Below is an extract of a message from Pablo Hidalgo sent to the Star Wars RPG Mailing List regarding his work on Galaxy Guide 3: 2nd Edition. Included are a few omissions from the supplement which Pablo wished had been included.

((Note to editor: the below Wedge stats are extrapolated by looking at his A New Hope and Jedi stats. Note that in his published stats, he does not have a repulsorlift operation skill, which doesn’t make sense since he did that complicated harpoon tow-cable thing with the walker in Empire. The stats below give him the repulsorlift operation: airspeeder skill, but this means that his Jedi stats published in Movie Trilogy Sourcebook and Galaxy Guide 5: Second Edition are wrong.)))

Wedge Antilles
Type: Brash Pilot
DEXTERITY 3D
Blaster 4D+2, Brawling Parry 3D+1, Dodge 5D+1, Vehicle Blasters 3D+2
KNOWLEDGE 2D
Alien Species 4D, Bureaucracy 5D, Cultures 2D+2, Languages 3D, Planetary Systems 4D+2
MECHANICAL 4D
Astrogation 6D+1, Space Transports 5D+2, Repulsorlift Operation: Airspeeder 5D+2, Starfighter Piloting: X-Wing 5D+2, Starship Gunnery 5D, Starship Shields 4D+2
PERCEPTION 3D
Bargain 4D, Gambling 4D+1
STRENGTH 3D
Stamina 4D
TECHNICAL 3D
Computer Programming/Repair 5D, Repulsorlift Repair 3D+2, Space Transports Repair 4D+1, Starfighter Repair 4D+1
Force Points: 1
Character Points: 5
Move: 10
Equipment: Blaster pistol (4D), flight suit, comlink, tool kit
Other stuff that got cut out of GG3 included extrapolated stats for the Hound’s Tooth and the IG-2000 (which was a good idea, particularly for the Hound’s Tooth, which I wrote way before Tales From the Bounty Hunters came out.)

One thing I was dismayed was cut was my Captain K-3PO entry which appears here. It was my attempt to explain what those red-dots on the white threepio’s chest signified:

(((Start NEW entry)))
CAPTAIN K-3PO (1)
The Empire has a long established policy of open racism against non-humans, not allowing aliens to serve in officer positions in their Army and Navy. The Rebel Alliance, by contrast, has many essential military positions staffed by aliens, whose contributions are beyond measure. To carry this example even further, the Alliance has given an officer position to a life-form long ridiculed and discriminated against throughout the galaxy; the Alliance has made a droid an officer in their Support Services. (2)

While some droids, like Too-Onebee and the renowned Rebel spy code-named Dagger, (3) have had roles of autonomous, important functioning within the Alliance, K-3PO is the first droid to be given an actual rank and command status. His appointment caused some furor in the higher Alliance echelons, but since it wasn’t a vital military position, Kay-Threepio received his commission.

Kay-Threepio originally belonged to Commander Narra, the veteran leader of Renegade Flight, a group of X-wing starfighters attached to Alliance High Command. Narra’s flight had the task of protecting vital Alliance transport convoys that supplied the constantly-moving Command Headquarters. (4) Narra, a military aficionado, had kept accurate records and memoirs of his various missions and assignments. Because these documents often had top secret Alliance information, Narra only kept them in shielded files contained in Kay-Threepio.(5)

As the years passed, Narra neglected to regularly have Kay’s memory wiped. This wasn’t because the droid was developing a pleasant personality, far from it. Instead, Kay-Threepio didn’t develop any personality at all. (6) Instead, the accumulated military tactics and files Narra had installed in the droid began to somehow “bleed” into the droid’s comprehension circuits. During the Battle of Ton-Falk, an off-hand remark by Kay to Narra revealed an ingeniously simple tactic that Narra and his forces exploited. The resulting losses by the Empire, two frigates and a Dreadnaught, proved the Kay-Threepio’s value. (7)

Narra petitioned Kay-Threepio to be recognized by Alliance High Command, and after some initial disputes, Kay was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Support services branch of the Alliance. (5) Kay served as a coordinator droid for all the droids in Alliance High Command, serving at the Yavin base, and the temporary Thila outpost. (8) Kay concluded his service at Echo Base, where See-Threepio considered him to be “an officious dullard.” (6) Nonetheless, Kay fulfilled his duty well, and was destroyed when the command center was hit during the Battle of Hoth. (9)

