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CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX 

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AHSOKA Tano and Artemis Bryce had been a force to be reckoned with. Having been raised together on Coruscant, the two had been bound by the hip. They were together all the time, having the same age and the same classes. They built their lightsaber together. They fought together. They had lost together.

When Ahsoka left the Jedi Order, Artemis lost her best friend. She had tried to stop her, to ask why she'd leave. To ask why she'd leave her.

Something in Ahsoka's eyes had told her the reason. Artemis could only swallow and hug her best friend goodbye, not knowing whether they'd see each other again. 

To say Artemis was happy to see her friend again, would be an understatement.

She and Din had picked the kid up from the Frog Lady and departed Trask in the Razor Crest.

Artemis sat in the passenger seat as Din flew the ship. Her feet were laying onto the side of the dashboard and she had a content smile on her face.

Suddenly the ship shuddered, causing Artemis to pull back her legs. "What's happening?"

"I don't know," Din said, busy fiddling with some switches and buttons. "Can you check if everything is okay downstairs?"

"Sure," Artemis said, standing up and getting down the ladder. Looking around, she saw nothing out of the ordinary and after ensuring everything was fine, she climbed back into the cockpit. "Everything looks—what are you doing?"

Din turned around, revealing Grogu who was sitting in a deep but narrow opening full of wires.

"Din," Artemis began, trying to sound patient and calm, "did you put our kid into a place full of electrical wires?"

"Er—" Din stammered, realizing how stupid his idea had been. "Yes?"

"Dank Farrik, I married an idiot."

She moved closer, extending her arms. "Come here, little guy."

Grogu let go of the wires and shuffled closer to the opening before jumping into her arms. Artemis turned to look at Din.

"This will not work. Figure out something else."

Din turned back to the control panel started looking for a place to stop so they could fix their ship. "I think we need to visit some friends," he said.

Artemis raised an eyebrow. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"You tell me."

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THE ship shuddered and alarms went off as Din tried to land the Razor Crest as careful as he could. Artemis could already see Cara and Greef coming out of town to welcome them. Both of them looked happy to see them.

"Looks like someone could use some repairs," Greef greeted them, clearly having seen the difficult landing.

Greef and Din grabbed each others arms in greeting while Artemis smiled at Cara, knowing she wasn't much of a hugger.

"How's my credit around here?" Din asked.

"I think something could be arranged. Isn't that right, Marshal?" he said, glancing at Cara.

"Marshal?" Artemis said, raising an impressed eyebrow. "Congratulations are in order."

Cara smiled and greeted Grogu, who was being carried by Din. "Thank you. I'm sure we can work something out."

"I'll get my best people on it," Greef promised them. "Hey, fellas!" he called out to the workers. "Let's fix this ship! I want it as good as new."

Grogu cooed and Greef turned to face him. "And you, come here, little one!" He scooped him up from Din's arms. "Have they been taking good care of you? Have you been taking good care of him?" he added, eying Din and Artemis. Grogu cooed and Greef chuckled. "Yeah? Yeah! He said 'yeah!' Oh yeah."

As the four of them walked through the main street, Artemis noticed that it was bustling with traders. It was good to see the town grow again.

"Looks like you've been busy," Din said, seeming to notice it as well."

"I myself have been steeped in clerical work," Greef said. "Marshal Dune here is to be thanked for cleaning up the town."

Artemis smiled as she could feel how proud Cara was. The woman turned around to face her friends.

"You did well, Cara," Artemis said, smiling. "I see you've been doing a great job."

"Thanks," Cara said, beaming.

"Here we are," Greef said, as they stood in front of the former local cantina.

"I'm surprised to see this place is still standing," Din said.

"Wait till you see inside," Cara replied, grinning. 

Artemis and Din exchanged a glance before the latter gestured that she could go in first. Artemis stepped inside and was surprised to find herself in what seemed to be a classroom.

"Who can name the five major trade routes in the galaxy?" the protocol droid up front asked her students. "Anyone? How about the Corellian Run?"

"The Hydian Way?" a boy said from somewhere up front.

"Yes, the Hydian Way," the droid said. "That is correct."

"A school?" Din said, seeming as surprised as Artemis.

"Things have changed a lot around here," Cara said.

"We'll leave the little one here so we can talk business," Greef said, moving forward to the last row of tables.

"Wait," Din said, as Artemis frowned at this. "Wherever we go, he goes."

"Mando, please," Greef said. "Where we're going, you don't wanna take a child. Trust me."

Artemis slipped her hand inside his and gave him a gentle squeeze.

"He'll be fine," she told him.

"You have my word," Cara added. "Nothing will happen to him."

"... be transported from the Outer Rim to as far away as the Core Worlds," Artemis heard the droid say as her green eyes followed Greef walk up front to settle Grogu down in the second row. "However, there are several other regions within our galaxy. They are the Mid Rim ..."

"Come on," Greef said, gesturing for them to follow him.

Artemis gave Grogu one last look and a behave-yourself-look, before following the others outside.

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THE four of them entered Greef's office and Artemis raised her eyebrows as she saw a rather familiar Mythrol sitting behind the front desk.

"There's no registration on the ship," he said, as he was looking down on his tablet, "but I'm pretty sure it belongs—" he stopped talking when he saw Din and Artemis.

"I believe you three have met," Greef said, gesturing between the three of them.

The Mythrol seemed equally surprised to see them. He hadn't forgotten how their last encounter had ended for him.

"I'm surprised to see you here," Din admitted.

"Right back at ya," the Mythrol said.

"Mythrol here's taken care of my books since he was a pollywog," Greef explained. "But then he disappeared on day after a bit of 'creative accounting'."

