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Nakara grinned, as he let the saber move to a fighting stance in front of the apprentice. "Battle is when your life is in danger, lad. So far, you have not been in any position to die. You must learn to rely on everyone else, and not yourself. Afterall, only heroes die when cowards flee."

The blade danced and attacked, much like the kind the droid did. "This time, you are in battle, Shisstal. This saber won't stun, it will kill. And should you fall out of makashi, you may wind up dead."

The force jerked the saber around, lifting and falling much as if the droid had never been disassembled, but unlike the droid, Nakara had the ability to maneuver it far better.

"The key is not to make a choice, boy. Correct posture or suriviving? A true sith can do both..."

Nakara sped up and made the blade dance more elegantly as time progressed.

"Shisstal, you know that the person whom you can trust is sith. Ironic, but true. They lie, cheat, steal, backstab, but they will never deviate from that set of functions. Every sith hates you, wants to kill you and destroy you, some merely wish to manipulate you first. But in the end, the sith all desire power, and that's something you can trust. It is the jedi, the good, the ones who are uncorrupted you can never really put all your faith in, because it is far easier to fall than it is to stand up."

Nakara's voice changed to that of shisstal's, "From what you've heard, I go through apprentices like a drug abuser goes through deathsticks." His voice changed back. "That's why you can trust me, because I will try to kill you."

"I guess that all makes sense. In a devious, corrupted way." Shisstal said, speeding up his own defense to try and match that of Nakara's lightsaber. "Let me see if I understand this right. I can always trust the Sith because I will always know that they will cheat, steal, and backstab me. But I will also know that they will always want power and will use any means necessary to get it. Right?" he said. He was starting to sweat. Both from the heat of the lightsabers and the amount of energy he was using. Shisstal was keeping his stance for the most part. But he noticed that the blade was about to cut his leg and he wasn't going to be able to get his weapon down soon enough to block it. Shisstal jumped slightly backwards and quickly regained his stance.

"If always being on the alert will tire me out, then I just need to know that they are always working for their own gain. I just need to be aware, that's all. To know that they are planning my downfall." he said as he moved aside to doge the droid hand.
"A chain saber? I've never heard of that kind of weapon. Is it similar to a light whip?" Shisstal asked.

“Roger that.” She nodded to Ritt. Turning she climbed into her fighters cockpit, tucked in her braided hair, pulled her helmet down over her head and sealed it up. Excitement bubbled up in her as she reached over and powered up the engines and she had to remind herself to be calm as the fighter came to life one flip of a switch after another. Her helmeted head did one last look around to double check that all we clear from her bird and with one last look at Ritt she grinned as she closed the canopy. With the control boards glowing green she keyed her mike.

“Number 11,” Aurora announced crisply, almost eagerly. “Com tower do you copy?”
It seemed like an eternity pasted before the com tower responded and Aurora had made good use of the few seconds of reality that had past, steady heartbeat, even breath, all systems nominal.

“Com tower,” A voice cracked to life over Aurora’s speaker. “Number 11 cleared to taxi.” Aurora looked up through the canopy, one hand easing the power up to just below the 5% mark as her booted feet depressed the rudder controls and the unpainted fighter floated up above the deck plates and maneuvered to idle over the painted lines Ritt had mentioned.

“Number 11 com tower requesting permission for launch.” She kept her voice steady.

“Com tower Number 11 you are cleared for launch.” The voice in her helmet responded almost immediately.

“Affirmative com tower, thank you. Out.” and Aurora brought the fighters power up to the 5% mark and slid the ship out through the magnetic shield. Once fully clear of the hanger bay she increased throttle just a bit, holding back to temptation to go tearing off through the stars with it. She leaned back in her seat and let the force flow through her and stretched out to fell her soundings as she searched for Ritt’s position on her six.

(*sigh* must not make that last line sound naughty in my head...)

Ritt really didn't need a helmet but it would help one day. He had done over a thousand sorties, an impressive number for his age, his kills nearly as high. Yet, he couldn't help watching the small fighter take off. His own clearance was almost unnecessary, as the crew was more than obvious to the red fighter's coming and going. But he floated the bird out and gently let the craft exit on cue.

