Battle at Amaxine Station

During her war to destroy the Dark Lords of the Sith Darth Sidious and Darth Vader, Crimson Dawn leader Qi'ra acquired the Fermata Cage, a weapon of the dark side of the Force that could freeze individual moments in time, to entrap Vader and Sidious. In order to achieve her goal, Qi'ra fabricated the existence of an ancient Sith Lord who had been trapped in the Cage, hoping to lure the two into a confrontation in which she would trap them. To create the rumor, while being hunted and eventually found by the Imperial Navy, Qi'ra sacrificed her flagship, the Vermillion, and confronted Sidious via hologram, telling of the supposed Sith Lord she planned to unleash against them. The destruction of her ship led Sidious to believe that Qi'ra had been killed, but she had secretly survived and escaped to Cataract Base, where the Dawn Fleet was stationed and ready for deployment. While unsure if Qi'ra was telling the truth about the trapped Sith, Sidious told Vader they could not take the chance and ordered him to find the Cage.

"The Archivist" and Kho Phon Farrus, who had been attempting to open the Fermata Cage, failed in their first attempt and were instructed by Qi'ra to move to their next location. Sidious, meanwhile, instructed his apprentice to hunt down Qi'ra's allies, kill them and bring the Fermata Cage to him. After another attempt by the Archivist and Farrus to unlock the Fermata Cage failed, Sidious and Vader discovered their location through the disturbance in the Force it set out, and Vader was sent to claim the artifact. During a battle with Chanath Cha and the Orphans, Vader learned that Qi'ra had actually survived her supposed death. Although Vader struck down Cha, and two of the other Orphans were killed, the Archivist managed to escape aboard their starship, the Siroto, with the Fermata Cage. Later, Vader and Sidious sparred as the two spoke about the upcoming confrontation with Qi'ra and the potential Sith Lord. Sidious informed his apprentice that he would enforce the Sith Rule of Two, as there could only be two Sith, a master and an apprentice.

As she fled, the Archivist informed Qi'ra she knew a location where she could open the Cage without it killing her: the Amaxine space station, an ancient space station in the Outer Rim Territories once used by the Amaxine warriorss, but later overtaken by the living Drengir plants, which were naturally powerful in the dark side and therefore a perfect energy source for the Cage. Aware that Crimson Dawn was running out of time, Qi'ra instructed her to set a course to the Amaxine space station right away. At Dawnfall Base, Qi'ra attempted to call in allies to help her against the Sith, though her first contact, the assassin Deathstick, rejected her offer. She then turned to the Knights of Ren, who had previously been allied with her, though they had left after they had had enough of working for Qi'ra and two of their members had been killed. Qi'ra was able to persuade the Knights to rejoin her efforts, and sent them the coordinates to where they could help her bring down the Sith. Afterward, Qi'ra spoke with Cadeliah, a young girl who was the heir to two syndicates, the Mourner's Wail Syndicate and the Unbroken Clan, and who Qi'ra hoped to use help unite the criminal underworld.

Cadeliah had realized Qi'ra was desperate and on the verge of losing everything, potentially even her own life, and questioned why she didn't just walk away and become someone else. Unsure of who she would be if she ran, Qi'ra told Cadeliah that she was to leave soon, adding that it would most likely be the last time the two saw each other, either because she was dead or she had to run. Qi'ra handed Cadeliah a device and instructed her to play the message it contained if she was not contacted by Qi'ra within five days, which Cadeliah agreed to do. As Cadeliah left, Qi'ra received a communication from the Spark Eternal possessed body of the rogue archaeologist Doctor Chelli Lona Aphra, who she had an offer for, as, according to Qi'ra, the Spark hated the Sith as much as she did. Having abandoned the Dawn due to their fear that Qi'ra plans would destroy everything, Farrus told Aphra's allies of Qi'ra's plans.

