Master Visel was the product of what the modern-day Jedi family could achieve, especially since now Jedi families were endorsed by the Jedi High Council. Brennok was a strong Force User, but he was still considered above average within the ranks of the Balance Keepers. And those above average abilities were showing as he clashed with Master Visel.
As their lightsabers were locked together, he tried to use the power of his lightsaber to push Visel back and create some distance between them. But every time he did, Visel came running back, forcing him on the defensive. He had heard that these new Jedi were different from the ones a few centuries ago, but he didn't know how different until now.
Visel swung his lightsaber from the side using his own lightsaber technique that he created from his time within the Order. His swing connected with Brennok's lightsaber before he pulled back and swung again. They continued to exchange blows with Visel constantly on the attack and Brennok just barely being able to defend against him.
Behind Brennok and Visel, the fight between Team Reaper, Veyra, Nyvara, and the Jedi Knights was facing the same situation. Veyra and Nyvara wielded their yellow lightsabers which represented their rank as an Adept. They wouldn't get to choose a better color until they reached the rank of Guardian.
Team Reaper wielded the standard white colored vibroblades as they clashed with the Jedi Knights. They were holding their own against the Jedi Knights and used their superior numbers to double team a few of them.
Lieutenant Threxil parried a saber strike with his vibroblade, twisting his hips and slamming his gauntlet against the Jedi Knights face who lunged at him. The Knight stumbled, leaving an opening for Sergeant Varron to attempt to force his blade into the Jedi's side. But the Knight managed to recover and jump out of the way in time before he got stabbed. Threxil and Varron regrouped and slowly started to step towards the Knight. Once they got closer, they started running in two directions, throwing the Knight's focus off of a single target.
The Knight spun around, hesitating for a moment, and that's when Threxil took advantage with a feint, drawing the Knights saber towards him as he blocked it, while Varran swept his legs. The Knight crashed onto the ground, throwing out a Force push reflexively, which was too weak to do anything to Threxil's massive frame. Varran pulled out his blaster rifle and set it to stun, quickly firing a shot at the Knight on the ground. The shot hit its target, rendering the Knight unconscious. But the fight wasn't over yet and Threxil and Varran moved to help the others.
A few feet away, Veyra had twisted her body midair, her lightsaber clashing with that of the tall Jedi Knight she was facing. The Knight was calm and had managed to counter her every move. Every step she took, he mirrored it with his own. The Knight had taken multiple jabs at her, some of which she barely managed to dodge.
'He's better than me' she thought.
So, she stopped trying to match his moves and instead embraced the wildness. Besides the standard lightsaber forms that everybody in the Balance Keepers were taught, they were also taught a wild form which would be used against stronger foes. She used this wildness, faking a fall, drawing in his lightsaber. When it was close enough, she managed to shift her body and roll under the swing, then stabbed his foot with her saber.
He screamed in pain, allowing her to use the Force to hurl him against the wall. This didn't knock him out, but as he was about to get up, one of the members of Team Reaper had pulled out their rifle and shot a stun bolt at him which finished the job.
Done with her fight, Veyra decided to help Nyvara who was fighting two Knights with help from a member of Team Reaper. Though before she joined the fight, she took a chance to look at the battle between Guardian Brennok and Master Visel.
The two had locked blades, with Brennok slightly bent down and Visel standing over him. "I thought you would be stronger, but I guess your Order isn't as strong as we thought." Brennok didn't respond and just focused on the fight. He didn't understand why Visel wanted to talk as they dueled.
Visel noticed this and had pushed Brennok's saber aside and swing towards his neck, but Brennok ducked, and used his hand to push Visel back who quickly recovered. But it was already too late as the shuttle had arrived, and Team Saber had provided covering fire as Team Reaper and the rest ran to the side of the shuttle pad where their shuttle had landed on the edge of the platform.
Within seconds they were all onboard and the shuttle activated its thrusters, quickly escaping towards the sky. Brennok didn't notice it until now, but he had got hit with the saber on his shoulder. Luckily it wasn't anything bad, so he would live. Threxil looked at one of his Team members and nodded, signaling him to carry on with the final part of the planet. The final part of the plan was to set the comm jammers on a timer which would cause them to self-destruct so that the Republic won't be able to reverse engineer their technology.
Back on the shuttle pad, Visel sheathed his lightsaber as he watched the shuttle fly away. There was nothing he could do with their comms jammed and he could see that their shuttle would not be able to catch up to them.
One of the Knights walked up to him, "What now Master?"
Visel sighed as he turned to answer them, "The shuttle will go out of range of the jammers and let the Republic know what happened here. In the meantime, we will search for survivors and make sure no more intruders are in the facility." The Knight nodded.
In the following hours, dozens of Republic shuttles arrived at the facility to secure it. Local reporters had quickly caught on and had arrived to see what was happening, but the order had already come down from the Chancellor to keep this incident under wraps. They didn't want this incident to escalate further and risk a war.
Since the Republic wouldn't provide any information, the reporters had no choice but to make something up, speculating at a possible prison break or something. On the other hand, as the days passed, a lot of hush money was being provided to lots of families of the people that had lost their lives in the facility.
But not every family was content with this situation. Two families had reported this hush money to some reporters which started to become a major scandal in just a matter of days. It wasn't long until the story got out: "Dozens dead at holding facility and the Government tries to cover it up."
This sparked a lot of outrage from within populace and the senate. Though this wasn't much for an impeachment as they couldn't connect the Chancellor to it. Some Senators had called for his impeachment. But without enough support for the movement, it didn't make much progress.
———
Back in Imperial space, the Balance Keepers were returned back to safety, and the Special operatives were rewarded for their success. While they didn't get the children, it wasn't their fault, it was an intelligence failure on the Imperium's part. These things happen, so nothing major changed.
With this out of the way, Daimon was now free to focus on the future. Nothing major was going to happen for the next millennia so he planned to keep himself occupied with some projects of his own.
-----
-----
A/N: Short Chapter today, but now we get to get a time skip to the next major conflict or just a few years before to set things up. The next two Chapters will be focused on Life in the Republic vs. Life in the Imperium. I will try to release these same day and then proceed with the time skip so we can get into the next phase of story.
Also I am thinking about a name change for the Balance Keepers let me known what you guys think. I will probably have a vote in the time skip chapter on what new name I should change it to.
Anyways thanks for reading the chapter and the story thus far.