Theft of the Imperialis

"We do it right, they won't even know we're there. Not until it's too late. So we get in... and then I'll fly us out."

- Lando Calrissian to his team

During the reign of the Galactic Empire, Papa Toren, a crime boss operating on the Colonies planet Castell, hired gambler Lando Calrissian and his team to steal the Imperialis from Orbital Shipyard CC-24.

The Theft of the Imperialis
The Galactic Emperor Sheev Palpatine's luxury pleasure craft, the Imperialis, was taken to the shipyard for a refit. However, before the craft was sent on its way, it was stolen by gambler and criminal Lando Calrissian, in order to pay off a debt with Papa Toren, a crime boss operating out off Castell. Calrissian and his team of criminals, Lobot, Korin Pers, Aleksin and Pavol, spacewalked to the shipyard in stealth suits and sliced into an airlock and knocked a pair of stormtrooper sentries unconsciousness, raced through the wheel-section of the shipyard, boarded the Imperialis, and blasted away from the shipyard. Pasqual saw the Emperor's pleasure craft fleeing into space and was horrified and quickly contacted the Grand Vizier Mas Amedda, who subsequently dispatched three Imperial-class Star Destroyers to capture the vessel.

Three warships quickly arrived in the Castell system, and Commodore Idel of the leading Star Destroyer had been instructed by the Emperor to perform an "object lesson" to those who failed to protect the Emperor's property which proceeded simultaneously targeted the shipyard and opened fire with their turbolasers. The shipyard exploded and was totally annihilated, killing all those aboard, including Pasqual.

Idel then deployed a pair of gravity mines, which were designed to adhere to a ship's hull and prevent it from jumping into hyperspace. The Imperialis, however, quickly shot-down both mines. Therefore, Idel, seeing the Imperialis was better equipped than he had previously thought, offered a one-million credit reward to whoever recovered the yacht and brought it to him. The Imperialis then blasted past the through the warships in its bid to escape, Conro and Shan, however, in their efforts to collect the reward, attempted to trap the yacht in each of the Star Destroyer's tractor beams. However, Calrissian, who piloted the Imperialis, used a maneuver that resulted in Conro’s Star Destroyer locking on to Shan’s Star Destroyer, which ended in the Imperial Star Destroyers heavily colliding; thereby allowing the Imperiali to escape into deep space. Idel realized he and his fellow officers had utterly failed the Emperor so he put a blaster pistol to his head, told his adjutant to enlist in the Alliance to Restore the Republic, and shot himself in the head

Aftermath
"My armies serve well as a hammer, but I suspect this undertaking is more suited to a needle. I have no needle sharper than Chanath Cha."

- Emperor Palpatine



While on a volcanic fortress on the Inner Rim world Amethia Prime&mdash;after destroying a fortress belonging to and apprehending Big String. A bountry hunter called Cha received a holographic comlink call from the Emperor. Cha apologized to Big String, a crime lord who Cha had to ruined his empire and dropped him, not wishing to ignore the call from this most important client. Palpatine's head appeared from the holoprojector and informed that his yacht, the Imperialis, had been stolen from an Imperial shipyard in the Castell system, and he wanted Cha to recover it, because Palpatine had little faith in the military forces he had assigned to the task, stating that he needed a needle, and that Cha was the sharpest needle he had. The Emperor gave Cha a starship to aid in recovering the Imperialis, and told the bounty hunter that success would mean great reward—but if the yacht could not be recovered, Cha needed to destroy it, in order for the "personal items" it contained to not fall into the hands of others.

Appearances

 * Lando, Part I
 * Lando, Part II