Qi’ra grew up on Corellia in a notorious Coronet City neighborhood known as the Silo, escaping its dangerous streets to become a scrumrat for Lady Proxima’s White Worms. Proxima noted her intelligence and initiative, rewarding her with the title of Head Girl. Qi’ra’s affection for Han Solo proved her undoing, though. She intervened to save Han’s neck, but was left behind in their botched attempt to escape Corellia.

But Qi’ra was a survivor. She managed to escape Corellia after all, rising in the ranks of the crime syndicate Crimson Dawn to become Dryden Vos’s most-trusted lieutenant. The two were on Vandor when Qi’ra saw a face from her past: it was Han, seeking an audience with her boss. Soon she was on her way to Kessel with her old friend and his partners in crime.

On Kessel, disguised as an emissary from the Federation of Trade Route Allocation and Monetization, Qi'ra helped Beckett’s gang to infiltrate the mining colony and steal the raw coaxium. Her training in hand-to-hand-combat proved useful on the mission, effectively dispatching Quay Tolsite with a move that astounded the self-made droid L3-37. When the Pyke’s prisoners launched a revolt, Qi’ra was an integral part of the battle, launching the explosives that gave her co-conspirators time to board the Millennium Falcon and make their escape.

After a daring Kessel Run, which would fuel many years of Han’s boastings, the team made it to the refinery on Savareen just in time to avoid an explosion. Despite Qi’ra’s affinity for her old friend and his heroic impulse to help Enfys Nest by betraying Dryden Vos, Qi’ra’s future was along a different path. In a bloody battle, she turned against her captor, impaling him with his own petar, and assumed control as the public figurehead of Crimson Dawn.