Showdown on Savareen

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Showdown on Savareen

Combatants
Crimson Dawn^[1] Beckett's gang^[1]	Cloud-Riders^[1]	Beckett's gang†^[1]

Commanders
Dryden Vos†^[1] Captain Aemon Gremm†^[1]	Enfys Nest^[1]

Strength
4 criminals^[1] Tobias Beckett^[1] Several Hylobon Enforcers^[1]	At least 13 Cloud-Riders^[1] Chewbacca^[1] Qi'ra^[1] Han Solo^[1]	Tobias Beckett†^[1]

Casualties
Dryden Vos^[1] Several Crimson Dawn Enforcers^[1] Aemon Gremm^[1]		Tobias Beckett^[1]

The showdown on Savareen was a skirmish that broke out in 10 BBY on the planet Savareen between the Crimson Dawn crime syndicate, the gang of Tobias Beckett's and the Cloud-Riders to determine who would take control of the coaxium Beckett and his gang had stolen from Kessel. Enfys Nest, the leader of the Cloud-Riders convinced Solo and his group not to let the coaxium fall into the hands of Crimson Dawn. Solo concocted a plan to defraud Dryden Vos, the crime lord of Crimson Dawn.

Realizing that Beckett would betray them, Solo came up with a plan that involved luring Vos' Hylobon Enforcers to the Pnakotic Coast village where they were ambushed by the Cloud-Riders. Following a confrontation, Solo helped his childhood friend Qi'ra kill Vos, and although Solo left to help assist Chewbacca, intending to come back for Qi'ra, she elected to take over Crimson Dawn. Solo then recovered the coaxium from Beckett following a brief standoff, where he gunned down the thief. After watching Qi'ra fly away in the First Light without him, he and Chewbacca returned the coaxium to the Cloud-Riders, save for enough to allow them to travel offworld.

Prelude[]

SoloBeckettAndVos-Solo — Solo and Beckett negotiating debt repayment with Dryden Vos.

After losing a shipment of coaxium following a skirmish with the Cloud-Riders on the Mid Rim world of Vandor, Tobias Beckett's gang and the smuggler Han Solo were forced to pursue other options in order to settle Beckett's debts to the Crimson Dawn crime lord Dryden Vos. They came up with a plan to steal unrefined coaxium hyperfuel from the Pyke Syndicate's mining operations on Kessel. The heist succeeded and the group stole 12 vials of coaxium worth 60 million credits. After completing the Kessel Run, they arrived at the Bis Refinery on the oceanic Outer Rim world of Savareen for refinement.^[1]

Due to a tracking device that Weazel had attached to the Millennium Falcon, the Cloud-riders were able to track Beckett's gang to Savareen. Solo attempted to intimidate the Cloud-Riders by claiming that the Falcon had a complement of armed mercenaries. However, the Falcon's owner Lando Calrissian abandoned Solo, Beckett, Chewbacca and Qi'ra due to his resentment towards Solo for the disintegration of his droid co-pilot L3-37 and the damage to his ship.^[1]

Following a brief verbal standoff, Enfys Nest, the leader of the Cloud-Riders, revealed that her group were not marauders but were an insurgent group battling against the Empire and the Five Crime Syndicates including Crimson Dawn. Enfys explained that the Cloud-Riders needed the coaxium to fund their insurgent campaign. While Solo, Chewbacca, and Qi'ra were sympathetic and came up with a plan to help the Cloud-Riders keep the coaxium, Beckett was indifferent and departed on the pretext of traveling to Tatooine. In secret, Beckett betrayed Solo and revealed what he thought was Solo's plan to the crime lord.^[1]

The skirmish[]

Beckett's betrayal[]

Cloud-Riders walkway — The Cloud-Riders ambushing Dryden's Hylobon Enforcers

Han, Chewbacca, and Qi'ra rendezvoused with Dryden Vos' luxury yacht First Light near the Pnakotic Coast, bringing the refined coaxium containers. In Vos' living room, Qi'ra and Solo claimed that Beckett had perished during the heist on Kessel. When Han requested payment, Vos demanded to see a sample of the coaxium for verification. Han produced a sample but Vos believed that the coaxium was fake. Vos then revealed that he was aware of Solo's plan to double cross him and to give the coaxium to the Cloud-Riders.^[1]

