Star Wars Galaxy Guide #3

Overview

Boba Fett is included:

Had Han Solo known that Lord Vader had hired a deadly bunch of bounty hunters specifically to track Solo down - in addition to the hunters tracking him for his debts to Jabba the Hutt - he might have altered his plans slightly. But had Solo known that Boba Fett was among the hunters, he probably would have changed his strategy entirely. Fett is known galaxy-wide as one of the deadliest, most efficient hunters in existence. The teaming of this man with probably his only superior in shrewdness and personal power Darth Vader, made Solo, eventual capture inevitable. Solo didn't find out about Fett's involvement until the doors of Cloud City's Grand Dining Room slid ominously open to reveal the evil visage of Vader, with the notorious bounty hunter at his side. Then, suddenly, everything became quite clear.

Still, it surprised Solo that Fett was involved. When they first heard of the price on their heads, Solo and his Wookiee companion had checked into just which hunters might be on their trail. Solo was specifically worried about Fett, and was quite relieved to find out that the dangerous mercenary had not taken Jabba the Hutt's offer. This, of course, was just what the hunter wanted Solo to believe. Lord Vader further enticed Fett by offering him a substantial bounty for finding Solo for the Empire first and guaranteeing that the smuggler could then be turned over to Jabba for that bounty as well. The promise of further work for the Empire and the chance to work with a man whom he actually admired apparently lured Fett into taking the job, in addition to the sizable reward and the chance to take down the infamous Captain Solo.

One of the most remarkable things about Fett is that witnesses actually claim to have seen him stand up to the Dark Lord - and live through it The mutual respect between the two men is obvious, although, despite Fetts objections, Vader still hired on a deadly assemblage of other bounty hunters. But that just made the final capture all the more satisfying. The prestigious catch was Fett's, and at the same time he managed to upstage Bossk, Dengar, Zuckuss, even the consistently efficient IG-88. All of them were renowned and infamous in their own way, but none were in the same class as Boba Fett.

The fact that it was the great Han Solo whom Fett had trapped so easily made the feat all the more impressive to the rest of the bounty hunting community. Solo had eluded similar traps on Tatooine and Ord Mantell with a certain confident ease that had made several big names look very bad - and very dead. But Fett studied the mistakes made by these others and came to the conclusion that they simply were not thinking as Solo does. That was the key to catching him, and Fett used that method to perfection.

The coincidental inclusion of Lando Calrissian in the trap was an added pleasure. Fett knew of Solo's past friendship with Calrissian, and Fett used this friendship to exploit the aspect of personality that separated Solo from himself the ability to feel and care for others. Deep down in his psyche, Solo trusted his old friend. This trust would be his undoing. Fett harbors no such feelings for anyone or anything in the Galaxy. Trust is something he cannot afford to have in anyone or anything, not even in his blaster rifle. He always has to have a backup, and then a backup of the backup, and so on - just in case. It is doubtful that anyone will ever know just how many "backups' Fett carries on his person or in his ship, just as they will never know the depth of his ultimate paranoia. What they can know is that whatever the number, there are that many reasons not to cross this man's path. Boba Fett wears a weapon-covered armored spacesuit similar to those favored by a group of warriors from the Mandalore system who were defeated by the Jedi Knights during the Clone Wars. It is unknown if Fett is actually a member of that group, or if he later found and adopted the armor as his own. The armor contains, by all accounts, a macrobinocular viewplate, infrared scope, sensor array, and microcomputer. It serves as protection and is loaded with built-in weapons and hidden devices. Those most obvious include wrist lasers, rocket darts, miniature flame throwers, and concussion grenade launchers. Several Wookiee scalps hang from his shoulder as evidence of his deadly abilities.