Attack on Imperial Troop Transports

"Wait, you did all this&hellip; for fruit?''" "''No! Okay, maybe a little."

- A stormtrooper and Ezra Bridger

Five years prior to the Battle of Yavin, two rebels who operated on the Outer Rim planet of Lothal, Ezra Bridger and Garazeb Orrelios, attacked three Imperial Troop Transports. Prior to the attack, the two were sent on a supply run by fellow rebel Hera Syndulla. During the supply run, the two rebels searched for meiloorun fruits, leading them to discover meilooruns that had been purchased by the Galactic Empire. Bridger attempted to steal the fruits from the Empire but the two were discovered, leading to a chase throughout the settlement of Kothal. During the chase, Orrelios hijacked a TIE fighter, and the two rebels escaped aboard the stolen ship.

Orrelios piloted the TIE fighter away from the settlement. The two planned to return to their ship, the Ghost, but discovered the Imperial Troop Transports who were carrying three prisoners: Morad Sumar, an old friend of Bridger's parents, as well as Sumar's wife and an Aqualish. The rebels mounted a rescue and successfully freed the prisoners. The three prisoners jumped from the moving ITTs, and Bridger found himself confronted by a number of stormtroopers. The rebels were eventually able to escape, along with one of the meilooruns they had been looking for, and hid the TIE fighter on Lothal&mdash;despite telling Syndulla and rebel leader Kanan Jarrus that they had destroyed it. Imperial HoloNet News later claimed that the transports were carrying innocent workers. Some time after that, Bridger worked with artist and fellow rebel Sabine Wren to paint the TIE fighter, which they went on to use in a mission to rescue Jarrus from Imperial captivity.

Prelude
"All I did was save your life from an Imperial agent, or did that slip your mind?''" "''How could it? You remind me every 23 seconds."

- Ezra Bridger and Garazeb Orrelios

Five years before the Battle of Yavin, a group of rebels who operated against the Galactic Empire on and around the Outer Rim planet of Lothal undertook a mission to steal and, later, destroy T-7 ion disruptor rifles. The rebels were pursued by Agent Kallus of the Imperial Security Bureau, who confronted them once they brought the weapons back to Lothal. During the confrontation, Kallus challenged Garazeb Orrelios to single combat with AB-75 bo-rifles, the weapon of the Lasan Honor Guard; Orrelios, a Lasat, was once a member of the Honor Guard, before the Empire destroyed Lasan. Orrelios was nearly killed by Kallus, the man who had once ordered the use of the devastating disruptors against the Lasat, but was saved by fellow rebel Ezra Bridger, whose spontaneous use of the Force sent Kallus through the air. The rebels were able to escape and flew away aboard their ship, the Ghost.

Bridger's actions became a source of contention between him and Orrelios, as the boy frequently reminded his Lasat bunkmate about how he saved his life. While attempting to train to use the Force, Bridger became involved in an altercation with C1-10P, the C1 astromech droid also known as Chopper. Their fight soon included Orrelios, who had been attempting to sleep. As a result, he chased Bridger into the ship's cargo hold. Fed up with their fighting, Hera Syndulla&mdash;the owner and pilot of the Ghost&mdash;ordered them to leave the ship, which had landed on Lothal, and go on a supply run in the nearby settlement of Kothal. In addition to telling them to find everything on her supply list, Syndulla told them not to return without at least one meiloorun fruit.

The two ventured into Kothal, where they began looking for the supplies. Orrelios found everything on the supply list, while Bridger looked for meiloorun. While searching, he encountered Morad Sumar, a local farmer. Sumar, an old friend of Bridger's parents, suggested he talk to an offworld importer, as meilooruns did not grow on Lothal. After Bridger said his farewells, Sumar was approached by Imperial Supply Master Yogar Lyste, who asked Sumar if he was willing to sell his farm; the Empire wanted the land due to its proximity to a vein of ore. Sumar, who had previously rejected the Empire's requests to buy the farm, once again declined.