He noticed that aurora hadn't gone too far. In a way he was somewhat surprised, and yet not at the same time. "You know, just because you shouldn't blast out at full burn doesn't mean you can't let a little of those inhibitions out. Part of the fun of flying is the ability to be free, in a sense."

He pulled up onto her starboard side, making sure to match speed, as the Bathurst grew smaller behind him. He did a roll over top to be on the port side of Aurora, just ahead of her.

"Just get the feel of the craft for a bit, and try to keep as close on my six as you can. We'll go gentle, until you can handle maneuvers. And turn the compensators off. Get used to the suit too. Plus, i find the power drain to be annoying enough to make the craft sluggish in the thick of it."

He pulled out in front, and pressed the right rudder to slowly put the craft into a turn. "Normal adjustments are made with rudders. Only use the stick when you must do something quick. Several maneuvers are also used in conjunction with the rudder. You'd be surprized how well your footwork will become after a month in the combat in your lightsaber training. One more thing, If you feel your flight suit gets too tight, now's the time to change it out. That's the other reason for the compensators being off. Even with the pressurized cockpit, you would do better to not be worrying about being unable to move. Use the stick on this next turn."

He pitched the craft 90 degrees, and made a wide arc to the left. "The hardest trick for new flyers is to learn how to match speeds with an enemy. Dont' worry if you find yourself moving faster or slower. Use your judgement to learn from distance and time. Relying on instruments will get you killed. Every millisecond you spend reading the instruments is another chance to die from fire you didn't see. A single blink can kill you. Luckily, that problem doesn't exist for me, but I'd rather keep you alive as much as possible."


~~~~~~

"Similar, not the same though," Nakara said, making the saber dance some more. "But beware of your confidence. Being aware takes effort as well. A leech is more likely to survive on someone else's energy if it's bite goes unnoticed."

"Tired yet?" He asked. There was no good answer to this question, and he knew as well as shisstal that whatever the answer was, the result would still end up as more training.

Koren had worked hard and fast for two day, and actually managed to fix up the ship he never thought he'd even be able to understand. He had managed to learn full operation of the vessel and understand how it all fits together. Which would be good for when he needed repairs.

So now all he had to do was head to Sullust. He had done some researching about a Merc group he heard of and had asked a favor of Tanya. She actually helped Koren, suprisingly, by getting him the co-ordinates of where they would be today. He had to give props to Manda'lors Intelligence units.

To Koren's shock, Tanya had even wrangled up Koren an escort, for she knew he would be emerging on a battle and said she didn't want him to die yet. Yet. That made him worry, but at least she was helping him at the moment.
His intructions were to comm in when he left and the escort ships, for there were two fighters to compliment him, would meet him at Sullust.
He was skeptical of the existance of these escorts, but nonetheless, he sent a message to Tanya's headquarters announcing his departure.

So he donned his armor, after getting a nice bath courtesy of the chief mechanic of the hangar, and climbed up into his new ship. He had to lay horizontally to pilot it, though it flew like a normal ship. The controls were also different. Half was manual, such as levers and buttons, etc. But some of the vehicles performance was based off of the thoughts of the pilot. At least, thats what Tanya's information had said.
Regardless, he prepped all the systems, checked weapons and the like, then took off. As soon as he was clear of the planets orbit, he punched in the co-ordinates to Sullust and felt his stomach wretch as the incredibly fast ship shot into hyperspace.

While resting comfortably in bed next to Calliga, Siren noticed the terminal come to life, displaying what appeared to be a shooting star in the sky. " Look, Master. A shooting star. Make a wish. " she said, kissing him gently, as she was too worn out to do much else at the moment.

The display lasted until the supposed star went out of sight, at which time the terminal cut itself off. A few moments later, reports came into the building of a crashing sound. At 1st it was thought to be a freak electrical storm, until it was realized that one was not currently occuring in the area. However, since Siren was not to be disturbed while " entertaining " she wasn't informed of anything. Until something else happened, everyone continued to go about their routines.