The liberation of Bespin occurred months after the Rebel Alliance's victory at the Battle of Endor of 4 ABY when the gas giant Bespin was seized from the control of the Galactic Empire by Rebel General Lando Calrissian. Exploiting the Empire's state of disarray in the wake of Endor and information on Bespin's defenses leaked by Alliance sympathizers Willrow Hood and Tian Chyler, the general, with the irregular unit known as "Lando's Commandos," launched a campaign dedicated to driving the Empire off of Bespin, culminating in the rescue of his former aide Lobot by the cloned Jedi Knight X2.
While the Jedi inflicted heavy casualties among the remaining Imperial forces in the planet's atmosphere and its tibanna gas mining settlement Cloud City, Lobot took control of the city's computer systems and reinstated Calrissian as its Baron Administrator, the position he had been forced to abandon to escape Bespin's Imperial occupation in 3 ABY.
Fleeing the Galactic Empire's occupation of Bespin in 3 ABY, Lando Calrissian left his position as Baron Administrator of Cloud City, an installation mining the blaster gas and hyperdrive coolant tibanna over the gas planet Bespin, to join the Rebel Alliance and fight in the Galactic Civil War between the Rebellion and Empire. Working with his cyborg former aide Lobot, Rebel pilots Luke Skywalker and Shira Brie, and Bespin's Ugnaught population, Calrissian overthrew Cloud City's Imperial garrison.
The citizens of Cloud City celebrated in the wake of the Battle of Endor.
However, the Empire retook Bespin, maintaining control of Cloud City until after the Battle of Endor of 4 ABY, in which Calrissian, by then a general, led the Rebel starfighter assault, destroying the second Death Star over the forest moon of Endor. After the battle, Admiral Gial Ackbar promised the general all the fighters the Alliance could spare, but with the Rebellion's resources occupied with the defense of the temporary Rebel capital at Endor and a mission to the Imperial-held Outer Rim planet Bakura, Calrissian developed a plan of his own, assembling a group of mercenaries and soldiers dubbed "Lando's Commandos" for the task. Although he was briefly diverted to support his old friend and fellow Rebel Han Solo in putting down an attempted resurgence of the Black Sun crime syndicate, the former Baron Administrator made Cloud City's freedom the focus of his attention, taking advantage of the Empire's confusion following the Battle of Endor.
On Cloud City, the population celebrated the Rebel victory at Endor with fireworks in a cheering demonstration. With the Alliance gaining the upper hand in the war, disenfranchised Imperial Security Bureau agent Tian Chyler defected to the Rebellion, enlisting the aid of Alliance sympathizer Willrow Hood to turn over information on Cloud City's defenses, which proved vital in the liberation of Bespin.
In a months-long campaign, Calrissian and his Commandos drove the remaining Imperial forces out of Cloud City. In a final strike, the Alliance sought to free Lobot, who was held prisoner on Cloud City by the Imperials, and employ his skill with computers to take control of the city. A Rebel force composed of an MC80 Star Cruiser, multiple EF76 Nebulon-B escort frigates, and a group of T-65 X-wing starfighter pilots, including the general and the clone Jedi Knight X2, engaged in an aerial battle with the occupying forces—an Imperial-class Star Destroyer, several Vindicator-class heavy cruisers, and their TIE/LN starfighter complement. At Calrissian's direction, the Jedi shot down a Tibanna gas platform, causing it to plummet into and take out a Vindicator-class cruiser. After eliminating a number of pursuing TIEs, X2 brought his starfighter down to a landing platform and joined General Calrissian on the colony's surface.
An Imperial landing craft deploying Dark troopers
Making their way to a computer terminal, the clone Jedi engaged stormtrooper forces while the general determined the location of Lobot. Passing through a carbon-freezing chamber to reach the cyborg's cell, the Jedi escorted Lobot to the central computer, defending him from attack as he bypassed ray shield defenses and gave Calrissian control of the city. A pair of Sentinel-class landing craft launched a counter-attack, deploying a stormtrooper detachment and six dark troopers to landing pads on opposite sides of the complex. Both forces were defeated by X2, Calrissian, and Lobot, freeing Cloud City from Imperial control.
The liberation of Bespin was first mentioned in the 1993 novel The Truce at Bakura by Kathy Tyers, and it first appeared in the level "Bespin" of the 2009 LucasArts video game Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadrons PlayStation Portable version. The conflict received a name in the Databank entry for Tian Chyler, written by Hyperspace member "yoda's waiter" and published on StarWars.com in 2007. Although Elite Squadron identifies Cloud City's occupying force as the Imperial Remnant, this faction was established in 12 ABY, years after the liberation's date, and thus this article treats the reference as an error.
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