Bridger watched the discussion before meeting up again with Orrelios. They soon found a crate of meilooruns belonging to a Rodian vendor, but the fruits had already been sold to the Empire. The two rebels followed the stormtrooper who collected the crates and brought them to a loading area, where Bridger attempted to steal the fruits. He was spotted, forcing Orrelios to throw the remainder of their supplies at the troopers so they could escape. Pursued by stormtroopers, Bridger and Orrelios fled back into the streets of Kothal before splitting up. Orrelios made his way to a nearby landing pad where he hijacked a TIE fighter, piloted by Baron Valen Rudor. Orrelios flew the TIE fighter over Kothal and found Bridger running across the rooftops while being pursued by stormtroopers. Orrelios opened the TIE fighter hatch, and Bridger jumped aboard.

Once the two rebels were away from Kothal, they contacted the Ghost to tell Syndulla and Kanan Jarrus, the leader of the rebels, about their progress. Bridger and Orrelios attempted to come up with an excuse as to where they were, but Jarrus heard the TIE fighter engines and the two admitted that they had stolen the fighter. Jarrus, furious that they could have attracted Imperial attention towards the crew, ordered them to ditch the TIE fighter and return to the Ghost immediately.

The attack
"Don't think he's taking Commander Meiloorun's orders anymore."

- Garazeb Orrelios

As the two rebels flew the TIE fighter towards the Ghost landing site, Supply Master Lyste led a squadron of stormtroopers and three ITTs to Sumar's farm. When the Imperials arrived, Sumar once again explained that he had no intention of selling his farm. The Empire, however, no longer had any interest in buying it. Instead, the Imperials targeted the ITT guns on the farm and destroyed it. They arrested Sumar and his wife and loaded them onto the ITTs. As the prisoners were being loaded, Bridger and Orrelios spotted the smoke from the farm. Bridger realized that it was Sumar's farm, and the TIE fighter diverted course towards the farm.

The rebels detected the ITTs after the Imperials left the farm, and the two decided to mount a rescue, despite Orrelios' reluctance. When the fighter intercepted the transports, Orrelios contacted the lead vehicle and claimed to be an Imperial Commander named "Meiloorun." Orrelios stated that there was rebel activity in the area and requested that the transports reduce speed, which Lyste agreed to. With the transports moving at a slower rate, the fighter made a closer approach, allowing Bridger to jump onto one of the transports. Lyste grew suspicious once he saw that "Commander Meiloorun" was flying a TIE fighter, as he knew of the reports of a stolen TIE fighter. Lyste requested that "Commander Meiloorun" state his operating number, to which Orrelios was unable to confirm. Lyste realized that Orrelios was flying the stolen TIE fighter and ordered the transports to resume their previous speed, as well as to shoot the TIE fighter down if they spotted it.

Despite the increased speed, Bridger found the prisoners and attempted to reach the control panel to open their cells; the cells, as well as the panel, were on the exterior side of the craft. Unable to reach the controls, Bridger used to the Force to activate them, and the cell doors opened. Having freed Sumar, his wife, and an Aqualish prisoner, Bridger told them to jump. Although the crafts were traveling at high speeds, the three prisoners were able to make the short jump and land on the ground safely, as the ITTs continued to speed away.

The Imperials realized that the cells had been opened, and stormtroopers made their way onto the top of the craft in order to confront Bridger. He evaded their blaster fire while the ITT opened fire on the escaping prisoners, but the prisoners were covered by Orrelios, whose TIE fighter drew the attention of the ITT gun. Bridger jumped onto another ITT and hid behind a crate, the lid of which was blown off, revealing meilooruns inside of it. Using the crate as cover, Bridger fired his energy slingshot at the soldiers, though the energy blasts were unable to penetrate the stormtroopers' armor. Bridger resorted to throwing meilooruns at them; one throw knocked a stormtrooper down and, as the trooper fell, he inadvertently fired his blaster at another trooper, throwing the soldier overboard.

