Q: Where have the Obsidian Phoenix attacks occurred?
A: There are ten attacks that occurred in triangle of space between Taris and Dantooine and Ord Mantell, though touching down on none of those worlds. Two occurred outside this area.
Q: Whom is the Phoenix attacking?
A: A: The targeted ships include the First Destiny (lost with all hands off of Dantooine, carrying a shipment of Datooine wine) and the Terrible Theologian (carrying high-end computer components, destroyed outside of Ord Mantell; the crew survived in escape pods, led by Captain Gellas)
Almost all of the ships had divergent cargo including imperfect but still valuable gems, obscure metals, unique wines, a cache of old Krath blaster rifles, holovid components, starship navigation components, etc. They share the trait of being relatively small, fairly expensive, and highly portable. All but two of the ships had passed through Taris within a month of being attacked by the Obsidian Phoenix
It’s the exceptions to the rule that prove most interesting. The Phoenix has attacked 12 ships over the last eight months. Ten were within its normal hunting grounds, but there are two that were not.
The Startrader was slow-moving cargo/passenger freighter carrying low-grade agricultural equipment and supplies to the Outer Rim agricultural world of Kaldrik. Examining its passenger manifest reveals it was transporting a Kel Dor Jedi named Num Feng (Jedi 10). The ship was destroyed as it arrived in Kaldrik space, and Num Feng was never found.
The other ship was the Sapphire Solace. It was a Science Academy-chartered ship that had been exploring the shattered moon of Teleron V in the Outer Rim.
Neither ship passed through Taris.
Q: We should know a bit about the Phoenix from its days around Zebulon. Perhaps what kind of weapons and tactics it used in the past?
A: Korinth Cloudskimmer, a captain for Starrior Expeditions, has been keeping up with the pirate investigations on Zebulon. The original pirate attacks targeted vessels that carried specialized mining and exploration equipment (on the way to the Prime) as well as rare gems, metals and wood (on the way back from the Prime).
Their modus operandi involved jamming long-range communications using an electronics package on their freighter, disabling the enemy ship, boarding it, stealing what they needed, and then blowing the ship. They would occasionally take prisoners if it suited them. Their attack freighters were occasionally augmented by a wing of small interceptor-class starfighters, but they had to abandon those fighters on Zebulon.
To the best of the colony’s knowledge, the pirates only ever attacked ships they knew everything about – flight plans, cargo, ship’s complement. The only exception were when they attacked the Ruby Raptor when it was carrying the heroes to the Prime to investigate the pirates, but even then they knew the flight path and the crew complement; they just underestimated their effectiveness.
Q: Where does the Obsidian Phoenix berth?
A: According to Koth, At Point Nadir, a comet-based shadowport located inside this triangle of space.
Q: What does Koth know about Point Nadir?
A: Koth has never been to the shadowport, but knows more about it than Highlife. The port is apparently located in some sort of rogue planetoid in the Outer Rim, possibly a comet or asteroid. It is ruled by the Anjiliac clan of Hutts, and they take its security very seriously; people have died simply for talking about it.
Q. Highlife is going to start studying the local star charts. I'm looking for spacial anomalies, asteroid belts, wreckage fields... basically anything we could possibly use to our advantage in a starship battle with the Phoenix.
The Ghost Walk Cluster immediately springs to mind. While not part of the Obsidian Phoenix’s normal hunting grounds, it is in the Outer Rim and has something the pirates have already expressed an interest in: the Rock Garden of Qualis and the Monastery of Celestial Balance located there. The would-be Jedi informer Dobsin (“Dobby”) had been looking to sell the location of the Monastery to the (now dead) Sith warrior Braln when they met at The Hole in the Wall on Nar’Shadda. Dobby believed that there was some sort of ancient Jedi relic that allowed the monks to maintain telekinetic mastery over the entire Rock Garden, something that would have been of great interest to the Sith knowledge cult.
The Ghost Walk is also home to the supernova remnants known as The Shrouds (a thin, gaseous nebula that nonetheless might be useful for partially concealing ships in a fight), the Burning Veil (a gaseous shell that’s excellent for hiding ships, but which was created by solar flare eruptions … and those flares can be dangerous) and the Boomer Debris Field (home to the overlapping Oort Clouds of the stars Anteholo and Boron, as well as several thousand mines. It is also home to the shadowport known as Bor Nik Tros (aka The Haunt), where the Aeon Harrier once set down for repairs.
Naturally, the cometary cloud around Ord Mantell is another excellent option (especially given that you have a hidden battlestation there now.
) If you'd like other options, let me know and I'll come up with them. 
