During the Battle of Ringo Vinda, clone trooper Tup of the 501st Legion abruptly shot and killed Jedi General Tiplar in the middle of battle, prompting a Republic retreat. The cause was due to a malfunction in Tup's behavioral modification biochip, which had been implanted in all of the clones to ensure their compliance with carrying out Order 66 and wiping out the Jedi Order. The incident was cause for concern for Sith Lords Count Dooku and Darth Sidious, as this could lead the Jedi to discover their plans. ARC trooper Fives, Tup's best friend in the 501st, decided to personally investigate what had happened to his friend, and discovered the existence of the chips and that they were in all of the clones. However, when Fives was allowed to plead his case to Supreme Chancellor Palpatine — who was in actuality Sidious — he was framed for attacking the Chancellor and made a fugitive, eventually being shot and killed by the Coruscant Guard while attempting to tell his commanding officers Anakin Skywalker and Clone Captain Rex about the chips. Due to the effects of a drug Fives had secretly been administered which made him appear insane, Skywalker and Rex disbelieved his claims.
During the events involving the near-exposure of Order 66, clone medic Kix, another trooper of the 501st, fought at Ringo Vinda, performing the initial examination of Tup after his mysterious breakdown. Later, after the legion had returned to Coruscant, Kix and some of his comrades went to the clone bar 79's, where Kix was confronted by the renegade Fives in the refresher and given the coordinates where Fives wanted to meet with Skywalker and Rex. Kix became suspicious about the circumstances of Fives' and Tup's deaths, which had been publicly attributed to a parasite the two had picked up on Ringo Vinda which had made their "inhibitor" chips, supposedly there to keep the clones mentally stable, break down. At some point after the Battle of Anaxes, Kix decided to do his own investigating about what had happened. However, like Fives before him, Kix drew the attention of the Sith. Kix found out more about the control chips and Order 66 than Fives had, including that Palpatine was not only behind the conspiracy but was himself a Sith Lord. Before he could tell anyone else what he knew, Kix was hunted down and captured by Separatist forces on Coruscant on the orders of Dooku. Not believing Kix's claims that he hadn't told anyone else about his discoveries, the clone trooper was placed in a cryo-cycle stasis pod on Dooku's orders for transport to Serenno, to be interrogated personally by the Count. Kix's pod was shipped aboard the cruiser Obrexta III.
On the way to Serenno, the Obrexta III was in an unidentified sector of the galaxy when it was attacked by Republic forces, including multiple LAAT gunships. With orders to protect its cargo, who was of great value to the Sith's plans, battle droid B1-CC14 input random hyperspace coordinates into the computers of the damaged starship, sending the Obrexta III hurtling to an unknown region of space.
The Obrexta III ended up at the remote planet Ponemah, in the Western Reaches of the Outer Rim. It subsequently crashed into the planet's dangerous southern polar region, full of ionic dust storms and giant sandworms. There it lay for over fifty years, during which Kix's stasis pod continued to keep him alive.
During that time, the Obrexta III acquired a reputation as having apparently carried a legendarily valuable lost treasure, as Dooku had been known as the richest man in the galaxy during his lifetime, although no one knew the ship's cargo at the time of its loss had been valuable primarily for what Kix knew and could reveal about the Sith's plans. Eventually, during the New Republic era, an ionic storm reactivated the cruiser's distress beacon, where it was picked up by numerous bands of pirates on the planet. A race ensued between the various bands to try and gain the treasure.
When Delphidian pirate leader Sidon Ithano and his crew made it to the treasure, they were surprised that it was a person instead of valuables. As the ship was in danger of being destroyed, Ithano had the rest of his crew, as well as the unconscious Kix, leave in an escape pod, despite there seeming to be no means of escape. Several weeks later, Ithano walked into the bar his crew frequented with the Obrexta IIIs memory core, which contained the locations of some hidden Separatist bases that still had not been plundered. Kix joined Ithano's crew as he had nowhere else to go.