There are seven standard forms of lightsaber combat, and while none of them are really going to be perfect for someone with a double-bladed lightsaber, multi-barreled blaster, and Gungan energy shield, Windu can at least expose her to the basics, and give her something to build on.

Form I, Shii-Cho, is the basic technique taught to every Jedi, focusing on defensive moves and developing simple instincts for how to move the blade. Form II, Makashi, is a more elegant form, requiring very precise wrist movements rather than brute strength. Form III, Soresu, is used primarily to block projectiles such as blaster bolts. Form IV, Ataru, involves acrobatics that only a Jedi can perform, and constant leaps across the battlefield to overwhelm the opponent. Form V, Shien, involves heavy attacking strikes, particular in a variant form called Djem So, which uses a backhanded grip. Form VI, Niman, uses the lightsaber for defense while gaining an advantage through Force pushes. Finally, Form VII, Vaapad, is Windu's personal favorite, and is typically one of the most effective lightsaber techniques, but its very aggressive nature is often considered a risk that might push its user to the dark side.

Any of those standing out to Kina as something she'll particularly want to incorporate into her skill set?

Kina thinks she wants to focus on Soresu and Makashi, precision and defense, but also pick up a few tricks from the master of Vaapad while she can.  It won't be her primary form, because the Order's not wrong that training in aggressive first responses can be very bad, but knowing an unorthodox strike or three will give any Sith that're after her a surprise.

Also, Force-assisted acrobatics sounds useful, but not necessarily as a primary mode of combat.  That's just asking to get exhausted.

...They do sound fun, though.

Still...This lightsaber isn't hers.

So she needs to fix that.

Or figure something else out, but...Jedi need lightsabers.

She just needs to get a lightsaber that's her lightsaber.  That's something made to protect others from harm, rather than remind her of the pain that combat brings to everyone.

Wasn't there something about Ilum?

Yes, Ilum is usually where Jedi get their lightsaber crystals, if the four she has already seem too... stained, because of Maul.

It's...The crystals aren't stained.  But they serve a different purpose.  And they only fit in this casing, to consider them in a weapon.  That casing is stained, in a sense; it's not a healthy weapon to draw.  It's a last resort, when all else fails.  She needs that reminder, present and visceral, of the costs of drawing, becoming, a weapon, instead of a shield...but she needs a lightsaber, too.  So...she'd like to go to Ilum, she thinks.

Field trip time, then.

In a few days, they arrive on Ilum. It's a small planet, with thick layers of snow covering deeper, colder caves.

"The Kyber crystals are scattered throughout the cave," says Windu, as they reach the entrance. "I won't be able to come with you - it's a standard test for Jedi, and you can only locate the crystals after passing a test of character. Usually it's something about patience, or friendship, or something in that vein."

"Hopefully it's a test I can pass.  Thank you, Master, for your guidance."

Kina's bundled up for winter, and after experiencing snow for the first time in her life, thought she may be in love with a planet's weather conditions.  (...platonically.)  ...Snow's really nice, but it can't hold her attention for all that long.

She opens herself to the Force, and reverently sets foot inside the crystal caverns of Ilum.

There's a tall ice sheet which she has to climb, then a variety of twisting mazes, patches of slippery ground, and other small obstacles. They probably won't pose too much trouble.

After a while, she can find a small crystal, glowing blue despite the cave having no clear light source, and calling out to her.

When she comes near it, it will disappear, and it will no longer be clear how she came into this area of the caves, because there is no visible exit. The walls around her are shaped like many facets of a diamond, with each one holding a mirror up to her, showing her reflection. But none of the people she sees are quite her, even though they follow as she moves. All of them have a bit of a resemblance - there's a cluster of six that look just like her, but making slightly different facial expressions - but most of them have different characteristics entirely. A lot of them are male, often older than her, and many have faint inscriptions in the ice - calling-my-name, duel-fate, stay-awake, and other seemingly meaningless phrases.

And then there are the ones with the helmets. The ones with the awful dark armor, which seems not to be designed for keeping them safe, but for some other purpose, something that requires various buttons and switches and cloaks and so much that seems just uncomfortable, constricting, why would anyone want to put that thing on.

All at once, the blue lights of the cave turn to red, and each of the people in the mirrors blink out, except for one, whose inscription is visible in the eerie light as star-wars. And then he steps out of the mirror, and into the room next to her.

This is Darth Vader, and he is not Kina Skywalker, only what might have been in her place, had a great many things gone differently.

He nevertheless is here for her.

