99
MDS-440 Datapad
Location: Ajan Kloss
Date: 35 ABY
Datapads are a ubiquitous form of portable technology. They enable shopkeepers to maintain inventories, bounty hunters to study their next target, and diplomats to parse complex trade agreements. Most datapads can scan and translate written languages, store personal files, receive written and auditory comms, and even tune into local communication frequencies.
The Empire provided datapads to cadets as standard-issue equipment, and high-ranking officials had their own private datapads under strict lockdown and off-network to preserve the sensitivity of certain intel. The Rebel Alliance, and later the Resistance, used the Empire’s reliance on documentation to its advantage. In the hands of a Rebel, a datapad read-out could mean the difference between life and death.
This MDS-440 datapad was utilized on the star cruiser Raddus, formerly a New Republic ship before being recommissioned by Resistance forces. The Mon Calamari-built vessel was named for the fallen war hero who had led the Rebels’ assault at the Battle of Scarif and was under the command of Gial Ackbar, a Mon Cala admiral before joining the Rebel cause.
The Raddus was soon destroyed in the stars above Crait in a suicide run that took down the First Order flagship Supremacy. Most of the Raddus’ crew escaped in lifeboats and headed for the planet’s surface. The datapad preserved the Resistance ship’s essential files and shored up the freedom fighter’s morale as they faced repeated First Order attacks.
The datapad’s dimly lit screen still preserves file readouts from the Resistance vessel’s battle-analysis computer. As the Rebels fled Crait aboard the Millennium Falcon, they knew that the data contained on this device could prove vital for their ability to find potential weaknesses in the enemy and mount their next attack.
