Child of War

Challenges

A hatch opened in the ceiling.

"How do they expect us to get up there?" One of the bounty hunters complained.

As if on cue, a section of the wall slid out with a laser blade on the end and stabbed one of the Ithorian brothers. More pillars pushed out of the wall, blades cutting dangerously close to us. One near the ceiling protruded out to the exit and didn't retreat back into the wall like the others.

I watched the pillars as they moved in and out. There was a pattern to it. I looked over at Master Kenobi. He'd seen the same thing. I nodded and darted forward, jumping onto the first pillar then the next.

"There's a pattern to it." Master Kenobi followed me up with Cad Bane. The others soon figured it out and did the same.

My foot slipped off the edge of one of the pillars as I landed. I barely caught myself with one hand. Reaching up, I grabbed the edge and pulled myself up.

The pillar started pulling back into the wall. I heaved myself on top of the retreating platform and leapt haphazardly to the next step. They were all pulling back now.

I sped up the path, finally leaping to the final pillar.

We jumped into the exit tunnel and crawled through to the next room.

Eval's face flashed across the wall. "For this next challenge. You'll need to get through," he raised a platform with all of us on it. Red shields boxed us in, "a ray shield."

Caught off guard the Rodian was shocked by the shield and fell backwards off the platform.

There was a syringe full of fluid. "This serum will allow you to pass through the shield." One of the bounty hunters went to pick it up. "But it is toxic to all but one of you." Eval laughed as he flashed away.

A button appeared in an indent in the wall, covered by a ray shield.

I picked up the serum and examined it as the other argued.

The Parwan reached for the serum, but Cad Bane stopped him. As Master Kenobi tried to explain that the Parwan was their only choice, some of the platform fell away, dropping the Selkath onto the ray shield below us.

Finally, Bane let the Parwan take the serum. The alien injected himself and reached through the ray shield, hitting the button as more of the platform fell away.

The shield deactivated and the remaining pillars lowered back into the floor.

A tunnel opened up.

The group looked at each other before going in.