Why Must We Fight?

[Jamie Pyne]

For Aela the Force was just something that was a part of her being. That made sense, she'd lived her entire life with it being an integral part of her being. For Jamie, this had been a life changing event. It was as if she were blind and seeing for the first time. It was like learning how to walk all over again. There was no real way to easily convey what it was like for her to be simply thrown into this like she had been, with almost nobody to turn to for answers. Jamie had been blind to the Force, and now suddenly she was lifting objects with the mere thought of it, holding a lightsaber, and being taken on classified missions for an alliance she barely knew much of.

"That would make sense I suppose."

There was curiosity in her mind as to just how powerful Aela's father was, in comparison.

"I don't know if I really have any natural talents when it comes to this stuff. I might have missed the speeder on that."

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

“Everyone.” Aela began. “Has a talent in the force. It might not be readily apparent, but even those that are objectively ‘weak’ in the force have some sort of specific talent, even if it’s something that you wouldn’t expect.”

That was a lesson that her father had taught her.

Once, Soliael had been the leader of an entire government. In that position he had trained dozens of force users named The Crusaders. None of them had been particularly powerful or strong, but all of them had become great warriors and defenders. Aela was sure that she could train Jamie in the same way.

The Jedi Marshall moved halfway around the cargo bay and placed herself a little away from the back wall. “For now, we’ll focus on teaching you to use the force to enhance your other natural talents. You said you did fencing? Lightsaber fighting isn’t too different, so we’ll start there.”

They would branch out in time, but starting with the easy stuff would be best.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Jamie wasn't entirely sure whether or not Aela truly believed that, or if she was simply trying to give the girl a bit of confidence that she would eventually find something that she was good with. Thus far the only exercises in the Force she'd experienced, short of the bare basics were terrifying experiences that prompted an equally terrifying reaction through the Force.

The blonde shrugged, maybe she was right. Maybe she was really great at something she didn't even know was possible yet. After all, there had been so many things she'd been exposed to recently, things she hadn't imagined were even feasible to do with the Force. There was certain to be hundreds, if not thousands more things she would discover in the future.

"Yes." She withheld her ability at the sport, the full assumption being that regardless of how good she had been back home, Aela was likely light years better than her with a lightsaber. Faster and more precise in probably every way. "Okay."

Jamie took her own weapon and twisted the knob back even further than typical. If she even managed a hit, Aela wouldn't be injured.

The blonde drew in a breath, closing her eyes for a moment -- A practice she'd gotten into before any match. Her body shifted to the side, making her body less of a target. Her right hand extended, the saber in perfect parallel, her left hand against her hip. A gentle press on the activator and the yellow blade tore through the air to full length. "Ready."

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

She didn’t move, she didn’t even ignite her lightsaber.

“Ok.” Aela said with a small wave of her hand. “Attack me.”

The only indication that she gave Jamie was a small smile. This was much the same method that her Uncle had used to train her. Cameron had never been the kindest during practice, more harsh then anything else, and he’d constantly coaxed and tempted Aela into foolish attacks with goading words.

Aela couldn’t quite do the same, but she could still test her apprentice. “Fastest and best you can manage.”

Her lightsaber remained off, but the smile stayed on her face. There was no mistaking that she was being completely serious however, her stance marking her very clearly ready for combat.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

There was little expectation of actually hitting Aela. Presumably the reason that her saber was kept off was that same knowledge. If Aela hadn't been a Jedi, hadn't had the benefit of using the Force, things would have been much different, and Jamie would have likely scoffed at the girl for not raising her guard. Unfortunately she knew from past experience that she was unlikely to make it inside the other girl's guard.

But she asked, so Jamie would oblige.

For a moment the blonde studied the other girl's positioning, placement, and body. There were only so many ways a typical person could move, and Jamie had to calculate those rather than guess just how strong in the Force Aela was. She had no way to gauge that.

On the exhale of a deep breath she moved to close the bit of distance between them, taking small, calculated steps before thrusting her weapon forward towards Aela's left shoulder, dragging the blade diagonally down and to the right where her hip would be. It was a rather standard maneuver, but what mattered was how Aela would react to it. Most would back away, but there was also a chance that they would parry the strike. In either case Jamie would twist the weapon into a circle, be it to shift away from the parry and jab forward again.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Aela did neither. Moving back or parrying the blow would have been what most expected, but Aela was fast and smart enough to do something else. When Jamie stepped towards her and thrust the weapon at her shoulder Aela instinctively bent back.

