Jodo Kast

**Jodo Kast** was a member of Alliance SpecOps who became a bounty hunter in the time of the Galactic Civil War. Kast wore Mandalorian armor similar to Boba Fett's, though he was not a Mandalorian himself. Early in his bounty hunting career, Kast even painted his armor to look almost identical to Fett's, in order to gain notoriety and demand larger payments. Valuing credits over ideals and loyalties, Kast worked for the Empire, Black Sun, the New Republic, or anyone who would pay him.

Kast participated in a number of hunts, some successful, some, like those of Cornelius Evazan and Adar Tallon, unsuccessful. He worked for a time with fellow hunters Puggles Trodd and Zardra, before eventually going solo. Having once modeled his career after Boba Fett, Kast later established himself as a rival to Fett, concerning himself with building his reputation. Forsaking even the rules of his profession, Kast took Fett's name for the sake of higher-paying jobs, while setting the goal for himself of taking Fett's place in the top echelons of bounty hunting.

However, Kast's impersonation of Fett eventually caught up with him, though, when the other bounty hunter sought to reclaim his own reputation. Fett baited a trap on Nevarro, lying in wait until Kast emerged with his next job from Greef Karga of the Bounty Hunters' Guild. When Kast accepted a bounty on a nonexistent man, Fett attacked and defeated him, leaving him to be killed by his own exploding jetpack.

## History

### Rebel career

Jodo Kast was once a SpecOps resistance member, fighting for the Rebellion when it was still confined to local insurrections. Kast was less concerned with the ideals of freedom and justice, though, than he was with tangible credits. However, a Rebel mission to Goratak III changed his life. A Plexus Droid Vessel with sensitive information on Rebel manufacturing operations crashed on Goratak III, ejecting an I2-CG droid carrying the information into that world's Crystal Forests. The Rebellion dispatched three squads—Red Buzz Boys—one of which Kast was in, as well as Grindol Maal and the Force-sensitive Wuwuhuul to retrieve it. The Empire sent their own forces, Mandalorian Feskitt Bobb. The battle was chaotic, and in the middle of the fighting Kast mistook Bobb for Boba Fett and killed him. After the battle he realized his mistake, but in doing so had an idea: he realized that with Fett's reputation, anyone who looked like the bounty hunter would gain an advantage in the field. Kast retrieved a suit of Mandalorian armor from the planet Zaadja, deserted the Rebellion, and took up bounty hunting, using Fett's name to get himself into the profession. Kast modified his equipment to resemble Fett's as much as possible, even repainting his armor to look like the other bounty hunter's. As he grew acquainted with the circles of criminal life, Kast realized the danger in stealing Fett's name; he repainted his armor in a unique design and took up contracts under his own name, staying enigmatic about the source of his armor and any connections he had to the Mandalorians. Kast acquired a *Lambda*-class T-4a shuttle that he armed, renamed *Foxcatch*, and turned into his base of operations and personal starship. Kast's modified Mandalorian armor was smaller and less equipped than that owned by Fett, but like Fett's it included a jetpack and a magnetic grappler on his back, as well as a flamethrower. He also had incorporated into it a comlink, net, and syntherope, as well as poison dart launchers. Kast at first repainted his armor to look more like Fett's, later modifying it again to give it a unique appearance during the course of his career.

### Bounty hunting career

Kast did not see much success in bounty hunting, lacking the skills in tracking prey or capturing them without a battle. He stuck to low-level targets, and was more successful in scouting and mercenary work. At one point, Kast and Ubese bounty hunter Velk Khey'et took a hunt in the Stenness Systems, looking for a pair of spice-jackers known as the Thig Brothers. Kast suggested to Khey'et that they split up, Kast making it public that he was looking for the Thigs while Khey'et stayed out of sight to stun them when they came looking for him. The Thigs eventually came to find Kast in the Red Shadow cantina on the planet Taboon. In the ensuing fight, Khey'et killed a Hutt named Mageye. Hutt crime lord Jabba Desilijic Tiure later placed a bounty on him for Mageye's death; when Kast learned of the bounty, he was believed to have warned Khey'et.

