My players have a similar party structure going and have the added benefit of a doctor, a ton of followers, and a small fleet. One character has 14 Soak and lethal blows rank 6 with a disruptor rifle and deadly accuracy with a Ranged heavy skill of five. He usually kills what he hits in one blow, if not the missile tube comes out to play.... I usually throw lots of minions at him and he enjoys ripping them apart. I don't enjoy that so much honestly but my player still has a blast doing it. I get my kicks from this character by having the enemies taunt him and disable him in comical manners. So he has a disruptor rifle? 2 groups of 5 minions with Vibro Axes is enough to make him panic for his disruptor rifles safety though. They don't have to get through his soak to shatter his weapons and armor with the sunder quality on their weapons. BUT I'm not out to kill him, just make him sweat a little. You don't need complications that are lethal just to challenge your players.

Combat is part of the story not just a: they win, I loose/I win, they loose deal. In this game the dice have to factors, success and consequence, and so should the story. If your players always succeed in combat encounters there is still the consequences of the "success" left to deal with; good or bad. So they killed everybody, did those people have powerful friends? Was Boba Fett their cousin?(not likely I know....) Was a mook holding on to a thermal detonator with a dead man's switch? OR Did something positive come out of their victory? Was one of the mooks a slave owner and now the players have freed from slaves? Did the crime lord they took out own a bunch of land somewhere? I know these aren't the best examples but it's early and I just woke up. Still getting my coffee buzz going. If you must compete with or "VS" the players in this system, a good way to do that I've discovered is through professional rivalries from NPCs. I don't have examples for that right now though. Hope this helps.

This is the players game you just happen to be playing it too. You are their guide through the world not their enemy.

There was a thread a while back, and I forget who posted it. (Please chime if this was you) The GM who posted made a great observation that spending LESS time preparing has made the game sessions more fun and enjoyable. I agree with this approach.

I think I commented on that thread, but I am not its progenitor. I agree less prep can make for a more spontaneous and fun session, but that doesn't mean no prep. In fact, I spent the first couple months of my campaign diligently working on my GM Holocron, wherein I did tons of research and taking notes - near immersion really. I don't have quite the expertise as many of our fine fellow forumgoers so I had a lot of catching up to do to even be in a place I felt comfortable running a sandbox. It was a ton of work at first, but now I'm comfortable not prepping every last detail of my story - I have interweaving outlines but no hard and fast events that will blow up my story if my players are clever and figure out another way I hadn't considered.

As for how they ended up shooting the traitor...it was one of those situations where the players inevitably derail the story. The traitor panicked and went for the hostage situation early and they shot him with a really amazing sniper shot (that I allowed as I thought they'd fail) as he tried to make his break for the escape vehicle.

First mistake, and I know I'm still learning this one, is don't let them have that shot. If it's a one in a million shot that'll completly derail the adventure then the PC will allways roll that success.

Even with that outcome, if you wanted to do the last third of the adventure you still can. Who said the Traitor was working alone? An accompliace? A droid? A ship on autopilot with the information stored aboard. If death star plans can be hidden on a droid, then plans about a rebel base sure can. The Traitor could've been smart enough to have that ship set up to leave on autopilot on a timer.

Or, since a dead Traitor tells no tails. Perhaps the commanding officers order the PCs to go find the Traitor's Imperial handler and make sure that no important information got out. Still plenty of time to play out that chunk of the adventure. Actually, after running that last third, I kind of like this idea. Gives a reason for the PCs to go bumbling around the planet looking for someone they know next to nothing about. As presented in the book, the exploring the planet part made no sense for my group as they were a bunch of non-humans. They did the bare miniumum to figure out where to track down the Traitor. What could've been a handful of sessions of role playing was reduced to a single session.

I have made sooooooooooooooooooooo many notes, both mental and physical, based on everyone's tips and help. My next game session with my players isn't for a while as I am taking a break from GMing. One of my players is giving GMing a go instead, which means it is the first time I get to play a Star Wars RPG in 7 years! However, with all the help above I am looking forward to giving some new ideas a go the next time I am in the GM chair.