Star Force: Newbslayer (SF64) by Aer-ki Jyr

her, focusing on the
transition between movements more than the force of the blows.
    Not well enough.
    That’s my point.
What’s wrong?
    Jenna focused a bit more and met the next three
slashes with crisp returns, then added force to the fourth, nearly knocking the
double blade out of Levi’s hands as she batted it away to her left.
    “It’s not me, it’s you,” she said aloud. “It’s like
you’re not trying very hard, so I ease off then you slip it back up. If you’re
doing it on purpose I’ll beat the crap out of you, but I don’t think you are.”
    Levi winced. “Actually, I was.”
    Jenna glared at him. “That’s not the point of this
drill.”
    “No it’s not, but something isn’t right with you so I
was probing. And when I made a hit you seemed to take it personally.”
    Jenna swung her sword to the side, lowering it almost to where the point touched the floor, and raised her other
hand in exasperation. “I guess I just don’t like walking away from a fight.”
    “Who does? That shouldn’t throw you off your game.
Your head’s not fully into the training, you’re just acting out of reflex…and
not to brag too much, but I’m too strong and know your techniques too well for
you to hold me off with even a slightly disfocused effort.”
    Jenna shut the power off on her sword, then retracted
it back down into the handle. “Part of my head is still back on Tieor . We had to walk away, but part of me still thinks we
should be back there saving lives rather than here training.”
    “So we go back then,” Levi said simply.
    “And do what?”
      “You tell me.”
    “No, don’t give me that bullshit. If you have a
suggestion just spit it out.”
    “I don’t, actually. But if you feel like we need to be
there, then why not go back and see what we can do to help out.”
    “We’ve already taken out the walker. What more would
you suggest?”
    “I suggest you quit beating around the bush and tell
me what’s really bothering you.”
    Jenna put her hands on her hips, starting to get
annoyed, but as she thought it through she realized Levi was right.
    “I think I screwed up.”
    Her apprentice frowned. “How?”
    “By picking a side.”
    “We didn’t kill anyone, and the Varshoo have no
business invading planets and killing people, no matter what their situation is
back home.”
    “But that walker we gave the mercs will kill people, which means we did take a side and got involved in the
fight…then didn’t fully commit.”
    “I’m sure there’s plenty of war to go around if you
want to go back and pick up where we left off.”
    Jenna shook her head. “We can’t, and you know it.”
    “I do know it, but apparently part of your head
doesn’t.”
    “Then explain it for me.”
    Levi deactivated and retracted his sword, then tossed
the extra-long hilt aside onto the mat. He counted off points on his fingers.
    “One, we’re not going to help the Varshoo take over
the planet. If that was ever an objective we’d have to do it without killing
anyone, and we don’t have the means to do that out here. We could help them
take over and reduce the losses to the native population, but we’d still be
assisting those in the bloodshed, which is unacceptable.”
    “Two, we can’t defend the planet for the same reason.
If this was a lizard invasion it would be different, because we kill those
bastards on sight. Skarrons more or less the same thing. The Varshoo aren’t our
enemy. Maybe they deserve to be, but they’re not right now, and we go through a
series of procedures to deal with ‘not so friendlies,’ which we’re not in a
position to do here.”
    “Three, Tieor isn’t an ally.
If it was, we’d fight whoever was attacking them. Are they on the defense, yes,
and that makes me, at least, sympathetic to their plight and wanting to assist,
but if we’re going to fight a war to save them it has to be our kind of war. We
can’t do that here, other than in small respects, and those