To use a lightsaber

[Thoja Arlos]

Thoja liked to think he knew a lot about his job, that being military command. He knew the weapons and armour of soldiers like the back of his hand, but the same could not be said for that which was used by force users. They, unlike normal people, used sabers of light and could fling most people and objects around like tissue paper. Today, Thoja wished to even the odds if he ever came into contact with a hostile force user, by learning how to use their weapon of choice.

So he waited, in an abandoned warehouse on Denon, wearing his usual attire and weapons, however now carrying a training lightsaber he'd borrowed from the Jedi. His contact would arrive soon enough, and his training would begin.

 

[Eralam]

Eralam didn't normally go for this sort of thing.

He occasionally took students who were interested in learning his brand of combat, but they were few and far between. Mostly, he trained hopeless cases who found themselves stuck in a violent galaxy with powers they didn't understand and couldn't control. The Shard wasn't known for his empathy, or his compassion, for that matter, but on those rare occasions when he took a student, it was usually because turning them down would have been the same as murdering them himself.

This though, this was different.

The student today was not a helpless teenager who would end up dead in a gutter in a few years without some Shardly intervention. The student today was an experienced warrior, a leader of men, and, most importantly, about as Force sensitive as a doorknob.

Eralam had never tried to teach someone who couldn't use the Force how to fight with a lightsaber. It wasn't because they couldn't learn; nearly anyone could learn the basics of lightsaber combat. It was no more difficult than normal swordplay, and since the blade was essentially weightless, it was quite a bit easier than picking up, say, a claymore. Most of them, however, never tried, because lightsaber combat went so much further than swordplay when the Force was involved.

Force users could augment their physical strength and perform impossible acrobatic feats. They could augment their perception, scrying their opponent's intent even before they themselves knew. With nothing more than will and intent, they could fling heavy objects, make blaster bolts disappear, or conjure lightning from their fingertips. Few without the gift even bothered to learn how to wield the glowing blades, opting instead to seek out other tactics and weapons that would give them a leg up.

So yes, this lesson was unusual.

Eralam didn't expect his student to spend more than a couple of days learning how to fight with a lightsaber. True mastery of any combat form took years, even decades of practice, no matter the weapon. But a skilled warrior, taught by an experienced teacher, could pick up enough of the basics to get an understanding of how it all worked. That, the Shard suspected, was the point. A better understanding of the how a Force user fought would lead to a better understanding of how to combat them. It was common sense, really, and a damned shame that more didn't think to try.

And so the Shard strode into the abandoned warehouse, his tall, skeletal form cloaked in shadow and, well, a cloak. It was all a bit melodramatic, but he found that random passersby were less inclined to pay attention to cloaked beings, even if they were obviously two meter tall war droids. Centuries of warfare between Jedi and Sith and every other foul thing had taught them that cloaks meant danger, and they were more than happy to give danger a wide berth.

[member="Thoja Arlos"]

 

[Thoja Arlos]

As the skeletal figure wondered into the warehouse, Thoja moved to greet him.

"So, you're to be my teacher then? Taller then I imagined but that won't be a problem."

Pointless chit-chat, but it at least showed that he wasn't hostile. In truth, Thoja was rather put off by the Shard, who was the first of his species he'd encountered. If anything however, it would show him how different his opponents could be to him, even though he'd fought countless beings, many were humanoid.

[member="Eralam"]

 

[Eralam]

"There was a Jedi master back in the day who used to be fond of the phrase 'size matters not,'" Eralam said as he undid the cloak's clasp and let it slide to the ground. "Which was easy for him to say. Little green bastard could flip around and jump off walls like a coked up Kowakian monkey lizard."

Without the cloak, it was easy to see why the Shard might have preferred it. His droid body was clearly optimized for dueling. He had long, lanky limbs and moved with a sort of spider-like grace. His torso was thickly armored, and criss-crossed with scars old and new that shone against the matte black finish. He wore no clothing, save for a gun bet. In a holster on his right hip was an ancient revolver. The belt had a series of leather loops, through which rounds for the pistol were stored. On his left hip, sitting in a truncated scabbard, was the Shard's unusual lightsaber. The hilt was styled after the rapier, a dueling sword that had been relegated to the scrap heap of history outside of certain ceremonial uses. It was a deliberate statement about the Shard's opinion of normal duelists.

