The Aldhani heist, also known as the mission on Aldhani, or the mission to Aldhani was a dangerous heist during the height of the Galactic Empire that Cassian Jeron Andor undertook to enter the growing rebel movement. It was organized by rebel agent Luthen Rael and operatives Vel Sartha and Taramyn Barcona with the goal of stealing the sector's quarterly payroll of more than 80 million credits.
By 5 BBY, the rebel movement was in its early days, with Chandrila senator Mon Mothma having formed a network of spies and agents including Galactic Antiquities and Objects of Interest owner Luthen Rael. Rael maintained a degree of independence from Mothma and began to organize an operation on Aldhani, where the payroll for the entire sector was stored in a vault on the planet's Imperial headquarters. To that end, Rael cooperated with Mothma's cousin Vel Sartha to form a six man infiltration team and deploy them on a temporary camp on Aldhani, where they were to be trained for the heist for the following months.
The rebel team built a scaled model of the Aldhani dam for mission briefing.
The team included Imperial double agent Lieutenant Gorn, an officer in the Aldhani dam, who provided them with the base's schedule and interior layout, while frequent visits to the location allowed the team to build a scaled model of the structure. This intel allowed the team to form a plan: they would infiltrate the facility as the protection squad for Jayhold Beehaz, the base's commandant, on the day of the local festival of the Eye of Aldhani, a natural celestial phenomenon which would also provide them with cover from pursuit during their escape. For that they would use a Max-7 Rono box freighter stored in a hangar behind the vault they were targeting.
Although the team was briefed and prepared, by the time of the heist they ultimately lacked critical redundancy in several areas: they were missing a member to complete the four person in-disguise team and they were unaware of a modification on their getaway vehicle which would have prevented it from taking off. These problems were solved with the addition of a seventh member, mercenary "Clem" provided by Rael two days before the heist. "Clem" (secretly fugitive Cassian Andor) provided the team with their missing seventh member and explained the issue with the getaway freighter. With that, the team was finally able to finalize their plans.
The night before the Eye the team destroyed their camp and burned the model of the base, while consuming the last of their supplies. They then trekked to the hills above the Aldhani dam, where they were separated: Sartha and Cinta Kaz would trek to the opposite bank of the Nasma Klain river for their part of the plan, and the other four, led by ex-stormtrooper Taramyn Barcona and consisting of Karis Nemik, Arvel Skeen, and Andor, would rest until the next morning.
The infiltrator team reveals their intentions and point their weapons at the Imperial officers
By break of day the first Eye pilgrims started arriving, springing the rebels' plan into action. The four infiltrators donned Imperial Army suits and followed the pilgrims posing as an escort squad from Alkenzi. After the welcoming ceremony where commandant Beehaz, visiting engineer Colonel Soden Petigar and Lieutenant Gorn greeted the pilgrims, Gorn allowed the "squad" to escort the commandant and his family back to the base. As soon as they were inside, Gorn sealed the gate and the rebels drew their weapons at the Imperials, forcing them to drop their weapons and surrender. Petigar however drew his blaster pistol and demanded the rebels release the commandant's son.
Outside, Sartha and Kaz swam underwater to the base of the dam and climbed on its top using a service ladder. They then placed a scrambling charge on the communications array and entered the base through a hatch leading to the main entrance, landing just feet away from the standoff between the rebels and Imperials there; Kaz immediately shot and killed Colonel Petigar. With all opposition eliminated, the team detained the commandant's family and took him to the command tower, where they disarmed the technicians stationed there at gunpoint. Both the techs and the commandant's family were held inside the occupied tower as hostages guarded by Kaz, and Beehaz was taken to the vault, where his presence was used to temporarily confuse the guards before they too were disarmed by the rebel team. With minutes to go before personnel in the neighboring Alkenzi Air Base noticed the communications disruption, hostages and rebels started loading the credits from the vault to the freighter. On the tower, Kaz turned off the lights in the entire facility and blocked an incoming transmission from Alkenzi, while Gorn too joined the team in the vault.
