During the Galactic Civil War, a conflict waged against the Galactic Empire, the Rebel Alliance utilized a transport known as the Spirit of Jedha. This transport was stationed at the rebel outpost located on the jungle planet of Lowik. When Lieutenant Kondra's rebel forces on Lowik were compelled to evacuate, Commander Hill Purpura took command of the Spirit of Jedha for their escape. However, Purpura, having lost his conviction in the Rebellion after the Battle of Hoth, sabotaged the Spirit of Jedha with intentions of betraying the Rebellion by selling the transponder codes of the rebel armada to the Empire. The hyperdrive motivator was sabotaged, causing the Spirit of Jedha to drop out of hyperspace unexpectedly during its journey.
The transport found itself marooned at Terminus, the junction of the Corellian Trade Spine and the Hydian Way hyperspace routes. Here, the ship and its pair of X-wing starfighters were attacked by pirates of the Ohnaka Gang. Due to the Empire's breach of the Rebellion's security codes, Kondra was unable to provide assistance to the transport or request aid from Rebel Command. Consequently, Kondra enlisted the help of bounty hunter Beilert Valance, who owed him a debt, to rescue the Spirit of Jedha. Valance journeyed to Terminus aboard his starship, the Broken Wing, and attempted to establish contact with the transport. The crew, consisting of fifteen rebels at the time, warned him to leave. Subsequently, the vessels of the Ohnaka Gang, under the command of Captain Skragg, opened fire on the Broken Wing. Valance was forced to eject the central module of his ship and land in the Spirit of Jedha's hangar, where he was captured and imprisoned by Commander Purpura, who accused Valance of potentially collaborating with the pirates.
Blanch Sproull, a mechanic, liberated Valance, who then commandeered the transport's last remaining X-wing starfighter. He instructed the astromech droid Tee-Six to transmit a message on his behalf while he exited the starfighter and clung to the external hull of the Spirit of Jedha. As the pirates maneuvered their Corona-class armed frigate alongside the Spirit of Jedha in preparation for boarding, Commander Purpura aimed his blaster at the back of another rebel crewmember present on the transport's bridge.