Star Wars Republic Commando: Knight of Honor ✓

Chapter 71

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.

Mandalorian (Mando'a) words

Aruetiise (ah-roo-ay-TEE-say): traitors, foreigners, outsiders

Buy'ce (BOO-chay, BOO-shay): helmet; Colloquially: pint, bucket

Di'kut (DEE-koot): idiot, useless individual, waste of space (lit. someone who forgets to put their pants on)

Hiibir kaysh at haar me'sen (HEE-beer, kaysh, aht, har, mAY-sen): "Take her to the starship"

Ika (EE-kah): diminutive suffix written as 'ika - also added to a name as a very familiar or childhood form, e.g, Ord'ika - Little Ordo

Ner vod (nair-vohd): "my brother/my sister"; colloquially also "my friend"

Ni ven shekemir o'r skotah ca'nar (nee, vehn, SHEH-kay-meer, ohr, SKOH-tah, kah-nar): "I'll meet up with you soon"

Shabla (SHAH-bla): screwed up - impolite

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Chapter 71

...and with a final strike, the knight's sword slain the blood-thirsty beast. News of the victory swept through the village, and the people knew they were safe once again. The king acknowledged the knight's bravery and cunning and allowed his youngest daughter the honor of marrying the knight who had won her heart.

Excerpt from "The Tale of the Blood Beast," from Tochin's Novella of Fable Chronicles

Tochin Moon III, 87 Days after Order 66

Gillard suddenly felt like his world had been drowned in a thick, clear gel. He had heard the blaster bolt, but he could not discern from where it came. 

All he was aware of was how Arlesse now laid on the floor, her body slumped on her side and unmoving. Her hair had fallen around her, some of the locks draped over her cheek, and he couldn't even tell if she was still breathing.

Something cold seeped into Gillard's chest when he realized that her eyes were closed in what looked like a peaceful slumber, and he remembered screaming something about idiots at his stormtroopers, but he had no idea what exactly he had said.

Blinking hard in an effort to see through the invisible haze, he wondered what had happened and how he had so quickly lost control of the situation. 

He slowly turned his gaze between the two stormtroopers that flanked either side of him, aware of how TK-2857 was trying to get his attention. He heard him ask, "Sir?" more than once, but Gillard could not break out of the haze to reply.

He watched as one of his stormtroopers took a blaster bolt to the stomach and another to his chest. Gillard didn't need to be told that the man beneath that armor would never rise again, and he continued to hear his men shouting around him, their words indistinct. 

They yelled in combat terms, something that was more instinctual than understandable. He watched the rest of the stormtroopers move free from their shelters, their intentions to protect him. 

However, their efforts were short-lived as they were quickly struck down by blaster bolts from unknown assailants. It was a confusing display of screams and weapons while Gillard's trained stormtroopers fell to the floor from their various wounds or worse.