The Ord Mantell operation was a task force dispatched by the Grand Army of the Republic, deploying two squads of their elite clone commandos to the Mid Rim planet of Ord Mantell. This occurred during the initial year of the Clone Wars. A critical delivery intended for Supreme Chancellor Palpatine from Malastare diplomats had been seized by a Trandoshan bounty hunter group. Consequently, Republic commandos from both squads were deployed to Ord Mantell to recover the item and return it to Coruscant, preventing its sale to the Separatists by the Trandoshans. Upon reaching Ord Mantell, the clones located and engaged the bounty hunters. However, one squad suffered fatalities when the Trandoshans retaliated with thermal detonators. The remaining squad pursued the fleeing bounty hunters, eliminating several battle droids dispatched to secure the package, though one squad member was shot by droid fire. The final confrontation with the Trandoshan bounty hunters resulted in a shootout where two additional commandos and all but the Trandoshan leader were killed. The squad's sergeant and lone survivor, Sarge, tackled the escaping bounty hunter, killing him and securing the package for the Republic. The package proved to be a minor Malastarian trinket of little value to Chancellor Palpatine, who, after its delivery, had it stored away with numerous other political gifts.
Approximately half a year following the beginning of the galactic conflict between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems, known as the Clone Wars, diplomats from the world Malastare arranged for a political offering to be delivered to Supreme Chancellor Palpatine of the Republic. However, before it could reach its destination, a Trandoshan bounty hunter group intercepted and stole the item, intending to sell it to the Confederacy. Upon the Republic's discovery of this, the clone commandos of Sarge's unit and another unit were summoned to Republic Intelligence headquarters, where they met with an Advanced Recon Commando officer. Inside a briefing room, the ARC trooper briefed the two commando units on the situation and tasked them with retrieving the package from the bounty hunters. Despite Sarge believing the task better suited for ARC troopers, the clones traveled to Ord Mantell, the location of the intended sale to the Confederacy.
Once they landed on Ord Mantell, the commandos began preparations to attack the bounty hunters. At midday, Sarge's unit took up position on a nearby roof, overlooking the street where they had tracked the Trandoshans, while the other team remained on the ground. The soldiers of the latter unit positioned a large vehicle in the street under the guise of mechanical issues, forcing the convoy of three landspeeders carrying the Trandoshan bounty hunters to stop. Once halted, the rooftop unit's ordnance specialist fired a missile at the lead speeder, destroying it. The ground team then engaged, attacking the remaining speeders. The Trandoshans managed to escape, throwing several thermal detonators from their speeder, which killed their attackers. From their vantage point, the other squad's sniper shot the driver of the rearmost speeder, causing it to crash and killing the remaining occupants.
With two of the three bounty hunter speeders destroyed and the third fleeing, the surviving commandos moved to ground level and boarded a speeder piloted by one of their own. The unit tracked the Trandoshans through Ord Mantell's streets towards the industrial yards, but upon arrival, the bounty hunters were nowhere to be found. Sarge ordered his men to split up and search. The unit's pilot located the hunters inside a building near the courtyard, only to be met with blaster fire from Confederacy battle droids the Trandoshans were meeting. The squad leader quickly threw an EMP grenade through the door, disabling the B1 and B2 super battle droids, before storming in and destroying them with their DC-17m blaster rifles.
With the droids eliminated, the commandos targeted a blast door at the building's rear. The unit's demolitions expert placed a charge on the door, creating an entrance. The surprised Trandoshans took cover behind their speeder as the clone commandos stormed the room, weapons firing. The squad's explosives expert was killed by a bounty hunter, but a grenade from Sarge killed the Trandoshans. The Trandoshan leader, however, had been hiding. He attacked from behind, firing his wrist blaster and hitting the ordnance module on the sniper's pack, detonating it, killing the sniper, and nearly killing the squad leader. With the survivor down, the Trandoshan leader tried to escape, but the clone commando jumped on his back, pulling him down. Holding him by the neck, the clone activated the vibroblade on his right hand's knuckle plate and stabbed the bounty hunter in the chest, declaring it revenge for his squad. He then retrieved the package and left to deliver it to Republic Intelligence.
Republic Intelligence delivered the recovered package to Coruscant, where Galactic Senate Vice Chairman Mas Amedda presented it to Chancellor Palpatine in his office. Despite Sarge's and his unit's efforts, Palpatine deemed the gift a trivial trinket. The Chancellor instructed Amedda to store the unwanted gift in a storage closet with similar items.
With his unit gone, Sarge was reassigned as sergeant of Aiwha Squad, leading the new unit until the end of the Clone Wars.
The Ord Mantell mission first appeared in the story The Package, from the Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures Volume 3 of the Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures comics, written by Ryan Kaufman.