“Sir, we’re all ready to move out on your command.”
Anders was not a general. He was not a military commander, nor a soldier, and never in his thirty-three years of life had he been left in command of a small platoon.
However, Anders was the Combat Master. He was an expert in analysis of both individual and team strengths and weaknesses, both in the physical and mental. What would make tbem efficient killing machines? How could they improve?
“Very good, Lok. Have the platoon ready to advance on my command.”
A salute was given, and the young Human returned to the team. Green. That was hoe Anders would describe them. They had potential, though their experience was woefully lacking.
Unlike Rhylance. His fellow Chiss was a brilliant tactician the likes of which only General Thrawn could compare. However, he lacked the Force, an advantage Anders intended to take advantage of.
Of course, Rhylance was likely expecting that.
Then there was Azler Wilder himself. The wildcard. The unknown entity. A potential Skywalker-like enemy on the battlefield, he was to be treated as a high-priority target until proven otherwise.
“We going?” A young Human woman stretched her back. Anders had learned her name was Ethra. “Finally! I’ve been itching to shoot something!”
“This is a training exercise,” Anders reiterated. “You will treat it as if your life is on the line, or this exercise is pointless.”
“Yeah, yeah. Whatever,” Ethra rolled her eyes as she cleaned the barrel of her blaster rifle. “What I hear is shoot anything that moves.”
A sly grin crossed her face as the platoon laughed behind her. The only one who didn’t, the professional amongst them, was Lok.
Anders sighed. This was going to be a long day.
The silver-haired Echani stood amongst his group, having instructed the ten to simply take hold of their preferred weapon or at very least whatever they had scored their best training exercises on. A simple enough order, one that didn’t raise much in the way of questions, but he was doing his best to get the lay of the warriors under his command.
As the seconds ticked by, Azler was taking longer than he needed, but that was what he wanted. The time for inner thoughts to begin to bubble up a bit louder. With an inhale of breath and a tilt of his head as he closed his eyes, he extended his senses to the near-dozen around him. Anxiety among a few, confidence in others, some worried about getting eliminated quickly, others intending to take as many as possible, all with the hope of winning, if to varying degrees.
Snapping his blue eyes open, he grinned and raised a hand, clenching it into a fist. “I have glanced to what lies ahead of us, and so long as each of you stands your ground, ignore the primitive desire to flee and embrace the urge to fight, we will claim victory this day,” the Priest proclaims, the lie greeted with a handful of approving exclamations around him. It was in this moment that he wished he was more trained in Farsight, especially against these enemies, but that was neither here nor there. “You’re not my first group to lead into battle, and while your numbers may be smaller, I assure you that this will be just as prosperous. Simply remember, if you fear being shot, running away only leads to the blast being upon your back - take them down before they take you down. Besides, you all want to come out of this with bragging rights, right?”
As the unit starting making rowdy remarks to each other, some embracing bravado and claiming high numbers, others talking of redemption, snide comments to each other, and other bits of the like, Wilder simply gave a silent grin. Working up a crowd was always entertaining. After a moment of letting them getting it out of their system, he glanced around himself before getting their attention once more beginning to detail out their positioning, the two who preferred longest-ranged and were most confident about it in his invasion of their feelings being ordered to work together with two of the medium-ranged and one close range, the other four, two medium and two close, being orchestrated together as well. He did not plan to split the group, but if it happened, he wanted each to know who they were to try to meet up with.
However, he also pulled aside three that he felt the highest mix of both determination and pragmatic feelings - he had special orders for them.
Once the general formation had been spread, he glanced to the comlink he had - the test was starting.
“Alright, eyes open, ears trained, mouths shut ladies and gents. I promise you they think we’re the easy team, let’s show them how hard an underdog can bite,” the Priest preaches, a hand motioning his men into position before they begin.
