Bright Hope/Legends

"Your Highness, we must take this last transport. It's our only hope!"

- C-3PO, to Princess Leia Organa, during the Battle of Hoth

The Bright Hope was a modified Gallofree Yards, Inc. GR-75 medium transport that saw service with the Alliance to Restore the Republic during the height of the Galactic Civil War. Acquired as one of several outdated and dilapidated transports by the Rebellion, the Bright Hope nevertheless played an invaluable role in the rapid transit of war matériel. By 3 ABY, the ship was one of thirty GR-75 transports stationed at the Alliance High Command headquarters of Echo Base on the planet Hoth. As the final transport to evacuate the besieged base late during the Battle of Hoth, the Bright Hope carried an overloaded number of wounded and dying passengers in its attempt to run the Imperial blockade of the planet. The ship was disabled and all but destroyed by concentrated fire between Imperial Star Destroyers and the Mist Hunter, the craft of the bounty hunters Zuckuss and 4-LOM.

Description
The Bright Hope was typical of the Gallofree Yards, Inc. GR-75 medium transport line. At only ninety meters in length, the clam-shelled transport could haul a considerable amount of cargo by comparison, at up to 19,000 metric tons. Modular cargo pods were located at the front and underside of the outer hull for rapid loading and unloading, while the vessel's interior was equipped to hold additional cargo and could comfortably house a standard number of ninety passengers. However, the ship could be adapted to hold a larger number of troops by adding sealed passenger pods in place of the cargo variants.

Perched above the top of the outer hull was the stalked, cramped command pod, where the crew of seven&mdash;including a command crew of six and one gunner&mdash;operated the ship. The transport's deflector shield generator was also located within the pod, protecting what would otherwise seem an obtrusively exposed vital section of the ship. The gunner controlled the ship's minimal armament of four twin laser cannons, though the Bright Hope was largely unfit for combat. Instead, it routinely made every effort to avoid engagement, typically relying on the escort of Alliance to Restore the Republic starfighters for protection while moving between star systems, and also an advanced sensor suite and countermeasure systems to detect enemy ships, and extensive armored plating that showed the wear and tear of years of use.



The Bright Hope was propelled by three primary sublight ion drive engines, six secondary drive engines, and was also outfitted with a standard Class 4 hyperdrive for purposes of rapid transit. The Bright Hope's engines, like those of its GR-75 brothers, were greater in number than its civilian-use predecessor, the GR-45 medium transport, for greater power. Four retractable landing gear legs extending from the underside of the ship, along with repulsorlift drive units and a retractable boarding ramp, made landing on planetary surfaces a possibility.

The transport's interior was mostly hollow, consisting of at least three modular decks, interchangeable between containing passengers and cargo. By the time of the Battle of Hoth, the Bright Hope was modified with expanded passenger capacity to facilitate evacuation. It was arranged with at least two freight decks at the bottom of the ship and at least a single passenger deck near the top. Ladders connected the decks. The passenger decks were similar to standard passenger vessels used for transporting large numbers of individuals. Columns of adjacent seats running four across and facing another set of four were separated by a common walkway. Each group of eight inward-facing seats were in turn separated by a console. The Bright Hope's bulkheads were fitted with small storage compartments, and the inner passageways were lighted by a standard illumination system and a dim emergency system that offered light from the ceiling above. Viewports at intervals offered vistas of the surrounding outside environment. Each ship deck was equipped with escape pods; the passenger deck held at least three.

Acquisition and assignment to Echo Base
The Bright Hope was constructed by Gallofree Yards sometime before the corporation's dissolution in 0 ABY. It was one of many GR-75 medium transports obtained by the Rebel Alliance at a bargain price for cargo transportation duties. Although outdated and dilapidated by the time of the Galactic Civil War, the Gallofree transports were instrumental in helping the Rebellion to efficiently move valuable matériel ranging from medicine to weapons. GR-75 medium transports like the Bright Hope were invaluable in helping Rebel bases quickly evacuate in the face of an impending Imperial assault as early as the Battle of Yavin.

By 3 ABY, the Bright Hope was stationed at the Alliance High Command headquarters' secret Echo Base on the remote ice world of Hoth. It was among a fleet of thirty GR-75 medium transports transferred to Hoth to supplement the needs of the facility. The Bright Hope occupied a position at the north-west corner of Echo Base's interior, within the central transport hangar at the end of a column of similarly immobile GR-75's lining the western-most ice wall. When not in use, the transport was routinely kept connected to one of the base's many power generators.

