Private Silence the Machine

[Mia Monroe]

Not far outside Keldabe City where the river widened and the current slowed Mia stood waiting. She’d chosen this spot for a number of reasons, the first was there was no audience. No matter how loud the spar got they wouldn’t disturb a soul.

Secondly, the ground was compact and hard. She wanted this lesson to land quickly. Soft mats and air conditioned rooms were for green recruits, not seasoned warriors.

Thirdly, this place was important to her. It had been where her father had taught her the harder lessons, it was also where she used to come for a modicum of peace and quiet when the day to day pressure of wrangling testosterone driven idiots that wanted to go to war with every blade of grass became too much.

Even Isley Verd had had his moments.

She smiled, watching the river drift lazily past, the breeze catching the grass on the opposite bank. Mia hadn’t given Aselia Verd much to go by in her inviatation, just coordinates and an instruction to come prepared for a fight. She was intrigued to see what the woman would bring.

 

[Aselia Verd]

Aselia approached on foot, armor quiet against the breeze, her pace steady and unhurried. There was no display in her arrival, no attempt to make an impression. She had left her transport well beyond the treeline and chosen to walk the final stretch out of respect for the place and for the woman waiting.

She stopped several meters short, removed her buy'ce without ceremony, and inclined her head slightly.

There was no swagger in her stance. Her shoulders were relaxed, her weight centered but not coiled. She was prepared, yes, but she was not here to posture. The compact ground under her boots was noted and accepted. The river. The wind. The absence of witnesses.

"My father used to favor ground like this. Better analogue to battlefield conditions"

Her gaze settled on Mia fully now, respectful and attentive.

"You asked me to come prepared for a fight" she said. "Here I am."

The beskad at her back remained sheathed. She made no move to draw it. There was anticipation in her, but it was disciplined. This was about testing against someone who had already earned her place in Mandalorian memory.

TAG: Mia Monroe
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[Mia Monroe]

Mia let out a small hum at Aselia's mention of her father, her head bowing briefly, memories of another life flicking briefly behind her eyes before she straightened and turned to regard the young woman. She held herself with discipline, relaxed, but ready for whatever came her way, Mia acknowledged the quiet confidence with a nod, moving away from the rivers edge.

“I read the reports from the battle at Yaga.” she said, moving to stand opposite her. “Bold move to take on that many alone, something I can appreciate.” Mia’s sapphire gaze held Aselia’s, steady and watchful of any shift in her. “You adapt to your terrain, your strategy is faultless even against insurmountable odds.”

Mia paused, allowing the compliment to settle before she continued. “But your reliance on technology is your downfall. You are the weapon, Aselia, not your armour.”

She tilted her head, eyes shifting to sweep over her armour once before coming to rest back on her face. “So let’s fix that.”

Aselia Verd

 

[Aselia Verd]

Aselia listened without interruption.

The mention of Yaga Minor did not make her preen. It did not make her bristle. She absorbed the words the way she absorbed impact measured, controlled. When Mia spoke of boldness and terrain and adaptation, there was no false modesty in her posture. Only acknowledgment.

"Reports tend to make things sound cleaner than they are, Aselia replied evenly. "It wasn't alone. Not really." Her blue eyes held Mia's steadily when the older woman shifted the focus.

But your reliance on technology is your downfall.

There it was.

Aselia did not flinch at the critique. She did not rush to defend herself either. She let the statement breathe between them as the river moved quietly at their backs.

"You think I hide behind it" she said at last, tone thoughtful rather than defensive. Her gaze dipped briefly to her gauntlets, then back up.

"I grew up around beskar and blasterfire. Around jetpacks and targeting systems. You don't separate from that easily. It becomes instinct."

A faint edge entered her voice.

"And instinct keeps you alive."

But she did not push back harder than that. She respected the woman standing opposite her too much for empty pride.

"You're not wrong" Aselia admitted after a moment. "When the systems go dark, when the packs fail, when the cannon overheats…. What do you do then."

There was quiet steel in that.

"But I don't train without it often enough either."

She stepped forward a fraction, closing the distance between them to something more appropriate for a spar rather than a conversation.

"So what does 'fixing it' look like?" she asked, not sarcastic, not skeptical. Curios and ready.

Her shoulders rolled once, loosening, as if shedding an invisible weight.

"You want me without the armor?" she added. "Without the tools?"

A faint, almost dangerous smile touched the corner of her mouth.

"Fine."

Her stance shifted, subtle but deliberate, grounding into the compact earth beneath her boots.

"Teach me."

TAG: Mia Monroe
​

 

[Mia Monroe]

Mia didn’t interrupt, even when the edge crept into Aselia’s voice, earning little more than a twitch at the corner of her mouth, her hands folding neatly in the small of her back. Aselia had fire, that much was certain, but she was wise enough at least for now to control it.

