Kal Skirata

"He cared what happened to us. He was one of us, pretty much. Not just there because he couldn't cope with not being in the army anymore, or had to disappear. No, he was a good man."

- RC-1309

Kal Skirata, sometimes called Kal'buir (Mando'a for "Papa Kal") by the clone commandos that he trained, was a Mandalorian instructor for clone commandos in the Grand Army of the Republic. The armor he wore was colored sand gold.

Life as a Mandalorian
"Ke nu'jurkadir sha Mando'ade..."

- Kal Skirata to Qibbu. Don't mess with Mandalorians

Kal Skirata was born Falin Mattran on the planet of Kuat, the son of a Kuat Drive Yards engineer and his wife. When Mattran was around 6 years old, his family had moved to Surcaris because his father was contracted to do some engineering on the KDY warships that were stationed there. War had broken out on Surcaris shorty after the Mattran family had arrived on the planet, and Mattran was orphaned when both of his parents were killed. The only thing Mattran had salvaged from his father's body was a three-sided knife, and because he was alone after his parents died, he trained himself how to use it, eventually getting to the point where he could hit any target he threw the knife at.

After surviving for a year in the war-torn rubble of Surcaris on his own, Mattran was discovered by a Mandalorian named Munin Skirata, who he had promptly attacked with his father's knife. Munin was amused by the attack rather than angry, and decided to adopt Mattran into his Mandalorian clan, renaming him "Kal Skirata", with "Kal" meaning "to stab" in Mando'a.

Skirata later married a non-Mandalorian, Ilippi, with whom he had three children. However, she could not understand his Mandalorian ways or accept his long absences, so she eventually left him, taking their children with her. Early in his career as a mercenary, his ankle was shattered by a Verpine shatter gun due to his failure to follow an order. The injury would later become a grievance for most of his career, only being healed after his sons forced him to undergo surgery.

When Jango Fett was recruiting the Cuy'val Dar, Kal was recruited due to Walon Vau's reccomendation.. He and Jango went back a long way, and had an up and down relationship. Kal was a very aggressive Mandalorian traditionalist and was devoted to the welfare of his troops.

When Ilippi died, Kal's sons tried to find him, to let him know. However, because of the extreme secrecy surrounding the existence of the clone army, he could not contact them and after they couldn't find him to come to their mother's funeral, they parentally divorced him. This was something that was considered a great disgrace among Mandalorians, but Kal felt that it was worth it, for the safety of the clones.

Training clones
"That is the man who taught us all we know"

- Fi Skirata to Jaller Obrim

Eight years before the Battle of Geonosis, Kal was brought to Kamino when he answered Jango Fett's call for clone trainers. He was disgusted with the Kaminoans' arrogance and indifferent attitude toward the "processing"&mdash;killing&mdash;of children. He first met the Nulls when the Kaminoan technicians considered them failures that had to be destroyed. Null-11 attempted to defend himself and his brothers by stealing Kal's hold out blaster and aiming at Orun Wa, and though Kal wouldn't have wasted a breath on the Kaminoan scientist, he managed to talk Null-11 down. He became sympathetic to the clones, and took the Nulls under his wing, giving them names and training them personally, instilling Mandalorian heritage and values in them. The Nulls were very fond of Kal, and would only answer to or accept orders from him.

Shortly after the Battle of Geonosis, when Kal's contract as a Cuy'val Dar was finally over, Kal had to be placed in custody to help calm down the Null ARCs, but he helped on the condition that he would be re-enlisted in the Grand Army of the Republic.

