FORSAKEN II - Eternal Dawn

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

The hoverlift took the Je'daii inside the Box, a spacious empty cube comprised of off-white tiles with faint gray patterns adorning them. A digital beeping preceded the lighting of the walls as they turned into screens, displaying a closeup of Moralo.

"Welcome to the Box. I'm Moralo Eval; the genius behind this wonderous design. Let me tell you the rules before you begin your first challenge. There are none. The objective is to survive each trial as fast as you can. The longer you delay, the less chance you have of survival. Those who do, will advance to the next test."

"Until when?" Jarriss said. "What's the end game?"

"That is for those who survive to find out." Moralo blinked fast.

The tiles inside the Box turned into piledrivers, both vertical and horizontal, activated at different intervals. Some of them ran the length of the space into the walls, floor, and ceiling. Others met in the middle from either extreme, ready to smash whoever gets caught in between them. The floor under Addia raised, almost knocking her down. She jumped off the platform to avoid being crushed by the one coming down from above.

Elynn rolled on the ground, dodging another ceiling column, only to be swept by a vertical one. "How do we get away from these things?" She jumped on top of it before it met its opposite in the middle of the room.

"Huh, a fully-customizable, multi-modular, high-tech environment." Gorin rolled out of a smashing wall into another heading in the opposite direction, which he climbed up to jump away. "Interesting."

"Glad you approve." Theleema jumped off another vertical column. "How about finding a way out of here?" She landed on top of a horizontal one and dove to the ground to escape being crushed by another horizontal pilon.

Jarriss hopped from the moving shafts without ever touching the floor. "Over there." He pointed at an access shaft, high above in one of the walls. The only way to reach it was to use one of the rising pillars that hit the ceiling a few meters away from it.

The team followed Jarriss, eluding the crushing pillars in a similar manner. Syrran and Theleema rode on top of two meeting horizontal columns, before leaping away toward the exit.

"This is not what I had in mind when I suggested some R&R." Addia rolled off a rising platform less than a second before it met its counterpart. She pushed away from its side rather than falling to the ground, bouncing off several of them.

"It's better than sitting in a theater." Theleema performed a similar feat, but using the surfaces of the horizontal ones instead.

"I'm glad you're enjoying yourself." Syrran grabbed her hand and swung her to the next obstacle.

"Oh, like you don't welcome the challenge of solving this thing." Theleema grabbed his arm and pulled him on the pillar with her, so they can leap off together.

"You guys need to work on your communication skills." Addia hitched a ride on a horizontal smasher, hopping off to another when the ends met. "The place, not the talking."

One by one, the Je'daii made their way into the escape shaft. Addia's rising pillar overshot the gap, forcing her get a hold of its edge. Gorin caught Elynn with his powerful arms, hurling her into the hole, so he could aid Addia to climb up before another platform knocked him off his own perch. He waited for the path to be clear once again to leap to freedom.

###

"None of them died." The puffs of green gas from Quay's mask valves added to the expression of his discontent.

"It was just the first test." Moralo studied the readings on each of the Je'daii. "They're incredibly agile and coordinated for a group of smugglers."

"I told you, they are a sneaky bunch." Hondo sipped champagne. "Very crafty. I saw them escape an Imperial blockade, and take down an army of Crimson Dawn and Pyke soldiers."