re gonna need fuel, docking fees… and food, if we want something other than emergency paste."
HaPPi clapped. "Shopping trip!"
The drones danced across the debris field, tiny beacons marking salvageable material. I couldn’t help but admire the system. It was efficient. Fast. Too fast, maybe. This ship… it was built for this.
Built to destroy. Built to collect.
Within twenty minutes, the first drone returned with a collapsed but intact capacitor grid. MeLLo was already pulling diagnostics.
"This could stabilize our left auxiliary channel," she muttered.
"Less load on the primary shield conduit."
The second drone zipped in behind it, carrying crates, small, sealed, and scorched on one side. One had a corporate emblem from the Syndicate of Drava. Smugglers.
"Credits?" I asked.
"Unlikely," MeLLo said.
"But possible rare minerals. Worth opening later."
The cargo bay started filling with scraps, armored panels, coolant mesh, and some twisted but repairable thruster fins. I sorted through them with my gloves on, stacking what looked usable and marking the rest for resale.
HaPPi hovered beside one of the crates and poked it.
"I call dibs if there’s anything pink inside."
"HaPPi," MeLLo said dryly,
"your obsession with color is inefficient."
"Your obsession with efficiency is boring."
I grinned at them. This is good. This is working.
By the time the looter drones finished their sweep, we had a half-ton of salvage in the rear cargo hold and a nav system full of cataloged parts.
I stood at the back of the cargo bay, arms crossed, feeling... accomplished.
"This’ll keep us flying," I said.
"Maybe even cover some dock fees if we find the right market."
MeLLo nodded. "We should sort it by condition and value tiers before reaching port. Most border stations still barter."
"Already prepped a list!" HaPPi said, holding up a glowing holotab.
"Ooh!!....and maybe we can trade for synthetic food instead of paste! I heard real strawberries still exist somewhere!"
I smiled.
The debris field behind us was thinning, silent, stripped, and empty. The pirates were gone, and from their failure, we’d carved out a little more time. A little more freedom.
And maybe... a little profit.
I turned back toward the cockpit.
"Alright," I said. "Set a course."
We had what we needed. Now it was time to move.