The reaction from the Jedi Order to this turn of events had given them the justification they needed to disband the Warden's of Unity. The announcement was made a few months after the incident at the holding facility. Once the Jedi High Council learned of the attack, they expected the situation to escalate. But instead, when they were contacted by the Chancellor, they were a little disappointed.
The Chancellor had told them that the incident was going to be kept quiet from the public to avoid a large-scale conflict. Grandmaster Donasham wasn't exactly happy about this outcome. Ever since the end of the Hundred years of Darkness, the Jedi Order had changed to become more involved in the protection of the Republic against both internal and external threats.
And the fact that the Chancellor had just allowed an external threat to sneak in, kill a few dozen citizens, and leave unharmed, didn't sit right with Grandmaster Donasham. But as things stand, there wasn't much he could do to change this decision besides voice his disagreement. Thought one thing he could do was to proceed with his disbanding of the Warden's of Unity.
Their beliefs had been allowed to fester within the Jedi Order for too long and they had corrupted many Jedi into following them. So, a few months after the Holding facility incident, it was officially announced that the Order of the Balance Keepers which was founded by Daimon was to be considered a hostile order. The Warden's of Unity who was also a product of Daimon, was to be disbanded and all members were to renounce the religion or face punishment.
Unlike the old Jedi Order, the current version still held the values of the old, but implemented changes because of Daimon's influence, the state of the Republic, and the scares of the Hundred Years of Darkness. All of these things added up resulted in the Jedi Order undergoing significant changes, making them more pragmatic and much less tolerant of philosophies they considered heretical.
The news was poorly received by the members of the Warden's of Unity; many born into Jedi families and holding prestigious positions were publicly stripped of their rank and authority. Most denounced the Jedi High Council and fled the Order. Others attempted to fight the decree through legal methods, but the decision was absolute, especially since the Jedi High Council had voted unanimously for it.
Once a member of the Jedi Order, Daimon was now seen as a disgrace, and his achievements were starting to be wiped from the archives as a way to get rid of any influence he had over the members of the Jedi Order.
To Daimon, all of this was just a step in the wrong direction for the Jedi Order. The leadership was once again blinded to the reality of the galaxy and the Force and there was nothing, he wanted to do to help them. He will just watch as the Order goes through its changes over the millennia until the time of its collapse.
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A/N: The next two Chapters are just showcasing life from the perspective of a citizen in the Imperium and a citizen in the Republic. If you don't care about things like this then I would just skip it all together as it has no impact on the story. This Chapter is a little lengthy, but the Republic Chapter will be shorter. After these chapters will be the Time Skip Chapter released all at the same time.
Otherwise enjoy the three chapters.
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Aetherfall - Imperial Frontier World
Year - 6613 BBY
Imperial Year - 375
Daimon - Age: 447
Total Population - 299.6 Billion
Sitting at the table with his children, Corven smiled as he remembered how his life was just 10 years ago. He was living on Coruscant, barely making ends meet due to a few bad decisions. It was his own fault, still he looked for a better life for him and his wife. That's when he saw an ad about how life in the Imperium was for Humans. The ad was obviously going overboard with its representation, but at the time Corven didn't care.
He used the last bit of his money to take himself and his wife to the Imperium to seek a better life. They didn't know what to expect or even if they would be welcomed, but this was their last chance, and they were either going to succeed or fail.
And succeeded, they did. As soon as they arrived on the border world of Aetherfall, they were taken to a migration facility where he was granted some low wage job which involved working in some mines. So, he did this while being granted a place to stay within a migrant housing district. It took him two years before he switched from working the mines to joining the Aetherfall Security Force, which was the quickest path to becoming a citizen and receiving more Imperial benefits.
From there he spent 8 years being an officer and starting a family.
All of that led him to this very moment. He looked over at his daughter who was just 8 years old. That's when his wife, Lysara had picked up his empty plate. "Ready to head out dear?" she asked as she noticed him lost in thought.
"Yeah, sorry dear, I was just thinking about the past." Lysara smiled as if he was always the one reminiscing about how they got to this point. She didn't like to think about the past as she didn't want to remember those times.
"Well, I'm sure you can think all you want on the ride to work." she smiled as she got up and planted a kiss on her forehead.
"Alright, but I might be late coming back. There's supposed to be some demonstration happening in the city today and they're already asking for all hands on deck." demonstrations were a common occurrence on Aetherfall as it was a border world, right next to Republic space. A little over 60% of the inhabitants were human with the other 40% being a mix of Gen'Dai and other races.
"Is it that one group again who keep trying to create a human-only sector?" Lysara asked, pushing her hair behind her ear as she rinsed the plates.