When she stepped in Mia didn’t move, her hands stayed where they were.

“No.” she said once, firmly her eyes raking over her stance once in assessment. “You will come at me with everything you have. Tech and all.”

Mia needed to see all of it first hand, because Aselia was right, reports made things look clean and polished and to fully understand the extent of her reliance she needed to feel and see it first hand.

She also needed to break her reliance on it while she was using it.

Mia moved her hands from behind her back, lifting the buy’ce from her hip and slotting it neatly over her head, before her hands came to rest at her sides, relaxed and clearly unphased.

“When you are ready, ad’ika.”


Aselia Verd

 

[Aselia Verd]

The river moved slowly behind them, the current whispering against the banks while the wind bent the grass along the opposite shore. Aselia stood where Mia had left her, the distance between them deliberate and clean. She had expected the correction, though not quite in that form.

When Mia said no, she didn't argue.

Her blue eyes flicked briefly across Mia's stance as the older warrior studied her in return. The buy'ce came up and locked into place with the quiet, final click of beskar sealing against beskar. The moment it settled, the tone of the exercise shifted. This wasn't a lecture anymore.

Aselia exhaled slowly and rolled her shoulders once, letting the last edge of irritation bleed away. If Mia wanted everything, she would get it. There was no point holding back when the entire purpose of this was to see the weaknesses plainly.

Her gauntlets came alive first.

The soft glow of the interface flickered across her vambraces as targeting systems and movement predictors slid quietly online. A faint shift passed through her posture as the suit's systems synchronized with her HUD, the familiar rhythm of the armor settling around her like a second nervous system.

She flexed her fingers once, grounding herself.

"Here I come," she said calmly. Then she moved.

The first step was explosive, boots biting into the compact ground as she closed the distance with sudden speed. She didn't charge blindly; her approach angled slightly to Mia's left, forcing the Liberator to turn while the subtle whine of her jetpack thrusters flickered for half a second to alter her momentum.

A small burst from her wrist launcher cracked through the air, nonlethal training charges meant more to distract than injure, timed precisely to arrive just before she did. The goal wasn't to damage. It was pressure.

Aselia followed through behind it, body low and balanced as she drove forward into striking range.

Even as she moved, another system hummed to life along her shoulder mount, the micro-targeting suite beginning to map the terrain around Mia. The missiles haven't fired yet. They simply waited, calculating angles and micro-fractures in the riverbank stones and hard ground around them.

If Mia wanted everything, then everything would come.

But the core of it was still the warrior moving beneath the armor.

Aselia's gaze never left her opponent as she closed the final meters, momentum gathering through her legs and hips for the opening strike. The tech supported her, enhanced her reach and awareness, but the attack itself came from muscle memory and instinct.

TAG: Mia Monroe
​

 

[Mia Monroe]

Mia watched the roll of her shoulders, heard the soft hum of electric as systems came to life around Aselia, beneath her buy’ce Mia smiled as the clearing seemed to take a breath, silence stretching before Aselia spoke.

She burst forward with controlled speed and Mia shifted one foot sliding back as she moved into the defensive, turning as the jetpack whined to life. Her gaze flicked down to her wrist a split second before the charges launched, the fist resting at Mia’s side clenched, the force closing on the charges detonating them early, the static cracking in the air between them.

The energy shifted in Aselia’s suit, tracking along a shoulder mount, not visible to the eye but Mia could feel it. Machines may not have been present in the force but the static hum they gave off was easy enough to follow if you knew what you were looking for.

Mia’s docs shifted to the woman beneath the armour closing the distance between them. Only when she was a breath away did Mia move, catching the incoming strike and twisting, her foot sliding on the dirt as she pivoted sharply to let it and the weight behind it pass in front of her before releasing it, the sudden shift in weight aimed to imbalance Aselia.

And if that wasn’t enough?

Mia’s other hand cracked with energy, sending a surge of lightning through the shoulder mount.

Aselia Verd

 

[Aselia Verd]

Aselia felt the charges die before they ever reached their mark, the sudden disruption cracking through the air in front of her. It didn't slow her. If anything, it confirmed exactly what Mia was doing. The pivot came a fraction too late to fully stop the redirection. Mia caught the strike and turned it, using Aselia's own momentum against her. The shift threatened to pull her off balance, but Aselia didn't fight it. She let the motion carry, boots sliding through the dirt as she dropped her center of gravity instead of trying to recover upright.

Then the lightning hit it, surged through the shoulder mount, static snapping across the armor as the system flared and died in the same instant. The feedback rippled through her suit, a sharp jolt biting through the layers, but it wasn't enough to stop her systems were hardened against an electrical surge. What died simply rebooted and came back online.

