Theft of the Imperialis

In the aftermath of the Battle of Yavin, the gambling aficionado and outlaw Lando Calrissian found himself in debt to Papa Toren, the crime lord who ran his operations from the planet Castell. Calrissian sought to reduce his financial burden by acquiring a bauble from Moff Ssaria. However, Toren only forgave ten percent of the debt, using the remaining balance as leverage to force Calrissian into stealing an Imperial luxury vessel undergoing maintenance at Sienar Fleet Systems' Orbital Shipyard CC-24. This opulent ship was, in fact, the Imperialis, the personal yacht of the Galactic Emperor Palpatine.

Given the delicate nature of the assignment, Calrissian sought assistance from his cybernetic associate Lobot, the extraterrestrial twins Aleksin and Pavol, and Korin Pers, a former Ugnaught salvager and antiquities expert who had fallen on difficult times. Calrissian successfully persuaded the twins and Korin Pers to join him by highlighting the immense wealth and treasures contained within the yacht. However, Calrissian and his team were unaware that the ship belonged to Emperor Palpatine, a secret Sith Master who kept dangerous Sith relics aboard his vessel. Furthermore, the Imperialis held critical data regarding the Emperor's secret protege Gallius Rax, a high-ranking Imperial officer tasked with executing the Contingency protocol in the event of the Emperor's demise.

As the Imperialis was docked at Orbital Shipyard CC-24, Calrissian and his team utilized cloaking suits to spacewalk to the shipyard. They hacked into an airlock, subdued two unsuspecting stormtroopers, and then sped through the shipyard's wheel-shaped section. They boarded the Imperialis and accelerated away from the shipyard. Commander Pasqual, witnessing the Emperor's yacht fleeing into space, was horrified and immediately communicated with Grand Vizier Mas Amedda, who then dispatched three Imperial-class Star Destroyers to the Castell system to retrieve the Emperor's vessel.

The Star Destroyers were under the command of Captains Shan and Conro, and Commodore Idel. To punish Commander Pasqual for his failure to safeguard the Emperor's property, Commodore Idel ordered the Star Destroyers to obliterate the shipyard using their heavy cannons. The shipyard was completely destroyed in the resulting explosion, killing everyone on board, including Pasqual.

Idel's Star Destroyer then launched a pair of anti-hyperspace mines designed to attach to a ship's hull and prevent it from entering hyperspace. However, the Imperialis swiftly destroyed both mines with its advanced automated defense systems. Consequently, Idel, realizing that the Imperialis was more formidable than he had initially believed, offered a reward of one million credits to anyone who could recover the yacht and deliver it to him. The Imperialis then sped past the warships in an attempt to escape.

Captains Conro and Shan attempted to ensnare the Imperialis using their Star Destroyer's capture beams in hopes of claiming the reward. However, Calrissian, piloting the Imperialis, executed a maneuver that caused Conro's Star Destroyer to lock onto Shan's Star Destroyer, resulting in a collision between the two Star Destroyers. This distraction allowed the Imperialis to escape into the vastness of space. Having failed the Emperor, Idel instructed his subordinate to join the Rebel Alliance before ending his own life with a blaster shot to the head.

After the failure of his military forces, Emperor Palpatine contacted the professional hunter Chanath Cha and assigned her the task of destroying the Imperialis. Chanath had been pursuing the alien crime boss Big String and had razed his underwater base. The Emperor promised to provide Cha with a starship capable of locating the Imperialis and assured her that she would be greatly rewarded for her success. However, if the yacht could not be recovered, Palpatine instructed Chanath to destroy the Imperialis to prevent its valuable contents from falling into the wrong hands.

Chanath traveled to the classified Imperial Facility 729-D located in the Inner Rim, where she was assigned the modified Star Courier Scimitar, which had previously served as Darth Maul's personal transport. The mechanical being O-66 began to brief her about the Scimitar's capabilities, but the impatient Chanath promptly destroyed his head with a blaster shot. As they departed the facility, O-66 explained that the Scimitar possessed the ability to track a starship's hyperspace trail. Chanath then engaged the ship's hyperdrive.

After escaping into deep space, Lando and his companions began to explore the Imperialis. Awestruck by the ship's opulence and treasures, Lando considered sharing the spoils with his companions and gifting the ship to Papa Toren. Lobot utilized his AJ^6 cybernetic implant to access the ship's central chamber. However, before he could enter, he was impaled through the abdomen by a Force-imbued weapon. Lando and his companions found themselves confronted by two of the Emperor's elite guards. While Lando and Korin Pers evacuated the injured Lobot to the ship's medbay, Aleksin and Pavol engaged the Royal Guards in close combat with blades.

As Lobot recovered inside a healing tank, Korin deduced that the yacht they had stolen belonged to the Emperor due to the presence of the Royal Guards. Korin panicked, but Lando assured her that they would assist the twins. Lando and Korin discovered a well-stocked armory and armed themselves with blasters. They then re-entered the central chamber, only to find that Aleksin and Pavol had defeated the Royal Guards. After Korin examined the guards' faces, she realized that they had been corrupted by the dark influence. They discovered that several Sith artifacts, including a helmet, were the source of the dark side presence.

