Star Wars Republic Commando: Knight of Honor ✓

Chapter 42

Author's Note: Thanks to everyone who continues to be interested in this story! 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

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

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

Vode (VOH-day): brother, sisters, comrades

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Chapter 42

Any member of the royal family that is within consensual age to wed is forbidden to marry a consort born out of the ranks of royalty. There may be only one exception to this law and that is in the rank of a knight. The loyal protector is required to take the sacred vow of duty and honor and must have a definitive understanding of the proceedings during royal court. Before the marriage can be finalized, however, the knight must forfeit active duty in the military establishment in lieu of personal duty to the royal family.

Early Tochin law pertaining to a royal marriage, adopted towards the end of the Ancient Era

Tochin Moon II, 787 Days ABG

Crimson moved about the hallways towards the hangar in unusual silence. Normally, Dusty would have made a dozen comments and Mouse would have threatened him with bodily harm by this point. Jas would have laughed and smiled the entire way, adding his remarks to both parties, just to keep from taking sides, and Gath would have had to intercede to keep them from actually doing something stupid.

Jas' silence, however, had bled into the rest of Crimson, and they all realized that he was reshuffling his emotions and mentally restacking his deck of priorities. They each knew that by the time they would be on their way to the next mission, Jas would have pushed Tochin and Les'ika behind him. The longer they lingered on this world, the harder it was for Jas to let go of his emotions for the princess, and now that the time had come for them to begin their deployment, Jas could begin the process of getting on with the reality that his life was nothing more than being an enslaved soldier in the GAR.

The doorway to the hangar loomed before them, and Jas turned his focus to the place where he last saw Les'ika. It seemed a lifetime ago now that she was pulled from his hand and lost in the confusion of that moment. He barely had a glimpse of her wrapped in the king's arms before the duchess beckoned them elsewhere, and all Jas could remember of Les'ika with her father was how a father and daughter's bond could be so extraordinary.

Stepping through the doorway to the hangar, Jas' eyes caught sight of the small Republic transport that was to take Crimson off Tochin and onto whatever clandestine mission they were assigned next. The ship was only slightly larger than a LAAT/i, but it was equipped with a hyperdrive, making it distance-worthy.

Jas felt his thoughts linger away from the ship, knowing that he had done everything he could to ensure Les'ika's safety now that he had received his endex. He had no choice but to follow his next set of orders, and he was certain that Tarj was the best man for the job of protecting Les'ika. He could feel it in his gut that Tarj would ensure no harm would come to her again.