Kassihm

Kassihm was a Kadas'sa'Nikto pirate, and captain of the M'hendosat during the early years of the Galactic Civil War. Soon after the Battle of Yavin, he made the mistake of attempting to rob the crew of the Millennium Falcon, a mistake which resulted in the destruction of his ship and his crew by Rebel agents. Soon after, he was captured by Grand Moff 4-8C, and agreed to assist the Imperials in their pursuit of the droid B-1D4, which had been among the Falcon's passengers, secretly plotting his own escape from the Empire all the while. After unsuccessfully pursuing the Rebels and the rogue droid on Dweem, the Imperials eventually tracked B-1D4 to an Imperial prison on Merakai. After the droid's successful retrieval, Kassihm knew that he had outlived his usefulness to the Empire and would soon be executed. Using a droid disabler, he deactivated 4-8C and dismantled it. Afterwards, he commandeered a ship, rescued the Falcon's crew, and joined the Rebellion.

Destruction of the M'hendosat
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 crews in the Si'klaata Cluster. Cruising up and down the Sisar Run 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 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, one of the rebels managed to elude the pirates, and began sabotaging several of the M'hendosat's subsystems to distract them. The rebel 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.

Search for B-1D4
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 was interrogated, alongside the Skrilling droid merchant Dilrath, by 4-8C, as well as Burra Stone, regarding the Millennium Falcon, as well as B-1D4. Kassihm was able to confirm that B-1D4 had been among the Falcon's passengers. Knowing that he would be executed for his crimes, 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.

After setting the Zaker Besar into orbit around Dweem, 4-8C had his men scan the planet for any trace of the Falcon. While the results were inconclusive, the Grand Moff believed that Han Solo may have used Dweem's storms to cloak his electromagnetic signature. Probes sent to sweep the planet showed no trace of the Falcon but did show a large power signature, possibly a generator for a base. Believing that the Rebels may have been setting up their new base on Dweem, 4-8C had the Besar's AT-STs prepared for recon. Kasshihm joined Stone and 4-8C on the planet's surface to search for the Rebels, but their mission proved to be fruitless, as the base was discovered to be an abandoned Galactic Republic base defended by Iron Knights. Before escaping Dweem, however, the threesome encountered dweemons: large, spydr-like creatures that blended into their environment. Despite this, Kassihm and the Imperials were able to make it back to the Zaker Besar unharmed.

Livid that the expedition on Dweem had been nothing more than a wild bantha chase, 4-8C planned to kill Kassihm. The Nikto, however, protested, claiming that Solo did not expect any survivors from the destruction of the M'hendosat, and thus would not have attempted any deception. Realizing that The Heart of Steel must have hijacked the Falcon, the Grand Moff surmised that B-1D4 would return to Imperial Center, the place where she had served as a protocol droid for over a century, and also the location where The Heart of Steel virus was developed.

Merakai Jailbreak
4-8C's assumption proved to be correct, but the consequences of B-1D4's actions were more disastrous than the droid had anticipated. The Heart of Steel had shut down Imperial Center's defenses, allowing Solo to elude capture. Despite this, Darth Vader had had managed to set a trap for Solo and his compatriots on Cheeyoom Matee, a local Rebel base where the Falcon had sought refuge. 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 a Merakai prison could be quite disadvantageous for the Grand Moff; if the Merakai technicians started probing the droid's memory, they would discover 4-8C's unauthorized involvement with the Imperial Center incident. He offered to aid 4-8C in breaking into the prison and retrieving The Heart of Steel, as simply requesting it of the base commander would look suspicious. The Grand Moff accepted, accompanying Kassihm to ensure the pirate did not try and double-cross him. Stone also tagged along, in case Kassihm attempted to destroy the Grand Moff or The Heart of Steel.

Touching down on Merakai in the Nikto ship Optitron, Kassihm and the Imperials journeyed through the swamps of the planet, braving dangers such as bullet beetyls and sea slugs before reaching Merakai Prison. Cutting through a grating, the group entered the prison through its sewage system and proceeded through the facility in their hunt for B-1D4. Choosing to masquerade as Imperial inspectors from the Department of Punishment, the group found the droid 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, starting a substantial riot. Teaming up with Solo and his friends, they were able to get free of the prison walls and into a speeder. Solo opposed the Imperials' plans to take B-1D4, but a member of the Redesign team was able to convince him and his friends to flee. 4-8C's operation complete, the group returned to the Optitron.

Escape from the Empire
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 path to salvation was joining the Rebellion, he planned to turn the tables on the Grand Moff. Waiting until Stone was fast 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 damage done to B-1D4, the pirate crept up on him with extreme caution. Kassihm fired his droid disabler, deactivating 4-8C. Noting that the droid had been able to produce and aim a blaster in a fraction of a second, Kassihm realized that had he been a split second slower, he would have been killed. Dismantling 4-8C, the Nikto commandeered the Optitron, rescued Solo and his friends, and joined the Alliance. What became of Kassihm afterwards is unknown.