Miko Smith was a renowned pilot and ringdiver. He rarely stuck with any one crew and generally enjoyed high pay for his services. A survivor of many a scarp, Miko could fly the hulking mining rigs like hummingbirds, dodging and weaving through ringoids with unparalleled grace.
Of course that skill attracted the eye of some more unscrupulous contractors. He charged extra for those. Once he lost an arm to some stray shrapnel from a mass driver round that impacted uncomfortably close to the crew habitation area. He made the captain of that ship pay for the prosthetic, a nice one too.
After that same arm, now mechanical, got sheared off a few more times he stopped splurging on fancy replacements, It became whatever could do the job reliably for cheapest. He eventually developed an affinity for certain brands, and would change up the styling with every swap.
Once, in a dive bar near the docks he frequented, some young diver of around 19 took notice. He was a scrawny thing, probably pulled into the job by necessity rather than passion.
"Why use a Marshall arm? If it were me I'd splurge on something nice, like a Proth-X"
"Proth-X? Man those things are overpriced trash. Last one I had crapped out on me when I was making thruster repairs. Tiniest little jolt of electricity," Miko made a sharp motion with his hand, "and the whole damn arm went dead. Then when I got back stationside and tried to make repairs I swear to god it used like 8 different proprietary screws so I'd have to pay for their repair services! Tossed the damn thing and got a Lum the moment I realized."
"Then why aren't you using a Lum?" The kid asked, incredulous. Some of the other patrons had tuned in by this point and, taking notice, Miko decided to give them a story.
"Lost my Lum on a salvage mission. One of the more interesting ones too. I was on contract with this one captain, can't for the life of me remember his name but he was a solid guy, when we came across some derelict. 'Course the guy wanted to make good on all the money he splurged on me so he told me I was on EVA duty that day. It was the first I'd heard of being put on EVA duty, mind you, but I have a reputation to uphold so I didn't complain. Just climbed into the suit and jaunted on over, no big deal. Now, when I got there it was all normal. I mean, no damage, fully pressurized, all the suits on the rack, lights in perfect working order, the works, like the thing just flew right off the assembly line that morning.
"Now, usually a salvage will have some sort of obvious damage so I was nervous to say the least. Still, got a reputation to worry about so I floated deeper into the derelict. Whole way, not a speck of dust and not the tiniest flicker to the lights. It was nicer than the ship I came from even! Part of me was getting excited then, I mean imagine the payout! But my gut was screaming at me to get the fuck out of dodge. Didn't take long before I got this ear piercing static through my comm unit. Never heard anything like it before or since. I could barely hear my captain through it all, but it sounded like he was talking to something and I didn't much like the nervousness in his voice. Still, no order to retreat yet so I kept making my way to the cockpit. Even as I went the static got louder and louder, but when you're in this line of work you learn to hear your name no matter what sound is in the way so I heard when the Cap told me to get out of there. He was scared too, could hear it in the way he gave the order.
"By this point I was sure my ears are about to burst so I pulled a one-eighty and flung myself back the way I came fast as I could. Just as I get to the airlock the derelict accelerates and I get flung around the place. I managed to hang onto an emergency bar so I didn't fall back into the bowels of that place but it just didn't stop burning, plus the ringing was getting louder, so I climb into the 'lock and hit the cycle. I couldn't think straight with all the noise so I pulled myself out the external door the moment it opened, even as the derelict jerked about randomly. I must've slammed into the hull four or five times before I flew right to an RCS thruster. I put my trusty Lum out in front of me and the thing caught the exhaust just as it cut out and pulled me away from the derelict. Heat slagged it, but it did its job. I was up and away where the cargo arm of my client's ship could grab me and reel me in. Guess the salvage thing didn't want any collisions so it flew away before I even got back inside.
"All told, broke 4 ribs, a leg, and slagged the Lum. I was on bedrest for awhile after that and couldn't do my job for the rest of the contract period. The cap still paid me though. Hell, he ordered me to save myself when he could've tried to have that pristine hunk of salvage for himself and even flew towards the thing while it jerked about to save my ass. You better believe I gave the guy one hell of a discount next time he hired me."
Curiously, he never lost any of his other limbs, no matter how poorly the dive went. He often joked that all his bad luck was concentrated in his left arm, and that the reason he was still alive was that it was all in something so replaceable.
Even after he retired, a comfortably rich man, he still lost it another 3 or 4 times.