Session XVII: The Empire Struck Back

Opening crawl: 

In the aftermath of the Battle of Hoth, the group of rebel soldiers code-named "Delta Team" were taken prisoner, transported to an orbiting Imperial Star Destroyer, and held in the detention area...

again...

Though they are thankful to be alive, unlike so many of their comrades, they are uncertain what fate awaits them, as the Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Vader, has taken a keen interest in aspiring Jedi* Hal Brunchkiller.

Half of Delta Team sits within one of the more “luxurious” holding cells, complete with sleeping shelves, a relatively clean floor, and a window that looks out over the frozen globe below... 

A view from behind the Subjugator... or maybe one of the other ships involved in the Battle of Hoth.

(Editor’s Note: So now, after that exciting session of playing through the Battle of Hoth in the middle of the summer, with everyone present, it ended up that only half of the players could make it to the next session. So, rather than playing the other half of the group as NPCs I just decided that they were starting off in a different jail cell. This is the beginning of the Starfall module, but just as with previous modules, I’m changing things a bit to fit my campaign. One major change is that in the WEG continuity, Starfall precedes Crisis on Cloud City and the two modules have some of the same NPCs. But we played Crisis first, so now I need to make the relevant NPCs behave like they already know the players. Also, I am writing this months after the fact, so, as always, my memory is a little bit fuzzy.)

Turk, D’wook and Jeegn, sat around the cell contemplating strategy, trying to figure out if they could possibly bumrush the prison guards when mealtime came around. 

The ship rumbled and out the window they could see the streaks of stars flying by, indicating they were now in hyperspace. 

They waited and waited and finally, they heard boots approaching. They all got into position, fully expecting the guards to open the door and enter the cell to give them their meals. Instead it was a tray pushed through a small slot in the door.

D’Wook stuck his hand through the open slot in an attempt to grab one of the guards. He grabbed ahold of one of their hands and was about to pull it into the slot, but instead D’Wook got tased. The next two trays came through the slot upside down, and their mostly inedible contents made a mess on D’Wook’s fur.

Jeegn and Turk began scanning the mostly metal walls for any seams and thought about using the meal trays as a tool to maybe pry the metal off the walls.

A few hours later, they noticed that they had exited hyperspace. Outside the window were no real indications that they were near any known system. 

Just then everyone could hear the sound of a very large explosion happening elsewhere in the ship. The floor began shaking back and forth and the lights began flickering. The party looked out the window and could see very clearly that some sort of space battle was happening, with laser shots streaking by, but from their vantage point, they could not see who the star destroyer was fighting. All that was probably happening on the windows facing the other way.

Then they could hear metal scraping against metal. They could hear red alert klaxons going off in their section of the ship, and armored boots running by... and then suddenly it became totally dark.

They fumbled around in the darkness and tried to play around with their trays to try to find areas in the wall that they had identified as having seams.

Just then they could hear outside the door what sounded like some small motors spinning and the pitter patter of metal feet.

They got into position.

The doors flung open, and Golden Wheels shouted with glee! 

Golden Wheels: “You did it L1!”
L1-NK: “Beepbeep” (translation “No thanks to you!”)

The cell became illuminated by light emanating from L1’s head and.. GW’s astromech head.

Jeegn, D’Wook and Turk were happy to see the droids, and they all exited into the hallway.

(Editor’s note: the original solution to the problem in the Starfall module was to simply roll high enough strength to open the door. After all, with no power, it’s no longer magnetically sealed. Can I just say “magnetically sealed” does not at all sound as hi-tech these days as it might have in 1977. Also, I didn’t like this solution. Surely they would have thought about this exact situation. What if they had hundreds of Wookiees in the brig? The power goes out and then suddenly they can all get out of their cells with ease. It’s stupid. Humans perfected jail cells... more or less, in medieval times or even earlier. Don’t tell me that the all-powerful galactic empire hasn’t thought of ways to make it physically impossible to open the door in the event the power goes out. There should also be a mechanical element to a jail cell door. If anything it should be harder to open. So instead, I thought it would be better if the droids found time during the commotion to slip away from wherever they were being held, read the computer to find out which cells their friends were in, and spring them themselves. This works way better and is less stupid.)

Okay so now they were in a dark hallway and they could hear footsteps coming their way. L1 shut his lights off and Turk asked Golden Wheels to do the same.