Kast had a run-with the Aqualish thug Ponda Baba a few months before the Battle of Yavin. The bounty hunter promised to split the reward on Baba's partner Jothel Merritt with the Aqualish if he helped him to capture the arms dealer; however, upon killing Merritt, Kast reneged on his promise. Not long after, he set his sights on Cornelius Evazan, a "doctor" who mangled and tortured his patients, and who now had a bounty of a million credits on his head, dead or alive. Kast followed the information from his sources to Truuzdann in the Corellian system, where Evazan was operating a clinic on the outskirts of a small city.

He stunned Evazan's receptionist, then stormed into the room where the doctor plied his trade, firing a hail of blaster bolts into what he thought was Evazan. Kast then realized that it was a dummy—Evazan had seen him coming and had fled beforehand. Kast pursued him, chasing Evazan to the city's docking bays. Evazan entered the wrong bay, and Kast soon had him cornered against a ship, despite Evazan's attempts to shoot at him. Kast fired across the doctor's face, permanently scarring it, then moved in for the kill. Just then, a turret emerged from the ship and fired at Kast, blowing a hole in his armor. Realizing the odds were against him, Kast used his jetpack to escape, catching a glimpse of the ship's pilot in the process—Ponda Baba. Kast vowed to track down Baba and Evazan later, but fortunately for Evazan, he was soon distracted with a job on Jedha to create more members of the Decraniated from victims of the ongoing insurgency on the moon.

At one point, Kast had begun enlisting his services to Saw Gerrera's rebel group, often working alongside a Lasat mercenary named Puggles Trodd, whom would later become his partner with Trodd serving as the muscle and Kast serving as the backup. After the death of Saw Gerrera during the destruction of Jedha City, Puggles and Jodo broke ties from the Partisans and resumed their usual careers as bounty hunters, even teaming up with fellow bounty hunter Zardra.

Kast's earlier tendencies to imitate Fett eventually gave way to a stark hatred of the man. The reasons for this were speculated on, with some theorizing that Fett had killed a friend of Kast's, and others saying that Kast had ruined one of Fett's hunts. Other rumors about the two men's relationship arose due to their similar armor, with claims that they had served together in a military unit or that Fett had been Kast's mentor. For his part, Kast sought to supplant Fett as the most infamous bounty hunter in the galaxy, saying that he would even break the Bounty Hunters' Creed to do so. He kept track of Fett's whereabouts while sticking to the Outer Rim Territories and other remote regions, building his reputation with some degree of success.

### Losing his armor

At some point in 4 ABY, Kast, who had ended his partnership with Trodd and Zardra after a number of unsuccessful operations that nearly got them killed, was present on Tatooine, where he was knocked unconscious during a fight against soldiers of the Second Union. He was found in the desert in the evening by a group of Jawas who scavenged his Mandalorian armor from his body and stowed it away on their sandcrawler, leaving him for dead. After regaining consciousness, Kast, in an attempt to retrieve his stolen armor, tried to chase after the sandcrawler as it was departing, but tripped and fell into the sand due to exhaustion and the injuries he had sustained in the fight against the unknown force earlier, and, giving into his pain, was unable to continue his pursuit of the Jawas, blackening out and going back into unconsciousness. Eventually he was found and rescued by another group of Jawas who took him aboard their sandcrawler and returned him to civilization. The armor set fell into Cobb Vanth's possession after the Jawas sold it to him shortly after the Battle of Endor. He used it to protect the citizens of Mos Pelgo.

While he was separated from his Mandalorian armor, Jodo donned a salvaged Phase II clone trooper helmet, as well as a suit of stolen Imperial officer battle armor and a JT-12 jetpack, still flying the *Foxcatch*. He was able to still bounty hunt in this placeholder for his lost armor, but noted that he was still way more skilled when he wore Mandalorian armor.

In 7 ABY, Kast was present on the Ring of Kafrene around the same time Boba Fett captured Chattar Lal. The *Foxcatch* had been surrounded by a Rodian gang at the docking bay where it was parked, as the Rodians planned on stealing the ship for their own uses. Kast, after planning his moves, later recovered his ship, making good use of his makeshift armor and twin WESTAR blaster pistols against the Rodians, still capable with his clone trooper helmet, Imperial officer armor and JT-12 jetpack. Kast, who defeated the gang, then flew away from the Ring of Kafrene in the *Foxcatch* to an unknown location.