"No, this is the other one." Corven chuckled, trying to keep the conversation light for his daughter's sake. "Freedom of Faith. They're upset their kids have to go to the Imperial Doctrine schools now, even if you're not part of the official Faith."
"So, all of them then." she asked
"All of them." answered Corven as his daughter, Elya, ran up and hugged his arm tightly. "Can you bring home more honeyfruit?" she asked. "Not the kind with the blue spots, the other kind." He looked at her cute face and knew he couldn't refuse.
"Promise, angel." He said lifting her up into his arms and planting a kiss on her forehead.
After breakfast, Corven got into his Landspeeder and went to work. It was a short 20-minute ride, allowing him to get mentally prepared for the ahead. After parking his speeder and heading into the massive Security Force facility, Corven saw a group of people who were dressed in military clothing walking out. He moved out of the way, allowing them to pass, then proceeded to the front desk.
"Hey Avaris, what's going on?" he asked the man at the front desk.
"I don't know Corven, but the Chief will probably inform us during the meeting. I suggest you hurry up and get dressed so you won't miss it." Corven nodded and headed to the changing rooms and got dressed in his uniform.
Immediately after that, a meeting was called, and several hundred members of the Security Force had converged into a massive meeting room. Once everybody was seated, the Chief, a massive Gen'Dai had walked in followed by two people. When he reached the stand, he wasted no time and began speaking. "Good morning, everybody, I hope this morning is going well, because it looks like we will have a long day."
Hearing this, most of the people knew what this meant. They were going to be working long hours because of some demonstration. "Now before I continue, I'm going to let these two from central explain the situation."
The two-standing next to him took to the stand. "Good morning, everybody, my name is Executor Jaren, and this here is Executor Amira. The demonstration that will happen later today has been investigated and it has been determined that this event has been organized in order to incite a riot, commit damage to local property, and attempt the abduction of public officials for the purpose of extortion. We expect with high confidence that the group 'Freedom of Faith' will be acting in coordination with at least two or more extra-planetary cells, possibly with foreign support." Jorven let his words settle, looking over the crowd for any signs of confusion or panic. But there were none, so he proceeded.
"Because of this, people working directly under High Justiciar Veyra have decided to take action. Soldiers from the Garrison, alongside members of the local Ascendant Bastion will be deployed in the city." Hearing this, now everybody was a little bit shocked. High Justiciar Veyra was a Progenitor and in terms of the chain of command she was the at the very top.
Then there was the Ascendants. They were the massive soldiers who were present on every planet in the Imperium, but not many people got to see them. The only way you can see one was during times of war, and even then, it was still rare.
Corven had only seen images and videos of them, but now it seemed like he was going to meet them in person.
"The Intelligence Directorate is already dealing with the cells and ties to foreign support. Your job will be to control this demonstration and prevent whatever their objectives are from happening. Now I will let the Chief explain the rest." Said Jorven as he stepped away.
The Chief took the stand and explained the situation. "We will be deploying everybody from this facility and work with the other Security Force Divisions of other facilities to control all of these people. It is estimated that around 100,000 people will be coming to this event, so there will be no heroics, no cowboy shit. We keep them contained and when they get out of hand, we are authorized to arrest anybody and use force if necessary." The Chief continued on explaining the schedule and the formation of the security forces presence.
"Dress sharp, stay hydrated, and anticipate that they will try to goad you into violence for the cameras. Don't give them that footage. If you're interviewed, only the designated spokespeople are permitted to speak on behalf of the division. Am I clear?" The crowd replied in unison, "Crystal, Chief." He dismissed them after that, letting them get prepared. It was a stampede of boots and voices as the officers made their way back to the locker rooms.
Corven grabbed his issued stun baton, secured his blaster pistol, and a riot shield. He didn't love these days, and he was especially worried when the demonstrations were about faith. There were thousands of religions throughout the known galaxy, some smaller in nature, while others are much bigger and more widespread. And with the Imperium welcoming migrants from the Republic and other place, various religions would come to clash against the Imperial Faith.
After roll call, Corven returned to the ready room, where the feed from the city center was already being broadcast to everybody. Hundreds were already coming in ahead of schedule and setting up in the streets. Other security force divisions were already there, forming lines and blocking certain streets as the intended target for the demonstrators was the Imperial Temple.
As a few minutes passed, Corven was assigned to crowd-monitoring detail, as usual. He travelled to the location where the demonstration was happening on a shuttle and was quickly deployed on the streets. As his boots hit the ground, he began walking past the statues of the Emperor which stood tall in front of the Temple. He was following his Sergeant who led them to the command center where they would get their orders.
Once they received their orders, the group proceeded to the front and would monitor the crowd for any agitators or people armed with weapons. Those who had any of these things would be arrested or shot depending on the situation.
