Master Windos vs. Captain Magda Venn

Perched on top of one of the many summits in the Or’ena mountain range on Kiast, only a few kilometers or so from the new Jedi Praxeum, the Velastari Temple is an old forgotten Vatali Jedi temple surrounded by mountain peaks on all sides. Thin wispy clouds and fog tend to linger around it when not otherwise blown away by the cold mountainous air channeled through the mountains. The hot suns of Kiast shine on this particular peak regularly, forming beautiful rainbows as the light reflects off the metallic surface of the Vatali structure. As a result, despite the temple’s heightened elevation, the Velastari Temple and its surroundings atop the peak are warm enough to not only support green vegetation, such as trees and grass, but also humanoid visitors, who can get by with a variety of layers depending on the season. In addition, the elevation makes the air breathable, the toxic fumes of the planet only residing in the lower atmospheres. Past the peak itself, the ground drops away quickly, forming dangerous ridges that travellers can use to travel from peak to peak.

Occupying a relatively flat portion of land on the summit, the Velastari Temple invokes the Jedi temples of old but with the classic design elements of the Vatali civilization and a few changes to suite the terrain. Hooded Vatali statues flank its entrance, the aged metallic stone having long lost its luster. The atrium of the temple is surrounded by four spiraling pillars and is filled in between with a cacophony of support structures, some of which include landing pads and storage. This once well-organized system of buildings has fallen into disarray, ancient machinery and debris breaking up any direct approach to the main temple itself. Long defunct droids, some partially scavenged, can be found throughout the atrium. As to the spiraling pillars, no one is quite sure if they are structurally sound, but they appear to have been watchtowers and may have possibly at some point served a secondary purpose due to the number of additional rooms within it.

Once one makes it past the atrium, the main temple itself comes into view, towering over the smaller spirals below. Like other ancient Jedi temples, it has many mysteries that will only reveal themselves to Force-users, unlocking portions of the temple one might assume didn’t exist. Its architecture is highly reminiscent of the old Jedi Order, though less grand in scale than its peers. Nevertheless, it has all of the remains of core components one would expect, such as a Jedi Council room, housing, a library, and training rooms. Few enter the temple itself unless undergoing trials and Odan-Urr does it best to preserve the Velastari Temple from further damage. This landmark serves as not only inspiration to the next generation of Jedi but also as a solemn reminder of the Jedi long gone.

The air was thin this high up in the Or’ena mountains, but at least it wasn't the toxic smog choking the valleys of Kiast. Up here, the twin suns beat down on the ancient metallic stone of Velastari Temple, bouncing off the lingering fog and making faint rainbows. For Windos, the total isolation of the old Vatali ruins was grounding. For Magda, it just meant there was nowhere to run when things inevitably went sideways.

"Remind me," Magda wheezed, gripping a standard-issue blaster pistol. Her eyes kept darting nervously toward the steep ridges where the ground basically just vanished into oblivion. "Why couldn't we do this in a simulator? Or, hell, a cantina?"

Windos stopped near the middle of the ruined atrium, his boots crunching on the gravel and scattered machinery. He turned to give the pilot a calm, patient look. She looked out of her depth, bundled up in an oversized jacket, shivering from a mix of the mountain breeze and dread.

"Because a simulator doesn't teach you how to survive when a cargo drop goes terribly wrong," Windos replied, keeping his tone steady. He waved a hand toward the mess of broken support structures and spiraling watchtowers boxing them in. "You asked me to help you stay alive when the blaster bolts start flying. Out here, the panic is real. You have to learn to push through it."

"I am pushing through it!" Magda retorted, her voice echoing off the surrounding structures. "I'm pushing through the desire to sprint back to my ship and leave this rock behind!"

Windos just gave a small, knowing smirk. He pulled a datapad from his robes and tapped a single command into the screen. "Just remember what we talked about. Keep moving, stay low, and shoot anything that doesn't look like me."

"Wait, what did you just..." Her question got cut off by a sudden, heavy hum that vibrated through the courtyard.

All around them, the "defunct" droids scattered amongst the debris started twitching. Rusted metal joints screeched in protest as half a dozen old combat droids dragged themselves upright. Red photoreceptors flickered to life in the shadows, locking straight onto the two living targets standing in the middle of the atrium.

"They're on non-lethal training settings," Windos called out over the whine of charging blaster rifles. He smoothly drew his lightsaber and shield, dropping into a ready stance. "But they will leave a really nasty bruise. Ready?"

Magda let out a sound that was halfway between a sob and a hiccup, her eyes wide with terror as the first droid raised its rifle and fired.

Windos stepped up, swatting the incoming stun bolt into a nearby pillar and showering the ground in harmless blue sparks. He didn't push forward to clear the droids, instead he just held his ground to give her some cover. This wasn't about him doing all the work. It was about forcing his reluctant student to pull the trigger.

