Shadows of Tomorrow

Chapter 45 - The Big Bang

"We have incoming!" Theseus calls, looking over his shoulder at the sudden sound of motors. Five speeders, with those same creatures from earlier, zoom into view, in chase of their transport. After fighting off the arms dealers – and the few remaining ones had fled – they'd gone to find the enormous kyber crystal themselves. Theseus didn't know such huge crystals even existed, and on that note, the thing is already green, which means someone must have made it that way. Not that that's really a concern right now.

They'd gotten the help of one particularly friendly animal to assist the speeder in pulling the crystal's enormous cart, but they're covering distance across the prairie far too slowly for Theseus' liking. It's not even a surprise that the arms dealers are catching up with them.

Theseus jumps up, leaping onto the top of the crystal as the droids open fire. Blaster shots strike the ground around them, one of them hitting part of the harness to the animal pulling the crystal's cart. The entire thing lurches violently, and he loses balance, rolling across the surface, scrambling to catch his grip. Which might have worked if the animal wasn't totally spooked now, and galloping wildly, shaking the whole cart vigorously.

Anakin flips off the speeder in the front, cutting it free. The animal takes off across the grass, dragging the cart along behind it. Obi-Wan is already on top of the crystal deflecting blaster shots by the time Theseus gets back to his feet, and jumps back to his perch to join him.

Two speeders already down; three more to go. One of them comes flying straight at them, and Theseus deflects a few shots back at it before he flips through the air, catching ahold of something on the other part of the speeder and slashing his lightsaber through it. He drops to the ground, rolling out of the way as it explodes, debris flying everywhere.

He's scrambling back to his feet in time to see Anakin – riding one of the speeders now – colliding with the last remaining one, and both of them go spiraling out of control for the ground. The animal – cut free somewhere in the explosion – takes off across the plains, leaving them far behind. Anakin catches the cart with the Force, slowing it down before it tips over.

"That wasn't so tough," Theseus quips, "Except that our ride is gone."

"That was just the first wave," Obi-Wan reminds grumpily, "And now we have nothing to pull the crystal with."

"Actually, we have something even better," Anakin says cheerfully, turning the nearest enemy speeder upright. "This one should work."

Theseus instantly moves to help Anakin connect the speeder to the cart, while Obi-Wan decides he needs to take care of the all dead bodies everywhere. Which... he can appreciate to a point, but they are in an urgent situation at the moment. He'd much rather their bodies not join the pile on the ground, thank you very much. He keeps any comments to himself, though. It's not as though there's really room for Obi-Wan to help here, anyway.

They finally race away across the endless grass again, only four more speeders to promptly come into view. "They shouldn't treat their guests like this. It isn't good business," Theseus mutters, climbing unsteadily to his feet again and jumping back to his perch on top of the crystal alongside Obi-Wan as the speeders open fire.

One of the speeders zooms up alongside theirs, and Anakin slams the side of the speeder into it, nearly throwing Obi-Wan and Theseus off again. The blaster shots they failed to deflect strike the crystal instead, and the Force suddenly surges in warning. Theseus reacts it instantly, leaping off the crystal onto the side of the cart as the entire thing seems to glow, and energy blasts out from it in every direction. It's too blindingly bright to see properly, but he's pretty sure it just disintegrated several of their pursuers.