Mission to Faos Station In 1 BBY during the early rebellion against the Galactic Empire , the Partisans leader Saw Gerrera , along with Rebel Alliance members Ezra Bridger and Sabine Wren , undertook a mission to Faos Station . Bridger and Wren , along with the astromech droid Chopper , had wound up with Gerrera after the Spectres ' mission to the Jalindi relay . Gerrera had unexpectedly arrived to destroy the relay , and invited Bridger , Wren and Chopper on board his U - wing . After Gerrera ' s U - wing and the " Ghost " were forced to separately flee into hyperspace due to the arrival of a Star Destroyer , before Hera Syndulla could dock with Gerrera ' s ship to pick up her people , Gerrera asked the three Spectres for help . He wanted them to assist with investigating a mysterious Imperial shipment passing through Faos Station , which Gerrera was convinced had a connection to the Empire ' s sterilization of the planet Geonosis . Bridger , Wren , Gerrera and Chopper snuck on board Freighter 2716 at the space station , and discovered that the supposed civilian freighter was actually an undercover Imperial vessel . They found a group of technician s , all specializing in power generator s and reactor s , who had been imprisoned on board . A further search revealed the ship ' s special cargo : a giant kyber crystal . Gerrera , who wanted to ride the freighter to its destination in the empty Tonnis sector , turned on Bridger and Wren , who wanted to get the prisoners to safety , and rigged the crystal up to the freighter ' s hyperdrive to create a bomb . Upon discovering that the freighter was only rendezvousing with a Star Destroyer , Gerrera damaged the hyperdrive , beginning the process that would lead to the kyber crystal ' s detonation , before releasing Ezra and Sabine and departing in his U - wing , which had come to pick him up . Bridger , Wren and Chopper escaped in a shuttle with the prisoners before the explosion , which destroyed the freighter and the Star Destroyer . They were picked up by the " Ghost " , which Chopper had contacted earlier . The freed technicians decided to join the Rebel Alliance . Prelude . In 2 BBY , Saw Gerrera and a team of his Partisans were sent to the planet Geonosis , to investigate findings from an earlier trip made by the " Ghost " crew , which had discovered three Imperial construction modules and a large debris field around the planet . The Spectres had also discovered that the planet ' s population appeared to have been wiped out . Gerrera ' s team ran into trouble from a surviving Geonosian , Klik - Klak , whose repaired battle droid s wiped out all of them , save Gerrera himself . The Spectres were sent to find Gerrera , and found him and Klik - Klak . During the investigation , the rebels found Imperial poison gas canisters , which served as solid proof that the Empire had wiped out the population of Geonosis . The rebels asked Klik - Klak what the Empire had been building at Geonosis , but due to a language barrier , could not understand what he was trying to tell them . After the mission , Gerrera decided to investigate why the Empire had wiped out the Geonosians . He was curious as to what they could have been building in Geonosis ' orbit that was so secret they would resort to planetary genocide to cover it up . Eventually , the trail of information led him to discover that the Empire was making secret shipments through a civilian space station , Faos Station . Meanwhile , the Empire had recently built a relay on the planet Jalindi that was hampering Rebel Alliance missions . Gerrera had warned the Alliance leadership about the relay , but due to his extremism and paranoia , they disregarded his intel as rumors . After a supply mission carried out by Captain Hera Syndulla ' s squadron failed , Alderaanian Viceroy Bail Organa finally presented Mon Mothma and the other rebel leaders with hard proof that the relay existed . Mothma assigned the Spectres the mission to install a spike on the relay , so that the Alliance could eavesdrop on transmissions through the station and reroute their operations to avoid Imperial fleets . However , Gerrera had made his own plans to destroy the relay instead . During the mission , Spectres Ezra Bridger , Sabine Wren and Chopper were on the relay ' s dish installing the spike when the mission was complicated by the arrival of the " Marauder " , an " Arquitens " - class command cruiser . While the Spectres were dealing with Imperial troops , and the " Marauder " complement of TIE / D Defender s , Gerrera ' s UT - 60D U - wing starfighter / support craft arrived and took out the cruiser ' s shields . He invited Bridger , Wren and Chopper onboard , while dropping proton bomb s onto the dish . The trio accepted his offer , and the U - wing escaped before the bombs exploded , destroying the relay and the " Marauder " . As the " Ghost " and Gerrera ' s U - wing flew away from Jalindi , Syndulla contacted the U - wing , intending to dock and pick up her people . However , the sudden arrival of a Star Destroyer , which launched its TIE fighters , prevented this , and the two ships were forced to flee into hyperspace