On 10/18/2019 at 6:42 AM, KungFuFerret said:

4. TRIBBLE INFESTATION!! (or equivalent pest)

If anyone here is a KOTOR fan.... introduce the every terrifying... gizka

What about a bureaucratic error with the ship's registry number? Maybe the sale information didn't propagate outward to some imperial sectors or local systems. Nuisance searches and detentions occur at inopportune moments while authorities sort it out. Or maybe the droid who entered the information malfunctioned and the new owners have the title to someone else's ship, but not the one they actually bought. Maybe they are now the registered owners of some nefarious and notorious person's ship while that person is now the registered owner to their ship. And, of course, Imperial authorities - or bounty hunters! - may now mistake them for said nefarious and notorious person. Pirates? Smugglers? Rebels? One possibility: they get nabbed on a bounty who mistakes them for a smuggler wanted by a hutt, but when they are brought before the hutt he erupts "that's not the smugger I'm looking for!" Maybe, to get their ship back, the Hutt tells them they have to bring him the smuggler they were mistaken for....

As the OP I could not come up with anything worse than what the players came up with.

So they hired the four Academy flunkies and the four have intimated that they are very okay with the Empire. (Two of them, suspecting that their employer was 'dodgy' went to the ISB and are working for ISB).

So in the LAST session the Captain has a pow-wow with the four gunners and told them flat out that they were now members of the Rebel Alliance . . . <face palm>?!?!?

The two Imperial spies played it off cool enough but one of the new 'recruits' wigged out and had to be incarcerated (on the ship).

One word: Gizkas

On 10/23/2019 at 1:29 PM, angelman2 said:

The ship is a poisonous gift: The seller is in league with pirates and have installed trackers, override systems, and other secrets on the ship. When next the PCs fly anywhere near where the pirates lay in wait, they'll find the ship suddenly remotelly controlled and on its way to surrender itselt, and whatever cargo the ship carries, to the pirates. Combat and hilarity ensues...

(Many of the suggestions here, including my own, might be too severe for a signle Dispair roll, however).

Using just the poisonous part here, the life support system has been converted over for another species, i.e. methane breathers.

The ship is stolen.
Some of the included maintenance droids are not as harmless as they seem. Assassination protocols can make those little buggers extremely deadly. And smart enough to contact their owner.