Into the Unknown Regions...

[Dasquian Belargic]

Discussion has been taking place between the RPers of the Empire and the Rebellion to try and decide what we could do to encourage more activity. Venturing into the Unknown Regions seems to pretty popular, and as an extension of this we've been talking about what we might find out there...

Some potential options that have been suggested:
Chiss: Stela'shlit'nuruodo has been waiting for someone to come visit him. Maybe a small incursion into Chiss space. Maybe the empire finds the Chiss weak from a unending war with the Vagarri. The Chiss could send an emissary to the Empire to request Assistance. Maybe the Empire helps maybe they don't. It would go aways into the anti-alien sentiment to not assist and maybe move on Chiss worlds.
Vong: Although they have been poorly played here in the past, I think if handled correctly they could provide interesting catalysts to galactic conflict.
Vagarrii: The imperials venture into the Unknown regions and find a massive Vagarri sector. They are limited in appearance in the EU books and can be pretty much anything we want them to be.In addition to this, it was suggested that "The Anti-Alien angle is the best fuel to fire the Rebels. True the Emperor is dead and it's not as much about evil now. Maybe a group of Sith, or other "Evil" organization, can instigate events which could fuel the war between the Empire and the Rebels."

So, essentially we'd like to open the floor up to the rest of the members here. :)

(Thanks to Travis North, Park Kraken and Reshmar for the suggestions so far.)

[Dasquian Belargic]

Thoughts? Anyone at all? :|

[Alpha]

Well, I like the idea. :) Something like this can kickstart a number of role play events. And it could be a lot of fun.

[Sanya Tagge]

Which idea in particular? :mneh

[Alpha]

I like the general idea of it all. The Vong I am scared of seeing, as I remember the flames that came about the last time they were brought into the universe here (wow, that was a while ago...). The Vagarrii have the most promise as they are almost a completely clean slate. The Chiss would be fun too, but I just can't see them being able to send a message asking for help. They seem to arrogant for that.

[Reshmar]

that is very true about the Chiss. They would haveto be close to defeat to even think about it and then they would try to limit the amount of the unknown regions who ever was assisting them had. The Vagarrii are partly responsable for the outbound flight tragady. Jedi, Sith, or the empire even; investigating what may have happen to the outbound flight project, could stummble onto them in the unknown regions and of course we would send assistance.

[Alpha]

That's a good idea. With that scenario, we could work in participation from all the factions on the board.

[Sanya Tagge]

Personally, I quite like the thought of bringing in the Vong. As we said in earlier discussions, I know that they have been poorly handled in the past, but I think the memberbase we are working with now is a lot more mature - and story based! Back then, everything was about acquiring planets and being the biggest baddest mutha in the galaxy.

We could work Outbound Flight into just about anything, really... say whoever we want caused it.

[Alpha]

Those weren't the ONLY things we were after back then...:) We were also looking for a good bowl of root stew. :D And yeah, you have a point. We might be able to handle the Vong a little better. I am curious to see how an Empire would handle that threat

[Sanya Tagge]

:lol root stew... and rafters, of course!

Yes, I'd like to see how everyone would react. I'm assuming, of course, that the Vong would be actively hostile.

[Alpha]

I think the rafters was mostly my old, trusted mode of transportation. And could the Vong ever be played as anything but an agressive invading species. :)

[Park Kraken]

I've never RPed a Vong character, but I believe I know enough about them to give it a go. Example; Shii-Tok, of the Tok clan, a member of the warrior caste, who's brother, Shak-Tok, born with a disfigured face, is a member of the Shamed Ones caste, etc etc.

I didn't even think of the possibility of the Vagaari, who we basically only know as humanoid resembling slavers with interesting weapons. I will throw this one out there as well, even though I will scream an adamant "NO!" if it comes up to a vote, but we could also try the Killiks from the Dark Nest series.

[Reshmar]

I thought about them but left them out of my recomendation because few people have any real idea who or what they are. Im favoring the Vagarrii for now but if the site want the Vong I will be fine with it. I would perfer an enamy I can beat but IM willing to lose for awhile to the Vong if thats where we go with this.

[Jaden Luka]

I know a little about the Vong, but EU has kinda run away with me so I haven't really kept up with stuff more than a decade or so after Endor. I may be the only one who is that far behind, but from the perspective of myself and other potential newbies, something like the Vagarrii would make a lot of sense: there isn't years of background reading to be done, and it gives us the opportunity to custom-fit something to suit our needs.