separately . On board his ship , Gerrera invited Bridger and Wren to accompany him to Faos Station . He had heard of their recent exploits on Mandalore , and thought they could help his mission . Bridger and Wren were tempted , because they thought that the objective of the Jalindi mission should have been to destroy the relay from the beginning , and agreed to go . Chopper thought it was a bad idea , but he was outvoted by the two other Spectres . Mission . Infiltrating Freighter 2716 . Upon arriving at Faos Station , Bridger and Wren were skeptical , as there appeared to be no sign of an Imperial presence . Wren , noticing the presence of droid s , gave Chopper a matching black - and - yellow paint - job as a disguise . Gerrera ' s lieutenant Edrio Two Tubes landed the U - wing in a docking bay , and Bridger , Wren , Gerrera and Chopper disembarked . Gerrera led the other rebels to the bay where Freighter 2716 , which appeared to be a civilian ship , was docking . Bridger , Wren and Gerrera hid inside a cargo container , which the disguised Chopper brought on board the freighter . Once inside a cargo hold , the rebels climbed out . Gerrera contacted Edrio and told him that his tracker was activated , and that he would transmit coordinates when he was ready for pickup . Bridger thought he heard a kind of " singing " , but Wren told him she didn ' t hear anything . Gerrera found a datapad with information that the contents of the crates in the hold were high - quality composites , used for constructing the Imperial Navy . Wren pointed out that the materials could have come from any world with a shipyard . Upon exiting that hold , the rebels were forced to avoid a patrol of stormtroopers in the corridor , which led Wren to concur that Gerrera might actually be on to something . Gerrera ordered Chopper to plug in and find the ship ' s manifest . Doing so , the astromech droid discovered that there was an Imperial shuttle in hold 12 , and that the ship ' s destination was the Tonnis sector , which was known for being empty space devoid of settlements . Gerrera speculated that it would be the perfect place for the Empire to work on secret projects without anyone noticing , but Bridger pointed out that it could simply be a rendezvous point . Chopper also discovered that hold 17 was a restricted area , so Gerrera decided that they would go there . Upon arriving at the door , Bridger had Chopper stage a distraction to lure the stormtroopers on guard outside , where they were ambushed and knocked out by the rebels . Wren opened a cargo container present to discover several prisoner s , and Bridger suggested that this was what the Empire was guarding . Gerrera was skeptical , pointing out that the Empire had prisoners all over the galaxy . One of the prisoners , Mich Matt , suggested that if there was any special cargo on the ship , it may have come from the Jedha system , which he had overheard some stormtroopers talking about . Matt revealed that all of the prisoners , himself included , were technician s specializing in power generator s and reactor s , and they had all been kidnapped by the Empire . Conflicting priorities . Bridger insisted that the rebels had to get the prisoners to safety , but they were alerted by Chopper to the approach of another stormtrooper patrol . The prisoners retreated into the cargo container as the rebels hid , but one prisoner was seen entering the opened container by the troopers . They pulled open the door and demanded to know who let the prisoners out and where the guards were , but were swiftly ambushed and stunned by the rebels . Bridger and Wren insisted that the civilians had to be kept out of the line of fire , and Gerrera suggested using the shuttle in hold 12 , but Wren pointed out that it would be guarded . She suggested using the freighter ' s escape pod s instead , and sabotaging the hyperdrive to force the freighter to drop out of hyperspace , so they could just fly away . As Bridger , Wren and Gerrera left to do so , Chopper was ordered to get the prisoners to the escape pods . The two groups set out through the ship ' s corridors , avoiding stormtroopers . Chopper got the prisoners into two pods . As Bridger , Wren and Gerrera headed for the engine room , Bridger heard the singing from earlier again , coming from behind a locked door . Wren opened the door to be confronted by a death trooper , who was promptly shot by Gerrera . She threw in several smoke bomb s , and the rebels charged in to attack the other trooper s . Blinded by the smoke , several of the troopers were picked off by the rebels , and their commander , DT - F16 , ordered her subordinates to get to cover . During the skirmish , one of Gerrera ' s blaster bolts struck the hold ' s contents , a repulsorlift cradle containing a carbon - frozen object , prompting the commander to order a retreat . She was the only one who made it , as the rebels took out the other death troopers . Bridger was concerned about the remaining death trooper , but Gerrera told him to forget about it , as he was confident that he had found what he was looking for . The carbonite evaporated to reveal the