### Getting back his armor

Sometime later, between 7 ABY and 8 ABY, Kast traveled to Tatooine, landing the *Foxcatch* in the Dune Sea with the intent to get his armor back. He went to Mos Pelgo, donning his jetpack, stolen Imperial officer armor and clone trooper helmet, armed with a blaster. Kast encountered Vanth, tricking the sheriff into thinking there were some disturbances going on in the desert. After the pair went to the supposed location of the disturbances, Kast turned the tables on Vanth, engaging him in a fight in order to get his armor back. Ultimately, Kast stunned Vanth unconscious and removed his armor from the sheriff's body, donning it once more. Kast also injected a serum that would brainwash Vanth of all memories of what happened that day to avoid being pursued. After this, Kast, having regained his Mandalorian armor, departed Tatooine in the *Foxcatch*, and would go around and make people think he was Boba Fett to get larger payments. When Kast heard that Fett had fallen victim to a sarlacc on Tatooine and was now widely assumed to have been killed, he decided it was time again to take Fett's name and charge higher prices accordingly. Though Fett had not in fact died, this was not widely known, and Kast spent much of his time trying to convince people that Fett was still alive. For Fett, Kast posed a double threat: he was both capitalizing on Fett's reputation unearned—and sullying it whenever he failed at a job—and he threatened to expose that Fett had survived his fall into the sarlacc, instigating a rivalry with the more experienced hunter.

### Boba Fett's trap

Around 8 ABY and 9 ABY, when the pirate Gapgrin Chasser attacked New Republic shipments, a bounty was placed on his head by the New Republic itself, one that Kast, who was now mainly taking on assignments given to him by the Bounty Hunters' Guild, took up, as he still worked for whoever would pay him, not just the Guild itself. Kast and Fett's associate Indiana Jones both independently tracked Chasser to the world of Lah'mu. Chasser attempted to ambush Kast with an explosive device inside an abandoned fortress, but the bounty hunter avoided it and fired two Frinka venom-laced darts into Chasser, who escaped through a door. Kast blew down the door and followed Chasser outside, informing him that he would soon be paralyzed. However, the criminal dropped a hidden trapdoor on the out from beneath Kast. The bounty hunter narrowly avoided falling into the lava beneath, catching himself on the rim. Jones, who wanted Chasser for his own reasons, arrived shortly thereafter, finding Kast, who he believed to be Fett, trying to pull himself out of the pit. He blasted the controls, which raised the trapdoor, and found Chasser's paralyzed body not far away. However, when he attempted to claim it for himself, Kast pulled a blaster on him. Jones, realizing that Kast had made more mistakes than Fett would have, and unlike Fett, who had sworn with him to become associates with each other years ago, had pulled a gun on him, realized that Kast was not Fett and warned him about imitating the other bounty hunter. Kast let Jones leave, and Jones, angry that Kast had pulled a gun on him, decided to call Fett and tell him about his impersonator.

