When Paths Collide

Chapter 11 - Crystal Hunting

Obi-Wan Kenobi

"You could always help, you know," Aniya mutters, as she and Anakin continue their useless attempt at cutting through the doors sealing us into crystal safe.

"Patience," I advise lightly, smirking at their irritation, even if I'm feeling anything but patient right now. The droids will come back, though, and when they do, we'll be ready for a fight. I simply don't see any other way out.

"Patience?" Anakin repeats, turning around, "We're trapped on Krell's ship, and he knows you're free by now. Where do you think he's going to come?"

"And we're outnumbered about five hundred to one in droids," Aniya supplies.

"Summarizing the situation to make a point doesn't help," I retort.

"You do that all the time," Anakin protests.

"Only to come up with a plan."

"Really?" Aniya says dubiously, "So what's your plan this time?"

"We wait for the droids to come back."

"And for Krell to show up?"

"You aren't making it through that door very quickly,"

"I don't see you helping," Aniya calls back, waving her hands.

"Because I know when using my lightsaber on everything is pointless."

"There was this time on Vanquor –" Anakin begins cheerfully, and thankfully, the doors start to open before he can finish. "They want the crystal. Let's give it to them," he finishes instead, as the battle droids cry in alarm and prepare to fire. Good thinking. We shove the crystal forwards, and it barrels right through, leveling all of them.

We take off down the hall, pushing the crystal ahead of us, through several more groups of battle droids, before a spider droid steps around the corner and fires. The blast misses us, striking the crystal instead. The energy ripples through it, and one look at how brightly it's glowing tells me to get down instantly, not that Anakin wasn't already yanking me to cover on the floor.

A blast of energy bursts outwards from it, disintegrating the droid and leaving nothing but a smoking hole in the wall on the far end.

We don't get much farther before I catch sight of a far too familiar figure. Krell is coming towards us, and he's coming fast.

We pick up the pace, shoving the crystal into the hangar. Destroyer droids instantly roll up and open fire, and we duck behind the crystal as the blasts strike it. But the blasts tear through the devices keeping it up, and it abruptly crashes to the floor.

"We won't be going anywhere with this now," Aniya remarks.

"Then we have to destroy it," Anakin declares, "We can't let Krell have it!"

I throw a quick glance around the hangar, spotting several large tanks, all positioned in this direction. And for once, maybe taking a page out of Anakin's book and improvising on the spot with an undoubtedly really stupid, reckless plan is a good idea. "We can use the tanks to destroy the crystal and the whole ship," I suggest, "I'll deal with that. You handle the shuttle."

Which of course is right when Krell strides into the hangar.

"Come on," Anakin calls, jumping to his feet and bolting. We're close behind as we cut our way past the droids, crossing the hangar as fast as we can. I only wish we had been able to figure out what the Sith want with this crystal. I don't know what kind of weapon they could be planning to build for one that big. The most concerning part is that if they're able to get one like this once, they might again.