Bright Hope

Bright Hope

TheBright Hope, also known asTransport C One Seven, was a modifiedGallofree YardsGR-75 medium transport that saw service with theAlliance to Restore the Republic during the height of theGalactic Civil War. Acquired as one of several outdated and dilapidatedtransports by the Rebellion, theBright Hope nevertheless played an invaluable role in the rapid transit of war matériel. By3 ABY, theship was one of thirty GR-75 transports stationed at theAlliance High Command headquarters ofEcho Base on theplanetHoth. As the final transport to evacuate the besieged base late during theBattle of Hoth, theBright Hope carried an overloaded number of wounded anddying passengers in its attempt to run theImperialblockade of the planet. The ship was disabled and all but destroyed by concentrated fire from ImperialStar Destroyers and theMist Hunter, the craft of thebounty huntersZuckuss and4-LOM. Due to the efforts of Echo Base's chief controller,Toryn Farr, theBright Hope's 108 surviving passengers were safely recovered.

Description[]

TheBright Hope was typical of theGallofree Yards^[1][3][6]GR-75 medium transport^[2] line.^[1] At only ninetymeters in length, theclamshell-shapedtransport could nonetheless haul a considerable amount of cargo for its size, at up to 19,000 metric tons.^[1][5] Modular cargo pods were located at the front and underside of the outer hull, each equipped with arepulsorlift device for rapid loading and unloading, and secured in place and protected againstatmosphere andvacuum by an invisiblemagnetic shield,^[1] while the vessel's interior was equipped to hold additional cargo and could comfortably house about ninety passengers.^[3]

Perched above the top of the outer hull was the stalked, cramped command pod, where a crew of seven—including a command crew of six and onegunner—operated theship.^[3] The transport's single rudimentarydeflector shield generator was also located within the pod, protecting a vital yet dangerously exposed section of the vessel.^[1] TheBright Hope could alternatively function with a skeleton crew of three.^[6] The gunner controlled^[3] the ship's minimal armament of four retractable,^[1] fire-linked twinlaser cannons,^[6] though theBright Hope, like all GR-75 medium transports, was largely unfit for combat. Instead, theBright Hope typically relied on the escort ofRebel Alliancestarfighters for protection while moving betweenstar systems, a long-rangesensor suite and advanced countermeasure systems for detecting and escaping enemy ships, as well as extensivedurasteel^[1]armored plating^[3] that showed the wear and tear ofyears of use.^[2]

TheBright Hope was propelled by three standard primarysublightion driveengines and six secondary drive engines,^[3][5] powered by a mainreactor,^[1] and was also outfitted with a standard Class 4.0hyperdrive forhyperspace travel.^[3] TheBright Hope's engines, like those of its GR-75 brothers, were greater in number than its civilian-use predecessor, theGR-45 medium transport, to provide greater power.^[2] The transport had a maximum acceleration of 900 G,^[1] and a maximum speed of twentymegalights inspace^[3] and up to 650kilometers perhour in atmosphere. Four retractable landing gear legs extending from the underside of the ship,^[1] along with repulsorlift drive units and a retractableboarding ramp, made landing onplanetary surfaces a possibility.^[3][7]

The transport's interior was mostly hollow, consisting of at least three modular decks, interchangeably equipped to hold either passengers or cargo.^[2] By thetime of theBattle of Hoth, theBright Hope was modified with expanded passenger capacity to facilitate evacuation.^[4] It was arranged with two freight decks at the bottom of the ship and a single passenger deck near the top. Ladders connected the decks.^[7] The passenger deck module consisted of columns of adjacent seats running four across and facing another set of four separated by a common walkway. Each group of eight inward-facing seats were in turn separated by consoles.^[2]

TheBright Hope featured a centralizedcomputer system accessible from throughout the ship, including a Ship's Registry database for data on other starships. TheBright Hope's bulkheads were fitted with small storage compartments, some of which by3 ABY heldbantha woolblankets andwhitepillows, and the inner passageways were lighted by a standard illumination system and a dim emergency system that offered light from the ceiling, powered bypower cells on each level of the ship. Emergency power supplies were also available.Viewports at intervals offered vistas of the surrounding outside environment. At least threeescape pods, each capable of carrying six passengers, were located on the passenger deck.^[7] TheBright Hope carried sixmonths of consumables.^[6]

