A crystal core was a green crystal component. It was designed for installation in devices like the Nihil Path engine hyperdrive. In the year 3 ABY, the smuggler Remy discovered a Path engine on the planet Dol'har Hyde. He subsequently provided it to Beol De'Rruyet, who owned De'Rruyet Industries. De'Rruyet later tried to duplicate the hyperdrive, utilizing the crystal core from Remy's Path engine. De'Rruyet boasted that his device would revolutionize lightspeed travel and intended to reveal it at a confluence on the planet Midarr. Lady Domina Tagge of the Tagge Corporation, a rival company to De'Rruyet Industries, dispatched the rogue archaeologist Doctor Chelli Lona Aphra and the smuggler Sana Starros to secure De'Rruyet's hyperdrive for her own purposes.
However, prior to the unveiling event, the Unbroken Clan, who also desired the device, infiltrated the De'Rruyet Center and took De'Rruyet and his personnel as hostages. As Starros escorted some of De'Rruyet's employees to a safe location, Aphra attempted to delay General Vukorah of the Unbroken Clan by feigning repairs to the hyperdrive, while secretly trying to disable it. When stormtroopers from the Galactic Empire stormed the building to resolve the hostage situation, a battle ensued between the Unbroken Clan and the Empire's forces. While escaping, Aphra noticed the crystal core and took it with her. In an effort to compensate for her failure to acquire the Path engine for Tagge, Aphra presented the crystal core to the Tagge Corporation. Tagge was intrigued, and offered Aphra and Starros another assignment to prove their worth.
En route to their next task, Aphra disclosed to Starros that she had copied all of the crystal's data into her electro-tattoos. She also revealed that the core was flawed, with some sections corrupted and the rest being completely unusable. Aphra further explained that Tagge was unaware of these issues, and that giving her the core would keep her at bay for a while. When Starros questioned what would happen when Tagge discovered Aphra's deception, Aphra suggested, hypothetically, that someone could potentially extract valuable information for Tagge from the core. Starros then inquired if Aphra was referring to herself, to which Aphra replied that Starros already knew the answer.