cradle ' s contents , a giant kyber crystal . Wren warned her fellow rebels to put their blasters away , as the crystal ' s large size would make it unstable . Meanwhile , DT - F16 contacted the freighter ' s captain , Wells , informing him that rebels under Gerrera ' s command had taken possession of the crystal , and to inform Director Krennic . She ordered that all security personnel be sent to her , and that the escape pods be purged so that no one could leave the ship . Chopper , noticing the pods being launched , ordered the prisoners out of their pods and escorted them back to hold 17 . Gerrera insisted to Bridger and Wren that the Empire had to be trying to weaponize the crystal , and that they had to let the freighter reach its destination . Bridger and Wren disagreed , insisting that the safety of the prisoners was more important . Bridger asked Gerrera to guard the crystal while he and Wren disabled the hyperdrive . Arriving at the engine room , Bridger and Wren swiftly took out the guards , but before Wren could override the hyperdrive , she and Bridger were stun ned by Gerrera , who was adamant that nothing would stop him from uncovering the Empire ' s plans . Destroying the kyber crystal . DT - F16 and her reinforcements arrived in the cargo hold where the crystal had been to discover it missing . Contacting Wells , she was informed that they had lost contact with the engine room , and set out again . In the engine room , Bridger and Wren woke up to find themselves handcuffed , and that Gerrera , who had just contacted Edrio for a pickup , had wired the kyber crystal to the hyperdrive . Gerrera explained that he was planning to set off a chain reaction causing the kyber crystal to ignite when the ship reached its destination , destroying whatever the Empire was building out there , as he was confident that the Empire was building a superweapon . However , when the freighter dropped out of hyperspace , it was revealed that it was only rendezvousing with a Star Destroyer . Gerrera used Ezra ' s lightsaber and his blaster to damage the hyperdrive , beginning the process of detonating the crystal . Onboard the Star Destroyer , Captain Slavin was informed that there were rebels onboard the freighter , and ordered a boarding party sent to secure the crystal . Edrio arrived in Gerrera ' s U - wing , drawing fire from the Star Destroyer , but Slavin ordered his gunner s to stop when the transport got too close to the freighter , as the crystal ' s presence made it too dangerous to shoot at the ship . DT - F16 and her stormtroopers arrived at the engine room , but were forced to retreat when two troopers were electrocuted , prompting the commander to order the ship abandoned . Bridger and Wren managed to persuade Gerrera to release them , but turned down his offer of a ride . He bid them farewell before departing for his ship . Wren informed Bridger that it was too late to stop the crystal from exploding , and the pair fled . Bridger contacted Chopper , ordering the droid to contact the " Ghost " and get the prisoners to the shuttle in hold 12 , regardless of the guards . As Saw ' s U - wing jumped into hyperspace , Slavin was informed that there was no sign that the crystal was onboard the rebel ship . He ordered the freighter secured . In hold 12 , Chopper and the prisoners approached the " Lambda " - class shuttle . Matt claimed to the guards that Chopper had been ordered to evacuate them . When one guard stated that the shuttle was reserved for the commander , Chopper swiftly dispatched both guards , and the prisoners boarded the shuttle . Shortly after , DT - F16 and her remaining troopers entered the hold and attempted to take back the shuttle , but were promptly taken out by Bridger and Wren , who had been right behind them . The shuttle departed the freighter . Bridger told Wren that he was picking up a massive energy reading from the freighter , and she flew the shuttle around to put the Star Destroyer between them and the crystal , realizing that it was too late to jump into hyperspace . As the shuttle flew past the bridge , Slavin recognized it as the commander ' s shuttle and wondered where she was going . He was then informed by a technician that they were picking up something going critical onboard the freighter . The crystal ' s explosion destroyed the freighter and Slavin ' s Star Destroyer . The shockwave knocked out the engines on Bridger and Wren ' s stolen shuttle , leaving it drifting . Aftermath . The " Ghost " arrived shortly after the explosion , and picked up Bridger , Wren , Chopper and the technicians from the crippled shuttle . On the journey through hyperspace , Syndulla offered to take the technicians to their home planets , but Matt informed her that they had decided to join the Rebellion . They figured that since the Empire had wanted to use their skills so badly , they could put them to better use working for the Rebels . Kanan Jarrus , meanwhile , found the implications of what the Empire might want with giant kyber crystals unsettling , as he remembered a previous mission in which the Spectres had prevented the Empire from getting its hands on one .