Ambush in Cloud City

"You&hellip;You&hellip;You&hellip;''" "''You want unpleasant things to happen to me, too?"

- Dominic Raynor and Lando Calrissian

This ambush was set up by the bounty hunter Bossk in 1 ABY in order to capture Baron Administrator Lando Calrissian, who had come into possession of Cloud City by winning it from Dominic Raynor in a game of sabacc. Raynor, who believed that Calrissian had cheated him, hired Bossk to take his revenge on the gambler. Knowing that a direct assault would be pointless, the bounty hunter prepared a trap for the new Administrator. Bossk led a mercenary group to the lower levels of the city and sabotaged some equipment on a maintenance level to draw down Calrissian. Though the Baron Administrator was cautious enough to bring several troopers with him, he was still trapped and cut off from communications when the blast door was shut behind him. After a brief firefight, Calrissian managed to escape. The assassination attempt did not deter him from managing Cloud City.

Prelude
"Lando Calrissian&hellip; you believe you can beat me?''" "''Winning is secondary, Baron. I just enjoy the games."

- Dominic Raynor and Lando Calrissian

In 1 ABY, Lando Calrissian, a professional gambler, played the popular card game sabacc in the Trest Casino of Cloud City, a tibanna gas mining colony in the atmosphere of the gas giant Bespin. Calrissian's playing caught the attention of Baron Administrator Dominic Raynor, who invited Calrissian for a game in the Ecclessis Figg Room. They played a high-stakes game, and Calrissian lost all his cash and his private Mu-class shuttle, the Cobra. After the match, Lobot, the cyborg computer liaison officer of the city, revealed that the game had been rigged by the dealer. The match was still a loss for Calrissian, but they played again, as Lobot gave a gift from workers of the city to the gambler: a sum of five million credits. This time the cards&mdash;along with Lobot, who rigged the match with the assistance of Raynor's consort Ymile, who hated living in the city&mdash;favored Calrissian. The former Baron Administrator was convinced that the scoundrel cheated during the game and vowed to get his money back. Using his contacts, Raynor hired the Trandoshan bounty hunter Bossk to hunt down Calrissian and exact revenge.

The ambush
"Enjoy it while you can, Calrissian!"

- Dominic Raynor

Knowing that his target, the new Baron Administrator, would be well-protected, Bossk brought a band of mobsters&mdash;two Twi'lek scoundrels, a Quarren assassin, and a Duros mercenary&mdash;to help him deal with any problems that might arise. After the group evaded Cloud City's security, Bossk sabotaged some vital equipment to set up the ambush in one of the city's maintenance decks. The Trandoshan was not sure of which turbolift Calrissian would arrive in, so he split his men up into every room near the lifts. They intended to quickly kill any guards with the Administrator and capture Calrissian before he could find a way to escape.

After the hunters took their position, Bossk impersonated the city's chief engineer and sent an urgent message to Calrissian. The Trandoshan claimed that a primary repulsorlift pod was about to break down, risking the entire city plunging through the clouds of Bespin.

Calrissian responded immediately, bringing four wing guards and a female Twi'lek bodyguard with him. When they entered the maintenance level, they were trapped in a dark and steamy room, and in the midst of blaster fire. The repulsorlift machinery's interference prevented Calrissian from calling for reinforcements through his wrist link, and the maintenance deck's communication stations were not working, either. Knowing that another access port was nearby, Calrissian realized he had no choice but to fight and try to make his escape through the nearby hangar. He also knew that a distress call to the security headquarters would increase his chances of survival. Meanwhile, a quartet of loyal wing guards alerted by the sound of firefight were on their way to help him. The ambush was ultimately unsuccessful, and Calrissian survived.

Aftermath
Since Borssk's ambush was unsuccessful, Raynor hired other beings to kill Calrissian, but the security of of the Baron Administrator was tightened with every attempt. After a Gank assassin also failed, Raynor sent a Human replica droid impersonating Queen Sarna of Drogheda, one of Calrissian's former lovers, to kill the gambler. The droid was led to the Administrator's personal office, but again, the assassination attempt failed.

After that attempt, Calrissian got the idea of drawing out his opponent by playing dead. Calrissian assumed that, after the news of his "death" was spread, Raynor would come to Cloud City to buy the floating colony. Until then, Calrissian and Lobot traveled aboard the Cobra to the Yucrales sector in the Mid Rim to hide, however, they were ambushed by the female bounty hunter Thune and her modified YT-1300 light freighter, the Faceted. They escaped to Quilken, and with the help of Mungo Baobab&mdash;heir of the Baobab Merchant Fleet&mdash;they captured Thune. Calrissian and Baobab blackmailed Thune to capture Raynor, who was interrogated by Bwahl the Hutt until he dropped his vendetta.

Behind the scenes
"Bossk has been hired to capture or kill Lando and will stop for nothing to accomplish this. If the Bounty Hunter player defeats the Twi'lek Bodyguard and the four Bespin Guards, and can establish line of sight to Lando Calrissian before Lando manages to escape to the other side, the Bounty Hunter player wins the scenario."

- Sore Loser's Revenge

The ambush on Cloud City appeared in "Sore Loser's Revenge," an online scenario for the Star Wars Miniatures collectible tabletop strategy game. The scenario was written by Eric Cagle for Wizards of the Coast and published online on October 8, 2004. The scenario suggested to play on the Tractor Beam Reactor Coupling map. Bossk captures Calrissian in an alternate ending to the scenario, but the short story Lando Calrissian: Idiot's Array has rendered this ending non-canon.