Back at Dawnfall Base, Qi'ra assembled all of her forces and spoke to them. She thanked them for them being there, no matter the reasoning, and promised that her plan could only succeed if it relied on all of them. As she asked the crowd to remember specific moments where life under Palpatine's rule had made their lives were unfair, she reminded them that, to Sidious, they were insignificant pieces on a board. She finished by saying she was not asking them to rebel, only what they already wanted to do: take their resentment towards Sidious and the Galactic Empire, and "shove it down his throat". The Dawn Fleet then departed from the base to reinforce the Amaxine station. Meanwhile, the Archivist had arrived at the Amaxine Station, where she set up and activated the Fermata Cage, which quickly began to consume the plant life and dark side energy around it. As the Cage began its consumption, Vader's flagship the Executor, which Sidious took personal command of for the battle, arrived, making the Archivist realize she was out of time.

In order to totally snuff out Crimson Dawn, the Sith were backed up with a fleet of Imperial-class Star Destroyers. Aboard, the Sith could sense the opening of the Fermata Cage. Both Sith Lords had a great desire to board the station, hoping to feel the power of the possible Sith Lord, one who was so dangerous they had been sealed away in the Fermata Cage, and then test their own power against the Sith Lord, no matter if the confrontation would result in the old Sith's destruction or their own. However, Sidious declared to Vader that their wishes were foolish. He then instructed an Imperial officer to use the full power of the Executor to destroy the Amaxine Station without delay. Before the order could be carried out, however, another officer reported that an entire fleet was dropping out of hyperspace. While Vader first assumed it was the Alliance to Restore the Republic taking advantage of their presence, Sidious realized it was Crimson Dawn.

As the Dawn Fleet came out of hyperspace, Margo ordered the implementation of their battle plan: Class Three and Class-Two ships moved to target the long-range cannons of the Executor, while Class One ships moved to engage the Executor's starfighter complement. Margo also ordered Crimson Dawn transports to travel into the station, thereby enabling Dawn soldiers take up positions inside and grant the Archivist more time. In the ensuing space battle between the forces of the Empire and Dawn, TIE fighters and TIE/IN interceptors were deployed. The Dawn's fighters posed little actual threat to the Executor, but they were able to target the ship's long-range weapons as planned. As such, the Executor was forced to divert power to its , delaying Palpatine's order to destroy the station. Although the admiral aboard claimed it would be a short delay, Sidious, unwilling to leave the matter to chance, left with Vader on a Lambda-class T-4a shuttle to personally end the crisis. The two Sith also gathered an escort of Royal Guards and death troopers to join them in boarding the station.

Once the Dawn transports reached the station, a team of Dawn soldiers under an officer prepared for the upcoming battle with Imperial troops by securing the hangar, finding cover and setting up turrets, while a higher-ranking Dawn captain led several platoons deeper into the station to establish a parameter around the Archivist. Flying through the space battle under the escort of four crimson TIE Interceptors, Vader and Sidious's shuttle entered the hangar shortly afterward, with their crimson TIEs destroying all landed transports. Royal Guards and death troopers quickly departed and began to fire on the Dawn troops. As both sides began to take casualties, Vader and Sidious exited the shuttle. Sensing deep waves of dark side energy, with not all coming from the Fermata Cage, Sidious warned Vader he did not know what they would find on the station, but that they had to be guided by the principle that there were to be no survivors.

Leading their troops from the front, the two Sith cut through and deflected shots back at the Dawn soldiers, much to the amusement of Sidious, who, due to his duties as Emperor, was not usually able to take a direct hand against his enemies. In response to their deflection of blaster bolts, the Dawn captain ordered Squad Two and Squad Three to switch to electrified melee weapons, with which they direct engaged the Sith. Squad One and Squad 4, meanwhile, were ordered by the captain to continue shooting, albeit with a focus on the escort. However, Squads Two and Three were no match for the Sith, with the longest surviving member of the grouping only fighting as long as he did because Vader was toying with him. When told to stop by Sidious, Vader quickly executed the soldier.

