WARNING: The following contains spoilers for the Star Wars: Empire Ascendant story "Epilogue," by Simon Spurrier, Caspar Wijngaard, Lee Loughridge and VC's Clayton Cowles, on sale now.
In the Star Wars Universe, there are a lot of characters outside the mainstream who have played a hidden role in the battle between rebels and whatever oppressive force rules the galaxy. The original trilogy introduces Doctor Chelli Aphra, a colleague of Luke Skywalker who's a relic hunter and archaeologist extraordinaire. She's never really chosen sides, although she does lean more towards the Light a bit. That somewhat changed when her recent solo series ended at Marvel, hinting she was going to sell out the location of the Rebel base on Hoth and setting in motion the start of The Empire Strikes Back. However, the Empire Ascendant one-shot redeems Aphra by revealing she actually helped the heroes avoid detection.
Aphra has worked for Vader on and off, and it seemed his bribe worked this time around, with Aphra finally deciding to sell the Rebels out to become favored under the Sith's watch. She extracted the info from the mind of a military leader in the Rebellion, her ex-lover Tolvan, and it looked like she was about to give Vader info on the ice planet. But in this arc, we see Aphra really was still loyal to her friends, as well as her dad, all of whom ended up on Hoth.
They're wondering if the Empire would come knocking but as they discuss the future, a communique comes in which Tolvan dissects. She thinks Aphra's invasive actions endangered them all and frankly doesn't think highly of her anymore, as she appears to have used her talents to gain a better standing with Vader and Palpatine (whose life she once saved). But the note from the adventurer begs everyone to take care of each other, leaving Tolvan confused. Along with Vulaada in the crew, Aphra wants the trio to remain strong in the war to come and lets them know, especially her father, how much she loves them.
It's at this point Luke arrives, a legend to them as they've heard about his Force-empowered feats. He acknowledges who they are and says he feels lucky to have met them, He also has a lot of respect for Aphra since she's helped him get out of tough spots in the past. And it's here he reveals something that changes their perception of Aphra, preserving her status in everyone's eyes as a hero.
Apparently, from a spy debriefing, he found out Aphra sabotaged Vader's Destroyer and all the info that was pointing to Hoth was scrambled. After ruining the search and taking eyes away from Hoth, Aphra escaped with her droids, which is where her new series will most likely be picking up from in the April relaunch.
Luke's grateful for her antics, as she gave the Hoth base just enough time to build a shield generator using smuggled schematics and for the Dameron family to help create an evacuation route for the base. In other words, Aphra's legit responsible for Hoth being what it was, fortified up until the start of ESB. And so, her friends and family breathe a sigh of relief because their faith is restored. They were worried she went dark but as Luke tells them, never give up hope; eventually, someone like Aphra will always do the right thing.