Niner Skirata

Niner Skirata—formally known as RC-1309 during service to the Galactic Republic, then as IC-1309 after its reorganization into the Galactic Empire—was a clone of the bounty hunter Jango Fett, created on Kamino to serve in the Grand Army of the Republic. Niner was trained as a clone commando by the Mandalorian Cuy'val Dar training sergeant, Kal Skirata, a man he would come to love and respect like a father. When war broke out on Geonosis between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems, Niner led his first squad in the opening battle of the Clone Wars. Following the First Battle of Geonosis, Niner was the only member of his squad to survive and later joined with three other lone squad survivors to form Omega Squad, whom he served with throughout the war as their Clone trooper sergeant.
==Biography==
===Early life===
RC-1309 was a clone of Mandalorian bounty hunter Jango Fett, grown in secret on the planet Kamino as part of the Grand Army of the Republic. Born in the year 32 BBY, he was one of the one hundred and four clone commandos trained by Mandalorian Cuy'val Dar training sergeant Kal Skirata, RC-1309 adopted the name Niner for himself, based upon the last digit of his numerical designation. He would serve as the squad sergeant for his first squad, and came to care deeply for his brother clones. During training, Niner and his squad suffered the loss of Two-Eight—who was killed by improperly used explosives.The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia While Two-Eight's place in the squad was filled by another commando, Niner would look back on his original brother's death for a long time after. By 22 BBY, Niner commanded a squad made up of the commandos Sev, DD, and O-Four. When it came time for the Grand Army and all of its clones to depart for Geonosis, the deployment was so hasty that it left no time for Niner or any of the other commandos to say their goodbyes to their training sergeants.Republic Commando: Triple Zero
During the First Battle of Geonosis itself, Niner lost all three of his squadmates to the opening conflict of the Clone Wars. When the battle was over and the Republic had won, Niner was transported by Acclamator-class assault ship to Ord Mantell. During his stay at barracks block 5 Epsilon, he regretfully ran the events of the battle over in his mind while maintaining his Katarn armor. He decided that if he had another chance, Niner would have kept Sev and DD back from the enemy, and sent O-Four to the west with the squad's E-Web blaster cannon. It was during this period of reflection that Niner first met Fi, and who was the only survivor of his own squad. Though his interaction with Fi was initially tense, Niner soon softened to Fi when he saw that Fi was just as grief-stricken as himself. Both Niner and Fi were put into stasis soon after, to await the time when they would be needed again.
===Mission to Qiilura===
The next place he saw action in was when his squad was sent to Qiilura to destroy a biohazard facility and capture the Confederate scientist Ovolot Qail Uthan. When the squad evacuated the planet with their hostage, he personally faced off against Ghez Hokan. By feigning injury, he planned to have Hokan come forward to him where Fi, another member, would snipe him in the head. However, plans did not work that way, and Etain Tur-Mukan ended up killing Hokan by waiting until Hokan was fighting one of the commandos. Hokan deployed an EMP grenade to short out the commando's helmets. He came in to kill one of them, but was decapitated by Etain Tur-Mukan.
===Mission on Coruscant===
He helped lead Omega Squad with the help of Kal Skirata in neutralizing terrorist activity on Coruscant. The mission involved "black ops" in which Skirata took Omega and Delta squads, Ordo (ARC N-11), Walon Vau, and generals Etain Tur-Mukan and Bardan Jusik. A mole was discovered in the GAR logistics center. Niner's role was simply as part of the crew. He was part of the regularly scheduled patrol and was instrumental in the destruction of the CoruFresh landing pad where the terrorists were based. During the operation, the two squads had moments of cooperation as well as confrontation. Unlike his counterpart in Delta Squad, Boss, who liked being in charge, Niner liked to lead by "being sure."
===Mission to Gaftikar===
Niner, along with Omega Squad, shipped out to Gaftikar, a Separatist held planet, to assist local rebels, a lizard-humanoid species called Marits. When Darman and Atin infiltrated a city on Gaftikar, Eyat, disguised as civilians they stumbled across the AWOL ARC trooper Sull. They took him back to the camp where Niner disagreed with N-12, A'den, about what to do with the deserted ARC. Eventually Niner lost the argument and Sull was set free. When Niner led his squad to a HoloNet station in Eyat, Fi suffered a severe head injury that took him off the team.
===Order 66 and Beyond===
During the Skirmish on Shinarcan Bridge Extension Niner broke his spine after falling off the bridge because of a Jedi Padawan. Darman Skirata refused to abandon him, even after being ordered to leave. After recovering from his injury, he noticed how different Darman had become since the death of Etain. He was also paranoid of the Galactic Empire bugging their helmets to eliminate traitors in the wake of Order 66.
When he got Darman away from the holocams and discussed what they planned to do next, Darman decided to remain as a commando, and didn't even acknowledge his son's name. When he and the other squads of the 501st Legion were brought together, he did not recognize Scorch, until he was next to him. He and Darman were clumped together with Ennen and Bry, of Galaar Squad, to form the newly-renamed Squad 40.
Scorch and RC-1140, nicknamed Fixer, hated the new stormtrooper armor, while Boss, couldn't care less. They believed that the Jedi Yoda was dead, and confirmed that they never found Sev. Their leader, Darth Vader, tasked the entire 501st with hunting Jedi and deserters down. Niner was shocked when he found that Maze was on the list of deserters to be hunted down, as Maze was more dedicated to the Republic than any of them.