"Your turn, Magda!" Windos shouted over the noise. "Fire!"

Hunkered down and shoulder pressed to the back of a large rootstone, Magda steeled herself. The Miraluka was right. She had asked for this. And the droids weren’t really dangerous, right?

“Okay, here I go!” she shouted over the din of incoming blaster bolts, several of which Windos battered aside with practiced ease as he glanced sidelong at his pupil for the day.

With a primal roar, the likes of which she had never mustered before, Magda stood from behind the cover, blaster in hand. She squeezed the trigger again and again and again, aiming at her opponents’ flashes of fresh blaster fire, just like Buruss had shown her.

By the time she crouched back down she had squeezed off a half dozen shots from the seldom-used DL-44.

She smiled at Windos as red bolts whipped by overhead, the droids now focused on returning fire to her position.

“Did I hit one? Or Two?!”

“You did not,” Windos answered. “Pay attention. They’re going to flank your position.” He slapped aside another blast with his lightsaber.

Magda followed his instruction, peeking ever so slightly over the top of the boulder. The fire had died down somewhat and, just as he had said, half the droids were shifting around the wide and flat, mountaintop circle moving in on her right side.

“What should I do?!” Magda shouted, panic growing in her gut. She knew she wouldn’t die. At least she was pretty sure she wouldn’t. But she still didn’t want to get shot by those things.

Windos hunkered down beside her.

“Remember what we looked at earlier. If half of them are trying to get around you, what does that mean about their numbers?”

“They’re split,” she answered, correctly.

“Right, so what’s the solution? You’re running low on time.”

“Stinking Huttslime,” Magda groaned. “Attack, right?”

“Better go. Pick a flank. Use the cover. I’ll be right behind you.”

Magda followed his instruction. She moved at a low crouch, from boulder to boulder toward the right, counter-directional to the flanking robots. The fire overhead did not follow her and remained concentrated on the position she had fired from earlier.

She felt a tap on her backside as she reached another large boulder and looked over her shoulder.

“Wait here,” Windos whispered as he pressed himself flat to the back of the boulder. Magda imitated him. Her legs were beginning to burn from all this crouching. “Stay quiet,” he whispered.

The fire overhead had died down just as one of the droids walked cautiously past their position, stalking - one foot in front of the other. Windos felt Magda’s excitement build and quickly shot her both a glance and calming energy through the force. “Wait!” everything but his voice shouted.

But it was too late.

Magda was already standing up, pulling the trigger, and blasting the practice droid that had missed them to pieces. “Haha I got you, you sucker!” she yelled at the droid as it broke and fell.

Suddenly her hip was on fire and her wind left her in a rush. She would have shouted if she could, but it felt like she’d been hit in the flank with a club. Magda collapsed to the ground, her diaphragm sucking for air it couldn’t find.

Windos rolled his eyes as he stood and sliced through the second droid in one clean motion, bisecting it just above the hip joint.

The low thrum of Windos' lightsaber filled the brief silence that followed the clatter of the droid hitting the stone floor. He looked down at his student, who was currently curled up in the dirt and gasping like a stranded fish.

"Did you... did you see that?" Magda wheezed. A wildly out-of-place grin spread across her face. "Smoked him! Right in the chassis! He didn't even see it coming!"

"You did," Windos agreed calmly. He deactivated his lightsaber and offered her a hand. "You also stood in the open to gloat, which is why you caught a stun bolt to the hip. If they had been firing the real thing, we'd be having a very different conversation."

"Minor details," Magda groaned as she let him haul her to her feet. She rubbed her side with a grimace, though the obnoxious smirk never completely left her face. "I still got him. I bet Buruss couldn't have pulled that off."

Windos couldn't help but sigh. Through the Force, he tracked the remaining four combat droids. They had given up on their flanking maneuver and were now grouping up in the center of the ruined atrium. Rusted joints ground loudly as they formed a loose wedge, advancing aggressively toward their position.

"If you're done admiring your handiwork, we aren't finished," Windos noted. He brought his shield up and re-ignited his lightsaber with a sharp snap-hiss.

"There's more?!" Magda squeaked, her momentary bravado evaporating.

"Four of them. They've changed tactics and are just going to try to overwhelm us with volume of fire." Windos glanced toward a collapsed section of one of the ancient watchtowers to their left. The fallen rubble formed a natural, slanted ramp up to a storage platform that overlooked the courtyard. "I'm going to step out and draw their attention. I need you to scramble up to that platform. Once you have the high ground, take them out."

Magda stared at him like he had grown a second head. "You want me to run out in the open? While they're shooting?!"

"They'll be shooting at me," Windos corrected gently, giving her a patient look. "But you have to move fast. Don't rush the trigger this time. Breathe, aim, and shoot." He paused for a moment, noting the disbelief on Magda's face. "You can do this."

