The Capital City endeavor involved a theft of blasters from the forces of the Galactic Empire in 5 BBY. This illegal operation was executed by a group of rebels conducting anti-Imperial activities on the Outer Rim planet of Lothal. They were hired by crime lord Cikatro Vizago. The rebels' attempt to purloin the blasters occurred in Capital City. However, their plans were disrupted by a street urchin named Ezra Bridger, who absconded with a set of the crates. This action initiated a pursuit throughout the city, with the rebels trying to evade the Empire, and Bridger attempting to evade both. The chase extended beyond the city limits, during which the rebels battled stormtroopers and TIE fighters as they made their escape. Eventually, Bridger managed to elude the rebels, but he was then rescued by their vessel, the Ghost, which downed an incoming TIE fighter. Kanan Jarrus, who led the rebels, offered Bridger an opportunity to escape the approaching fighters, and Bridger boarded the ship with his stolen crate.
The Ghost was then pursued by several TIE fighters, leading to a brief battle within the atmosphere and into outer space. The vessel successfully jumped to hyperspace before reappearing near Lothal, where it masked its signal to avoid detection. The rebels transported numerous crates, also filled with food and other provisions, to a refugee camp known as Tarkintown, where they distributed them freely to the refugees. Jarrus and Hera Syndulla, the captain of the crew, delivered the blasters to Vizago, who compensated them with both currency and intelligence—specifically, information regarding the possible whereabouts of Wookiees who had been enslaved by the Empire. This intel prompted the rebels to undertake a mission to liberate them. Bridger subsequently became a member of the crew, having found a new family within their ranks as a consequence of the heist.
In the year 5 BBY, a band of rebels was active around the Outer Rim planet of Lothal, launching strikes against the Galactic Empire. The rebels occasionally accepted contracts from Devaronian crime lord Cikatro Vizago, head of the Broken Horn Syndicate criminal organization on Lothal, in order to finance their operations and maintain their starship, the Ghost. Not limiting themselves to one planet, the rebels used intel from Vizago to intercept a ship said to be carrying potential allies for their resistance against the Empire.
The ship, which they discovered was a Wookiee gunship, had been attacked by Trandoshan slavers before the Ghost's arrival, and the Wookiees were taken as slaves by the Empire. Vizago informed the rebels that he would investigate the Wookiees' fate, and in the meantime, he offered them another job: to steal Imperial supply crates located in Capital City. The crates contained blasters that Vizago desired, as well as food intended for distribution to refugees in Tarkintown, a small community of citizens displaced by Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin, the Governor of the Outer Rim Territories.
Shortly before the heist's commencement, the Lawbringer, an Imperial-class Star Destroyer, approached Capital City. Ezra Bridger, witnessing its passage over his residence, the derelict LothalNet comm tower E-272, tracked the vessel's course on a speeder. Bridger, a 14-year-old orphan and swindler, also entered Capital City, where he observed two Imperial officers, Commandant Cumberlayne Aresko and Sergeant Major Myles Grint, harassing a local Gotal merchant named Yoffar. The officers planned to arrest Yoffar for treason after he criticized the Imperial presence on Lothal. Bridger then pilfered a communicator from Aresko and deceived the officers into thinking there was an emergency in the town square, causing them to leave and reverse their decision to arrest the merchant.
After stealing some jogan fruits from Yoffar, Bridger ascended to a rooftop and watched the officers in the city square, where they discovered there was no emergency. Instead, they found another officer, Supply Master Yogar Lyste, and his troops loading supply crates onto speeders—the same crates the rebels planned to steal. The rebels were also present, preparing for their mission.
As the Imperials proceeded with loading their supplies, Sabine Wren, the Mandalorian explosives artist, and one of the rebels, placed a detonator on a speeder bike, causing it to explode near a stormtroopers. Thinking they were under attack, the Imperials evacuated with the supply crates, sending their speeders through the city. Kanan Jarrus, the rebel leader and a Jedi survivor of Order 66, intercepted the speeders. He, along with Lasat warrior Garazeb Orrelios, battled the Imperial troops to seize the crates. However, their plan was complicated when Bridger jumped from the roof and stole one of the speeders, along with a set of crates, before speeding away.