Feel free to ignore the n00b though. ;)

[Dasquian Belargic]

I suppose something to bare in mind is that most of the EU is not relevant to our story here. We started where ROTJ ended, so anything in the EU after that has never happened here.

If someone has ideas for how to make the Vagarri unique and interesting enought to be the driving force behind a galaxy-wide conflict, I'd like to hear them.

[Park Kraken]

Ooh! Ooh! Possible good idea incoming, and anyone who has seen or read the Clone Wars series of movies, books, and comics could take up on:

Seperatist Remnant Droid Army:

1) 100% machine driven, with no flesh and blood bodies behind it.
2) However, machines, through nano-tech, takes over the people and biological species they come across, to create cyborgs, and (to borrow a borg coined term), assimilate what they know.
3) Complete worlds could be industrialized, with a massive initial droid army, that even though they would lose great numbers initially because they are still using late clone wars era technology, they can learn from their mistakes and improve, becoming more dangerous.
4) Complete droid society could be established, perhaps Matrix-esque style, with a small batch of humans or whatnot kept alive and free of machine control for the droids to study the behaviors and mannerisms of, learning as much as they can.

[Reshmar]

I dont see nano tech idea working. But mabey a old hidden store house of droids from the cloane wars could be discovered. Mabey even by the Vagarrii. Say a hidden world with a dormate army stored away by Tyranus and Grevious and never retrieved. They could be reactivated and still have the standing orders from the clone wars. Mabey even a lieutenant of Grevious could be their commander. They could join with the Vagarrii, Set up a forge world and begin attack worlds from the Unknown regions.

[Alpha]

Or the storehouse idea could even just be used independently of other story lines and create a seperate storyline with that one too. Like say a crazy darksider or mercenary gets them and has delusions of conquest.

[Dasquian Belargic]

2) However, machines, through nano-tech, takes over the people and biological species they come across, to create cyborgs, and (to borrow a borg coined term), assimilate what they know.

I think this was attempted once before, with the IMPLEMENT storyline. Not that I have a problem with trying something similar again, it always seemed fun, having that SHODAN (System Shock) style villain. Actually, I'd love to do that. Shodan is teh awesome.

^ Alpha has a good point. Multiple storylines could be introduced, under a general heading of "Invasion from the Unknown Regions".

[Nya Halcyon]

From what I remember of the Vagaari, it seems they were relatively unadvanced but eager to grab any alien tech they could to help them spread themselves out and travel further... and into the known regions of the galaxy. So if some of them came across some tech left over by the Separatists, that would make for some interesting times.

Before Endor this is what we'd know:


They were short with stubby legs, large hands, large violet eyes, flat ears rising high on the skull, and tan skin. They had two mouths, each with two sets of small teeth. They also carried strange unique creatures called wolvkils and schostri, which they used as weapons. Although relatively unadvanced, they had highly developed suspended animation technology, and were able to make effective use of captured interdiction fields. Vagaari starships utilize living shields of sentient beings trapped in transparisteel bubbles and mounted on the outside of the hull, making enemies unwilling to engage for risk of killing innocent creatures.

And we know that they certainly have seen destroyer droids before. And wanted them very badly.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I'm up for just about anything. I sort of want to stay away from the Vong simply because their technology would require a lot of study in order to write about it correctly and I don't have tons of time to devote to RP (as evidenced by how far behind I've fallen in everything!).

[Kraleil 'Alekeg' Schous]

Yeah I'm not much for Vong either. I'd rather go with Vagaari because you can't do much wrong about a species you hardly know anything about....

But with me this is mostly a moot point anyway because I'm not going to be able to join into the fun - I've got my hands full as it is, still trying to write my own thing, translating a book, writing another book, and searching for a job. And I won't be around for the entire month of August so I don't want to join something that I can't be around for.

[Jaden Luka]

From my experience, Star Wars deals mostly with one "absolute" enemy at any particular time. It might be interesting to take a leaf out of the book of other Sci-fi genres, and mix things up with a number of different enemies. The Chiss and the Vagaari could both be involved, and we could mix in some interesting political entanglements as we struggle to work out just which side of the fight between those two we want to end up on.