Just past the barricade, Corven saw the first cluster of agitators. They wore the familiar orange armbands, the color of the 'Freedom of Faith' movement, and they flashed holosigns with slogans: SECULARISM IS SLAVERY; NO FORCED CREED; DOWN WITH IDOLS.
Corven recognized a few from prior events; they were true believers, maybe, but they seemed just as interested in getting on-screen or getting arrested. This continue on for the next several hours as more security forces were funneled in and the crowd started to reach tens of thousands. Soldiers from the garrison had already arrived with shuttles constantly flying overhead, monitoring the demonstration. Local traffic was shifted to other areas, which wasn't much of a problem as most of the traffic were aircars.
But now is the time when things start to get rowdy. The crowd wanted to advance further to get closer to the Temple, but the security forces were not allowing them too, so a few people decided to do things on their own. They started to run into the riot shields of the officers and antagonize them, but the officers didn't budge nor react. This prompted more people to do it until the crowd started to push against the shields.
"HOLD THE LINE" shouted one of the Chief's as he noticed a few parts of the line that were starting to get overrun. And as if just on time, the Ascendants had arrived in their shuttle, landing behind the front line as the rioters kept pushing, unaware of the sigil that was on the transport ship.
The leader of the Ascendants, Lt. Surnak had walked down the ramp accompanied by 19 others. "Chief, what's the situation?" he asked, clearly seeing that the crowd had gotten rowdy.
The Chief approached hesitantly as this was his first time seeing an Ascendant in person. "They were relatively peaceful for a few hours, but after that they started to get a little aggressive." he explained.
"Hmmm. Make a whole for me and my man. We will join the front line and hopefully scare some of them off. Though, we're not allowed to hurt any of them unless something drastic happens." the Chief nodded and ordered a part of the line to make a whole as Lt. Surnak and the rest of the Ascendants went to the frontline.
As soon as the others saw them, they continued to try and push the line back, but it wasn't as strong as before since most stopped out of fear. Seeing these tall, massive, armored soldiers was nothing something that they could just dismiss. And based on their appearance, most of the people knew who these massive soldiers were.
But this didn't stop the Freedom of Faith movement as one individual who was dressed in all black and tried to blend into the crowd had an explosive that he was prepping. Corven saw this and pointed it out to his sergeant who ordered them to detain them. But before they could, the person had thrown the device where Corven and his group were standing. "GET DOWN!" shouted Corven, warning his fellow officers as the device exploded right on top of them.
The security forces around him who heard his warning managed to duck down, placing their shields on top of their heads, but the explosion still managed to injure several officers and left some stunned by the explosion, which left a hole in the line. Lt. Surnak seeing this ordered his men to move in and ordered the officers to push them back. None of the officers had second thoughts on whether he was allowed to command them and just followed his orders.
The crowd began to run in panic, but since they were surrounded, they had nowhere to run but across the line of security forces. But the security forces locked their shields and pushed forward against the massive crowd. The soldiers who were waiting in reserve had rushed to the frontline with their weapons in hand and aimed at the crowd, yelling at everyone to get down.
Two of the Ascendants who spotted the assailant had blitzed through the crowd, pushing anybody who didn't move out of the way. Several people were thrown to the side as they tried to put up a fight and protect the person who threw the bomb, but their efforts proved useless.
The two Ascendants caught up to the one who threw the bomb in little to no time. The person in question was a human male, hired to escalate the situation even further, and give the demonstrators a chance to push through. Once they got through, the plan was to use their emotions to get them to destroy the temple, unaware of the consequences that would bring upon them.
However, they didn't expect that the military alongside Ascendant soldiers would be deployed. Still, the order was given, and the bomb was used.
Cowering before them, all the man could feel was fear as he murmured a prayer to the god he worshipped as if that would halt the Ascendants behind him. The first of the two gripped the man's collar, yanking him upright with a single hand. Witnesses nearby didn't know what to do besides getting out of the way. A few minutes later, some soldiers rushed in and arrested the man.
In the meantime, Corven alongside several other officers who were injured were rushed to the medics. Their burns weren't that bad and could be treated with a few days of rest. Riding in the back of the medical car, Corven couldn't believe that something like this happened. Normally, the demonstrations were peaceful with the occasional violence happening. But today, it went beyond the normal line.
Remembering how the Imperium was, he was sure that some harsh punishments were about to be implemented, and a crackdown was about to happen on the groups involved. This was the way he discovered that the Imperium operated. If a problem occurred, they would go all the way to the source to get rid of it. This was one of the many things he liked about the Imperium.
Things like this happened on a small-scale all-over border the worlds. But so long as people like Corven existed, the Imperium would continue to thrive and be accepting to other species.