Mission to destroy a kyber crystal After their mission to Stygeon Prime , the rebel crew of the " Ghost " undertook a mission to locate and destroy a powerful kyber crystal held by the Galactic Empire . In order to locate it , the rebels required an Imperial decoder from the office of ISB Agent Kallus at the Imperial Headquarters on Lothal . To gain access to the complex , Ezra Bridger was tasked with infiltrating the Imperial Academy below in order to steal the decoder . He spent several weeks in the academy , during which time he was trained by the Imperial Army . He finally located the decoder and stole it with the help of fellow cadet Zare Leonis , who held rebel sympathies after his sister , cadet Dhara Leonis , disappeared from the academy . Bridger provided the decoder to the rest of the rebels , allowing Kanan Jarrus and Hera Syndulla to go to the coordinates of the kyber crystal . The Spectres then passed the decoder to Leonis ' girlfriend Merei Spanjaf , who needed it to access several classified ISB files on Dhara . While they did so , Bridger remained behind in order to save fellow cadet Jai Kell , who was in danger from the Grand Inquisitor after showing signs of Force sensitivity . Leonis and Kell commandeered an All Terrain Defense Pod in order to assist in their escape , and the three were able to make it out of the academy before the Inquisitor arrived . Bridger and Kell fled , but Leonis remained in order to find out more about his sister , under the official pretense of having tried to stop the other two . Meanwhile , Jarrus and Syndulla tracked down the Imperial convoy carrying the kyber crystal and destroyed it . In the aftermath of the mission , Bridger returned to the " Ghost " , Kell went into hiding , and Leonis was brought before the Inquisitor to tell him about Bridger . Prelude . About five years before the Battle of Yavin , the Spectres undertook a mission to intercept an Imperial convoy transporting a powerful kyber crystal . In order to locate the crystal , the rebels had to steal a ZX - 5 decoder from the office of the ISB Agent Kallus at the Imperial Headquarters in Lothal ' s Capital City . To gain access to the decoder , Ezra Bridger infiltrated the Academy for Young Imperials below the complex disguised as an Imperial cadet named " Dev Morgan " . While Hera Syndulla and Kanan Jarrus waited aboard the " Ghost " in space , the other crew , Sabine Wren , Garazeb Orrelios , and Chopper , waited outside the Academy to extricate Ezra once he had obtained the decoder . The Spectres ' mission was complicated by Imperial cadet Zare Leonis ' quest to find his sister Dhara , who had mysteriously disappeared the previous year while training as a cadet at the academy . Disillusioned with the Empire ' s policies towards Lothal , Leonis had infiltrated the Academy with the intention of finding his sister and working to undermine the Empire from within . Leonis was supported by his girlfriend Merei Spanjaf , who had managed to gain access to the Imperial data network on Lothal by creating a fake ISB account and using snooper s to hack into the Transportation Ministry ' s headquarters . The mission . An unlikely ally . For several weeks , Ezra Bridger underwent training at the Academy for Young Imperials under the pseudonym " Dev Morgan " . He was assigned to Unit Aurek , which was part of squad LRC077 . During his time undercover , Ezra befriended cadets Leonis and Jai Kell . After the three cadets came first in a grueling training assessment in the Well , Commandant Cumberlayne Aresko rewarded them by assigning them the " honor " of working as aides at Imperial Headquarters upstairs . Having passed the test , Ezra signaled to a disguised Chopper , who passed the word to the other rebels . Unbeknownst to Ezra , Zare noticed him signalling the droid . Putting his plan into action , Ezra managed to slip into Agent Kallus ' office under the pretext of delivering datapad s . Ezra removed the ZX - 5 decoder from a computer on the desk and tucked it inside his cadet helmet . When he opened the door to leave , he was confronted by Leonis , who shoved him back inside the office and spotted the decoder in his helmet . Instead of reporting " Morgan " , however , Zare warned him that taking the decoder out of Kallus ' office would trigger a sensor , causing the facility to go into lockdown . This unexpected development delayed the Spectres ' plans to intercept the Imperial convoy by one day . In private , Zare and Morgan talked about their motivations for resisting the Empire . After Morgan revealed his involvement in a rebel cell , Leonis recounted his sister Dhara ' s suspicious disappearance . The two cadets then made an agreement to finish in the top three places the following day in order to get back inside Imperial headquarters . After Dev explained that his rebel comrades needed the decoder in order to intercept an Imperial shipment the following day , Zare revealed