Aselia completed the forced turn instead of resisting it, converting the imbalance into motion. Her free hand snapped forward, gauntlet locking onto Mia's forearm not to hold, but to feel the timing, the tension, the exact moment she shifted her weight. Then she stepped in, not back.

Her helmet dipped forward as she closed the remaining space aggressively, inside the range where Mia's leverage was strongest, where redirection became harder to manage cleanly. Her knee drove up toward Mia's midsection, not a wild strike but controlled, meant to force a reaction, to break the rhythm Mia had established.

At the same time, her other arm came around in a tight arc, not a full swing but a short, brutal elbow aimed toward Mia's jawline, using the closeness to deny space rather than create it. The suit adjusted around her, compensating for the damaged shoulder mount, rerouting power without hesitation. Her jetpack flared not to disengage, but in a short, controlled burst that shifted her weight sideways mid-exchange, attempting to throw off Mia's footing while keeping pressure constant.

TAG: Mia Monroe
​

 

[Mia Monroe]

The mechanism was slowed, not stopped. Mia logged the information and filed it away for later use. Aselia followed the momentum she’d been forced into turning back and stepping into the fight with aggression, her knee driving up for Mia’s abdomen. Mia’s arm snapped down, the blow connecting with her vambrace as her finger reached to hook along the edge of Aseila’s armour, where beskar gave way to armour weave at her knee stopping the foot from finding the ground again.

Her other hand came up to catch the incoming elbow as the jetpack flared, Mia’s grip tightened, wrapping around elbow and knee with the force as the weight shifted, Mia followed it, stepping with it, she hooked a leg around Aselia’s supporting leg, looking to sweep it out from under her, releasing her grip on the Verd only when she felt the gravity shift to drop her onto the compact earth.

There was no wasted movement, just quick decisive steps. Every movement was a test, every reaction no matter how small, noted. All of it collated to form a better picture on how Aselia fought, so she could figure the best way to hone the weapon, to erase the weaknesses.

Aselia Verd

 

[Aselia Verd]

Aselia hit the compact earth hard enough to kick dust up around her, the impact rolling through the red and black plates of her armor as Mia's sweep took her cleanly off balance. Her breath left her in a sharp exhale, but she didn't stay down. The moment her shoulder met the ground, the suit responded, servos whining low beneath the armor as she turned the fall into motion.

Her gauntlet dug into the dirt, and the powered frame took the strain, driving her weight through the roll with more force than muscle alone could have managed. The jetpack gave a short, controlled burst, not enough to launch her away, but enough to keep the momentum from dying beneath Mia's advantage. Dust scattered as Aselia came up low, one knee dragging briefly before her boot found its footing, and the armor hauled her fully upright.

The temptation to charge right back in was there, but she held it down. Mia had punished the last direct answer, and Aselia had enough experience not to repeat the same mistake. Her stance settled lower, weight centered, the suit's assistance humming quietly beneath the plates as she flexed the hand connected to the slowed mechanism once, then let it fall back into guard.

When she moved again, it was with controlled pressure rather than aggression. The servos carried her forward in a sudden burst, fast enough to close the space but checked before it became reckless. Her right shoulder angled as if she meant to crash into Mia with the full weight of armor behind it, but she cut the drive short at the last instant, planting hard enough to gouge the dirt beneath her boot.

Her left gauntlet snapped up, towards Mia's center mass, the repulsor firing in a short, controlled pulse meant to shove and disrupt rather than injure. At the same time, Aselia shifted offline, the powered frame assisting the pivot as she circled into a new position, one hand guarding the joints Mia had already exploited while the other stayed ready to strike if the opening appeared. She was keen to remind Mia that her armor was also a weapon.

TAG: Mia Monroe
Audience Tag: Adelle Bastiel Sibylla Abrantes
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[Mia Monroe]

Aselia’s refusal to stay down earned a small smile beneath Mia’s helm as she rolled back up, the jet pack bursting to life once more as she came up a short distance away on one knee. Mia didn’t chase, she let Aselia regroup and recover, her head tilting slightly as she waited for Aselia to return.

She came back in a short burst of movement, body angled for a charge before her posture shifted at the last moment and the momentum behind her movement snapped forward with a gauntleted fist to her mass.

Mia did not move to deflect, instead her feet shifted, bracing for the strike as it connected hard with her chest. The force tightened behind the armour, preventing it from collapsing under the weight of the strike, and her feet anchored heavily to the ground. For all intents and purposes, Aselia had just punched an immovable wall.

And why?

Because Mia needed to know how hard she could hit.

There was no whine of servos when Mia moved to retaliate, the speed and power that settled into place came from decades of wearing the armour like a second skin, of fighting against titans before she became one herself. The force moved with her, pulling dust up as she stepped into Aselia’s guard with a series of sharp strikes meant to force her onto the defensive, while the force wrapped around the jetpack at her back and ripped it away.

Aselia Verd