Star Wars: Andor

[Celebrim]

So, what, you're going to disavow your agents every time they narrowly avoid capture? Because there's no difference between that and what's happened to Cassian so far.

Cassian is not an agent yet. He's a thief that is being recruited to be an agent. And he's a thief whose identity is well known to the Empire. It doesn't take a magic homing tracker like The Mandalorian used or implied as a way of reducing the shown complexity of bounty hunting. It just needs a short-range life form scanner that is well within the sort of capabilities shown way back in the original movies. The sort of technology that would make Cassian Andor's life difficult already exists today in primitive form. Every time Cassian Andor has to pass customs or a security check point, he's a security risk to the Alliance. He's not at all an ideal agent, and to the extent that he might have been he was compromised during the first episodes of the show.

otherwise they wouldn't have had so much trouble finding people such as Obi-wan, or the crew of the Ghost.

It can be assumed that the Legends Obi-Wan stayed in the desert, avoided leaving the planet, never passed through Imperial Customs, never was on a ship that was boarded, and never passed a security checkpoint he couldn't get buy just by waving his fingers and going, "You don't need to see my ID or take a genetic scan."

 

[MarkB]

Cassian is not an agent yet. He's a thief that is being recruited to be an agent. And he's a thief whose identity is well known to the Empire.

Actually, he's not at all known to the Empire as yet. He's known to one corporation with Imperial ties, for suspected crimes that have nothing to do with seditious activities. Nothing he's done so far puts him as even a blip on the Empire's radar.

It doesn't take a magic homing tracker like The Mandalorian used or implied as a way of reducing the shown complexity of bounty hunting. It just needs a short-range life form scanner that is well within the sort of capabilities shown way back in the 1970s. The sort of technology that would make Cassian Andor's life difficult already exists today in primitive form. Every time Cassian Andor has to pass customs or a security check point, he's a security risk to the Alliance. He's not at all an ideal agent, and to the extent that he might have been he was compromised during the first episodes of the show.

Still no different than any other agent who gets scanned by such a device even once during their career and doesn't make a perfectly clean getaway. If such scanning devices exist, then once you're scanned and connected to criminal activity, any future scans would raise an alarm.

So, again, do you just disavow every agent who is in this position? Or do the rebels maybe have solutions to such problems, if those problems exist at all?

 

[FitzTheRuke]

The sort of technology that would make Cassian Andor's life difficult already exists today in primitive form.

Today? This takes place "A Long Time Ago". Their technology is often shown to be worse than ours, except when it comes to AIs and Warp Drives. I mean, their TVs are B&W and grainy. Their technological advancement was clearly built with different priorities.

Or in other words, it doesn't matter what we have when it comes to what they have.

 

[MarkB]

You are not the only one.

I'm just waiting for Princess Leia to meet him and say "aren't you a little short for a Qunari?"

 

[pukunui]

Cassian may have a criminal record, but as he points out to Rael, the Empire’s arrogance means he can just don one of their uniforms and waltz right in because it looks like he belongs there.

 

[RuinousPowers]

Cassian is interesting to watch. It’s what I look for in a film character.

So was the portrayal of Jeffery Dahmer, but I wouldn't say that I liked him.

 

[RuinousPowers]

So, what, you're going to disavow your agents every time they narrowly avoid capture? Because there's no difference between that and what's happened to Cassian so far.

The magic homing trackers of The Mandalorian clearly either aren't around yet or aren't in the Empire's repertoire, otherwise they wouldn't have had so much trouble finding people such as Obi-wan, or the crew of the Ghost.

Yeah, those universe-wide DNA trackers really are far more advanced than anything else in the galaxy.

 

[MarkB]

Yeah, those universe-wide DNA trackers really are far more advanced than anything else in the galaxy.

To be fair, there does seem to be a progression in-canon here. The tracking fobs and pucks in The Mandalorian are based on chain codes, and the Empire begins introducing chain code IDs shortly after coming to power - it's a plot point in The Bad Batch.

So, maybe the sort of tracking tech Celebrim's talking about is something the Empire is working on, but it's likely still in its infancy as of this storyline - we don't see Vader handing out fobs for Princess Leia's very public ID to the bounty hunters in The Empire Strikes Back, for instance.

 

[Celebrim]

Yeah, those universe-wide DNA trackers really are far more advanced than anything else in the galaxy.

In my Rise of the Empire age D6 bounty hunter game, if you know the gene code of the target a puck can pick up and track target from a range of say 100 meters in good conditions, while typical ship's sensors capable of detecting life signs might have a range of up to a few kilometers if equipped with appropriate software. As with all Star Wars sensors, they are subject to interference, jamming, and masking. Dense life such as a forest or a large crowd can make resolving an individual signature difficult or nigh impossible, and simple precautions like 10 meters of rock or plasticrete can hide them entirely. Jamming technology can also hide your signature from sensors, though it's often possible to tell that jamming technology is in use if your scan is focused enough just not what is being covered up.

It's presumed that the Mandalorian dumbed down the complexities of using the tracking technology for the purposes of the show, skipping over the part where the Mandalorian used contacts and Guild assets to narrow down where to find the acquisition before using short-ranged sensors to pinpoint the target's location. It's also possible that the "tracking fobs" in the show are tracking a hyperspace or subspace beacon somehow related to the target, if the target was previously in custody. Reasonably small subspace beacons with ranges in lightyears exist. The device the empire concealed aboard the Falcon was small enough to evade casual detection but as it issued a hyperspace signal did have a near galactic wide range.

Also in my Star Wars D6 game, chain codes are part of the Empire's attempt to catalogue and take a census on all sentient beings in the galaxy. The Republic had very lax record keeping systems, usually leaving the registration of citizens up to individual worlds, many of which - especially in the outer rim - made little effort to document their citizens. It's a trope of my game that outer rim citizens only show up in records if they own land. Birth and death certificates are rare, but colonists typically do register claims on property for legal reasons so land records are often the best way to track where an acquisition might be. Unfortunately, worlds without centralized tax authorities (until recently) often didn't maintain centralized databases, meaning that you often need to be on the right track to get access to the specific information.

 

[RuinousPowers]

To be fair, there does seem to be a progression in-canon here. The tracking fobs and pucks in The Mandalorian are based on chain codes, and the Empire begins introducing chain code IDs shortly after coming to power - it's a plot point in The Bad Batch.

So, maybe the sort of tracking tech Celebrim's talking about is something the Empire is working on, but it's likely still in its infancy as of this storyline - we don't see Vader handing out fobs for Princess Leia's very public ID to the bounty hunters in The Empire Strikes Back, for instance.

I dontcknow how it works, but it seems silly to try to hide out in these barbaric Outer Rim planets while holding on to your government issue ID that can be traced with pinpoint accuracy.