Darman Skirata

"I can't think of a better time to die than when I'm no longer the best."

- Darman

RC-1136, also known as Darman, was a clone commando of the Grand Army of the Republic and member of both Theta Squad and later Omega Squad. After the Clone Wars ended he was unable to escape to Mandalore with his squadmates. He and Niner both ended up in the Imperial army after the formation of the Empire.

Biography
Darman was trained by Kal Skirata, like the rest of Theta Squad. On his first mission on Geonosis, the rest of Theta Squad was killed, and Darman was re-assigned to Omega Squad, where he was considered their demolitions expert.

Mission to Qiilura
On his first mission with Omega Squad, he was separated from his squad during planet-fall, and landed far away from the other Omegas. After landing on the planet, Darman later met up with Jedi Padawan Etain Tur-Mukan, who had no knowledge of the new clone army and her new status as a commander. They managed to work together and with the help of Jinart, a shape shifting Gurlanin, they reunited with Omega Squad. With Darman, Omega Squad assaulted the bio-weapons facility, retrieved a Clone killing virus that was being worked on, and captured Doctor Ovolot Qail Uthan, who was working on the project.

Galactic City spaceport hostage siege
A month after the Qiilura mission, Omega Squad was stationed at the Arca Company Barracks on Coruscant, where they were called upon to defuse a terrorist siege at a local spaceport. With help from Kal Skirata and the Null Arc Captain Ordo, they were able to rethe situation.

Mission to the Corellian-Perlemian Intersection
367 standard days after the Battle of Geonosis, Omega Squad was tasked to interdict and detain the occupants of a Gizer L-6 freighter. After boarding the craft, they managed to subdue the crew and take some prisoners. Unfortunately their own ship, along with their pilot Sicko was shot down by a civilian freighter, Nova Crystal (starship). The attack caused several hull breaches in the L-6 and left Omega stranded.

A Red Zero call was immediately issued and both the RAS Fearless and Delta Squad responded to the call. Delta Squad was the first to arrive in a Neimoidian shuttle and dock with the crippled craft. They successfully evacuated the prisoners and Omega Squad while the RAS Fearless provided cover and destroyed an attacking Neimoidian starship that had also responded. Darman would find himself reunited with Etain aboard the Fearless.

Mission to Coruscant
Due to the increasing terrorist activities on Coruscant, Omega and Delta squad were handpicked by Kal for a special black ops mission. Completing the team were training Sergeant Walon Vau, Ordo, Jedi Knights Bardan Jusik and Etain Tur-Mukan.

The team settled in at Qibbu's Hut as their base of operations. Kal pretended to be someone selling explosives and the terrorists soon took the bait. After several contacts with the terrorist network, an exchange was soon scheduled. Led by Ordo, the team comprised of Mereel, Kal, Omega and Delta Squad. Their objective was to neutralize the terrorist cell that would show up for the exchange while a separate team would go for the other cells.

The team managed to kill fifteen out of twenty-six terrorists almost immediately, while the survivors retreated to a warehouse. The survivors made a last, final gambit and attempted to trick the commandos with a false surrender. Darman was nearly killed in their attempt by a flame projector. Fortunately his Katarn-class commando armor managed to protect him against the attack. All of the terrorists were killed after the second firefight.

The two teams completed their missions without any loss. They regrouped at their base and celebrated their victory.

Mission to Gaftikar
"Dar, you actually like thieving stuff, don't you?" "It's not stolen. It's differently procured."

- Atin and Darman

Darman traveled to Gaftikar with Omega squad to help with a rebellion against the CIS loyal government. While there, he found AWOL ARC Trooper A-30, nicknamed "Sull", who he and Atin captured and brought him to the commanding Null ARC A'den stationed at Gaftikar. The Null let the AWOL ARC escape and Darman traveled to the former home of the AWOL ARC trooper to collect any signs of him being there. While he was doing so, two Covert Ops clone troopers attempted to assassinate him, mistaking him for Sull. Darman killed them, causing himself a great deal of guilt. Sometime later, Darman's emotions were also put on a roller coaster when squadmate Fi was seriously injured in battle.

Mission to Harugab
Darman and his squad were sent to assassinate a rebel leader, Jolluc. After they killed him though, they found themselves under assault by more rebels than Intelligence stated. They made a stand on a hill and after a furious fire-fight, were rescued by a LAAT/i sent by Captain Maze.

Return to Coruscant
When Omega returned they ended up having to go through the Battle of Coruscant (Clone Wars). They barely made it through the planet's shield and a droid starfighter followed them through the gap. Their ship crashed somewhere in Galactic City where they joined the other troopers in the area to repel the Separatist invasion. Omega defended a HNE Station successfully.