With the stormtroopers knocked down, Bridger began collecting meilooruns from the crate. The remaining stormtrooper fired at the boy, hitting the meilooruns. Most of the meilooruns exploded from the blaster fire, but Bridger was able to keep one and jumped to another ITT. He was followed by the remaining trooper and threw the meiloorun at him, giving Bridger a moment to take cover behind a turret. Bridger pulled out a wrench from his backpack and placed it into the opening of the gun turret, causing the turret to explode when it attempted to fire on the TIE fighter. The resulting explosion threw the remaining stormtrooper off of the ITT. Bridger climbed back aboard and grabbed the meiloorun, but was approached by three more stormtroopers. Orrelios opened fire on them and the troopers jumped off of the craft. As the TIE fighter swung back around, Orrelios flew it upside down, opened the top hatch, and grabbed Bridger as the fighter flew by.

Aftermath
"Thanks for the save. Guess I owe you now.''" "''Let's just say we're eternally even."

- Ezra Bridger and Garazeb Orrelios

The two rebels flew away from the scene of the attack, and Bridger thanked Orrelios for saving his life&mdash;an action that led Orrelios to say that they were eternally even with life-saving. The Lasat also gave Bridger, who collected Imperial helmets, the helmet that had belonged to Baron Rudor, a symbol of their newfound friendship. The two hid the fighter somewhere on Lothal and returned to the Ghost, where they explained what happened and claimed that they crashed the TIE fighter. They also handed the meiloorun to Syndulla, fulfilling her original orders. Once back on board, and after having worked together in the attack on the ITTs, the two were able to get along&mdash;though they did turn their ire towards Chopper, who they blamed for the situation occurring in the first place.

Sometime later, the rebels watched a HoloNet News transmission about the attack on the ITTs. During the transmission, Imperial propaganda claimed that the rebels used the TIE fighter to attack a transport carrying innocent workers. This angered Orrelios, who knew that they had freed Sumar and the other prisoners. During this time, Bridger and his fellow rebel, Sabine Wren, undertook a project to paint the TIE fighter. Wren, an artist, painted the TIE fighter with numerous colors, particularly bright yellow. She considered it some of her best artwork ever.

The continued activities of the rebels drew the attention of the upper levels of the Imperial government. The rebels, meanwhile, set out to broadcast an inspirational message to the people of Lothal, in which the crew would announce themselves as rebels fighting for their freedom. Although the transmission was broadcast, Jarrus was captured and held as a prisoner by Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin, Governor of the Outer Rim Territories. The rebels undertook a mission to rescue him, which led them to Tarkin's Star Destroyer, the Sovereign, in orbit of the volcanic planet Mustafar. They crew brought the TIE fighter to Mustafar aboard a stolen Gozanti-class cruiser and filled the stolen TIE fighter with electromagnetic devices. Once they arrived at Mustafar, sent it into the Sovereign, where it knocked out the Star Destroyer's power. Once they rescued Jarrus, Wren&mdash;as well as Orrelios and Syndulla&mdash;used the TIE fighter to escape from the Sovereign.

Behind the scenes
"The whole idea for 'Fighter Flight' was based around having a TIE fighter toy as a kid and putting heroes in it instead of villains, because TIE fighters are so cool. I played out that scenario a hundred times as a child. So why not do it now on this TV series?"

- Dave Filoni

The attack on the Imperial Troop Transports first appeared in "Fighter Flight," the second episode of the first season of the animated television series Star Wars Rebels. It was also referenced in the next episode, "Rise of the Old Masters," as well as the chapter book adaptation of the episode "Droids in Distress." Dave Filoni, executive producer of Star Wars Rebels, explained that the premise of the episode and the attack came from playing with TIE fighters as a child, and how he would put his hero action figures into TIE fighter toys.

The attack marked the debut of ITTs on the show, which were based on a Kenner Products "Imperial Troop Transporters" toy that was available between the 1977 release of Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope and the 1980 release of Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back. The episode was originally planned to include Minister Maketh Tua, a character who appeared in the previous episode, "Droids in Distress," but was changed to Supply Master Lyste prior to the completion of the first draft script of the episode.

Appearances

 * Droids in Distress chapter book
 * The Secret Jedi: The Adventures of Kanan Jarrus: Rebel Leader
 * Star Wars Rebels: The Ultimate Guide
 * The Secret Jedi: The Adventures of Kanan Jarrus: Rebel Leader
 * Star Wars Rebels: The Ultimate Guide
 * Star Wars Rebels: The Ultimate Guide