[quote=@Bishop]
I didn't mention anything about actually building the thing. I said they build a base on the planet to study* the structure, understand the ancient artifact. Just to clarify further, the pyramid was already there, on the planet, before the rebels came and occupied it. So all your points except one are invalid. And is that bad of an idea? Maybe an ancient civilizations whose history and existence was erased with time left the structure behind. Is it that implausible? And it was just an idea. I'm not imposing it on anyone.
[/quote]

So some ancient race managed to make a super weapon and some how the Empire didn't know about it? The Imperial information network is far greater and deeper than that of the Rebels, the chances of the Rebels finding a planet the Empire didn't know of to begin with is astronomically small, forget even having a super weapon on it. I find it highly unlikely that the Rebels would know of it before the Empire did, if anything just saying that its some old super weapon the rebels just found smells like bad story telling and writing to me.