Around the corner ahead came four guards bearing glow rods (because for some reason we can’t just call flashlights flashlights.) It was also possible to make out smoke coming from the direction they came from. 

It's NOT a flashlight! It's a glow rod!!!!

The party did their best to hide while the guards ran in their direction. They noticed the droids, but looked like they were not concerned with them.

As they came closer to where the party was hiding, Turk, Jeegn and D’wook pounced. If this were a cartoon it’d be a cloud rolling around the ground with various fists and boots and helmets emerging from time to time, and the result would be four unconscious prison guards and the party picking up their equipment and moving along. I’d go more into detail about who did what to whom, but this happened a long time ago, so let’s just say the good guys won.

Now equipped with blaster pistols, glow rods, and some batons, they continued down the hallway, they suddenly heard a loud scream coming from that direction. It was a male voice pleading that he had already told them everything he knows about the rebel rendezvous point.

They rushed over to where the screaming was coming from. L1 popped the door. They ran into the cell and found... An interrogator droid, pointing its pokey needle at Walex Blissex, who was bound to a table. 

Turk shot at the droid and it slammed against the wall but was still moving around in the air. He shot it again... or at least he tried to. Examining his blaster, he realized that it was out of ammunition.

Jeegn took a shot and the interrogator droid began flying erratically. D’Wook gave it a good whack with his baton and it was destroyed. From the shards of the droid and two prisoner guard batons, D’Wook fashioned a spear.

Blissex, hopped up on truth serum and pain drugs, struggled to speak.

Blissex: “Asked questions about rebel rendezvous point, and technical questions about Star Destroyers... makes no sense ... ship must have been attacked ... our chance to escape ... so glad you heard my message ... ”

Blissex slipped out of consciousness. The party looked at each other wondering what message he was talking about. They decided to help Blissex up and made their way to the control room.

There they incapacitated  two more prison guards and began searching for their stuff. It was nowhere to be found but they did find a crate with two medpacs, two comlinks and 50 meters of rope, as well as another glow rod.

Towards the back of the control room was another hallway that led to a turbolift. They pried open the doors only to find the empty shaft. They asked Blissex which way they should go. He said up would take them to the command section of the ship, but it would be easier to go down, to the engineering section because it was probably safer. 

(Editor’s note: The module provided them with ladders so that they could climb up or down, making the rope they just acquired a more difficult option to go down. I didn’t say there were ladders because I also wanted them to go down... and ladders, as I said, make it make no sense to use the rope.

The module strongly hints, through Blissex, that down is the way to go but the players have the option to go up. But they never bother to explain exactly what is above. There’s a section at the beginning of the module that explains that in the command section are a heavy concentration of stormtroopers as well as multiple closed blast doors and checkpoints that lead to the bridge... but they don’t exactly say how one accesses this first area. I am fortunate in that the party didn’t want to go to command, because if they had, I’d have been at a loss for how to proceed. And I’d be throwing hundreds of troops at them to make them turn the other way. My players are not concerned with large numbers of stormtroopers and probably would have tried to go up to take over the ship if given the option. So no ladders, and you have to use that rope you just got.)

They entered the shaft and could see faint light both above and below. As they were climbing down, an explosion rocked the ship and some of the party struggled to hold on. L1, holding Blissex, was able to lower himself with his grappling hook, but could not stabilize himself and so was bonking off the sides of the shaft, leaving dents in it. (Remember, he’s made of beskar.) Blissex did not scream in terror because he was so exhausted, but he did not feel good at all. 

They continued further down and the light grew progressively brighter. They entered an area where seemingly gravity did not apply… but weightlessness wouldn’t be the right way to explain it. The shaft’s maintenance lights were flickering on and off, but further down they were fully lit. 

L1 determined that they had entered a working repulsorlift field. Meaning they could coast along through the field at pretty fantastic speeds, but that also meant that the turbo lift was working in this area. He told Golden Wheels in beeps and boops and Golden Wheels translated. 

A whoosh could be heard far ahead so the party had to move fast. They spotted a door about 10 meters down. 

The whoosh got louder. 

They pried open the door. 

The whoosh became deafening and a wind started blowing their way. 

They pulled the door open and dove through just as the turbolift scooted by. 

They were now in a corridor. The lights were working. From the shaft, a crash and scraping  metal sound could be heard, likely the turbolift moving swiftly into the area that didn’t have a working repulsorlift field and knocking against the walls. 

