Disclaimer: I don't own the Star Wars theme that pleasure belongs to George Lucas; I only own Justin Tera and some of the other original characters and places Justin visits in his mission.

Chapter 1:

Stars flashed past the cockpit of the old YT-100 freighter named Hope's Secret. Sitting in the pilot seat of the creaky old ship was one of the Jedi, the protectors of the peace and defenders of the Republic.

He snorted in dry irony, Some peace protectors we are, the whole galaxy is at war with itself and we didn't even know the Separatists were planning to attack until Master Kenobi and his Padawan were captured by the Genosians.

The veteran Jedi at the controls was named Justin Tera. He wore his black hair long, drawn back in a ponytail; however, his once solid black hair now had streaks of gray in it, telling of his age. He wore a closely trimmed full beard and mustache that covered his face, with more gray was running through it.

At nearly forty-seven years old and still with no Padawan Learner, Justin was a bit old to be without an apprentice of his own, but he had been a slow learner in the Jedi Academy and had fallen behind the other s who joined the Order at the same time as him.

But he still reached the rank of Jedi Knight, a life-long goal for him, and if remained a Jedi Knight until he joined the Force he would be satisfied.

Around him the old bucket of rust known as the Hope's Secret groaned as she flew through hyperspace. A grim chuckle left Justin's mouth, I may join the Force sooner than I may plan, why in the name of the Force did the Council even bother giving me this wreck? I would have been better of being thrown into space in a cargo container with a small leak in it, at least then I would know when and how I would die.

A rather sharp tremor ran through the ship as it dropped out of hyperspace. A single barren planet hung in space before the freighter. With a low moan coming from within the old freighter Justin powered up the Hope's sublight engines, flying the bulky craft toward the surface of this forsaken planet, identified as Belance.

NEWN-CAPE, BELANCE

With a heavy thud Justin's ancient freighter landed near the only settlement on Belance, a plump elderly man with a long white beard, elaborate robes, and a wrinkled face walked out to the old ship.

Justin walked up to the ramp and waited for it to lower, but only a dull grinding noise greeted him and the ramp stayed up. Justin growled and stomped his foot on one corner of the ramp, the grinding sound continued, but the ramp finally descended to the dry dirt below.

Justin approached the elderly man as he waited patiently at the edge of the smooth dirt landing field, the man bowed deeply to Justin before speaking, "Greetings Master Jedi this is an unexpected honor, my name is Gerance, Mayor of Newn-Cape, what brings you to our humble settlement on Belance? We are not accustomed to having Jedi visit us, especially with this great civil war that you are fighting."

Justin returned the bowed slightly, "My name in Justin Tera, I have received information that a band of pirates and other criminals have taken up hiding somewhere on your world, they may have something that I am looking for, do you know of them?"

Gerance nodded, paling slightly, "Yes Master Justin, we at Newn-Cape know these beasts very well, they raid our outlying homes regularly, taking any food they find; they have threatened our very existence by cutting our food supplies so low that any new boom in our population would cause a famine throughout the settlement."

Justin nodded reluctantly, "Well, if you know of them do you know where they are based?"

Gerance froze, "You mean to drive them from here? Oh no Master Jedi I couldn't ask you to do that, we of Newn-Cape can handle themselves, besides there are too many for one man, even a Jedi, to defeat."

Justin shook his head, "Don't worry Mayor Gerance, just show me where these men are hiding and I promise you they will never bother you again."

Gerance visibly debated within himself what to do, he wanted to be rid of the pirates, but he was obviously afraid of the consequences of he sent Justin to them and the Jedi Knight was killed or captured.

Justin did not want to use the Force to pull to knowledge from Gerance's mind, he had never liked doing that, it felt like a misuse of the Force for personal gain he preferred to use old fashioned talking to get his information.

Finally Gerance nodded, if with a bit of reluctance, "Follow me Master Jedi, I will take you to my home and will see about getting you directions the pirates' fortress."

Justin nodded, "I appreciate your help Mayor Gerance."

The two men walked into Newn-Cape, toward the large stone building near the middle, the Mayor's home, the same home that every Mayor had lived in since the founding of Newn-Cape, according to Gerance anyways. To Justin it looked a little too new and clean compared to the rest of the town to be part of the original town, but maybe they took better care of their Mayor's house than others, so Justin remained quite about it.

When they entered the building Justin was greeted by several sparsely dressed serving girls, wearing nothing but little scraps of clothing to cover their most private areas, everything else was exposed.

Gerance shooed them away, apologizing to Justin, "Our customs are very different from that of the rest of the Republic; they require all guests into the Mayor's home to be…" he brooded for the right word, "…pleasured before going on to business, so as to give them a favorable opinion of the ruling house."

Justin merely shook his head, "I'm not here to judge your people, but I must ask, those women are not slaves correct?"

Gerance looked stricken, "No of course not Master Jedi, we follow all of the Republic's laws, those women are employed by me and their jobs are among the most highly respected it Newn-Cape."

