A moment later, the ramp screeches as it’s forced open. My heart races. Having a plan in mind makes me feel better, but it’s not going to make this first part of the fight any easier. I have to hope that the rest of my family will handle their own while I do my part to help them. We’ve never lost anyone in a scrape with the Red Baron’s crew, but it’s not from a lack of trying on their part, and we’ve had some close calls. Both twins have a number of nasty scars from the pirates, and Corvus was nearly killed in one particularly brutal fight about five years ago. The only reason he lived is that Captain Murdock dragged him over, beaten and bloodied, and gave him back to Momma as a “gift” for surrendering. Part of me thinks they keep us alive for their own entertainment. The pirates wouldn’t know what to do with themselves if they couldn’t fuck with us.

“Good luck,” I tell the twins. Pol grins at me, while Drom rolls her eyes, focused on the ramp as it gradually creaks open.

“Scorpia, move your stupid ass out of the way,” Momma shouts at me from the rows of cargo, the barrel of her pulse rifle aimed at the door. I cast one dour look back at her before jogging across the cargo bay to join up with Lyre again.

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” she says, but pockets the goggles I hand her nonetheless.

My response is swallowed by the metal-on-metal screech of the cargo ramp ripping fully open, leaving the belly of Fortuna exposed to the Red Baron and its occupants.

The Red Baron’s crew is a bunch of strays from all over the system—much like ours, but bound together by greed rather than blood. My family might be smugglers, but the Red Baron crew can’t even keep their smuggling half-honest. Instead, they’re pirates, stealing from other ships like ours. Especially ours, since their captain, Aldrin Murdock, has a long-held grudge match with Momma.

Momma’s tight-lipped about what exactly went on between them, but I’ve pieced together that she learned the tricks of the trade on the Red Baron when she was younger, and that she ended up stranded on Titan of all places when they parted ways. Momma must have done something to pay Murdock back for abandoning her, because now he hunts us down whenever he can. We’ve had our asses kicked and our cargo stolen more than a few times over the years.

So at times like these, I thank the stars for the twins.