Many legends propagate as to the origins of
Boba Fett -- perhaps by design, since the uncertainty derived from a corrupted backstory of half-truths only adds to his mysterious and deadly aura. One tale tells of Fett being a failed
stormtrooper who killed his commanding officer. Another has him being the commanding officer of a fabled group of warriors from Mandalore decimated by the
Jedi Knights. A third account tells of a Journeyman Protector from Concord Dawn named Jaster Mereel who adopted the mask and guise when he was convicted of treason.
Fett has kept his early, vulnerable years private. The times he spent playing with his toys in a sparsely furnished Kamino apartment, his guardians Taun We and MU-12, the quiet moments he would share with his father catching rollerfish -- all quiet memories buried under a hard callous of vengeful thoughts and malice.
After Jango's death, Boba picked up the pieces of his shattered life with the help of his "black book," an encoded message unit written by Jango with instructions for survival should Boba ever find himself alone. After the Battle of Geonosis, Boba quietly buried his father's body and marked the grave with a simple "J.F." He sought out his father's benefactor, Darth Tyranus, who had the remainder of Jango's stipend.
Among the first records of Fett's activities were during the early years of the Empire. Fett was hired by the gangster Sise Fromm to dispose of young speeder pilot Thall Joben and his friends. Though the Fromms were enemies of the Jabba the Hutt -- Fett's sometime employer -- the hunter took the contract to square off a favor he owed Fromm.
At the time, Fett owned a droid named BL-17, and used him to sew confusion among Joben's droids, R2-D2 and C-3PO. Unaware of a bomb planted on Joben's speeder, the White Witch, Fett entered his modified racer Silver Speeder in the Boonta speeder competition. During his attempt to capture Joben with a magnetic beam, Fett pulled the bomb onto his own speeder, and it was destroyed. Angered at the loss of his speeder and droid, Fett captured the Fromms to turn them over to Jabba the Hutt.
As a licensed law enforcer of the Empire, Fett worked for that oppressive government on numerous occasions. One report had him allowing Rebel agents to capture a mystical talisman infected with an Imperial sleeping virus, though records of this event remain classified and cannot be confirmed. Another report details that Fett was hired by Darth Vader to track down a Rebel agent known as "Mole" on the frozen world of Ota.
Shortly after the Battle of Yavin, a group of Jabba the Hutt's bounty hunters captured Han Solo, Luke Skywalker and Chewbacca in the Hoth system. These hunters were to deliver the Rebel trio to Ord Mantell, where Boba Fett was to take possession and continue the delivery to the Empire. One of the hunters, an arrogant tracker named Skorr, botched the operation and let the Rebels escape. Skorr was killed in the process and Fett was left empty-handed.
After Fett finally captured Solo and was set to deliver him to Jabba, he was attacked by the other hunters hired by Vader to bring in the Corellian prize. The assassin droid IG-88, aboard his ultra-sleek IG-2000 attacked the Slave I high over Tatooine. Though Fett destroyed the droid, the Slave I sustained serious damage. Unwilling to be caught defenseless, Fett laid low for a while, which prompted a concerted search by Solo's friends.
Fett dresses in fearsome armor of Mandalorian design. The battle-scarred suit's design heritage can be traced back 4,000 years, when clans of Mandalores fought against the Jedi during the Great Sith War. The armor is heavily modified with numerous hidden and deadly features. The T-shaped visor set in the helmet incorporates a macrobinocular viewplate. The rest of the helmet features a temple-mounted broadband antenna, motion and sound sensors, an infrared device, and an internal comlink connected to his ship. Fett's weapon of choice is a sawed-off BlasTech EE-3 rifle.
Fett's armor and body were extremely battered by his ordeal in the Sarlacc. When he plunged into the beast, he was kept alive by numerous fibrous suckers that attached themselves to his body. This was part of the Sarlacc's horrible metabolic process; it would keep its prey alive for thousands of years, all the while slowly feeding off it. Fett almost lost his identity in the swirling dementia brought about by the Sarlacc's toxins. His resolve held, and he used his weapons to blast free of the beast.
Naked, wounded, and defenseless on the sands of Tatooine, Fett was rescued by his fellow hunter Dengar, who nursed him back to health. Fett reclaimed his armor and his reputation, returning from the "dead," and again taking on bounties. It wasn't until six years after the Battle of Endor that Han Solo learned his nemesis was still alive. Although Fett still piloted his antiquated Slave I, he updated his arsenal with the ultrasleek Slave II. These were but the first two of his vessels, which would eventually number up to Slave IV.