Kay-Threepio
Type: Cybot Galactica 3P0 Human-Cyborg Relations Droid
DEXTERITY 1D
KNOWLEDGE 3D+2
Alien Species 4D, Bureaucracy 6D, Cultures 5D, Languages 11D, Military History 5D+2, Planetary Systems 5D, Tactics: Fleets 5D+1, Tactics: Starfighters 6D+2
MECHANICAL 1D
PERCEPTION 2D+1
Command 4D, Command: Alliance High Command Droids 6D+2
STRENGTH 1D
TECHNICAL 1D
Equipped With:
» Humanoid body (two arms, two legs, head)
» Two visual and two audial sensors – human range (((Note to editor: is audial a word?)))
» Broad-band antenna receiver
» AA-1 Verbo-brain
» TranLang III Communication module with over six million languages.
» Vocabulator speech/sound system capable of providing an extraordinarily wide range of sound effects and exact impersonation of
voices.
Character Points: 8
Move: 8
Size: 1. 67 meters tall
Cost: Not available for sale

(((End New Entry)))

ENDNOTES
1) This is the white 3PO droid seen in the command center. The two red dots on his chest are consistent with the captain rank marker, as established on page 98 of Rebel Alliance Sourcebook, Second Edition from West End Games
2) Support Services established in Chapter Nine of Rebel Alliance Sourcebook, Second Edition
3) Dagger, or DM/C3, is from page 4 of Riders of the Maelstrom from West End Games
4) Narra and Renegade Flight from pages 17-20 of The Empire Strikes Back: The National Public Radio Dramatization by Del Rey Books
5) New information.
6) As established on page 31-32 of The Empire Strikes Back: The National Public Radio Dramatization by Del Rey Books, since it is my contention that K-3PO is the “Co-ordinator Droid”
7) The Battle of Ton-Falk from page 54 of ImperialSourcebook, Second Edition. Narra and Kay’s role in the Battle is new information
8) Thila from page 72 of Galaxy Guide 1: A New Hope, Second Edition by West End Games
9) As witnessed in The Empire Strikes Back

My favorite additions to GG3 include the scenes cut out of the movie, like the wampa pens, and the battle between the probot and the wampa. Also, getting the old Marvel Bespin story-lines acknowledged was pretty cool.

This is a second message sent by Pablo Hidalgo to the SWRPG Mailing List after a question was asked regarding the Millennium Falcon’s trip from Hoth to Bespin.

-— Original Message -—
From: “Pablo Hidalgo” <phidalgo@cyberspc.mb.ca>
To: <sw-rpg@listserv.aol.com>
Sent: Friday, April 10, 1998 10:25 AM
Subject: Falcon’s Trip From Anoat to Bespin (LONG!)

Somebody Somewhere Sometime Wrote This:

» Now remember in ESB Han & Leia were going over their choices of which inhabited systems they could go to without hyperdrive. Now their consumables were 2 months & so make some calculations. Our closest star is 30 light years away. So I guess they can go beyond the speed of light while not going into hyperspace?

The whole transit to Anoat is something I tried to address in Galaxy Guide 3: The Empire Strikes Back, Second Edition (1996). In a sidebar entitled Hoth Transit (p. 45) I plainly stated what the Falcon did, however, either Lucasfilm or WEG edited the sidebar so it is decidedly more vague. Here is a copy of the sidebar as it appears in my original manuscript (the end-notes are intact, and may give you some insight in the amount of research writers and editors at WEG have to do.)

(((Start NEW text box)))
HOTH TRANSIT
From the data-journal of Voren Na’al.

It’s when I think about how Han Solo evaded an Imperial fleet that I miss him the most, and realize what a remarkable man the Alliance has lost. The following report was collected research for an address to be read by Mon Mothma, recognizing Solo for his contributions. (1) When Princess Leia discovered what I was doing, I never saw her get so angry. She didn’t agree with the air of finality that it carried. In retrospect, I don’t understand how I could have been so blind.

Immediately after its departure from Hoth, Captain Solo set course 2-7-1, plunging the Falcon into Hoth’s asteroid belt. (2) It was pursued by the Star Destroyer Avenger, one of the few remaining fleet ships in the area. Much of the fleet was dispersing, attempting to intercept whichever transport they could. Solo and Chewbacca’s skills were such that not a single pursuing TIE fighter survived the initial pursuit. If only their repair skills could be so commended, since the Falcon’s hyperdrive failed to activate. The Falcon set down in a massive crater in an equally massive asteroid. In what eventually turned out to be an incredibly huge space slug (see addendum files v153.562), (1) the beleaguered crew tried to effect repairs to the hyperdrive.

