The Imperial Era saw Corf Ferno, a Vice Admiral, serve in the Imperial Navy. By 2 BBY, he had achieved the military rank of captain and was the commanding officer of the ISD Dark Omen. Ferno served under Grand Admiral Thrawn within the 7th Fleet. After the Liberation of Lothal, Ferno took command of the remaining elements of the fleet under the authority of Supreme Commander Grand General Cassio Tagge. Tagge later appointed Ferno, a seasoned senior fleet commander, to the Joint Chiefs of the Imperial Military.
Leading up to the Battle of Endor in 4 ABY, Ferno participated in briefings with other high-ranking officers. Later, he took part in the Defense of Kuat, where the New Republic captured him. While imprisoned, Ferno underwent interrogation by the New Republic. Following his release, he became an author, penning Fighting with the Galactic Empire, a memoir. In 35 ABY, historian and Resistance paramilitary member Beaumont Kin included details about Ferno and his career in his book, The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire.
By 2 BBY and the time of the Battle of Atollon, Corf Ferno held the rank of captain on a Star Destroyer. He served as the commanding officer of the Dark Omen, an Imperial I-class Star Destroyer within Grand Admiral Thrawn's 7th Fleet. When the battle commenced, Ferno spearheaded the initial assault, with the Dark Omen leading a squadron of five ships. However, Admiral Kassius Konstantine maintained overall command until Thrawn's arrival.
Unlike some of his contemporaries, such as Captain Gilad Pellaeon, Ferno's career remained largely unaffected by the Imperial defeat and the decimation of the 7th Fleet during the Liberation of Lothal in 1 BBY, as he was not present. After the Battle of Yavin in 0 BBY, Supreme Commander Grand General Cassio Tagge promoted Ferno to the rank of Vice Admiral. Tagge then placed him in charge of what remained of the 7th Fleet, tasking Ferno and his fleet with patrolling the Outer Rim Territories. Due to the power vacuum created after Yavin, Tagge also appointed Ferno to the Joint Chiefs of the Imperial Military, and Ferno participated in the Galactic Civil War between the Empire and the Rebel Alliance. In 3 ABY, Ferno's Dark Omen was involved in the ambush of a rebel convoy at Derra, a significant Imperial victory.
Shortly before the Battle of Endor in 4 ABY, Ferno attended briefings alongside numerous Imperial officers, including Fleet Admiral Firmus Piett aboard the Star Dreadnought Executor, Vice Admiral Rae Sloane on the Vigilance, ISB Admiral Garrick Versio on the Eviscerator, Admiral Jhared Montferrat on the Devastator, and others. The battle resulted in an Imperial defeat, prompting Sloane to order a retreat. In 5 ABY, Grand Admiral Sloane dispatched Ferno and reinforcements to Kuat, a strategically important factory world in the Core Worlds, to reinforce Moff Pollus Maksim's Imperial forces during the Defense of Kuat. This was in response to the New Republic, which had evolved from the Rebel Alliance, attacking the Kuat shipyards to establish a blockade or seize control.
While Moff Maksim commanded Kuat's Imperial ground forces, Ferno's Dark Omen took command of the fleet. As the fighting dragged on for weeks and became a war of attrition, Maksim and the local fleet commanders debated whether to continue defending the shipyards or attempt a breakout. Surviving ships tried to break through the New Republic lines, while Maksim chose to remain behind. As the breakout failed, the Dark Omen and Maksim engaged in intense discussions, with Ferno urging Maksim to consider surrender. Eventually, the surrender was issued, and the shipyards fell into New Republic hands. As a consequence, Ferno was taken imprisoned by the New Republic.
As one of the few high-ranking fleet commanders captured alive by the New Republic, Ferno was a person of great interest to New Republic interrogators. His interrogation records are documented in files #139-152 within the New Republic Archives, specifically in Section Imperial Prisoners. During one of his final interrogations, Ferno was questioned about his advice to Moff Maksim to surrender. Following his eventual release, Ferno wrote a memoir titled Fighting with the Galactic Empire, which presented a significantly different account compared to his interrogations with the New Republic.
In 35 ABY, Beaumont Kin, a historian and Resistance paramilitary member, referenced Corf Ferno on several occasions in his book, The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire. Kin's book also cited Ferno's interrogation reports from the New Republic Archives.
Ferno was an officer within the Imperial ranks, capable of leading fleet formations and engaging in combat. He had been through so many wars and battles that he knew when a battle was lost. By the end of the Galactic Civil War, Ferno expressed feelings of weariness and longing for home. He was also a writer, having written his own memoir about his experiences in the Galactic Empire. After Grand Admiral Thrawn's disappearance, Ferno remained a staunch loyalist to Thrawn within the Imperial Navy.
Throughout his Imperial career, Ferno used the Imperial I-class Star Destroyer Dark Omen as his flagship.
Corf Ferno was originally mentioned in Star Wars: Battles that Changed the Galaxy, a reference book published in 2021.