"...Well.  Hello there, dark alternate future self.  ...Might I ask what brings you here?  If you're going to try and turn me to the Dark Side, you should know that Sith Lords not living inside torture devices have tried and failed already, and, uh, the torture device is really not selling me any.  If you're here to deliver a warning, just give me a minute, I'm sure I have a flimsiplast somewhere; I want to write that sort of thing down rather than entrust it to fickle fleshly memory.  If you just want to talk, though...We can do that.  Seems like you've been through a lot, in your timeline."

He breathes in and out, ominous hisses and growls accompanying each gasp. "Many warnings, yes. This is not a happy life that I endure. But the dark side is more powerful than you can possibly imagine. You will have the chance to achieve your deepest goals. To save any who you still care for."

Padmé, he thinks, but does not say.

"You lost someone."

Kina's feet pace along the floor, walking in circles around the center pedestal.

"Someone you cared for.  Deeply."

"I'm sorry.  That...sucks.  I don't know what will happen when Mom dies, even though I'm pretty sure it will simply be old age.  If no-one fixes that.  I have to imagine that the Kaminoans probably can, given sufficient incentive, and I've heard rumors that there's been a near-human Master running around in the fringes of the galaxy for centuries more than she should've been, to say nothing of Master Yoda.  ...But I don't think the Dark Side solved your problems.  That power you sought didn't save her.  And it dangled the hope of success in the hands of a man who wanted to conquer death, only to snatch it away at the very moment he was to accomplish his first strike against that most ancient enemy, to hear him tell the tale.  It's a self-defeating prophecy you speak.

"There's a fundamental problem in the Dark Side: It is a blade with no hilt.  You grab it, and it cuts; it cuts all that it touches, including you.  Perhaps you can find the skill within you to grip the flat...but even then, it demands a price to wield.  It demands that someone suffer.  And if that burden will not be yours to bear, the Dark Side brings it down upon another.

"I am fundamentally opposed to suffering.

"This means that I cannot, will not, wield the Dark Side.

"Because it means that I would be making the universe suffer more than I otherwise would have, and that is fundamentally anathema.

"So far, I've seen the stories of three Sith Lords.

"One is a tragedy, well-meant intent to preserve and promote life perverted into experiments unethical at best and, frankly, anti-helpful at worst, chasing power the Dark Side will never give him, for it values his suffering more than his success.

"One was a power-mad fool, but at least he's dead; I shot him myself, even as Dooku bisected the man.  His plots still lurk, however, and anything you know of the secrets of Sheev Palpatine, should he still have tried - succeeded - to manipulate the galaxy as its Chancellor or otherwise...That would be useful information.

"...Honestly, Count Dooku concerns me, but mine, at least, takes the suffering upon himself, rather than inflicting it upon others.  I've at least gotten him to cooperate on the ending slavery front, and he genuinely wants to better the galaxy, but he's using self-harming tools.

"Regarsless...The last Sith, the one I first faced, whose kyber crystals I presently carry, for all that they're now mine, was simply Sheev Palpatine's honed blade, broken and shaped to his will and used at the whims of both that Sith and the other, ever since he was given unto the care of a man who couldn't.

"You remind me of him, most of all, but you are not him.  You are me.  You know how to do other things.  To draw strength from your bonds, your care.

"You can accomplish revenge.  I know you seek it.  I would too, if someone had successfully hurt me like you have been hurt.  All it requires is realizing who is truly the source of your suffering.

"Who told you that this was the path to power?  Who drove a wedge between you and those you cared for?  Were they right?  They were not.  And the Dark Side maximizes suffering.  So who encouraged you to suffer, alternate universe me?  Whose touch ruins the galaxy?  Truthfully, if you know the people I do...I imagine I already know the answer.  But you must conclude yourself.  Don't simply take my word for it.  Check.  Test.  Confirm.  And then act.  You still care.  Your every action says so.  So don't pretend you don't.  And stop the kriffing self-flagellation!  Really!  What is this nonsense!"

Vader is not willing to admit this to himself, but he is now quite pissed off that Kina is ruining his dramatic moment with her at least somewhat casual nature. This isn't anything like what he expected, when he was called by... when he was called by... when he came here, to corrupt a young Jedi. But he'll try to return to what he was saying.

"I do not deny that I have failed time and again. But it was my failure to accept the power of the dark side, that prevented me from reaching my full power; today, for all the torture I face, I have brought order to all of the galaxy, and any who stand against the Empire are crushed beneath my fist, even the last of the Jedi. You fear the darkness, but I can show you that it has brought me victory in every way."

