These chapter houses only had two or three Jedi, usually. Brandt would leave one of them alive. It was unfortunate that any should die, of course, but the Jedi had never understood subtlety. Here was one—a human, sprinting directly at Brandt in a foolhardy manner; a Master would be more wise, and an Apprentice would be more timid. This one must be a Knight, then. Here came the Jedi's lightsaber. It was held tightly, at arm's length—bad form—and wielded in a dreadfully predictable manner. Brandt didn't need his considerable command of the Force to see this attack coming. The Knight's lightsaber was held low to the ground; clearly, he assumed Brandt would be surprised by an oblique sweep about his legs, from below and to his left. It was intended to take him out of the fight and, literally, off of his legs in one stroke. Suffice to say, he was not taken by surprise. Rainier Brandt was never taken by surprise. For this one, he wouldn't need the use of the Force at all. As Brandt was also in mid-stride, he simply pressed off his back foot and propelled himself into the air, much like a long-jumper. The Jedi would miss, of course, but moreover Brandt's left boot—with the force of his momentum and the weight of his body—would come down precisely upon the lightsaber's hilt and the Knight's clenched hands upon it. Three metacarpals and proximal and intermediate phalanges in the index, middle, and ring fingers of his right hand were shattered, as well as three distal phalanges of his left hand; the tips of his middle, ring, and pinky fingers.
In other words, the Jedi's hands felt like gravel beneath Brandt's boot.
He thought he heard a yelp of pain from his adversary as he dropped the lightsaber and fell to the dirt. But he paid it no mind—the maneuver had used all of Brandt's balance and he, too, fell to the ground, although in a more elegant fashion than his opponent had. He was back on his feet a moment later; he dusted himself off, quite deliberately, and resumed his stride into the chapter house, leaving the wounded Jedi behind to be finished off by his stormtroopers. The sound of blasterfire behind him, a moment later, meant the deed was done.
Brandt and his Imperials had arrived only a moment ago, landing in the well-tended garden beside the Jedi chapter house on Antar 4, which also sported a small landing pad. The ramp to their nondescript, civilian freighter had opened and Brandt was the first one out. His stormtroopers, who always had trouble keeping up with him, weren't far behind. Brandt himself may have been underestimated by the chapter house's modest detail of Antarian Rangers; he wasn't using a lightsaber and, thus, there was no reason to assume that he was, in fact, a Dark Jedi. The Rangers were the first to die for this blunder—nine of them, in all. The Knight that Brandt had just dispatched was the first Jedi out the door and, of course, the first to die.
Thirty seconds had elapsed.
Brandt and his troops were inside the building now. It was enemy ground but, thankfully, it was small. The ceiling was low, the corridors were narrow, and there were few places to hide; only a lounge, a study, and three, no, four lodging rooms. The Rangers lived in a barracks on the other side of the garden, their few remaining numbers holed up inside, pinned down by the stormtroopers. Brandt sensed that they wouldn't be a problem. He turned his attention, thus, to the remaining one or, perhaps, two Jedi.
