Wookieepedia:Featured article queue/Week 40, 2015/0

The mission to free Wookiee prisoners was an operation undertaken by the rebels who were based on and around the planet Lothal five years before the Battle of Yavin. The rebels learned what they believed was the location of the Wookiees, who had been enslaved by the Galactic Empire, and attempted to rescue the Wookiees aboard Freighter 651, a Gozanti-class cruiser. Unknown to the rebels, however, was that they had walked into a trap set by Agent Kallus of the Imperial Security Bureau. They soon realized the Wookiees were not aboard the vessel, and the rebels were forced to flee from Kallus and his forces. During the escape, one of the rebels, Ezra Bridger, was captured, forcing the rest of the crew to later return and rescue him. While a prisoner, Bridger learned that the Wookiees were being taken to the spice mines of the planet Kessel.

The rebels soon arrived at the spice mines of Kessel, where their ship, the Ghost, fired upon the Imperial stormtroopers guarding the slaves. The rebels were able to make it into the mine and attack the stormtroopers, during which time they freed the prisoners. They were confronted by Kallus and his troops, who opened fire on the rebels and the Wookiees. As the Ghost engaged in battle with TIE fighters, the rebel leader, Kanan Jarrus, ignited his lightsaber and revealed himself as a Jedi who had survived the destruction of the Jedi Order. While Jarrus and other members of his crew secured most of the Wookiees, Bridger went in pursuit of the Wookiee child Kitwarr, who was being chased by a stormtrooper. Jarrus saved them both from Agent Kallus, and the Ghost fled from Kessel with the Wookiees, freeing them from captivity.

After the rebels' successful rescue of the Wookiees, Kallus contacted the Inquisitor, an Imperial Jedi hunter, to inform him that the rebels were led by a Jedi. This led to several more confrontations with both Kallus and the Inquisitor as the rebels continued their operations against the Empire.