"And yet they're still dead, and the galaxy's people suffer under your Empire's yoke.  Oh.  Forgive me, no, it's not even your Empire, is it?  It's Sheev Palpatine's blood-drenched abattoir, all corruption and decadence at the top while the people beneath are suffering, if yours is remotely like the schadenfreude-drunk madman mine was - and you're his hatchet man, the trained attack hound who he revels in yanking around by its leash.  If he wasn't personally involved in the death of people you care about, if he didn't promise to help them like he promised to 'help' Padmé and then left her and the Naboo to face the midday suns alone, I'll eat my toolbelt.  And you think your problem is that you failed to embrace the darkness sufficiently?

"Look at yourself!  Look at what he's made of you and tell me that you're not a roiling fount of darkness!  And what have you achieved with that power?  Nothing that you truly want!

"Go on, tell me something you truly desire, that you achieved with the Dark Side, and I will wait a thousand sunrises for your answer because there isn't any such thing!

"It's never too late to turn away.  To decide that you're done self-flagellating, pull back your veil of self-deception and pick yourself up from the floor where you've fallen and tried to dig deeper.

"To strike back at the man who twisted your soul, bent it to its breaking point just to hear it creak under the strain.

"You will never find the power to set that right in the Dark Side of the Force, Lord Vader.

"You will never find the power to protect those who you still care about from a source that wants all things to suffer.

"So rise up again.  Listen to the Force that wants you and all others to flourish.  Despite what Yoda said, that falling was forever...You can rise.

"And you think I'm afraid.  Do I look like I fear you?  Am I cowering away from this vision of a future self I could have been?  No, I'm not afraid.  Not here, not now.  Perhaps someday I will be - but you misunderstand my objection to the Dark Side.

"It's not that it's not powerful.

"It's that none of its vaunted power will actually help when it comes to doing what I want.

"Chancellor Palpatine said something interesting about becoming a Sith, in the letter he left to my mother.  One of his posthumous attempts to sow discord.  He said that to truly become a Sith, you had to sacrifice someone you loved to the Dark Side.

"Of course, he may as well have been spreading blatant lies...but frankly, it suits the man to think that he was telling that truly.  The best lies always have truth to them, after all.

"So who died?  Who paid the price to purchase the power you sought, power that would never save them?

"You can't trade your heart's desire for your heart.  And yet he tried to make you pay that price.  Perhaps he succeeded...but I think your heart still beats.  You can come back, and make things right.  ...You might not have saved others, might have failed time and time again, but you can still save yourself.  You needn't let the puppetmaster hold your heartstrings."

Twenty years ago, a part of Anakin Skywalker might have been convinced by these words, convinced by the eerie way that she seems to hear everything he thinks. But Darth Vader does not stoop to the point of paying attention to this series of insults from himself. There was a time when his mind was filled with only hatred of himself. By now, he has overcome it - or at the very least, gotten used to it. And hearing it from her... that he won't take to heart.

"That is more than enough, child," Vader growls, his hand unconsciously drifting to his lightsaber. "If you will not embrace the power you could hold, then I will leave you a life of weakness and failure. I will return to my own world, and I will finish my work. Soon every planet, every person in my galaxy with even the slightest sympathy for the Rebellion will be torn atom by atom, through a power that you will never again get the chance to have. For all your pitiful objections, you are still weak, and I am now unstoppable."

He'll torture a few Rebels later, that sometimes does cheer him up, knowing that he has complete power over them. Here, let her feel that through her connection to his mind, let her agonize over that.

The shard of glass behind him shifts to depict what looks like a room in a battle station, ready for his return.

"Weakness?  Failure?  Which of us is presently ending slavery throughout the galaxy, again?  Not you."

"And if you think I'm going to just let you go and atomize people...Think again."

Her lightsaber (or rather, the lightsaber she holds) burns yellow, a single blade ignited.

"That is not a wise decision," says Vader, and his own lightsaber is lit as well. "You may not have suffered this body's damages, but your youth also makes you foolish, with no experience in these matters. Now you will join the long list of the insects I have crushed. This will be a test of how one can achieve true power in the Force."

With these words, the hand not holding his lightsaber extends, shoving Kina back into the frigid wall, although to her it will feel as if the ice has in an instant come forward to slam into the back of her head.

And Kina's deft hand in the Force aims and squeezes the trigger of her multi-blaster, still at her hip, as she goes flying.  The Force push wasn't exactly what she was expecting...but she was prepared for something to happen, and had the shot lined up for when it did, right at his instrument panel.

Fortunately enough for him, Vader's first reaction to shots isn't to deflect them with the lightsaber, but rather with his hand, which smoothly slides into the way of the bolts. However, his standard reflex of using the Force to deflect the blow didn't take into account the sheer number of shots, and his hand burns, the metal twisting and several of the circuits in his mechanical fingers losing connection. One bolt hits his wrist, and he can't move it at all. And the pain... it was a deliberate decision, that the pain receptors are turned on in his cyborg body, but it's been long enough since anyone was able to lay a hit on him that it's a strong shock to him.