There's scope for all kinds of extra things too, as well as one-off little side adventures and such. More variety keeps things fresh and interesting, while we'd still be able to keep an intricate core story going on that could keep everyone entertained.

[Alpha]

That makes a lot of sense. With all those interwoven storylines, the overall picture could be much more epic, and with so many choices, it'd give everyone a chance to participate somewhere.

[Salem Ave]

I am a little wary of making things too over complex, for fear that people will get lost (or that too much time would need to be invested in getting up to date on what was going on), but if we can get down some clear outlines of what kind of thing might be happening, confusion could probably be avoided.

[Taylor Millard]

I only skimmed the thread (busy at work sorry) but Millard is in the Unknown Regions fighting a war against the Vagaari (or however they're spelled) and their 'allies' (Vong, although I didn't say it was them).

Also Millard is allied with the Chiss. I've got hte post if you want to see it.

[Stela'shlit'nuruodo]

The CEDF is also at war with the Vagarrii and thier allies.

So I guess it's time to dust off my supreme Blueness and finaly use Lash to rule the galax.... I mean assist the powers of the galaxy against these foes.

[Sanis Prent]

I don't care for any enemy that isn't the empire/sith, etc. The Vong are the Zerg/HR Gieger/abomination of Star Wars and they never fit in my mind at all.

I'm not that active though, so whatever you guys do, I'll find some way to play Sanis at the very least.

[Reshmar]

We could just forgo all the ideas of a odd race from the unknown regions and just do the "evil bad person found an army in the unknown regions." Be it a Sith or someone from the Empire.

[Alpha]

Or do both.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Hm.. what about some kind of Sith cult that has been gathering members in the Unknown Regions? Like, for instance...

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Bando_Gora - "The cult ruled through fear on Outer Rim Territories (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Outer_Rim_Territories) and uncivilized worlds in the Galaxy (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/The_Galaxy), often killing those who stood in their way or refused to convert."

^ They could find and take control of an abandoned droid army, allowing them to police any planets they had taken over via assassination. Like a force-using Triad. :P

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

I'm rather intruiged by the Vagaari line of thought, as it seems less heavy reading is involved for folks who don't have the time to read up on a bunch of stuff if they want to jump into the action.

If we go for a somewhat already established 'war' in the UR, then introduce the Empire and the Rebels into this, I think a lot of doors would open up in terms of thread fodder.


I have been kicking around an idea for a series of threads involving the Yevetha, and setting them up to be very 'Predator'-esque; ie, hunting for honor and trophies, etc. This might allow a small group of RPers to begin terrorizing Imperials and Rebels alike, as the Yevethan hunters start going after higher ranking folks, thinking that greater status and honor would be rewarded for such kills.

Something like that though would probably work better as a tangent storyline, but it's still something I want to do, and have been meaning to write up a wiki for this incarnation of the Yevetha.

[Park Kraken]

I have been kicking around an idea for a series of threads involving the Yevetha, and setting them up to be very 'Predator'-esque; ie, hunting for honor and trophies, etc. This might allow a small group of RPers to begin terrorizing Imperials and Rebels alike, as the Yevethan hunters start going after higher ranking folks, thinking that greater status and honor would be rewarded for such kills.

That could be worked into the UR storylines, as the Koornacht Cluster is bordering the UR. The idea of killing for honor does go well with the Yevetha, as they view all other alien species as being beneath them, as established in the EU novels.

Another interesting aspect of this approach is the fate of Black Fleet. Historically this fleet, consisting of about 45 vessels, ranging from Carrack cruisers and Lancer Frigates to the Executor Mk I SSD Intimidator (renamed Pride of Yevetha), was stationed in the Koornacht cluster, up until the time that Isard recalled the fleet upon siezing power in Coruscant, after which the Yevetha slaver workers rebelled and siezed the fleet for their own.

What could happen to the fleet in our storyline and alternate universe?

[Morgan Evanar]

I'm not really sure what to make of this yet.

[Park Kraken]

I'm not really sure what to make of this yet.

Of the individual ideas, or the whole UR concept?

[Aurelias Kazaar]

I know the 'Unknown Regions' is cool and everything, but shouldn't we be focused on Known Regions stuff? The Empire/Rebellion are at war after all.

