In 1 BBY, during the events of the Galactic Civil War, the Spectres were dispatched to Jalindi for a task. Their assignment involved infiltrating the Galactic Empire's Jalindi Station to intercept Imperial communications passing through the facility. To accomplish this, Ezra Bridger, Sabine Wren, and Chopper performed a skydiving maneuver from the Ghost onto the station's antenna in order to install a listening device. The arrival of the Arquitens-class command cruiser Marauder complicated the operation, as it detected the rebel presence. This led Sabine to alter the mission's objective to destroying the relay. The extremist Saw Gerrera then appeared and personally destroyed the dish, with the resulting explosion also destroying the Marauder. While the rebels escaped, Sabine, Ezra, and Chopper were compelled to join Gerrera on another task due to a Star Destroyer's arrival, preventing the Ghost from retrieving them.
Rebel Alliance operations, including a supply run led by Captain Hera Syndulla and her squadron, had been consistently thwarted by the Galactic Empire. Alderaanian Viceroy Bail Organa discovered that the Empire had constructed a new communications relay on the planet Jalindi. The Alliance had received information about the relay from the extremist Saw Gerrera, the leader of the Partisans, but they were skeptical of these reports because Gerrera was known for his unreliability. During the briefing on the relay, Rex questioned how Gerrera's small group possessed better intelligence than the entire Rebel Alliance. Alexsandr Kallus, an Imperial defector, explained that Gerrera obtained intelligence without the Alliance's ethical concerns.
Kallus proposed that the Alliance could infiltrate the relay and monitor Imperial communications, enabling them to avoid Imperial fleets. Mon Mothma, the leader of the Alliance, approved the plan and assigned the Spectres, Syndulla's team, to carry it out. Ezra Bridger, a member of the Spectres, suggested destroying the relay, but Syndulla argued that the Empire would simply rebuild it.
Later that evening, Gerrera contacted the Alliance's headquarters on Yavin 4, smugly pointing out that the Alliance was now forced to rely on his information and implying that Mothma's leadership would lead to their downfall. Syndulla secretly agreed that the relay should be destroyed, fueled by her desire to retaliate against the Empire for the losses her squadron suffered during the failed supply run. However, she remained committed to following her orders.
The Ghost, the Spectres' ship, arrived above Jalindi, and Syndulla scrambled its signature to avoid Imperial detection. As planned, the ship flew high above the relay, and Bridger, Sabine Wren, and Chopper jumped out, freefalling towards the station. Bridger and Wren used jetpacks, while Chopper, an astromech droid, used a rocket booster. Activating their rockets at less than 500 meters above the station to avoid detection, the three landed on the dish at high speed. Chopper crashed into the main antenna, briefly disrupting the station's signal. Before they could install the listening device, Garazeb Orrelios reported the arrival of an Arquitens-class command cruiser aboard the Ghost. Bridger, Wren, and Chopper retreated to the other side of the antenna, and Bridger reported that the cruiser did not appear to have detected them.
Wren and Chopper began hacking into the relay station, and Wren instructed the droid to patch into the secondary comm relay before installing the spike. However, a transmission from the cruiser, the Marauder, revealed that they had accidentally connected to the main communications channel. The Marauder's commander requested docking clearance from the station. Wren instructed Chopper to connect the ship to the relay station to avoid raising suspicion. Bridger had a different idea and asked Chopper to connect him to the ship. Using an accent, he attempted to impersonate the Jalindi relay's commander, claiming that the Marauder was not expected and was causing difficulties for the station, asking them to return the next day. The Marauder's commander demanded to know who he was speaking to, and Bridger claimed to be "Commander Brom Titus." However, Titus was the officer Bridger was speaking to, and he demanded to know if it was a joke.
The station's dish was realigned, exposing Bridger and Wren to the Marauder's bridge. Titus, using electrobinoculars, recognized Bridger waving at him, infuriating him. He had encountered the boy on two previous occasions, the first of which resulted in his demotion from Admiral. Titus ordered his bridge crew to find the real commander of the relay station. Stormtroopers were dispatched to the dish, and Bridger and Wren engaged them in combat. She contacted Syndulla to report their discovery and request extraction. Wren decided to destroy the station as a way to salvage the mission. While fighting the stormtroopers, she attempted to plant detonators on the dish. Bridger had Chopper realign the dish, causing the stormtroopers to lose their balance as everyone slid back into the dish's center.
Titus was informed of the approach of a small ship, the Ghost, and ordered his cruiser's weapons readied and their two new fighters launched. Onboard the Ghost, Orrelios informed Syndulla that the fighters were the advanced TIE/d "Defender" Multi-Role Starfighters, forcing her to abort her approach. On the dish, Bridger ordered Chopper to realign it again as more stormtroopers arrived. He and Wren slid toward the other side of the dish. Wren grabbed a support strut for one of the smaller secondary dishes and pulled Bridger to safety. The stormtroopers were not so fortunate.
As the Ghost was pursued by the heavily-shielded Defenders, Kanan Jarrus, Syndulla's copilot and a Jedi Knight, advised her to navigate through the foggy depths surrounding the local stone pillars. Using the Force, he guided her through the pillars. The pilots of the Defenders were unable to perceive the pillars in the same way, resulting in both fighters crashing. Back at the relay, Titus was informed of the arrival of another rebel ship, a UT-60D U-wing starfighter/support craft, which attacked the Marauder, severely damaging it and disabling its deflector shields. The ship approached the dish, and Bridger and Wren were surprised to see Gerrera on board. Gerrera invited them onboard as he pushed several proton bombs onto the dish, warning that they were set to detonate soon. Bridger, Wren, and Chopper boarded Gerrera's ship, which was copiloted by Edrio Two Tubes.
The stormtroopers on the dish, noticing the bombs' short timers, attempted to escape, and Titus ordered his bridge crew to pursue the fleeing U-wing. However, it was too late, as the detonation of the proton bombs destroyed the relay station and the Marauder. Syndulla, returning from dealing with the Defenders, witnessed the explosion from the Ghost. Contacting Bridger and Wren, she was relieved to find them safe but less so to learn that they were with Gerrera.
The two rebel ships departed Jalindi's atmosphere. Syndulla intended to dock the Ghost with Gerrera's U-wing to retrieve Bridger, Wren, and Chopper, but the arrival of a Star Destroyer forced both ships to jump to hyperspace. Separated from the rest of the Spectres, Bridger, Wren, and Chopper accompanied Gerrera on a mission to investigate a mysterious Imperial shipment.