In the lawless fringes of the galaxy shortly after the Battle of Hoth, the ruthless boss Sliro Barsha moves to consolidate his power over the criminal underworld by eliminating his rivals. Far from that intrigue, a scoundrel named Kay Vess dreams only of escaping her homeworld of Cantonica and starting a new life among the Core Worlds. Desperate for the means to get away, she signs on with a crew planning to break into Sliro's heavily guarded vault and steal his fortune. Kay cracks the vault, but the job goes disastrously wrong, and she is left betrayed, empty-handed, and forced to flee on her own. Worse still, Sliro pins the break-in on her and places a death mark on her head, thrusting Kay into a dangerous life on the run.