Rane Mahal was a pirate of the female persuasion, and was known as a pirate queen. After Mahal and her crew found themselves marooned on Sakreen, she dispatched a number of NP-unit servo-droids. These droids were programmed to deceive others into thinking one of them contained the coordinates to Mahal's hidden riches. However, the true purpose of the droid was to guide whoever discovered it to Sakreen. This would allow Mahal and her crew to seize their starship and flee the planet. Captain Gwarm and his pirate gang sought to locate the alleged treasure, with Makkeer, a member of their crew, manipulating the smuggler Han Solo into locating the deceptive droids on his behalf. Solo ultimately located the correct droid, and Gwarm's gang trailed him to Sakreen. When they got there, Mahal and her crew came out of the pods they had been hiding in, capturing Gwarm's gang and taking their ship, the Hand of Am-Shak. As Mahal tried to make her escape, Solo employed an ion scrambler to render the Hand of Am-Shak inoperable, leaving both Mahal's and Gwarm's crews stuck.