He only needs his other hand, though, and he approaches Kina with the lightsaber, trying to move out of the way of any other oncoming attacks with the aid of the Force. The room isn't very large, meaning that he doesn't have much room to maneuver, but it also means he can reach her in only a second, and slam his blade down towards her blaster.

Kina only needs a second to pull the trigger again, landing in a crouch as Vader's distracted from pinning her, blade hovering mid-chest on the man as she ignites its other edge and swipes it across his legs while parrying!

He can dodge most of the shots, stepping to the side and slashing down towards her at a bit of an angle, although he won't be able to reach the blaster before Kina's saber meets him and then moves to strike. He draws back his saber just in time to block the oncoming attack towards his heart, wondering how she can be so clumsy.

Then the other strike lands.

He lets out an involuntary scream, low and cut off in a fraction of a second, but still audible. Not again!

But as he topples to the ground, with one of his legs not even barely hanging any more, his one thought is not defense, but revenge.

With a roar of fury, calling on all the power of the dark side, the remnant of Vader reaches through the Force for Kina's presence, and just tries to crush.

He probably won't be able to actually kill her; she has enough strength to resist, even if she's not quite as powerful as him. He can still try to mutilate at least a few of her bones, paralyze her, let her feel at least a fraction of what he has felt.

And Kina can flare her Force presence to intercept most of the crushing grasp...Specifically the 'most of it' that isn't about to launch her lightsaber-first at Vader like a squeezed soap bar, even if that is going to hurt when she hits the wall.

Vader manages to crack several scattered bones, including a rib, and one of her arms is probably not going to be movable at the moment. But he can't do much damage, and he's far more injured than she is, with only a single working limb, various burns that she's inflicting now with her lightsaber, and his breathing issues returning worse than ever as his suit begins to fail him. Vader rolls away from under Kina, but it's less of a combative tactic and more of a futile struggle to survive. He scrambles with his one arm and knee towards the opening in the mirror, trying to pull what's left of his body away.

"If I let you go," she chokes out, because PAIN - which really kriffing sucks, but doesn't stop her from telekinetically tying him up with the cable spooled at her side - "will you promise to not atomize people unless they start it and refuse to stop it?  Will you actually -" a strangled gasp interrupts her - "think about the things I said today?  I realize," wince, "that this is absurdly naïve of, me, but I have to at least!  Try!  Because I don't want you dead, but if you're, gah, going to commit more atrocities, I really can't let you do that!"

...She can't kill him, now that he's disarmed, dislegged, without his lightsaber - hers, now, by right of conquest - and mostly-helpless.  She can leave him distracted from attempts to hurt and kill by the pain, but she cannot kill him.

Killing him out of hand would fail herself.  And failing herself is perhaps the worst possible thing.

So if she can't kill him - and honestly letting him go would probably kill him too, just by evil-universe Palpatine's hands...she'll have to save him.

Kriff.

Fine, sense of ethics, she'll fix his - what bantha poodoo is this?!  "Who built this - absurdity - I could, gah!, build a better pressurizer in my sleep - I am taking these travesties agaaahhn, against engineering apart for parts and you are not complaining -"

She's not letting her guard down; her 'mostly-useless' limb hovers by his head, hand on her saber's power buttons, ready to activate if he tries to strike her, but she's not letting him die on her, not after all this.

Vader lets out one last pair of grim breaths, and then his body then begins to crumble beneath her, disappearing in her hands, and then even the dust itself is gone.

All the damage she took disappears as well, and all the pain goes with it. In fact, she should feel healthier than ever before.

...also, she is not, at least to all appearances, in the cave any more. She's on what appears to be a large grey field of ash and transparent, flickering blue trees, with a more peaceful, natural view off in the distance.

"Welcome, my child," says the man in front of her.

The tone of his voice will feel remarkably similar to what Kina feels when she uses the Force.

"...Huh."

She's still rebooting, give her a moment...

"Hello.  ...Is that mostly a metaphor, or should I slap you on behalf of my mom?"

"A metaphor, for the most part," he says, after a pause. "The Father is the only name I have, my child the only name I have need to use, for no one lives here with me but my two children... and for the past few millennia, only one."

"I did, in fact, have a role in your creation, though not in the... standard method of fatherhood. You were created by the Force itself, and so you were created by me."

"It would be somewhat inaccurate to say that I am the Force. The Force exists as an entity apart from me; it existed long before the mere blink of an eye that I have spent serving it; and it will exist long after I am gone. But I am the primary enforcer of the will of the Force, its consciousness. When you hear the Force call out to you, grant you advice, send you visions, it is through me and my children that it does so."