Also on the list of people they were tasked with hunting down were Yayax Squad, Hyperion Squad, Levet, Corr, and Atin, who was with Omega Squad until the night of Order 66. He was relieved to see that Fi was not on the list, proving that everyone in the Empire believed Fi was dead. When he saw Etain's face on the list of targets, he put his hand under Darman's arm to hold him up. Darman didn't react, because he was still hiding his grief.
Niner and the rest of Squad 40 were first tasked with hunting down and capturing Jilam Kester, a member of the Antarian Rangers, alive, by their commanding officer, Sa Cuis. He had been charged with helping Jedi escape capture, and was last seen on Celen. When Niner asked Darman if he was okay with hunting him down, Darman replied that the Jedi had took everything from him and that he would hunt down every last one of them. Ennen and Darman almost came to blows over the fact that Ennen and Bry were trained by a Corellian instructor, and Ennen believed he was better than Mandalorians.
During the Mission to Celen, Bry was killed by Jedi Master Iri Camas, who was squatting with Kester following Order 66. Following Camas's death, Niner took a chip they found in the house back with them to Coruscant, hoping to have Jaller Obrim find what was on it since Camas had erased it's hard drive. Jaller discovered that what was on the chip was very important to Clan Skirata staying hidden, and officially told Niner that the chip was empty, handing it back to Niner discreetly to get it to Jaing who was able to recover all of the data; he put an empty datachip into evidence and sent Niner and Darman on their way.
A few days later, Niner's helmet was 'inspected' by TK-0, a friend of Jaing's, who put a secure link in so Niner could talk to anyone of the family on Mandalore at his discretion. Niner, Darman, Ennen, and newcomer Rede met up with their new commanding officer, Roly Melusar, who had taken over Sa Cuis's position after his death at the hands of Darth Vader. After Niner informed Darman of the link in his helmet, Darman finally allowed his emotions to surface after fearing the Jedi would take Kad away.
After commending them for killing Camas and having Bry cremated, Roly vowed to hunt down and capture all of the Jedi. Niner asked for cooldown time from Roly, and received it. Jaing told him that Roly was from Dromund Kaas, a Sith world. Niner told Darman that they were leaving as soon as they got where the Nulls were instructing him to go; he also told Darman that Etain's ashes were waiting for him to scatter them, and that Kad kept asking where his daddy was. When they were a stone's throw from extraction and returning home, Darman decided to stay behind and gather information against the Empire.
Ordo decided to take Niner's armor and drag Dar to extraction, but before he could do so, thieves came to Nyreen Vollen's ship Cornucopia and had to be killed. Niner decided to remain behind to protect Darman, passed off the chip to Jaing, and had the Nulls flee, attracting Imperial attention. After successfully covering up the fact that the Nulls were on Coruscant, Roly had Darman and Niner report solely to him from that point on, and decided in time to deal with Palpatine and any other Imperial force-users who got in his way.
During this time Darman also received a secure link in his helmet, but he din't use it for fear of not knowing what to say to his son. He took on the role of becoming Rede's mentor, who only had one year of flash training as he was a Centax-2 clone. Ennen showed his anger at Bry being killed after surviving the Clone Wars and practically begged for a way to desert. Darman decided to tell him about Mandalore in time, making a mental note to ask Ordo how he should do it.
Squad 40 were tasked with finding a Jedi believed to be in Coruscant's undercity, recently renamed to Imperial City. When they located the man Ennen was the one who killed him, in retaliation for Bry being killed. They were shocked to find the 'Jedi' was nothing more than a petty thief who had acquired a lightsaber, most likely on the night of Order 66. Returning to base, Ennen committed suicide in the refresher over the grief of killing a civilian and Bry's death.
In the wake of Ennen's suicide, Niner and the others decided to remain as a three man squad for the time being, not wanting to train two Centax clones at once. The squad was sent to the Coth Fuuras space station to kill Jedi Knight Borik Yelgo; on the way to complete the mission, Darman told Rede that they did like him, and apologized for shutting him out from time to time.
After Rede killed Yelgo, they returned to Coruscant. Niner correctly predicted that Darman would lose control when he learned that the Jedi are on Mandalore being kept safe by Kal within proximity of his son, threatening to come after Jusik if the Jedi took his son away. Later, Darman convinced Roly to allow them to go to Mandalore, using it as both an excuse to desert and to find as many Jedi as possible to keep his son safe. Niner was shocked when Darman told him he intends to capture the Jedi he finds.
==Personality==
Niner was often the more serious clone of his squad, and generally tried to emulate the caring nature and language of his training sergeant Kal Skirata. He acted in a manner that mirrored Skirata, most notably by being caring to those under his command and trying to be the father figure of the group. He also would regularly call fellow clones "son", a term of endearment that Skirata used often with clones.
==Behind the scenes==
In Chapter 13 of Republic Commando: Hard Contact, when Etain asks for the clone commandos names, Niner starts to introduce himself as "CC" instead of "RC" which would be his proper designation code. This appears to be a mistake in the novel of the proper usage of clone designations.
==Appearances==
*Republic Commando: Hard Contact 
*
*Republic Commando: Triple Zero
*Republic Commando: True Colors
*Order 66: A Republic Commando Novel
*Imperial Commando: 501st
==Sources==
*
*The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia 
*The Essential Reader's Companion
==Notes and references==
Category:Clan Skirata
Category:Clone commandos
Category:Clone stormtrooper officers of the Galactic Empire
Category:Clone trooper sergeants
Category:Individuals with he/him pronouns
Category:Males