Ivan Cronus

"He seems a competent commander."

- Daala

Cronus was an officer in the military of the Galactic Empire, who had become second-in-command to the breakaway warlord Delvardus some eight years after the Battle of Endor.

Biography
Cronus was a compact, physically powerful man, with a broad chest and well-muscled arms. He had dark, weathered skin, dark curls laced with silver, and alert brown eyes, and when he spoke, his tone was laconic and professional, but precise. To judge from his appearance, and his rank of colonel, he may have served with the Imperial Army or Stormtrooper Corps, but he was also a capable small craft pilot, and even an efficient capital ship and fleet commander.

Cronus was apparently thorough in performing his duties under Delvardus, but when Admiral Daala arrived at the warlord's base with his corpse displayed as a macabre trophy, Cronus did not show the same distaste as some of his other troops. Instead, the glance he directed at his former commander's dead body could have been read as indicating quiet disdain. Cronus quickly aligned himself with the reunified Imperial Starfleet, and presented Daala with Delvardus's secret weapon, a black-hulled Super Star Destroyer called the Night Hammer, which Daala would designate the Knight Hammer and use as her flagship in her campaign against the Jedi Knights.

For his part, Cronus was given command of 112 Victory-class Star Destroyers&mdash;most of them from Teradoc's Crimson Command&mdash;which he led from the bridge of the 13X. Cronus led his massive armada throughout the New Republic, conducting hit-and-fade assaults and raids. He personally led twenty of his warships to assist Daala over Yavin 4 where he engaged in combat with a New Republic fleet. There, a combat-wounded Corellian gunship rammed the bridge of the 13X, annihilating the vessel and killing Cronus.

Behind the scenes
Although Darksaber was written many years before Temuera Morrison was cast in the role of Jango Fett, it is noteworthy that Cronus's physical description and the portrait of his character correspond in almost every respect to what we would expect of a clone trooper from the classic template. The only exception is his compact build - he is regarded as relatively short by Daala, who is 1.73m tall (and may wear heels): this would put him closer to Temuera Morrison's real-life size of five foot seven inches (1.70m) than the six-foot (1.83m) height stated for Jango, Boba, and the other clones in canon.

Appearances

 * Darksaber