The Clone Wars: Secret Missions 1: Breakout Squad

A Jedi general disappears on a faraway planet, thereby entrusting his young learner and a team of untested clone troopers with the completion of a perilous classified assignment.

Marooned within the vastness of Wild Space, situated on the galaxy's distant fringes, this inexperienced group must seek assistance from a world populated by smugglers and criminals, all the while eluding Darth Sidious's merciless bounty hunter, Cad Bane. Facing limited options and dwindling time, they will require every possible advantage!

A unit of clone trooper "shinies" under the command of Clone Captain Lock are deployed from the Republic Star Destroyer Demolisher to sift through the remnants of the notorious Separatist heavy cruiser Malevolence. This cruiser had previously been sabotaged and crashed by Anakin Skywalker onto a moon. Intelligence from the Republic indicated that the Pammant Docks, utilizing the Free Dac Volunteers Engineering Corps, a division of the Quarren Isolation League, had constructed the Malevolence. The clone mission, focused on reconnaissance and recovery, substantiated this information. However, unusual circuitry was also discovered amidst the wreckage. This circuitry was then handed over to Jedi General Ring-Sol Ambase, who transported it directly to Supreme Chancellor Palpatine on Coruscant. The Jedi Master reached the firm conclusion that KynachTech Industries, located on the planet Kynachi, had manufactured the circuitry. Previously, it was believed that Kynachi only produced technology for peaceful applications. Although Kynachi had isolated itself and severed ties with the Republic a decade prior, the presence of their circuitry on the Malevolence was a significant surprise. Given Ambase's Kynachi origin and his extensive knowledge of his home planet and its people, Palpatine requests Ambase to undertake a clandestine mission to Kynachi. The goal is to uncover the truth behind these events.

Upon returning to the Jedi Temple, Ambase informs his newly appointed Padawan Nuru Kungurama about his impending journey and that the Padawan will not be accompanying him. Nuru, a Chiss, possesses limited knowledge of his heritage, as he was brought to the Temple as an infant. Nuru was deemed too young to participate in the action at Geonosis, and his original master, Lanchu Skaa, perished in the battle. Moreover, Nuru had only recently been assigned to Ambase. As Ambase departs for the hangar, Nuru experiences a potent premonition through the Force that this new master will also not return from his mission. Driven by the desire to avert any impending tragedy, Nuru employs the Force to influence a clone trooper, enabling him to stow away on the freighter used by the task force to infiltrate Kynachi.

It is subsequently revealed that the entire mission is a convoluted scheme orchestrated by Palpatine's alter ego, the Sith Lord Darth Sidious.

Ambase's task force comprises three clone squads under Captain Lock's direction, along with two clone pilots. Upon emerging from hyperspace near Kynachi, the task force is ambushed by Trade Federation Vulture Droids. It is also quickly discovered that their freighter has been sabotaged. Amidst the chaos, Ambase succumbs to toxic gas and loses consciousness, while Nuru's presence on board the ship is revealed. However, master and apprentice are separated in distinct, sabotaged escape pods.

Both groups crash land in their respective escape pods and are immediately confronted by native crustacean creatures and additional Vulture Droids on the cold, rainy planet. Nuru's group endeavors to continue the mission while simultaneously attempting to ascertain the fate of General Ambase and his group. Along their journey, they receive assistance from Lalo Gunn, a grounded smuggler turned diner proprietor, and are deceived by the seemingly helpful bounty hunter Cad Bane, who operates under undisclosed orders from Darth Sidious. Gunn's navigator droid, Teejay, is destroyed by droid commandos acting on information provided by Cad Bane. After defeating the droids and acting on information from the bounty hunter regarding Ambase's location, Nuru, Gunn, and the clones devise a prison break plan that involves combining a droid commando body with Teejay's brain. The resulting droid is renamed Cleaver.

A decade earlier, Kynachi was subjugated by the Trade Federation, which suppressed all communications to conceal their activities. During the breakout, a clone re-establishes communications and summons reinforcements. Skakoan Overseer Umbrag of the Techno Union abandons the facility and the planet aboard his Metalorn yacht, initiating the auto-destruct sequence. Cad Bane also flees, taking the still-unconscious Ambase with him in a coffin. The Duros contacts Darth Sidious and receives instructions to proceed to the Bogden system and await further directives.

Via holocomm, Yoda expresses his displeasure with Nuru's unauthorized departure from the Temple and his act of stowing away on the task force's freighter. However, Palpatine intervenes and, recognizing the Padawan's Chiss heritage, assigns him and the newly named Breakout Squad to an urgent mission to meet a Chiss ambassador on Csilla. Lalo Gunn and Cleaver volunteer to transport the squad in their freighter.