Hangars

[Stevee B]

"Ooohh, Good question!" Vesten awed. "We do not have a formal range, but there are some crude targets we have stored somewhere to set up outside the temple. Despite our preference of lightsabers, we do train occasionally with blasters and other firearms. The Order acts as much as a commando and intelligence force during conflicts as a peacekeeping and educational organization otherwise. If you ever want a more difficult target, I'd be willing to let you see if you could get past my lightsaber defense... trusting that you put the weapon on stun." Vesten winked and smiled broadly.

[Adria]

Adria didn't even try to keep the grin off her face. She missed the thrill of combat, and even at the firing ranges it had been more of just a chance to show, once again, that she surpassed the rest of them. Now, here, it could be a challenge. A real challenge, considering..

"I've never been up against a lightsaber before." Heck, she'd never even seen a lightsaber before, except in the holos. And did those really even count? Holos had a tendency to misportray things.

[Stevee B]

Vesten looked down towards his hip and unclipped the lightsaber hilt hanging there. He lifted the cylindrical object and balanced it in his hand for a moment before pressing the activation switch. An oddly deep, yellow blade, which Vesten considered more of a gold, sprung from the emitter with a snap-hiss.

"Eventually, you'll be able to construct one of your own," Ves said as he swung the meter-long blade with a strong, humming sweep, "but these are very unique weapons." He paused for a moment. "The blade is pure energy, so it has no weight. It takes a lot of training to understand how to control the blade, since you have nothing to gauge your momentum or direction of the blade. For anyone who isn't trained, the full-sized sabers are dangerous." The blade collapsed back into the hilt as Vesten spun it again before tossing it to Adria.

[Adria]

Adria caught the hilt in her left hand and held it up in front of her, looking it over in silence. Her face was a mixture of emotions, akin to a child fascinated by a new toy, wanting it now but knowing that it will have to wait until their next birthday. She thumbed the activation stud, holding it out away from her as the golden blade emerged. She swung the weapon back and forth a few times in front of her, noting the way the steady thrum of the blade changed pitch with every movement. The shadow of a smile tugged at her lips.

Huh. Looks like the holos weren't that far off after all.

Tearing her eyes away from the energy blade, she looked back up at Vesten. "What keeps your opponent from using the Force to simply yank your weapon out of your hands?"

[Stevee B]

Vesten chuckled. "First of all, you learn to at least keep enough of a grip to prevent that. It's not as simple to target the object alone with a hand wrapped around it. Secondly, you also learn to maintain your own grip with the Force, to counteract any attempt."

He moved his left hand behind his back, removing a second hilt from a rounded pouch on his belt. The hilt hovered just below his open palm as he brought his arm around. This hilt was only slightly shorter than the other.

"Obviously if I throw this normally, it will just fall as any other object always does. However, if I hold it with the Force, I can control its direction, as well as its spin." He spun the hilt for a moment before closing his grip around it and then tossing it away from himself. The hilt twirled and glided through the air in various directions before Vesten pulled it back to his hand. "It is possible to deflect thrown weapons with a push of the Force, but all the same it is possible to learn to counter these effects to some extent with practice."

Vesten activated this second saber, which glowed green. The blade itself was roughly half the length of the one still held by Adria.

[Adria]

Adria nodded at his words, her gaze fixated on the second lightsaber hilt all the while. Her eyes lit up as the reality of her situation finally made its way through her mind. A whole new training, a whole new chance at learning things she had barely ever dreamed of.. She knew that the Jedi valued patience, and that they were the keepers of the peace.. but then, so was CorSec, in a way. They had been an elite security force, all of them trained in effective combat; now she could be one of the Jedi, a security force in its own right. And that meant a whole new set of combat training.

She couldn't wait.

"When do I start?"

[Stevee B]

He chuckled for a moment after Adria's question before answering with sarcasm, "Well, technically, you already have."

It wasn't really a surprise to him that she seemed so eager. Most of the newcomers to the Praxeum were either young and frightened of being away from home in a strange place with strange people or they were older and mature enough to grasp their situation. Even the mature, however, couldn't help but feel like a child as they tried to comprehend the extent to which their lives would change.

"Seriously, though, I can take you to the Grand Master now, if you'd like, and see what she has to say. The younger students are usually just whisked right into classes and the normal routine after their first night. Older arrivals sometimes prefer to meet the Grand Master and see where she thinks they should begin... You have a bit of training to undertake before you begin training with lightsabers. You have to learn to be accustomed to the Force."

Vesten deactivated the blade of his shoto and stored it in the pouch at the small of his back. He then gestured towards the turbolift elevators to one side of the Hangar. "If you'd rather wait to meet the Grand Master, or if you feel comfortable just attending classes tomorrow, I can show you around the Temple and then we can see if you have been prepared a room. It's up to you. Our style of learning is not as fine-tuned and strict as the ways of the Old Order."

[Adria]

"If it's all the same to you.." Adria said, "I'd rather meet her now. I'm not exactly a fan of waiting -- well, not when it involves an evaluation, at any rate."

She could lay in wait during a stakeout for as long as it took, but when she had started out, she was a bundle of nerves before a performance evaluation. It hadn't taken long for her to be able to know innately when she had run a flawless op or when there had been room for improvement. Here, though, everything was new, and the barest trace of thought whispered in her head, What if I'm not good enough?

It was a thought she hadn't had for almost half her lifetime. It wasn't even a true thought yet, not in concrete terms, just something that gave her some mental reservations and caused a slight fluttering in her stomach. It wasn't much, but it was enough to distract her from the fact that she still held Vesten's still-active lightsaber.

[Stevee B]

Realizing that Adria wasn't paying much attention to the lightsaber in her hand, Vesten decided it may be best to take it back.

"I'll take my saber back, for now," he said, being sure not to point out her brief carelessness. "And the Grand Master won't really be doing any sort of evaluation. I will be honest, though. She can be intimidating to talk to in some situations. Her knowledge and wisdom on all matters pertaining to the Force is exceptional. You'll be fine though..." Vesten managed a smile before turning towards the elevators.

As the pair walked towards to elevators, Ves returned to his "tour guide" voice. "Right this way, and we'll be headed to Level Two for living chambers," he joked.

[marvinthebold]

Logan exited the turbolift after riding it down from the upper levels, having felt the need to unwind after his brief training session. Doubtlessly, there was much more to learn, but he needed a Master to teach him and he didn't have one at the moment. While this would likely be remedied in time, he didn't plan on waiting it out in the training chamber. While waiting for the turbolift to reach its destination, he had gotten some ideas for some upgrades to his ship, Outcast. One of them was a new name for the old shuttle, as the current name didn't fit quite so well now that he was back with the Jedi.

The young man quickly crossed the hangar over to his vessel, a Theta TC-2 class shuttle. It was a much older design, having been used in the time of the Old Republic before the Clone Wars and was long out of production now. Still, Logan had kept it in good working order despite its age, hyperdrive issues notwithstanding. But the hyperdrive wouldn't be the focus of today's session, as there wasn't much need for travel at the moment.

He started work on the ship's computer systems once inside, using a collection of parts that he had built up in the cargo area during his travels. It wasn't much, but they would do for now, as this wasn't a big job. All of this was really just a simple tuneup for the computer after all.