"Good to hear, that is. Concerned, I was, that listening to the Force, Skywalker might not have been. If close to it she truly is, a very good sign, that would be."

"Uh... no, an actual conversation. I mean there was literally a guy with a beard from another dimension, who was apparently an avatar of the Force's influence on the galaxy, and he told her that as the Chosen One, she was destined to one day be the leader of the Force's innate consciousness, or... I have no clue, something along those lines."

Blink.

Yeah, she doesn't get it either.  Though she will make some tentative plans based on this information.  (Such as thinking up a pitch for Dooku to take over running the Dark Side, while she runs the Light Side, and finding someone who'll tiebreak if and only if that's necessary, instead of having a truly hierarchical structure.)

(...Or maybe it should be the other way around?  It depends upon what the 'sides' even are, and what they mean, realistically speaking, which she'll need to find out at Chrelywhatsitmum.  Blast it, she should have asked.  ...She wrote the name of the planet down somewhere, at least, instead of trusting her memory, which is good because she's already forgotten the middle bits.)

Kina's tool belt acquires two additions in the next several hours; a modernized, miniaturized version of the early-lightsaber-era power pack, to go with the sharp green crystal's desired pen-sized handle and tiny-but-fierce projective diameter - she has a temperature dial on this one, for welding - as well as a sleek set of mirrored one-handed lightsabers, in the Darksaber's mold, sleek ovoid handles with carbon-black hand-and-a-half grips, projecting thin blades with sides - for all that Kina could hardly stop herself from coming up with the mechanisms that will let her stick them together for a longer, more powerful traditional lightsaber blade, or together on end for a dual-saber...and last, but certainly not least, the first lightsaber blaster to actually be designed for the task.

...After sneaking into the Archives to look at the lightsaber rifle stored within for inspiration, guided by the Force's whispers, and tut at its absurd design choices, at least.

That one gets melded into the existing multi-barrel blaster, with a toggle-switch to project a more traditional saber-tonfa 'bayonet'.

Five lightsabers are a lot - or four, if she doesn't want to use the Maul one anymore, but still. Well, the welder doesn't seem to be focused on combat, and as for the blaster, Kina can pull the trigger with the Force... so it seems like they can just focus on fighting with the twin white sabers? They seem to be light enough that they should fit well into the Makashi Kina had wanted to study; there are common variants involving using two lightsabers at once.

Also, Windu's going to want Kina to include temperature dials on those sabers, too; they'll need to be able to use harmless blades while practicing, and the style of the training sabers the Order has is different enough that they might not prepare Kina very well for using hers.

Yeah, she has toggle switches for that purpose; the temperature dial on her green saber is for extra precision.

That said, the blue saber isn't just an afterthought; it's something she expects to use almost more often than dual-wielding the twin white sabers (...which have a surprisingly chromatic wake, incidentally), because the best close-quarters fight is one you're not in, and it takes less focus to shoot with her physical hands.  Still, she certainly has pulled that trick before, so she adds shooting from the 'hip' to her training regimen.

Windu will start with defensive methods; there is a relevant Jedi philosophy about never attacking unless necessary, and in theory the primary use of the lightsaber is to defend oneself. Windu trains her in each of the basic positions until she can move between them easily. They practice Soresu, with a training droid firing at her. Apart from just having the lightsaber in the right place to begin with, a key element is just being able to predict where it will shoot, and Kina has to practice with a blinding helmet, to teach her to use her Force reflexes without even looking for the droid. Windu has to modify a few of the techniques, trying to focus on teaching her angles to block with that point her lightsaber close to forwards, if she wants to fire backwards in return, as well as how to use two sabers efficiently.

After Kina can consistently block shots, Windu starts showing her some attacking techniques. They start with just the basics of how to enter a fight, integrating her previous blocking moves, but combined with a rush forward so that Kina can get to a closer range. Windu tries to focus on nonlethal strikes, and they practice both slashing through enemy blasters and using the Force to pin them down. But it's clear enough that the simplest way to stop someone is still to kill them, and so Windu does show her the best ways to do that, albeit with warnings not to do it when it can be avoided.

Finally, Windu shows her how to fight an opponent who also has a lightsaber - something that many Jedi are out of practice with, but might become very important if they end up under attack from Plagueis, or Dooku, or any lightsaber-wielding allies the Sith might have. At her age, Kina's not going to be physically capable of blocking a powerful strike from an enemy's lightsaber - she'll just end up with her own weapon pushed back into her. So Windu focuses on ways to distract her opponents, how to move away from their blades and force them to keep their attention elsewhere. If she uses two sabers at once, they'll be too busy with their own blocks to land a blow on her.

