Without doubt the most famous, and most feared, of all the bounty hunters in the galaxy is the mysterious man known as Boba Fett. Legends abound as to the origins and of this hired gun and few facts can be confirmed but his deeds speak for themselves, with criminals and innnocents alike scared of the mere presence of this man.
Long before the events that led to the Empire's defeat at the Battle of Endor, Boba Fett was known by the name of Jaster Merell, a Journeyman Protector on the planet of Concord Dawn. In this role as a law enforcer, Jaster killed another Protector and though the man had been corrupt Jaster was still imprisoned for his crime. Against the wishes of his pleader, the young and arrogant Merell remained unrepentant at his trial and was sentenced to a life of exile from Concord Dawn and stripped of all his possessions. The events in which Jaster Merell became Boba Fett and exactly how he aquired his rare Mandalorian power armour are mysteries lost in time, known by no one other than Fett himself. Fett's armour is modelled in the same style as that of the Mandalorians, an army of warriors defeated by the Jedi Knights during the Clone Wars. Fett also carries a small arsenal of weapons including knee-pad rocket dart launchers, spiked boots, a concussion grenade launcher and a Blas Tech EE-3 rifle. Over his right shoulder hangs braided Wookie scalps, obviously trophies collected from past enemies. Besides Fett the only living person in the galaxy known to wear Mandalorian armour is Jodo Kast, an ambitious young bounty hunter who has attempted to mimic the career of Boba Fett. Operating in the Outer Rim. Kast's armour has many of the same features as Fett's but lacks much of the hidden weaponry and modified circutry Fett has in his suit. In the past, Kast has allowed his employers to believe that he is in fact Fett in order to collect higher bounties, which has inturn added more mystique to Fett's image.
Throughout his life, Fett has worked numerous jobs including mercenary, soldier, personal guard, assassin and most often as a bounty hunter, certainly the most expensive bounty hunter in the known galaxy. Of course this is not without reason. Fett managed to capture the religious heretic Nivek'Yppiks for the Lohrans collecting a bounty of 500,000 credits but this is a petty amount compared to the 5,000,000 credits he recieved for the capture of the Butcher of Montellian Serat, the most notorious criminal in the Galaxy. Fett has worked as a retainer for Jabba the Hutt and others of the Hutt clan, as well as for the Empire, and has crossed paths with the Rebellion's greatest heroes on more than one occasion over the years. Fett is slow yet methodical and remains totally unpredictable at all times. He rarely loses his quarry, in fact there is no documented record of him failing to bring in an aquisition, and at no stage has he shown any remorse for their fate. In fact Fett believes that the various beings he has tracked all deserve their fate as they are criminals in the eyes of the law, opposing the established regime. Fett has been known to work with other bounty hunters, but his motives appear to have been to show how superior he is to them, as Fett always emerges as the one who collects the bounty.
Sometime in the year before the Battle of Yavin, Boba Fett had his first contact with the Droids R2-D2 and C-3PO, later to become famous for being the property of Jedi Knight and Rebellion hero Luke Skywalker. On the desert planet of Ingo, the droids had come into the keeping of a speeder racer by the name of Thall Joben as well as his friends Kea Moll and Jord Dusat. Joben had had a run-in with a criminal group known as the Fromm gang and one of its members, Sise Fromm, travelled to the Boonta speeder races to find them. Once there Sise hired the mysterious Boba Fett ot kill all members of the young racing team. Fett took on the job as a favour owed to Fromm, even though Fromm was wanted by intergalactic crime lord Jabba the Hutt. Fett notified Fromm that once he completed this contract that all his debts would be wiped clean. Fett's droid, named BR-17, befriended the protocol droid C-3PO and managed to turn him against he companion, R2-D2 whilst Fromm's gang managed to slip a bomb onto Joben's racing ship, the White Witch. Fett came looking for Thall and chased both him and Kea, but both were able to escape and join the speeder race. At the same time C-3PO learned of BR-17's treachery, who was then crushed by falling machinery, and managed to discover the bomb on the White Witch. Unaware of the bomb planted by the Fromm gang, Fett followed Joben into the race, attempting to destroy him using every weapon he had at his disposal. When he used magnets, Fett unknowingly pulled the bomb from Joben's speeder onto his own and was only able to escape at the last minute, just before his speeder exploded. Angry at the loss of both his droid and his speeder and his failure to complete the contract, Fett captured the Fromm gang, planing to turn the over to Jabba the Hutt for a large reward.