Bridger's actions initiated a chase throughout the city. Wren first spotted him and jumped onto the crates he was carrying, taking one of the two from him. Bridger continued through Capital City, while Jarrus and Orrelios continued their pursuit. The chase led outside of Capital City, where Imperial troops pursued them. Jarrus and Orrelios fought off the stormtroopers, with Orrelios falling back to attack them from behind. Orrelios eventually left with Jarrus' crates, while the rebel leader continued to pursue Bridger. Jarrus intercepted the boy, who claimed he stole the crate fairly. A TIE/ln space superiority starfighter then intercepted them, firing on their location and destroying Jarrus' speeder. Bridger's speeder remained intact, and he continued away from the city.
The TIE fighter continued to pursue Bridger as he attempted to return to his tower. The TIE fighter fired on him and destroyed the speeder, leaving Bridger defenseless—until the Ghost shot down the TIE fighter. Jarrus offered Bridger a chance to escape as four additional TIE fighters approached, which Bridger accepted. He grabbed his crate and leaped towards the ship, unknowingly using the Force to propel his ascent, surprising the former Jedi.
Once Bridger was on board, the Ghost flew into space, where the TIE fighters continued to pursue it. Bridger learned that the crate he stole contained blasters, and he continued to claim ownership, intending to sell them on the black market. As he argued with the crew, Hera Syndulla, the ship's pilot, evaded the TIE fighters and calculated a jump to hyperspace, while Jarrus and Wren manned the ship's gun turrets to fire back at the TIE fighters, destroying two of them. Wren shot down the second TIE fighter, creating an opening for Syndulla, who jumped the Ghost into hyperspace and escaped from the Empire.
Following the chase, Agent Kallus of the Imperial Security Bureau, who had arrived on Lothal prior to the heist to investigate the rebels' activity, discussed the situation with Aresko and Grint. Kallus explained that the rebels had targeted numerous other Imperial operations and that the crew needed to be destroyed to prevent them from sparking a full-scale rebellion against the Empire.
The Ghost later returned to Lothal, scrambling its signal to avoid Imperial detection. The ship landed on the outskirts of Tarkintown, where Wren and Orrelios delivered the supplies to the people. Bridger also brought supplies, although he still intended to take the weapons he stole back to his home. He witnessed the impact of the supplies on the townspeople, who were grateful to receive free food from the rebels. Meanwhile, Jarrus and Syndulla delivered the blasters to Vizago, who paid them with money and information, specifically, what they believed was the location of the enslaved Wookiees.
The rebels then mounted a mission to rescue the Wookiees, unaware that the information was a trap set by Agent Kallus. The crew fell into Kallus' trap while trying to rescue the Wookiees, but they escaped and ultimately learned that the Wookiees were being taken to the spice mines on the planet Kessel. It was on Kessel that the rebels successfully rescued the prisoners and freed them from Imperial captivity. After the mission, Bridger agreed to join the crew and become Jarrus' Padawan, as the Jedi survivor had discovered Bridger's sensitivity to the Force. Furthermore, the rebels' actions on Lothal and Kessel led Kallus to contact the Grand Inquisitor, who was tasked by the Empire with hunting down any surviving Jedi—and who became interested in eliminating Jarrus, Bridger, and their crew.
The Capital City mission was depicted in the opening scenes of Star Wars Rebels: Spark of Rebellion, the one-hour television film premiere of Star Wars Rebels that was broadcast on October 3, 2014.
The first draft of Spark of Rebellion originally featured a different sequence of events for the heist. In that draft, Ezra Bridger stole a speeder bike and returned to his tower outside of Capital City. The sequence did not include a speeder bike chase, but rather a chase on foot across rooftops. After Bridger returned to his tower, he opened a crate and found electronic leaflets containing propaganda from the Empire. Instead of being immediately confronted by Kanan Jarrus, the two met again the next day. The final draft of the script added the speeder chase to the heist sequence to add more action to the film's first act.