that his girlfriend Merei also needed the decoder to access some Imperial files on Dhara . After tossing a chance cube , Leonis and Dev reached an agreement that Morgan and his rebels would get to use the decoder first . An unexpected problem . The following day , Zare and Dev put their plans into action . Despite opposition from an obnoxious cadet named Nazhros Oleg , Ezra and Zare managed to come out in the top three . However , in the process , Dev was forced to push his friend Jai onto a lower repulsorlift platform , as Zare had been falling behind in the assessment . Dev regretted hurting Jai , but conceded that his mission was more important . Together , the two rebellious cadets made their way into Imperial headquarters . Prior to the second attempt , Leonis had arranged with Merei to produce a fake procurement order for spare podracer parts in order to distract Agent Kallus . Since taking the decoder through the door of Kallus ' office would trigger the sensor , Ezra entered Imperial Minister Maketh Tua ' s office to climb into a ventilation shaft that passed over Kallus ' office . While Leonis distracted Kallus with the fake order , the young Jedi used the Force to levitate the decoder into his palm . Kallus , already suspicious of the fake order , noticed Zare ' s distraction as he watched " Morgan " levitate the decoder . When he turned around , however , Ezra had already grabbed the device and shut the grate to the ventilation shaft . On his way back , Ezra overhead a conversation between Commandant Aresko and the Grand Inquisitor , whom he had encountered earlier on Stygeon Prime . Aresko had identified two cadets who met the Inquisitor ' s " special criteria " : Dev Morgan and Jai Kell . The Inquisitor announced that he would come the following day to test the cadets and take them into custody if they proved Force - sensitive . After stealing the decoder , Dev told Zare about his new predicament with the Grand Inquisitor . When pressed by Leonis , Dev conceded that he was a Jedi but did not reveal his true identity . Ezra then passed the decoder to Chopper , who brought it to Sabine and Zeb . Communicating via hologram , Ezra told his rebel comrades that he had to stay behind in order to stop the Grand Inquisitor from abducting Kell . Sabine then contacted Hera and Kanan , who proceeded to the Imperial convoy ' s coordinates . While Kanan was disturbed that Ezra had elected to stay behind a little longer , Hera reiterated that they had to focus on their mission first . Having finished using the decoder , the Spectres then passed it to Merei , who encountered them in the streets of Capital City . Escaping the Academy . Later that night , Dev awoke Jai Kell from his bunk and led him to a nearby storeroom where Zare Leonis was waiting . Due to the " betrayal " earlier that day , Jai initially did not believe them and thought it was a trick to get him expelled from the Imperial Academy . While Kell was skeptical of the Grand Inquisitor ' s existence , he believed that the Inquisitor could train him and give him a top rank in the Empire . Leonis was able to sway Kell over to their side by recounting his sister Dhara ' s disappearance . Since Kell ' s only family was his mother , he was unwilling to leave her forever . Having won over Kell , Dev and Zare then put into a motion a plan which involved winning the next assessment in order to get a ride on an Imperial AT - DP walker . The following day , their escape plot encountered another unexpected problem . While Jai and Zare came in the top three , the second place was taken by Nazhros Oleg , who was unaware of their escape plan . Despite the predicament , Morgan told the other rebels to stick with their original plan while he found a way to get aboard the walker . Meanwhile , Chopper planted a bomb on one of the legs of another AT - DP walker . Once aboard the AT - DP walker , Kell and Leonis put their plans into action . After hearing an explosion within the Academy ' s hangar bay , Jai used his blaster to stun the Imperial combat driver and Oleg . Zare then took control of the walker and headed towards the Academy ' s blast door s . When Grint realized that the cadets ' AT - DP had been hijacked , Aresko ordered that the Academy ' s blast door be shut . Using the walker ' s laser cannon s , Zare managed to damage an approaching AT - DP outside the Academy , causing it to block the blast door . However , the walker then came under fire from an Imperial Troop Transport approaching from the plaza . At that point , Ezra used his Force abilities to climb aboard the AT - DP ; leading Aresko to believe that he was trying to stop the hijackers . At that point , the hijacked walker was struck down by the Imperial Troop Transport ' s laser cannons , causing it to topple to the ground . The walker ' s head landed outside the Academy . Ezra survived the fall , but found himself surrounded by several stormtroopers . However , Zeb and Sabine shot the Imperial troops . They then managed to evacuate Ezra and Jai on a landspeeder . However , Leonis chose to stay behind in order to find his sister . With Aresko , Grint , and more stormtroopers approaching the vicinity , Leonis pretended to fire upon his rebel friends in order to maintain his cover . Destroying the kyber crystal . Meanwhile in deep space , the " Ghost " approached the Imperial convoy . The convoy consisted of three " Gozanti " - class cruisers , which each carried several TIE fighter escorts . Using the Force , Kanan sensed that the kyber crystal was aboard the middle ship . Kanan then used the " Ghost " auxiliary ship , the " Phantom " , to lure the TIEs away from the convoy while Hera attacked the middle ship . With the convoy under attack , the middle ship ' s Imperial captain ordered his crew to prepare the ship for a hyperspace jump while every remaining ship covered them . Braving enemy fire , Hera used the " Ghost " firepower to strike the cruiser ' s engine systems , triggering a massive explosion , fuelled by the kyber crystal , that destroyed the convoy ships and remaining TIE fighters . Before the explosion caught up with them , Kanan managed to dock the " Phantom " with the " Ghost " . The rebels then jumped into the safety of hyperspace . Aftermath . The mission to destroy the kyber crystal gave the Spectres another victory against the Galactic Empire . It also had significant repercussions for Jai Kell , Zare Leonis , Merei Spanjaf , Commandant Aresko , and Taskmaster Grint . The Spectres managed to reunite in Lothal ' s wilderness . There , Hera arranged for Jai Kell and his mother to go into hiding . Despite his annoyance with Chopper and Zeb ' s body odor , Ezra came to appreciate his place in the Spectres as a result of the undercover mission at the Academy . In return , Kanan came to understand that Ezra was perfectly capable of looking after himself . Meanwhile , Zare Leonis received praise from his Imperial Academy instructors and peers for trying to stop the " traitors " Jai Kell and Dev Morgan . He was later even awarded a commendation by Commandant Aresko . Later , Leonis was summoned for a private meeting with the Grand Inquisitor , who recognized Morgan as Ezra , one of the rebels he had encountered on Stygeon Prime . After confirming that Morgan was indeed a pseudonym , Leonis tried to probe into his sister Dhara ' s fate by claiming that he had a Force - bond with his sister . Using the stolen decoder , Merei Spanjaf discovered that Dhara had been identified as Force - sensitive by the Grand Inquisitor and forcibly inducted into Project Harvester , a top - secret program run out of the Arkanis Academy . Merei ' s efforts to slice into the Imperial data network attracted an Imperial investigation which subsequently forced her and her family to go into hiding on the planet Garel . Due to the rebel attack , the Lothal Academy ' s reputation was damaged and the Imperial authorities began screening all Imperial cadets for disloyalty . This incident was one of the many rebel activities on Lothal that preceded a planetwide crackdown on sedition . Later , Leonis was transferred to the Arkanis Academy under the pretext of rewarding him for his leadership abilities and loyalty . However , the Grand Inquisitor had arranged for this transfer in order to investigate his links to the Spectres . Before Leonis could find his sister Dhara , he was identified as a traitor and scheduled for execution . Due to the intervention of the Spectres and Merei , Zare and his sister were able to escape with their family into hiding on Garel . Following a string of repeated failures to stop the Spectres , Commandant Aresko and Taskmaster Grint were executed by the Grand Inquisitor under the orders of Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin , the Governor of the Outer Rim Territories . Tarkin wanted to send a warning to his Imperial subordinates that the Empire would no longer tolerate any more failure . Four years later , Ezra , Sabine and Chopper wound up on a mission with notorious extremist Saw Gerrera , where they discovered the Empire was transporting another giant kyber crystal . This one was destroyed as well , when Gerrera rigged it up to the hyperdrive of the freighter it was being transported on , creating a bomb . After the mission , Kanan was reminded of the earlier incident , and he and Sabine wondered what the Empire could want with the crystals , and if it really was trying to weaponize them . Behind the scenes . The Spectres ' mission to destroy an Imperial kyber crystal shipment forms the main plot element of the " Star Wars Rebels " episode " Breaking Ranks " , which premiered on Disney XD on October 27 , 2014 . The mission was also further expanded in Jason Fry ' s 2015 junior novel " " , which was told from the point - of - view of Zare Leonis , a secondary character who first appeared in " Breaking Ranks " .