Chapter 7 - Training and Preparations

31 BBY (Jedi Temple)

Robert stood still while facing off against his padawan, he decided that he would start off by using Form Four Ataru against her, activating his blue lightsaber he sent a series of blows and feints against her, being more aggressive than usual he ended up locking blades with her, using his superior physique he brute-forced his way through her guard! causing her to become off-balanced.

Aria was in trouble, in order to avoid her masters' blow she decided not to fight while off-balanced, instead, she did a backward dive while flipping through the air to dodge her master follow up attack, upon landing she understood that her master was being more aggressive than usual, she decided that it would be best to use Form Three Soresu as it was more defensive.

She would weather the storm of attacks, and wait for an opening to strike back. In order to conserve energy to outlast her opponent, she focused on more tight blade work, subtle dodges, and keeping up constant blade movement to build up momentum and minimize energy expenditure, parrying and blocking attacks in one fluid motion. Her blocks, parries, and counterattacks were becoming more fluid-like and have started to flow more naturally.

Robert was impressed with the defensive form of Aria, he could tell that she had been working hard on her training. His Master would have murdered him if he didn't teach his padawan Form two Makashi and having been the one to have taught her Form Three he knew that she was waiting for an opportunity to attack.

Wanting to see how far her Form Two had gotten, he started to slow down his attacks as if he was tiring, and then he started to leave more openings for his padawan to exploit while he attacked.

His padawan not missing the opportunity to exploit a weakness started her counter-attack. Attacking using a series of lunges and feint attacks while utilizing her footwork to outmaneuver her master, utilizing precise fluid motions she mixed in a few light jabs, kicks, and cuts to attack her master.

*Clap! Clap! Clap!*

Senesha having decided to watch the spar between her old padawan and his padawan, couldn't help herself from applauding the efforts of the young Aria, she was a skilled lightsaber duelist, but she noticed that her Form Two Makashi was slightly inferior and behind her Form Three Soresu.

Form Two focused on One vs One lightsaber combat, and was weak against ranged wielding enemies, as most of the galaxy used blasters, form two has largely gone extinct in the Order! it was taught at the temple but few chose to specialize in it. Wanting to revive her favorite Form to the greatness it once had, during the sith wars! she couldn't allow her padawans padawan to not be skilled in the Form.

"Your spar was impressive young one", said Senesha to the young Aria.

Aria with her strong sense of justice couldn't help herself from becoming excited after receiving a compliment from one of her favorite Jedi Master in the Order.

Senesha and her Padawan had made a name for themselves within the Order, after hunting down many criminal organizations throughout the Galaxy, although Aria preferred more peaceful solutions to conflict and aimed to become more of a diplomatic Jedi, she still couldn't help slightly fangirling over the presence of one of the most skilled duelists in the Order.

"Thank you! Master", responded Aria to the praise of Senesha.

"I hope you don't mind if I have a spar with you as well?", asked Senesha.

"Of course not Master", quickly responded Aria.

Despite having just finished a spar she suddenly found a new wave of energy and excitedly got into position.

AN: Jedi addressed any Jedi Master as "Master" even if they are not their padawan, as a sign of respect.

As Senesha sparred against the young padawan, she couldn't help thinking back to the times when she would spar against Dooku. Sadly, he had left the Order in 42BBY alongside Sifo-Dyas to his ancestral home to reclaim his title of count.

Now it seems he was becoming more involved with the politics of his homeworld. It was a shame, she had often lost more often than she had won against Dooku, now it seems she wouldn't get another chance to spar with him again.

29BBY (Planet Naboo)

Robert had decided to move his private security corporation (GSC) to the planet of Naboo, the GSC (or Galactic Security Corporation) over the last few years had built a large central headquarters upon the planet. Robert had been expanding his legal businesses while slowly removing his illegal ones, he couldn't risk them being linked back to him and was slowly getting rid of them.

Robert had invested a lot into the planet of Naboo and was now secretly visiting to see how things were going. Passing by the beginning phases of a spaceport in orbit over the planet, his shuttle went down to the surface of the planet, landing he first went and visited the GSC where everything seemed to be running fine. While he was there he was updated on the various happenings involved with the business and met with many of his important staff members that ran the place.

Having inspected the GSC he then ventured near the Capital of Theed, where he had built a large shipyard, walking through the shipyard, he observed various machines kicking out parts for the various Arquitens models. He quietly observed the construction of the ships, as he watched a staff member would inform him about the various process of its creation, issues they faced, fighter types they were currently building, information about various vehicle designs they wanted to try out, and other suggestions they had to improve the facility.

He was glad to learn that they were incorporating the various tech from the Gungans into his ship designs.

The Gungans had a blue plasma from the oceanic core, they pressurized it into a shell, it was great at destroying droids and vehicles because the plasma was electrified and acted like an EMP, its weakness was that it didn't do much damage to enemy shields but once a ships shields were down it would burn through the enemies armor and cause havoc upon the electrical instruments inside thanks to its EMP effect.

He made designs to have them used as broadside weapons and as point defense against enemy fighters.

In shipyards deep under the Oceans of the planet, were secret shipyards being built that were capable of building larger starships. With help from the Gungans, its construction was coming along nicely.

Now that his Shipyard was up and running, and kicking out his Arquiten spaceships, he knew that he would need capable crews to man them, luckily he had foreseen this problem and had invested into the creating of a Military Academy upon the surface of the planet. There they would train recruits to fill the various roles required for his fleet, they would learn military tactics, officer training, logistics, engineering, etc.

Padme and talked him into supporting these children's education, and after they grew up he could employ them inside his various corporation or recruit them into his fleet, serving as engineers or hopefully other jobs that were not as dangerous as becoming a soldier.

The people of Naboo having suffered under the invasion a few years prior were eager to attend this academy they wouldn't allow themselves to become victims ever again, even the Gungans were attending the Academy, they had largely been isolationist to the rest of the galaxy, and after being beaten back on the plains of Theed they now jumped at the opportunity to learn new knowledge and tactics.

Having made sure the investments he made into Naboo were going well, he now had to return to the temple, he had arrived here in secret and couldn't be gone from the temple for long.