Skirmish aboard Accresker Jail

Around 1 ABY, after Doctor Chelli Lona Aphra was apprehended by Magna Tolvan during an attack targeting the Son-tuul Pride's base located on Son-tuul, she found herself imprisoned aboard the Galactic Empire's Accresker Jail wreckage-prison. During her incarceration, Aphra served in the Accresker Penal Legion, a group of expendable fighters sent into combat. During one particular battle, Aphra, along with her droideka Dek-Nil and a fellow inmate named "Lopset Yas," who was actually Doctor Cornelius Evazan in disguise, orchestrated an attempt to escape. This plan was thwarted by a Force spirit that interfered, causing Dek-Nil's restraining bolt to activate, and Aphra was compelled to return to her imprisonment.

Following the battle, Yas provided Aphra with a transmitter, which she used to contact Magna Tolvan. She then coerced the Captain-Inspector into rescuing her by revealing her knowledge of a conspiracy involving Darth Vader. During an attack on a pirate station where Aphra was deployed, she encountered Tolvan. However, she was distracted by the Force spirit, which led her to the remnants of a Penumbra-1 shattersprite containing the corpse of an ancient Jedi. Gundravian hookspores had overrun the ship and infested the jail, forcing Aphra to retreat when the battle concluded.

Meanwhile, Sana Starros, hired by Hera Syndulla to capture Aphra, attacked Tolvan's TIE fighter in the Volt Cobra. The two engaged in a brief skirmish before realizing they shared a common goal. Aphra and Yas rejoined Tolvan, where Aphra also met Starros. A hubdroid commanded all four to return to the prison, taking Aphra for interrogation by a bor. To safeguard the knowledge of Vader's conspiracy, Aphra was compelled to reveal the existence of the hookspores, prompting the prison command to abandon Accresker Jail and set it on a collision course with the Rebel Alliance-aligned planet of Tiferep Major.

As Aphra was returned to the prison, the Accresker command announced the jail's decommissioning to the convicts. In a desperate attempt to escape, Aphra contacted Tam Posla, requesting an untraceable shuttle in exchange for his nemesis, Doctor Cornelius Evazan. Unaware that the Evazan Aphra held captive was actually the shape-shifter Lopset Yas, Posla agreed to the deal. The assassin droids 0-0-0 and BT-1, overhearing Aphra's location on Posla's ship, departed in a hijacked ship to find her. While Aphra communicated with Posla, the jail's prison-tug evacuated its staff via escape pods, abandoning the Arquitens-class command cruiser and leaving it to crash into the prison.

As the cruiser impacted Accresker Jail, the convicts erupted in a riot, attacking one another. One convict recognized Aphra as the interrogated individual, accusing her of causing the decommissioning. Aphra, Starros, Tolvan, and Yas fled from the convicts, only to be blocked by a prisoner wielding a large weapon. Before the prisoner could attack Aphra, they were struck by debris carried by the Force spirit, which rampaged through the prison, causing many convict deaths. Starros proposed using the large gun to create an opening in the cruiser's wreckage, which they then entered. Searching the cruiser's controls, Aphra located a single escape pod, but accessing it was impossible due to sealed bulkheads.

Aphra devised a plan, retrieving Dek-Nil's head, which Yas had taken from the Jedi shipwreck, and using it to slice into the gravity generator. As she did, Tolvan attempted to contact Imperial Sector Control for rescue, but they mistook her for a rebel who had accessed Tolvan's codes. Failing that, Tolvan used the Imperial Informant System to send an anonymous message to Darth Vader, informing him of her knowledge of his conspiracy and summoning him to Accresker Jail. By then, Aphra had reduced the gravity to half its original level, opening the bulkheads and killing many convicts. Leaving the tug cruiser, Aphra rediscovered the Jedi ship, which she had moved when she altered the gravity. The hookspore-infected Force spirit reappeared, briefly possessing Aphra and her associates, but rejected them as potential hosts. As Aphra attempted to breach the hookspores, Tam Posla approached the prison in his ship.

Ten minutes before Accresker Jail's projected impact with Tiferep Major, Aphra located the escape pod, allowing Starros and Tolvan to enter. Before she or Lopset could board, Aphra launched the pod. Tolvan, realizing Aphra's intentions, jumped out at the last moment, leaving Starros alone as the pod exited the prison's gravity field. Aphra led Tolvan and Yas to the main launch hangar as Tam Posla's ship arrived. Aphra instructed Yas to shape-shift into Evazan, then froze him in that form using the coolant grille. The hookspores, sensing Posla's presence, began to converge on him. Posla exited his ship and inspected the frozen body of Yas, falling for Aphra's deception. As he prepared to take his captive away, the hookspores rushed towards him, attempting to merge. Aphra froze the hookspores, and Posla departed with "Evazan," leaving a shuttle for Aphra.