Red eyes blazed behind darkened lenses as the Headmaster inspected the maps of this field of encounter. While ten pairs of eyes glanced over his still form, nervous of the coming conflict, the motionless gaze of Rhylance seemed eerie against the stilled wind. Translucent images held in the air, playing like videos in the Chiss’s mind. Scenarios’ played out before his visage while his calm mind calculated the odds for each and every possible eventuality.
“Uh…sir? Should we be making preparations? Or doing…something?”
The recruits question was met with silence, filling the others with no small amount of dread. They had all heard tales of the Chiss. His lack of bedside manner dealing with patients was as legendary as his medical and scientific prowess. Rhylance had always been known as one of which you must not screw with, lest you find yourself under his blade.
After a few more minutes, he blinked and stood from his seat. Gazing over the “battlefield” slight smirk crossed his stoic features.
“It is about that time.”
“Sir?”
Turning to face his team, the Headmaster glided over to them. He could see the nervousness on their untrained faces. This wasn’t his first foray into battle, but it had to be one of theirs. There was work to be done.
“I can see the fear on each of your faces. This shows me one thing. You are weak. You are untrained. You are ill-prepared for the coming conflict. Your enemies are similar in that regard. And that can be used to our advantage.
While this is a training exercise, I fully expect each of you to treat this as if it was a true field of war. You will follow my commands. You will not show the enemy quarter. You will not show them the weakness I see on your faces. You will not hesitate to pull the trigger and take them down.”
Rhylance stopped speaking for a moment, solidifying his command. He was not to be interrupted or ignored. Stepping into his next words, he continued on.
“I will not lie. We are at an inherent disadvantage for the simple fact that I do not possess the aptitude that the other commanders have for the Force. That gives them a powerful ally, and a fierce edge. However, that also gives us an advantage. They have pride, and an overreliance on their connection to the Force. Because of that, they lack the imaginative and fierce mind that I possess.
I have studied military strategies they could only dream of. I will share with you my insights, my plans, and the strategies that will lead our team to victory. You will listen, heed my words, and act on my orders. You will not temporize or stall. Follow my commands, and you will succeed. Ignore my warnings, and it wont be the enemy you must fear.
Do you all understand?”
With a small amount of trepidation, the ten answered, “Yes sir.”
Rhylance stared them down. “Should we try that again?”
Fearful, and with no delay, they responded. “No sir! We follow your orders, sir!”
A chilling smile split across the Headmaster’s face.
“The let us begin.”
It started with the blaster shots that filled the sky. The signal to begin. Anders had Ethra scout up ahead, given her itch for something to do, the Combat Master hoped that it would satisfy her. Lok was there with her. Whilst Ethra was eager, she was young, and youth brought with it ignorance. Lok was to be her counterbalance.
The rest of the unit followed behind with Anders at the rear. The Force swirled with anticipation of the upcoming conflict.
Suddenly, Lok raised his hand. They had spotted something in the trees. Ethra, on the other hand…
“FOUND YA!”
She unleashed hell in blaster form blindly into the trees and bushes with no idea if she was actually hitting anything.
The sky-bound shots were fired, and immediately upon their sighting the troop shut up - the plan began.
Four individuals walked with Wilder as he moved the group forward, crouched in their stances, providing as little visible area as possible. Rifles in their hands, eyes quick to move from brush to brush with each step.
“Dark shape to your ten.” A voice rang in their coms, one not among them.
Quickly each individual kneeled and guns were aimed in the direction, the Sith holding onto the hilts of his sabers tightly as he prepared to activate them defensively until a hand was raised by the closest soldier.
“No sign.” Short, to the point. They were listening so far.
Knees pulled off the ground, the five continued on for another dozen meters before kneeling once more. Five directions were watched carefully, silently, and as meticulous as the Priest could hope for from relatively fresh trainees. Within a few moments, the sounds of feet stepping with a quicker pace approached from behind the group until they converged for the briefest of moments and then kneeled with them before the five planted rose against and began moving once more.