"Magistrate Karga was generous enough to let me work off my debt," the Mythrol told them. "Thank you, by the way."

"Three hundred and fifty years," Greef said, "but who's counting?"

"Well, if he runs off on you again, let us know," Din said.

"Let me assure you, I do not wanna spend any more time in carbonite," the Mythrol clarified. "Still can't see outta my left eye."

"Can we talk business?" Cara questioned, seeming to get tired of the conversation.

"We're only here for repairs," Din said.

"Which'll take a while," Greef said. "Which means you'll have free time on your hands, right?" He exchanged a glance with Cara before looking back at them. "And we could really use your help."

Artemis tilted her head, intrigued. "Help how?"

"This is Nevarro," Cara said, turning on a holographic map of their landmass on Nevarro. "We're here," she continued, pointing at a green zone. "This entire area's a green zone. Completely safe. But over on this side is the problem." She zoomed in and Artemis frowned as she recognized the familiar structure.

"It's an old Imperial base," Greef said.

"It's where all those troops came from when we defeated Moff Gideon," Cara added. "This base has been here since the Imperial expansion. It's got a skeleton crew, but for some reason, it hasn't been abandoned."

"There's a lot of heavy weaponry in that place the black market would love to dismantle and get their hands on," Greef said.

"And you wanna mop up the last of the Imperial fore before they do," Din stated.

"Mando, I just want them off my planet," Greef said. "If we could take out that one last base, Nevarro would be completely safe. We could be a trade anchor for the entire sector."

"And the planet would finally be free," Cara finished.

Din looked at Artemis, mentally asking if they should do this. He saw her determined expression and turned back to their friends.

"What are we looking at?"

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ARTEMIS was glad she had braided her hair before they left. The five of them, she, Din, Cara, Greef and the Mythrol, all sat in the silver landspeeder that carried them through the lava flats of Nevarro.

"The whole base is powered by a reactor," Greef told Din and Artemis who sat next to each other on the back seat.

"We sneak in, overload the reactor, and get the hell outta there," Cara added.

"I like to blow things up," Artemis stated. "Especially when they belong to the Empire." Cara gave her a fist bump for this.

"Let's be fast," Din said. "And keep the speeder running." He looked at the Mythrol while saying the latter.

"There it is, right there," Greef said, pointing at an Empirical base situated on the edge of a high cliff. "You see it?"

"It's hard to miss," Artemis muttered.

"How close do you want me to drop you off?" the Mythrol asked. Artemis could sense he was getting nervous.

"How about the front door?" Greef said coolly.

"It's a little close for a civilian, don't you think?" the Mythrol replied, seeming even more nervous.

"I got two choice for ya," Greef said. "You take us in and I know a hundred years off your debt."

"Or?" the Mythrol asked, still not convinced.

"Or I leave ya out here in the lava flats to walk home with whatever's left in you humidity vest."

"It's not much of a choice, is it?" the Mythrol mumbled.

They continued the rest of their journey in silence until the landspeeder stopped in front of a metal door.

"All right," the Mythrol said. "We can't go any further than this."

"Let's go," Greef said, and Artemis pushed herself up before jumping over the side of the speeder, landing lightly onto her feet.

Everyone had their blasters out as they neared the door. Artemis glanced up, seeing the landing platform above her, but saw no one.

Din bowed forward to work on the control panel to let them in, but sighed when that didn't work.

"Controls are useless. They're melted."

"Well, it's probably not rated for lava," Greef commented dryly.

"Imperial trash," Cara added.

"All right, I'm headed back," the Mythrol called over. "Hit me up on the comm, we could set up a rendezvous time."

"You park your gills right there until I say otherwise," Greef said sternly.

"I'm starting to dehydrate, boss," the Mythrol complained.

"Okay, how does thirty more years off your debt sound?"

"Can you at least be quick about it?"

"You wanna be quick about it? Grab the glance cutter and help us out."

"Leave it to me," Artemis said, extending her arm and using the Force to open the door. "There we go."

Din had been looking up at the landing platform above them and when the door was open, he turned to them.

"Hold tight," was all he said before igniting his jet pack and flying up.

"I hate it when he does that," Artemis muttered, before gesturing for her friends to follow her. The moment they set foot in what seemed to be an elevator, a scream was heard and seconds later, the body of a stormtrooper landed on the ground behind them.

"Apparently it's raining stormtroopers today," Artemis stated, as the doors closed again. Cara grinned at this.

"Are you coming in or what?" Greef questioned the Mythrol.

"I'll take my chances here, but thank you," he replied.

"Well, when the lava tide comes in, give us a holler," Cara said. "We'll drop you a rope."

Artemis had never seen someone get in an elevator so fast.

The door slid shut again and the four of them were brought up. Artemis' hands hovered over her lightsabers, ready to ignite them if needed, but when the door opened, she saw that Din had already taken care of all stormtroopers.

"Empty base, huh?" he said, as they walked onto the landing platform.

Artemis looked around and down to where she could see a river of lava.

"The reactor should be set in the heat shaft," Greef said, ignoring Din's comment. "If we drain the cooling lines, this whole base will go up in a matter of minutes."

"Look," the Mythrol said, causing all of them to turn around. "It's a mint Trexler Marauder. We can get a lot for this on the black market."

"And it's gonna get vaporized like the rest of this base," Din said. "Now, let's go."

The Mythrol sighed. "Such a waste."

Word count: 2229

Hello again! I hope you liked it and tell me what you think of it! I'm SO excited for season three—any predictions? :)

Anyway, have a nice day everyone!

Published: 22.02.2023