Clone Wars Gambit: Stealth

Clone Wars Gambit: Stealth is the fourth novel in the series of novels that tie-in to The Clone Wars television series. It was written by Karen Miller and was released on February 23, 2010. The audio version is narrated by Jeff Gurner.

Publisher's summary
'''Planet by planet, darkness creeps across the galaxy. Among warriors and generals, among ordinary beings living in far-flung worlds, the fear will not go away: We are losing this war. . . .' Anakin Skywalker feels it, too. The Separatist Alliance, with ruthlessness and treachery, is beating the Republic to every strategic target. But after a costly clash with General Grievous for the planet Kothlis, Anakin has a mission that will focus his anxious mind. Alongside Obi-Wan Kenobi, he is posing as a long-lost native of Lanteeb, an impoverished world on the Outer Rim. This seemingly unimportant planet has drawn the interest of the Seps—and Anakin and Obi-Wan soon discover the disturbing reason: A scientist enslaved by General Lok Durd is drawing on Lanteeb's one natural resource for a devastating bioweapon. Now Anakin and Obi-Wan have entered the eye of a storm. Their presence has been exposed, Lok Durd's plans unveiled, and a fight has begun for survival behind enemy lines—and a chance of winning a war that must be fought at any cost.''

Plot Summary
The novel starts out prior to the Battle of Kothlis as Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ahsoka Tano, and their allies prepare to battle against the Separatists at the aforementioned planet. When they do engage the Separatist forces led by General Grievous, the Republic forces find themselves blind and deaf in their communication systems among each other. Regardless, they fight against the Separatist forces, and despite heavy losses, they save the planet from Separatist occupation. In the aftermath of the battle, as the surviving Republic troops, including Skywalker, Kenobi, and Tano, begin their recovery from their wounds, Republic Intelligence agents begin looking in to find out how General Grievous was able to sneak in a computer virus and communication jamming device among the Republic forces.

In the meantime, as Tano heals on the Kaliida Shoals Medical Center with the other surviving clone troops, Kenobi and Skywalker return to Coruscant for a five-day furlough. This is after they, along with Grand Master Yoda, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, and Senator Bail Prestor Organa, assess the situation on Kothlis. They also assess how this would have consequences for further engagements with the Separatists in the future.

Senator Organa soon learns that a few months earlier, the Separatists took hold of a relatively insignificant planet in the Outer Rim Territories known as Lanteeb. Organa calls Skywalker, Kenobi, and Senator Padmé Amidala for a meeting in his home to find out what intrinsic value Lanteeb could possibly have for the Separatists. After collecting data from Kenobi, Tano, and Senator Amidala, they all hypothesize that the Separatists plan to use a certain mineral accessible only from Lanteeb and turn it into a biological virus against the Republic. So Kenobi and Skywalker go to Lanteeb disguised as locals who got back from labor on Alderaan, and they begin investigating where the virus is.

On Lanteeb, Kenobi and Skywalker discover that the biological virus is being developed in a compound headed by Separatist General Lok Durd, and the virus designer herself is Dr. Bant'ena Fhernan. Fhernan is being held against her will in the compound to create the virus, and Durd threatens that if she doesn't do what he tells her, he will eliminate all of her friends and family. As a result of this knowledge, Kenobi and Skywalker transmit a message to Master Yoda back on Coruscant, apprising him of the situation. Yoda assigns several Jedi teams to rescue Fhernan's friends and family, and all of the missions succeed, though one of Fhernan's loved ones is killed by one of Durd's henchmen once the rescue operations became known to the Separatists. Durd shows the death of Fhernan's loved ones and lies to her by saying that her other friends and family members are still in danger if she doesn't do what he says. So she ultimately betrays Kenobi and Skywalker to Durd's forces when they try to return to the compound, but the two Jedi barely escape death by hot-wiring a speeder and leaving. In order to hide out from Durd's forces, Kenobi and Skywalker decide to travel to one of the Lanteeban villages for help.