Purge (Star Wars)

Training

Dawn breaks over the desert as the Mantis rises off the pad at the spaceport and turns toward the low mountains in the east.

"Why are we coming out here?" asks Ilyana from behind the Captain's chair.

"We're looking for a place to set down so we can train without being seen," answers Cal from the co-pilot's seat while managing the sensors to help Greez navigate up and down the dry, rocky ravines. After nearly an hour he points towards a wide, flat outcropping and asks, "What about that?"

"That'll do it," says Greez, flipping buttons on the controls then swings the ship around and heads back to the outcropping. With practiced skill, Greez masterfully lands the ship with barely a jerk.

Earlier that morning, shortly before dawn, Cal and Merrin had gone to the courier's office to ask about the boy. Unfortunately, they were told that he had been sent out on a call and would not return for several days, leaving Cal dejected and worried that he had missed his one chance to help this kid. However, once the Mantis touched down on that outcrop he felt his spirit rise again. Training with Ilyana would be good for both of them. They would get some practice in and it would give him something else to focus on for a while.

"Come on," Cal says to Ilyana on his way out of the cockpit. He unlocks the weapon mount, taking her staff down from the wall near the holotable where it has been stored and leaves the ship.

Outside, his boots crunch on the dusty red rock as he walks halfway out into the open space then turns to face Ilyana and tosses her the staff.

"I seem to recall you saying you would win if we fought."

Ilyana shrugs, "It's a possibility."

"Time to find out," he says, drawing his lightsaber and igniting both of the blades. Ilyana activates the dual emitters of her electrostaff in response and Cal is immediately struck by the change in her demeanor as she readies for combat; the focus and singular intent on her face. Again, the person he had laughed with in the cantina disappears. Now only the Purge Trooper stands before him, ready to fight.

She's not going to make this easy. How far will she take it? How far will I have to go? Maybe Cere was right and all of this was done to get me off guard.

The questions flash through his mind in the instant before she raises her staff. She quickly closes the distance between them and swings. Cal blocks her attack with one end of his lightsaber then swiftly shifts his balance to bring up the opposite blade and strikes back at her. She responds in kind and they parry and counter several times in quick succession.

I almost forgot how hard they hit. Cal thinks at the shudder running through his blade with each strike. For a while now they had managed to stay out of sight of the Inquisition so fights with Purge Troopers have become something of a rarity, but with each strike his past experiences come back to him and he adjusts his techniques.

Sparks fly as the blades of his lightsaber make contact with the emitters of her electrostaff. She had been moving backwards slightly over the last few strikes but now she sees an opening, slipping her staff past his guard and slamming into his chest. Cal is thrown back a few feet and as he recovers she launches the end of her staff directly at the center of his chest again, but with greater force but Cal raises his hand and uses the Force to push her, narrowly preventing her from making contact.

Purge Troopers are trained to withstand force attacks so instead of being thrown off her feet as a stormtrooper would have been, she bends her knees, lowering her center of gravity, and slams the end of her staff into the ground. The electrostaff may not be as strong as an electrohammer nor as fast as electrobatons, but it does have the advantage of counterbalance, which she takes advantage of now. With one end of the staff still firmly embedded in the dirt, she lunges forward using the staff to launch herself forward toward Cal faster than she would otherwise be able to. As she does so, she pulls the end out of the ground and swiftly flips it up and brings it back down in an overhead strike at Cal.