Justin gave a shudder after Gerance turned to lead them into his office, I will have to talk to Master Windu when this mission is over, I am curious to know how these people were able to establish a settlement here legally.

Gerance shuffled through his papers on his desk and turned to face Justin, a thin leaflet of papers in his hands, "These contain all of our information on the pirates' fortress."

Justin took the papers and looked through them; they contained several maps with a few different routes to the fortress, which was in the Bronze Desert, a rough sketch of the fortress' visible defenses, and some information concerning what they guessed the fortress had previously been, before the pirates made it their fortress.

Justin nodded gratefully to Gerance, "Thank you Mayor Gerance, this will help immensely, I will leave for the fortress tomorrow."

Gerance nodded and spread his hands before him, "Your welcome Master Tera, but if I may ask, how will you get to the fortress? It is too far to walk and any ship that gets too close will be destroyed by the pirate's air defenses; we found that out the hard way, one of our few airspeeders flew too close to the fortress and got blasted out of the sky, we didn't even know what happened until the pirates dropped the wreckage in their next raid."

Justin nodded again, "Thank you for the warning Mayor Gerance, but I will manage just fine, and I am well prepared to reach the fortress."

Gerance nodded, "Of course, I should have known a Jedi would have brought all the supplies he would need to combat the forces of darkness, wherever he found them."

Justin smiled slightly, "Yes, well, if you'll excuse me Mayor Gerance, I must return to my ship and make plans for tomorrow."

Gerance nodded and bowed again, "Of course Master Tera, I wish you good luck in you mission."

With that farewell and Gerance's papers under his arm Justin left the Mayor's home and returned to the Hope's Secret for the night.

However, as Justin ascended the ancient freighter, he failed to notice several pairs of red eyes glowing as they watched him board the ship in the dark of Belance's night.

FOLLOWING MORNING, NEWN-CAPE, BELANCE

Belance's orange sun rose over Newn-Cape, casting long shadows over the Hope's Secret as her captain readied his speeder, one equally as old as the freighter, for its long journey to rescue his charges.

In the morning light Justin loaded food, water, and other various supplies he would need to reach the pirates' fortress. With the last box loaded and everything strapped down for the journey Justin walked up the Hope's ramp and entered the small maintenance room adjacent to his quarters.

Standing on the back of the room and held upright by old dusty restraints were the two battered combat droids the Republic had graced him with to use on this mission. Both droids were ancient, rusting hulks that wouldn't last ten seconds even as bodyguards in the most peaceful place, yet they were all the help he had for now.

He walked over to the first and typed in the start up sequence, with a low hum and a slow sparking sound the droid's photo receptors came to life, glowing a faint blue, "Com…Combat droid BG-105 online and awaiting orders."

With every word the BG-105 spoke its voice recorder popped and cracked as the old unit worked itself to readiness.

Justin sighed, "Stand by 105." Then he reached over and powered up the other combat droid.

This combat droid looked at Justin with pale yellow eyes, its chassis pitted and scarred from age, "Co…mbat droid…BG-215…onli…" Then with a pop and a puff of smoke the top of the droids head bounced opened and the droid itself went dead.

Justin snarled impatiently as he fiddled with the droid's circuitry until the other combat droid suddenly came back to life, "Combat droid BG-215 online and awaiting orders."

Justin stepped back and faced both of the droids, "BG-105 and BG-215 I am leaving the ship, I am ordering you two to protect the ship until I return."

Both ancient droids' processors hummed as they processed their orders then spoke with static filled voices, "Orders acknowledged, the Hope's Secret will be defended until the captain returns."

Justin nodded and walked out of the room, already unsure if these two droids would survive being active, let alone protect the freighter from anyone who would cause problems.

Just to be sure he returned to the cockpit where an astromech droid, the only up-to-date technology he had, was plugged into serve as the Hope's navigational computer.

The red and white colored droid chirped cheerfully when Justin walked in, "R2-C1 I have an assignment for you, I want you to supervise the BG Combat Droids and keep them in good shape; plus you are to screen anyone who approaches the ship, using the BGs and the ship's defenses when necessary, with discretion of course."

R2-C1 beeped and warbled an affirmative and smoothly unplugged from the freighter's navigation computer and rolled off to the maintenance room to service the two aging combat droids.

Suitably satisfied that the ship would be here when he came back Justin descended the ramp and closed it with a call beacon programmed to control the ramp only.

As the ramp clanked into place Justin climbed into the speeder, an aging class that had long ended its production, the wear of time had smudged any paint scheme that once covered the speeder, leaving only a dull gray tone of the scarred metal body.

With a cloud of black smoke the speeder's old engine came to life, shaking the poor craft and its driver roughly until it settled in its stand-by mode.

Justin paused a second to make a final check of the speeder before accelerating out of Newn-Cape and off to the north, the direction of the fortress.