History[]

Acquisition and assignment to Echo Base[]

TheBright Hope was constructed by Gallofree Yards sometime before the corporation's dissolution in0 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 theGalactic Civil War, the Gallofree transports were instrumental in helping the Rebellion to efficiently move valuable matériel ranging from medicine to weapons.^[5] GR-75 medium transports like theBright Hope were invaluable in helping Rebel bases quickly evacuate in the face of an impendingImperial assault as early as theBattle of Yavin.^[2]

By 3 ABY, theBright Hope was stationed at theAlliance High Command headquarters' secretEcho Base on the remote ice world ofHoth. It was among afleet of thirty GR-75 medium transports transferred to Hoth to supplement the needs of the facility. TheBright Hope occupied a position at the north-west corner of Echo Base's interior, within the central transporthangar at the end of a column of similarly immobile GR-75 transports lining the western-most ice wall. When not in use, the transport was routinely kept connected to one of the base's manypower generators.^[2]

Battle of Hoth[]

Main article:Battle of Hoth

Following the discovery of an ImperialArakydViper probe droid and the arrival ofDarth Vader'sfleet ofImperial-class Star Destroyers, theDeath Squadron, in theHoth 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. Thepilots ofRogue Group were tasked with engaging and delaying the advance of the Imperialwalker invasion force in order to buy time for the base's transports to escape.^[10]

The transports, unable to defend themselves against the might of Vader's blockading Death Squadron, would be escorted by two starfighters through the Imperial line. Additionally, the evacuation plan called for the base'sv-150 anti-orbital ion cannon to provide suppressing covering fire to clear a flight path for the transports to slip by, enterhyperspace, and escape to the Rebels' predeterminedrendezvous point beyond therim ofthe galaxy.^[10] Given its docking position in the hangar farthest from the staging area, theBright Hope would by default be the final transport to attempt evacuation.^[2] Since no one would be left behind to man theion cannon to provide cover for theBright Hope, the last remaining Echo Base personnel planned to set the cannon on autofire and simply make a run for it.^[11]

As the Battle of Hoth raged, the transports lifted off, one by one, from the evacuation staging area just behind theSouth Ridge, beyond the south entrance of Echo Base.^[2] TheBright Hope was intended to be the evacuation transport assigned toPrincessLeia Organa, as she steadfastly remained in the base's command center to direct the final actions of the battle and to ensure that the last remnants remaining in the base reached their own escape ships.^[8] As an indicator of their subtle yet increasingly blossoming attachment to each other,Han Solo risked his own safety to escort Organa and theprotocol droidC-3PO to theBright 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, theMillennium Falcon, instructing theBright Hope to lift off in light of their inability to reach the transport.^[9]

Running the gauntlet[]

As the last transport remaining, theBright 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 hangar and saw the transport's flight deck, the scene before her was a motley assortment of many wounded and dying people being assisted bymedical droids. With the Imperial advance having already breached the walls of the base, Farr realized the grim predicament facing all those present. She saw no conceivable way of getting all the wounded onto the ship while still allowing theBright Hope enough time to safely take off.^[7]

When a group ofsnowtroopers began firing on the hangar from the corridor behind her, Farr inadvertently took up a defensive position behind a crate ofthermal detonators. Noticing its contents, 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 bought the valuable time needed to get the remaining wounded soldiers aboard the transport, including her sister,Samoc Farr. Among those who boarded the final evacuation ship wasColonelLedick Firest, who stayed behind to oversee the final disengagement ofRebel troops from the battlefield.^[10] TheBright Hope lifted off from the hangar, leaving behind tons of vital equipment in lieu of the unanticipated number of overloaded passengers, with moments to spare as more snowtroopers descended on the hangar from the snow fields outside.^[7] As a transport designed to safely carry ninety individuals, theBright Hope blasted away from Hoth carrying hundreds.^[2]

