Star Wars Republic Commando: Knight of Honor ✓

Chapter 66

Author's Note: If you have any tips writing tips, please feel free to comment.

As always, I continue to hope that I am doing justice to the spirit of Star Wars as well the respective authors and characters from which I borrow. Again, I gratefully accept constructive criticism as a means to help me develop my skills further as a writer.

There are no Mandalorian (Mando'a) words in this chapter. 

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Chapter 66

You took an oath to be one of us, and outside distractions lead to sloppiness. If you wanted a normal life, you should have stayed a civilian. Here, we don't have the time or the luxury for courting. Your sole obligation is to the royal family, not finding a mate. If you find you changed your mind and want to live the home life, you tell me up front, and you'll receive an honorable discharge, but you'll forfeit ever being one of us again.

Davi Saun reiterating the relationship policy with newly sworn-in palace guardians

Tochin Moon III, 87 Days after Order 66

Semi-conscious and experiencing the sensation of burning while unable to move his body from artificial paralysis, Davi was more aware of his body being dragged than actually feeling it. He couldn't do much more than being a limp mass of bone and flesh, and if it wasn't for the fact that he got his eyes open quickly enough to recognize the stormtrooper armor, he would see little more than the ground before him.

Moments later, the ground outside gave way to the plasteel flooring of the novel shop, and Davi watched the shelves around him spin out of control until he was left staring up at the ceiling. 

He remained there unmoving for a few minutes longer while footsteps and voices continued to move about the shop as the Imperials sought out clues as to the whereabouts of the missing princess and her bodyguard.

Awareness slowly crept throughout his body, and Davi forced his head to begin moving. He started with moving his neck left, then right, and as the feeling came back to his neck muscles, he craned his head to try and find the blaster shot that hat struck him squarely in the chest. 

He knew that stun bolts didn't normally leave a mark, but it had been so many years—decades by now—since he went through training, he had forgotten just how miserable of experience the sensation of a stun-bolt was. He had gotten far too comfortable under Vollan's reign, and that comfort had left him entirely out of practice for physical combat.

Sensation gradually worked its way now down his arms and into his fingers, and Davi was aware of his full weight crushing his bound hands behind his back. Taking a deep breath, Davi tried rolling onto his side as best he could to hopefully alleviate the pressure on his limbs. He got partially to his side when he saw that he was not the only prisoner the stormtroopers had managed to capture.

There were only two younger men who were restrained like him, with their hands bound behind their backs and their awareness slowly coming back into reality. Davi couldn't find any of the other former guardians while his eyes did a search throughout the part of the shop he could see.

After focusing his gaze for a moment on the young men again, Davi realized that they would be sharing with him whatever fate Harkin had planned for those who betrayed the Empire. Davi felt regret for having to see these new recruits be forced the same hand as he would. Both of these young Tochinite men had just barely finished their training and earned the title of palace guardian. 

Within weeks of their commencement, Harkin had disbanded the guardians, and while Davi knew that they chose this path and any sacrifice it might entail, he felt regret that neither of them would ever have the chance to live in the comforts that Davi had taken for granted. They had taken their oath to service and would find that their time as guardians was taken from them before they could excel at their professions.