Before Magda could find an excuse to argue, Windos vaulted over the top of the boulder. He landed lightly on the gravel of the open courtyard, immediately making himself the biggest threat in the area. All four sets of photoreceptors snapped toward him.

The air instantly tore apart with the deafening shriek of blaster fire. Windos became a fluid blur of motion. He didn't advance, instead letting them pour their fire into his position. His lightsaber swept in tight, controlled arcs, batting blue stun bolts into the dirt, while his shield absorbed the impacts of anything that slipped past his guard.

Sparks rained down around him as he held the line, locking the droids' targeting subroutines entirely onto himself.

"Now, Magda!" Windos shouted over the chaotic whine of blaster fire. "Move!"

Before their cleaved compatriot’s metal body had hit the floor, the remaining three droids resumed their fire. Windos ducked down next to Magda, writhing on the floor and just beginning to catch her breath. He laid a hand on her hip and breathed slowly as he drew the pain away. The blaster bolts continued to zip past overhead.

“Woah! Thanks!” Magda groaned as she rolled over and pushed herself back, not forgetting to grab her blaster from where she’d dropped it in the crisp and green grass.

“The pain will resume later,” Windos answered unapologetically.

“Wha-.”

“Lessons are best learned the hard way, Magda,” he continued. She stared at him side-eyed, mouth agape, as she leaned back against the boulder.

“Now, they’ll be on the move. What do we do?”

“Uh… assess the situation!” Magda answered, quickly forgetting the impending hip-doom she’ll certainly experience later.

“So do it.”

She leaned over, peering around the edge of the cold, rough stone. She grimaced - some of the pain did linger. She couldn’t see any of the bots, though. It wasn’t until then that she realized the fire had stopped. There was no sound but the chilly breeze whistling through the rocks and boulders strewn about the arena.

“And what did you see?” Windos inquired quietly as she leaned back toward him.

“Nothing. They must be looking for us!” she said in a tone that was hushed but still far too loud.

“And so you do what?”

Magda thought. She thought back to the briefing Windos had given her, to the training holos, to the holodramas she'd watched in the lounge with Buruss.

“Follow me!” was all Windos got before she was on the move again, this time only half crouching as she made her way to the edge of the arena. He followed, matching her pace, until she arrived at a spot at the mountaintop’s outermost ring. Here, behind a waist-high boulder, she took a two handed grip on her blaster and supported it on the rock’s top surface. Her eyes darted back and forth as she watched and patiently waited for one of the droids to make a mistake.

It didn’t take long. One of the bots crept quietly past the spot they had been moments ago. It moved with slow precision, rifle held at the ready. Its flank was completely exposed to the barrel of Magda’s blaster.

She didn’t wait this time either, though Windos didn’t think it was called for on this occasion. One, two, three, four red bolts lanced out from her position. Three drilled the practice bot square in the torso, dropping it as the fourth scored the boulder behind it, leaving a black and ashy mark where the fallen droid had been.

That brought the fourth droid up and firing. But where Magda was in a good position, pistol supported, in a clean grip, the bot was acting with haste. It didn’t have a clean bead on her or her position. It was firing wildly and unsupported. The fire from its blaster sailed by, several meters to her left.

Magda let out a panicked squeal through clenched teeth, but the return shot was good, taking the unit square in what passed for its neck. It seized once and collapsed in a heap.

Her breath came rapidly. She looked up, a few inches above her blaster’s sights. Suddenly, she turned to Windos, who looked at her expectantly. “Wait, isn’t there one mo-…” She didn’t get the chance to finish the sentence as the droid had taken her distraction with its fellows and turned it into an opportunity. It was already on top of her.

The bot could have probably shot her if it wanted to, but instead it swung the butt of its rifle and clocked her across the forehead, eliciting a loud yelp from Magda as she stumbled backward, dropping her pistol. The droid stayed on top of her, swinging again.

Before it could club her a second time, Windos was on it. His lightsaber cut smoothly through the blaster rifle, severing its stock and throwing the bot off balance. As it staggered forward, the Jedi delivered the killing blow - a flawless coup de grace, taking the top half of his robotic opponent's cranium clean off and sending it flying across the arena.

"That was amazing!"

Windos turned to see Magda, laying sprawled behind him, her hand over her forehead to staunch the bleeding from the headwound she'd surely suffered.

"Thank you," Windos answered as he deactivated his lightsaber and reached out to help her back to her feet.

"Okay, but did you see, though?! I got three of them. Three!"

"You were also shot once and then smashed in the head," Windos replied, trying to temper her excitement.

"Details, details. Three confirmed kills. That's my number and I'm keeping it."

Windos chuckled at her.

"Come on, Magda. We'll watch back the holorecording and decide what's actually worth bragging about, okay?"

"Absolutely. And when we do, you'll see I got three of them. I'm very excited to watch that back."