So on Hoth, the Republic is after the fragments of a prototype superweapon, and is ready to swoop in and whisk said device off-world, just as soon as you pry it away from the pesky pirates who've stolen it. (Sound familiar?)
Of course when you get there, *spoiler warning*
...the pirates have made copies of the thing already, so there are too many for the Republic to easily transport out. Cool, right? The weapon is so easy to reverse engineer, even a handful of techies with primitive facilities can build the things!
Nope...this turns out to be, naturally, a VERY BAD THING ®. According to Mr. NPC, because the Republic only has the means to transport one off planet, we have these choices:
1) take the one, and risk the rest falling into the hands of pirates, (dark side choice)
or
2) blow them all up RIGHT NOW to prevent such disaster (light side choice).
Um...excuse me? Is there some reason why we have the capacity now to blow them all up, but couldn't do exactly this, right AFTER shipping out the one we're able to carry?
Do these people wake up in the morning, look in the mirror, and express shock and amazement at the fact that they have a nose?
I was really liking the Hoth storyline up till this...apparently the Empire has finally perfected the planetary-scale Idiot Ray. The Republic is doomed. (But they may be too dumb to recognize it.)