The Clone Wars: Strange Allies is a part of the graphic novella collection called Star Wars: The Clone Wars. While it can be read on its own as a comic book, it does contain characters previously seen in the The Clone Wars: Secret Missions book series and its timeline follows the events depicted in Duel at Shattered Rock. The issue also contains The Clone Wars: Opress Unleashed, a segment initially released for Free Comic Book day.
Because numerous Jedi Generals are busy fighting in the Clone Wars, tasks typically assigned to Jedi Knights or Masters are now being given to Jedi still in training, such as the masterless Padawan Nuru Kungurama. Nuru, along with his clone trooper squad and a large swoop biker named Gizz, starts with what seems like a standard protection mission. However, the assignment quickly changes to include an enigmatic massacre, the theft of a space freighter, and the abduction of a group of young orphaned children!
Daniel Windham's work within the Star Wars universe mainly consists of freelance writing projects, rather than original stories he conceived himself. Consequently, Lucasfilm instructed him to feature Savage Opress in the comic book.