Lucky Charm | Stargate

Taking a steadying breath, Evan Lorne ran a hand over the call-sign painted onto the nose of his F-302. While he'd flown the craft more than a few times now, this would be its first time in combat. And, from the rumors floating around the Prometheus' hangar bay, it was quite a fight they were gearing up for.

Not that he had any doubts in the ship itself. He'd put in plenty of hours in the cockpit since getting assigned to this duty. There was something otherworldly (literally, from what the engineering team had told him) about how it handled. It was a feeling like no other.

Ever since the first test flight of the X-301, Evan had been eagerly awaiting his chance to try out one of the experimental new crafts. Finding out he'd been among the test pilots selected to try out its successor had been a dream come true. As had been the announcement that he would be joining the first group of official F-302 pilots. More groups were trained after that, and now they had a fairly decent amount of flight teams manning their own half-spaceship fighters. It was amazing to think they even had the technology to create genuine spaceships -- the Stargate had certainly redefined the word "normal" for all of them.

"You two need a moment alone?" a familiar voice teased from behind him.

Evan grinned over his shoulder at Mitchell. "Wow. They really must be desperate if they gave you F-302 certification."

"Worse than that; I'm leading one of the flight teams," Cam said, giving him a quick bro-hug in greeting.

"I don't suppose you've ever fought one of these motherships before?" Evan asked. While he'd never actually been onboard a Goa'uld mothership himself, his time with SG-8 had allowed him a few close encounters with the vessels. Close enough to know they would need a lot of skill and luck on their side during this battle. "They're saying Anubis's ship isn't exactly an easy target."

"That's putting it mildly," Cam agreed. "But, actually, we've had a change of plans. Colonel Pendergast wants us to meet with him in ten minutes and then brief our flight teams."

"New orders?"

"Yeah, SG-1 is headed to Antarctica and we're gonna back them up."

Evan shook his head, no longer surprised at how quickly things tend to go off plan at Stargate Command. "Any idea why they're down there?"

Cam shrugged as he turned towards his own F-302. "Nothing official has come down the pipeline yet, but I heard something about the lost city of Atlantis."

"Of course," Evan remarked dryly. Sometimes he genuinely wondered how any of them kept sane with the craziness of the Stargate program in their lives.

He glanced over and saw Cam holding up what looked to be a thin metal chain with a tiny medallion on it. The colonel kissed the object before hanging it on his ship's dashboard.

"Good luck charm?" he asked, curiosity getting the better of him.

Cam smiled and took it back down, holding it out for Evan to see. "Saint Joseph Cupertino," he said. "Patron saint of pilots."

"Didn't know you were religious."

"My grandma was," Cam explained, returning the medal to its place on his dashboard. "She gave this to me when I first enlisted. Said if I took it up with me every time, it'd make sure I got back down in one piece."

"Guess we'll be putting that to the test today," Evan commented. He called over as he began climbing up to his own cockpit, "Think it will help me, too, if you fly close enough to my ship?"

"Make fun all you want, but it hasn't failed me yet," Cam said with a laugh. "What, are you saying you don't have a lucky piece of your own?"

Evan smiled as he settled into the pilot seat. He ran his hand briefly over the photo of his sister and nephews taped up beside the controls. "I didn't say that," he admitted. He began to go through the safety check protocols, glancing over at Cam who was doing the same. "I'll see you in Pendergast's office then. And, hey, stay safe out there."

"Yeah, same to you."

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