Once she had all but completed her task, the Archivist informed Qi'ra, who was overlooking the engagement from outside the station, and told her she needed to leave as she did not want to get caught between the Sith Lords and the Fermata Cage. Qi'ra told the Archivist to make her escape. She then added that her soldiers would hold off the Sith long enough for the Fermata Cage to open, and if they were not enough then another individual, referring to the Spark Eternal, was on their way. After the Spark Eternal arrived on the station, Qi'ra herself journeyed aboard it to personally greet the AI near the Cage before the Crimson Dawn leader rejoined the fleet in a personal ship. As Vader and Sidious neared the Fermata Cage, the Spark Eternal revealed itself. The Spark told the Sith it was aware of Aphra's memories and fears, adding that Aphra was terrified of them, seeing them as demons, but that in reality it merely saw them as men. Vader noticed that she was now changed and inhabited. Sidious left the two, informing Vader to deal with Aphra and the Spark, and then join him at the Fermata Cage, as he knew something was coming and he wanted him at his side.

As Sidious left, Vader dueled the Spark, which carried a cortosis sword known as the Null Blade, which could short out lightsabers for a brief time. As it struck at Vader, the Spark declared that the sword made him weak. As the Spark spoke, the Spark knocked the Sith Lord's deactivated lightsaber out of his hand. After the Spark questioned if Vader saw what it meant, he responded that he did not and pushed the Spark Eternal out of Aphra's body, responding that the Spark was weak. Aphra, now free of the Spark, attempted to hide from Vader, which he told her was not possible. As Aphra pointed out was the better option, however, Vader decided to abandon the search for the doctor and made his way to the Fermata Cage to join his Master, whom Aphra believed was up to something up ahead.

Vader then joined his Master's side at the Fermata Cage, where Sidious informed him that the Fermata Cage was opening after millenia. Declaring that they stood ready to face whatever was locked away, Sidious declared they would triumph over whatever was released. At this moment, a small disc-like dropped to the ground next to the Sith, much to their confusion because they had no connection to the Sith nor the Force. Aboard the Siroto outside the station, the Archivist informed Qi'ra she could see everything happening. Seeing that the two Sith were in the vicinity of the open Fermata Cage, Qi'ra declared the only thing left to do was win. Sidious concluded that Qi'ra had lied to them and that they been lured into a trap, but the Archivist activated a switch and locked the two Sith inside a . While overjoyed, Qi'ra reminded the Archivist that it was not over yet, instructing her to seal the Fermata Cage and trap the two Sith Lords within. Qi'ra intended to then throw the Cage into a star.

At this moment, the Knights of Ren arrived at the station in their ship, the Night Buzzard, with Marinda taking note of the wide-scale battle before them. Looking into the station with binoculars, Ren confirmed he saw Vader and Sidious and that both looked to be in trouble, much to his surprise. However, Ren was sure that the Emperor would be able to escape somehow. He then added that after the Sith killed Qi'ra, they would then turn to kill the Knights after they had carried out the heist on Vader's Castle. Believing they owed Qi'ra nothing after she had treated them as disposable idiots and made them enemies of the Sith, Ren informed the Knights that the only way they could turn the situation around was to become allies of the Sith. With this, the Night Buzzard fired on the Fermata Cage, freeing the Sith Lords as it collapsed, sending out a Force Wave in the process.

Once they were freed, Sidious remarked that Qi'ra had come so close yet so far to killing them. The collapse of the Fermata Cage devastated Qi'ra, with the wave from its collapse also destroying a number of the Dawn ships and giving the Empire an advantage in the battle. In response, she informed her forces she had failed them. She then told them to flee, scatter and start new lives for themselves. As the Imperials began to destroy Qi'ra's forces, Admiral Firmus Piett was informed that the Crimson Dawn forces had nearly been annihilated, and the admiral ordered for no survivors to be left. As she saw her forces wiped out, Qi'ra said goodbye, wished them luck, and fled.

