Star Wars: Hidden Empire #5
PART 5
“AMAXINE”
Dreaming of a freer galaxy, Lady QI’RA and her organization, CRIMSON DAWN, have waged a secret war against the Empire.
Qi’ra acquired a means of prevailing against the Sith in the FERMATA CAGE, an artifact that supposedly suspended an ancient Sith Lord in time. Qi’ra tasked the Archivist with unleashing this Sith against the Emperor and activated her operatives across the galaxy to serve as a smoke screen. The Emperor retaliated against Crimson Dawn, forcing Qi’ra to her stronghold Dawnfall, where a Crimson Dawn fleet prepares to strike against the Empire.
Sensing a disturbance in the Force, Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader have made their way to the Amaxine Station to see the Fermata Cage for themselves and are greeted by an onslaught of Crimson Dawn soldiers….
Writer: Charles Soule
Penciller: Steven Cummings
Inker: Victor Olazaba, Wayne Faucher
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Colorist: Guru-eFX
Cover artist: Paulo Siqueira
Editor: Mark Paniccia
Publication date: April 5, 2023
Ever since the reintroduction of Lady Qi’ra in War of the Bounty Hunters last year, while it’s been building to a climax and a final point; it’s always felt as if her time in the Star Wars galaxy is limited, and the final issue of Hidden Empire, the third in the trilogy of 5-part limited series from author Charles Soule, brings her story to a conclusion, but not in the way one might expect.
As we open on Amaxine Station, Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine are in battle, a rarity for Palpatine who often leaves such matters to other, most prominently Vader himself while the Archivist confers with Qi’ra over comms, telling her the Fermata cage is ready and she is leaving before Vader and Palpatine arrive. There’s also another surprise – Doctor Aphra, controlled by the Spark Eternal who attacks Vader as Palpatine leaves, lunging at him with an ancient Ascendant weapon known as the Null Blade. The blade makes its opponent weak, and as the SpAphra knocks the lightsaber from Vaders hand, Vader uses the Force to effectively push the Spark from Aphra, leaving the doctor lying on the floor. Just as Vader is about to dispatch her, something stops him, and Aphra tells him to focus on what Palpatine is doing rather than his revenge on her.
We find Palpatine in front of the Fermata cage, it’s secrets about to be revealed….but instead two small mechanical pieces land on the floor. Palpatine takes pause, sensing nothing from the Force as we see the Archivist in orbit spring the trap and the two Sith Lords are trapped in a what appears to be a forcefield. It seems Qi’ra and the Archivist have won, Vader and Palpatine time-locked and trapped within the Fermata cage, but then we see the Knights of Ren swooping in the Night Buzzard, Ren convinced that Palpatine would escape somehow and after getting revenge on Qi’ra and the Archivist turning his attention to them. They blast the cage, the Sith released along with its destructive power and from the jaws of victory, defeat is snatched.
For the first time we truly see Qi’ra in dispair and she contacts Crimson Dawns forces and tells them to flee and find new lives as their forces are annihilated by Admiral Piett and the Executor, taking her own vessel away from the fighting and into hyperspace. Cut to Vader and Palpatine, the Fermata cage in Palpatine’s hands as we see the Spark Eternal dive into the mechanism as Vader asks if his master had saved them. Enter the Knights of Ren, believing their late save would earn them mercy from Palpatine, a grievous misjudgement that sees them Sith lightning’d to the floor for Palpatine to use at a later date.
As we near the end of the final isse we cut to Cataract Base and Cadeliah, watching a hologram from Qi’ra who tells her she has been gifted three things. Knowledge, resources and the choice to live her life as she sees fit, something a tearful Qi’ra explains she was never able to do. We see the two hooded figures we’ve seen watching the holo’s of the Archivist, who explains why Qi’ra failed in her plot and we learn the two figures are infact Luke and Leia. Luke ponders on what they’ve watched, on how Crimson Dawn agents gave them the news of the second Death Stars construction, and how the Syndicate War kept Palpatine occupied while the Rebel fleet regrouped. Crimson Dawn helped save the galaxy, just not in the way Qi’ra intended and Leia wishes Qi’ra had come to them, and lived to see the end of the war. We end with a now long-haired pensive Qi’ra sitting alone in a cantina as the galaxy celebrates the end of the Empire and Palpatine, a finale we’ve long celebrated at the end of Jedi – it’s only the last few years where we realise the Battle of Endor was far from the end of the war.
A sobering end to what’s been a superb series, and one that lived up to the promise, bringing a logical late save as Qi’ra executes her plan and wins, only for fate to intervene. As we get to the end of the series and enter the Return of the Jedi 40th celebrations, we can see just how smartly the various series have crossed over each other to come to this conclusion. The end scenes of Solo: A Star Wars Story, Cadeliah from Bounty Hunters, the Spark Eternal storyline from Doctor Aphra, and so on. It’s been an engrossing read, and as we now wait for the next crossover in Dark Droids we can only hope it’s as integral to the wider saga as these three series have been.
