The First Order, late in the Cold War, became interested in using the Colossus platform on Castilon as a staging area for their forces. As they were still keeping a low profile, they hired Kragan Gorr and his gang of pirates to attack the station, in the hopes that enough attacks would force the Colossus owner, Captain Imanuel Doza, to invite the First Order to take over the station in the interests of keeping it safe. The pirates' first attack failed, with it being driven off more easily than expected. The First Order's Captain Phasma was not impressed at the results, which Gorr attributed to a failure on the part of their spy, Hallion Nark.
At the same time, the Resistance had sent their own spy, Kazuda Xiono, to the Colossus on a mission to find out what the First Order wanted there. Xiono was accompanied by BB-8, Commander Poe Dameron's astromech droid. He had, in fact, covertly assisted in repelling the pirate attack by broadcasting feedback over their communications channel. In his further investigations, Xiono had discovered that Captain Doza, although not allowing the First Order to take over the Colossus, was colluding with them somewhat by accepting fuel shipments from them.
Sometime after the first raid on the Colossus, members of Gorr's gang led by Synara San raided a Darius G-class freighter in an asteroid field near Castilon. They had expected an easy score, but the freighters' cargo, of Kowakian monkey-lizards, included an unpleasant surprise: a Kowakian ape-lizard, enormous and resistant to blaster fire, which allowed it to overpower and eat most of the pirates. At some point during the skirmish, a distress call was activated. San escaped the carnage by locking herself in a crate, but fell unconscious afterwards.
The Kowakian ape-lizard pursues the Resistance pilots.
As a result of Xiono's report about Captain Doza, Dameron decided to return to Castilon to speak to him in person. He contacted his friend Jarek Yeager, who Xiono worked for as a mechanic at his repair shop. As a result, Yeager woke Xiono up early one morning, apparently for a day-long salvaging job. It wasn't until after they had left the platform, and were thus out of earshot of Yeager's other employees, Tam Ryvora, Neeku Vozo and R1-J5 "Bucket," that Yeager revealed to Xiono the true purpose of their trip, when Dameron arrived in his T-70 X-wing starfighter. Dameron had brought a second X-wing, piloted by the astromech CB-23, and Xiono boarded it in midair with some assistance from BB-8. They didn't dock or land in order to avoid attracting attention. The astromech then boarded Dameron's fighter, and the two flew off.
Dameron asked Xiono about Doza potentially colluding with the First Order, and Xiono reported that they wanted to take over the Colossus, for reasons which were unknown to him. He confided about his uncertainties in his work as a spy, and Dameron reassured him he was doing well. They approached the asteroid field near Castilon, and decided to fly in. Dameron showed Xiono a trick he called the "reverse tailslide," which Xiono tried twice but failed to master. Just then, Xiono picked up the freighter's distress signal, and the two pilots flew to investigate. They found the freighter with one pirate ship wrecked near it, and another docked, suggesting the raid that had occurred. BB-8 detected the lifesigns of several survivors, and Dameron hoped none of them were pirates. The two starfighters docked.
Inside, the pilots found empty crates strewn in the hallways suggesting the freighter's living cargo. Hearing noises, they and the two droids followed them, and witnessed two pirates being caught and eaten by the ape-lizard, but without being able to tell the nature of the creature. After heading into another area of the ship, they were accosted by a monkey-lizard, which Dameron drove off. He told Xiono what it was, explaining his distaste for the creatures. Shortly after, they were accosted by more. Two of the creatures blew a pipe, filling the corridor with smoke that made it hard toRsee. One monkey-lizard stole Dameron's blaster pistol, forcing him to chase after it, leaving Xiono alone in the hallway. After losing his flashlight, Xiono panicked, and eventually fled, where he ran into the droids by tripping over BB-8, before being attacked by another lizard.
