WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Marvel's Journey to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker -- Allegiance #3, by Ethan Sacks, Luke Ross, VC's Clayton Cowles and Lee Loughridge, on sale now.
In Star Wars history, the Cloud City betrayal by Lando Calrissian is considered one of the most notorious double-crosses ever. At the end of The Empire Strikes Back, Lando sold out Han Solo and his allies to Darth Vader in a huge twist that leading to the smuggler being frozen in carbonite and shipped off to Jabba the Hutt. While Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and their Rebels only barely escaped, Lando only did it to prevent the Empire from oppressing his city in the sky.
However, in Marvel's Rise of Skywalker prelude, Leia and her forces were just served an even bigger betrayal that's much more hostile and has far deadlier aims.
This incident happens on Mon Cala, where Leia has steered the Millennium Falcon in hopes the aquatic planet will once more ally with her Rebels. While this happened in the past as they fought the Empire with Admiral Ackbar leading the way, but now, Mon Cala doesn't want to land in the crosshairs of the vicious First Order under the bloodthirsty Kylo Ren.
Still, Leia's given a chance to make her case with the king, Ech-Char, via some aggressive negotiations only for a feud to erupt between the Mon Calans and Rey, Rose Tico and Chewie. The squid-like Quarren want them to leave, and even with Aftab Ackbar trying to get his planet to side with Leia, the opposition is stern since Mon Cala now believes in self-preservation. Rey ends up fighting Chadkol Gee's RK-9 robot in a gladiator arena for the freedom of her camp after the dispute, but things go from bad to worse when Rose shoots the droid and breaks the rules of engagement.
With the deal officially dead in the water, Leia and her crew have to rush off the planet, but as they're getting ready to depart on their dock, a Quarren plants an explosive crate which blows up and leaves them all wounded. There isn't any major damage, but Leia is rocked as she realizes she has enemies on what she always considered friendly territory.
Although Rey and Rose did provoke a reaction by antagonizing the aquatic creatures, this is still a massive betrayal of diplomatic protocols. As Chadkol made it clear from the start, he wanted them dead because anyone affiliated with the daughter of Vader is nothing more than untrustworthy.
The deception doesn't end there, though, because Chadkol's agents have already sent transmissions to General Hux to come pick up the Rebels. So while this subterfuge echoes the overall events of Lando calling in Vader, at least Lando's people didn't try to harm the heroes.Like Lando, Chadkol's forces are trying to protect their home and their people, but the Quarren-folk are actively trying to kill the heroes instead of merely putting them in a tight spot. While that alone makes this a worse betrayal than Cloud City, it also means that Leia has to face opposing forces on two fronts.
While Lando and his people joined the heroes for good in Return of the Jedi, it doesn't seem like that act of intergalactic goodwill will repeat itself on Mon Cala.