Attack on Lothal

In 1 BBY, the Rebel Alliance launched an attack on Lothal in order to destroy the Imperial Armory Complex.

Planned attack
"Phoenix Squadron is enlisting help from another rebel cell to take out the Imperial factory here on Lothal."

- Ezra Bridger to members of the Lothal resistance

Lothal, a backwater Outer Rim planet, had become important to the Galactic Empire due to its mineral deposits. The rebel cell Phoenix Squadron, based in the Lothal sector on the remote planet Atollon, began preparations for a strike on the Imperial Armory Complex, which churned out weapons and vehicles for the Empire's military. Another rebel cell, General Jan Dodonna's Massassi Group, one of the largest cells in the galaxy, was invited to participate in the attack. Over the course of months, the members of Phoenix Squadron, including the unit known as the Spectres, began preparations for the planned assault. Ezra Bridger, a member of the Spectres, was from Lothal, and particularly keen to liberate his homeworld. Over the past few years, since the Siege of Lothal, the Empire had placed the planet under increasingly tight security. Former Lothalian governor Ryder Azadi had formed a resistance group after escaping from prison. Ryder's cell supported Phoenix Squadron's planned attack, and assisted their intelligence-gathering efforts.

In 2 BBY, around the time the Spectres broke out the pirate Hondo Ohnaka from an Imperial prison on Naraka, Lothalian Governor Arihnda Pryce, wishing to conclusively deal with the sector's "insurgency" after a long period of neglecting her responsibilities there, called in Grand Admiral Thrawn and his Seventh Fleet to help with the situation. Pryce felt that Thrawn, who saw a bigger picture, would be more effective than the Imperial Navy's ranking officer in the sector, the old-school Admiral Kassius Konstantine. Thrawn deduced that because the rebels had freed Hondo, they intended to steal old Y-wings from the Imperial scrapyard Reklam Station on Yarma. Pryce intercepted the rebels as they were fleeing with the starfighters, and saw the rest of Phoenix Squadron's forces come to the rescue. However, Thrawn ordered her to let them escape, as he realized this was not the entire rebel fleet. He intended to wait for the entire fleet to gather before striking.

Over the course of many missions, Phoenix Squadron and the Spectres acquired intelligence and weapons in preparation for the attack. The Y-wings stolen at Reklam Station, however, went to the Massassi Group instead. After discovering from a rebel agent that the Empire was building a new kind of weapon in the factories on Lothal, Kanan Jarrus, Ezra and Chopper infiltrated the complex to find out what it was. They successfully stole the plans for the TIE/D Defender, a highly advanced TIE model with deflector shields. Not long before the two rebel units planned to strike, rebel cells across the galaxy joined forces to form the Rebel Alliance.

Piece by piece
As the rebels prepared to attack Lothal, however, Thrawn gathered information to stop them. The infiltration of the Armory Complex led the Grand Admiral to his biggest clue to locating the rebels' base: the revelation that the infiltrators had received assistance from someone in the Imperial ranks. Thrawn intended to use the spy, when they were caught, to lead him to the rebels. This spy, one of the Fulcrum agents, happened to be ISB Agent Alexsandr Kallus, a former enemy of the Spectres who had had a change of heart following an encounter with Spectres member Garazeb Orrelios on the Geonosian moon Bahryn. Kallus later tipped off Phoenix Squadron about Thrawn's use of E-XD infiltrator droids to search for rebel bases, allowing Zeb, Chopper and AP-5 to prevent EXD-9 from revealing Chopper Base's location to the Empire. The incident, however, helped Thrawn narrow down the number of planets he had to search.

Some time later, the Empire intercepted one of Kallus' Fulcrum transmissions, leading Thrawn to learn the spy's codename and that they were an Imperial officer. The Grand Admiral called in ISB Colonel Wullf Yularen to assist in finding the spy. The rebels, discovering that the transmission had been monitored, sent Ezra, with Chopper and AP-5 assisting, to rescue Kallus. However, shortly after Ezra got onboard the Arquitens-class cruiser that Kallus and Lieutenant Yogar Lyste were stationed on, posing as a shuttle thief, Thrawn's flagship, the Chimaera, arrived. Kallus and Lyste were called onboard. Lyste, eager to impress the Grand Admiral, brought along the captured Ezra, and the droids managed to come along when AP-5 claimed that they had a recording of the shuttle theft. In a meeting, Thrawn informed Kallus, Lyste and Admiral Konstantine of the spy and that he was close to locating the rebel base. Thrawn had also interviewed other Imperial officers, intending to entrap the spy when they tried to warn the rebels. Kallus, meanwhile, convinced Lyste that Pryce was the spy, getting him to trail her. Using a code cylinder he stole from the Lieutenant, Kallus released Ezra from the Chimaera brig and they infiltrated Thrawn's office, sending the Star Destroyer's clearance codes to Kanan and Rex, the retrieval team, and erasing Atollon from Thrawn's holomap. Ultimately, Kallus implicated Lyste as Fulcrum, and the rebels escaped. The deception fooled Pryce and Konstantine, but Thrawn and Yularen were privately suspicious. One piece of evidence Kallus had forgotten about, the helmet Ezra had worn as part of his disguise, helped Thrawn deduce that the ISB agent was the real spy. He kept this information secret, however, for his own plans.