She half ducked and half swung herself down and below the lightsaber, then in the blink of an eye transitioned herself into a crouch.

The action was fast, faster then most would have expected, and before Jamie could move to lunge at her again Aela quickly swept her leg out and towards Jamie’s own. At the same time her lightsaber swooped up and sprang to life, batting Jamie’s lightsaber away from herself and seeking to bring off the girls momentum.

Quick, efficent.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Jamie had quick, relatively small feet. As part of training back home agility with the lower body was key to moving in and out of strike zones efficiently and precisely. While there wasn't as much focus on protecting from being tripped, as the rules of engagement didn't allow that during active and legal matches, during practice most all bets were off, and quite often one would try to trip the other. So while she was relatively adept at avoiding being tripped herself, it was also not in her own repertoire to trip others. Her right foot quickly shifted and adjusted over Aela's leg, and as she much assumed, the other girl activated her own lightsaber to parry away Jamie's. Rather than attempt to correct and strike again Jamie quickly took two steps back and out of Aela's immediate arm length. Close up fighting wasn't something she was good at. Too many ways for things to get mucked up. Quickly in and out.

With her weapon now drawn she had to be a bit more careful. She hadn't been burned by a saber yet, so there was a bit of fear as to how bad it might hurt, but she'd been punched in the face a few times, and had her fair share of cuts and gashes so it wasn't as if she was a stranger to pain. Jamie would just rather...avoid it.

A small flourish of the blade to loosen her nerves and refocus and Jamie moved towards Aela once more, this time her weapon tilted low towards the floor. Only after she cleared the distance Jamie's body extended rather quickly, her front leg, the right, bending low, the left, behind her, extending outwards as far as she could stretch before her wrist flicked the blade upwards, where instead of aiming to cut towards Aela's thigh or knee, it would quickly dive upwards towards her sternum.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Aela didn't move to counter the blade, instead she simply swept herself to the side.

Jamie's lightsaber went stabbing through empty air, Aela gliding alongside the weapon for half a step, taking two more backwards to avoid having to deal with the heated blade. At the same time her free hand came up a small tug pulling at the other's womans leg to yank her forward and off-balance.

That was something that Cameron had always been big on, not fighting fair. He had always told her that while the Jedi stressed fighting within the forms and using the force to augment themselves, Sith focused more on winning. They didn't care about how, they just cared that they did. It was something drilled into her over and over again. There was no such thing as a fair fight within this galaxy, no such thing as winning a battle with honor. That could only be found within the victory itself.

The tug would hopefully sent Jamie falling forward, allowing Aela to slash her own lightsaber down onto the girls side.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

There was simply nothing she could do in reaction to that.

It wasn't something she'd ever encountered before, let alone thought about. It just wasn't something normal people could do.

What th--

It wasn't in her mindset to prepare for her leg to be mysteriously yanked out from under her by invisible hands.

Before she had a moment to register the thought brewing in her head she stumbled hard forward, trying to simply maintain her posture without falling onto her face. Then came Aela's lightsaber. Jamie tried to adjust herself to turn back towards her opponent, but it was already way too late and she knew it. Her arm couldn't possibly maneuver her weapon around in time to block, nor could she step, lean, or roll out of the way, Aela was too close for any alternative choice.

Aela's saber struck Jamie's side as true as she'd intended, and from Jamie's mouth came a resounding yelp as she dropped her own weapon to the floor of the ship, deactivating as it rolled away, the blonde dropping to her knees, her hand reaching for her side, a small tear in her shirt from the point of contact with the lightsaber.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Aela watched her apprentice go down, immediately shutting off her own lightsaber and taking a step back. The floor of the cargo hold likely wasn't very nice to fall down on, but...well it would serve to teach this particular lesson. They had only engaged in combat for about a minute or two, but to Aela it was already very clear that Jamie had been brought up in strict use of forms. That wasn't too surprising, given that she'd been taught fencing for most of her life apparently.

"Are you okay?" Aela asked, knowing the likely answer.

The strike had probably been very unexpected, but that had been the point of it. Jamie wanted to learn to defend herself, her friends...well the reality was that those who would seek to Hurt her weren't going to play by the rules. That meant she would have to learn not to be so...rigid in her fighting. The lesson wouldn't be taken to over night, but eventually Aela would manage to beat it into her.
"Sorry about that." The Marshall continued. "Learning isn't always fun."

