The findsmen were highly superstitious. Their sect worshipped the swirling mists that hid the planet, performing ancient rituals handed down through generations. In the gases, the findsmen believed they could divine signs and omens, leading them to their prey. Unfortunately for the hunters the Empire insinuated itself within the Gand’s slave trade. The imperial scanning was technologically superior to “ancient rituals.” The Empire tracked acquisitions through the mist without help and without intuition. It looked as if the time-honored tradition of findsmen would die. But the profession did not die. Zuckuss and a few others took it off Gand into the wider galaxy- a place so wild, so vast, that intuition was all that could make a path across it to acquisitions no scanners would locate, all that could read the intentions of alien races, all that could give hints of the future or the rewards or trials its multitudinous paths led to, the ends everyone and everything rushed toward. Zuckuss used the elaborate and arcane rituals in his hunts, becoming a tireless tracker with an affinity for intuiting his quarry’s moves; he was called “the uncanny one.”

Off planet Zuckuss is forced to wear a special breathing apparatus that protects him from harmful oxygen and provides supplemental gases necessary to his species. He adopted battle armor under his heavy cloak, and hung a computer and sensor array on straps around his neck. He dares any terrain and environment in pursuit of his prey.

Zuckuss was eventually hired by the Tatooine Crime Lord, Jabba the Hutt. Although he worked solo on several missions, it was when Jabba paired him with a brilliant rogue protocol droid, 4-LOM, that Zuckuss found the missing piece in his hunting procedure. Zuckuss’ intuition and ability to outguess his opponents worked perfectly in combination with 4-LOM’s analytical skills. For a time, they were two of Jabba’s favorite hunters.

While tracking one of their quarries, a female human, Zuckuss was lured into a dark alley with no exit. In the struggle The acquisition pulled off his helmet. After securing the target, 4-LOM tried to help Zuckuss’’ put the helmet back on. Before securing it, Zuckuss had taken in three short reflexive breaths of poisonous oxygen. His lungs sustained serious damage.

4-LOM and Zuckuss secured many acquisitions and collected many bounties in later years. Zuckuss’ condition worsened, but was kept secret. Together, the pair hunted many acquisitions and collected many bounties. Word of their success reached the Rebellion. Zuckuss and 4-LOM were contacted by the Rebels about capturing a certain Imperial governor. After calculating and noting that the price on the Imperial governor would be more than that reward for turning in the few Rebels to the Empire, the two hunters agreed. After capturing and delivering Sector Governor Nardix to the Rebels, Zuckuss and 4-LOM were paid handsomely. Nardix was tried by the Rebellion for crimes against sentients, and the two hunters added the credits to their account.

A year after the destruction of the Empire’s first Death Star, Jabba sent 4-LOM and Zuckuss as “nonofficial emissaries” to Darth Vader’s Super Star Destroyer Executor. The rendezvous point, the Hoth System. Zuckuss and 4-LOM exited hyper-space directly into the middle of battle. A Rebel Transport the bounty hunters’ computer identified as the Bright Hope streaked past them. Zuckuss turned The Mist Hunter around, following the transport ship. In order to lessen the crime of Nardix, Zuckuss fired upon the transport ship. After receiving Imperial permission, the Mist Hunter docked on the Executor. Darth Vader assembled the six bounty hunters, instructed them of the bounty placed on the Millennium Falcon, and sent them on their way. 4-LOM and Zuckuss decided their plan of attack.

The two hunters decided to fake a rescue of the very Rebel Transport they attacked. After persuading the Rebels that they were rescuing them, the hunters loaded all survivors into the Mist Hunter. 4-LOM and Zuckuss piloted the ship to Darlyn Boda, a remote planet upon which the surviving Rebels could receive medical attention. During transport, the Rebel Commander, Torynn Farr, noticed the difficulty of which Zuckuss breathed. Zuckuss chose to discuss his ordeal with the oxygen and the human acquisition with her. Farr informed Zuckuss that at the rendezvous point, the Alliance had the medical facilities to heal his damaged lungs, eliminating the need for illegally cloned lungs.

Zuckuss accepted the offer. During treatment, 4-LOM discussed the possible bounties on Rebels at the rendezvous point with his partner. Zuckuss informed 4-LOM that he had meditated on what to do. Because the two had failed to capture Solo, Vader had placed bounties on their heads. Attempting to capture Rebel acquisitions put them in danger from the Empire, the Alliance, and other hunters. Zuckuss had decided to stay. In the following days, 4-LOM calculated the chances of certain events. He calculated the possibilities of he and Zuckuss founding a Bounty Hunter’s Guild in the event of Imperial defeat.