Battle of Hoth
"Transport, this is Solo. Better take off. I can't get to you. I'll get her out on the Falcon."

- Han Solo, after a cave-in prevented Princess Leia Organa from reaching the Bright Hope

Following the discovery of the Imperial Arakyd Viper probe droid and the arrival of Darth Vader's fleet of Imperial-class Star Destroyers in the Hoth system, the Rebel forces of Echo Base began a hasty retreat of their compromised outpost. The base became a hodgepodge of frantic scurrying, with people rushing to load whatever vital equipment onto the base's transports they could muster before they were forced to evacuate. The pilots of Rogue Group were tasked with engaging and delaying the advance of the Imperial walker invasion force in order to buy time for the base's transports to escape.

The transports, unable to defend themselves against the might of the blockading Death Squadron, would be escorted by two starfighters through the Imperial line. Additionally, the evacuation plan called for the base's v-150 anti-orbital ion cannon to provide suppressing covering fire to clear a flight path for the transports to slip by, enter hyperspace, and escape to the predetermined rendezvous point beyond the Galactic Rim of the galaxy.

As the Battle of Hoth raged, the transports lifted off, one by one, from the evacuation staging area just behind the South Ridge, beyond the south entrance of Echo Base. The Bright Hope, given its docking position in the hangar farthest from the staging area, became the final transport to attempt evacuation by default.

The Bright Hope was intended to be the evacuation transport assigned to Princess Leia Organa, as she steadfastly remained in the base's command center to relay the final actions of the battle and to ensure that the last remnants remaining in the base reached their own escape ships. As an indicator of their subtle yet increasingly blossoming attachment to each other, Han Solo risked his own safety to escort Organa and the protocol droid C-3PO to the Bright Hope's docking hangar. When they were cut off en route by an ice avalanche in one of the base's corridors from the explosions of the battle outside, Solo instead was forced to oversee her escape aboard his own ship, the Millennium Falcon, instructing the Bright Hope to lift off in light of their inability to reach the transport.

Running the gauntlet
"Let's give our Imperial friends a seventeenth ship."

- Zuckuss, announcing his intentions to destroy the fleeing Bright Hope

As the last transport remaining, the Bright Hope was, appropriately enough, the last beacon of hope for the hundreds of Rebel personnel still on the planet. Toryn Farr, Echo Base's chief controller and the final person to evacuate the command center, was one of the many who were reliant on the ship as a means to escape. By the time she reached the transport's flight deck, the scene before her was a motley assortment of many wounded and dying people being assisted by medical droids. With the Imperial advance having already breached the walls of the base, Farr realized the terminal predicament facing all those present. She never expected any Rebel to leave a wounded comrade behind, but there seemed to be no alternative if the Bright Hope was to safely take off.

When a group of snowtroopers began firing on the hangar from the corridor behind her, Farr inadvertently took up a defensive position behind a crate of thermal detonators. Alertly, she tore open the crate and used the explosives to halt the Imperial advance, creating a cave-in that choked off the corridor. Farr thus was able to buy the valuable time needed to get the remaining wounded soldiers aboard the transport, including her own sister, Samoc Farr. The Bright Hope lifted off from the hangar, leaving behind tons of vital equipment in lieu of the overloaded number of casualties, with moments to spare as more snowtroopers descended on the hangar from the snow fields outside. As a transport designed to safely carry ninety individuals, the Bright Hope blasted away from Hoth carrying hundreds.

The Bright Hope held the distinction of being escorted by six T-65 X-wing starfighters as it made its desperate run through the blockading line of Star Destroyers, including fighters piloted by Wedge Antilles, Derek Klivian, Wes Janson, and Lieutenant Tarn Mison, though the base's ion cannon had long been neutralized at this point. Even the ship's uniquely heavy escort could not save it from the armada of Imperial warships waiting for the final transport. The Bright Hope was damaged and nearly destroyed by the Star Dreadnought Executor and the Imperial II-class Star Destroyer Stalker. Additionally, the Bright Hope was intercepted by the G-1A transport Mist Hunter, the bounty hunting craft of the Gand Zuckuss and the LOM-series protocol droid 4-LOM, who had come to the Hoth system on an Imperial assignment. Having exited hyperspace in time to encounter the tail-end of the space battle, the bounty hunting duo hoped to destroy the Bright Hope as a token of good will to their Imperial employers. The Mist Hunter wiped out the perched command pod, while the two Star Destroyers ripped into the ship's hull, exposing three decks to the vacuum of space. Drifting helpless and without power, the Bright Hope went down as the seventeenth GR-75 medium transport caught in the blockade's snare.

