If there was one thing Ruen appreciated above all other things, it was his crew. In the past five years they had become the family he had never had. He trusted them with his life and in his line of work; a crew held up to that regard was exceedingly rare. Bounty Hunters weren’t known to be the most reliable of characters after all. But Ruen had been lucky, had found people worthy. And truly, that was more then he could ask for. But occasionally he wished death on every single one of them. Take the current mutiny for example. What in Galaxies name did they think they were doing? Locking him out of his own damn ship. Good thing there weren’t many sentient beings around. Fearsome reputation indeed.

Ruen glared at the door. As soon as he got in, he was going to strand them all somewhere along the Libra Asteroid Belt. He closed his eyes and smiled slightly at the mental image. Teach those damn asylum escapees a lesson.

“Captain?”

Ruen opened his eyes and raised an eyebrow. Seth, one of three humans on his ship, and currently staring at his captain as if Ruen was going to bring out his gun and shoot him. Ruen actually fought the temptation to do just that.

“What, decided to face me alone?”

Seth’s eyes widened as he shook his head emphatically.

“No! I don’t even know what’s going on! I swear, Captain!”

Ruen almost laughed at the fear in Seth’s brown eyes. So Seth wasn’t part of the mutiny. That was good. He would need someone else to help him man the ship later with everyone else stranded on the Libra Belt.

“So what can I do for you then, Seth?”

“I was just curious to when we were departing.”

“Shortly. They have FIVE MINUTES.”

Ruen raised his voice at the end, even though he was positive they would just continue to ignore their captain. After all, they hadn’t opened the door to his earlier screamed curses and threats.

Ruen sighed. This was becoming very annoying. Dead. All of them. Very soon. The shrill ring of his comm. link interrupted his mental plotting. He wondered if he should answer it. Wondered if it was worth it. Ignoring the perplexed look Seth gave him, he answered it.

“Ruen Law”

“Greetings, Captain Law. I’m Lt. William Beckette of the Grey Squadron and we’ve…Captain? Are you alright?”

No, no he was not alright. Empire Authorities were calling him. On his personal (well sort of personal) comm. link. And not just any squadron but one of the Grey. The Empire ran 5 different Squadrons for different purposes. Though they each had longer names, the squadrons usually went by the color of their uniform. Blue, Red, Green, Brown, and Grey. The Grays were the ones known to be the most troublesome, at least in the mind of the Underground Society. Also known as the Ghost Squadron, they went where they wanted, got what they wanted, didn’t take no for an answer and had the ability to seemingly vanish in thin air. Them calling him was not good at all. He was one of the best in a profession that wasn’t exactly known for following the rules.

“Captain?”

“Oh, yeah. Sorry. I’m listening.”

Lt. William Beckette made a noise that Ruen wasn’t at all sure on how to interpret. “Alright, well as I was saying, We’ve a proposal for you. It’s Class A.”

This was just getting better and better. Class A meant top secret and dangerous. And Lt. William Beckette may have said this was simply a proposal but people certainly did not say no to those ruling the galaxies. Ruen also didn’t want to risk his life for an empire the didn’t exactly get agree with.

“Well, what can you tell me?”

“Undercover mission to a currently undisclosed rebel planet. There actually won’t be much undercover work for you or your team. You’d go in as yourself. This planet isn’t the most savory of places. You will however have an undercover agent go with you masquerading as one of your crew. We need to do this very carefully. The government doesn’t want to push this planet into war lest innocents get killed. We just want information.”

Ruen had to control himself to keep from snorting. Yeah right. Didn’t want innocents killed? Didn’t want a war? Just information? Bullshit. Ruen didn’t believe any of that for a second. This was the Empire and it’s minions after all. When had they ever cared before about a innocents dying? This was going to suck, he knew it already. He grimaced. The crew was not going to like this one bit.

“How long are you thinking, Lieutenant?”

“At the moment, we’re giving the span of 6 months, if not longer.”

6 months?! They wanted him to go out of commission for 6 months? That was a lot of money lost. Ok, being a successful hunter, he had enough save up. Same with his crew but still. He didn’t want to be tied down to something for 6 months.

“Credit?

“Can be discussed later. Have no fear though, you will be paid.”

Ruen hoped that didn’t mean he was going to be dragged to prison with the rest of the crew. That would just go figure. He tapped his fingers softy against the metal door, weighing all options in his head. None of it looked good. He couldn’t exactly say no. He was sure that if he said no, Ghost Squad would list him as number one for Most Wanted List. So basically his only option was yes. Go fucking figure. It might not be that bad, really.

Usually he’d discuss missions with the crew. He didn’t like going into jobs without their full support. This was a dangerous mission that’d put them out of commission for an unknown amount of time. They would also get to be themselves for the most part. That made it easy. It was understandable why the authorities came to them. Bounty hunters were pretty much accepted anywhere in the universe. Not always like or well recieved, sure, but they were accepted and their presence tolerated. If they were going to some rebel planet then it would be easy to gain access.

“Lt, do you already have some story thought up as to why my crew and I are going to be indisposed for 6 months or more or am I going to have to fabricate something?”

“We figured you could do that. And you won’t be indisposed exactly. You are more then welcome to accept jobs during this time as long as you don’t leave that particular galaxy. Actually, we’d prefer you take some jobs. Bounty Hunters are known for picking up all sorts of gossip are you not?”

Ruen made some sort of noncommittal noise, focused more upon the large issue.

So the only thing left to do was to accept. Great. This was turning from a bad day to a shitty day. Galaxies, he hated when that happened. He glanced at Seth who was watching the whole thing silently.

“Captain, your answer?”

“Lt, we accept.”

“I thought you might say that. If you could just send us your current coordinates, we’ll connect you with our agent.”

“Don’t bother with coords. We’re at the Orog-Delta Station.”

“Well that certainly makes it easier. Our agent is on Lavian. He’ll have all the information for you. We’ll have him ready as soon as your arrive.”

Ruen rolled his eyes. Of course he made their lives easy by only being a world away. Why couldn’t he have been on the other side of the universe.

“Yeah. Got it. Asap.”

He didn’t bother waiting for anything else, just ended the communication. He didn’t want to know anything else. This was bad enough as it was. His crew was going to kill him. Well, if they ever made it out of the Libra Asteroid belt he still planned on stranding them at. Still a lovely mental image.

“Captain?”

“Hmm?”

He gave himself a mental shake, knowing that he needed to be completely on top of it with this new job. He gave Seth a wicked smile before proclaiming softly.

“We’ve got a job. Let’s get brave the hooligans and get going. We need to pick up a crewmember.” He slid his hand over the touch keypad that seemed to appear out of nowhere, typed in a certain code and watched in satisfaction as the door slid open. Ruen grinned at the humans shocked face.

“Didn’t know I could do that did you?”

Seth shook his head fervently. “Definitely not.”

“This is my ship, my baby. I make sure to have special power when it comes to it.”

“So why were you waiting outside the whole time?”

“I thought they might come to their senses.”

Ruen laughed as they walked toward the main control room.

Seth rolled his eyes, “You should have known better.”

Freezing outside the door to the control room, he glanced at Seth and shrugged, “I continue to hope.” He turned back to the room just as door slid open and froze at the sight before him.

“HAPY BIRTHDAY RUEN!”