Without the transports, the Rebel’s fight against the Empire would have surely failed. There would have been no deliveries of food, ammunition, medical supplies, or other necessary items vital to the running of an army.
The transports had their greatest day at the Battle of Hoth. The Rebels used Gallofree Yards Medium Transports to evacuate core computers, supplies and people. Each transport was given just two X-Wing fighters as escort, and a couple of shots from the planet-based ion cannon. With these minimal defences, most of the transports were able to break through the Imperial blockade and hyper to a safer system. These transports had a cargo capacity of 19,000 metric tons, and were ninety metres long. Given their size, it was amazing that they could carry so much.
The Gallofree transports are basically just a big shell. Beneath their thick hull is nothing but open cargo space. In order to speed up loading and unloading, modular cargo pods were used. An invisible magnetic shield then locks the cargo pods in place once the transport is full. The transports usually have foods, materials, weapons and spare parts as cargo, although some are used for carrying fuel to the far-reaches of space. Passengers and troops are sometimes carried by them in specially-converted sealed pods.
Each transport has a crew of seven. They work in a small cramped pod above the ship’s rounded hull. The crew of seven includes one gunner. Above the command pod is the deflector-shield generator, so the pod is not quite as exposed as some people first think.
As they are not combat ships, the Gallofree transports try to avoid enemy craft at all times. They have sensitive sensors and countermeasures that conceal them from enemy scans, but normally they have to rely on starfighters for protection. That does not mean that the transports have no weapons; four twin laser cannons are all that protect it, although on quite a few ships the weapons have been stripped and placed on other combat vessels.
A hyperdrive allows the Gallofrees to jump to different parts of the galaxy, while standard sublight ion drives give it enough power to outrun quite a few Imperial craft. As seen on Hoth, the transports can land on planets, with the aid of repulsordrive units. On the underside of the ship are located the landing gear and boarding ramp.
The ships came at a very reduced prices for the Rebels, but technicians still say that they were ripped off. Gallofrees are constantly being repaired, and see almost half their time in space, and the other half in repair bays.