THE BRONZE DESERT, BELANCE

The wind blew passed Justin's face, whipping his gray streaked ponytail behind him, while his eyes tried to blink back the dust filling the air. At least those lazy Republic technicians could have installed a windscreen, I know supplies have been tight ever since the start of the Clone Wars, but I don't think one windscreen will break the Republic's war efforts.

Justin snarled as a clod of dirt hit him in the face, giving his head a shake Justin slowed to a halt at the top of a low hill overlooking the desert before him.

Off in the distance, rising out from a low ridge of jagged mountains was a brown stone structure.

Digging into his pack Justin pulled out a pair of micro-binoculars and looked at the structure.

Tall brown stone made up the walls that surrounded the main structure, their surface pitted from years of wear and exposure to the harsh elements. Behind the walls a rough black structure filled the interior space, with several tall slender towers rising from its roof. On the tops of these towers sat the anti-air defenses that Mayor Gerance had told him about.

The rest of the fortress was worn away by time, its edges rounded or completely cracked and broken off. Justin thought he saw guards along the wall, but at the distance he couldn't be sure.

Putting the micro-binoculars away Justin looked around the surrounding desert until he found a small group of mountains where he could make camp until he was ready to infiltrate the fortress.

Backing the speeder down the hill to avoid alerting the fortress guards, Justin slowly drove to the mountains, which actually turned out to be the ruins of a large tower that used to be one of the outposts for the original owners of the fortress, according to the history that Gerance had given him.

He unloaded only what he needed for the night, so he could leave quickly if he needed to. Once he had his camp ready he explored the rest of the ruins and also checked on the fortress from his new position, which was closer to the fortress than before.

From his new vantage point he could make out a tall gate made of some type of ore and several anti-personal laser cannons mounted on the wall and in small bunkers built into the ground surrounding the gate.

Placing the micro-binoculars in their pouch on his belt Justin ran a hand through his beard, thinking about how he would get into such a place. He sat there, gazing at the distance structure, until the sun was low in the sky, casting its brilliant orange colors over the desert as the darkness of night fell.

NEWN-CAPE, BELANCE

Mayor Gerance pulled his fancy shirt over his plump form, a thin layer of sweat covering his face. Behind him his favorite girl, Melin, rose from his bed to dress now that her services were completed.

Gerance smiled greasily as his eyes caressed her beautiful body, "You need not dress Melin, and once I take care of some urgent business I will return to enjoy your services again."

Melin bowed deeply to him, her body covered in a thin layer of sweat as Gerance eyed her hungrily, "As my Master the Mayor commands."

Gerance smiled again as she climbed into his bed again, obediently awaiting his return.

Shuffling his rather large bulk out of the bedroom he made his way to his office. He hadn't lied to that Jedi Knight when he had said his girls were not slaves, they we employed by him from birth, raised to serve him and his guests; they would do anything and were much more willing lovers than any slave.

Chuckling to himself he stepped into his office and sat down behind his large expensive wood desk while another of his girls served him a drink and a rich, sweet snack.

Absently waving the girl away Gerance activated his holoprojector and typed in a special command to scramble his transmission before typing in a new frequency.

The head and shoulders of a male Twi'lek, any color or distinguishing features blurred by the old holoprojector, "I am sorry for disturbing you Jern Tolba, but I thought you would like to know; a Jedi Knight is here on Belance asking about the pirates."

Jern Tolba's blurry image shook with laughter, "A Jedi Knight? One Jedi Knight has been sent to deal with my men and me? Has this Jedi already left for the fortress?"

Gerance nodded, his second chin bobbing, "Yes he has, he left this morning in an old beat up speeder. He probably has reached the perimeter of your fortress by now."

Jern nodded, "Thank you Mayor, you are proving your worth to me and reaffirming the wisdom of placing you in charge of Newn-Cape after the previous Mayor's unfortunate accident."

Gerance bowed his head, "I am glad that you are pleased Jern, if you wish I can impound the Jedi's ship and search it for anything of value."

Jern shook his head, his fleshy lekku shaking slightly, "No Gerance, leave the Jedi's ship alone, there may be someone onboard that could warn him, blowing your cover and my element of surprise.

Gerance bowed his head again, "Of course, I will wait for you to give me my new orders before I take any actions."

Jern's holographic head nodded, "Very good Gerance, you continue to serve me well, Jern Tolba out." The holoprojector went dead, leaving Gerance to snarl at his boss.

Before Jern had so graciously given the title of Mayor of Newn-Cape he had been on track to dispose of that fool Twi'lek and become the leader of the pirate gang based in the Bronze Desert fortress. But now he was stuck keeping the population of this pitiful settlement content so they didn't ask the Republic for help with the pirates.

Gerance rose and left his office and headed for his bedroom. He opened the door and smiled as he saw Melin move toward him obediently. Still this job did have its benefits.

Author's Note: Well I hope everyone likes the rest of this chapter I'll start working on the next chapter soon. So anyway please give me you thoughts on this chapter, any and all are welcome.