I know fleeting isn't that 'big' right now but there are people who are still interested in that (and people STILL haven't posted to the Sarapin thread (including me)).

But just a suggestion. I'm now saying it's a terrible idea, but just saying. there's plenty that hasn't been explored in the Known Regions.

Edit- I know, I know Millard is in the Unknown Regions but that was just an excuse for me not to RP him on a regular basis but still have him 'around'. ;)

[Jaden Luka]

While yeah, there is pleanty to do in the "Known Regions", I think the idea behind this is to kick-start things a bit. I'm sure we all know from experience how hard it is to pick up something half way through and try to carry on: its much easier to gather momentum if you begin at the beginning.

A jaunt into the Unknown Regions doesn't have to be permenant, and it certainly doesn't preclude the possibility of other activities happening as well; it seems to me like its intended just to be a ramp to get the ball rolling again, to give something big and new for everyone to get enthusiastic about, and then all that can wash out across everywhere else.

*shrug*

[Nuro Alston]

Well personally I feel that we should do something a long the lines of a Sith cult in Known space or something of that sort that was suggested by Dasq because it creates a new momentum that people can react to within their own paramaters, in spite of their past, and rattle up the situation right now. That way it can garner interest a long all lines, from Rebels to Imperials. Such change would be welcomed by me, and I think moreso by the Jedi because it develops something for their progression as a whole to be made since they have been quite stagnant in development since their arrival on Vortex.

Now, I dont know if that is the best choice, because all of them are quite interesting. However, I do believe it is best to work within Known Space as a decent compromise, simply by the fact that it is so vast and holds a lot of possibilities and avenues that have not been explored, expanded on, nor utilized to the best efforts of formulating drastic changes in the galaxy beside the work that is being done on Sarapin and Vortex.

Going into mystery is definately cool, but I dont think it would be absolutely benefical for everyone that is entangled in the war that is at hand between Rebels/Empire (Galactic Civil War). I think there just needs to be an added facet to the present war to keep it rolling without completely overhauling it. I just dont think it would work realistically under the present context with so few active on both sides.

[Reshmar]

I understand the fear of the Unknown Regions. And I still do not think the Vong are the way to go. Of the unknown Regions Ideas I favored the Vagarrii.

I have done Chiss for years and they are not the easiest race to write. You have to really dig and read to get an understanding of them. They new Nest books help. Few people know enough about them to really do them justice. Thrawn was a poor example of the Chiss race and its sad most people think of Thrawn when they think Chiss.
I do agree that we have enough to do in the Known regions. There are hundreds of thousands of inhabited planets. there is far more times that many more uninhabited. Of these maybe an army has been hidden on one.

Lets say a big bad sith,Imperial, or other evil doer happens onto maybe a holocron or scroll with information on lets say an army of sith battle droids or able find a halopad with details of a storehouse of droids including ships, fighters,tanks,heavy droids,the kitchen sink from the clone wars.

[Jaden Luka]

What's this community's take on entirely new content? Is it an "anything goes" situation, or does the "there's enough in EU to keep us happy" mentality apply?

The only reason I ask is that the B2 Super Battle Droids from the Clone Wars are getting on for 30 years old now, and the B1 and OOM Battle Droids must be getting into their fifties. Any units found by an aggressor would have been in storage for decades, and would thus be carrying outdated weapons, working on outdated software, and would have been sat around gathering rust and cobwebs for ages. The same goes for any of the larger robotic equipment used by the Separatists - those spider walkers, the cartwheel missile batteries, droid fighters (in an age where a lot of fighters are now shielded), and that jazz.

While yeah, the Empire and the Rebellion doesn't have the disposable Clone Troops that were available to the Republic, other advancements will probably make them a less formidable and less threatening force.

On the other hand, if we were to have an aggressor develop the "B3" battle droid as a new opponent for the modern age, we could make them much tougher. It'd be like the new Cylon Centurions in the new Battlestar Galactica: the old ones did the job just fine, but the new ones are even more deadly. A new-gen Battle Droid might take inspiration from the Dark Trooper project, or whatever.

That way, we get an opponent that we have free reign to develop in any way we wish without stepping on any EU toes, but it still slots easily into the existing chronology.

Just a thought, anyhow.