She sounded oddly chirpy.

Perhaps it was because she finally got to impart Cameron's lessons to someone else.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Jamie gave Aela a nod as she held onto her side. Her pride hurt more than her side.

Still, blue eyes looked down to see the bit of burned away fabric, cursing under her breath before standing. Being the best on Naboo hardly meant much here. That doubly hurt. Jamie meandered over to where she'd dropped the saber after it had finished rolling away and scooped it up. A quick look over was done to make sure it wasn't damaged, though that would be unlikely given the quality behind its' creation.

"That hurt." She said, placing the weapon back at her side. "I imagine the real deal is exponentially worse though."

I can't even begin to imagine how much so.

She wasn't angry, she was used to the treatment. If she could take being drilled in the face by a boy's fists who, on his own was almost twice her weight, she could handle a few bruises and burns from Aela.

Not that she was eager to receive more, but she was well aware she wouldn't be getting any better by whining about how much it hurt. That wasn't how training worked after all.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"It does." Aela had felt the burn of a lightsaber once or twice. Luckily the weapon had never actually been able to slice through any of her body parts, just singe her skin and burn into her muscles a bit. She had a scar on her ribs from one encounter and another on her back. They were odd things, almost like burns but...not. She didn't think about them much, and in truth most of the time she forgot that they were there in the first place. It helped that she wasn't a very vain person.

"My Uncle told me that nobody fights fair, nobody that fights for long anyway." She smiled. "Following rules, structure, is good in the start, but eventually you have to learn to branch out into something more. You learned fencing as a sport, not to fight."

Everyone did. "It's a good start, but you can't keep to the same old tactics and strategies, it makes you predictable."

Predictability was death in this line of work. If your opponent knew what you were going to do, where you were going to step, stab, or strike they could easily counter it and put you down. If they had been truly fighting Aela would have just killed Jamie, sliced her clean in half.

"Come on." Aela said with a wave as she returned to her stance. "Let me show you something."

​

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

Several minutes of that finally drove the sleeping blonde from her state of unconsciousness. A hand drove down on the projector of this incessant noise, silencing it, possibly for good.

Ugh. I already miss having a real bed to sleep on.

A space travel fan she was not. If there was one thing she wished she could invent, it would be better travel accommodations for space travel. Rubbing away the tiredness from her eyes the girl sat up in bed, throwing back the sheets and stretching out. A yawn or two later and Jamie hopped out of bed, pulled over a shirt and stepped into a pair of jean pants and tightened her shoes. There was no immediate need for looking glamorous, so she withheld the makeup and perfect hair, instead opting for a simple updo. Nothing too fancy.

Figuring they would be not far off from Bastion now she headed to the bridge to meet with Aela, who undoubtedly had already beaten her to there. Whenever Jamie needed to be somewhere, it was never on time.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

So, this was Bastion.

Aela had seen picture of it before of course, photographs and half a dozen holos that depicted the world, but it was still much more than she had expected. The world from a distance reminded her of Coruscant, save far more intimidating.

Though Coruscant had planetary defenses, Bastion was far more structured. There were dozens of orbital stations, GOLAN’s, and half a dozen capital ships in permanent orbit. Aela eyed them all wearily, her lips thinning to bare nothing. This...this was dangerous. If they got caught here, there was no making it off world.

They would have to be careful.

Very Careful.

She heard Jamie coming up from behind her, the softer tone of her footsteps being more than enough to tell her apart from the half dozen soldiers that plagued the ship. “Come take a look.”

She bade her Padawan.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Jamie approached as she was requested. From beyond the viewport blue eyes stared out into the vast expanse of space. The planet of Bastion lingered in the distance. Surrounding it, several star destroyers, cruisers, and frigates remained vigilant, guarding the atmosphere of the world below. Spread out among the vessels sat the well guarded and well armed defensive orbital stations. Jamie's eyes widened, almost in disbelief of the amount of defensive posturing this world presented to any and all outsiders.

"Woah." She said, unable to form any other thought or spoken word. Naboo had nothing like this. The cost of maintaining such a fleet and defensive grid would be beyond the planet's economic stability. It would bankrupt the crown long before the project saw completion. To Jamie, this looked more like a militant regime world than any kind of monarchy.

