Star Wars

Essential Guide to Characters

Written By: Any Mangles
Pages: 55-58
Boba Fett


Species: Human 

Sex: Male

Hair Color: Unknown

Eye Color: Unknown

Height: 1.8 meters

Homeworld: Unknown

Political Affiliation: Free-lance bounty hunter

Weapon(s) of Choice: Mandalorian battle armor and various weapons

Vehicle of Choice: Kuat System's Engineering limited-production, high-speed 
                   Firespray-class ship Slave I 
                   MandalMotors Pursuer enforcement ship Slave II

First Appearance: Star Wars Holiday Special
 
  The most notorious and fearsome bounty hunter in the galaxy is also the 
most mysterious. Many legends and stories have arisen over the years, but 
few facts are known of the man called Boba Fett, or of his inextricable 
link to Han Solo.

  Long before Luke Skywalker journeyed of Tatooine to fulfill his destiny 
as a Jedi, Boba Fett was also known as Journeyman Protector Jaster Mereel. 
Years past, the ugly young law-enforcement officer on the world of Concord 
Down had killed another protector, and though the dead man had been corrupt, 
disgracing his office and uniform, Mereel was still imprisoned for the 
murder. Against his wishes of his pleader, the arrogant young man remained 
unrepentant to the trial court, and Jaster Mereel was exiled from Concord 
Down, stripped of all he owned.
 
  Mereel's adoption of the name Boba Fett, and the manner in which he 
acquired his rare battle armor, are tales lost in time, remembered by no 
living being except for Fett himself.
 
  Fett wears the armor of the Mandalorians, a group of evil warriors who 
were defeated by the Jedi Knights during the Clone Wars. Fett's modified 
Mandalore armor includes a helmet that has macrobinocular viewplate, 
motion and sound sensors, infrared capabilities, an internal comlink to
his  ship, the Slave I, and a broadband antenna for intercepting and 
decoding transmissions. Wrist gauntlets house lasers, a miniature flame 
projector, and a fibercord whip/grappling device; a backpack jet pack 
includes a turbo-projected magnetic grappling hook with twenty-meter 
lanyard.
  
  Fett also carries kneepad rocket dart launchers, spiked boots, a 
concussion-grenade launcher, and a Blas Tech EE-3 rifle. Braided Wookiee 
scalps hang over his right shoulder to complete the outfit.

  Beyond Fett and Fenn Shysa, the only other living person known to wear 
the Mandalorian  armor is Jodo Kast, an ambitious young bounty hunter who 
patterned his career after that of Boba Fett.
  
  Prowling the Outer Rim Territories, Kast wears armor with much of the 
same external weaponry that Fett utilizes. It is unlikely, however, that 
he has much hidden weaponry and modified circuitry in his suit. In the 
past, Kast has allowed people to believe he was Fett, adding even greater
mystery to the legends surrounding the older hunter.
 
  Throughout his life, Fett has worked as a mercenary, a soldier, a 
personal guard, an assassin, and, most frequently, as a bounty hunter -- 
the most expensive bounty hunter in the known systems. He collected 150,00 
credits for the capture of pirate Feldrall Okor, and took a record 500,000 
credits when he caught the religious Ffib heretic Nivek'Yppiks for the 
Lohrans.
 
  Fett has worked on retainer for Jabba the Hutt and other of the Hutt 
clan, as well as for the Empire, and has crossed paths with the 
Rebellion's greatest heroes more than a few times over the  years.
  
  Fett is slow and methodical and as unpredictable as the shifting sands 
of Tatooine. He rarely  loses his quarry, and has, thus far, shown no 
remorse for their fate. Fett has been known to work with other bounty 
hunters, but his motives may have been to show the others up; Fett has 
always emerged as the one who catches the prize.
 
