BesGas Three
From Wookieepedia, the Star Wars wiki.
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BesGas Three was a floating tibanna gas refinery that was located above the Outer Rim world of Bespin, built shortly before the outbreak of the Clone Wars. Fearing rebuke by the decidedly anti-droid citizens of the Galactic Republic during the Clone Wars, the droid workers of BesGas Three hijacked the refinery, taking it into the depths of Bespin's Life Zone, and erasing it from all data registries. For twenty-five years, the refinery and its inhabitants would go undisturbed.
In 3 ABY, it was discovered accidentally by a droid named Spanner. As the droid workers of BesGas Three learned, the galaxy had not decided to outlaw droids following the Clone Wars. Hoping to return to civilization, the droids attempted to contact Cloud City, but their timing proved to be disadvantageous, as within hours the Galactic Empire seized the floating settlement. In the process, the droids of BesGas Three were mind-wiped and absorbed into the Empire's own droid pool. In 36 ABY, the refinery become involved in a siphoning scandal involving the Dark Nest.
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[edit] Description
BesGas Three was essentially made up of a large saucer-shaped platform, which featured a large tower that ran through the center, and many storage tanks. The central tower housed the habitation and storage decks. To harvest the tibanna gas from Bespin's atmosphere, BesGas Three used multiple intake fans, which would freeze over time. Other maintenance problems included clogged transfer pipes, which needed to be cleaned out manually.[2]
[edit] History
[edit] Fleeing possible retribution
BesGas Three was a tibanna gas refinery that was built just prior to the pan-galactic Clone Wars. When the wars broke out, strong anti-droid sentiments wracked the Galactic Republic, due to the use of droid armies by the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Fearing for their own survival, a group of labor droids working on the refinery hijacked the station, and took it down to the lower levels of Bespin's Life Zone, the area of the planet's atmosphere in which life forms could exist. They feared that if the Republic won the war, droids would be outlawed throughout the galaxy.[1]
When the Confederacy attacked Bespin, independently operated harvesting platforms such as BesGas Three were destroyed, as the invaders hoped to commandeer the facilities for their own use. BesGas Three itself was thought to have been destroyed in the carnage, but in reality, the droids had erased the refinery from all data registries.[1]
[edit] Re-emergence
BesGas Three remained hidden until 3 ABY. In the twenty-five years since its "disappearance," the labor droids had lived in peace, constantly tweaking the refinery and, due to the high pressure in the low areas of the Life Zone, performing constant maintenance upon one another. The droids had no idea of the state of change that the galaxy had experienced over the years, until an LE-series repair droid named Spanner stumbled upon BesGas Three. Spanner had fled Cloud City following a droid revolt instigated by EV-9D9, and was heading for Tibannopolis before reaching BesGas Three accidentally.[1]
The BesGas Three droids learned from Spanner that their predictions had been inaccurate, and that droids were still widespread in the galaxy. Acting upon their new information, the droids brought BesGas Three into close proximity of Cloud City, in the hopes of re-establishing contact. Their timing, however, was disadvantageous—only hours later, the Galactic Empire annexed Cloud City and assimilated the BesGas Three droids into their own pools, issuing mind-wipes in the process. BesGas Three once more was refining gas, but this time under the Imperial banner.[1]
BesGas Three continued to operate for decades. In 36 ABY, Verpine tappers under the influence of the Dark Nest, an aggressive and violent faction of Killiks, came to BesGas Three and siphoned a considerable amount of tibanna gas from its reserves for profit. Jedi Knights Jaina Solo and Zekk, who were investigating the multiple reports of gas siphoning, caught the tappers in the act. After a small dogfight that resulted in the blackout of several residential decks of BesGas Three, Solo and Zekk chased the tappers away from the refinery.[2]
[edit] Behind the scenes
BesGas Three first appeared in the Special Edition of Irvin Kershner's Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, which was released in 1997. It was based on an original concept drawing by Ralph McQuarrie, which went unused in the original 1980 cut of the film but was then salvaged for the later re-release. McQuarrie's art was showcased in 1995's The Illustrated Star Wars Universe, but the platform was not yet identified by name. The refinery would later make an appearance in Troy Denning's Dark Nest II: The Unseen Queen, where it would serve as a location for the book's opening. Eventually, BesGas Three was given a backstory and a name by Tyler Fisher, through StarWars.com's "What's the Story?" feature. The Databank entry for BesGas Three would also use McQuarrie's original concept art as an illustration.
[edit] Appearances
- Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (First appearance) (Special Edition)
- Dark Nest II: The Unseen Queen (First identified as BesGas Three)
[edit] Sources
- The Illustrated Star Wars Universe (First mentioned)
- Star Wars Encyclopedia
BesGas Three in the Databank