The Falcon’s respite was brief, as the space slug did not appreciate stowaways in its silicon esophageus. The freighter tore out of the asteroid belt, exposing itself to the Avenger again. The Destroyer was in close pursuit, and the hyperdrive refused to let Solo have a daring escape. Then, and I didn’t believe this until I rechecked the sensor logs, Solo attacked the Avenger. At last minute, he reverse-triggered the Falcon’s acceleration compensators, killing all forward velocity. He pulled the ship close to the Avenger, found a blind spot, killed all onboard systems save emergency power, and used the ship’s landing claw to secure purchase on the Avenger’s conning tower. Such a maneuver, of course, completely destroyed the Falcon’s hyperdrive, (3) but Captain Needa didn’t know that.

(((Note to editor: Pending Lucasfilm’s decision on how the Falcon got to Bespin, the following paragraph may be deleted.)))

Solo bided his time, watching and timing carefully as the Avenger dumped its garbage in the Hoth system. It rocketed forth into hyperspace, to parts unknown, with an unknown stowaway on its conning tower. A short hour later, it emerged into the nearly empty Anoat system, an apparent rendezvous site for the fleet. Out of one predicament, into another. Chewbacca smiled as he recalled that Threepio had to be shut down he was so hysterical.

When the fleet began to break apart, and the Avenger began releasing a second load of garbage, Solo had his timing worked out perfectly. He detached from the Avenger, floating away with the rest of the garbage. It was ingenious. It should have worked. If only Fett wasn’t so ingenious as well.

(((End NEW text box)))

ENDNOTES
1) New information
2) Established in dialogue from The Empire Strikes Back
3) The ramifications of reverse triggering acceleration compensators established on page 167 of Heir to the Empire (hardcover) and page 27 of Galaxy Guide 5: Return of the Jedi, Second Edition.
4) For more on the continuity involving the Falcon’s hyperdrive, see enclosed essay.

And here’s the essay I wrote for Bill Smith and Lucasfilm

THE VOYAGE OF THE MILLENNIUM FALCON

Situation
In The Empire Strikes Back, the Millennium Falcon travels from Hoth to Anoat to Bespin without a hyperdrive. Such a voyage would seem to take years at sub-light velocities, so there must be a missing element.

Premise
The explanation to be offered in Galaxy Guide 3: The Empire Strikes Back, Second Edition is, in part, that the Falcon was able to reach the Hoth asteroid belt under its own power. (The Illustrated Star Wars Universe states that the asteroid belt is in Hoth, not Anoat as Movie Trilogy Sourcebook says.) When it exited the belt, pursued by the Star Destroyer Avenger, Solo did his daring maneuver that mounted the Falcon on the Avenger’s conning tower. The Avenger then took a brief jump through hyperspace to rendezvous with the rest of the fleet in the Anoat system. When the fleet broke up in the Anoat system, the Falcon detached, and proceeded, under its own sub-light power, to Bespin. Along the way to Bespin, Solo risked using the Falcon’s aged and unreliable hyperdrive backup for short “hyperspace skips” to cut down on the time.

Rationale
The above scenarios cuts down the distance the Falcon was to have travelled at slow sub-light velocities. A time span estimate from West End Games pegs The Empire Strikes Back as being about 8 months long. This allows ample time for Luke’s training on Dagobah, and fills out the year interim between Empire and Jedi. Eight months, however, is a very brief period of time in which to travel from one system to another, let alone three.

The scenario is consistent with the asteroid belt being on Hoth. In the film, the Falcon entered the asteroid field immediately after leaving the planet. The time spent in the asteroid belt isn’t likely to be long. While the ship is in the belt, Luke arrives on Dagobah and begins his training.

After the belt, the Falcon emerges and engages the Avenger. The Avenger, the sole ship left in that area of the Hoth system, leaves after its failed pursuit. Upon Needa’s insistence to apologize in person, and under the impression that the Falcon was long gone, Needa takes the Avenger into hyperspace. (Needa did say he wanted to apologize in person). It heads to where the rest of the fleet has gathered: the nearest system where any Rebel refugees may have departed to, Anoat. The Avenger jumps into hyperspace with the Falcon attached. When it arrives in Anoat, the Falcon detaches, and heads to Bespin.

The remainder of the Falcon’s trip is its longest stretch, moving from the outskirts of the Anoat system to the Bespin system. According to Galaxy Guide 2: Yavin and Bespin (page 41 of First Edition) both worlds lie on the Ison Corridor, with only 2 hours between them in hyperspace. This voyage may have taken months, while Luke continued with his training.

