Chapter 6 (Enhancing Shii-Cho)
Eventually, after weeks stationed at the Temple, Cinigan convinced Kyidyin to assign himself to a mission, his new position on the Council provided him with such authority. As his assignment, Kyidyin chose, with the permission of the Council, to go with Kit Fisto to Glee Anselm, the latter's homeworld, which had recently been invaded by the Separatists and would soon succumb to its forces without Republic aid.
As soon as they arrived at the Glee Anselm system, Kyidyin deferred command of the mission to Kit, who was far more familiar with the world than he was and had been originally chosen by the Council to lead the mission. By the time the Jedi arrived, Separatist forces had captured all of the Nautolan and Anselmi settlements on the planet's few landmasses and the Nautolan Resistance had been forced underwater to defend themselves where Separatist tanks and most of its droids could not follow.
Before landing, the Republic ships had to break a hole in the Separatist Fleet defenses, Kit decided to take this a step further and ordered his forces to wipe out the Separatist cargo ships, preventing the droids from leaving Glee Anselm. It was not difficult to land on the planet because the Separatist cannons could not provide full coverage over the planet due to the limited land area there. With their unchallenged control of the space around the planet, the Republic Cruisers would normally commence in planetary bombardment on Glee Anselm's land masses, but Kit decided this would lead to too heavy of a risk of the islands submerging, which would destroy both native species' way of life. Bombardment would also kill all of the civilians that were still trapped under Separatist control.
After supervising the landing of the troops and studying the situation, Master Fisto decided that he and Kyidyin would infiltrate the main Separatist base and takeout its main power generator while trying to disrupt any droid signaling in hopes of the Battle Droids eventually running out of power. Kit also hoped that they would be able to discover what Separatist reinforcements were inbound for the area to better plan their attacks. They were able to successfully able to enter the main Separatist compound and learn that no reinforcements were currently inbound for Glee Anselm, though they could be called on and arrive quickly if needed.
After returning to their underwater base the Jedi decided that their force was far larger than necessary to infiltrate and neutralize the Separatist holdouts and that more troops might even compromise the mission so they chose to send half of the cones away with the cruisers to halt any droid armies from entering or leaving the planet and to give the garrisons a false sense of security. Then, after waiting several rotations, the Republic force would begin its attack on the main island and hopefully catch the invaders by surprise.
While the Jedi waited to begin their assault Kit and Kyidyin were discussing the emergence of General Grievous and the weakness of the Jedi, even celebrated masters like Ki-Adi Mundi and Shaak Ti, against the cyborg general. Struck with an idea Kyidyin said, "Perhaps the Council should set up a training system to better prepare Jedi to fight lightsaber wielding opponents like Grievous or the Dark Jedi that Dooku is rumored to be training."
"The stories about Dark Jedi are more than rumors," informed Kit, "two of them, named Tol Skorr and Kadrian Sey, have been spotted and there's bound to be more."
"And they are being trained personally by Dooku, most likely for the sole purpose of killing Jedi and we aren't prepared to fight them, that much was made clear on Hypori."
"I see your point but it would be difficult to implement any widespread training with Jedi scattered all over the Galaxy."
"Oh, I agree but perhaps the Council could send out a notice to those on field missions so that they are fully warned of this threat and encourage them to hone their skills in dueling."
"That is your area of influence not mine but it is a good suggestion."
"I think I will mention it to the Council sometime...of course, its highly possible that Master Windu already sent out a notice to the various Jedi."
"This brings up another idea," said Kit thoughtfully, "you are a practitioner of Form I, are you not?"
"Yes..."
"As am I. And Form I, or Shii-Cho, is the most vulnerable in a dueling situation, especially against Makashi."
"Yes, what are you getting at?"
"Perhaps, while we have time on our hands, we could hone our own skills by dueling one another to better ready ourselves in case either of us must ever fight on of Dooku's Dark Acolytes. Your padawan could even moderate and see how we do," he ended in a chuckle.
"Alright, when do you want to do this."
"I'll make sure everything is going smoothly and meet you in Hangar 5."
"I'll go get Cinigan then."
Five minutes later, the Jedi met in Hangar Five, each had collected training lightsabers for the training session.
"How shall we begin?" asked Kit.
"I don't know," said Kyidyin, "I suppose we can start with a typical training duel and concentrate on analyzing the weaknesses in the other's form."
It had been years since Kyidyin had dueled anyone that used Form I, as both his first padawan, Sta Atato, and Cinigan used Form II and Kyidyin was accustomed to taking the defensive role and waiting for an opening to appear. Kit, however, did not move in for a series of offensive attacks but give several wary approaches with his lightsaber, judging Kyidyin's reactions to them. With this focus Kit was able to perfectly manage his defense while Kyidyin was forced to move in for an attack. This lasted quite a while until Cinigan told them that someone had to take an offensive stance or they would never conclude the duel.
In this moment of distraction, Kit stuck out with his blade and, before Kyidyin had time to react, had knocked it from his hand.
"Nice one," Kyidyin complimented
"You should not have been so easily distracted by your apprentice."
"You're right, but that was still an excellent move."
They fought several more rounds, each ending with a speedily implemented stroke that disarmed one of them. After this Kit suggested that he face off aginst Cinigan to see how he fared against a wielder of Makashi. As soon as the duel began, Cinigan rushed in with a flurry of blows and, in a matter of seconds, had been disarmed and thrown to the ground by Kit.
"You're technique is quick and accurate, "observed Kit,"but you leave no room to parry a counterattack, relying too much on your opponent's inability to react to your stream of attacks. You must remember, one well-placed strike is far more useful than five sloppy ones."
"How can i afford to wait for a good opportunity if doing so allows my enemy to gain the upper hand?" asked Cinigan.
"You must improve your defensive capabilities so that you can watch what your opponent does and take advantage when you see an opening."
"Offense may be your strong point," added Kyidyin, "but it is also likely to be the strong point of any darksider that you face and it is better to find their weakness than to go head to head with them and fall to superior bladework. Every swordsman has a weakness, you just need to find it."
"Thank you, masters." said Cinigan before departing.
"He has potential," said Kit, "He just needs to find a way to study his opponent and defend adequately so that he is not overpowered as soon as he loses his advantage."
"Yes, i think his constant training with me has forced him to constantly be the attacker and he hasn't been able to learn how to defend himself well enough."
Kyidyin and Kit spent the rest of the day trying out different moves and documenting them for later study. Overall the training session had been a success and Kyidyin felt somewhat better prepared for any future encounters with Dooku's Dark Acolytes. He also had learned a great deal of what Cinigan still needed to learn and he would now be better equipped for such training sessions with his padawan.
The Separatists retreated from Glee Anselm a couple weeks later and Kit's home planet was liberated. Kit and Kyidyin said farewell and Kyidyin departed for Coruscant while Kit said that he would stay on Glee Anselm a little while longer to help return the planet to normal. He thanked Kyidyin for helping him save his homeworld and for studying various improvements for Form I with him. And, while Cinigan had not exactly gotten the action he was hoping, he had learned ways to improve his combat style and he would get plenty of action on his next assignment to the planet of Iridonia.
A/N: I'm not entirely pleased with this but it serves purposes in my story and i needed to keep it.
Sorry for the somewhat long update time but, in return, there are now three chapters added! (7 and 8 had been written previously and i was just waiting for this to put them on)