(Editor’s note: The next part has a cutaway of Lira, the daughter of Walex Blissex talking to Captain Koloff about their plan…with Koloff saying they are on the cusp of victory and Lira chastising him, saying the ship is falling apart, but acknowledging the plan could work. I did read it to them but again, I kind of don’t like these cutaways because it gives the players information that their characters wouldn’t have. I think the point is to make it more like a Star Wars film, which often cut away to what the Empire was up to for short scenes. I don’t think it works in this medium.)

Back in the corridor, Blissex who was now back on his feet, explained they were in an access corridor above the engineering section and they could probably find a computer terminal there, and that would give them a chance to assess the situation.

The party agreed to the idea so Blissex led them down a corridor to a blast door. 

He said that beyond the door would be a staircase leading down to an area where they could find computer terminals meant for maintenance. He asked them to open the door and provided them with his personal override code. 

(Editor’s note: In actuality they are supposed to roll security to get it open. I think this is stupid. If you don’t know the code then it shouldn’t make sense that you can roll high enough so that your random key presses will open it, or that you can hack it through just the keypad. There’s a whole thing about Blissex having never been able to use computers in this module so that someone will have to roll security every time this kind of situation occurs, but we are supposed to believe that he’s otherwise a brilliant scientist who can design ships the size of cities, but he can’t use a computer? That’s ridiculous. I one upped the module and said that in his 30s, he had contracted a disease that made it impossible for him to read. It was a point of embarrassment for him. We joked that it was “space dislexia” but this is more believable. I made up the story that Lira’s mother had been helping him prior to her own untimely death.

After she left, it was Lira as a tweener that was helping him, and she came to resent it, loathing that she could not be a normal kid like everyone else and had to help her dad all the time. But she absorbed it all and eventually surpassed him in ability, even though she grew increasingly resentful. And that is why she turned out the way she did. With that, I think my versions of Blissex and Lira have far more depth than what these modules presented.)

Golden Wheels  asked why he didn’t just put that code in himself and he told them the whole story. 

They opened the door and the backdraft hit them like a ton of bricks. The stairway led down to a raging inferno in a damaged sunlight engine below. But they could get to a catwalk from the stair that would take them to a maintenance terminal. It was also high enough that the flames would not cook anyone on it. 

A random picture of a star destroyer on fire. Do space explosions work the same way as in atmospheres? My instincts say no, but it's still a cool picture.

(Editor’s note: I’m no physicist, but if the fire is big enough that it is a problem, and you’re above the fire, then you’re in trouble. If it is far enough away that it’s not a problem, then it could hardly be described a “raging inferno.” In order for this to make sense, it has to be so far away, meaning the stairway is very very long. If that’s the case, Blissex designed this area stupidly. There should be several floors between here and there, and maintenance on the sunlight engine should require a trip to a lower deck via turbolift. But I suspect it is closer. It would have made more sense to say that the catwalk goes BELOW the sunlight engine, and it’s hot, but since heat moves upward it does not affect them much. 

Then again, this is all based on gravity. Heat rises because it is less dense than colder air. I suppose we could then assume that there is no artificial gravity around the sublight engine, meaning the heat concentrates in the low or no grav area as the colder air is pulled towards teh areas with gravity... if that is the case though, then the stairway is entirely unnecessary, and maintenance on the sublight engine is carried out in a zero grav environment. Long story short. It doesn’t make sense but let’s just move on).

Turk, L1,  and Blissex crossed the catwalk and L1 plugged in. Accessing a map: 

L1 also detected another communication: 

(Editor’s note: Once again, it’s an email. This was written in 1989, likely before the writers knew even what email was. But this is a military ship. Surely it would be more secure than this. How can a random player just come along and read a “For Your Eyes Only” message between the Captain and his crew? It makes no sense. But... I guess we’re supposed to believe that the hackers within the team are just THAT good that they 1, would know whose email address to hack, and 2, had the skills hack into it, when likely it would require things like biometric scans or 2-factor authentication... but.. Whatever let’s move on.)

With the ship set to explode, Blissex suggested setting the timer to one hour earlier to catch the Imperials by surprise, THEN escape the ship. 