A last hope
Although a badly damaged wreck of a ship&mdash;a large portion of the vessel having completely broken away&mdash;the Bright Hope still held pockets able to sustain life. The two freight decks were still completely intact, and the remaining passenger deck was 17.4 percent intact with over four hours of breathable oxygen left. The still intact portions of the ship had been sealed off by emergency containment shields where the destroyed section of the ship had exploded away. While the ship's depressurization had been quick, most of the ship's passengers had been sucked out into vacuum. Still, survivors remained, among them Toryn Farr.

Farr discovered a total of one hundred eight passengers alive&mdash;eight pilots, thirty-two newly inducted soldiers, support staff from the command center, hangar crew, personnel with specialized hunting and survival skills, and one cook&mdash;though fifty-two were badly wounded. As the ranking officer among the survivors, she assumed command of her comrades. They were able to salvage three operational escape pods, grimly determining that they would only be able to hold eighteen individuals. To complicate matters, the group identified an Imperial-class Star Destroyer having begun mop up duties of similarly destroyed vessels floating nearby. Running out of time, eighteen survivors were selected as those most valuable to the Rebellion's cause to occupy positions in the escape pods. They were jettisoned back to Hoth in the hope that they would survive long enough for later retrieval.

With incarceration or death at the hands of the Empire looming heavily on the minds of the remaining passengers, Farr proceeded to dutifully erase the computer records and droids aboard, lest information regarding those who had served at Echo Base and had escaped aboard the Bright Hope were to become known. It was then that the Mist Hunter returned and docked with the Bright Hope, the bounty hunters hoping to capture and collect the bounties on twenty-six of the most valuable surviving Rebels. Farr, carrying the highest price on her head, managed to convince the hunters to rescue the remaining ninety passengers, including the medical droids 2-1B and FX-7, and deliver them to the sanctuary of the Rebel underground on the planet Darlyn Boda.

The Bright Hope's crippled remains were left to float through space, free for the Imperial fleet to search, though little information was left behind for their benefit. The eighteen members who were jettisoned from the Bright Hope back to Hoth were eventually recovered by an Alliance Special Forces team led by Toryn Farr herself.

Notable appearances
The Bright Hope was first identified by name in M. Shayne Bell's short story Of Possible Futures: The Tale of Zuckuss and 4-LOM as part of the anthology Tales of the Bounty Hunters. The story provided an identification for the transport Han Solo attempted to bring Princess Leia Organa to in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. The ship's name is likely inspired by the caveat provided by C-3PO, suggesting to the Princess that the final transport is their "only hope" for escape.

Mistakes and inconsistencies
According to the West End Games' sourcebook Galaxy Guide 3: The Empire Strikes Back, the transport Leia Organa was meant to board was the Thon's Orchard. Additionally, Luke Skywalker informs Organa that he will be escorting her transport&mdash;the last flight out&mdash;in the radio adaptation of The Empire Strikes Back, though The Essential Guide to Characters describes Skywalker as escorting the GR-75 medium transport piloted by Tarrin Datch, which Galaxy Guide 3 identifies as the Thon's Orchard, a ship that successfully made the run through the Imperial blockade of Hoth. In the novelization of The Empire Strikes Back, Han Solo refers to the ship as "Transport C One Seven."

The PC program Star Wars: Behind the Magic and the reference book Star Wars: Complete Locations both identify the GR-75 medium transport lifting off from the staging area outside Echo Base in the background shot when Luke Skywalker boards his X-wing to evacuate Hoth in the film The Empire Strikes Back as the Bright Hope. This seems contradictory to Of Possible Futures: The Tale of Zuckuss and 4-LOM, which describes the Bright Hope as lifting off directly from the base's hangar.

One of the evacuees who escaped aboard the Bright Hope was named "Darklighter," though it is unknown if this person is related in any way to Biggs Darklighter or Gavin Darklighter.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back radio drama
 * Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back novelization
 * Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
 * Star Wars 41: The Empire Strikes Back: Imperial Pursuit
 * Of Possible Futures: The Tale of Zuckuss and 4-LOM

Notes and references
Bright Hope