Kassihm

In the early years of the Galactic Civil War, Kassihm and his crew (known simply as Kassihm's Pirates) were one of the most notorious space pirate groups in the galaxy. Cruising the space lanes in their Predator-class warship, the M'hendosat, they would capture unwary freighters, loot them for valuables, sell the crewmembers into slavery, and dismantle the captured ships and sell the parts for scrap.

A few months after the Battle of Yavin, Kassihm and his crew encountered the damaged Millennium Falcon along one of their regular patrol routes. Not ones to pass up a seemingly easy catch, the pirates quickly boarded the Falcon, knocking out the passengers with Bothan stun spores and throwing them in the brig. Unbeknownst to the pirates, a few of the rebels managed to elude capture, and began sabotaging several of the M'hendosat's subsystems to distract them. The rebels then began reactivating the captured droids, including B-1D4, who used the Heart of Steel virus stored in her memory banks to override the M'hendosat's security systems and free the remaining prisoners. The escapees quickly began running amok aboard the ship, killing several members of Kassihm's crew as they stole the various parts needed to repair the Falcon's hyperdrive. During the chaos, the M'hendosat's reactor core sustained catastrophic damage, and the rebels barely managed to return to the Falcon and escape before it went critical, destroying the M'hendosat and the remaining crew--all except for Kassihm, who managed to flee the ship in an escape pod just in time.

Soon after the destruction of his ship, Kassihm's escape pod was picked up by the Imperial ship Zaker Besar, under the command of Grand Moff 4-8C. Aboard the vessel, he and the Skrilling droid merchant Dilrath were interrogated by 4-8C and Burra Stone regarding the Millennium Falcon and B-1D4. Kassihm was able to confirm that B-1D4 had been among the Falcon's passengers. Knowing that he would be executed for the crimes he had committed, he managed to buy himself time by offering his services to the Imperials to aid in retrieving the droid, an offer which 4-8C accepted. Using information from the computer on Kassihm's escape pod, 4-8C determined that the Falcon was headed for Dweem, and began plotting a course.

Though orbital scanning proved fruitless thanks to storm activity in the atmosphere, probe droids sent down to Dweem's surface picked up a large electrical signature, possibly from a power generator, leading the Imperials to believe that they had discovered a hidden Rebel base. Kassihm joined the Imperial recon team, which included Stone and 4-8C, on the planet's surface to search for the Rebels. En route to the base, the team ran afoul of a group of predatory Dweemons; large, spider-like creatures with camouflaged exoskeletons that made them nearly invisible against the terrain's frozen backdrop. Though the team managed to evade the creatures and reach the base relatively unscathed, the effort proved to be for naught. Rather than a new Rebel base, the facility was actually a disused relic from the days of the Old Republic, defended by Iron Knights--sentient, Force-sensitive crystals inhabiting droid bodies. Kassihm and the Imperials returned to the Zaker Besar, empty-handed and with no leads as to B-1D4's location.

Enraged that their mission on Dweem had been a dead end, 4-8C planned to kill Kassihm. The Nikto protested, claiming that Solo would not have attempted any kind of deception since he likely did not expect anyone to have survived the M'hendosat's destruction. Realizing that The Heart of Steel must have hijacked the Falcon, 4-8C reasoned that B-1D4 would return to Imperial Center, the place where she had served as a protocol droid for over a century, and the location where The Heart of Steel virus had been developed.

As it turned out, the Heart of Steel had been released into Imperial Center's central computer system, bringing down its defenses and allowing Solo and his friends to escape. Soon after, however, Darth Vader managed to capture the Falcon and its passengers on Cheeyoom Matee. As a result, the Rebels and B-1D4 were captured and thrown into an Imperial prison on Merakai.

Kassihm, devising a way to secure his own freedom, convinced 4-8C that B-1D4's presence in the Merakai prison would be disastrous for the Grand Moff; if the Merakai technicians started probing the droid's memory, they would discover 4-8C's unauthorized involvement with Heart of Steel's development. He offered to aid 4-8C by breaking into the prison and retrieving B-1D4, as simply requesting the droid from the base commander would look suspicious. The Grand Moff accepted the offer, but only on the condition that he and Stone would accompany Kassihm, to ensure the pirate did not attempt a double-cross.

Landing on Merakai in the Nikto ship Optitron, Kassihm and the Imperials slogged through the predator-infested swamp to reach Merakai Prison. Cutting through a grating, the group entered the prison through its sewage system. Choosing to masquerade as Imperial inspectors from the Department of Punishment, the group found B-1D4 in the clutches of Merakai's droid torturer, who realized that they were impostors almost immediately. With the prison alarms blaring, the group took the droid and freed all the prisoners, using the ensuing riot to cover their escape. Temporarily allying with Solo and his friends, they were able to make it out of the prison and escape into the swamp on a stolen speeder. Solo opposed the Imperials' plans to take B-1D4, but relented after the Imperials promised not to pursue them if they gave up the droid without a fight. The operation complete, the group returned to the Optitron.

After the mission was over, Kassihm knew that 4-8C would kill him, as he was no longer useful now that B-1D4 had been retrieved. Realizing that the only way to save his own life would be to join the Rebel Alliance, he planned to turn the tables on the Grand Moff. Waiting until Stone was asleep in his stasis chamber, the Nikto retrieved a droid disabler that he had stolen from the Merakai armory. While 4-8C was examining the damaged B-1D4, the pirate quietly crept up behind him, readying his weapon. He didn't go completely unnoticed, however, and 4-8C was able to spin around and draw a blaster just as Kassihm fired. As the deactivated Grand Moff hit the floor, Kassihm realized that had he been a split-second slower, he would have been killed. After dismantling 4-8C, the Nikto commandeered the Optitron and picked up Solo and his friends in the Merakai swamps, explaining what had become of 4-8C and expressing interest in joining the Rebel cause. Deciding that he might be of use to the Alliance, having just "killed" a Grand Moff, Solo gave Kassihm the coordinates to the nearest Rebel outpost. What became of Kassihm afterward is unknown.

Like most space pirates, Kassihm was only interested in two things: getting rich and staying alive long enough to do so. Other than himself, the only other beings he had any real loyalty to were his crewmen; however, he was more than willing to leave them to die if it meant he would survive, as he did when the M'hendosat was destroyed. Though he did end up joining the Rebellion after his misadventure with the Empire, his decision was likely motivated more by his desire for protection from Imperial retribution than any real sense of idealism.

Kassihm was created by Dave Wolverton for the Star Wars Missions game book, Star Wars Missions 13: Prisoner of the Nikto Pirates, serving as the mission's primary antagonist. He reappears as a playable character in Star Wars Missions 14: The Monsters of Dweem and Star Wars Missions 16: Imperial Jailbreak.