The Clone Wars : Secret Missions 1 : Breakout Squad The Clone Wars : Secret Missions 1 : Breakout Squad is the first book in the " " series . It was released on September 3 , 2009 . Publisher ' s summary . " A Jedi general vanishes on a distant world , leaving his young apprentice and a group of untested clone troopers to complete a dangerous secret mission . " " Trapped in the vast expanse of Wild Space , in the far outskirts of the galaxy , this inexperienced team must look for help among a world of smugglers and criminals while evading Darth Sidious ' s ruthless bounty hunter , Cad Bane . With few options and time running out , they ' ll need all the help they can get ! " Plot summary . A squad of clone trooper " shinies " under the charge of Clone Captain Lock are dispatched from the Republic Star Destroyer " Demolisher " to sort through the wreckage of the dreaded Separatist heavy cruiser " Malevolence " , which had previously been sabotaged and crashed into a moon by Anakin Skywalker . Republic intelligence reports indicated that the " Malevolence " had been constructed at the Pammant Docks by the Free Dac Volunteers Engineering Corps , part of the Quarren Isolation League . The clone reconnaissance and recovery mission confirmed this report . Exotic circuitry was also discovered , however , among the debris . This on - board circuitry was delivered to Jedi General Ring - Sol Ambase , who brought it directly to Supreme Chancellor Palpatine on Coruscant . It was the Jedi Master ' s very firm conclusion that the circuitry was manufactured by KynachTech Industries on the planet Kynachi , which was previously believed to manufacture it ' s unique brand of technology solely for peaceful purposes . Though Kynachi had isolated itself and severed all ties with the Republic ten years earlier , the existence of their circuitry aboard the " Malevolence " came as a grave surprise . Given that Ambase was born Kynachi and had studied his home planet and people extensively , Palpatine asks Ambase to undertake a secret mission to Kynachi to discover the true nature of what is going on there . Returning to the Jedi Temple , Ambase informs his newly - appointed Padawan Nuru Kungurama of his imminent departure and that the apprentice will not be joining him . Young Nuru is a Chiss , but doesn ' t know any more about his heritage than most others , as he was an infant when he was brought to the Temple . Nuru was too young to be called into action at Geonosis and his original master , Lanchu Skaa , did not return from the battle . Further , Nuru was only recently assigned to Ambase . As Ambase leaves for the hangar , Nuru experiences a strong sensation in the Force that this new master will also not return from his mission . In the hopes of somehow preventing any dreadful events from transpiring , Nuru uses the Force to influence a clone trooper and stow away on the freighter the task force is using to infiltrate Kynachi . It is revealed , however , that the entire mission is an ambiguous plot by Palpatine ' s alter ego , the Sith Lord Darth Sidious . Ambase ' s task force includes three clone squads under Captain Lock ' s command and two clone pilots . Upon exiting hyperspace near Kynachi , the task force is ambushed by Trade Federation Vulture Droids . It is also quickly discovered that their freighter has been sabotaged . In the frantic action , Ambase falls prey to toxic gas and is unconscious while Nuru ' s presence aboard the ship is discovered . Master and apprentice are split up , however , in separate , also - sabotaged escape pods . The two groups crash land in their escape pods and are almost immediately beset on the cold and rainy planet by native crustacean creatures and more Vulture Droids . Nuru ' s group attempts to continue the mission while also trying to discover what happened to General Ambase and his group . Along the way , they are assisted by grounded smuggler - turned - diner - owner , Lalo Gunn and beguiled by an unusually helpful ally in the bounty hunter Cad Bane , who is under unknown orders from Darth Sidious . Gunn ' s navigator droid Teejay is destroyed by droid commandos , who are tipped off by none other than Cad Bane . After taking out the droids and based upon information of Ambase ' s whereabouts from the bounty hunter , Nuru , Gunn , and the clones plot a prison break that involves combining a droid commando body with Teejay ' s brain . The droid is renamed Cleaver . Ten years prior , Kynachi had been subjugated by the Trade Federation , who jammed all communications to hide what they were doing . In the break out , a clone re - opens communications and calls in reinforcements . Skakoan Overseer Umbrag from the Techno Union flees the facility and the planet in his Metalorn yacht , setting the auto - destruct sequence . Cad Bane also cuts and runs , but taking the still - unconscious Ambase with him in a coffin . The Duros contacts Darth Sidious and is told to go to the Bogden system and await further instructions . By holocomm , Yoda is none to pleased with Nuru ' s unauthorized absence from the Temple and his stowing away on the task force ' s freighter , but Palpatine intervenes and , seeing that the Padawan is a Chiss , taps him and the newly - christened Breakout Squad for an immediately pressing mission to meet a Chiss ambassador on Csilla . Lalo Gunn and Cleaver volunteer take the squad in their freighter . Behind the scenes . While discussing the plan to free Ring - Sol Ambase from the KynachTech factory prison , the droid Cleaver asks what he ' s to do if he ' s discovered in the control room . Lalo Gunn answers , " Lock the door " , and Cad Bane adds , " And hope they don ' t have blasters " , mirroring a scene from , where Luke Skywalker and Han Solo say the same thing to another droid , C - 3PO , when the latter is going to stay in a control room in the Death Star , while Han and Luke free Leia Organa from the detention block . Windham ' s involvement in the " Star Wars " universe has largely been freelance writing assignments , rather than his own story ideas . As such , he was instructed by Lucasfilm to include the " Malevolence " in the book . However , he did not want to ground the entire " Secret Missions " series into Season One ' s timeframe because the later books would come out long after that episode of the show .