Combat log. Battlegroup Commander for Battlegroup III, Vice Admiral Locke Setzer reporting. Day #16 of the Battle of Tkon Rift.

Today I made more progress on my lightsaber than ever before.

The power field conductor translated the energy at just the rate it should. The power vortex ring slotted in, without significant degradation or loss of power. I even managed to get the inert power insulator positioned just right - something that's eluded me to date.

There’s no reason for me to suddenly be able to do this. If anything, it should have been just as much of a disaster as before. The past two days have been chaotic. As bad as an attack that you don’t expect can be, sometimes that never happens when you expect one can be even worse, at least strategically speaking. We anticipated the counter attack at Sector 1206 so much that when it failed to materialize, our planning was left in a state of disarray. None of the admirals agreed what to do, or how to deploy, or even what the overall strategy and objective should be.

We were left in a momentary state of chaos. Perhaps that was the enemy’s goal, all along.

In the midst of this, I decided to send a small deployment to liberate planet P3069; the Assault Cruiser Hellfire and its squadron of TIE Fighters. While we argued about next moves, at least this small detachment could do some good. And it has, although not in the way I had anticipated.

Instead of finding a light guard, the Hellfire found the bulk of the enemy’s forces in orbit. A game changer.

There is little we can do to support the Hellfire, at this point. But there is much it can do for us. It can keep the enemy engaged, long enough for us to arrive to counter their fleet. And it can give us a target, a big enough one that we can all agree on an approach rather than arguing about what to do.

So we go, in search of the fight we had expected in the first place. And all it cost was the sacrifice of the Hellfire.

This is the game we play though. Sometimes the most detailed plans amount to nothing. And other times, unexpected losses lead to extraordinary opportunities.

This is a lesson I have learned before, and am reminded of now. And something about that reminder has helped me to make sense of how this lightsaber should be assembled.

It cannot be done simply by executing everything to perfection. It has to be imperfect. Some things will align better if others are not perfectly positioned. Not every component will show its true power until it has been joined by others.

A series of imperfect moves that leads to the perfect outcome.

A metaphor for this fight, perhaps, being assembled in the palm of my hand.

End log.