the empire strikes back - How did Boba Fett know to hide in the Star Destroyer "Avenger"'s garbage?

When Vader instructed the bounty hunters to all go after the Millennium Falcon, Boba Fett hid in the trash compartment of Vader's Star Destroyer; this allowed him to follow the Falcon undetected to its location after it detached from the Star Destroyer (which it had attached to in order to evade their radar).

But how could he possibly have known about Han Solo's plans? Had Han Solo tried this gambit and succeeded against Boba Fett before? Or was there some other way he, and no other bounty hunter, figured it out?

Answer

How did Boba Fett know where Solo was hiding? A mix of cold calculation and experience.

Calculation

Boba Fett had already assured the capture of Solo before he even left the Executor. He guessed that Solo would have jumped into hyperspace as soon as possible if the hyperdrive worked. Solo's ship was disabled, and that limited the Corellian's options. As far as Fett was concerned, this was all too easy.

Fett's suspicions were confirmed by a simple glance out of the Executor's observation ports at the conning tower of the nearby Avenger. Upon leaving the Executor, he placed Slave 1 near Avenger's waste chutes and blended into the foul mixture when Avenger dumped its' garbage. Sure enough, Fett noticed a powered-down Falcon drifting off into the garbage flow. After the Avenger departed, the Falcon set its course, and Fett was able to determine where the Falcon was headed: Bespin.

Galaxy Guide 3: The Empire Strikes Back 2nd Ed., West End Games p66

Experience

Solo had hidden the Falcon among the Imperial's garbage, released immediately before the jump to hyperspace, and so escaped from the Imperials at Hoth. A good trick, and one that might have worked against most Hunters; it had worked against Fett's competition.

But Boba Fett had been fooled by this trick before, once. By now he had been in his line of work longer than most, and there were few enough ploys he hadn't seen, once or twice or a dozen times.

The Last Man Standing: Boba Fett's Tale, Tales of the Bounty Hunters p293.

Comments

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