Star Wars Republic Commando: Knight of Honor ✓

Chapter 32

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

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

Udesii (oo-DAY-see): Calm down! Take it easy!

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

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Chapter 32

I finally got my freedom after ten years on that blasted, miserable Kaminoan hellhole, and they told me I only had about four months to live, and probably one month in relative comfort before they pumped me full of pain meds. All I wanted was to find my sister-in-law who was carrying my brother's child...a child that I don't even know was a son or a daughter, and these doctors insist that I probably would have died long before I even got close to finding them. So, now I'm confined to a bed, living out the last of my days as I watch the malignant cells eating me alive.

Excerpt from Gan Pohin's final message to Crimson, with instructions to be delivered to them only after he has passed away

Tochin Moon III, 786 Days ABG

Arlesse pulled the blanket tighter around her shoulders, feeling a chill that had nothing to do with the cool spring afternoon. For the last few minutes, she had been unable to turn away from the unconscious form of Baron Erle Zech. She and Jas had joined the others not that long ago, and as soon as she saw Zech alive, she had wanted the blanket to wrap within. There was something comforting now about the thick, woven fibers and how they enveloped her back and shoulders. The fabric was a figurative set of arms to hold her safe and protected, something that she knew Jas could not do at the current moment.

Feeling her emotions for Jas building stronger once again, Arlesse realized now that it was more than just an impassioned kiss in their stolen moment. Something happened inside her when he pushed his blaster into her hands and gave her the brief instructions to defend herself, and it was because he gave her more freedom than anyone else had ever tried to before. She wasn't relying on guardians who told her what to do and not to do. She had the opportunity to think for herself and react with nothing but her own instincts, something she had never been able to explore before. Even with all her fright and panic, Jas trusted her and believed in her to do the right thing. He merely guided her instincts which direction to go. He had told her to shoot and run, and a simple directive like that she knew she could follow.

Eyes boring into the baron, Arlesse fought to push aside the fear she experienced when she thought about how he planned her kidnapping, setting it up with a cold-blooded mercenary. It hurt her, even more, to think that this man had tried to plot the death of her father and all who would remain loyal to the throne of Tochin.

Arlesse was aware of how Crimson practically sat on top of Zech with their weapons trained on him. Despite the man's unconscious state and his bound wrists, none of Crimson was taking the chance that Zech wouldn't try to harm her again.

Thinking back on her days in the palace, Arlesse had barely crossed paths with the baron, but whenever she had, he always seemed polite. He kept his distance from her, something it seemed many of the ranked nobles did, and she never thought anything of it. But now she was wondering if there had been anything peculiar about the way he held himself and she had just never noticed it before. She tried to replay memories of her encounters with Zech, but there was no Separatist Alliance then and his dealings seemed typical for a noble in the royal court.