Blissex: “No one knows the working of this ship better than I do. I can manipulate the destruct mechanism to explode one hour earlier than the Imperials expect. That should take out the remaining crew and this vessel, while still providing us with enough of a buffer to reach the hangar bays and escape. Follow me.”

D’Wook kinda hated the idea, and thought they should get out immediately, but the rest of the party thought it might be a good idea to at least try to neutralize any threat this vessel and its crew could pose against the rebellion. After all, Blissex did reveal the location of the rendezvous point, and if the Empire were to get that information they could send all ships there and sink the rebellion immediately.

They agreed and set off toward the door, when an explosion in the sublight engine breached the hull and the flames were visibly arcing toward the breach. Blissex began running toward a small maintenance access space in one of the walls, and urged the rest of the party to follow. Once there they were able to move past a bulkhead and seal off the area. They began moving through dark, cramped corridors, hearing more and more explosions from the direction of the area they just left.

As they passed through another bulkhead, a blast door shut behind them. They were now in a very wide corridor that was eerily quiet. Up ahead about 30 meters was an intersection. They moved toward the intersection and suddenly they were ambushed by six stormtroopers. A firefight broke out and the party tried shooting at the troopers, only to find that some of their rifles had run out of power. D’Wook does not shoot, so as he was jumping onto one storm trooper and relieving him of his left eye and brain lobe, and jumping to the next, he was blasted by a tri-mounted automatic blaster cannon. 

In my game it was just automated, though I now realize that "automatic" might have meant it is rapid fire. Oh well.

He was hit in a crucial spot that blew off one of his legs, and he broke his back as he skidded along the floor and lay motionless. 

Fortunately the rest of the troopers concentrated their fire on the rest of the party and did not bother to take more shots at him. Also the automated blaster cannon only hits moving targets, so it also did not finish the job.

(Editor’s note: The cannon does 6D of damage. D’Wook’s strength is 3D, though he may have been wearing a stormtrooper armor breastplate.  Even so, he rolled a 1 on his magic die and was therefore defending with only 1D. Meanwhile the cannon rolled a 6 on its magic die for damage, and well, this should have been the end of D’Wook. But I don’t like killing player characters for bad dice rolls.. So I said he was “mortally wounded.” In this game, that means he needs immediate first aid or he will die, and then even after that, he needs to get medical attention.)

Over the shipwide comlink: “Are times so trying in the Rebellion that they have armed moisture farmers and dirty aliens against the might of the Empire? Must they leave it to me to train you as soldiers? So be it. Your first lesson is called 'neutralizing a crossfire position.’ Do try not to panic.” 

Blissex recognized the voice as belonging to Captain Kolaff, whom he had met prior to boarding the ship, back when he didn’t realize it was a trap. He tried to mention it between shots, but the party was very occupied and didn’t quite listen.

Turk realized what was going on and entered sharpshooter mode, dispatching two of the remaining troopers, GW and Jeegn took out another each. 

Turk moved along the wall and told Jeegn to throw a prison guard helmet into the intersection. As the automatic turbo blaster was vaporizing the helmet, Turk quickly maneuvered behind it and shot at it until it exploded. Jeegn performed first aid on D’Wook. Who couldn’t walk, L1 produced a small ewok butt sized seat from his head and they lifted D’Wook into place. D’Wook and Jeegn put on stormtrooper armor and then picked up their rifles. 

The group pressed onward.

After traveling through a few more corridors they eventually came to an open wide area of the ship that appeared to be a repair shop, with various spare ship parts strewn along the walls and different ship components in states of partial repair on work tables. Only, it was very dark in here. Ahead of them on the other side of the repair shop was another clear corridor.  Suddenly the room filled with smoke that obscured their vision even more. They could hear the pitter patter of armored feet some more that began shooting in their direction.

The shipwide comlink crackled to life again. It was Koloff again.

“So good of you to find us. Welcome to lesson number two. I call it ‘stacking the deck.’ I suggest you refrain from coughing, so as not to attract undue attention.”

The party began shooting at whatever was being shot in their direction, and various stormtrooper wilhelm screams rang out. Oddly, the party began to notice that more shots were coming from behind them. A voice called out!

Voice: “Turk is that you?”

Turk: Vero?

The party pulled back to join the other shooting group. As they drew closer, they could make out the faces of Vero Morelock and Lo’Sar Tan.

Together the group was able to take out the remaining stormtroopers. There were 10 of them.

