Ch 3

The Mantis crash-landed on the rocky planet of Koboh where Cal went to meet Greez Dritus. Cal used BD's visor to mark his objective and he also saw a huge Torontoshell.

"That is one big beast." Cal remarked before approaching a cave with the B1 battle droids. "B1s." he said. "That brings back memories."

The droids fired but Cal deflected the bolts back and struck down the last ones.

In the cave, there were two more battle droids and a Bedlam Raider.

"Die, Jedi!" the raider said before slashing with his electric polearm.

Cal kept his distance and parried the strikes before striking down the Raider and moving into another platform with a Raider and a super battle droid. The super battle droid fired its wrist rocket but Cal Force pushed it back at the droid before cutting it down.

The Raider charged and slashed but Cal parried each attack before cutting down the Raider.

Another platform had two Raiders and a super battle droid. Cal jumped down and slashed down one Raider before Force pushing a rocket from the droid into the last Raider and cutting down the droid.

After a few more minutes of striking down Raiders and droids, Cal came across a frog-like alien being cornered by a Gen'Dai named Rayvis and a Raider named Zeik.

"Let him go!" Cal said.

"A Jedi." Rayvis said. "Remind our friend why his kind are supposed to be dead."

"Here we go!" Zeik said before charging.

Cal blocked and parried Zeik's slashes while striking and slashing back. Zeik also added swiping attacks but Cal parried those and blocked the normal attacks while striking back. There was one bad moment when Zeik pinned down Cal with his polearm but Cal kicked Zeik in the helmet, freeing himself and slashing down Zeik.

"What a delight to see one of your kind in action after all these years." Rayvis said. "If you stay your hand, I shall withdraw in peace."

Cal turned off his saber and Rayvis left.

Cal and BD finally entered Greez's cantina.

"The Bedlam Raiders are gonna be the end of this town." Greez said. "We got no hope. Zero! Zilch! Nothing! How you doing BD. Wait a minute. Cal, you son of a Bogling! Get over here! I've missed ya kid."

Cal and Greez hadn't seen each other in a long time since their last mission.

"You look terrible."

"Good to see you, too, Greez." Cal said.

"Are you taking care of him?" Greez asked BD.

BD said yes.

"Are you taking care of the Mantis?"

"Well, uh, we ran into some trouble in our last job." Cal said.

"What kind?" asked Greez. "The Imperial kind." Cal replied.

"Oh yeah, I shoulda guessed. They've been creepin' around Koboh, too, lately."

"Gryo's burnt out on the Mantis. We'll need your help to get moving again."

"Yeah sure, whatever you need. Come on, grab some seat. Monk, get my friend something special to drink."

"One Slippery Monk coming right up." Monk said before going to work.

"Welcome to Pyloon's Saloon! The finest drive this side of Zeltros." said Greez.

"Your description, uh, didn't do it justice." Cal said.

"Monk and I picked up from the previous owner through a-"

"He caught a fatal case of blaster poisoning, courtesy of the Bedlam Raiders." Monk explained.

"We've been introduced." Cal said.

His body still ached after being pinned down from Zeik's nasty polearm.

"You okay Greez?"

"Oh yeah sure." Greez replied. "As long as I don't have anything they need. Hey, what happened to the Mantis?"

"We were on Coruscant gathering intel for Saw Gerrera. Things got bad. Only two of us made it out. Everything I'm doing feels pointless. The Empire's only growing stronger. Things, uh, haven't been the same since the team split up."

The Mantis crew had split up a few years back.

Cere was probably focusing on rebuilding the Jedi Order.

Greez was working on his cantina.

And Merrin was by herself doing whatever Nightsisters did.

"Yeah, we had some good times didn't we? You, me, Cere, the space witch. Have you talked with her lately?"

"Merrin's always on the move. Exploring new places, making new friends."

On his first mission, Merrin was trying to kill Cal.

Now they were both friends and they had come a long way since the first time they met.

"I was talking about Cere."

"No, it's been awhile, you?"

"Well, her credits helped us get this place off the ground but she hasn't visited yet. She's very busy with this new project. Hey Cal, why don't you relax a little before we fix the Mantis? The galaxy can wait a couple of hours."

Cal wanted to continue fighting and freeing the galaxy but there was another part of his mind that wanted rest.

"We should probably get moving as soon as we finish up."

"I got a spare room down in the basement made especially for you. You should check it out kid."

"Alright. Thanks Greez."

Cal went to his room and closed his eyes.