Throughout all of this, though, Windu is wondering when she'll ever need to use a lot of this. It seems like Kina is going to be capable of taking out enemies at a distance whenever possible, and anyone who tries to come close probably won't be able to hold up against her blaster and lightsabers. Really, the only time Kina would be challenged is if there are enemies coming from every angle. So he does teach her how to escape a battle. She's probably too young to be able to consistently leap over enemies, even with the Force, but she can use her small size to her advantage, taking out one enemy and then dashing through the gap. They practice against groups of both training droids and people coming at her from every direction, focusing on how to get to the side, where she can block more easily.

Watching Kina, Windu is... not relieved, it is wrong to be relieved, it would be a very good thing if she became the galaxy's greatest lightsaber combatant. But nevertheless, the part of him that keeps getting shocked by her absurd skill levels is going to feel a guilty amount of contentment at knowing that she's not perfect, no matter how ridiculous that might be. She's obviously far past anyone of her age, but she is notably not going to be at a Master level any time soon. The few times that Windu deliberately tries his best instead of giving her opportunities to hit him for learning's sake, Windu wins. The top lightsaber fighter in the galaxy really shouldn't be proud that he can beat a ten-year-old, but after everything Kina's done so far, he legitimately thought there was a chance he wouldn't be able to.

Unfortunately, this also means that she isn't going to be able to beat either of the Sith. And while it really really really shouldn't come to Kina fighting a Sith Lord, it could end up happening.

Well, if she can't win in a fair fight, then she shouldn't be fighting fair! Windu will teach her tricks to get around the usual methods of combat! Ambush ambush ambush! Blaster blaster blaster! Force Force Force! He is going to try his best to make her able to beat him someday, even if that does infringe on his status level!

And Kina does have quite the repertoire of dirty tricks to pull out, surprise lightsaber blades and blasterfire and, memorably, at least one flying wrench.

Yes! Flying wrenches are the lesser-known Form VIII, taught only to the Grand Master of the Jedi Order!

(Windu does not say this out loud. He must maintain his serious persona. They will get back to training.)

After Kina has spent two months or so, Windu is confident enough that she's capable of taking on actual opponents. The new collaborative police force is still a little disorganized, and could use some help raiding the major gangs.

Windu will check with Shmi and make sure she's not upset about Kina going off to fight.

Shmi is a little upset, but it's not like she's actually going to stop Kina, so just go.

All right! Time to raid the Pyke Syndicate!

Uh. Wait a second. Windu should at some point check if Kina is actually up for this.

Does Kina want to go on a big raid right now?

...Is it going to help?

...Hold on, wasn't that the group that killed Master Sifo-Dyas?

She doesn't want to get in a fight just because - fights don't actually solve anything, most of the time - but given how entangled in everything Sifo-Dyas has been, she thinks she should come along and see what she can see.  If she talks to her mom first and her mom agrees with her reasoning, because she didn't miss that he had a talk with her and it didn't end fondly.

She wants to solve problems, not just violently repress symptoms - and that potentially very wrongly.  Has Master Windu ever heard of a planet called Galidraan?  She went looking in the archives, trying to understand Dooku's mindset and history, and found an interesting connection between Master Yan Dooku and captured bounty-hunter Jango Fett, set on that very planet.

You know, the one who signed off on making an absurd number of clones of him in an ostensibly Jedi project and has been clammed up ever since.

See, they were on opposite sides of a pretty big fight, back on Galidraan!

One that the Council and Republic pushed for, over Dooku's on-site objections.

And it later came out that the system's governor was corrupt as all get-out, and doing some sort of reverse quadruple backflip agent thing to take out Jaster Mereel and Jango Fett's True Mandalorians as a frame job to cover for his own utilization of Death Watch Mandalorians for political assassinations.

So Kina wants to pre-register that she has no doubt that this group is actually as bad as the Council believes, because she's seen them around before, and furthermore thinks she should come along, because there's a not-insignificant chance of there being Sith afoot, but she's not just going to jump into combat because the Council says so.  She wants to have training, to make sure that she doesn't, can't, repeat that mistake.  The Chosen One being led around by her nose would be both embarrassing and potentially disastrous for the entire galaxy, let alone the Jedi Order.

Is it going to help if Yoda gives a very wise speech on how Kina should trust the Order more and has a responsibility to follow their instructions?

...yeah, he's not even going to try that. They all know how well it worked on Dooku.

Well, they could use Kina on this mission, and a few others if she approves of those. But maybe, in the future, they should assign Kina to investigating suspected criminals, to get another view on when missions are and aren't ethical?

That sounds like exactly the sort of missions she'd like.  To find where hidden harms lie, and stop them.

And Master Yoda...The Order is made of its Jedi, and the Force we serve is connection, not dominance.  We should not emulate the Sith in their compelled obedience to authority.

Okay! Then it's time to assemble the strike team!