Dameron retrieved his blaster by throwing a crate at the thief, forcing the monkey-lizard to drop the weapon and flee. BB-8 and CB-23 had not been getting along, but CB was grateful after BB hurled off a monkey-lizard that was attacking her, leading the two droids to briefly ignore Xiono as he struggled with several of the creatures that were attacking him. BB-8 eventually shocked a monkey-lizard clinging to Xiono's leg, at which point Dameron arrived. He fired his blaster into the ceiling to scare off the remaining creatures, accidentally killing one on the ceiling he hadn't known was there. Afterwards, the droids picked up a remaining humanoid lifesign.
The droids led Dameron and Xiono to a room just off the hallway from a partially closed blast door, and CB-23 directed them to the correct crate. Dameron and Xiono were surprised to find the unconscious San inside the crate, and Dameron checked her pulse. The two assumed that San was likely part of the freighter's crew. Hearing a roar from the ape-lizard, the two decided to get out as fast as possible, and Xiono picked up San. Just as they were heading back down the hallway, the ape-lizard arrived and forced open the blast door, prompting the humans and droids to run for it. As Xiono expressed concern that he was falling behind and the ape-lizard was catching up, Dameron split off to lure the creature away. Xiono and the droids reached the door to where the X-wings were docked, but had to put San down due to exhaustion. Dameron was at one point thrown into a wall by the creature, but recovered and caught up to Xiono shortly afterwards. He and Xiono picked up San and carried her through the door just ahead of the creature.
San was put in the back of Xiono's loaned fighter, and the two ships departed the freighter. At this point, they encountered three pirate starships which were checking on their comrades. Dameron shot down one, and Xiono, finding himself chased by another, executed the tailslide to perfection to destroy his pursuer. The third ship fled.
Xiono rescued Synara and brought her to the Colossus.
The two X-wings returned to Castilon and rendezvoused with Yeager in his shuttle. Yeager was surprised when told they had rescued a survivor of a pirate attack. After Xiono brought the unconscious San onboard, Dameron reassured Yeager that she wouldn't have to join his crew. Yeager thought that bringing San to the Colossus was a bad idea, although Xiono was confident. Dameron reassured BB-8 that they would see each other again soon, before he and CB-23 departed in the X-wings.
When San woke up, she saw Xiono leaning over her and punched him in the face. He hastily told her they were just trying to help, and after introducing himself, Yeager, and BB-8 as mechanics, claimed she had been rescued by two pilots, and he and Yeager had volunteered to take her in. Yeager interjected that he hadn't. San was surprised to learn she was being taken to the Colossus, and claimed she was a victim of the pirate attack. She claimed her identification had been stolen, and was uncertain of how she would be received, but Xiono assured her that he and Yeager would get her registered. On the platform, a security droid appeared suspicious of San, but Xiono had registered her and told her everything was fine. Inside, she quickly extricated herself from Xiono and Yeager, claiming to keep to herself. This made Yeager suspicious, and he warned Xiono that if anything happened with her, it would be his responsibility.
Once alone, San contacted her boss, Gorr, and told him what had happened on the freighter, and that she had been rescued and taken to the Colossus. Gorr and San both recognized the opportunity this gave them, and Gorr ordered San to blend in for the time being, and that he would contact her with an assignment soon.
After San had been on the Colossus for some time, and had assisted in arranging at least one attack, Gorr discovered that the two pilots who had rescued her were members of the Resistance. He informed her of this during one of her regular call-ins, and showed her an image from one of the freighter's security cameras of Dameron, Xiono and their droids. However, due to smoke and low lighting conditions in the image, San had to study it for a while, and hadn't recognized anyone in the image before signing off because Xiono was approaching her. Later, after inviting Xiono on her last salvaging run of the day, San asked him more about the pilots he said had rescued her, but Xiono again claimed not to know the pilots, although he did claim that one of them was "kind of handsome."
The investigation first appeared in the 2018 animated series Star Wars Resistance, in the episode "Signal from Sector Six."
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