The Clone Wars: Secret Missions is a four-book series of junior novel in the Star Wars Legends expanded universe as a part of The Clone Wars multimedia project. It was written by Ryder Windham (who would later write Ezra's Gamble for the new Expanded Universe), and illustrated by Wayne Lo. While it is based on the television series of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, it focuses on new characters and events original to the book series.
When Jedi Padawan Nuru Kungurama's master, Ring-Sol Ambase, goes missing, young Nuru takes a group of untested clone troopers dubbed Breakout Squad to complete their own secret missions, unexpectedly discovering some truths and new allies, enemies, & some in-betweeners. Unbeknownst to them, prior to his disappearance, Master Ambase took up a secret mission of his own, relayed to him by Chancellor Palpatine himself...
The first book, "Breakout Squad", was released on September 3, 2009. The second book, "Curse of the Black Hole Pirates", was released on July 22, 2010. The third book, "Duel at Shattered Rock", previously known as "The Space Siren", was released on March 3, 2011. The fourth and final book, "Guardians of the Chiss Key", was released on March 15, 2012.
The series received an Interquel graphic novel, "Strange Allies", which was released on October 12, 2011. "Opress Unleashed", released on May 7, 2011 as a part of Free Comic Book Day, was a preview for "Strange Allies".
Tropes in this series include:
- Ascended Extra: Big Gizz is from the Shadows Of The Empire comics.
- Call-Forward:
- Veeren was sent to the Republic to inform Palpatine that the Chiss Ascendancy is interested in an alliance with him after the end of the Clone Wars, likely a part of the chain of events that leads to Thrawn helping the Empire.
- Veeren reveals to Nuru that the Ascendancy suspects that the Republic has been afflicted by a Government Conspiracy for the past eleven years, but urges him not to tell anyone. Unbeknownst to him or anyone else, the cost of this decision turns out to be high.
- Nuru working together with Big Gizz references the latter having another Chiss, Spiker, working for him a couple decades later in the Shadows of the Empire comics. Secret Missions author Ryder Wyndham and lorekeeper Leland Chee are of the opinion that Nuru and Spiker are in fact, the one and the same.
- Closed Circle: Curse of the Black Hole Pirates takes place near a black hole that affects navigational systems and keeps anyone, hero or villain alike, from taking their ship out of the region.
- Faking the Dead: Veeren fakes her death to Nuru by seemingly dying when Ambase attacked her ship. When Palpatine asks her why she needs Nuru to think she's dead, she refuses to answer.
- Mysterious Past: An infant Nuru was found in a pod drifting in space, with only his name. It turns out he's a Chiss, but it's never revealed why he was abandoned by them or how he ended up in a pod alone in space.
- The Nicknamer: Captain Lock gives Breakout Squad's troopers their code names based on his observations of their skills and personalities during a training exercise.
- Secret-Keeper: Veeren reveals to Nuru that the Ascendancy knows that the Republic is affected by a conspiracy that has been over a decade in the making, but no one else does and she tells him to keep it that way. Nuru is baffled as to why she would want him to keep something as huge as that under wraps...
- Title Drop: Nuru and Breakout Squad do secret missions.
- Tonight, Someone Dies: One chapter of Guardians of the Chiss Key goes over a list of all of the squad members, guests, and prisoners on the ship and notes that soon, not all of them will be alive anymore.
- The Unreveal: Presumably, these were Sequel Hooks for a continuation that wasn't to be, and with the Legends rebranding, these might as well be riddles for the ages.
- It is never explained why Nuru was abandoned by the Chiss.
- Why did Veeren fake her death to Nuru?