"This is Bastion?" The question wasn't meant to confirm whether or not this was in fact the world, but more so a statement of the sheer posturing of such a place, and the message it sends to would-be travelers. To say she was nervous of what things would look planetside when this was what greeted them in orbit would be an understatement.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Aela slowly nodded her head. There weren’t many places in the galaxy that equaled Bastion in sheer defensive strength. There was a reason that this had been the galaxies premier fortress world for more than a few millenia. “Welcome to a Fortress World.”

There were a few others speckled about, Anaxes, Byss, some that Aela couldn’t remember off the top of her head, but only Bastion had the distinction of being maintained all throughout the years. The planet was fiercely defended, and the families that inhabited made sure that everyone remembered the reputation they held. Taking Bastion was no easy feat, even for something as large as The Galactic Alliance.

“Luckily.” Aela began. “We’re just here to attend a neat little dance or two.”

At least, if no one caught them anyway.

If they did get caught...if the alarm was raised...well then there would be some trouble. The young Marsal had every confidence in both herself and her young apprentice however, and she knew that the force would guide them. “Alright, lets get ready.”

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Luckily? ... If you say so.

Aela's nonchalant attitude towards their objective was interesting to Jamie, given what her eyes were looking upon, and this was just what waited idly in space. Surely there was even more security and military forces on the ground. Attending a ball for nobility always came with security of its' own, even back home there were Naboo Defense Force units stationed about when galas were held. She could hardly imagine how tight security would be on a planet like this, especially if those nobles were as Aela had described.

"Okay." What else could she say? There was no going back now. She'd studied the data as Aela had requested, and memorized their background, names, and heritage. Filling the role of a noble was the simple task, it was part of who she was. The difficult part was ensuring that she didn't screw up the identities.

Following Aela as the two stepped out of the bridge and into the corridor Jamie thought to ask, though she likely knew the answer. "I'm guessing we'll be leaving our weapons on board?" While it wouldn't be assumed that two young women would be stashing away lightsabers in their purses, that didn't mean that event security wouldn't search them all the same.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

She tapped her nose. “Yep.”

Bringing weapons of any sorts would only complicate things. For Aela it wasn’t a huge problem, though many of her techniques relied on a lightsaber she hardly needed the things to fight. Of course for Jamie it was different, but if they needed to blast their way out...well The Young Marshal was confident she could get them out of any situation.

“We’re landing at a manor that was rented by our ‘uncle’.” Aela began to explain as she headed towards the cargo-hold. “That’ll be our main base of operations while we’re on Bastion. Just you and me though, we assume that they’ll have the place under surveillance.”

She frowned slightly. “Only the outside obviously.”

Aela didn’t want Jamie to worry about having to watch herself at all times.
“We’ll spend the first day just ‘resting’, then tomorrow we’ll head to the markets to buy some new dresses, on day three we go to the Ball.” Simple really. It meant that they had two full days for Jamie and her to practice their new roles.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

She nodded. "You're sure they wouldn't have put transmitters inside the house as well?" That was a valid concern, and she was surprisingly proud of herself for having throught of it.

"If we're landing at the manor, and it's under surveillance, then the men on board won't be able to leave the ship unnoticed. Or are they going to be plainly dressed to look like servants?"

Another valid question. If the place was surely going to be watched by their adversaries, it wouldn't do much good to have it be known that they had half a dozen armed Galactic Alliance special forces on board.

That would likely tip them off.

Buying a new dress was of course for the mission, but that didn't make the prospect of shopping any less exciting. Jamie quite thoroughly enjoyed buying clothing. Call it her noble girl's guilty pleasure. Stereotypical.

"I could use some rest from resting on these beds, so I won't complain about some downtime before we have to do alot more than practice our roles."

Sleeping on a plush bed would be amazing.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"We'll do a sweep before we settle in, but they wouldn't be brazen enough." At least Aela thought they wouldn't be. There was no huge reason for anyone to suspect them of anything, watching them would just be a precaution to see if they really were the socialites they claimed to be, beyond that she doubted that the families cared much about them at all.

"They'll be plain clothes, and yes acting as our servants. We'll have to treat them a bit more...harshly. On Bastion Nobility is expected to act a certain way." That had been in the files Aela had given Jamie. Bastion was incredibly structured, and the former Moffs here were all rather high and mighty. "You'll have time to rest, but make no mistake."

Aela turned to Jamie with a smile. "We're here to work, not take a vacation."

Vacations tended to go awry with Aela around anyway.

Work was much easier, at least for her anyway.