After the shooting was finished... Vero looked happy to see everyone... but frowned when she realized that Jeegn was among them.

(Editor’s note: Why was she frowning? Well I’ll tell you why. Let’s start things off from the beginning, according to her point of view).

Opening crawl: 

In the aftermath of the Battle of Hoth, the group of rebel soldiers code-named "Delta Team" were taken prisoner, transported to an orbiting Imperial Star Destroyer, and held in the detention area...

again...

Though they are thankful to be alive, unlike so many of their comrades, they are uncertain what fate awaits them, as the Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Vader, has taken a keen interest in aspiring Jedi* Hal Brunchkiller.

Half of Delta Team sits within one of the more “luxurious” holding cells, complete with sleeping shelves, a relatively clean floor, and a window that looks out over the frozen globe below... 

Vero, Grundle and Hal sat in their cell, trying to think of ways to get out.

The ship rumbled and out the window they could see the streaks of stars flying by, indicating they were now in hyperspace. 

As the three were thinking, the cell door opened and the heavily armed guards cattle prodded Jeegn Ztungles, kicked him into the room and promptly shut the door.

Vero checked Jeegn for injuries, determining that although his face was badly bruised, he was relatively okay.

Jeegn explained that he had been tortured for information, but they kept asking him about things he didn’t know, like how many ships were in the rebel fleet, and where they were planning to set up their next base.

Hal pulled out his lightsaber and began to cut a hole in the wall, or at least that is what he would have done if he had it. For some reason the guards had disarmed everyone prior to putting them in prison, go figure.

A few hours later, they noticed that they had exited hyperspace. Outside the window were no real indications that they were near any known system. 

Hal attempted to use the force to push the door open or break the wall. It didn’t work.

Then, as they were thinking, they could hear a tapping sound.

Tap

Tap tap

Tap tap tap

Tap tap tap tap tap 

Tap tap tap tap tap tap tap

Tap x 11

It then started again from 1.

Tap, 

Tap tap 

Tap tap ap

Etc.

(Editor’s note: I had hoped that the player characters would realize that this was a sequence of prime numbers. But they didn’t so I had them roll knowledge and told them that’s what it was.)

Grundle tapped 13 times in response.

The tapping changed.. And suddenly it was not prime numbers.

Grundle was able to make out that it was Galactic Republic Morse Code!

(Editor’s note: The players wondered why it was called Morse code in the Galaxy far far away, as there would be no Morse to have invented it. Fair point, but I called it Morse code so that they would understand what it was.)

Unfortunately Grundle did not understand Morse code.

He asked the others if they did. Vero and Jeegn said they did not... Hal also said that he did not, but then listened to the tapping and could make it out somehow.

He figured this must be something he learned prior to his memory wipe, having spent 10 years with Cherlindria who, as a soldier in the Republic military would have known such code.

He spelled out what he heard. “B... l.... i... s... s... e... x.”

Hal tapped back, asking if the tapper was Dr. Blissex. The tapper confirmed that he was. 

Hal filled him in on the news about Hoth. 

Blissex asked if the princess was still alive. 

Jeegn asked the others if the Princess was the most senior member of the Rebel Alliance leadership after the battle, and the other members reminded him that there were other generals and there was also Admiral Ackbar and Mon Mothma. 

Outside the window they could see that the ship had dropped out of lightspeed

Hal asked Blissex where he was. Blissex said he was in the detention area, likely in the next cell over. And also he explained that he had been tortured for information and had given up the location of the Rebel rendezvous point in the event of a Hoth evacuation. 

Jeegn asked the rest of the group where that was. 

 

Grundle reminded Jeegn where they’d been ordered to go after the battle of Hoth, but that didn’t matter very much now because they had been captured. 

Blissex asked the party to come release him if they got out because he could guide them to the hangar bay so they could escape together. 

Just then everyone could hear the sound of a very large explosion happening elsewhere in the ship. The floor began shaking back and forth and the lights began flickering. The party looked out the window and could see very clearly that some sort of space battle was happening, with laser shots streaking by, from their vantage point they could see several Mon Calamari cruisers and dozens of X-wings and B-wings engaging hundreds of tie fighters. It appeared the battle was going well for the rebels… but that’s bad for the Subjugator and all on it. More and more explosions rang out as one of the Mon Calamari cruisers started getting larger and larger in the window. 