  Sometime in the years before the Battle of Yavin, Boba Fett had his 
first meeting with R2-D2 and C-3PO. On the desert Planet of Ingo, the 
droids had become the property of speeder racer Thall Joben and his 
friends, Kea Moll and Jord Dusat. Joben had angered the criminal Fromm 
gang, and Sise Fromm traveled to the Boonta speeder races to find them. 
There, Sise hired the mysterious, armor-clad bounty hunter to kill the 
young racing team, a job Fett took as a favor owed Fromm, even though 
Fromm himself was wanted by intergalactic crime lord Jabba the Hutt. After 
the contract to kill Joben was finished, Fett noted that all debts were 
paid.

  Fett's robot, BR-17, befriended C-3PO and turned him against R2-D2 while 
Fromm's gang put a bomb in Joben's racing ship, the White Witch. Fett 
chased Thall and Kea, but they escaped, joining in the speeder race. At 
the same time, C-3PO learned of the treachery of BR-17 -- who was
then crushed by falling machines -- and discovered the bomb planted in the 
witch. Unaware of the bomb, Fett followed Joben into the race and 
attempted to stop him, using every weapon at his disposal. When he tried 
magnets, Fett accidentally pulled the bomb onto his own speeder and had to 
escape at the last minute before it blew up. Angry at the loss of his 
droid and his speeder, Fett took Fromm and his gang hostage, to turn them 
over to Jabba the Hutt. He expected a great reward for the corpulent trio 
of villains.
 
  Several years later, shortly after the Battle of Yavin, Luke Skywalker 
took R2-D2, C-3PO, and a Y-wing fighter to go look for Han Solo. The 
Corellian was due back from his search for an invisibility talisman, a 
mystic item the Empire also sought. When Luke crashed-landed on a red-
water moon in the Panna system, he was rescued by the mysterious Boba 
Fett.
 
  Luke was felled by a strange sleeping virus that had also knocked out 
Han, so Fett and Chewbacca snuck into the Imperial-guarded city to get an 
antidote. While there, Boba contacted Darth Vader, who called him the 
"best bounty hunter in the galaxy." It was at this point that the droids  
intercepted Fett's message that he planned to capture the Rebels and claim 
the talisman.
 
  Back at the Millennium Falcon, following a harrowing chase by 
stormtroopers, Boba  administered the antidote to Han and Luke. Still 
groggy, Han didn't recognize Boba, and didn't object  when Luke offered 
the hunter a place in the Rebellion. C-3PO and R2-D2 interrupted, telling 
the  Rebels of Fett's transmission to Vader. Fett rocketed away, vowing 
vengeance.
 
  Prior to the Rebels' establishment of the Hoth base, Fett reappeared in 
pursuit of "the Mole," a man wanted for leaving the service of Darth 
Vader. Piloting a TIE fighter, Fett was chased down by Luke Skywalker in 
an X-wing. Luke chased the mercenary's ship through ice canyons of the 
frozen world of Ota, and both ships crashed. Fett got the drop on Luke, 
but both of them were captured by the apelike Snogars. The Snogars' city 
was growing colder, and they were convinced the off worlders could restore 
their heat-providing machines.
 
  Meanwhile, Han, Chewie, Leia Organa, and the droids had come to Ota to 
find Luke. While Luke and Boba made a break from the Snogars, Han himself 
was captured. Ever the opportunist, Boba agreed to go with Luke to rescue 
Han, planning to capture the smuggler for profit.

  It a wild sequence of events, the Rebels and the Mole were caught 
between the Snogars and Fett. When Fett tried to take both the Mole and 
Han prisoner, the Mole used a giant magnet to pin the bounty hunter to the 
wall. The Rebels and the Mole made their respective escapes, Fett swearing
vengeance yet again.

  Fett sometimes used his bounties against each other. Once, for example, 
Fett found out that the magician, Magwit, was performing small frontier 
settlements in the wasteland. The dwarf had a minor Imperial bounty on his 
head, but Fett knew Magwit could help him in acquiring another bounty; 
Gorga the Hutt had hired Fett to bring the notorious space pirate 
Bar-Kooda. Fett forced Magwit to buy his freedom by smuggling the hunter 
in his magic props. Magwit was "captured" and taken aboard Bar-Kooda's 
massive pirate vessel, Bloodstar, where the savage carnivore demanded the 
magician's final performance. Magwit's most impressive trick used a hoop 
to cause objects to appear and disappear. The hoop was connected to a 
short-range matter transmitter, with Fett waiting on the other side. 
Working in concert with Magwit, the hunter pulled Bar-Kooda through the 
hoop and escaped, causing carnage along the way. Magwit survived via a 
speedy exit, and true to his word, Fett gave the magician his freedom.

