Following the events of the Escape from Cloud City, Leia Organa, Luke Skywalker, and Lando Calrissian, the former Baron Administrator, embarked on a mission back to Cloud City. This operation was suggested by Calrissian, motivated by his desire to liberate his friend Lobot and to disrupt the tibanna gas mining activities, with the goal of compelling the Galactic Empire to cease their control of the city. Skywalker joined Calrissian with the intention of recovering his lightsaber, which he had misplaced during his duel with Darth Vader within the city. Organa's objective was to discover how to reverse the process of carbon-freezing, hoping to rescue Han Solo who had been encased in carbonite there.
In the end, Calrissian successfully rescued Lobot and managed to pollute the tibanna gas surrounding the city. Skywalker, however, gave up on finding his lightsaber. Organa was briefly captured and subjected to carbon-freezing. Calrissian and Skywalker then freed Organa and a number of Cloud City inhabitants who had resisted the Empire, and they fled the city aboard a stolen Sentinel-class landing craft, while Skywalker left in his X-wing starfighter.