His initial plan was relatively simple; the two snipers and their four guards kept watch as the five others moved ahead. The movement group scouted for anything of note for fifty meters while the snipers of the sitting group kept watch over them, the other four acting defensively to their held position. In this type of terrain, it wasn’t the most reliable, plenty of things to obscure vision, but it was better than nothing. So long as things were fine, then the sitting group would catch up as the scouts moved forward, repeating the same tactic again. This way if either party was discovered, hopefully only half the group would be in danger and the other half could provide cover fire, or at very least escape to survive if the others were taken out.
Azler, knowingly making a questionable decision, stayed with the forward group to add extra defensive measures. While having the most experience and arguably being both the ‘King’ and ‘Queen’ pieces of their chess set being in the most danger wasn’t preferable, he knew that it provided the best chance at getting the farthest. This wasn’t just a game of elimination after all, this was at least partially about speed and survival, and he needed to ensure that at least one Pawn stayed alive while getting the furthest ahead if he was to win.
Of course, there was no better test than a live test.
The yell echoed out in the quiet of the forest and the following blaster shots only served to further punctuate it as the bright colors soared through the air. At first Azler was positively thrilled when the bolts were aimed in front of his group, clearly the enemy soldier mistaking something for an enemy, or perhaps it was one that the Priest didn’t see, either way, it was to his advantage - again, at first. The enemy may have been more trigger happy, but his team proved quick enough that that they were too green to take advantage of the situation properly as several blaster shots returned fire from around him.
Azler reacted as quick as he could, grabbing one of the soldiers. “You fools, don’t fire back, they don’t actually know we’re here!” Unfortunately, the damage is done as return fire, now far more accurate, flies towards them. He can only hope that maybe a few of the enemy were hit by their first volley.
“Rear leapfrog past us, wide berth to avoid the enemy, do not fire, get some distance” is all the man says before pulling out one of his own blasters and returning fire with his group. He knows that the sight of a saber right now would only amplify the intent of his enemy commanders, it would be best if they didn’t know they had managed to find him just yet.
And so it began.
Being the young, impulsive, foolish soldier she was, Ethra began to fire blindly into the forest without so much as a care as to what, or whom she hit. The moment she panicked, as did the rest of the platoon, barring Lok. Blasters bolts and shouting bouncing into the hardwood trees before the group charged towards where they thought the “enemy” was hiding.
“No, you fools!” Lok tried to stop them, but it was too late.
“Imbecilrs,” Anders rubbed the bridge of his nose. Oh well. If they were eliminated early, he at least did not have to put up with their nonsense any longer.
“Sir, I am so sorry,” Lok bowed slightly.
“Your apology is unnecessary. However, I do believe we should at least attempt to rescue our comrades,” Anders summoned his lightsaber to his hand, the sound of the blade piercing the forest.
Shapes among the foliage began to take shape as more blasters joined the first, a clear sign of the enemy moving forward. Azler had the briefest moment of thinking this was another small twist to his advantage, as his group had at least stayed still, but soon the density of the blasts proved this false; it seemed the entire enemy group was coming to face off against his meager half.
Dropping to one knee to lower his chances of being hit, something he noted only two others did, he continued to fire into the other group. A pained yelp sounded out, one of his group’s stun blasts having successfully landed on an enemy, but a return one immediately to his side returned the playing field back to its previous condition. He needed to think quickly, the enemy had numbers for more shots, but he had less bodies to hit, if they could -
The Echani may have only one true ear, but that ear recognized that sound anywhere.
Grabbing the nearest soldier next to him, he pulled him in close. “You need to head forward towards the goal location, only fire off three shots every five steps so you’re hard to track. Once you lose sight, just book it.” As the man nodded, Azler pushed him to the side, ‘helping’ him to move along faster.
Another yell of pain from the enemy at least gave the Priest the small satisfaction that at least a few were being taken down with them.
