Clever/Fun Infiltration Encounters?

[Yak Face]

I'm hoping to take advantage of the devious brains around here. I'm planning an adventure wherein the PCs will be rescuing a rebel agent from an Imperial orbital outpost in the Outer Rim. Nothing super-high security, but a military installation nonetheless. They'll be going in using a boarding shuttle, while a pair of rebel capital ships and some X-Wings keep the Imp space assets occupied and the base shaking with dramatic shudders - imagine the Death Star corridor scenes in Ep IV when torpedoes hit. They'll have some rebel specforce NPCs going along to create a diversion and hold off some of the bad guys, off-camera.

Other than standard "you run into a patrol" type stuff, anybody got ideas for entertaining encounters suitable for such a situation? Interesting security measures, or other things? Perhaps published resources I should consult?

So far all I've come up with is to have the rescued person be psychologically messed up (and uncooperative) due to all the torturing she recently experienced.
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However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results. -Sir Winston Churchill

[Rasta]

Diversion failure: Perhaps the Imps were better prepared than the Rebels thought, and they now have to rescue the agent without support.

Ray Shields: Perhaps they get captured themselves and now need to break themselves out as well as the agent.

Small base is a front: Perhaps the small on the fringe base is not what it appears. Perhaps in reality there is a huge weapons research facility where the Imps are testing/ developing new powerfull weaponry.

Agent Decoy: Perhaps the rebel agent is an imperial planted spy.

[Yak Face]

Excellent - I knew this would pay off. Great ideas, Rasta. I can already imagine the script for the urgent comm call - "We're being overwhelmed - there's... too many of them!" And having to make a side trip to knock out suddenly-restored shields before they can lift - that'll be a great "oh-sh*t" moment!
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However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results. -Sir Winston Churchill

[Raven Redstar]

Other possibilities.

Route gets cut off due to depressurization along known corridors. They have to get to their destination using another more dangerous path.

Player takes a wrong turn and runs into an imperial inquisitor or other such high level person.

Boarding shuttle is destroyed in the fray. They have to procure their own means of getting out of the installation.

[mdlake]

The PCs are mistaken for civilian labor sent to repair/install station equipment, and are escorted to the site. This works better if your PCs aren't visibly toting heavy weapons.

The PCs arrive to find the base defenses surprisingly weak...in fact, the base is almost deserted. The base has been struck by some horrible plague virus, prisoner included. Maybe he's already dead. PCs must improvise medical safeguards and worry whether they're already infected. An infestation of horrible little creatures works, too.

On being freed, the prisoner reports that he has turned the loyalties of the base commander, or some other officer--a more valuable asset than the prisoner, himself. Players must revise their plans on the fly to extract the officer as well, probably surrounded by military staff what with the diversionary attack underway and all.

A local resistance effort attacks the base while the extraction is underway, playing merry hell with everyone's plans. Obviously the locals aren't coordinating with the rebellion high command--PCs must identify the locals for what they are and persuade their teammates not to blast everyone that isn't part of the official operation. Alternately, the mission commander recognizes the resistance for what it is, and orders PCs to aid them, or at least not to use the plan for fear it will harm the local resistance or otherwise offend them. Maybe the prisoner disagrees.

[Yak Face]

Ha! What great ideas - a treasure trove of dirty tricks! I'll not be able to incorporate them all - the difficulty at this point will be to pick which ones to include. Whatever isn't employed this time will have to be put on the "to-be-used-later" pile.

I can tell that this will be a raid to remember. My thanks to all who've shared their brain power!
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However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results. -Sir Winston Churchill