The... not incredibly unified strike team. Like all of the new army, its members are backed by those with a desire to cut corners, so it's made up of very shoddily crafted battle droids and "soldiers" from a Republic planet - in this case, Kashyyyk - with low-quality weapons and very little training whatsoever.

Apart from Kina and Windu, the leaders of the team will be Jedi Master Agen Kolar, a Wookiee Lieutenant named Chewbacca, and... Daultay Dofine. Seriously? Was this because of a prisoner exchange, or a treaty, or something? Are they just letting all the Separatist prisoners leave?

...Well, this sure is a recipe for disaster.

Let's see if she can salvage it!

...She's very glad C3PO's here.

Kina herself has brought:

Her personal equipment (lightsabers, various; restraining cord; assortment of tools, engineering/slicing; Gungan energy shield);

Camera drones, as first utilized in the Senate battle, now modified for resilience, stealth, and security;

Communications equipment, encrypted;

A copy of the Republic Armed Services Code of Conduct, As Amended, in every unit's language;

The plans of the ten most popular blasters, pre-marked with their critical connections;

A voxcaster;

Spare parts for her equipment;

and one very disappointed expression as she looks at Dofine.

"Daultay Dofine.  Fancy seeing you here.  I should be clear that there are no advancement opportunities to be found in shooting through your own forces this time.  If hostages are taken, deploy a sniper, a Jedi, or don't bother trying.

"Lieutenant Chewbacca, I am given to understand that Wookiee vocal cords cannot make all the sounds required to speak Basic.  We will need to work around that, somehow; it impairs coordination to be unable to reliably communicate with allies.  As it is, C3PO can translate over comms, but a single point of failure is unideal.

"This is substantially a police action; they will not be substantially missed, should the choice be yourselves or them, but our ideal is that this mission's targets be taken alive, for interrogation and future trials.  Collateral damage must be minimized.

"Let's review what we know about our target, ladies, gentlemen, distinguished beings of other or no gender."

C3PO cues the holoprojector to display the briefing.

The Pyke Syndicate is one of the largest criminal enterprises in the galaxy. Trafficking drugs, most commonly spice, is their primary business, but they also involve themselves in assassinations, piracy, and the slave trade. They operate from Oba Diah, a planet with an atmosphere that... isn't poisonous, exactly, but if they stay outside for too long they might have some trouble breathing. The group is led by one Lom Pyke, and they're attacking his primary base, a tall conical tower surrounded by landing pads, and on one side, a cluster of smaller buildings. Most of the soldiers just carry pistols, but there are also various specially trained fighters called sentinels, with powerful armor and electrostaffs.

How are we going to deploy the troops? asks Chewbacca, through C-3PO. Should we land on one of the pads at the edge of the tower, or try to break through the top, or both?

"...Hmm."

"I think I'd recommend an assault that goes something like this:"

Kina lays out her plan.

0) Have explosives.

1) Kina and the Jedi scout and subtly sabotage any fixed defenses and potential escape routes, T-1 hour to shift-change; this is approximately T-45m to overt sabotage (e.g. shutting down power generation) and deployment of...

2) Droid forces advancing under field shields, pushing for the base of the tower, drawing fire and allowing...

3) the second wave of Republic troops to clear the outbuildings and mind the prisoners.

4) Master Kolar floats as a reserve and for coordination amongst second-wave forces.

5) Master Windu and Kina ascend the exterior, and take the tower top-down, assisted by a small squad of droids.

This is Case 1.

Case 2 starts from the premise of the Jedi being discovered.

2.1) At which point the Jedi will go loud, blowing most landings and power generation, and feint a push towards the base of the tower, drawing forces away from Lom Pyke's suite while...

2.2) ...droid forces scramble, securing any remaining points of egress - the landing point intended for Republic troops, especially.

2.3) Handpicked Republic forces will prepare to breach and clear Lom's suite; the rest will form a fallback point as the Jedi disengage from Lom's defenses.

2.4) The Jedi will exercise operational initiative, attacking targets of opportunity.  Afterwards, they will take point on breaching Lom's redoubt.

"There is, though, one other strategic state worth mentioning: It's not impossible that there will be a Sith somewhere.  I give it less than 1% likelihood, but if there is a Sith, the procedure is to mass fire and withdraw until Jedi deal with them."

Daultay Dofine is very opposed to Sith being here! They are scary!

Also, he's a little upset about someone else making the plan instead of him. If he isn't the person controlling things behind the scenes, they might make him fight on the battlefield. Luckily, it seems like the Jedi child wants to fight in person for some reason, so Daultay should be safe in the background.

Windu looks around. "I think we're all in agreement. Let's get started. How do we get in there for the sabotage? It'll be tricky for even Jedi to get past the patrols they have everywhere."