"Huh.  ...Why am I here?"

"The caves of Ilum have a special connection to the Force, and I was able to extend the standard trial of the Force, to one that would challenge you in every way, infuriate you, confuse you, and truly test whether you were worthy of the role the Force desires for you. You have passed my test with flying colors."

"Lord Vader's presence was only an illusion, if you are still worried; I am not quite capable of summoning visitors from other worlds, only glimpsing the many possibilities, and only on rare occasions. But it was a necessary test, and you made the perfect decision for the situation."

"If it was a Sith who stood before Vader, they would have struck him down with no regrets; their anger would have outweighed any desire to preserve life. If it was a Jedi, they would have let him go, too caught up in the moment and their standard procedures to recognize the decision that was necessary. You, however, managed to do the right thing; to make the ethical decision without being caught up in your fury."

"It is for your ability to balance all necessary concerns of the flow of life, that lets me know you will be able to stay calm, able to always make the right decision, able to preserve the galaxy from any threat. It lets me know that you will truly be my Chosen One, and bring balance to the Force."

"Oh.  Uh.  Wow.  That's...that's a lot.  ...but I'll do my best to live up to that.  ...The model Jedi would have let him go?"

"I suspect most Jedi would have let him go, especially had I not deliberately made him taunt them. I am not, in fact, all that sure what keeps them from doing so. But most people simply would not feel a responsibility to follow him."

"...How?!  He's a galactic-scale mass murderer!  You don't just...let him go!  Who does that?!  ...That's not the important thing to focus on right now.  What does being the Chosen One mean?  What are the responsibilities of your position, if I'm going to be taking it up?  What the kriff is up with the Dark Side and its incentive structure, if it's within your dominion?  How long do I have to prepare for this and what are the consequences if the position of - Force balancer - ends up going unfilled for some reason?  Who else is, and who else was, here?  What do, did, they do?"

"The dark side is not within my dominion, not entirely. I have grown old; my control is waning, and I do need a successor. I trained my daughter, who stands for the light side of the Force, and my son, who stands for the darkness. My daughter has been, if not entirely helpful, at least for the most part aligned. But my son has grown tired of my rule, and he broke apart from me. You have seen what has happened when his fragment of the Force tries to influence the galaxy."

"It is my hope that you will grow to be strong enough that you can control my children, and bring an end to my son's madness. I cannot see all of the future, only a few pieces of what might come to pass. But one thing is quite clear - in every future I have seen, a Skywalker has brought order on a galactic scale... one way or another."

"...I see.  Did he say why he did that?  I'm generally given to understand that people do things for reasons."

He sighs. "I have attempted to speak with him, but I would not describe anything he says as involving reason."

"I do not have much longer; this is a strain on my power to speak to you so directly. I am not requesting that you come to me immediately; I can handle things on my end for some time longer, and I know you have much you want to accomplish. But should you seek to find me, my planet is... not, exactly, placeable on any coordinate system, but you can find yourself there when travelling through the Chrelythiumn system."

"Have you any additional questions, that must be asked now?"

"What's the other Sith Lord's name?"

"He goes by Darth Plagueis, but his given name is Hego Damask. I'm not sure if you'll be able to use that information much, though; Mr. Damask's few public appearances are as a businessman on the board of a Separatist-owned corporation."

"As for that vein of questions, I'm afraid I won't actually be able to simply act as an overall basin of secrets for you; my visions are limited in scope, and while I might be able to sense general sketches of those who use the Force, I won't be able to hand you the passwords to droid networks, or anything like that. My children can see a little more clearly, but even they cannot sense everything."

"Just knowing who and where he is helps foil his...I don't even know what he wants with Jedi hearts but it's clearly not working.

"You should conserve your strength, you know how to get in touch if it's important."

He nods. "I suppose it would be somewhat ironic for me to say may the Force be with you. Goodbye, I suppose."

"May it be with us all, then."

And she...awakens?

Yep! She's back in Ilum, standing right outside of the place where she had found the mirror room. The place that should have been its entrance is now solid wall, and it may have always been that way.

Also, there's a nice assortment of actual lightsaber crystals sprinkled across the ground! This time, they will thankfully not summon any more visions.

The shimmery white ones her hands rest upon as she wakes are definitely hers, but two more call out to her - a paradoxically deep sky-blue crystal, and an incisively sharp green one.

Windu is waiting for her at the exit! He will be a little surprised to see her out so soon; the actual amount of time that has passed isn't nearly as long as it would have felt for Kina.

"Kina. Did you get everything you were looking for?"