Several years later, shortly after the BAttle of Yavin, Luke Skywalker took out a Y-wing fighter with both C-3PO and R2-D2 in order to search for Han Solo. Solo was overdue from his search for a talisman known as the invisibilty talisman, which was also being sought by the Empire. When luke's fighter crash landed on a red-water moon in the Panna system he was rescued by the infamous Boba Fett. Luke was then affected by a mysterious sleeping virus, the same virus that had alredy affected Han Solo and was the reason for his late return. Meeting up with Chewbacca, Boba Fett snuck into the Imperial controlled city in order to get an antidote. Whilst there, he contacted Darth Vader promising to deliver the group of rebels into his custody along with the mystic talisman. At this point Vader referred to Fett as "the best bounty hunter in the galaxy". Skywalker's droids managed to intercept Fett's message and rushed to notify their master of their findings. Back on the Millenium Falcon, following a determined chase by Imperial stormtroopers, Boba Fett was able to administer the anidote to both Skywalker and Solo. Still groggy, Solo was unable to recognise Fett and did not object when Skywalker offered him a place in the Rebellion. Skywalker's offer was interrupted by his two droids who notified him of Fett's transmission the Vader. Fett quickly fled, vowing vengence against the group.
Prior to the establishment of the Rebel base on Hoth, Fett reappeared in pursuit of a man known as "the Mole" wanted by Darth Vader for leaving his service. Piloting a TIE fighter given to him by Imperial authorities, Fett was pursued by Luke Skywalker who was flying in an X-Wing. Skywalker chased the bounty hunter's ship through ice canyons on the frozen world of Ota but both ships were forced to crash-land. Fett got the drop on Skywalker, but before he could take advantage of the situation, both men were captured by the apelike Snogars which inhabit the planet. The Snogars city was steadily growing colder and they were convinced that off-worlders could restore their heat providing machines. With Skywalker failing to contact them, Han Solo, Chewbacca, Leia Organa and Skywalker's droids came to Ota to find him. While Skywalker and Fett were escaping form the Snogars, Solo himself was captured. Ever the opportunist, Fett agreed to accompany Skywalker on a rescue mission, planning to deliver Solo to Jabba the Hutt after he freed him from the Snogars. In 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 Solo prisoner, the Mole used a large magnet to pin Fett to a wall allowing both himself and the Rebels to escape. Again Fett vowed vengence.
Fett, at times, played his bounties against each other. An example of this is when Fett discovered that the dwarf magician Magwit, who had a minor bounty on his head, was performing at a small frontier town in the wastelands. Instead of collecting the bounty, Fett used Magwit to help him capture the notorious space pirate Bar-Kooda, who was wanted by Gorga the Hutt. Magwit pretended to be captured by Bar-Kooda and was taken aboard his pirate vessel, Bloodstar, where the savage carnivore demanded a final performance before he killed Magwit. Magiwt's most impressive trick was the use of a hoop to make objects disappear and then reappear. The hoop was connected to a short-range matter transmitter, with Fett waiting at the other end. Working in concert with Magwit, Fett was able to pull Bar-Kooda through the hoop and collect his bounty. Rewarding Magwit for his help, he allowed him his freedom.
Shortly before the Battle of Hoth, Fett as hired by Jabba the Hutt to find and capture Han Solo. Planning to make the most of the situation Fett met with Darth Vader and agreed to work with a group of hunters including Dengar, Bossk and a rookie named Skorr in order to capture Solo. The hunters met up with Solo along with Chewbacca and Luke Skywalker on the planet Ord Mantell but the three rebels were able to escape and fled to the newly established rebel base on Hoth. Despite his failure to capture the group of rebels, Fett was summoned by Vader to his command ship, Executor, along with five other prominent hunters. Their job was to track down the Millenium Falcon and brings its occupants to Vader alive. Fett, not wanting to be distracted by any of his competion, managed to remove Dengar from the hunt by destroying both the hyperspace and sub-light engines on Dengar's ship with a well placed bomb. Fett was then able to track Solo and his companions to the Bespin system and notified Vader of thier location. Before the Imperial forces arrived, Fett was able to remove another of his competitors with the destruction of IG-88B in the bowels of Cloud City. When Vader arrived, Fett assisted in the capture of the rebels on the proviso who would be allowed to take Solo to Jabba the Hutt after Vader was finished with him. Solo was used by Vader as a test subject for the carbonite freezing process and upon its success, Fett loaded the carbonite encased Solo onto his ship Slave I. Whilst transporting Solo to his ship Fett traded blaster fire with Luke Skywalker who had arrived in order to attempt a rescue of his friends. As Fett neared Jabba's palace on Tatooine he was attacked by two other droids form the IG-88 series, C and D. Fett managed to destroy IG-88C's ship with relative ease but was forced to completely trash Slave I's hyperdrive in order to destroy the ship of IG-88D. Fett continued down to the planet and delivered Solo to Jabba the Hutt. Arguing that Solo was actually a work of art from Darth Vader himself, Fett was able to talk up Solo's bounty from 100,000 to 250,000 credits.