  Shortly before the Battle of Hoth, Jabba the Hutt hired Fett to find Han 
Solo. Working both sides of the fence, Fett met Darth Vader mask to mask 
for the first time. For reasons unknown to either of them an instant sense 
of mutual respect was born, and the bounty hunters agreed to work with
Dengar, Bossk, and a rookie bounty hunter named Skorr. But on the planet 
of Ord Mandell, the wily Han Solo, Luke, and Chewie escaped Fett's 
clutches, heading back to the newly established Rebel base on Hoth.

  Despite his failure to capture Solo and the other Rebels, Fett was once 
again summoned to work with Vader. One of the six bounty hunters 
instructed to find the Millennium Falcon, Fett succeeded in tracking the 
ship to the Bespin system. There, he aided Vader in capturing the Rebel 
leaders and exacted his price in the capture of Han Solo.

  Unfortunately for Han, Vader wanted to use him as a test subject for the 
carbonite-freezing process. Solo survived, and Fett took the quick-frozen 
Corellian to his ship for transport to Jabba the Hutt's Tatooine palace. 
On the way to board the Slave I, he exchanged shots with the wary Luke 
Skywalker, who was attempting to save his friends.

  As he neared Tatooine, Fett was angered to find that IG-88, one of 
Vader's other bounty  hunters, had tracked him. Fett used evasive 
maneuvers and his weaponry to blow up the starfighter IG-2000 and its 
pilot. He continued on his way, delivering to Jabba his Han Solo "wall 
sculpture," and  collecting his bounty. Arguing that the carbonite piece 
was actually the art of Darth Vader, Fett was able to talk Jabba into 
raising Solo's bounty from 100,000 credits to 250,000.
 
  For the following year, Boba was steadily employed, and a constant 
presence in Jabba's court. Although the Hutt would never admit it, he was 
afraid that the Alliance would retaliate for the capture of Solo, so he 
gave Fett assignments to keep him around, knowing how valuable the
hunter was. One such job offered a 100,000 credit bounty to capture a live 
krayt dragon to be placed in battle with the Hutt's monstrous rancor.

  When Luke, Leia, and Chewie came to Tatooine and were all captured while 
trying to rescue Han, Jabba sentenced them to death in the Great Pit of 
Carkoon. But Jabba had not counted on Skywalker's Jedi powers or 
initiative, and the Rebels broke free. In the battle that followed, Fett's
backpack was hit and he flew, out of control, into the mouth of the 
Sarlacc.
 
  Fett somehow escaped the Sarlacc, crawling away from the pit and lapsing 
into a painful  oblivion. A short time later the bounty hunter Dengar, who 
had also been in Jabba's employ, set out a search for the Hutt's body. 
Instead, he found Boba Fett, devoid of armor and covered in scars and
fibers from the Sarlacc. Dengar nursed Fett back to health, using Jabba's 
medical droids. A month later, Fett was well enough to travel, and since 
the Alliance had confiscated the Slave I, the two hunters set off in 
Dengar's ship for the spaceport moon of Nar Shaddaa, the smuggling center 
of the galaxy.

  Boba had little-used backup ships on Nar Shaddaa: The Slave II was a 
MandalMotors  Pursuer enforcement ship, and few sentients in the galaxy 
even knew that Fett had one. The hunter  used this to his advantage, 
knocking out old enemies who thought him dead, and collecting bounties
quickly, sometimes working with the tagalong Dengar. Meanwhile, the 
Alliance let the Slave I sit on  Grakouine, gathering dust.

