Blockade runner

Blockade runner is a generic name for any type of naval vessel, be it a sea vessel or a space vessel designed to penetrate armored blockades. Blockade runners are usually characterized by their highly durable hull plating and propulsion systems that generate short, but quick bursts of speed. In the mythos of Star Wars, this was represented in several different ways, the most well known of which was the CR90 Corellian corvette featured in the very beginning of the 1977 film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. This particular runner, the Tantive IV, a consular ship during the waning days of the Old Republic. At the close of the Clone Wars, the ship was used to transport Obi-Wan Kenobi and infant Luke Skywalker to the planet Tatooine.

Eighteen years later, the ship was still being used for diplomatic missions, but was also secretly a vessel for the Alliance to Restore the Republic. In the year 0 BBY, Princess Leia Organa and her Rebel Alliance had intercepted a transmission containing detailed schematics for the Empire's newest super-weapon the Death Star space station. The Empire learned of the transmission and Sith Lord Darth Vader led the mission to retrieve them. The Imperial Star Destroyer Devastator overtook the Tantive IV as it was passing through the Tatoo system. With little time to spare, Leia uploaded the Death Star plans into the memory circuits of the astromech droid R2-D2. R2 and his protocol droid companion C-3PO took an escape pod and jettisoned themselves from the ship towards the planet Tatooine.

Another example of a blockade runner featured in Star Wars was a DP20 frigate gunship which was regarded as a ship of the line. Three years following the Battle of Yavin, this warship was part of a small operation that intercepted Imperial forces en route to Feriae Junction. One of the more austere collaborators of the Empire, the Tagge family, attempted to use their Omega Frost weapon to destroy the fleet, but the blockade runners were able to avoid destruction and retaliated by striking at General Ulric Tagge's battle cruiser.