“Even when you see that saber, do not focus on it, hit the rest of them. A Force User is easier to take down when they’re alone, our best bet is to lower his aid numbers. Once he reaches us, I’ll attempt to surprise him,” he lies in a raised tone, just enough to be heard by the last two troops with him.
Getting a nod from one of them, the other more focused on firing, Wilder pushes off with his feet to move backwards, firing off another series of blasts before moving to the nearest brush. The second he feels certain that the two cannot see him, he turns and darts his way through the forest, heading to their second group while keeping himself as low as he can, amplifying himself to reduce the distance between them with their head start. Fighting the Combat Master was a goal of his, but not this day.
Shots continue to ring out from behind him, with several others sporadically being added to the mayhem from numerous meters to the side and growing. He knew that that the body count would reveal they had split up, he could only hope that the man he sent off running would lead them away from his other half and that they had not encountered the Headmaster.
Of course they were falling by the number. Of course Ethra was cowering behind a tree simply watching her comrades be defeated thanks to her own actions. When her eyes locked on to Anders, she beamed a smile.
“Hey! So good news, I found the enemy! Bad news, they- agh!”
Ethra clutched at her tightening throat. She flailed helplessly as she gasped for breath that never came.
“Your actions have resulted in the demise of several of your comrades. If this were a legitimate battle, they would be dead, and you would be branded a liability,” Anders tossed her to the ground with his power.
They had not encountered Rhylance yet, but the Dark Side demanded he show his power. He stepped forward into sight of his enemy.
Even with the distance the man covers heading towards the safer, smarter, half of his group, he still hears the shout of his few remaining men echoing through the trees. While most of the words are lost and barely more than noise, ‘Combat’ is more than enough to confirm his suspicions.
The two, whether through fear or thinking they know better Azler would luckily never have to know, immediately focus their fire onto the Chiss. Simple movements, quick flicks of the wrist, knock away the blasts into the trees as he stares down at them with a critical gaze before his judgment is rendered and the next two blasts are reflected directly back at them, eliminating them and silencing their weapons.
With acute and perceptive eyes, it is barely seconds before his attention is pulled to two tracks leading away from the bodies around him. Now was simply the deduction of which was actually worth following.
The sounds of battle could be heard through the confrontation grounds. Blaster fire, and cries of pain drowned out the more muted movements of his army. Rhylance’s troops were confused. Why were they staying out of the conflict? Wasn’t this battle training? But they dare not question the Headmaster’s orders. There was something about him that just made them feel… nervous. Like they were always in danger of him.
After some time of walking, never in a perfectly straight line, and seemingly incoherently, the troops led by the Chiss found themselves in a more open area, with flags in the surrounding corners. Rhylance held a smirk on his face, ordering his squad to canvas the area.
The signs of battle were still out there, but strangely none of them were here… the destination point. Quickly and without much fanfare or any opposition, the command point was seemingly theirs. One of the soldiers, a young twi'lek male approached the Chiss with a questioning look.
“Sir…I don’t understand what’s going on.”
Rhylance gave him a critical look before adjusting his glasses, light reflecting off the lenses.
“The object of this mission was capturing this point. Of course, we could have done so running out with guns blazing like our opposition, but why needlessly sacrifice troops and supplies when we can let them do the hard work and take eachother put.
I told you all, we would win. We did so by being smarter than our enemies. Fighting is not always the best way to win. Sometimes, there are other tactics to employ.”
There was a quiet murmuring throughout the group. Understanding began to grow.
“How did you know this would happen, sir?”
“Anders has always felt the need to prove himself the strongest. He is even the Combat Master of our Brotherhood. And Azler? A newer appointee, facing off against much more experienced Elders? He would never have been able to not over play his hand to prove himself. Knowing your enemy is far more effective in war than merely having superior weapons and armaments.”
“Understood, sir.”
“Keep watching and learning, all of you, and hopefully you will not die. Now…announce our victory. I look forward to seeing the looks on their faces”