At this point in time, the Empire, divested of its superweapon, has put its foot down hard to try and squelch resistence. In the aftermath of the destruction of the Death Star and main supporting system of Alderaan, the Rebel Alliance has suffered a series of severe setbacks, not the least of which is that the Empire has begun to employ third party contractors (bounty hunters) in order to track down key Rebel figures and a number of operational security failures, such as the leakage of the Hoth base's location