Operation Fracture, also known as the hunt for Galen Erso, referred to the operation undertaken by the Alliance to Restore the Republic to extract scientist Galen Erso so he could testify to the Imperial Senate regarding the existence of a planet-destroying superweapon being employed by the Galactic Empire. However, before the mission began, the objectives were changed to assassinate Erso instead.
General Airen Cracken had given Captain Cassian Andor a mission to uncover why the Galactic Empire was secretly shipping kyber crystals. Andor's mission led him to section nine on the Ring of Kafrene, where he learned about a Imperial cargo pilot named Bodhi Rook, who had defected to the Partisans on Jedha with a message from scientist Galen Erso regarding an Imperial supeweapon.
After Andor contacted the Rebel Alliance with this information about Erso, Davits Draven approved a mission to send Sergeant Ruescott Melshi and his Extraction Team Bravo to Wobani to retrieve Galen's daughter Jyn from a labor camp. Jyn was freed and returned to Base One, where she was debriefed. Draven was suspicious of Jyn, calling her a petty criminal and rebel deserter, and did not want her to be involved in Operation Fracture. His concerns were overridden by Chancellor Mon Mothma, who felt that Jyn was the only one who could identify Galen, and pointed out that her crimes were always against Imperial forces or other criminals, not the public.
Captain Andor's orders, as issued by General Draven:
Operation Fracture first appeared in the 2016 Star Wars anthology film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and was later identified in the Star Wars: Rogue One: Rebel Dossier reference book written by Jason Fry.