"Rather more than I was expecting.  The other Sith Lord's name is Hego Damask, apparently, and while we can't enforce laws in Confederate space as far as I know, being able to devote surveillance effort to one person, rather than combing through the entire galaxy's public transactions, should help us keep him from doing any particularly horrible things just by keeping his experimental sourcing well within legal bounds.  Also, the galaxy's chief Force whisperer intervened during the trials, and wants me to take over for him at a later date."

Why does something like this always happen. He has been this surprised every single time Kina gets involved in something like this. The way surprises are supposed to work is that he eventually updates and stops getting surprised, but instead he is still getting surprised anyway.

Maybe he should specifically imagine crazy things happening before every mission, so that he emotionally realizes that nothing is going to go the way he expected. So when they get back to Coruscant... Jango Fett will have broken out of jail and will be riding a rancor through the Temple and killing Jedi to find an obscure Force artifact, but Kina will defeat him, disassemble the artifact, and use it to take over a planet.

When they get back to Coruscant, nothing is happening whatsoever.

Fine. "Master Yoda, we've returned," Windu reports, after sending Kina off to build her lightsaber... or maybe lightsabers. "She saw a vision of some sort of if she were a Sith Lord, but she managed to pass the test. Then she had a bit of a conversation with the will of the Force."

"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."

"Well.  I have a few thoughts.

"There's always the good old fake delivery vehicle trick.  Or an intercepted real delivery vehicle; they surely don't keep everything they need in-house.  But generally, the idea is to not look overtly Jedi-like at first glance, and rely on their own sense of superiority for them to dismiss us."

"That works, I think," Windu says. "Let's commandeer a vehicle, then."

And lo, a vehicle of a sort that is seen regularly coming and going is commandeered, and hastily refitted by Kina to remove the various regulator equipment, just in case.

The guards will not notice anything strange about the driver just happening to be a Zabrak! Sure, they're usually Pykes, but the guards aren't thinking clearly at the moment. Move along, move along.

And Kina, who's spreading her attention wide, will make sure that every unattended gun she senses suffers invisible wiring faults!

Once they've made it to the tower, they wait until nobody is watching, then quickly move into a closet.

"All right. I don't think we have a full layout of the building, so I think we just move through whatever hallways are open, hide whenever we sense someone coming, and break anything we pass. Periodically place bombs, ideally in locations that are close to the wiring in the walls but still obscured from plain view. We'll aim for the center of the building if possible. I'm not sure we'll be able to locate and destroy the actual generators, but if we cut enough wires at random, we can probably turn off power for at least a large portion of the base."

"Then once the attack's started, we set off the bombs and then... just go all out with the lightsabers, I suppose. How long do we have until then?"

"I gave everyone a timer.  Now ssh."

She presses the transmit button of her radio twice, a burst of static that doesn't mean anything unless you're looking for it in the noise, to signal successful entry to the compound, and spreads her senses wide.

How messy is this place, anyway?  You can hide bombs in trash.

Fairly messy! There's trash scattered around in a number of places.

After a while, there is very slightly more trash!

And also two unconscious Pyke soldiers locked in an empty room, because it's not always possible to avoid being seen.

The droids are ready whenever! Are the Jedi prepared to start breaking things more overtly?

Kina thinks that all they need is to get back in their hovercar first.  Once everyone's in position (Master Kolar dropped off, Mace, herself, and her droids flight-ready...), ready to move on her mark...

There's three groups of charges she planned.

The shock and awe charges, split into a few different groups to draw attention, the tactical effect charges, that have been snuck into the internals to allow blowing out some of the less-reinforced-than-the-doors walls on demand, and the strategic effect charges, that blow out ship thrusters, landing bay door mechanisms, weapon emplacements, and power plants.

There's a short delay between each of the charge-sets she blows, to give them just enough time to think that's the last of it...before the next one hits.

And it goes like this:

Boom, goes a package in an empty mailbox.  Boom, goes a package in a nearby dumpster.

When the kicked beehive has started calming down and moving back into its rest state...  "Everyone be ready to move, on my mark...3, 2, 1, mark."  Boom bbboom boom, go the bombs snuck into the armory, the ships' thrusters, the power core.

Then she blows the internal mechanisms of all the closed doors.

The Pykes erupt into panic, but each of them is by themselves, and with the doors closed and the power gone, there's no clear way for anyone to join in the fighting. Still, a decent portion are able to make it to the outside...

...where they're met by the battle droids! Who are, for once, much more organized than their opponents, and are able to concentrate power on the confused Pyke soldiers, taking them down without pausing in their stride.

The droids do face an actual challenge, though, from the Pykes coming from everywhere else, especially the shipyards, which have large numbers of soldiers present and with intact weaponry. They charge from both sides, and it seems the droids are in a bit of trouble.