Aphra and Tolvan returned to the Jedi ship, where Aphra retrieved the lightsaber from the Jedi's corpse. They boarded Posla's escape shuttle and attempted to flee, but their ship was shot down and crashed back onto Accresker Jail. As they exited the wreckage, Aphra noticed the astromech droid BT-1, realizing who had destroyed their shuttle. As BT-1 opened fire, Aphra and Tolvan fled, glancing back to see Triple-Zero approaching. Several convicts surrounded the protocol droid, intending to destroy him and seize his ship, but Triple-Zero unleashed his weaponry, slaughtering them. Tolvan attempted to escape, but Aphra had resigned herself to fate—the prison was moments from impacting Tiferep Major. As Aphra braced for impact, the Executor's tractor beam suddenly decelerated Accresker Jail to a halt, launching convicts into space and freeing the hookspores from the ice. Darth Vader, responding to Tolvan's anonymous message, boarded the jail in a Lambda-class T-4a shuttle. Realizing the danger her knowledge posed, Aphra sought out the bor, asking Tolvan to erase her mind.

As Vader cut down the convicts in his path, Tolvan pleaded with Aphra to reconsider her decision. Encountering BT-1, Vader recognized the droid, who paused and looked back. Vader destroyed Beetee with his lightsaber, Tolvan opted to have her mind wiped instead of Aphra's. Reluctantly, Aphra agreed, using Bor Ifriem to alter Tolvan's memories of her. Vader discovered Tolvan, using the Force to interrogate her. Aphra observed the interrogation via a cam droid, but was interrupted by Lopset Yas, who used Dek-Nil's piece to home in on her proximity bomb. When Aphra questioned Yas's return, Tam Posla emerged, aiming a blaster at her. Having discovered Aphra's deception, he returned to arrest her.

Enraged by Posla's accusation of heartlessness, Aphra activated the Jedi's lightsaber, pointing it at him. However, the ancient lightsaber deactivated, failing due to its age. As Posla prepared to arrest the defenseless Aphra, Triple-Zero appeared and knocked him down. As the assassin droid mauled Posla to death, Yas escaped and Aphra watched in shock. With Posla dead, Triple-Zero turned to Aphra, seeing the transmission of Tolvan's interrogation and realizing her actions. Tolvan, held at lightsaber-point by Vader, claimed she had murdered Aphra in revenge. Triple-Zero dragged Aphra away, taking her prisoner, as Vader took Tolvan back to his shuttle. Sensing the thawing hookspores, Vader left to investigate.

Unbeknownst to those on the jail, Starros had sought help from the Rebel Alliance, who dispatched a squadron of starfighters to Tiferep Major. Exploiting the delay in Accresker Jail's collision, they evacuated the rebel forces and Starros retrieved the Volt Cobra. The starfighters attacked Vader's shuttle, destroying it. Vader, noticing them, threw his lightsaber into the X-wing of Tan Leader, causing panic. Before Vader could continue his attack, the hookspores reached him, swirling around him. Vader destroyed the hookspores with the Force and decided he no longer needed to find Aphra. Communicating with the Executor, Vader ordered his pickup in another shuttle and the release of Accresker Jail from the tractor beam.

Starros located Tolvan, who survived the explosion, but was forced to abandon saving Aphra when she learned the collision was imminent. Triple-Zero had dragged Aphra to his hijacked ship, only to find it destroyed by Vader. As Triple-Zero called for Beetee, Lopset Yas appeared, claiming to have seen astromech parts. When Triple-Zero questioned Yas threateningly, Yas shot him, deactivating him. As Aphra thanked Yas for saving her, he stunned her, taking both her and Triple-Zero prisoner aboard Posla's ship. As Accresker Jail continued to fall, the rebel squadron and Yas escaped, leaving the empty prison to crash into Tiferep Major. The jail was vaporized, leaving a vast crater on the planet's surface.

Vader, safely aboard the Executor, presumed Aphra dead, altering her record to reflect her demise. Yas took Posla's ship to empty space, where he began modifying Triple-Zero's deactivated body. Eight hours later, Aphra awoke, chained to the wall. She questioned Yas, who revealed his true identity: Doctor Cornelius Evazan, disguised with a pluripleq stolen from Thannt.

As Evazan's friend Ponda Baba arrived, he revealed he had implanted his own proximity bomb into Triple-Zero, forcing them to stay together. Evazan rebooted Triple-Zero, leaving Aphra with the assassin droid. Once activated, Triple-Zero learned of their predicament and decided to take the ship to Milvayne to find Posla's cyberneticist Rajam Nuss and remove the implants. However, they ran into trouble with the Milvayne Authority after Triple-Zero killed a border officer and stole a speeder. Amongst Accresker Jail's wreckage above Tiferep Major, the Force energy from the hookspores resurrected Tam Posla. Posla retrieved BT-1's remains, using the reconstructed droid to track Triple-Zero to Milvayne.

The conflict was first depicted in Doctor Aphra (2016) 22, a 2018 canon comic by Simon Spurrier and Kev Walker.