Unidentified Imperial-class Star Destroyer (Crimson Forever)

"When we recovered the jewels from Domina years ago, we sent them out here to the Unknown Regions on that Star Destroyer where nobody would come looking."

- Leia Organa

This Imperial-class Star Destroyer was a warship that served in the Imperial Navy during the Galactic Civil War.

Characteristics
"They sure don't make them like this anymore."

- Jaxxon

This Star Destroyer was 1,600 meters long, the standard length for an Imperial-class Star Destroyer. However, it featured a bridge with a different interior design than the standard Imperial-class Star Destroyer. The ship also housed several laboratories.

The Star Destroyer was particularly resilient, as was shown when it was adrift during several years. Despite being near a dying star and hit by meteors, most of the ship still had operational gravity and life support systems.

The Star Destroyer carried a complement of TIE/LN starfighters and at least one TIE/sa bomber.

Near the Red Nebula
"We found an Imperial cruiser waiting just outside the nebula! Darth Vader had learned of my journey and dispatched a warship to discover the secret behind it."

- Domina Tagge

In 3 ABY, this Imperial-class Star Destroyer was sent to the Red Nebula by Darth Vader to discover why Domina Tagge was traveling to this remote nebula, located outside the main body of the galaxy. Tagge, along with a group of bounty hunters, was actually searching for the Great Life Jewels, two red gems that could create a fatal disease known as the Crimson Forever when they were separated. Tagge hoped to use the gems' deadly powers in order to destroy both the Galactic Empire and the Rebel Alliance.

When the Star Destroyer encountered Tagge's Mining Explorer on its way back from the Red Nebula, it destroyed the bulk freighter's drive engines. Stormtroopers boarded the vessel and forced Tagge to surrender her find. The Imperial boarding party received only one of the two gems, placed by Tagge in a carbonite cannister rigged to open under the pressures of hyperdrive. Tagge also gave the Imperials the location of the new Rebel base on Golrath, which she had learned from her spies. Tagge then orchestrated a firefight between her bounty hunters and the stormtroopers, which forced the boarders to leave the Mining Explorer, effectively separating the two Great Life Jewels.

In the Golrath system
Following the firefight, the Imperials abandoned the damaged Mining Explorer on the fringes of the Red Nebula. The Star Destroyer set a course for Golrath and jumped to hyperspace. As a result, the carbonite cannister holding the gem opened and the Crimson Forever spread aboard the ship. When the Star Destroyer arrived in the Golrath system, the entire crew had succumbed from the effects of the plague.

Shortly after its arrival in the Golrath system, the Rebels detected the Star Destroyer and sent Red Flight to intercept it. The group of X-wing starfighters, led by Commander Luke Skywalker, found no life form readings from inside the Star Destroyer and decided to board the ship to investigate. Aboard the Star Destroyer, the Rebel pilots found the crimson bodies of the Imperials, most of them still at their stations. They also discovered the red gem in one of the ship's laboratories. The Rebels soon became infected with the Crimson Forever and Skywalker ordered an immediate evacuation of the boarding party. After their return to Golrath Station, all the Rebels that were in contact with the plague perished, except Skywalker whose Force-sensitivity enabled him to fight it better.

Fortunately, Han Solo and Chewbacca had previously encountered such red gems during a previous misadventure in the Red Nebula. After hearing the Wookiee's tale of the event, Leia Organa, Lando Calrissian and Chewbacca decided to travel to the Red Nebula aboard the Millennium Falcon in hopes of finding a cure for the Crimson Forever. On their way to the Red Nebula, they encountered the derelict Mining Explorer. After a short fight, they agreed to free Tagge and her companions in order to reunite the two red gems and end the Crimson Forever. The Rebels then left the Great Life Jewels inside the Star Destroyer's bridge and programmed the ship to jump to hyperspace toward the Intergalactic Void.

In the Unknown Regions
During its journey however, the Star Destroyer was pulled out of hyperspace in the Unknown Regions because of the gravity well generated by a sun about to go supernova. Adrift, the wreckage was ransacked by salvagers who found the red gems but soon succumbed to the Crimson Forever.

Several years later, in 5 ABY, Tagge went after the Great Life Jewels a second time in a new attempt to spread the Crimson Forever in the galaxy. This mission was financed by the Tof resistance, which also sought revenge on the New Republic after the Tof defeat during the Nagai–Tof War.

Following a hunch, a New Republic team went after the Star Destroyer in order to stop Tagge's plan. There, they found the red gems but were caught up by Tagge and her mercenaries. To their surprise, the cyborg Beilert Valance also arrived on the scene in hopes of using the gems' powers to restore his damaged body. Eventually, Valance sacrificed himself to reunite the two red gems and save Skywalker. Plunging in the vacuum of space, Valance brought the Great Life Jewels together, healing his body in the process, and let himself be pulled by the sun's gravity.

Behind the scenes
This unidentified Imperial-class Star Destroyer first appeared in issue 50 of the Marvel Star Wars comic series, published on May 19, 1981. It later appeared in issue 108 of the same comic series, published on May 29, 2019.

In the first chapter of Star Wars 50: The Crimson Forever, the Star Destroyer was drawn with a tractor beam targeting array on top of its bridge tower, which is a feature of the Imperial I-class Star Destroyer. However, in the third chapter of the same issue, the Star Destroyer was instead drawn with a communications tower on top of its bridge tower, which is a feature of the Imperial II-class Star Destroyer. Therefore, it is unknown whether this ship was an Imperial I or Imperial II-class Star Destroyer.

Appearances

 * Star Wars 50: The Crimson Forever
 * Star Wars 108: Forever Crimson