The Imperial hostages watch as the rebels escape aboard the stolen freighter
While the rebel infiltrators were robbing the vault, communications technician Kimzi was able to pinpoint their comlink frequency and overhear their comm chatter, deducing the plan and gathering a security force to intercept them in the vault. After Kimzi and his team encountered the rebels, Gorn attempted to maintain the façade of a "classified mission" by asking Beehaz to order the men to leave, but the stress of the situation caused the overweight commandant to drop dead from exhaustion. The Imperial personnel subsequently opened fire on the rebels, commencing a shootout. Simultaneously, three TIE fighters were dispatched from the Alkenzi airbase to respond to the loss of contact with the dam.
Gorn and Kimzi were immediately killed in the fledgling firefight while Andor attempted to prepare the freighter for launch. As he finished preparations for takeoff, an Imperial hostage, hiding under the cockpit ladder pursued and attacked an unsuspecting Andor. There was a struggle between the two men, but ultimately Nemik managed to fire a bolt at the Imperial, killing him.
Imperial Army troopers open fire at the rebel infiltrators
Barcona was killed while attempting to assist Sartha, who had been pinned down. After he dropped, the remaining rebels entered the freighter and Andor launched it through the tunnel, avoiding the remaining troopers' blaster fire. The TIE fighters from Alkenzi immediately made contact with him forcing him to accelerate to full speed, severely injuring Nemik who was crushed by a unsecured credit trolly. Although in pain, Nemik was able to navigate Andor through the approaching Eye nanoparticle cloud, plotting a course which allowed them to avoid being hit by the crystal meteors. With all three TIEs destroyed and the Eye cleared, the rebels jumped to hyperspace.
Following their escape from Aldhani, the rebel team traveled to the moon Frezno so Nemik could get treated for his injuries sustained during the mission. Despite Doctor Quadpaw's efforts, Nemik succumbed to his injuries and died on Frezno. Meanwhile, Andor shot and killed Skeen after the man suggested they betray Sartha and the team and take all the credits for himself. He gave Sartha the Kuati Signet that Luthen Rael gave himself. He then collected his share of the stolen credits and escaped aboard Quadpaw's starship, returning home to find his home planet occupied by the Empire. After unsuccessfully attempting to persuade his mother to run away with him, he left alone to live a free life on the planet Niamos.
After clearing her bill with Quadpaw, Sartha buried the stolen Rono freighter and deposited the stolen credits to Rael through secure channels. She then returned to Coruscant where she gave her post mission report to Rael's associate Kleya Marki.
Kaz exited the dam disguised an an Imperial Officer and made her way to where the rebel team had stored a Speeder bike and left Aldhani for her new assignment on Ferrix. In retaliation for the attack, the Empire introduced new oppressive measures, including a to be imposed upon any sector harboring anti-Imperial activity and the invocation of the Public Order Resentencing Directive, increasing prison sentences for crimes affecting the Empire.
Secretly meeting with Mon Mothma afterward, Rael explained that the Empire had played right into their hands: his primary objective all along had truly been to provoke a large-scale Imperial crackdown, which would in turn spur more anti-Imperial sentiment across the galaxy. Successfully stealing the quarterly payroll was only a secondary objective with little chance of success, though he was happy it did. At the ISB, Lieutenant Dedra Meero was one of the few to realize that provoking a crackdown was the attack's true objective.
The Aldhani heist appeared in the fourth episode of Andor, "Aldhani." It was first mentioned in a costume reveal at San Diego Comic-Con prior to the episode's release.
Andor showrunner Tony Gilroy modeled the Aldhani heist off of a bank robbery by Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, and other Bolsheviks in 1907 that helped finance the Russian Revolution. Gilroy said that exploring how the Rebel Alliance financed their rebellion was an "underutilized area of storytelling" for Star Wars media. "This shit all costs money. People gotta eat, they gotta get guns. You gotta get stuff. [...] All through every revolution, it's the same thing. It takes coin."
- LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga