Kessel

"Oh, I'm sure I'll get off lightly. Probably melted down for scrap or forced to toil for a hundred years in the darkest depths of the spice mines of Kessel. You know, the sort of punishment given to droids who disobey their masters."

- K-2SO

Kessel was a planet in the Kessel sector of the Outer Rim Territories notorious for its spice mines.

Description
"Kessel isn't a planet for silk."

- Lando Calrissian

Kessel was a mineral-rich planet of the Kessel system in the Outer Rim Territories' Kessel sector. Secreted at the eye of the roiling Akkadese Maelstrom, Kessel was reached via a long journey through the maelstrom. It had a muddy brown surface, beneath which were numerous spice mines spread across the northern continents, containing glitterstim veins and coaxium hyperfuel. The many mines polluted the surface and made the atmosphere toxic, and dusty sulfur permeated the mining facilities. Though appearing barren from orbit, Kessel had a lush southern hemisphere that was home to its royal family.

Flatulent wapotas, imported from Corellia and fitted with enormous drills, lumbered through the tunnels, and Kessel spice spiders used a liquid to spin spice silk. The high saturation of flammable spice particles in the mines meant that discharging blasters was a risk. Kesselstone was used to make silos on Savareen.

Republic Era
"The spice must flow."

- The maxim of the Kessel royal family

Kessel was notorious for its spice mines. It was ruled by a royal family which kept mining contracts and gave over one side of the planet to mining projects led by the Pyke Syndicate. Vast pits were dug across the northern continents to create mines to excavate spice and fuel for export to Oba Diah and elsewhere via the Kessel Run. It had spice lords. The royal family's number-one maxim was that the spice must flow, and the mines utilized slave laborers including Meerians and Wookiees. Toiling in the darkest depths of the spice mines was a punishment given to droids that disobeyed their masters.

Poachers transported massive, eight-legged wapotas from the Agrilat Region of Corellia to Kessel, where they had enormous drills strapped to their heads for use in the spice mine tunnels.

Imperial alliances
"You have served the Empire well, Commander. Deal with these Jedi traitors in the manner they deserve: Execute Order Sixty-nine."

- Darth Vader to CC-1119, during the Purging of Kessel

Upon taking power, the Galactic Empire became complicit in Kessel's notorious spice mines when it granted the newly-nationalized Mining Guild a charter to regulate spice in concert with the Kessel royal family's mining contracts and the Spacing Guild's shipping monopoly. Immediately after the Clone Wars, a failed uprising on Bandomeer led to numerous Meerian ionite miners being deported to Kessel's spice mines as slave laborers. Following a revolt by the Naboo Moon Mining Union, many Naboo spice miners were sent into the subterranean mines on Kessel. The Imperial Health Administration had a hospital attached to the spice mines, where the daughter of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Satine Kryze eventually came to work.

During the Jedi Purge, Jedi Sia-Lan Wezz used her underground skills to shelter on Kessel alongside Bultar Swan and Shadday Potkin. The women became close, but were discovered in an abandoned mine by Darth Vader and the 501st Legion, and made their last stand. Defeating the Jedi, Commander Appo and his men were rewarded with the opportunity to ravish their captives, and left them thoroughly fucked and cum-splattered in the so-called Purging of Kessel. The captured Jedi were slain after their defilement.

The Pyke Syndicate and Crimson Dawn remained on poor terms on Kessel since the aftermath of the Shadow Collective affair in the Clone Wars, though King Yaruba and Grand Moff Bertroff Hissa forced a shaky alliance between the two syndicates in order to keep the spice flowing. Soon after pledging herself to Crimson Dawn, Qi'ra was taken to Kessel by Dryden Vos to observe spice production in spice mine K-77. Their tour was led by the Imperial subcontracting administrator Moruth Doole, but the group was attacked by a Meerian miner with a vibro-pickaxe. Vos taught Qi'ra a lesson in overestimating one's defenses while a Pyke Sentinel struggled with the miner.

Raid on the spice mines
In 10 BBY, Han Solo's group aboard the Millennium Falcon launched a raid on Kessel to acquire coaxium from one of its mines. Qi'ra met with Director Quay Tolsite, posing as Oksana Floren, and offered up Solo and Chewbacca as supposed slaves. She accompanied the Pyke into his control center to continue negotiations, and agreed to aggressive negotiation in his private bedchamber, hoping to keep him distracted while Han and Chewie were led closer to the coaxium vault. Qi'ra stroked off his hexagonal cock and blew him to sweeten the deal, but Tolsite wasn't satisfied until he mounted her on his bed, and removed his mask to dribble mucus over her anus to prepare for anal sex. Qi'ra took the Pyke in her ass with practiced experience, orgasming moments before he ejaculated into her bowels. Although Tolsite was happy with her "negotiation", he voiced his intention to enslave her as a spice concubine in his mines, forcing Qi'ra to use Teräs Käsi to subdue him. She reunited with co-conspirator Tobias Beckett to help guide Han to the thermal vault and steal the coaxium, intending on keeping the details of her aggressive negotiation secret. Solo stole a haul of hyperfuel in the raid.

Han and Chewie helped free Wookiee slaves including Sagwa during L3-37's Great Droid Revolution on Kessel, though L3 was struck down by Pyke Sentinels while leading her revolt. Solo flew the Kessel Run in the Millennium Falcon, losing many of Lando Calrissian's flashy modifications in the process but making the Run in twelve parsecs. Han Solo and the Pirates of Kessel was a popular holovid from Tri-Nebula Entertainment. BoShek later boasted of beating Solo's Kessel Run record.

Several years after Han Solo's Kessel Run, the Spectres caused another slave outbreak when they liberated Wookiee slaves from spice mine K76.

Resistance Era
Inhabitants of Kessel were among those on many worlds who commemorated the death of Han Solo at the Battle of Starkiller Base, offering prayers on behalf of the fallen legend. On Kashyyyk, Sagwa spoke to his woklings about his time as a slave on Kessel, and his liberation by Solo and Chewbacca. Tri-Nebula Entertainment began airing Han Solo and the Pirates of Kessel, among other Solo-related holovids, in the wake of his death to drum up patriotism for the decimated New Republic.

Appearances

 * SB 9593 (SBROTS34 - Order 69: Sia-Lan Wezz & Shadday Potkin)
 * SB 9594 (SBROTS35 - Order 69: Bultar Swan)
 * SB 9594 (SBROTS35 - Order 69: Bultar Swan)