"For most folks, size matters a whole hell of a lot more than they like to admit." Despite the buzzing mechanical nature, Eralam's rural drawl was often described as soothing, pleasant. "The Force can help a little guy fight on even footing with a big guy, but if the big guy has the Force too, that advantage goes right out the window."

He drew and activated his saber. The blade came to life with the usual snap-hiss, but the silver blade was noticeably more focused than a normal lightsaber, slimmer and somehow more tangible. After fiddling with a control for a second, he tapped the blade against the ferrocrete floor. It hissed angrily, but didn't slice in.

"There we go, training mode. I see you've already got your saber, so what I want you to do is try your best to kill me with it. Can't teach you if I don't know what you already know, ya know?"

[member="Thoja Arlos"]

 

[Thoja Arlos]

Thoja stepped back five paces as the Shard removed his robe, relieving his metallic, skeletal form. "Well, I see why you wear the fancy robe." Thoja commented, noting the revolver the man carried. The droid-like figure ignited his silver blade, which somewhat put him off due to how focused the blade seemed in comparison to that of a normal lightsaber. Then came his command, attempted to strike him down.

"Whatever you say, just don't come back more powerful than I could possibly imagine." He joked, as he unclipped his own saber from his belt. Switching it on, a blue blade emerged, casting a faint light around Thoja. Positioning himself to strike, left foot in front of right, saber held with his right hand against his right side, left hand behind his back. He quickly jolted forward, jabbing forward with his saber towards his teacher's left shoulder.

[member="Eralam"]

 

[Eralam]

Casually, almost negligently, Eralam brought his own saber down to catch the tip of his opponent's blade on his forte. Leaving his left foot on the ground, he used it as a pivot point to bring his right leg up and fired off a lightning fast kick at the Zabrak's midsection.

His goal was simple: land a blow that would end the fight. At this range, a Force user might be able to retaliate, or at least mitigate the force of the kick via a well placed barrier or some such, but the general simply didn't have that ability. If he moved to intercept the leg with the lightsaber, he'd leave himself open to a kill strike from Eralam's own blade. A tap from the argent beam wouldn't be fatal, but it would deliver a stinging shock that would let him know he'd been hit. And while a live blade might take the leg, Eralam had on more than one occasion sacrificed a limb to land a killing blow.

The lesson here was also simple: getting in close with a Force user, without the ability to use it oneself, was a losing proposition. There were much, much better ways to fight them, most of them involving distance and overwhelming firepower. Since [member="Thoja Arlos"] was determined to learn at least the basics of lightsaber combat, however, Eralam wanted him to know, down to an instinctual level, that doing so would be a very last resort. More than anything, the Shard took pride in his ability to teach students things that would keep them alive, even if the lessons themselves were on subjects that could easily get them killed.

 

[Thoja Arlos]

His blade caught, Thoja allowed himself to be kicked back, not wishing to know how badly the saber would injure him. Stumbling back, he re positioned himself, know holding his saber in his right hand only, leaving his left free. He then rushed forward, bringing his blade diagonally upwards.

@Eralam

 

[Eralam]

Low strikes like that were pretty good if you were in close, especially with a lightsaber. If you could control the enemy's saber hand and take out their feet, knees, or ankles, it was a good way to bring a fight to a close. From a distance, however, it was tantamount to suicide without the help of the Force.

Eralam stepped right, putting the Zabrak's blade to the left side of his body, and interposed his own blade between it and him, hopefully providing a defensive barrier that would prevent it from moving in. He then pivoted on the ball of his right foot, keeping it and his saber more or less planted in place, but bringing his left hand around to attempt to deliver a spinning backfist to his opponent's face. This move left his back open, which was precisely why he'd never try something like it in a real fight, but the centripetal force loaded into his fist was enough to give the metal appendage bone breaking force, if it should land. That would be a lesson in and of itself.

[member="Thoja Arlos"]