The Clone Wars: Decide Your Destiny: The Lost Legion

The Lost Legion is a "Decide Your Destiny" young reader book based on the Star Wars: The Clone Wars television series. It was published on July 23, 2009.

Publisher's summary
''Do you have what it takes to be a clone trooper in the Republic Army? In this Decide Your Destiny story set in the world of Star Wars: The Clone Wars (TV series) you can choose from multiple characters-such as medic, commander, or demolitions expert-and dozens of paths to create your own adventure. With over twenty-five different endings, every time you read this book it'll be a whole new adventure.

Plot summary
While on a routine mission to the snow-covered planet Ando Prime, the 313th Legion, under the command of Jedi General Po Banadis, discovers a covert Separatist manufacturing facility. The installation is churning out battle droids but is also home to Skakoan engineer Vylagos, who is under Separatist contract to develop war materiel, including experimental weapons and transportation devices. One such device, a hyperspace wormhole transporter, was intended to launch a sneak attack on Coruscant but is accidentally activated in the clash between the 313th and Koorivar General Terrus' droid army, sending the combatants to an unknown planet in the Outer Rim. The Jedi Council is certain that this "lost legion" is alive, so they select Clone Commander Vargus' Excelsior Squad to reconnoiter Ando Prime and discover the nature of their disappearance. Meanwhile, Count Dooku dispatches General Greivous and a squad of battle droids to Ando Prime to ascertain the disposition of the facility.

First, Vargus and his squad stop off at Kamino to replenish their numbers, picking up new clone troopers fresh off of their final assessment to determine specializations and squad assignments. Among the shinies tapped for Excelsior's mission are at least one scout, medic, demolitions expert, and sergeant.

Arriving on Ando Prime, Excelsior Squad splits into smaller teams, with veterans working alongside the rookies, allowing them to make decisions in the field about the direction of the mission. ARF trooper Falco and the new scout, eventually nicknamed "Recon", lead members of the squad to the remote facility and discover General Obi-Wan Kenobi and Commander Cody already in the facility having been near Ando Prime and jumping over to lend their considerable skills to the search. During the mission, the veteran medic, Splice, and a new medic tend to a wounded native Talid named Gen-Goma who leads members of the squad to the facility. This medic also revives engineer Vylagos so his knowledge of the transporter can be used and (once transported to the unknown location of the 313th) synthesizes an anti-venom, saving the life of General Banadis. Demolitions expert Dom (a.k.a. "Bruiser") works with the newly-christened "Demo" to open a collapsed secret passageway to the facility as well as destroying the portions of Separatist weaponry that had been transported with the fighting forces. The new sergeant, inspired by the confidence placed in him by superiors Vargus, Cody, and Kenobi, takes to leadership very well, commandeering a Separatist tank and earning the nickname "Ace".

Excelsior Squad, along with Kenobi and Cody, persuade Vylagos to repair and activate the transportation device and arrive on the unknown desert planet. There they turn the tide of the ongoing battle. Using a homing beacon and the hyperspace wormhole transporter, the Republic forces are transported safely back to Ando Prime where the new clones are commended for their, now battle-tested mettle.

Behind the scenes
The "decide your destiny" nature of this book predicates that the reader follows the narrative of a single clone trooper, initially known as 18 (because the final two digits of his serial number are 1 and 8), through four separate paths (scout, demolitions, medic, and sergeant). Other new troopers included in the group selected for Excelsior Squad, however, have numbers of 15, 16, 23, 35, 44, and 57. Depending on the choices the reader makes for 18, two other troopers are assigned nicknames: "Slug" (for 44) and "Patch" (for 57). The plot summary above is based on a synthesis of the "correct" choices presented to the reader for all four paths. Allowing for the possibility that there are, somehow, four separate trooper 18's, even the medic path isn't necessarily in conflict with the other paths ("Patch" is the nickname given to medic trooper 57) as there could be more than one medic in the squad. Each path presents conceivably different perspectives of the same core series of events. Even "incorrect" choices lead to ambiguous, unresolved endings but never the death of 18, the certainty of a failed mission for Excelsior Squad as a whole, nor the permanent loss of the 313th Legion.