Summary
A squad of Jedi and Clone Troopers assault a Separatist
communications headquarters. But the troopers turn their
guns on the Jedi, who survive only with the aid of a Jedi-trained
clone who rejects the betrayal.
The Clone Wars’ End
At the height of the Clone Wars — when things had begun to look grim for the Republic despite the advent of its clone army — the Jedi Council sent a small strike force to capture a Separatist communications headquarters on the ice planet Hoth ahead of a full invasion.
Led by two Jedi learners—Coltar Tenagi and Dash Wetwalker, both close to the trials of knighthood—the strike force included six Clone Troopers and a new type of clone, Gale Owassa, a trooper trained by a Jedi on Kamino in the ways of the Force. A Trandoshan pilot and technician, Drace Ragbar, flew them to the target in a Republic gunship.
On landing the pilot cracked the entry code for the bunker and the Jedi and clones moved in. They destroyed a number of battle droids and super battle droids before finding the heart of the communications center, where Owassaa, Ragbar and Tenagi defeated a squad of crack Separatist soldiers and destroyed the communications equipment.
As the smoke cleared, however, the clone commander received a cryptic instruction on his holoprojector: “Execute Order 66.”
With no warning or preparation, the clones turned their blasters on the Jedi.
The two learners barely survived the opening salvo, narrowly deflecting blasts with their lightsabers. Wetwalker charged the apparent renegades and was shot down. Tenagi kept a defensive stance, blocking blast after blast.
Ragbar ducked for cover at once and ran for the ship. Owassa shouted for the clones to stop and demanded an explanation—no one told him about Order 66. With no clear explanation for the betrayal, he threw his lot in with the Jedi.
Tenagi and Owassa killed and disabled the clone squad, leaving the commander and one or two others badly wounded but alive. Calling deeply on the Force, Tenagi—himself badly hurt by the clone commander’s blaster fire—brought Wetwalker back from the brink of death and in fact healed him completely.
Outside the gunship exploded before Ragbar can get aboard, but he and the Jedi found a shuttle in the bunker’s hangar and used it to flee the planet.
They received strange reports and warnings. The Jedi had been declared outlaw after supposedly trying to murder Supreme Chancellor Palpatine. Palpatine declared the ancient Republic an empire, with himself as emperor. A secret Jedi code called all Jedi to the temple on Coruscant, then was replaced by a warning to stay away. There were no other communications from any Jedi.
Owassa and the two Jedi learners decided to remain together. Ragbar, perhaps fearing his fate for helping the renegades who defeated a clone squad, remained with them as well—for the time.
They spent a week in the cramped shuttle, flying for the smugglers’ moon Nar Shadda, where Tenagi had contacts that might help them find other survivors.
October 8, 2006