TheBright Hope held the distinction of being escorted by sixT-65 X-wing starfighters as it made its desperate run through the blockading line ofStar Destroyers, including fighters piloted byWedge Antilles,Derek Klivian,Wes Janson,^[2] andLieutenantTarn Mison,^[12] though the base's ion cannon had long been neutralized at this point.^[10] Even the ship's uniquely heavy escort could not save it from the armada of Imperialwarships waiting for the final transport. TheBright Hope was damaged and nearly destroyed by theSuper Star DestroyerExecutor^[7] and theImperial II-class Star DestroyerStalker.^[4] Additionally, theBright Hope was intercepted by theG-1A transportMist Hunter, thebounty hunting craft of theGandZuckuss and theLOM-series protocol droid4-LOM, who had come to the Hothsystem on an Imperial assignment. Having exited hyperspace in time to encounter the end of thespace battle, thebounty-hunting duo hoped to destroy theBright Hope as a token of good will to their Imperial employers. TheMist Hunter wiped out the perched command pod, while the two Star Destroyers ripped into the transport's hull, exposing three decks to thevacuum ofspace. Drifting helpless and without power, theBright Hope went down as the seventeenth GR-75 medium transport caught in the blockade's snare.^[7]

A last hope[]

Although a badly damaged wreck of a ship—a large portion of the vessel had completely broken away—theBright Hope still held pockets able to sustain life. The two freight decks were still completely intact, and the remaining passenger deck was 17.4% intact with over fourhours of breathableoxygen left. The intact portions of the ship had been sealed off by emergency containmentshields where the destroyed section of the ship had exploded away. While the ship's depressurization had been quick, most of theBright Hope's passengers had been sucked out into vacuum. Still, survivors remained, among them Toryn Farr.^[7]

Farr discovered a total of 108 passengers alive—eight pilots, thirty-two newly inducted soldiers, support staff from the command center, hangar crew, personnel with specializedhunting and survival skills, and one cook—though fifty-two were badly wounded. Some of the Echo Base survivors included RebelsRory,Seito,Bindu,Darklighter,Crimmins,Sala Natu,Meghan Rivers, andBerec Tanaal. As the ranking officer among the survivors, Farr assumed command of her comrades. They salvaged three operationalescape pods, grimly determining that they would only be able to hold eighteen individuals. To complicate matters, the group identified anImperial-class Star Destroyer having begun mop-up duties of similarly destroyed vessels floating in space nearby. With time running out, Farr selected four of theBright Hope's survivors—Seito, Crimmins, Sala Natu, and Berec Tanaal—as those most valuable to the Rebellion's cause, who might also be fit enough to survive Hoth's harsh climate, to occupy positions in the escape pods. The remaining fourteen individuals to join them in the escape pods were nominated and voted on by the rest of the transport's survivors. The eighteen chosen were jettisoned back to Hoth in the hope that they would survive long enough for later retrieval^[7]—it was better to risk the cold and attacks from Hoth's nativewampas than face Imperial interrogation andimprisonment.^[13]

With incarceration ordeath at the hands of the Empire looming heavily on the minds of the remaining passengers, Farr, with the assistance of a dedicatedhacker droid attached to the transport's centralcomputer, dutifully erased the computer records anddroids aboard, lest information regarding those who had served at Echo Base and had escaped aboard theBright Hope fall into Imperial hands. It was then that theMist Hunter returned and docked with theBright Hope, with the bounty hunters Zuckuss and 4-LOM hoping to board the transport to capture and collect the bounties on twenty-six of the most valuable surviving Rebels aboard. After a few tense moments of negotiation between Zuckuss and 4-LOM and the Rebels aboard theBright Hope, Farr, carrying the highest price on her head among the survivors, convinced the hunters to instead rescue the remaining ninety passengers, including the medical droids2-1B^[7] andFX-7,^[3][14] and deliver them to the sanctuary of the Rebel underground on the nearby planetDarlyn Boda.^[7]

TheBright 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.^[7] The eighteen members who were jettisoned from theBright Hope back to Hoth were eventually recovered by anAlliance Special Forces team led by Toryn Farr.^[3]

Behind the scenes[]

Notable appearances[]

TheBright Hope was first featured in the short story "Of Possible Futures: The Tale of Zuckuss and 4-LOM," written by authorM. Shayne Bell as part of theDecember1996 anthology bookTales of the Bounty Hunters. The story provided a name and expanded operational history for the transport Han Solo attempts to bring Princess Leia Organa to during the Battle of Hoth in the1980 filmStar Wars: Episode VThe Empire Strikes Back. TheBright Hope's name is effectively derived from C-3PO's spoken film line, suggesting to the Princess that the final transport is their "only hope" for escape.^[7][9]

