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The charm bag hanging above Zeroes and Threes’ dashboard swung as they were hit, rocking wildly. Their passengers were yelling, but they only listened for long enough to know that they didn’t have anything Zeroes needed to know before tuning them back out again. They ran diagnostics rapidly, letting the computer do its job as they dodged more Seppie flak.
The computer beeped and Zeroes glanced at the readout, still focused on getting them out of there without taking any more hits.
They mumbled a curse under their breath and Threes laughed, a breathless cackle.
“That good, huh?”
“Worse.” If they weren’t evacuating, Zeroes would be putting them back on the dirt to get repairs, but they could probably make it to the Negotiator. Probably. Zeroes contacted radio control and began to give a report of their condition.
“Oh that really isn’t good.” Threes huffed another chuckle as Zeroes signed off, and fired another burst of laser-fire at the trailing clankers.
When they landed in the nearest hanger, it was a barely controlled slide towards the far wall, where an arresting net had been set up.
They came to a stop against the net with a crunch and the charm bag snapped from its hook, dropping on to the dashboard.
“I’ll bet that took all the luck we had left in that.” Threes said as Zeroes scooped it up, tucking it into a belt pocket as they moved to help evacuate their lartie. It wouldn’t do to have everyone explode once they landed.
When they were finally outside of the ship, they could see where the damage had been done, a gently smoking area towards the rear, the metal still glowing red hot despite the extinguisher droid hard at work trying to put the fire out. The air was filled with the chemical smell of the extinguisher foam, mixing with the acrid smoke.
When the damage was finally revealed, Threes whistled appreciatively.
“What is it?” One of the troopers they had been transporting asked from the group that was still hovering nearby.
“You better thank your lucky stars tonight vode.” Threes said. “Because the only reason she was still flying was luck and Zeroes’ sheer force of will.”
Zeroes elbowed him gently in the side as the troopers started to come over to thank them for the fact that they got home alive before straggling off, hopefully towards food and rest.
Zeroes hung the new charm bag above their dashboard, Threes humming softly to himself in the rear. It was a new colour, the pink fabric that Niner had had stashed away wrapped around flimsi prayers and embroidered in green with further good wishes from their squad. Zeroes had loved the colours of the last one, bright blue with purple letters embroidered onto it, but this one was also good colours. Still the colours weren’t the important part. The love of their vode was.