A Marauder Christmas

A Flash Fiction Story

Titan Moon was a frozen ball of ice and snow. The atmosphere was breathable, but the planet itself was a harsh place to live year-round. Max was glad she had packed her thermal suit along with her normal winter wardrobe.

She hung from a jury-rigged swing dangling behind the left thruster of a modified T-Freighter she had dubbed, The Gypsy, trying to find the tiny pieces of an asteroid that had brought them down in an emergency landing on the frozen seas of the Titan Moon.

Max volunteered to make an off-route stop in the Syntori System when she learned the Space Angels Relief Organization would not be making their annual Christmas drop on Titan, a central way-station for all incoming supplies to the system.

NovaCore had instituted a blockade sanctioned by the Federation of Galactic Governments on the edge of Free Space. The purpose? Discourage pirating along the trade routes they believed originated from the Syntori System.

The only ones diverted were the legit traders and spacers trying to enter while limiting supplies to the planets that needed them.

Max grew up in that system. She was one of the few pilots skilled enough that could and had successfully navigated an unsanctioned space route through the asteroids fields that populated the system.