Prologue
Nexus briskly walked down a stark hallway carrying a holopad in his right hand. It was night, and the moon shone brightly out of the occasional windows he passed by. Through them, Nexus saw incredible amounts of flora, fauna and wildlife. From the corner of his eyes, he glimpsed dark outlines of creatures darting to and fro among the towering trees. Zebes. Nexus was still adjusting to all this influx of nature he was taking in, after living his entire life on the Homeworld, a mechanized planet where acid rain dominated 97% of the forecast and not a sparse of nature remained. Nexus forced the nostalgia out of his mind and continued his walk until he reached a particular door labeled "Head Of Recruitment Office."
Nexus knocked once and a loud buzz pierced the air from an unseen speaker, signaling the Pirate Trainer to enter. Nexus did. Upon walking in, he saw a large room filled with volumes of holobooks. Stuff on Space Pirate History, Space Pirate's Great Achievements, Functions of Space Pirate Weaponary and whatnot. In the center of the vast area was a large copper colored desk and behind the desk sat an elder pirate, wearing a simple military garb and a simple headpiece. He was intently reading a holobook and had not once looked up at the Pirate Trainer who walked into his office. Nexus stood stoically in front of the desk for what must have been a full two minutes before the elder pirate lifted his eyes. For a brief moment. Then he resumed reading his holobook. The Instructor felt a sharp spike of impatience in him.
"Is there a problem, Nexus?" asked the elder pirate, not bothering to look up.
"I believe there is, sir." The Trainer replied, relieved he was able to talk.
The elder pirate remained silent. The Trainer continued.
"I have received the recruitment list from your Office today that shows all the Pirates that are coming from the Homeworld to Zebes to be trained and placed in the main force. But," Nexus took a small pause. "there seems to be a mistake."
The elder pirate remained silent. The Trainer pressed on.
"There's one individual on the list who is far too young to train for the main force. He's not even old enough to graduate Primary School. So I think there must have been some mix up with the-"
"There was no mix up." interrupted the elder. "The list is right."
Nexus did an internal double take. Then he resumed talking with a perplexed expression.
"Sir, this Pirate, this "NB-810", is barely a boy. He is only 14 years of age (bear in mind, Readers, that Space Pirate aging and Human aging are relatively close, with Pirates having a slightly longer lifespan). Even if he passed through all the required courses, his body cannot handle the physical stress this training will put him through!"
"He will be able to live through the training. You are, with all due respect, woefully ignorant of what NB-810 is capable of. I and my fellow High Commanders had the privilege of seeing him at the Primary School back on Homeworld and let me tell you this:" the elder pirate looked up and looked straight at Nexus in the eye.
"The boy is a genius. A prodigy. The likes of which I have never seen in my 20 years as Head of Recruitment. You will train NB-810, Nexus. It is my order and High Command's. We see a bright, bright future for the youngling. So much…potential rests in this boy. So his failure to graduate will be on your head."
With an air of finality, the elder returned to his book and said no more. Nexus meekly left the office, his head full of daunting thoughts. If the list was correct and true, then this unknown NB-810 will soon become the youngest Pirate in history to be trained for the main force. Nexus is a veteran instructor. He has been training Pirates for 10 years now. 10 years of training properly aged, physically adept Pirates. So how is he supposed to put a child through the most grueling military program in the known galaxy without killing him? And the Instructor knew that the death of the kid would bring all of High Command's fury on him. Nexus went to his bunk, troubled with these prospects all night and until the morning after.
Does the Trainer know he would be teaching a child who would grow up to be one of the most charismatic and deadly warrior in the galaxy? Does he know that this child, NB-810, would abandon his name and race and become a hunter whose ideology isn't the promise of conquest, but of fortune? Does he know that this prodigy would fight the greatest Hunter of all time and, perhaps unbelievably, live to tell the tale?
Everything goes together in the end. Everything will fall into its right place.