Pursued by an Imperial Troop Transport, Beck and his comrades fled in a landspeeder. During the pursuit, Beck exchanged fired with his Imperial pursuers with a blaster. While fleeing to a nearby bridge, Beck's speeder was hit and began to slow down. However, Beck's friend Zare Leonis, who had come on a jumpspeeder looking for his former classmate, managed to slow down the Troop Transport by flinging a detonator underneath the vehicle. This momentary distraction gave Beck and his friends enough time to flee across the bridge in their landspeeder. The Troop Transport then attempted to pursue Leonis but the youth managed to flee across the bridge in time.
Shortly later, Beck and his rebel associates were arrested by Imperial stormtroopers. Under the auspices of the Imperial Security Bureau, Beck was enrolled in an experimental re-education program known as Project Unity. Meanwhile, Leonis infiltrated the Academy for Young Imperials with the intention of finding his sister Dhara Leonis and working against the Empire from within. While studying at the Imperial Academy on Arkanis, Leonis was exposed as a traitor by a brainwashed Beck and subsequently pleaded guilty to his involvement in the skirmish at the Westhills. He was sentenced to death but managed to escape with Dhara due to the efforts of his girlfriend Merei Spanjaf and the Spectres rebel cell.
Following the end of the Clone Wars, the Galactic Empire occupied the Outer Rim world of Lothal. They wanted to exploit the planet's rich mineral wealth and to establish a new hyperspace route. While agriculture had been the main industry on Lothal prior to the Imperial occupation, the expansion of Imperial mining operations had caused extensive pollution and many families to lose their lands and livelihoods. In 6 BBY, Imperial security forces under Lieutenant Piers Roddance had massacred several unarmed protesters in the Westhills protesting against Imperial polices on Lothal.
The Lothalian youth Beck Ollet and his friend Zare Leonis (an offworld migrant) had witnessed the massacre and became disillusioned towards the Empire. Beck's hostility towards the Empire needed little encouragement since he had always resented his family's decision to sell their orchards in the Westhills to the Empire. During the summer season, Beck joined a three-member rebel cell that sought to overthrow the Empire in retaliation for its destruction of orchards and massacre of protesters in the Westhills. To conceal his insurgent activities, Beck told his parents that he was spending the month riding jumpspeeders around Lothal with his cousins before starting work as a harvest supervisor in the fall.
One day, Beck and his fellow insurgents decided to plant detonators on mining droids at a mine in the Westhills. This mine had been built over the field which had been the site of the earlier Westhills massacre. Prior to departing on this raid, Beck contacted his friends Zare and Merei Spanjaf thanking them for being his friends if he did not return. Beck and his colleagues managed to plant detonators on several of the mining droids; damaging them. Before they could finish their work, they were spotted by an Imperial Troop Transport and were forced to flee on their landspeeder. While fleeing, they left behind a canvas satchel filled with detonators.
Receiving Beck's message from Merei, Zare traveled to the mine on his jumpspeeder and quickly discovered Beck and his colleagues' handy work. Zare then witnessed Beck's landspeeder being pursued around the mine by the Troop Transport. The Imperial Transport had managed to score a hit on the speeder, damaging one of its repulsorlifts. Through his macrobinoculars, Leonis witnessed Beck exchanging fire with a blaster with the Imperial Troop Transport. Beck's landspeeder managed to flee into a nearby orchard but was unable to elude the Imperial Transport. Wanting to aid his friend, Leonis picked up Beck's abandoned canvas satchel and followed the Troop Transport and Beck's landspeeder on his jumpspeeder.
Beck and his comrades drove towards the bridge which lay across the Barchetta River while under fire from the Troop Transport, which was equipped with frontal anti-vehicular cannons. Seeing that the Troop Transport was closing in on Beck's landspeeder, Zare flung a detonator from Beck's canvas satchel at the rear of the Imperial vehicle; causing the vehicle to almost topple. This distraction enabled Beck and his companions to flee on their landspeeder across the bridge linking Barchetta River. However, Zare's action had failed to destroy the Imperial Troop Transport, which turned its attention to him. Fleeing the Transport's blaster fire, Leonis managed to escape across the bridge. The Transport was unable to continue its pursuit since it was too wide to cross the bridge.
Beck and his fellow insurgents' attack on the Westhills mine drew the ire of the local Imperial authorities on Lothal. Since the Empire had identified their landspeeder, Beck and his comrades were forced to go into hiding. Prior to going into hiding, Beck managed to arrange a final meeting with his former classmates Zare Leonis and Merei Spanjaf. During their meeting, Beck asked Leonis whether he had been spotted by the Imperial authorities. Leonis responded that nobody had contacted him so far which meant that they did not recognize him. Beck also regretted his attack on the Westhills mine since he felt that the Empire was too powerful to take on openly.
While the time was not ripe to launch an insurgency against the Empire, Beck advised his friends to use other means to work against the Empire. He advised Zare to infiltrate the Imperial Academy on Lothal in order to fight against the Empire from within. He also encouraged Merei to put her slicing skills to good use against the Empire but cautioned her that the Imperials were increasing security measures. Shortly after the meeting, Beck went to hide with his fellow insurgents in a shuttered shop in Capital City's marketplace. However, the Imperials had managed to track them down and promptly arrested Beck and his two fellow insurgents. Zare witnessed the arrest and resolved to continue his mission to infiltrate the Academy. Leonis also wanted to find his sister Dhara Leonis, an Imperial cadet who had disappeared under suspicious circumstances.
Following his arrest, Beck was tried by an Imperial security tribunal which found him guilty and enrolled him in an experimental re-education program called Project Unity. During his interrogation, Beck remained hostile but acknowledged that he had been a new recruit to a three-person resistance cell that was opposed to the Imperial occupation of Lothal. He managed to conceal Zare's involvement in the raid on the Westhills mine by claiming that the mysterious jumpspeeder rider who had attacked the Imperial Transport pursuing his group's landspeeder was an "angry farmer".
In the meantime, Leonis excelled in his Academy training and was eventually transferred to the Arkanis Academy, where he attempted to join a secret society called the Commandant's Cadets in the hope of finding his sister Dhara. However, he was exposed as a traitor by a brainwashed Beck Ollet. During interrogation and a military tribunal, Zare confessed to his role in the Westhills skirmish and several other crimes including fraudulent enlistment and aiding the Spectres. As a result of his guilty plea, Zare was sentenced to death. However, he and his sister Dhara managed to escape Arkanis with the help of Beck, Merei, and the Spectres.