As they emerged from hyperspace at the coordinates provided by their benefactor Virec Xan, the space pirates Vash Lodestar and Niko Daedalus saw on the sensor panel of their starship, the Nerio, a 30 x 10 km comet that seemed to be their destination, the Hutt-controlled shadowport of New Nadir. Gaining clearance from Traffic Control and successfully navigating the "Jackrab Hole," the winding tunnel, accessible only through the comet's icy tail, that lead to the interior shadowport, they berthed at the economical tethers in the zero-g cavern known as Fiche's Cove. Niko stayed behind to negotiate the docking fees, and Vash and T-101 went to a relatively upscale bar in "The Slips" called Kie to the City, named after its Crolute proprietor, Choree Kie.
In the streets of "The Souk," the famous podracer Quinn Algernon caught up to Ismail Montross after witnessing her buy, at a slave auction, an orphan from his homeworld. But the pick-pocketing moppets of local kidsman-thief Faago had already kidnapped the child moments after they left the auction block. Ismail and Quinn paid Choree Kie a visit, knowing he could lead them to Faago's lair. For the right price, Kie took them into "The Fissures," where they confronted the elderly Toydarian. Faago promised them he would return the child to them if Algernon would help him in a heist by piloting a stolen freighter through the Jackrab Hole to a hidden crevasse his kids were digging. During the meeting, Virec Xan contacted Ismail via com-link and, when she excused herself to a private place, told her that he had fed Faago the information about the precious cargo in the stolen freighter -- the very freighter Volta Gabbana had stolen from an Imperial black-site prison -- and that he was using Faago and the moppets as a tool to steal the ship from Gabbana's would-be buyer. Xan instructed Ismail to collect T-101 and meet the last conspirator at The Slips in berth 143. Choree Kie agreed to take part in the conspiracy, but only after negotiating Faago's agreement that he take one of his moppets, "Olivaw," as collateral.
After enlisting T-101, who was all to happy to double-cross Gabbana after Gabbana had done so to him, the conspirators met the last of their group in berth 143: Boba Fett! Xan appeared via hologram and explained the heist: (1) Faago's urchins had dug -- and continued to widen -- a secret crevasse at the end of the Jackrab hole; (2) a decoy replica of Gabbana's stolen freighter, to be manned by an FA-5 pilot droid, was waiting in the crevasse; (3) Fett was to find Gabbana, sever his hand and deliver it to T-101; (4) T-101 was to use the severed hand of his former partner on the dermal scanner to unlock the berth containing the stolen freighter; (5) Ismail was to assassinate the guards inside the berth as silently as possible; (6) Choree Kie was to jam all Traffic Control transmissions using an Epsis data cylinder he acquired in his fencing trade; (7) Quinn was to outrun any pursuing ships while flying the stolen ship through the Jackrab Hole and into the crevasse; (6) where the FA-5 droid was to emerge, in the decoy ship, into the gun-sights of waiting Traffic Control patrol ships that would shoot the decoy from the sky, causing all to think the precious cargo was lost. Agreeing to the method -- and division of the rewards -- of the heist, all did their part. Fett found Gabbana in short order, and returned to the conspirators with Gabbana's severed hand. Strolling past Epsis technicians who assumed T-101 was still the long-time partner of Gabbana, the droid used the severed hand on the dermal scanner to unlock the berth containing the stolen freighter. Before Gabbana's hired thugs guarding the ship from inside the berth could call out for the intruders to halt, Ismail quickly and quietly drove her lightsaber, Hattori, through their guts. Having completed their parts, Boba Fett and Ismail shared a long-awaited kiss, and he promised to return to her as soon as he delivered his carbon-frozen cargo to Jabba the Hutt. He boarded the Slave I, and the star-crossed lovers parted. Meanwhile, Choree Kie used the data cylinder to jam all Traffic Control transmissions. Quinn, taking the pilot seat of the stolen freighter, lifted off and dodged and weaved through the Cove as Hutt lackeys saw the unauthorized departure of the stolen freighter, boarded their own vessels and gave chase. Darting into the Jackrab Hole, Quinn outran his pursuers and dived, unseen, into the crevasse. Faago's urchins ran into the cockpit, cheering and hailing Quinn as a hero, even as several dozen others quickly detached the cargo pod from the stolen freighter and -- quite unexpectedly -- attached it to the decoy ship, which lifted out of the crevasse and blasted its way through New Nadir Traffic Control patrol ships -- not part of the plan!
At the Slips, Choree Kie overheard Epsis techs talking about Fett's ship being left unattended for refueling, and he decided to examine the carbon-frozen cargo inside to see if he could steal and sell it on the black market. Sneaking inside, he saw Fett's ship empty of any cargo, and an armor-plated elbow on the arm-rest of the pilot's seat that was facing away from him. An Epsis technician outside idly wiped off some carbon scoring from the ship's hull as he waited for the ship's fuel tank to fill, revealing two more digits after the ship's moniker; it was not the Slave I, but the Slave III! Inside, Choree Kie turned the pilot seat around to reveal the deactivated FA-5 pilot droid that was supposed to be piloting the decoy ship, with a ticking bomb in its chassis! Choree Kie jumped from the ship just in time to avoid being killed in the explosion, though Faago's moppet Olivaw was not so lucky. As the decoy freighter jettisoned away carrying the real stolen cargo of cloned Jedi fetuses, Boba Fett contacted Ismail via com-link from the ship's cockpit, promising, "I'll see you soon. We're going to be able to buy and sell Virec Xan when I get back!"
