Darth Vader orders a squad of stormtroopers to find R2-D2 and C-3PO after their escape from the Rebel Blockade Runner. On Tatooine, Dewback ground units discover the empty escape pod, and the Troop Transporter is sent to track the droids down. Scanners on the Transporter pick up a Jawa sandcrawler, which is then intercepted. Stormtroopers fire some warning shots and then search the sandcrawler. They discover that the droids had been on the sandcrawler but had been sold to "Owen Skywalker." Satisfied with this information, the Troop Commander orders the vehicle to open fire, killing the Jawas and destroying the sandcrawler.
In two or three places, the story as depicted in this booklet contradicts canon that was established at the time of its writing. This booklet calls Owen Lars "Owen Skywalker." It claims the Troop Transporter, a repulsorlift vehicle, is what attacked the sandcrawler that carried C-3PO and R2-D2, yet when Luke and Obi-Wan analyze the scene in the film, they find animal tracks. (It is possible another Imperial unit came along later to plant the misleading evidence; Obi-Wan does mention the scene was staged.) Most blatantly, this booklet ends with the Troop Transporter blowing up the sandcrawler, yet the sandcrawler is clearly intact when Luke and Obi-Wan find it in the film.
Darth Vader's command "Either come back with the plans or don't come back at all!" in this work was referenced twice in the late '00s. The 2008 novel The Force Unleashed has Drexl Roosh say "come back to camp with something we can sell, or don't come back at all!" And in the 2009 article "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Praji," by Nathan O'Keefe, Vader's line is the epigraph of the "Second Chances" part of the article.
- Star Wars Year By Year: A Visual History, New Edition