Battle of Atollon
On the eve of the planned attack on Lothal, Thrawn arrived at Lothal City's Imperial Complex to warn Governor Pryce and Admiral Konstantine. Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin also attended the meeting, via hologram. Kallus was not invited, and used a mouse droid to spy on the meeting from the vents. Thrawn informed Pryce, Konstantine and Tarkin of the impending attack, and that General Dodonna's fleet would be assisting Phoenix Squadron. Overhearing everything, Kallus travelled to an old communications tower outside the city to transmit a warning to the rebels. There, he was ambushed by Thrawn, who used the trajectories of Kallus' transmission and the Massassi fleet to discover the location of the rebel base. Kallus managed to get a brief message through, but was arrested by the Grand Admiral and his death troopers. On Atollon, Phoenix Squadron and the recently-arrived Massassi Group received the warning in enough time to put their forces on alert. The arrival of the Imperial fleet forced the Rebels to scuttle their planned attack on Lothal.

The Rebel ships were prevented from escaping by two Interdictor cruisers. Hera Syndulla devised a plan to create an opening for one ship, Ezra's Gauntlet, to escape the Imperial blockade and get reinforcements. She assigned Kanan and Chopper to go with him; however, Kanan decided to instead try and ask the mysterious Force wielder Bendu for help. During the ensuing space battle, many Rebel ships were destroyed. Ezra's opening finally came when Commander Jun Sato sacrificed himself and his ship, the Phoenix Nest, by ramming Admiral Konstantine's Interdictor. Shortly after Ezra escaped, Hera was forced to call the retreat. In hyperspace, Ezra asked Alliance leader Mon Mothma for reinforcements, but she regretfully told him that she couldn't send any. Ezra decided to go to fellow Spectre, the Mandalorian Sabine Wren, and her family for help. Sabine had left Phoenix Squadron some time before after reuniting with her family. She had come into possession of the Darksaber, an ancient Mandalorian weapon, and had stayed to give the weapon to the rightful leader of Mandalore. Ezra arrived on Krownest to learn from Countess Ursa Wren that they were fighting a civil war, and had few resources to spare. Sabine persuaded her mother to hear Ezra out, and Ursa allowed Sabine to take some ships and any willing warriors to help the Rebels. She planned to execute a strike on the remaining Interdictor.

Back on Atollon, Kanan failed to persuade the Bendu to assist the Rebels, as he refused to take sides. Kanan did, however, enrage the Force wielder by calling him a coward. The Rebels took shelter under Chopper Base's shield from Thrawn's orbital bombardment. After the bombardment, Thrawn led a ground assault to finish the Rebels off, as he was under orders from Tarkin to capture the commanders. Pryce was left in charge of the fleet. During the ground assault, the Bendu arrived in the form of a thunderstorm and began attacking the Imperials and Rebels with lightning. The remaining Rebel ships took off. Thrawn had his troops concentrate their fire, bringing down the Bendu, only for the mysterious Force wielder to vanish. Meanwhile, Ezra, Sabine and their strike team arrived. As Fenn Rau and his Fang fighters kept the TIE fighters occupied, Ezra, Sabine and the Wren warriors attacked one of the Interdictor's gravity well projectors. Eventually the projector was breached, causing the warship to explode. Onboard the Chimaera, a captive Kallus took advantage of Pryce's rage at the Interdictor's destruction to arrange his escape, and was picked up by the Ghost in an escape pod. The remaining Rebel ships fled.

Prioritizing
After the battle, the surviving Rebels headed to the Rebel Alliance's headquarters on Yavin 4. Kanan, Ezra and Chopper, however, accompanied Sabine back to Mandalore to help her rescue her father from the Empire. There, Sabine gave the Darksaber to Bo-Katan Kryze. The four Spectres did not come to the moon until after the mission was complete. Once Ezra got to Yavin 4, he was frustrated that the Rebellion did not seem to consider trying to help the people of Lothal again. Mothma explained to him that the Alliance could not afford to throw large portions of their resources into helping only a few planets, and that they had to see the bigger picture.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Rebels: Steps Into Shadow