The TRAGIC tale of the Clone Trooper who was left stranded for 20 years on a remote world, before being found by Luke Skywalker. Only one year after the Clone Wars began at the fierce battle of Geonosis, a squad of Clone Troopers were flying high above the surface of the Jungle plant Lubang Minor, when their Republic gunship was shot down by droid forces with a burst of flames. Unfortunately, every Clone on board the ship was killed in the crash, except for one. I’m going to break down the tragic story of how this lone survivor was left stranded in the dense Jungles of a remote world for 20 years after his brothers were killed around him.
The story begins on the damp, jungle world of Lubang Minor, where a shadowy figure is standing among the thick plants, watching as a group of bright figures enter the sky. These figures are X-Wings, led by Rebel pilots, Luke Skywalker and Arhul Narra The group of Rebel pilots eventually touch down on the grassy surface of the planet, where they hope to set up a rebel listening post, to scout imperial communications going through this sector of the galaxy.. The other Rebels pilots are ready to relax as soon as they finish setting up the communications spying equipment, but Luke Skywalker on the other hand is eager to explore the vast jungles of the planet, and get some practice with his father’s lightsaber.
Wedge Antilles and Zev Senesca are concerned for his safety, but Luke knows that the force is with him and that if worst comes to worst, he will always have his lightsaber with him, ready to defend from any threat. As Luke is traversing through the thick vines of the soggy jungle, he comes across a group of rocky grave stones. Luke wonders “if this planet is uninhabited, who are they… or who were they?”. Luke quickly continues to survey the area surrounding the Grave, where he comes across a rusty, badly damaged Republic gunship all the way from the Clone Wars. Luke quickly pokes his head inside the horribly overgrown Gunship, but finds nothing and nobody inside. Knowing that this discovery could put the Rebel alliance listening station in severe danger, Luke rushes through the thick roots of the jungle, pushing away anything in this way. He finally arrives back to the Rebel outpost, where he falls to his knees because he had been running so fast. Luke frantically reports to Commander Narra that while he was walking in the jungle, he found a Grave Site and a wrecked ship, which he thinks might be from the Clone Wars. Before he can finish his sentence however, a barrage of green energy bolts fill the area, as a squadron of Imperial Tie fighters arrive at the Rebel Outpost.
The barrage of enemy fire continues, as Narra orders Luke to get aboard his ship, in hope of taking the Tie Fighters out before they can do any more damage. Unfortunately however, a large imperial sentinel class landing craft arrives in the jungle world, preparing to deploy a massive horde of Stormtroopers. As the imperial landing craft touches down on the grassy surface, the stormtroopers begin their march towards the Rebel outpost. While this is going on, many rebel officers are killed by the increasingly harsh advance from the imperials. The leading imperial officer demands that his men send out speeders to cut off the retreating Rebels, but he and his men are absolutely stunned when they see a man walk towards them in Phase 1 Clone Trooper armor. At this point, we learn that the shadowy figure from earlier is actually an original Clone of Jango Fett from the early days of the Clone Wars, with the designation number BL-1707, nicknamed ABLE. Because he believes that the stormtroopers are actually his Clone Brothers and that the Clone Wars are still ongoing, he rushes towards them and stands up straight, reporting for duty. You can imagine just how much pain and how many memories are flowing through this stranded Clone’s Mind after losing his entire squad of brothers, and then discovering that there may still be hope.
The imperial officer unfortunately believes that this is a trick setup by the rebels, and orders his men to fire on the old Clone Trooper immediately. Able is absolutely shocked that his own brothers would fire on him, and begins to flee back into the dense jungle of the planet, feeling horrifically betrayed. While this is happening, Luke defends Narra with his lightsaber skills, to which the Commander realizes that Luke is actually getting pretty good with his Jedi weapon. This is quickly interrupted however, by a rapidly descending Tie fighting, which is blazing towards them with immense speed. Luckily, Wedge is able to shoot the imperial craft down before it can fire on Luke and his commander, sending it crashing into the hard surface of the planet, bursting it into a bright orange fireball. Luke and Narra then escape to a nearby crater, where they are confronted by Clone Trooper Able.