Warning! Spoilers ahead for Star Wars #11 from Charles Soule and Jan Bazaldua
In the latest issue of Marvel Comics' Star Wars series, the Rebellion is under attack by the Empire, who have mercilessly continued their assault since the Battle of Hoth during The Empire Strikes Back. A large part of the Rebels' inability to regroup and evade their attacks is because their transmission codes have been decrypted by the Imperials, meaning that any attempt to communicate is known by the Empire as well. However, Princess Leia and C-3PO have come up with the solution with the help of an antique protocol droid and Lando Calrissian's cyborg friend Lobot. It's also revealed that Darth Vader himself technically played a large role in saving the Rebellion in this issue as well.
After sending the elite unit known as the Pathfinders to Coruscant (the Imperial capital world) to steal this ancient protocol droid from a museum, the Rebels begin creating new encoded transmissions using a rare and ancient language known as Trawak held within the droid that the Empire would never be able to crack. The process involves Lobot connecting with the droid to keep its memory banks from corrupting, allowing Threepio to translate the code for the Rebellion. However, the old droid casually and coldly reveals that the process is killing Lobot, much to the shock of Lando.
Now, Star Wars #11 sees Lando very distressed, as he obviously doesn't want his friend to give his life for the Rebellion they just joined out of necessity. Even so, Leia and the other Rebels are determined to get their codes. Leia herself is willing to make the hard call and sacrifice Lobot in order to save the Rebellion if that's what it takes. Thankfully, it didn't come to that, as Threepio surprisingly reveals that he's already translated the entire Trawak language from the few lines that had already been given, utilizing an advanced intuitive process that C-3PO credits his maker for programming within him, thus allowing Lobot to be disconnected before the process would have killed him.
While C-3PO himself does not remember, Star Wars fans know that Threepio's maker was of course Anakin Skywalker when he was still as slave boy on Tatooine. While it's no surprise that Anakin's ingenuity and talent with machinery would make C-3PO invaluable, it is ironic that Anakin's droid is working against him now that he's become Darth Vader. This small but significant moment also brings to mind the now Legends Star Wars Tales story from Dark Horse Comics, which saw Vader recognizing the droid he had once built as Anakin, motivating him to give C-3PO back to the then imprisoned Chewbacca on Cloud City during The Empire Strikes Back.
At the issue's end, the newly encrypted and unbreakable codes are sent to the Rebellion's new Starlight Squadron, who head out to the individual Rebel cells scattered throughout the galaxy to get them distributed, allowing the Rebellion to finally regroup back to its full strength. However, while the Rebels might not know it, their success can technically be credited to Darth Vader. Without him and the remarkable droid he created, the Star Wars galaxy might never have been saved from the tyranny of the Empire and ironically, Darth Vader himself. As Threepio often says: "Thank the Maker!"