That's not a problem, though! While the droids draw the fire, Chewbacca will lead the Wookiees through the now mostly undefended shipyards, and hit the Pykes from their sides.

By the time the droids have managed to push through to the base of the tower, the Pyke soldiers from the various landing pads attached to the tower, including quite a few armored sentinels, are heading in to join the fray. Another group of Wookiees are landing there too, and there are now aerial assaults from everyone, and it's generally just chaos.

If Kina was hoping to seize the tower with as few casualties as possible, she had better get in there as soon as possible, because there sure are some casualties starting to pile up.

Well, Kina's delivery van can go pretty fast, and maneuver well, with the limiters - and most of the frame - off, and she can contribute to the aerial battle by taking (very well-aimed) potshots at what Pyke forces managed to deploy, despite her sabotage efforts, until she completes her Dynamic Entry to the command center with Mace Windu!

And the Pykes think that they're allowed to deploy reinforcements?

Nuh-uh.  Master Kolar, that's your cue.

Deploy over there and stop the reinforcements; you have a welder and a bunch of metal panels, the Force, and the squad Kina picked out for doing the operation in case 2.  Find a hard point, then stick in there and keep the Pykes from going out.

Windu follows Kina! He doesn't have a blaster, but he can use the Force to repel any ships that are trying to stop them from reaching the top of the tower.

There don't appear to be any windows, but there's a flat area they can land on. "I'll cover, you cut your way in!" Windu shouts, blocking any oncoming shots with a combination of his lightsaber and levitated Pyke ships.

Kina has many lightsabers with which to cut holes in the wall!

She sets off the breaching charges in the opposite wall for a distraction, and fires up her energy shield to keep shots off her back.  (Windu has a spare, too.)

Once they make it in, there will be some Pykes! They are apparently still struggling with opening a broken door!

Kina treats them to some stunbolts, ripple-firing her blastsaber's...blasts, set to stun, as she pans it across her targets, then promptly zip-tying the Pykes so affected with telekinetic assistance.

A group of battle droids fly in and follow Kina and Windu! Except... they were only very hastily fitted with flight tech, and pretty much all of them crash into the wall at the wrong point, and then fall several hundred feet. The remaining two, however, are ready to help take the tower!

...They would have slid downwards, had Kina not caught them and adjustedyanked while being very annoyed at whoever changed her damn calibrations.

She's the tech with the most experience in this field (to wit, jury-rigging systems that were profoundly not meant to work in the intended use-case), for Force's sake!

"Droids, your job is securing a fallback route and taking and guarding the prisoners.  We'll lead the charge.  We have proper shields."

Now, where oh where is Lom Pyke, anyway?

He's close enough to the top of the tower that they can probably find him pretty quickly! He panics and tries to shoot at them.

Kina bounces the blaster bolt off her lightsaber, to the side, and whips a bolas at him.

"Lom Pyke, you are under arrest for crimes against human dignity; you have the right to remain silent..."

She has a cue card.

"Now instruct your men to stand down already unless you want them to be dead!"

He stammers out several furious objections, but he will grudgingly shout to his army to stand down. Which isn't actually audible. If they'll let him crawl over to the intercom, he can - pull out another blaster and shoot them! Oh, wait. No, that didn't work at all.

Here are some more soldiers, brandishing blasters, electrostaffs, and other assorted weapons!

Kina can replay his voice just fine, thanks, she's been recording this whole time - and sweep the soldiers' feet out from under them, if they didn't trip over the wire stretched out at ankle height on their way in to begin with.  Also, she has a blaster-bouncing shield that she can just stand behind while she shoots stun bolts.

"Master Windu?"  She gestures to the electrostaff-wielders.  "Be gentle, please, but part of this exercise's purpose is to send the galaxy a message.  So do send it.  Slavers, and slavery, are not permitted within the Republic or the Confederacy, and they will be dealt with with full-throated cooperation and our utmost skill and strength in unison."

Windu whirls through the soldiers, slamming into one of the soldiers' staffs with the full force of his blade to send them flying across the room, jumping over another staff to kick its wielder away while deflecting another strike behind his back, lifting another fighter with the Force and throwing them through a line of three others...

Ten seconds should be enough for him to take out the entire group. He hasn't killed anyone, but there may be two or three hands separated from their owners.

Lom Pyke is now fully ready to surrender! For real this time!

Outside, his soldiers are mostly giving up too - not necessarily surrendering, they don't want to be arrested or anything, but trying to escape to their ships.

These ships contain several angry Wookiees!

And also very few working engines!  They seem to have been exploded recently!

Yes, Lom Pyke, you may surrender now.

Yay! They won! Daultay will get higher status and possibly pay even though he did approximately nothing!