The1998PC programStar Wars: Behind the Magic later established the GR-75 medium transport lifting off from the staging area outside Echo Base in the background scene in whichLuke Skywalker boards his X-wing to evacuate Hoth inThe Empire Strikes Back as theBright Hope, thusretconning the film as the ship's firstcanonical appearance.^[3]

Inconsistencies[]

There are several inconsistencies regarding theBright Hope.

According to the second edition of theWest End Games sourcebookGalaxy Guide 3: The Empire Strikes Back, the transport Leia Organa was assigned to board was theThon's Orchard.^[10] Additionally, in theradio adaptation ofThe Empire Strikes Back, Luke Skywalker informs Organa that he will be escorting her transport—the last flight to leave.^[11]The Essential Guide to Characters, however, describes Skywalker as escorting the GR-75 medium transport piloted byTarrin Datch,^[15] whichGalaxy Guide 3 identifies as theThon's Orchard—one of the final transports to leave, though not the last—a ship that successfully made the run through the Imperial blockade of Hoth.^[10] To further compound the confusion, the transport piloted by Datch inThe Empire Strikes Back radio adaptation is intended to be the final evacuation transport.^[3][11]

Another inconsistency arises with the script ofThe Empire Strikes Back radio adaptation, published inThe Empire Strikes Back: The National Public Radio Dramatization, which identifies the last evacuation transport as the ship assigned toGeneralCarlist Rieekan.^[16] This is contradicted by "Of Possible Futures: The Tale of Zuckuss and 4-LOM," which places Rieekan at the rendezvous point ahead of theBright Hope's crew.^[7]

Star Wars: Behind the Magic and the reference bookStar Wars: Complete Locations both identify theBright Hope as the transport seen lifting off from the staging area outside Echo Base in the background shot when Luke Skywalker departs Hoth inThe Empire Strikes Back. This seems to contradict "Of Possible Futures," which describes theBright Hope as lifting off directly from the base's hangar.^[3][2]

In thenovelization ofThe Empire Strikes Back, Han Solo refers to the ship as "Transport C One Seven," which this article treats as a registry number.^[8]The Official Star Wars Fact File 48 erroneously identifies theBright Hope as the "Bright Star."^[17] In "Of Possible Futures," there is some uncertainty as to which medical droid accompanies 2-1B aboard theBright Hope. Author M. Shayne Bell inexplicably alternates between referring to 2-1B's partner as "Effour-Seven" and "Effex-Seven" all within the course of several paragraphs.^[7] However,Star Wars: Behind the Magic and the article "Who's Who in Echo Base" fromStar Wars Insider 74 both identify the droid as FX-7,^[3][14] the most traditionally accepted counterpart of 2-1B, as seen inThe Empire Strikes Back.^[9]

Appearances[]

• Star Wars: Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike(Video clip only)
• Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron
• Star Wars: Episode VThe Empire Strikes Back(First appearance)(Retcon)
• Star Wars: Episode VThe Empire Strikes Back junior novelization
• Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back Cine-Manga(Indirect mention only)
• Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back novelization(andunabridged audiobook)(First mentioned, simultaneous withThe Empire Strikes Back Storybook)(as Transport C One Seven)
• The Empire Strikes Back Storybook(First mentioned, simultaneous withThe Empire Strikes Back novelization)(Indirect mention only)
• Classic Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back book-and-tape(Indirect mention only)
• The Empire Strikes Back radio drama — "Fire and Ice"(Indirect mention only)
• Star Wars (1977) 41(recolorized inStar Wars: A Long Time Ago... Volume 3: Resurrection of Evil andStar Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back)(Indirect mention only)
• The Empire Strikes Back radio drama — "The Millennium Falcon Pursuit"(Indirect mention only)
• "Marooned on Hoth" —Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game(Indirect mention only)
• "Of Possible Futures: The Tale of Zuckuss and 4-LOM" —Tales of the Bounty Hunters(First identified asBright Hope)

Sources[]

Notes and references[]

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