When the Emperor wanted a new naval yard, he picked the Bestine system. Whether the local citizens desired such an addition was immaterial-Palpatine had spoken. Quite unintentionally, this callous action helped push three legendary X-Wing pilots into the ranks of the Rebel Alliance. Bestine, a high-gravity planet fourth from its sun, was the only habitable world in the system & was thus the only place for the Empire to deposit its star-docks  & high-security op centers. This meant that the current inhabitants were no longer welcome. Bestine's colonists were a stubborn, independent lot. They had struggled to establish their modest settlements atop island spires, next to surging tidal pools, & on the waves to be carried along by the ocean currents. Reluctantly, they agreed to leave, trusting in the Empire's promises of a better life elsewhere. Those promises proved empty. Outraged, the Bestine expatriates swore revenge, but on their own timetable. The Rebel Alliance was too hot headed & impulsive, they said, & none joined-save one. 

Jek Porkins was a first-rate pilot. He'd learned the craft as a boy, racing his T-16 skyhopper through Bestine's atolls & spearing sink-crabs with precise bursts of laser fire. Vowing that the Empire would pay, he became a courageous Rebel fighter. As the naval base neared completion, an Imperial informant tipped the commanding officer to some shady dealings on Kestic Station. Kestic, a free-trader outpost orbiting on the fringes of the Bestine system, had been supplying weapons to the Rebellion for some time. In retaliation, the Star Destroyer "Merciless" blasted it to glowing scrap. The young smuggler Zev Senesca lost his parents in the catastrophe, but the Alliance gained one more talented pilot. Later an active Rebel cell sprang up on Bestine's watery surface for the purposes of sabotage & infiltration. In one of it's most notorious exploits, the small band helped coordinate the theft of the Imperial freighter "Rand Ecliptic" just before the Battle of Yavin. The "Ecliptic's" first mate, Biggs Darklighter, was a fresh Academy graduate & the childhood friend of Luke Skywalker. He was determined to defect to the Alliance, & the Bestine cell made it easy. The freighter's captain, a secret Rebel spy, allowed his vessel to be hijacked & put up only token resistance. Biggs flew through a cloud of patrolling TIES & leapt to the safety of hyperspace. Tragically, both Biggs & Porkins were killed while challenging the first Death Star, & Zev was downed by walker fire in the Battle of Hoth. Though none of them lived to see it, their determined comrades in arms eventually freed Bestine from its Imperial oppressors.  

All of this comes from the Essential Guide Book published in 1998. 

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