For the following year, Fett recieved steady employment form the Huttese crime lord who believed the Rebel Alliance would attempt ot rescue Solo. One job offered by Jabba was a 100,000 credit bounty for the capture of a live Krayt Dragon to be placed in with Jabba's Rancor. When Solo's friends arrived and all were captured trying to rescue him, Jabba sentenced them to death is the Great Pit of Carkoon, resting place of the almighty Sarlacc. The results of this were that the Rebels were able to break free and a battle ensued. During this conflict, Fett's back pack was ignited by Solo, still blind from the carbonite freezing, and he flew out of control into the side of Jabba's sand skiff and down into the mouth of the Sarlacc. After a few weeks, Fett was able to escape the Sarlacc, killing the beast in the process. He was then found by Dengar, stripped of all his armour, his body burned by the stomach acid of the Sarlacc. Dengar almost killed Fett, who had poisoned him whilst he was staying at Jabba's palace, but decided against it, instead nursing Fett back to health through the use of Jabba's medical droids. A month later, Fett was well enough to travel again, and since the Alliance had confiscated his ship, Slave I, the two bounty hunters set off for the moon of Nar Shaddaa, the smuggling center of the galaxy. Here they found Fett's little used backup ship, Slave II. Few of Fett's enemies knew that the ship existed and Fett used this to his advantage, removing old rivals and collecting bounties quickly, sometimes working with his tagalong, Dengar. During this time Fett decided to hunt down Jodo Kast, the only other man in the galaxy known to possess Mandalorian armour. Through one of the Hunter Guilds, Fett hired Kast and came to him wrapped in bandages. Taking advantage of the disguise Fett killed Kast and stripped him of his armour, as he had lost his orignial suit to the Sarlacc. Not wanting another encounter with either Solo or Skywalker, Fett arranged through an old employer to buy back Slave I legally. Since the war Slave I had been sitting on Garkouine gathering dust. Through the use of dummy corporations, paper trails and forged requisitions, Fett managed to purchase Slave I as part of a surplus liquidation. Repairing the ship, he put it in orbit around Nar Shaddaa as it was more profitable to continue to use Slave II and the element of surprise it gave him. It was only a matter of time before it was known that Fett was still alive. When he captured the infamous pirate, Feldrall Okor, Fett used a plan similar to that used by Princess Leia Organa as Boushh when she attempted to rescue Han Solo. Presenting Feldrall to Imperial Governor Isis he used a thermal detonator in order to force up the price. Ultimately, like Jabba, the Governor gave in to the ransom.
Six years after the death of Jabba the Hutt, Leia Organa, by then Leia Organa Solo and Han Solo travelled to Nar Shaddaa. There Solo was surprised to find both Fett and Dengar waiting for him in his quarters. Saying that the Sarlacc found him indigestable and adding that the descendants of Jabba the Hutt wanted him dead, Fett opened fire on Solo. Solo, along with his wife, was able to escape Nar Shadda, using Salla Zend's Starlight Intruder. Fett and Dengar gave chase in Slave II and were able to determine Solo's destination. Although Fett and Dengar arrived at Byss, Solo's destination, first only Solo's ship had clearance to pass through the planet's security shields. Fetts ship impacted against the shield, breaking off a control rudder. As Slave II spun away, out of control, Dengar vowed never to work with Fett again. Fett was glad to be rid of him.
When Solo and Organa returned to Nar Shadda seeking the Jedi master Vima-Da-Boda, they feared Fett might be waiting for them. In fact two Imperial Dark Side Warriors were trying to blackmail Fett inot killing the pair, claiming that he had been a stormtrooper who had killed his superior officer. Fett was able to escape the pair just as Solo's Millenium Falcon touched down. Fett bided his time and when the Falcon prepared to depart, Fett rushed foward in Slave I. Expecting Solo to turn tail, he was surprised when the former smuggler used the Falcon to clip off Slave I's stabilizer. Although Fett lost some control, he was still able to blast the Falcon, causing it to lose all sensor frequencies. Fett tracked Solo to the lower levels where he ambushed both Solo and Organa just after they found Vima-Da-Boda. In turn, Fett was ambushed by Chewbacca who was able to rip of Fett's helmet even though he was shot in the side. Fett was able to escape in Slave I and pursue the Falcon as it left the planet. Scoring a hit on the freighter, Fett thought he might actually be able to kill Solo but Solo was able to escape into an interstellar gas cloud , where Fett's sensors were useless. Using his time in the cloud wisely, Solo increased the power of his ship and was able to escape from Fett. Fett's current whereabouts are unknown.