Vos then introduced his informant Beckett, who admitted he had betrayed Solo and mocked Solo for ignoring his "lesson" not to trust anyone. Believing that the real coaxium was in the nearby Pnakotic Coast village, Vos sent Captain Aemon Gremm and his Hylobon Enforcers to raid the village. They ambushed several "Cloud-Riders" and seized the coaxium containers.^[1]

Han's triple cross[]

Beckett and Chewie — Beckett forced Chewbacca to carry the stolen coaxium, coveting it for himself.

Though Vos was confident that he had foiled Solo's plan, Solo revealed that his true plan had been to separate Vos from his enforcers. Captain Gremm and his enforcers quickly discovered that the coaxium containers were empty and that the "Cloud-Riders" were local villagers serving as decoys. The real Cloud-Riders emerged from hiding and ambushed the Hylobon Enforcers. While most of the Enforcers were captured.^[1] Gremm was killed in action.^[3]

With the Hylobon Enforcers neutralized, Solo revealed that he had the real coaxium containers with him. Wanting the coaxium for himself, Beckett turned on Vos, killing two of Vos' guards and taking Chewbacca hostage. He forced Chewbacca to carry the stolen coaxium containers and departed the First Light.^[1]

Following Beckett's departure, Solo attacked Vos with his blaster. Vos fought back with his Kyuzo petars and managed to turn the tables on Solo, knocking the blaster out of his hand. Qi'ra then pretended to betray Solo by pinning him down with a sword. However, she then turned the tables on Vos and killed him with her sword.^[1]

Solo spent some time with his childhood friend Qi'ra before pursuing Beckett. He caught up with Beckett and Chewbacca along the Pnakotic Coast. Following a brief verbal exchange, Beckett tried to shoot Solo but Han shot him first, fatally wounding him in the chest. Before his death, Beckett complimented Solo for his quick thinking and courage on Vandor.^[1]

Aftermath[]

"You really have it bad for the Falcon, don't ya?"
"It's mutual. Trust me, she belongs with me."

―Lando Calrissian and Han Solo, during their game of Sabacc^[1]

Chussido Tubes and Waydurk — Solo and his team joined forces with Enfys Nest and her Cloud-Riders to keep the coaxium out of Crimson Dawn's hands.

Following Solo's departure, Qi'ra contacted Vos' superior, the former Sith apprentice Maul. She reported the failure of the coaxium mission but pinned the blame on Beckett, taking care not to mention Solo's involvement. Maul ordered Qi'ra to bring the First Light to Dathomir and announced that the two would be working closer together in the future.^[1]

After Beckett's death and Qi'ra's departure from Savareen, Solo and Chewbacca were given one of the containers of coaxium by Nest. The pair traveled to Numidian Prime where Calrissian was playing a game of sabacc. Solo was able to steal a sylop from Calrissian, and used it to win the Millennium Falcon. The pair then set off to Tatooine, as Beckett had told Solo he had heard about a job from a big-shot gangster.^[1]

Behind the scenes[]

The skirmish on Savareen appears in the 2018 Star Wars Anthology film Solo: A Star Wars Story, directed by Ron Howard and written by Lawrence and Jon Kasdan.^[1]

Tobias Beckett's betrayal during the skirmish was meant to rhyme the moment of the 1977 original trilogy film Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope in which Han Solo returns during the Battle of Yavin to aide Luke Skywalker in destroying the Death Star, as in both movies, the cynical and older character reluctantly departs and then suddenly returns, though in Beckett's case, it wasn't for heroic nature but rather a betrayal. In addition, Qi'ra's betrayal was present since the earliest incarnations of the story, as she was always intended to be more complicated and ambiguous than Han, at least at that point of their lives.^[4]

An early idea that Jon pitched in initial drafts of the script was the inclusion of the Trandoshan bounty hunter Bossk as Enfys Nest's second-in-command, before abandoning her at the end.^[4]