Star Wars left a tight margin between Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Star Wars: A New Hope; however, it is a gap that has been filled in its entirety. In the anthology Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View, the first story, "Raymus" by Gary Whitta, fills in the blanks on the ship. It tells the story from the perspective of the Tantive IV's captain, Raymus Antilles, who's choked to death by Vader in A New Hope's opening. This story is too short to be told over the course of a film or even an episode of a cartoon, but it fills in the blanks about how Vader and the Empire caught up to Tantive IV, what the outlook on Tantive IV was and if Leia really thought her cover story would work.
Rogue One ends with Tantive IV pulling out of Vader's clutches, separating from the Profundity flagship before entering hyperspace. While they were able to escape, the Profundity being bombarded and boarded had a residual effect on Tantive IV, which resulted in the ship's eventual capture.
During the Battle of Scariff and during Vader's solitary attack on the flagship, electrical surges bombarded the circuits of Tantive IV. Of all the parts that malfunction, the motivator is damaged. The ship launches into hyperspace, but it lacks the proper power to travel all the way to Yavin IV, so Leia redirects the ship for Tatooine, but she doesn't explain this to her crew.
Tantive IV's motivator ends up breaking down about a quarter of a parsec away from Tatooine. The ship is then forced out of hyperspace, leaving a strong residual trail due to its malfunctioning drive. This leads the Empire to track them down, and they overtake the ship.
When marathoning the Star Wars films -- specifically when watching A New Hope after watching Rogue One -- it becomes apparent that Leia had little ground to stand on when she and her crew lied to Vader after he just watched Tantive IV take off from the Profundity. While morale on the ship was low -- with Captain Antilles writing farewell letters to his loved ones before being boarded -- Leia and her personal retainers believed they could get away with lying to the Empire.
After all, Leia had immunity when embarking on diplomatic missions. On top of that, they believed their model of ship, the CR90 corvette, was common enough that they could convince the Empire they had the wrong ship. However, by the time they came up with this plan, the Empire had already issued a Priority Red Directive, demanding that all CR90 corvettes be boarded and questioned by the Empire. They also suspended any diplomatic immunity Leia had.
Furthermore, many of the members of the ship did not know what they had received from the Rogue One team on Scarif. Ergo, when pushed to the limits, they had no choice but to lie. In some ways, this makes Leia's plan more brazen, revealing just how much of it was improvised. In the end, everything that transpired in A New Hope -- and the Star Wars saga -- happened because Leia made up a plan on the spot.
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