The Subjugator tore through it and crashed into another. The third entered light speed and suddenly the lights went out. The second Mon Calamari cruiser appears to be heavily damaged out the window and it zoomed away at sublight speed. 

Red alert klaxons going off in their section of the ship, and armored boots running by... and then suddenly it became totally dark.

A little while later and they could hear loud screams of terror and the sound of footsteps. Blissex, pleaded (with someone) that he had already told whomever was in the room everything he knew about the rebel rendezvous point.

They could hear blaster shots ringing out and then the screaming stopped so they thought it would be prudent to remain quiet.

They continued to look around for more ways to open their cell door. Hal also tried tapping to Blissex again but there was no response. The party feared he might be dead.

But just beyond the door they could hear more shooting, with one of the guards shouting “STOP THAT PRISONER.” After a few grunts and the sound of bodies hitting metal things grew quiet again.

The party shouted through the door asking for help. There were a few beeps and boops and the door opened. It was Lo’Sar Tan, standing over a dead prison guard, with his severed hand on a hand scanner that opened the door.

Lo’Sar: Funny running into you guys here. He threw them two glow rods from the other two guards he had taken out, and the party picked up batons and hand blasters and went to check in on Blissex in the next cell.

Blissex was of course not there.

They continued down the hallway and...

(Editor’s note: So we split the party up because all these people couldn’t make it to the previous session. So I decided that this other group would be off doing something else. But I also didn’t want to plan a whole new adventure, so they were instead following in the footsteps behind what the other half of the team had already done. So as they traveled along the same route, they would find piles of dead guards and naked stormtroopers, of course encountering different groups of guards and stormtroopers. They also heard the messages from Captain Kolaff but directed at the other group. Additionally they found artifacts left by the other group. For example:  Turk’s stormtrooper dog tags and a severed protocol droid arm attached to a Clone Wars-era battle droid hand, likely belonging to Golden Wheels,) 

At one point they heard a distinctly Ewokian scream from far down the corridor followed by a lot of shooting and a major explosion.

When they moved closer, they found the destroyed tri-mounted blaster cannon, a makeshift spear sticking out of one of the guards, and a trail of bloody astromech droid wheel tracks leading to blast doors ahead... they were slowly closing. Vero and Lo’Sar jumped through before they shut completely.

Grundle was headed to do the same, but he noticed something really strange.... A pair of Jeegn’s leather pants.

These were once Nikki Six's. Imagine something similar on Greedo. That's Jeegn for ya.

Grundle grew suspicious, and immediately confronted Jeegn about this. He wondered aloud.. 

Grundle: Wait a minute, you weren’t in the same cell as we were at first. You joined us later. Have you been here before? Why would you disrobe here before joining us?

Hal looked at Jeegn, demanding he explain himself.

Hal: Explain yourself.

Jeegn: Clearly someone is impersonating me.

Grundle: That’s right! They cloned us! I wonder if this other Jeegn is spying on the other group.

Jeegn: I think you might be right! That’s exactly what is going on! I’ll bet there’s another clone of you running around too.

TO BE CONTINUED!!!!

(Editor’s note: This is where we left off. The two Jeegns angle was necessary because Jeegn’s player was going to be present for both sessions, so I had to give him a reason to be in two places at the same time. Cloning makes that not a major issue, but I gave the player instructions to spy on the second group to try to get them to reveal information about several important and confidential things. 1) The current structure of senior leaders of the Rebellion. 2) The location of the Rebel rendezvous point, and 3) any information about any surviving Jedi. The player got the rest of the party to talk about each of these things while they were still in the cell. Mission accomplished. He received a hefty reward of character points. 

But wait, you say, wouldn’t those character points be for the clone, not the original Jeegn? Well, I guess yes, but if you want a hand wavy explanation about transferable character points... I’ll say it is because the clone and the original are manifestations of the same soul, and they therefore have the same access to the force. 

That of course makes identical twins able to access each other’s force points and character points if you look at it scientifically... but THIS ISN’T SCIENCE and the player had a blast playing the spy and casually trying to make the other players talk about all these things. It now ups the stakes because this ship, or people on it, will eventually reconnect with the Empire, and maybe reveal that Yoda’s on Dagobah, or learn more about the Rebellion’s upper command structure! They now have more incentive to make sure that they don’t let this information fall into imperial hands.)