The Mandalorian Armor The Mandalorian Armor is the first novel in The Bounty Hunter Wars trilogy , written by K . W . Jeter and published in June 1998 by Bantam Spectra . Publisher ' s summary . " He ' s the most feared and successful bounty hunter in the galaxy . He is Boba Fett , and even the most hardened criminals tremble at his name . Now he faces the deadliest challenge of his infamous career — an all - out war against his most dangerous enemies . " " As the Rebellion gathers force , Prince Xizor proposes a cunning plan to the Emperor and Darth Vader : smash the power of the Bounty Hunters Guild by turning its members against each other . Only the strongest and most ruthless will survive , and they can be used against the Rebellion . It ' s a job for the fiercely independent Boba Fett , who jumps at the chance to destroy his rivals . But Fett soon realizes the game is rigged , as he finds himself the target of murderous factions , criminal conspiracies , and the evil at the Empire ' s dark heart . Boba Fett has always finished first . And in this game , anything less is death . " Plot summary . The Mandalorian Armor focuses mainly on the bounty hunters Boba Fett and Dengar following the two rivals ' struggle for survival . The story is told through the flashbacks Boba encounters while in a vegetative state and Dengar ' s activities , while caring for him . The book is set shortly after Jabba the Hutt ' s sail barge is destroyed and flashes back to when the Bounty Hunters Guild still existed . Much of the book is centered around a metaphor of entrapment in mechanical structure . This is used to show life as a bounty hunter as a place where they are forced to follow a set of cycles of which deviation from , could cause a catastrophe . The book begins during the events of . It begins with Dengar in the Dune Sea of Tatooine searching through the wreckage of Jabba ' s sail barge for anything or anyone of value . As Dengar is ready to give up , assuming that the Jawas had beaten him for scavenging the wreckage , he notices two things : first , that the Sarlacc residing in the Great Pit of Carkoon appears to be dead ; and second , that there is a survivor . The survivor is Boba Fett , who had blown his way out of the Great Pit of Carkoon causing the Sarlacc ' s death . Boba ' s distinctive armor had suffered damage from his time in the pit and he was nearly dead . While Dengar moved Fett to a cave for shelter , the book flashes back to events between and ; back to a period where Boba Fett was a freelance bounty hunter and at odds with the Bounty Hunters Guild . It continues to follow Neelah as she attempted to find Dengar and instead stumbled upon Fett . After escaping Jabba ' s Palace and wandering the desert she found two medical droids SH∑1 - B and 1e - XE standing outside of a shelter . Upon using threats as well as acts of physical violence Neelah managed to gain entry into his hiding place . She revels that she was a dancer in Jabba ' s Palace and had noble blood as well as that she had committed no acts of violence until recently . She enters the hiding space to find Fett heavily burnt but kept alive by a " transparent membrane " covering his body called a sterile nutrient casing . She left and forced the droids not to mention to Dengar she was there . Kuat of Kuat , the hereditary CEO of the Empire ' s chief subcontractor for military items is interested in the events that occurred at Jabba ' s Palace and on his sail barge . Kuat of Kuat reviews a holoprojector with the footage uploaded from the palace and regardless of the evidence , he is not convinced Boba Fett is dead without further additional informations . In the first of many flashbacks to the period between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back , the bounty hunters Bossk and Zuckuss have been assigned by the Bounty Hunters Guild to a contract for an accountant wanted by the Hutts . Although both were experienced bounty hunters , Bossk acted like the leader . Zuckuss warned Bossk that just because his father lead the Bounty Hunters Guild did not make him leader of the mission . The bounty hunters blasted their way into the accountant ' s hiding place and find the room empty . They had been beaten to their quarry by Fett . Bossk and Zuckuss take a space ship in a pursuit of Fett and warn him that he has no authority to work this bounty ; that they had been assigned to the bounty by the Bounty Hunters Guild . Fett quips that he answers only to a higher authority — himself , and blasts off into hyperspace . Fett enters into his hold aboard Slave I and talk to his " Merchandise " sitting in one of the cells . The accountant offers to pay Fett more than the bounty if he let him go . Fett explains that it does not work that way , that he is the highest paid bounty hunter in the galaxy because he delivers . The accountant mentions he had heard of other bounty hunters accepting offers . Fett said that the mismanagement and incompetence of the guild causes that and he will have no part of it . Deep in space , Slave I approaches the lair of the Assembler , Kud ' ar Mub ' at , the arachnid go between who serves as the criminal world ' s escrow service . It is to the Assembler that Fett is to deliver his captive and collect his bounty . The Assembler reveals that it has received a new contract , a private one , for Fett to work . Private contracts were required by clients who wish their business to be kept secret and mean more money for Fett . Fett accepts the contract to join the Bounty Hunters Guild and break it up from within . Flash forwarding to the present , Dengar captures a woman who has followed him and Fett into their hiding place . The woman , Neelah , insists that she must see Fett , but she doesn ' t know for what reason . She explains she was a dancer in Jabba ' s Palace but has no memories before arriving there . She continues with the memory of when Boba Fett looked at her in the palace that she knew she had some connection to him and needed to meet him . Dengar notices signs of an aristocratic upbringing in Neelah and symptoms of a memory wipe . He agrees to her request , attributing his soft spot for Neelah to the fact that he ' d recently met a woman he cares for . He warned Neelah that she has to be careful around Fett and that Fett won ' t leave her alone to be with him . He warns Neelah that Fett is ruthless and cannot be trusted and that he hardly trusts him to keep up his end of their new partnership . Flashing back , Fett comes to the feast held in his honor , welcoming him to the Bounty Hunters Guild . The guild elder ' s finally admit Fett into their organization . Bossk does not trust Fett and calls his father a fool for doing so . Father and son exchange death threats which is common among Trandoshans ; as is feasting on the remains of your enemies , and killing and eating your siblings shortly after birth ; and Bossk kills his own father . Bossk asks why Fett wants to join the guild . Fett explains that times are changing and that that pressures in the galaxy — including Black Sun — have forced him to change his stance on the guild . Bossk grudgingly calms down with help by the rest of the guild and he agrees to treat Fett like a brother . The Emperor meets with Darth Vader and Prince Xizor to discuss the new plan Xizor has put in place . It was Xizor who contacted the Assembler with the private contract for Fett to join the guild . Xizor reveals that his plan would eliminate the dead weight in the guild and leave only the best bounty hunters . The Empire will then be able to contract with those remaining bounty hunters to execute plans that need independence and cunning . He explains that the Empire , by design , has suppressed independence in their troopers and officers , but that they need independence to fight the Alliance to Restore the Republic where " free thinking is their strongest asset " . Vader is not convinced and thinks Xizor has ulterior motives … Cover gallery . This is a gallery of the different cover variations of " The Mandalorian Armor " .