Meanwhile, Chanath and O-66 arrived at the Imperialis. While O-66 remained aboard to transmit the access codes, Chanath donned a pair of jet boots and accessed the yacht's docking rig. Elsewhere, Lando and Korin discussed the potential profits they could make by selling the Sith artifacts aboard the Imperialis on the black market. Suddenly, Aleksin seized a dual-bladed weapon and severed the right hand of his twin brother, Pavol. As the twins fought, Lando and Korin fled and sealed the doors. While Lando believed that Aleksin had betrayed them, Korin recalled her research into Jedi lore, which indicated that Sith artifacts could corrupt living beings.

While Calrissian wanted to devise a plan to re-enter the central chamber and help Pavol, Korin decided to abandon the ship. Meanwhile, Chanath entered the Imperialis and requested that O-66 send her the control codes for the ship's operational system. When O-66 pointed out that the Emperor had not issued such orders, Chanath threatened to detonate a small energy grenade. O-66 reluctantly complied and reiterated his question. Chanath responded that she had received orders from Palpatine to ensure that the thieves did not escape the ship.

Meanwhile, Calrissian and Korin argued. Calrissian refused to abandon Pavol, but Korin recognized the danger posed by the Sith objects. Before the two could move Lobot into an escape pod, they received an announcement over the ship's intercom stating that the escape pods were non-operational. Back in the central chamber, Pavol attempted to reason with his lover, Aleksin. Aleksin claimed to be unaware of any wrongdoing and retorted that Pavol had lost something. Pavol replied that this was intended to be their final job, as they had saved enough money to afford a clone, their own child. However, Aleksin countered that no child would want a one-armed parent and declared that he no longer desired a child. Giving in to anger, Pavol grabbed a scimitar.

Meanwhile, Calrissian tried to dissuade Korin from going to the bridge to reactivate the escape pods. The two of them were then confronted at gunpoint by Chanath, who was an old acquaintance of Lando. Lando was surprised to see a familiar face, and the two embraced. Chanath then warned Lando that the yacht belonged to Palpatine, who had sent her to eliminate the ship's thieves. If she failed to do so, he had instructed her to destroy the ship. Chanath warned Lando and Korin that the ship's only cargo was death. Meanwhile, the corrupted Aleksin and Pavol cut their way out of the central chamber with red Sith swords.

Unable to harm her friend Lando, Chanath proceeded with her Plan B to destroy the Imperialis. Korin protested, citing the historic treasures aboard the ship. Lando proposed a Plan C, but Chanath warned that plans could lead to death. He also suggested that Korin help them subdue Aleksin and then allow him and his remaining companions to escape in escape pods with some of the treasures. However, Chanath was unwilling to take any risks and told them that she would give them a ride on the Scimitar. Although Lando was concerned that removing Lobot from the bacta tank would cause his implants to take over his mind, Chanath urged Lando to retrieve Lobot from his bacta tank in order to save his life.

Lando, Chanath, and Korin were then confronted by the corrupted Aleksin and Pavol, who demanded that they surrender their starship. Aleksin then appealed to Korin, claiming that she was a seeker who had been manipulated by Calrissian. He presented her with the Sith helmet of Darth Momin, which corrupted her. Before Korin could join them, Aleksin killed her with his double-bladed lightsaber. Lando and Chanath managed to escape the murderous twins by sealing a door shut.

While Chanath activated the ship's destruction sequence, she instructed Lando to retrieve Lobot and meet her at the airlock so that they could escape on the Scimitar. Lando managed to retrieve Lobot but found his path blocked by Aleksin. Meanwhile, Chanath ordered O-66 to dock the Scimitar with the Imperialis. However, the droid responded that his primary directive was to protect the Scimitar. When Chanath threatened to detonate the pulse bomb, O-66 retorted that he had already disarmed the bomb. O-66 then jumped the Scimitar into hyperspace.

Chanath was then attacked by a lightsaber-wielding Pavol. After failing to reason with the corrupted Pavol, Chanath engaged him in a knife fight and killed him. Meanwhile, Lando used his persuasive skills to convince Aleksin to lower his energy sword. Lando then shot him in the chest with his blaster. As Lobot and Lando made their way to the airlock, Lobot struggled to prevent the implants from taking over his mind. Despite the disappearance of the Scimitar, Lobot was able to use his cybernetic implant to connect with the ship's interface. He managed to reactivate the escape pods. Lando and Lobot escaped in one while Chanath escaped in another before the Imperialis exploded.

Following the destruction of the Imperialis, the wreckage of the ship ended up on Quantxi, the Junk Moon of Ord Mantell. The ship was stored alongside several droids containing information about Gallius Rax. In the chaotic aftermath of the Battle of Endor, Amedda informed Grand Admiral Rae Sloane about the Imperialis's location. She dispatched the bounty hunter Mercurial Swift to investigate. Swift discovered information that Rax had originated on the planet Jakku while examining the droids on Quantxi. Despite the ship's destruction, a copy of the Imperialis was stored at the Jakku Observatory. Following the Battle of Jakku, Sloane, along with Brendol Hux, Armitage Hux, and several child soldiers, used the replica to flee into the Unknown Regions.

Meanwhile, Lando heeded Lobot's advice to find something to believe in and to use his charm for good. After serving a term as City Manager of Cloud City, Lando became a Military Leader in the Rebel Alliance. In 5 ABY, Lando and Lobot participated in the New Republic's war against Governor Ubrik Adelhard's Imperial forces and freed Cloud City from Imperial occupation.

The theft of the Imperialis was the central narrative of the 2015 Marvel Comics series Star Wars: Lando. The comic was authored by Charles Soule, illustrated by Alex Maleev, and colored by Paul Mounts.