*Space*1240 standard hours*
People usually believed that in space you had an instrument that kept you level with a planets horizon. The people that believed this were wrong and usually never left their planet.
Since there was no gravity in the vacuum, the instruments that, when flying above a planet, kept the belly of the ships towards the surface were useless. Therefore, dogfights, space battles and station attacks were usually staged with two different perspectives, each side thinking that the other was upside down.
Sometimes the fighter pilots saw each other's faces when maneuvering.
Another common misconception was that only Jedi and Republic enforcers ever tried attacking bounty hunters and pirates.
There was no syndicate for bounty hunters, it was a backstabbing trade, where the man you worked with a standard month ago would kill you when hired for it, without a hint of remorse.
The best two at the trade were the Mandalorian Jango Fett and the Duross Cad Bane, both of whom were constantly struggling to outdo one another, constantly getting in fights in the outer rim whenever there was a first come first served bounty.
Brick Strum, Lydia Mountdweller and David Armstrong the humans, Alema'merso the twi'lek, Niteko the togruta, Tronk the wookie, Stax Fisto the Nuetolan, Aela the zeltron and Sugi the Zabrak were one of the only three bounty hunter crews in the galaxy, and the only one with mixed species. Not only that but before they joined up they were all part of the top fifty hunters, low in the ranking, but still in it.
It was the fifty hunters in this list that received the most attention, both by the Republic enforcers and other hunters, though mostly overconfident rookies and way over their heads, ending up death before their career took off.
Space pirates were another thing altogether, this had the most-wanted list and this actually worked with crews, though it was still a very cutthroat trade, one where the life expectancy was half the usual of a civilian for any given specie.
Pirates concentrated mostly in crimes; kidnapping, ransoming, slave trading, the occasional planetary blockade when it was a fleet rather than a single spaceship. The Hutt slave ring relied on pirates for getting them merchandise. Trandoshians more often than not were the ones that formed pirate crews.
The Unknown regions and the outer rim had the highest number of pirate crews, since the influence of the core worlds, and through them the enforcers, was little.
Capital Class space ships did not have to deal with this problem, as they had enough firepower do destroy an asteroid. Space Frigates were also able to deal with the problem, especially the fastest ones, thanks to auto-turrets.
Space Brigs were less suited for that kind of thing, take the Dusk Bringer, which had one frontal canon, a belly cannon, a fin cannon and a tail cannon, while better armed than space bomber, it still needed help from fighters, which were The Dart, The Swallow, The Squid and The Hawk, when dealing with something bigger than a fighter squad.
The crew was lucky enough not to come by anything but a couple of runners on their way to Coruscant, but it was not so surprising, as halfway there they entered the Corelian Trade Spine, one of the many trade routes around the galaxy. From there one it was smooth sailing, and they arrived to the space around Coruscant just as the sun set over the part of the planet that housed the Jedi Temple/Council.
They would have to wait until standard morning to go down to the surface
*Jedi Temple*1000 standard hours*
Jedi temple was one of the three tallest buildings in Level 1; the Senate Building and the Interplanetary Trade Federation HQ were just as big.
The Dusk Bringer landed in one of the only bays the temple had, its three wings folding forwards and the landing gear opening.
"It is good to see you again brother," Jedi Knight Fisto, along with one of the elderly Masters, Qui-Gon Gin, and his padawan, was there to greet the crew as they landed.
"Likewise Kit, I just hope you won't try to force me to join you order," the older, by three years, Nuetolan smiled and hugged his younger brother.
"I wouldn't try, you always were the impulsive one," Kit looked at the head tails on his brother, "They've grown, and they look stronger," he said.
"Of course they are, Aela and I can both use pheromones for communication, and Amela, Niteko and I can use them when we don't want the Cap to know something," Stax explained.
"Not that it works every time, I'm captain for a reason, knowledge of twelve verbal languages, three bodily ones, and one based in around dancing," Brick stepped up to Stax, "But since you're the second in command I let you get away with this stuff," Stax sighed, so Brick stepped up to Qui-Gon Gin, leaving the brothers to talk.
"Strum, it has been a while," The old master said, "I see you still have the blade you crafted," the young padawan by Qui-Gon's side looked curiously at the hunter's belt.
"He has a light saber, why?" the teen asked him.
"While agreed that only a Jedi can use a light saber, or variants, to its utmost potential, Stax is a force using man, he can keep himself by being dismembered," Brick said, "And since I was one of the best swordsmen on Earth before I started chasing bounties, I have two vibroblades myself, for when I can't use either my blasters nor my wrist shooters"
"But shouldn't he be an acolyte then?" the padawan asked again.
"While he does have an above average midi-chlorian count, and he knows how to manipulate the Force," Brick explained, "Stax is a free spirit, he likes roaming the galaxy, and he would not like to be tied down anywhere, none of us would."