  Wary of another encounter with Solo and Skywalker, Fett decided to buy 
his ship back legally. With the help of an old employer, Crystalboy, he 
used a system of dummy corporations, paper trails, and forged requisition 
forms, eventually getting the Slave I as part of a "surplus liquidation" 
deal. Fett repaired his ship and put it in orbit of Nar Shaddaa. He would 
use it again, but for now, he was profiting more from the anonymity the 
Slave II and his "death" had given him.
 
  It wasn't long before the galaxy realized Fett was alive. When he 
captured an infamous pirate, Feldrall Okor, Fett took a page from the plan 
Princess Leia had used when she infiltrated Jabba's palace. He presented 
Feldrall to Imperial Governor Isis, but when she balked at his bounty 
price, he charged a thermal detonator. As tense seconds ticked by, the 
governor argued, while Fett calmly upped his price. Ultimately, the 
governor trusted her fortunes more than she trusted Fett's sanity, and she 
gave the hunter his ransom.

  Six years after the death of Jabba the Hutt, Han and Leia went to Nar 
Shaddaa, the galactic smuggling center. There, Han was surprised to find 
that Fett and Dengar were waiting for him in his quarters. Fett told Solo 
that the Sarlacc had found him "indigestible," adding that the descendants 
of Jabba the Hutt wanted Han and Leia, dead or alive!

  In a hail of blaster fire, Leia and Han made it off world, escaping in 
Salla Zend's Starlight Intruder. Fett and Dengar followed in the Slave II, 
snatching the Intruder's coordinates and jumping  into hyperspace. 
Although Slave II arrived at Byss before the Starlight Intruder, only 
Salla's ship had  been cleared to get through the planetary security 
shields, which closed, locking out Fett's ship and  breaking off a control 
rudder. As they spun away, trying to regain control of the ship, Dengar 
angrily  informed Fett this was the last time he'd ever work with him. 
Although he was grateful to Dengar for  saving him back on Tatooine, Fett 
was glad to get rid of another hunter.

  When Han and Leia again returned to Nar Shaddaa seeking the Jedi Master 
Vima-Da-Boda, they were afraid Fett might be lying in wait. In fact, two 
Imperial Dark Side Warriors were attempting to blackmail the bounty hunter 
into working for them. They claimed knowledge of his past -- that Fett had 
been a stormtrooper who had murdered his superior officer. Fett rejected 
their attempts and fought back as the two warriors attacked him. He 
escaped even as Solo's Millennium Falcon prepared to touch down.

  Fett bided his time, and when the Falcon prepared to depart, the Slave I 
rushed forward on a suicidal run. Fett expected Han to turn tail; instead, 
the Corellian used his freighter to clip the Slave I's stabilizers. 
Although Fett lost some control, he was still able to blast the Falcon, 
causing the ship to lose all sensor frequencies.

  The bounty hunter tracked the Falcon to the lower levels, where he 
ambushed Leia and Han shortly after they found Vima-Da-Boda. In turn, he 
was ambushed by Chewbacca. During the ensuing firefight, Boba shot 
Chewbacca in the side, but the Wookiee managed to rip off Boba's helmet 
and send him spiraling into the roof high above.

  Fett recovered quickly enough to board the Slave I and pursue the Falcon 
through the floating space debris of the spaceport moon. Scoring a hit on 
the freighter, Fett figured he finally had his bounty. He was surprised 
when Solo piloted the Falcon into an interstellar gas cloud. His ship's 
sensors were useless, so Fett hung back, waiting several days before the 
Falcon reemerged. Unfortunately for Fett, Solo had beefed up his firepower 
and used it to pay havoc with the Slave I. Fett's ship spun out of control 
into the gas cloud.

  Though Fett disappeared, and has not reappeared on Han Solo's trail, new 
reports of the  bounty hunter's adventures have surfaced throughout the 
galaxy. Han Solo knows that one day, he will once again -- perhaps for the 
final time -- face the toughest and most feared bounty hunter in space -- 
 Boba Fett.
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