Mission on Coruscant
One year into the war, Skirata teamed up with Delta and Omega Squads, Ordo, Mereel, Walon Vau, and Jedi Generals Etain Tur-Mukan and Bardan Jusik for a classified mission to locate terrorists deep in Coruscant's heart. The object of the mission was to locate and eliminate Separatist terror cells operating on Coruscant. For the mission, Ordo "borrowed" a large cache of explosives from GAR facilities, and Skirata used contacts within the more seedy areas of Coruscant to set himself up as a man looking to sell the explosives. Once contact had been made with the terror cell, the different teams were given different objectives. Omega and Delta Squads, along with Jusik and Tur-Mukan, tracked the members of the terror cell. Walon Vau served as interrogator for any prisoners taken. Once the exchange took place between Skirata and the terror cells, a strike was made to eliminate all members of the cell. During the mission, Kal took a liking to Bardan and believed him fit to be his son. Afterwards, he also convinced General Zey that clone trooper Corr be allowed to stay with him and train as a commando. It was also during this period that he learned of Etain's pregnancy and told her that he would have to raise the child so that it would grow up in the proper "Mandalorian" way.

The hunt for Ko Sai
A few months after the mission on Coruscant, Kal Skirata, along with Ordo and Mereel, traveled to Kamino to find information on the whereabouts of the missing Kaminoan scientist, Ko Sai. Kal and Ordo were forced to rescue Vau from Mygeeto after he fell into a crevasse after a bank heist at the Dressian Kiolsh Merchant Bank. The goods from the heist were given to Kal by Vau, forcing Kal to change how he thought of Vau and forging a more stable relationship between the two. After the rescue, Kal formally adopted Ordo according to Mandalorian tradition. Though Kal had been angry at Etain for getting pregnant, he felt guilty afterwards for bullying her. He managed to track Ko Sai down and capture her with the help of Mereel after a firefight with a group of Mando'ade who were her bodyguards, something that made Kal believe Mando'ade should stop working for others and work for themselves. After learning of the order to euthanize Fi, Kal and Ordo left for Coruscant, leaving Etain on Mandalore at his home and made a call to Obrim for aid in retrieving Fi. After the birth of Venku Skirata, Kal offered to let Etain stay on Mandalore with Venku if she left the Jedi Order, something she refused as she felt it would be betraying the other soldiers who served under her. Both he and Etain decided to pick the moment when they would tell Darman about Venku and rented a place for Laseema on Coruscant where he and Venku would stay. After retrieving Fi, Kal officially adopted all members of Omega Squad and the Nulls according to Mandalorian tradition.

Legacy
In 40 ABY, Taun We told Boba Fett that Skirata found and killed Ko Sai and used her data to stop the aging process of at least one clone. This clone would later go on to tell Boba Fett that his father, most likely meaning Kal, had died.

It also appears that Kal had cared for Venku, the son of Omega Squad Commando Darman, and Jedi Etain Tur-Mukan.

Personality
Skirata felt that it was his absolute duty to let the clones of Jango Fett know their Mandalorian legacy; Boba Fett viewed him as a fanatic. When Skirata found out that Etain Tur-Mukan was pregnant with Darman’s son, he was more than willing to take the baby from his mother and even hunt her down, to achieve his goal. He had no qualms about torturing prisoners, and Fett considered him one of the dirtiest fighters. A complex man, Skirata disliked many of the things that the Kaminoans did to the clones, and was deeply disturbed by the treatment of his "boys". He was able to smuggle in treats and other restricted things for the clones, and wanted them to embrace their Mandalorian heritage. He also hated living on the water world of Kamino, as it made his shattered ankle play up. The Kaminoans also unnerved him, and irritated him with questions about how he felt being "defective". Kal had only ever felt sorry for one Kaminoan; a female who had given birth to a child with green eyes. Due to the fact that the Kaminoan caste system was based around the eye colors of gray, blue and yellow, the child had been labeled as a threat to the Kaminoan's ordered society, and had been exterminated shortly after birth. He also had serious differences with Walon Vau (differences which bordered on outright hatred), as he felt Vau was sadistic toward the clone troopers (a source of contention was when Vau sicced his pet strill, Lord Mirdalan, on a young Ordo).

Behind the scenes


Robert Hendrickson's illustrations of Kal Skirata for Star Wars Insider bear a close resemblance to actor Ed Harris.

Appearances

 * Republic Commando: Hard Contact
 * Omega Squad: Targets
 * Republic Commando: Triple Zero
 * Odds
 * Republic Commando: True Colors
 * Order 66: A Republic Commando Novel
 * Bloodlines
 * Sacrifice