"Young Strum is a bounty hunter, the captain of the crew where Kit's brother works, all of them started young, a few years older than what you are now, seventeen standard, I believe," Strum nodded, "all of them are in their early twenties, but they are some of the best."
"And we will only climb higher now, until all of us are better than Jango Fett," The Zabrak of the crew cut into the conversation, "And our name will go in history."
"Ambitious, as long as you keep in mind that you may not live past fifty standard" Qui-Gon said, "Unless you allow Kaminoans to work on you."
"No, not kaminoan manipulation," Brick said adamantly, "For genetic manipulation go to Earth, for cloning to Kamino," The crew sighed and rolled their eyes, "The scientists back on my birth planet have every genome figured out, I could pull strings and give us an extra fifty years."
"Useless as it would be, we're bounty hunters, the point of our work is the thrill of the fights, living quick and dying before we start being useless," Aela said, hugging her captain from behind, "Though never looking a day past twenty five would be good."
"You keep interesting company, Strum," Qui-Gon whacked his student in the back on the head he noticed that the boy was staring at the zeltron, snapping the boy out of a trance.
"Travel a day with us and you'll not get out sane," Lydia, a brunette that stood a bit over 1.60 meters, she was Brick's cousin, they had grown up together, "We're the most peculiar crew you'll ever encounter."
"Very well, come now, Master Yoda will be waiting," Qui-Gon started to walk away, and the whole time Stax and Kit did not stop talking to each other.
*Jedi council chambers*twenty minutes later*
"This session started is, about young Stax, talk we will," Master Yoda was what humans thought Martians would be like when Mars was still habitable, "A Jedi he cannot be, but The Force he can use"
"And I don't want to stay here in Coruscant, I'm a free spirit, and I want to have a child," Stax was standing in the middle of the council, everyone else from the Dusk Bringer was sitting outside the hall, "Seriously, your creed is too restrictive."
"In place, for a reason, it is," Yoda said in a slight scolding tone, "To anger, love may lead, to hate, anger leads, and to the Dark Side, hate leads."
"Yes, but I don't hate anything, and it's not like I abuse The Force, I only use it in combat, and to save everyone's ass," Stax ran a hand through his head tails, "Look, Cap and I have reached an agreement, he has a weapon loaded with the deadliest poison that can be delivered to my species, should I ever turn against the morals we have, then he will use it."
"That still leaves us with the problem of a Force user running around unchecked," Master Ki-Adi Mudi said, half the council, even the ones that were currently holograms, nodding in agreement, "Not when we know that you are one."
"Look, if you want to keep track of me then do it, it's not like I don't want a reputation, but there is no way in Mustafar that I am staying grounded in Coruscant, not even if you pay me."
"Then a Knight to you, perhaps, we could assign"
One of the councilmen looked scandalized, "Master, you can't be serious, I agree that this bounty hunter needs to be tracked, but the last padawan that moved on to being a knight was given his title only a year ago, and all experienced ones have a padawan right now, even Watser," Let it be known that Watser was one of the middle generation of current knights, and he was not one that followed authority, so he was a assigned a padwan just like him.
"If I may make a suggestion," a green, very old looking man, member of the few botanical, self-propelled sentient species, "Why not assign a Jedi repair droid to them, that way his crew…"
"Not mine, Brick's"
"…Can benefit, rather than their reputation suffering from having a Jedi with them, if your captain signs a contract from us saying that he will not dump the repair droid to space, the droid itself serving as compensation, some credits so they can modify it if they want, and also a clause saying they accept the droid to send their location once a fortnight."
"I like that better than making one of our knights the mission to follow them, bring your Captain in," Dooku said.
Two minutes later Stax had not moved an inch, yet Brick came in. It was bloody useful having two crewmembers that knew how to speak through pheromones.
"Right, Aela said that you had something to try and sell to me," no one missed how his hands, crossed, were dangerously close to his waist.
So they explained what they wanted him to sign, and after a lot of negotiation, the only thing that the Jedi council managed was that the Captain of the Dusk Bringer would take the core of their most unruly astrodroid, which would then be used as the central stone of a droid that would both serve as a battle droid and as a protocol droid, reporting the position of the ship once a week.
They did receive, however, the assurance that if they ever needed the help of the Dusk Bringer, they would get it with a 90% discount, as long as Kit Fisto remained a Jedi, or as long as they were not hired to commit a crime that went against the morals of the crew.
It was safe to say that, while some of the Jedi Council were not totally happy with the situation, it was definitely better than having the brother of one of their most promising Jedi, a brother that could also use the force, though not to the extent that Kit could, running around and possibly spreading rumors about the Jedi order.
As long as the younger Fisto did not use the Force in simple things like moving a drink from the other side of the room to him, then none of them were concerned, because they were sure that they could keep track of the most promising crew of bounty hunters of the Modern Republic era.
