Jedi Fugitive (The Bad Batch)

46

"To what?" Echo demanded when no one else said anything.

"Yeah, every pirate out there's heard the legend of Skara Nal." Phee's eyebrows drew together in disbelief that we didn't know of the legend. "It traces back to the Ancients."

"It predates the Jedi," I said, finally recalling a dim memory of ancient history lessons on the Temple. "And if I remember correctly, it's way older than the Republic."

"So what kinda treasure's in there?" Wrecker asked eagerly, glancing around the room like he could find the entrance just by looking.

"The Heart of the Mountain." Phee paused dramatically, letting her words sink in. "And we're going to liberate it."

Though it would've had more effect had the room any other exit but the way we came in. The silence was near deafening as she held up the lantern to the wall of etchings again, inspecting them with a frown of deep concentration.

"How do we get in?" Omega whispered eventually, even her hushed tones cutting through the silence as clearly as if she'd shouted.

"It's a pattern," Phee mused, stepping back to let the light shine over more of the wall. She pointed first at the symbols set into the stone bar, and then the matching ones in the wall high above us. "We need to align the symbols in the right order."

She set the lantern down on the floor and took hold of the stone bar jutting out from the wall in front of her, the entire lower third of the room shifting with a loud grinding noise as it began to rotate, Phee pushing it until the etchings lined up with the identical ones on the wall.

"A little help here?" She puffed, gesturing to the second bar just out of her reach. Wrecker, the only one tall enough to reach it, took the responsibility on himself, stretching up to rotate the middle section of the wall, the aged mechanisms groaning from lack of use.

There was an audible click when the third section settled into place, the markings on all three bars oriented and forming a strange message I couldn't make sense of. I wouldn't get the chance anyway - as soon as the symbols had aligned the entire room creaked loudly and began to rumble, dust raining down on us from the ceiling.

"That doesn't sound good," was all Hunter had time to mutter before the rumbling devolved into full on shaking. Omega staggered into me, and my hand reached out for her shoulder, stabilising the girl and pulling her closer to shield her from the small rocks that had also dislodged from the ceiling and clattered against my helmet with noisy clangs.

The floor shifted violently underneath our feet, rocking us all off balance and sending me stumbling forward a step as it began to twist sideways, a slab of rock cutting off what little light the entrance offered as it slid over the opening. Sealing us in.

Phee glanced sharply up at another crack from above before leaping forward, slamming into Wrecker with all the force she could muster. Both of them tumbled to the ground from the sheer momentum the instant before the large boulder smashed into the ground where he had just been, throwing up another cloud of dust as the trembling settled, silence descending on the room again except for Wrecker's coughing. Hunter crossed the room to check on him: other than slightly dazed from his fall, the large clone was otherwise unharmed.

"Booby traps," Phee remarked thoughtfully, getting to her feet and gazing around the room. "Now it's getting interesting."

"You just trapped us in here!" Hunter fired back indignantly, stalking to the other side of the room where Echo was attempting to wedge his scomp into the tightly sealed entrance with no visible results.

"Relax. There's always a way out," Phee picked up her lantern again, holding it up to the wall and inspecting the symbols intently. "We just have to find it. It's part of the puzzle."