[Reshmar]

Most of the ships the rebels are using are 50+ years old. As far as technology the Clone wars and the Galactic Cival War allowed for little tech besides what the emperor did. A Maat is still better then alot of the tanks the rebels use. and even if they have less powerful weapons they are deployed by the million. A single Providence Destroyer can deploy 1.5 million with close to 400 support vehicles. a Storeage planet could have a billion and that is a force powerful enough to threaten the galaxy even if they through rocks.

[Park Kraken]

I don't think we should rule out the Vong either. I have an idea that could possibly be satisfying to all. Around this time historically in the EU, the vong sent a number of feeder agents, among them Nom Anor, into the galaxy to learn as much as they could about the potential adversaries. Someone could RP a scout agent and go around causing galactic incidents to occur, messing up stuff, etc.

[Jaden Luka]

What if our mysterious aggressor (whoever they might be) found a Droid Control Ship full of Droids, rather than a planet? A Lucrehulk-class has a capacity for 139,000 Battle Droids according to the information I'm looking at, 1,500 Vulture droids, and 6,250 Armoured Assault Tanks (which could be replaced easily with Spider or Crab Droids, or something similar).

Granted, that isn't any match for the combined might of the entire Imperial Fleet, but that represents a sizeable Starfighter and Ground force that would certainly be enough to spark a nasty ground war. The person who finds said ship (which is crewed almost entirely by Droids, so would only require about 25 organics) would be able to capture at least one planet with a force like that, provided they can pull together some other Starships to help the orbital defense.

Plus, if the planet they capture has a suitable industrial capacity, they could always set the factories to work replenishing their supplies, which could set them up for the long hall.

Maybe we could turn this into something like the Katana Fleet with the Rebels and Imperials hunting for this rumoured force of Battle Droids, only to find that a third party has swiped it instead (maybe even Black Sun - the Empress' connection with them could make that interesting)? The Rebels and Imps would keep each other occupied so the third party wouldn't need to fight off too much competition themselves.

The only danger with a Droid Army is that it provides pleanty of fodder for the Alliance and the Empire, but the Jedi and the Sith aren't really Galactic Civil War participants. Maybe S'Il's idea about the Yevetha would provide something for them? No doubt a Jedi would make for a particularly tempting trophy.

[Alpha]

It wouldn't be the first time we've done original content on this board. I like that. It makes a bit more sense then scrambling to deal with a threat of outdated antiques.

[Nuro Alston]

What's this community's take on entirely new content? Is it an "anything goes" situation, or does the "there's enough in EU to keep us happy" mentality apply?

The only reason I ask is that the B2 Super Battle Droids from the Clone Wars are getting on for 30 years old now, and the B1 and OOM Battle Droids must be getting into their fifties. Any units found by an aggressor would have been in storage for decades, and would thus be carrying outdated weapons, working on outdated software, and would have been sat around gathering rust and cobwebs for ages. The same goes for any of the larger robotic equipment used by the Separatists - those spider walkers, the cartwheel missile batteries, droid fighters (in an age where a lot of fighters are now shielded), and that jazz.

While yeah, the Empire and the Rebellion doesn't have the disposable Clone Troops that were available to the Republic, other advancements will probably make them a less formidable and less threatening force.

On the other hand, if we were to have an aggressor develop the "B3" battle droid as a new opponent for the modern age, we could make them much tougher. It'd be like the new Cylon Centurions in the new Battlestar Galactica: the old ones did the job just fine, but the new ones are even more deadly. A new-gen Battle Droid might take inspiration from the Dark Trooper project, or whatever.

That way, we get an opponent that we have free reign to develop in any way we wish without stepping on any EU toes, but it still slots easily into the existing chronology.

Just a thought, anyhow.

Easily the best foundation to work on. I think from this free reign concept we can truly start working on some nice ideas and create a truly interesting enemy for the galaxy to combat.

[Adelaide Kasperian-Kazaar]

My Suggestion is:

Bring the Cizeracks back - badder, meaner - and have them just attack stuff. Have them take over worlds - subtle at first, places that dont really "count". Then they grow to be a ever-increasing threat that needs to be confronted.

Maybe we (Rebs, Imps) eventually subdue the whole Ciz nation, bring them to heel and make them the galaxy serfs.(?)

Pros for this -

We KNOW the Cizeracks, are familiar with their heritage etc.
WE know HOW to rp them.
Some characters could be REVAMPED.
We (I) LOVE the Cizeracks!