Boba tracked Kast to the planet Nevarro, where the Bounty Hunters' Guild had operations going on. Kast, still impersonating Fett, was in the cantina getting a new assignment from Greef Karga after delivering Chasser to the New Republic and receiving his payment for that job. Kast was now tasked with bringing in a criminal named Madak. In reality, this was really a ruse made by Boba as part of his plan to bring down Kast: Fett, by hacking into the Guild's systems earlier with the help of Jem Lavar, had inserted a bounty on a non-existent man, Madak, complete with a reward and information. Karga then gave Kast a tracking fob containing this information to hunt "Madak." Kast used the tracking fob to collect the bounty on "Madak." Unexpectedly, after exiting the cantina, Kast spotted what he believed to be Madak at a vending machine; Kast pursued, having believed that this particular hunt was really easy and short, catching up with Madak near the city's entrance. The bounty hunter approached Madak, who appeared to be opening up a comlink on his wrist, only to watch in confusion as the criminal suddenly faded from view. At that moment Fett appeared behind Kast, a blaster to his head, informing him that "Madak" had been a hologram and was in fact a non-existent bounty, pronouncing Kast dead. Kast tried reasoning with Fett, informing him that he would be violating the Bounty Hunters' Creed, but Fett replied that he wasn't the first one to break the creed, and ordered Kast to remove his helmet. As Kast moved to do so, he ignited his jetpack, sending Fett flying backwards and himself forward. Kast fired at Fett, who took cover, and then Kast attempted to escape on his jetpack so he could fight on his own terms outside. They then used the weapons of their armor against each other, including their flamethrowers, in a fierce battle. Then, Fett fired a grappling hook at Kast, catching him around the ankle, then rocketed up and began beating him. In the ensuing fight, Fett damaged Kast's jetpack, causing the fuel to spill out. He sabotaged the jetpack, initiating a two minute countdown before it exploded. Boba took off Kast's helmet, angrily informing him that he was "no one" as he injected a nerve toxin into Kast's neck and then informed the bounty hunter of the dangers of taking a reputation unearned. Fett left Kast with three vials, claiming that one contained the antidote for the nerve toxin; if Kast had enough strength to get it, Fett said, he could escape before his jetpack exploded. Then, Fett kicked Kast's jetpack, causing it to misfire, with the countdown still going on, launching a screaming Kast high into the air. Kast was unable to escape his own jetpack, and the ensuing detonation killed him.

### Legacy

With Kast dead, Fett no longer had to worry about taking the blame for Kast's various actions, as the latter had been using his name on jobs. However, Fett's daughter, Ailyn Vel, would begin to pose as him in her own career, using the Mandalorian armor of Alpha-Ø2 and trading off Fett's reputation like Jodo Kast had before.

## Personality and traits

Jodo Kast cared more about money than he did about ideals. Credits took precedence over ideals in his new career as well. In his years as a bounty hunter, Kast took on only the best-paying jobs, holding no loyalty to his previous customers and indeed specifically picking jobs that could allow him to use their secrets against them. He cared little for the Bounty Hunters' Creed, either, breaking it if it helped him gain an edge on Fett.

Kast could be vengeful, wanting to inflict pain on those who caused him a great deal of trouble in a hunt or those who themselves inflicted pain indiscriminately. "Jodo Kast never forgets," he was to known to have said, a vow to track down those bounties that escaped him at first. The bounty hunter was a perfectionist, planning out his hunts beforehand and thereby making each one take longer. He was cold and calculating, and enjoyed it when his prey squirmed, getting a feeling of power from it. He was nonetheless lacking in the skills necessary to be a top bounty hunter, like tracking targets or bringing them in without setting off a battle.

An ambitious man, Kast wanted to make a name for himself. He cared deeply about his reputation, feeling that he deserved one and taking on risky missions that would establish himself. At this, he had some degree of success. Additionally, Kast did not hesitate to get his armor back from Cobb Vanth, who had acquired the armor in 4 ABY, proceeding to fight the sheriff after tricking him into thinking there were disturbances happening in the desert. Jodo prided himself on his skills, believing that he never missed a shot or that no one could outmaneuver him. Kast was, at least, capable in a stand-up fight.

Kast initially patterned himself after Boba Fett, dealing with situations the way he imagined Fett would deal with them. He eventually moved to taking Fett's name as soon as he got his armor back a few years after 5 ABY, capitalizing on the bounty hunter's own reputation, a practice that cost him his life when Fett sought to preserve his own reputation. Kast believed that no one cared who was in the armor anyway, that simply its appearance was reason enough to hire him. He came to think of Fett as a "fossil," even thinking of himself as better than the older bounty hunter. He was not as skilled as Fett, though, a fact that Indiana Jones pointed out to him shortly before his death at Fett's hands.

## Appearances

* Agent of Doom (First appearance)
* *The Armor*
* Twin Engines of Destruction
* Beyond the Dune Sea II (Indirect mention only)
* *Boba and Fennec* (Mentioned only)
* It's Not A Matter of Luck (Mentioned only)