Etain's Death
Etain Tur-Mukan was struck down and killed by a young Jedi Padawan when she tried to interpose herself between the Padawan and a clone trooper to keep the Padawan from attacking the trooper, who had been blocking his escape from certain death. After seeing her death, Darman told himself that she had not died, despite the fact that the sight of her being struck down replayed endlessly in his mind. He proceeded to admit to himself and Niner that she had died and then distracted himself from his loss by focusing on helping Niner, whose spine had been broken by a young Jedi who had been trying to escape from Imperial troops. Believing that Niner would be allowed to die by his superiors if no one was there to intervene for him, Darman decided to stay with Niner despite Niner's protests, instead of leaving him and fleeing to Mandalore with Skirata and the others. Darman summoned a medical evacuation craft to his location and after it took off with him and Niner aboard, Darman repeatedly screamed Etain's name within his isolated helmet until he had worn out his vocal cords.

Darman saw to it that Niner received the medical care that he needed. Both were now soldiers of the Galactic Empire and Darman's new duty was to train other clones to become commandos. Darman was less than impressed by the performance of the Spaarti-grown Fett clones and was exasperated by their insistence that Centax 2 was Kamino, but he felt that they were not to blame for these shortcomings, which owed to being grown in only one or two years and being repeatedly told that Centax 2 was Kamino by their superiors. However, he had a higher opinion of the clones that populated the 501st Legion. In order to cope with the task that had been thrust upon him, Etain's death and the new political atmosphere, Darman felt he had to set aside his personal beliefs until he could escape from the then-current situation. He also greatly anticipated what he felt would be an inevitable confrontation between the Empire and Kamino.

Personality and traits
"I wish I could sit there and just relax like you, Dar. How'd you get to be so calm? You didn't learn it from Kal, that's for sure."

- Atin speaking to Darman, just before the insertion into Gaftikar

Like all Fett clones, Darman had the nature of a young child despite his commando training. The loss of his original squad affected him greatly but he nontheless came to consider Omega his new family.

Darman was known as being the calm one in Omega squad. To his squad mates, especially Fi, Darman seemed to be able to relax and sometimes even sleep before missions. He even once seemed to be sleeping-From Fi's point of view- during a TIOPs mission where they were to retrieve prisoners and a hull breach limited the squad and prisoners oxygen supply. However, regardless of being calm, he could have a nasty temper, which was shown when he attacked Kal Skirata for not informing him about his son, Venku Trained by Kal Skirata, he adopted the Mandalorian culture wholeheartedly. Due to his guilt of killing whom he considered his brothers, he decided to memorialize CT-6200/8901 and CT-0368/7766 by saying their name everyday, as part of a Mandalorian custom. He was also quick to defend any cracks or rude comments aimed at Etain.

After Etain's death, Darman's heart was broken. He was within reach of his perfect family, Etain, Kad, Kal, and his comrades, only to have his wife die in front of him and the rest of his squad desert from the GAR. Niner did his best to keep Darman focused, but Darman was a shell of what he once was.

Romantic relationship
During the mission to Coruscant, Darman's relationship with Etain Tur-Mukan blossomed and they became romantically involved.That was a secret that probably everyone of Delta- and Omega-Squad knew and of course Skirata and Vau. Everytime they were alone, they used it to spend some time together. Probably, that would make Darman to the only clone who had something like this. Etain, out of pity and desire to give him a future and, what was important for a mandalorian, a child, conceived without his knowledge. The two wed via comm messages during the Battle of Coruscant.

Behind the scenes
According to Karen Traviss's blog, Darman was named after Peter Darman, a military writer. "Darman" was used as a placeholder name until a better name could be thought of, but it was accidentally released into the public domain.


 * An in-universe explanation in Republic Commando: Triple Zero, explains that Darman's name, which he probably received from Kal Skirata, is short for Dar'manda, a Mando'a term denoting someone who has lost his Mandalorian heritage, and thus his soul. Presumably, Kal Skirata gave him the name out of pity.

"Darman" is a cheat code on the PC version of the game Star Wars: Republic Commando.

Theta Squad is mentioned in Star Wars: Republic Commando after the player eliminates Sun Fac. "As you know, 36's squad has been incapacitated." could be a reference to Darman, even though he was not the leader of Theta, he was the only survivor which would explain why they mention him.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Republic Commando
 * Republic Commando: Hard Contact
 * Omega Squad: Targets
 * Republic Commando: Triple Zero
 * Republic Commando: True Colors
 * Order 66: A Republic Commando Novel
 * Imperial Commando: 501st
 * Revelation