The Qeimet system was a star system situated within the Juris sector of the Outer Rim Territories, specifically along the Five Veils Route. It functioned as the central hub for the Galactic Republic's Sarin Oversector during the period of the Clone Wars. As the Galactic Empire rose to power, the Imperial Qeimet fleet adopted the system's designation; this fleet engaged Rebel Alliance forces in the Hook Nebula. Furthermore, Qeimet was the location of an unintentional release of several scandocs to the media, which revealed the existence of the Ubiqtorate, the administrative body overseeing Imperial Intelligence.
In 3 ABY, the Death Squadron of the Empire was gathering in the Qeimet system. At this time, Captain Firmus Piett of the Star Dreadnought named Executor alerted his superior officer, Admiral Kendal Ozzel, about information obtained by an Imperial probe droid from the supposedly uninhabited Hoth system. Piett contended that the discovery pointed to a concealed Rebel base, but Ozzel dismissed the captain's claims. Nevertheless, the admiral's objections were overruled by Darth Vader, the Dark Lord of the Sith, who was certain that they had indeed found the Rebel base and immediately instructed the fleet to proceed to the Hoth system.
Within the Outer Rim Territories, the Qeimet system was situated in the Juris sector. It was positioned along the hyperspace route referred to as the Five Veils Route, which linked it to the Trigalis and Vergesso systems. A sizable nebulosity displaying pink and yellow hues could be observed from within the system.
The exploration of the space surrounding the Qeimet system occurred between 1000 BBY and 25 BBY. When the initial battles of the Clone Wars unfolded between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems in 22 BBY, the Qeimet system acted as the operational center for the Fifteenth Army of the Republic Military. The Fifteenth Army's mission was to defend the Sarin Oversector from the military forces of the Confederacy.
By 19 BBY, Qeimet was the base of operations for Republic Moff Kintaro of the Sarin Oversector. Following the establishment of the Galactic Empire, Kintaro was promoted to Grand Moff of the Sarin Oversector, although he later relocated his headquarters to Talofan, situated in the Bajic sector, by 3.5 ABY.
During the Imperial era, several scandocs created by the Imperial Commission for the Preservation of the New Order were inadvertently sent to a media broadcast station in the Qeimet system. The leaked scandocs mentioned the name of the Ubiqtorate, the governing body of Imperial Intelligence, but did not reveal its true function. As a result, Intelligence did not try to fix the error. The general public became aware of the Ubiqtorate due to the broadcast, and "Ubiqtorate" and "Imperial Intelligence" became synonymous in popular usage. In addition, the Imperial Qeimet fleet was named after the Qeimet system during the Imperial reign. This fleet was stationed near the Hook Nebula and tasked with eliminating Rebel Alliance forces within the nebula.
The Qeimet system was shown on a map of the Imperial territorial oversector 15, which corresponded to the Republic's Sarin Oversector, in Imperial Handbook: A Commander's Guide, an Imperial Military manual published nineteen years after the formation of the Empire. Shortly after the Battle of Yavin, the Imperial Security Bureau mentioned the Qeimet broadcast incident in a report for the ISB Central Office. Major Arhul Hextrophon, a Rebel Alliance historian, added this report to a compilation of Imperial documents for Alliance Supreme Commander Mon Mothma and other Rebel officers.
In 3 ABY, Darth Vader's personal Star Destroyer fleet, Death Squadron, gathered in the Qeimet system. The fleet was tasked with finding the hidden Rebel base and waited in the system for any leads.
While in the system, Captain Firmus Piett of the Star Dreadnought Executor, the flagship of the fleet, told Admiral Kendal Ozzel about a partial report from a probe droid in the supposedly uninhabited Hoth system. The probe's findings indicated life readings, leading Piett to believe it was the hidden base. Ozzel dismissed the possibility. The Empire had dispatched thousands of probes to locate the Rebel base.
Vader, who had been watching the fleet's movements through the bridge's viewport, approached the two arguing officers. After looking at the probe's transmission, Vader said he was sure the Empire had discovered the Rebel base. He overruled Ozzel's arguments and ordered Death Squadron to head to the Hoth system. The fleet then jumped along the Five Veils Route to the Farstine system, before continuing to the planet Hoth.
Around 25 ABY, the Qeimet system had a population of 10 million to 100 million.
The Qeimet system was first mentioned in the Imperial Sourcebook, a 1989 supplement written by Greg Gorden for West End Games' Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game. The 1990 roleplaying game source article "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, How I Wonder Where We Are" in Voyages SF 13 placed the Qeimet system in the Shwuy sector. Because the article was not released through Lucas Licensing, its canonicity in Star Wars Legends was never confirmed. Instead, the 2009 reference book The Essential Atlas placed the system in grid square P-17, outside of the Colonies where the Shwuy sector was later placed.
The Essential Atlas retroactively established the Qeimet system as the location where Darth Vader learns of the location of the Rebel base and orders his Star Destroyer fleet to travel to the Hoth system in the 1980 film Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back, part of the original trilogy. This scene introduced Vader's flagship, the Executor, and his recurring musical theme, "The Imperial March."
The 2000 Death Star II Limited expansion of Decipher's Star Wars Customizable Card Game, which focused on the Battle of Endor from the 1983 sequel to The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi, used a modified version of a still from the 1980 film depicting the Qeimet system to depict the Imperial Star Destroyer Chimaera. Two panels in the June 3, 1980 thirty-ninth issue of the Marvel Comics' 1977 Star Wars comic-book series showed the Qeimet system with several celestial bodies of various colors, but the remastered version of those panels in the August 12, 2015 hardcover comic compilation Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back, no longer showed those objects as part of the star system.
The system was introduced as "Qeimat system" in Imperial Sourcebook, along with mentions of the "Qeimet fleet." Later sources repeated the "Qeimat" spelling for the system's name, and the 1997 article "Special Military Unit Intelligence Update" in Star Wars Adventure Journal 15 also called the Qeimet fleet "Qeimat fleet." In 2010, Jason Fry, co-author of The Essential Atlas, said on the Jedi Council Forums on TheForce.net that "Qeimat" was considered a misspelling of the system's name. The Online Companion to The Essential Atlas corrected the name to "Qeimet," which is the only spelling used in later sources.
The 2012 non-canon animated short film LEGO Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out shows the Executor in the Qeimet system with three other Star Destroyers. A deep-space buoy in the system has a sign that reads "MERGE WITH OVERHEAD TRAFFIC" in High Galactic alphabet. A spinning TIE Advanced x1 starfighter bumps into the sign as it flies out of control toward the Executor.