Points to Consider
While the Falcon limped its way to Bespin, Fett coolly calculated the only system around it could reach without a hyperdrive. Fett reasoned the Falcon had no functioning hyperdrive, since he knew its reputation for hyper-speed, there was no other reason for the Falcon to be pursued by Star Destroyers. (This is supported by Movie Trilogy) After Fett determined the system to be Bespin, he visited Cloud City, casing the system. He then contacted Vader, who told him to bide his time. Vader knew his plan to capture Luke was contingent on using his friends as
bait, and giving Luke a distinct destination to travel to. Rather than ambush them in deep space, Vader and Fett allowed the Falcon to reach Cloud City so that Vader could torture Solo, and lure Luke to Bespin.

The travel time from Dagobah to Bespin has never been revealed, but Luke’s trip to Bespin takes 1 day and 3 hours (Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game, Second Edition page 112). The Avenger’s proposed trip from Hoth to Anoat is 1 hour. (Galaxy Guide 2: Yavin and Bespin, First Edition, page 41)

If the Falcon was attached to the Avenger during its proposed hyperspace jump to Anoat, why didn’t Solo detach and float away from the Destroyer at that point? He would accomplish little remaining in the Hoth system, since the only marginally-habitable planet was no doubt overrun by Imperials. Furthermore, he had no way of knowing that the fleet had departed. He instead, sat it out, watching as the Avenger jettisoned some garbage, and went to the Anoat system. Perhaps this is where Solo got the idea in the first place.

A short time later (1 hour by gazetteer), the Avenger emerges in the Anoat system. The crew of the Falcon sees a normally empty system full of Star Destroyers. (“Captain Solo, this time you have gone too far!”) Solo bides his time again, but doesn’t push his luck. As the fleet breaks up, Solo detaches the Falcon, and floats free with the garbage.

Anoat seems a plausible rendezvous destination for the Imperial Star Destroyer squadron after the Battle of Hoth. With the last transport gone, the Imperials extended their blockade further out from Hoth. Anoat has the trappings of a Rebel base, as there is “not much there.” Kevin J. Anderson established in Jedi Search that the Deyer Colony, on Anoat, was a site of refuge for Kyp Durron’s Rebel sympathetic-parents. (Another question is why didn’t the Falcon go to Gentes? Oh, well.)

Can a ship attached to another vessel travel with it through hyperspace? Ordinarily, no. Ships with very close masses shouldn’t be able to piggyback in hyperspace without serious modification to a ship’s hyperdrive. According to Han Solo’s Revenge (page 114, first complete paragraph. In The Han Solo Adventures, it is on page 293, fourth paragraph) a ship generates a drive field when it moves through hyperspace. Anything within that field is safe from the chaotic maelstrom of reality that is hyperspace. The larger a ship is, the larger its drive field. The larger the drive field, the more room to sneak something into the field without adjusting its symmetry. Notice that the area in which the Falcon hid is in the shadow of the conning tower’s spine. Actual mass shouldn’t change a Destroyer’s hyperdrive capabilities when the ratio is so stacked in the Destroyer’s advantage. If it did, it would mean that a Star Destroyer couldn’t make a jump into light speed if it had a ship in its belly-hold, which doesn’t make much sense.

This is new: Because Movie Trilogy Sourcebook makes a point of mentioning the Falcon’s hyperdrive backup, then I guess it was used, to some effect, during the trip from Anoat to Bespin. A sidebar in GG3: Second Edition will explain just how decrepit and unreliable the Falcon’s backup is, and how wary its crew was on using it. The reason I’m adamant about a sub-light trip from Anoat to Bespin is because it underscores the desperation of the Rebels’ situation, and the line from the Empire radio drama: “… Bespin. That’s pretty far from here, but I think we can make it on sub-light engines.” (pg 203 of Del Rey’s ESB radio drama book).

* Consumables are another thorn, but I think it can be made to work. After all, the Falcon can carry 100 metric tons of cargo, and we don’t know for sure it wasn’t hauling extra consumables. Or maybe the asteroid stone is oxygen rich and they grabbed some for additional consumables. The point is we don’t know they didn’t extend their consumable somehow, but we do know the trip is long. Bridging these facts can be left to the reader’s imagination.

There you go, some genuine behind-the-scenes info that I hope sheds some light on this mystery.

Pablo Hidalgo