Vader and Sidious left the machine that housed the Fermata Cage with the artifact in Sidious' hands. The two Sith spoke of sensing a great rending in the Force that had rippled through the galaxy, which caused Sidious' own grip on the Force to become tenuous. As Vader questioned how they had been freed, the Spark Eternal made its way inside the devices dropped by the Fermata Cage. Before Sidious could answer Vader's question, the Knights of Ren arrived and informed the Sith they had been the ones to free then. In response, Sidious, remembering they had stolen from Vader's Castle before, questioned the Knights as to think their actions at the station had earned them his mercy, to which Ren responded that it actually was their hopes. Sidious informed the Knights they were mistaken and electrocuted them with Force lightning. As the Knights laid on the ground. Sidious informed them that what was left of them would serve him now, and that he was sure he could put them to excellent use. As the Knights remained on the ground, Sidious instructed Vader to go with him, and that were done with the small matters.

Crimson Dawn was destroyed by its failure in the battle. Back at Cataract Base, Cadeliah played the message as she had been instructed to by Qi'ra, who had recorded a farewell to the young girl because she had always known, for one reason or another, she would likely be gone. Instead of leaving Cadeliah empty handed and seeing much of herself in the young criminal heir, Qi'ra left her three gifts: the knowledge she had gained firsthand with the Dawn, resources that included the credits that remained in her Dawn accounts, which Cadeliah could access via details encoded on the message datacard, and the ability to live a free life as she saw fit, something Qi'ra never had. Qi'ra's pre-recorded message, in which the Dawn leader had begun crying, ended by noting she had no idea if her attempts to destroy the Sith had succeeded. Although Qi'ra even believed that she had never been able to free herself, she took solace in the fact that she had managed to free Cadeliah.

The destruction of Crimson Dawn persuaded those who were willing to defy Imperial rules into laying low, which hampered the Rebel Alliance's own efforts against the Empire, particularly their investigation into the DS-2 Death Star II Mobile Battle Station. The rebellion had learned of the second Death Star's existence from two Dawn agents, a couple called Jon Melton and Bevelyn, with both telling the rebels everything they knew over the course of ten debriefings. Even with their intelligence, it was not enough for the rebels to properly counter the new Death Star. The lack of sources thanks to any leads lying low in the wake of the Dawn's destruction further hurt their efforts.

Sometime later, Qi'ra was in a cantina when word came through that Sidious had been killed during a battle with the Rebellion in the Endor system. As footage of an uprising on Coruscant played, the crowd went wild, stating that the Empire was gone and that the Rebel Alliance had freed the galaxy.

Sometime after the battle, the Archivist recorded Qi'ra's attempts to destroy the Sith in a holocron. She stated that after the battle Crimson Dawn had been destroyed and that she did not hear from Qi'ra again. The Archivist then expressed her presumption that either the Empire or one of its remnants found Qi'ra and killed her. The Archivist spent time considering the reason why Qi'ra had come so close to completing her plan, but ultimately failing. The reason she came to the conclusion with was that despite all of Qi'ra's power, her skill and influence, and all the loyal and strong allies she had gathered, Qi'ra did not trust, she did not have faith, or as the Archivist finally came up with, Qi'ra was alone.

Years after the fall of Crimson Dawn, Luke Skywalker and his sister Leia Organa, discovered the holocron and played it, learning all about Qi'ra's attempts to destroy the Sith. Once the Archivist's recollection was finished, Organa stated that the story was almost too much to believe. Skywalker agreed, though he added he thought that Qi'ra had not failed. He recalled how Melton and Bevelyn had informed the Rebellion of the second Death Star's construction. Skywalker continued that without the knowledge, they may have only learned of it's existence when it was too late and that the Rebellion could have been destroyed. Organa the recalled a Syndicate War that Qi'ra instigated to keep Sidious occupied, which gave the Rebel Fleet time to regroup. Skywalker then stated that Qi'ra had saved the galaxy from the Sith, just not in the way she thought she would. In response, Organa expressed that she had wished that Qi'ra had gone to the Rebellion, and that also wished that she had lived to see the rebels win, unaware that Qi'ra was actually in fact alive.

• "Who's the Boss?" — Star Wars Insider 224
• Star Wars: The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire