The insectoid bounty hunter Zuckuss was one of his planet's most successful findsmen, but the elusive quarry assigned him by Jabba the Hutt and Darth Vader still managed to slip from his grasp.
On the gaseous planet of Gand, the inhabitants had formed a series of pocket colonies, establishing a totalitarian monarchy. Like the Rodians, the Gand honored the tradition and skills of bounty hunting. Their hunters - called findsmen - were largely used to corral fugitive criminals and runaway slaves. They findsmen were highly superstitious. Their sect worshipped the swirling mists that hid the planet, performing ancient rituals handed down through generations. In the gases, the findsmen believed they could divine signs and omens, leading them to their prey. Unfortunately for the hunters, the Empire insinuated itself into the Gand's slave trade, and Imperial technology made obsolete the findsmen and their rituals. Although many of the findsmen retired, a few of the younger ones left for the stars. One of those who left the planet was Zuckuss, a young Gand descended from a long and illustrious line of successful findsmen. He used the elaborate and arcane rituals in his hunts, becoming a tireless tracker with an affinity for intuiting his quarry's moves; he was called "the uncanny one."
Off planet, Zuckuss was forced to wear a special breathing apparatus that protected him from harmful oxygen and provided supplemental gases necessary to his species. He adopted battle armor under his heavy cloak, and hung a computer and sensor array on straps around his neck. He dared any terrain or environment in pursuit of his prey.
Zuckuss was eventually hired by the Tatooine crime lord Jabba the Hutt. Although he worked solo on several missions, it was when Jabba paired him with a brilliant rogue protocol droid, 4-LOM, that Zuckuss found the missing piece to his hunting procedure. Zuckuss' intuition and ability to outguess his opponents worked perfectly in combination with 4-LOM's analytical skills. For a time, they were two of Jabba's favorite hunters.
A year after the destruction of the Empire's first Death Star, Jabba sent 4-LOM and Zuckuss as "nonofficial emissaries" to Darth Vader's Super Star Destroyer Executor. The Dark Lord of the Sith had sent out a call for bounty hunters to find Han Solo and the Millenium Falcon. Zuckuss and 4-LOM saw that their competition would be fierce; the four other bounty hunters were Boba Fett, Dengar, Bossk, and IG-88. Unfortunately Zuckuss and 4-LOM, Boba Fett was the one who tracked the Falcon to the Bespin system. Fett recieved not only the bounty from Vader, but also the carbonite-frozen body of Han Solo to deliver to Jabba the Hutt.
Zuckuss had lost one of the biggest bounties of his career, but that didn't conern him. There would be others, and he and 4-LOM would keep alive the tradition of the findsmen for many years to come.
In the history of the galaxy, it is quite extraordinary for a droid to change the level of its self-awareness, particularly to the degree of personal transformation that 4-LOM achieved prior to its becoming one of the galaxy's fiercest bounty hunters.
4-LOM was a late model protocol droid serving as a valet and human-cyborg realtions specialist on the passenger liner Kuari Princess. With a TranLang III Communication module giving it knowledge of more than seven million languages, 4-LOM acted as an interpreter between the rich guests and the ship's computer. The droid was entirely aware of what the guests - and their possessions - were doing at all times. As entertainment, the protocol droid began engaging in a series of games, simulating how best to steal valuables. The games became serious, though, when the droid and the computer began to alter each others' programming. Soon, unexplained and perfectly executed thefts had the Kuari Princess owners worried. No one suspected 4-LOM, the benevolent and passive droid. Eventually, 4-LOM's altered programming allowed it more sentience, and it became bored with the ease with which it robbed from the space liner's guests. Off ship, the protocol droid became a master thief and information broker for many of the galaxy's most powerful crime lords, including Jabba the Hutt.
Jabba realized that 4-LOM would make an excellent bounty hunter, but the droid reminded him that its programming would not allow him violent actions. Jabba offered the droid a deal: he would refit, reprogram, and rebuild 4-LOM in exchange for its services. The droid agreed, and Jabba soon had the smartest bounty hunter in the galaxy working for him. The crime lord paired 4-LOM with a Gand hunter named Zuckuss, whose intuition and ability to outguess his opponents worked perfectly in combination with 4-LOM's analytical skills. For a time, they were two of Jabba's favorite hunters.
A year after the destruction of the Empire's first Death Star, Darth Vader sent out a call for bounty hunters to find Han Solo, whose capture he believed would lure Luke Skywalker to him. Jabba sent 4-LOM and Zuckuss as "nonofficial emissaries." They arrived on Vader's Super Star Destroyer Executor, finding that four other bounty hunters had also been chosen for the hunt: Boba Fett, Dengar, IG-88, and Bossk. Unfortunately for the paired hunters, Boba Fett was the one who tracked the Falcon to the Bespin system. Fett recieved not only the bounty from Vader, but also the carbonite-frozen body of Han Solo to deliver to Jabba the Hutt. Pleased to have Solo hanging on his wall, Jabba did not have his own hunter pair killed for their failure. The droid and the Gand were much too useful. 4-LOM and Zuckuss would have many more successful missions in the future.