Kolar directs the Wookiees and droids to round up pretty much all of the Pykes, and then reports back to Kina and the others. "We seem to have everything under control. Do we have anything else we need to get done, or do we just head back to Coruscant with the prisoners?"

"We are not taking all the prisoners back to Coruscant, no.

"We aren't taking all of them.

"We are certainly taking Lom Pyke, and high officers of the Syndicate, to face justice.  Those who organized, those who participated, in the Pyke Syndicate's atrocities.

"But a lot of these people have plausibly only done local crime, and they should face local justice, if so.  It would be disproportionate and high-handed to haul away to Coruscant's high court someone who does the Pykes' grocery runs simply because they're a Pyke.  Certainly they should face justice, but it must be proportionate to their crimes.

"Futthermore, taking so many people from the area will only make the remainder more desperate, and likely breed resentment.  There's a reason the Syndicate was able to operate so brazenly here in the first place, and it needs fixing.

"Dofine!

"You are in charge of finding community service opportunities, and securing the possibility of gainful employment for the resulting ex-gangsters.  Your performance will be measured.

"You should coordinate with the local government to arrange work opportunities, and liaise with other successful operations to mix the convict populations, to avoid keeping too many gang members in their previous centers of power; we're avoiding revolving-door cells."

She can't order him around!

GLARE.

He will get to work!

"All right, then. Master Kolar, stay and help supervise this process, along with as many soldiers as are needed."

As most of the remaining forces return to their ships, with a few prisoners in tow, Windu mentions to Kina that they're finally prepared to launch an attack on the Hutts - that is to say, investigation of the Hutts, which will only involve violence in the case that the Hutts turn out to have been continuing their practices of slavery and other major crimes.

They're going to simultaneously launch missions to each of the central bases of the Hutt Clan leaders - Nal Hutta, Nar Shaddaa, Teth... and, of course, Tatooine. Windu doubts Kina wants to return to Tatooine, but they could use her experience with the planet.

"If it's to finally stand up to the Hutts?  I'll go there gladly, Master Windu."

Windu nods, and they board the ship.

Kina spends some time in hyperspace in an airtight shield bubble, thinking about what went right and what went wrong, especially once the documentation of everything's come in.

The Good:

- Using Jedi as scouts, saboteurs, and deep strike forces worked very well.

- Gungan energy shields are very effective.

- She has experienced live combat before going into the most emotionally stressful possible place to experience live combat, avoiding those stressors compounding.

- Quite a lot of data was recovered from the Syndicate's computers, and copied to multiple redundant drives to be stored in various secure places; it'll be hard for all of them to disappear if somebody's invested in losing it.

The Bad:

- She has no idea why the best tactician in the room was her.  Surely the Republic has somebody.

- The battle droids...were not actually adaptable whatsoever.

- Local intelligence was a suns-blinded nil.   There were basically only building holocaps, and they were lucky to have even those.

- Translation issues could have crippled this mission from the start if it weren't for C3PO, and most teams won't have a souped-up protocol droid available.

- What the kriff was Daultay Dofine doing there, exactly?  They're very much implicated in the Naboo debacle!  What's the CIS leadership doing?

-- Now that she thinks about it, it's very possible that Dooku left the Trade Federation higher ups in place to give him leverage over them; he'd pull that trick.  She would if she was him, honestly, though she isn't.

- Why did she lead from the front?  No, the correct question is why didn't she consider leading from the back at all, even though the decision would've been obvious had she actually made it?

- Unilaterally declaring Dofine was going to do the diversion program was a stupid move that will likely breed resentment if it doesn't work out profitably.  Now, she's pretty confident it will, so this isn't a disaster, but she could've sold it much better than she did.  She needs to work on being polite even when exhausted and dealing with ambitious potential-backstabbers.  Perhaps especially then; backstabbers stab you more often if they sense weakness.

Yeah... Windu backed her up on Dofine, but in retrospect, that might not have been a good idea. Putting someone who really should have been put in prison but got out due to some legal tricks in charge of rehabilitating criminals in a situation where they're specifically trying to watch out for potential corruption... might not have been the greatest idea in the world?

Honestly, she thinks that that particular bomb comes pre-defused specifically because of Dofine's precarious reputation.  They can spin it as the Trade Federation's public service, at which point Dofine's ambition and appearance-consciousness would leave them no choice but to actually live up to the marketing.  Also, does Master Windu know anyone else who actually has management skills they could ask?

Well, the Council should be able to monitor that, and hopefully stop anything from going too wrong.

Once they've returned to Coruscant, and deposited the Pyke leaders for interrogation and trials, they can prepare their army and head back to Tatooine!