NEW BEGINNING - Book I

Chapter 11

Battle of Devaron (Part 1)

Petro ran through the halls of the jedi temple. He was already late for his training session with Anakin.

Damn it! He'll probably kill me this time.

When he arrived in the combat training chamber Anakin already awaited him impatiently.

'You are...'

'I know I'm late. Sorry master.'

'Never mind. Let us begin.'

'Today I'm gonna show you how you can improve your fighting style. You combat quite well, but the following things I'm going to teach you will improve your style. I noticed you prefer to use form V. Now I'll show you how to combine it with form IV. Keeping your saber moving is to keep to deflecting the fire at multiply adversaries, but with motion. One into the next, into the next and so on. I've made some adjustments to the classic form IV techniques that I think you'll find work well against droids and other arranged attackers. Here, I'll show you.'

Anakin activated his lightsaber and a training droid.

'One, two, three, four, five, six. Again. One, two, three, four, five, six. One more time. One, two, three, four, five, six.'

He counted every bolt he deflected. The training droid always aimed at another spot.

'Practice these exercises mindfully and you'll see improvement. I promise.'

Petro listened, for a change, carefully to his master's words and tried the combination himself. He did some dry runs.

'Good. I see the form suits you well. Now let's see how you do in a real fight.'

Anakin activated his lightsaber again. Petro wielded his saber.

'Nothing easier than that.' He smirked.

'We definitely have to work on that.'

'On what?'

'Your arrogance.' Petro shot him an annoyed glare.

Anakin's saber clashed hard against Petro's. He fought mercilessly against his padawan, he tested his limits. Petro tried to equalize his lack of strength with speed and did very well. He was faster than his master but wasn't able to get a good strike. And when Petro's energy decreased Anakin defeated his padawan easily.

'You fought well. Just not well enough.'

'One day I'll defeat you, master. You'll see.'

They were interrupted by an applauding Obi-Wan followed by Katooni.

'Pretty impressive, young one.'

'Thank you, master Kenobi.'

'Anakin, you are getting slow.'

'Is that a challenge?'

'I'm afraid this will have to wait. The council requests us.'

'A new mission?' Petro asked hopefully.

'We're going to find out.'

Petro smiled at Katooni. He was happy to go on a mission with her again. She smiled back and for some reason it made him feel comfortable and warm inside. Anakin recognised his padawan's feelings. It was the similar to the situation with Ahsoka on Onderon. But for now Anakin ignored it.

The Jedi High Council decided to send out Master Kenobi, his padawan Katooni, knight Skywalker and his padawan Petro to find Maul and capture him. The Sith killed at least 5 Jedi since he took over the control of the Galactic Confederacy of Independent Systems, two of them were members of the Council. The Jedi couldn't afford anymore loses. And if they'd manage capturing Maul the war could be ended way sooner.
They got a hint from one of their spies that Maul was currently on Devaron, a planet in the Duluur system in the Outer Rim Territories. About 2 years ago Savage Opress attacked this Republic outpost, the Temple of Eedit, and killed Jedi Master Halsey and his padawan. Since this day the temple had been under the control of the Separatists.
They also received information that many male Devaronians returned to their home planet over the last weeks. The male Devaronians normally travell through the galaxy while their wifes staying on the planet and raising the kids. They rarely return, especially not all at the same time.
This suggested that the Separatists took the planet under their control.
Normally the Republic only intervened if someone from a planet requested help which wasn't the case here. But they were left with no choice if they wanted to capture Maul.