Cons - Not my creation of this species, so I might be suggesting out of line :(
(If so, Forgive me Charley & Del (I think it was who originated these favorite creatures.)"

[Dasquian Belargic]

That sounds like a cool idea, Adel.

[Morgan Evanar]

What if our mysterious aggressor (whoever they might be) found a Droid Control Ship full of Droids, rather than a planet? A Lucrehulk-class has a capacity for 139,000 Battle Droids according to the information I'm looking at, 1,500 Vulture droids, and 6,250 Armoured Assault Tanks (which could be replaced easily with Spider or Crab Droids, or something similar).

Granted, that isn't any match for the combined might of the entire Imperial Fleet, but that represents a sizeable Starfighter and Ground force that would certainly be enough to spark a nasty ground war. The person who finds said ship (which is crewed almost entirely by Droids, so would only require about 25 organics) would be able to capture at least one planet with a force like that, provided they can pull together some other Starships to help the orbital defense.

Plus, if the planet they capture has a suitable industrial capacity, they could always set the factories to work replenishing their supplies, which could set them up for the long hall.

Maybe we could turn this into something like the Katana Fleet with the Rebels and Imperials hunting for this rumoured force of Battle Droids, only to find that a third party has swiped it instead (maybe even Black Sun - the Empress' connection with them could make that interesting)? The Rebels and Imps would keep each other occupied so the third party wouldn't need to fight off too much competition themselves.

The only danger with a Droid Army is that it provides pleanty of fodder for the Alliance and the Empire, but the Jedi and the Sith aren't really Galactic Civil War participants. Maybe S'Il's idea about the Yevetha would provide something for them? No doubt a Jedi would make for a particularly tempting trophy.While it's true that the Clone Wars came down to mass production versus mass production, some of the weaponry of that era was very capable.

I'd be fond of someone finding a massive Clone Wars era cache of droids/equipment. Maybe a battle group was sent out and had a decapitating blow handed to it, but if someone were to stumble upon it, they'd end up with a perfectly operational mass of Confederate war materiel.

I'm not against the Cizerack, but if they caused enough trouble I think the Empire would out and out crush them. The main reason the Rebellion is effective is because they don't hold territory. Asymmetric warfare against a motivated adversary is nearly impossible to win without absolute annihilation of the enemy and their ideals, which is why the Rebellion is effective.

Unless the Cizerack found this fleet of Droid Control Ships.

:mischief

[Jaden Luka]

Unless the Cizerack found this fleet of Droid Control Ships.

:mischief

Cizerack are the cat people, right?

That could work...

[Alpha]

Ciz finding the droid control ship? I have never been more afraid of a suggestion in my entire life. :)

[Park Kraken]

It could be a droid battlefleet sent to assault a Republic planet bordering on the UR, but it ran into a Solar Ion storm that fouled up it's circuits, and it drifted into the UR over time before being found by the Ciz. If I was going to RP a character for them, I would want to RP the latest version of a Vuluture Droid Fighter.

EDIT: Going into more detail, let's say it was a small invasion fleet, by modern standards, sent to capture a Republic Outpost, and turn it into a droid army staging area. The fleet could consist of like, 1 Lucrechik class vessel, 1 Providence carrier/destroyer, and an escort of 4 Munificent class Star Frigates. With full complements of droid fighters, and droid troops, it would be a good force for the Ciz's to work with.

[Estelle Russard]

Unless the Cizerack found this fleet of Droid Control Ships.

:mischief

I like the way your mind works :)

[Vince]

Shodan is teh awesome.

Amen to that, sister! Amen! I still have Sean of the Dead-esque nightmares about Hybrids and empty shotguns.

As for the Chiss and Vagaarii; I believe using the Vagaarii as agressors and the Empire (since the Empire and the Chiss just mesh so well, don't you think?) stumbling across the Chiss during an offensive would be a rather reasonable storyline. I can just imagine the Admiralty and the Chiss commanders getting along chummily!

[Jaden Luka]

Random thought on the Battle Droid front. In Episode III, weren't the Separatists instructed to deactivate all of their Battle Droids or something like that? A force of ships could easily have been disabled and then "forgotten about" - after all, Vader did slaughter everyone on Mustafar, so they probably got a little lax with their paperwork...