Ronan Barec

"So here we are. Face to face. Commander versus commander. We’re settling this battle in the old way."

- Ronan Barec

Ronan Barec was a Mandalorian sniper and special forces commando active under the New Republic and in the early years of the Galactic Alliance.

Early years (1 BBY-16 ABY)
Born on Shogun as the only son to Cayne Barec, former Cuy'val Dar and later instructor at the Imperial Royal Guard Academy on Yinchorr, Barec grew up under strict Mandalorian training. He was mostly brought up by his mother in his early years, before his father retired after the Battle of Endor. Shortly after Ronan turned six, his mother died and Cayne made his son's upbrining and training his main focus. The fact that his father had been a more military type of Mando and had been a commando instructor twice made Ronan's combat training a more military one as compared to others, and Barec would later indeed live up to his father and choose a commando career.

Career as a police special forces officer (16-25 ABY)
Even before his mother's death, Ronan turned out to have been born with an eagle eye and an unchallengedly precise shot, so the later penchant for sniper rifles would only a natural choice. At the age of 17, Barec joined the Shogun police force and with his skills, it didn't take long before he was promoted to the police apecial operations department of Shogun, better known as ShenCresh Ops (short for "Shogun Commando Ops", with the Aurebesh letters for abbreviation), a division specialized on counter-terrorism, special commando operations and the trackdown and hunt of galaxy-wide fugitive dangerous convicts. In the force, his military bearing was hardened, and soon, Ronan made a reputation as one of the Force's best commando snipers in the last few generations. He was scout sniper in Fireteam D (more commonly known as Team Dorn), a small commando unit he later took command of after the former leader's demise.

When his father died an abrupt, mysterious death in 23 ABY, Ronan took a few month's leave from the force to search for his father's place, reasons and circumstances of death. All he found were Cayne's upper armor plates and helmet, both covered in dirt, mud and blood, which he took with him and later put them in a small display cabinet on the cockpit of his ship, leaving the armor unpolished and literally untouched in the way he had found it. He went searching for the reasons of his father's death, but never found his body or any details, apart from rumors that Cayne Barec might have been somehow involved in the events of Fenn Shysa's death and Boba Fett's taking up the title as Mandalore. His father bequeathed Ronan all his belongings, as well as his impressive wealth, a small part of which Ronan invested in purchasing his commando unit's upgraded Firespray-class patrol and attack craft Nemesis from the force, the vessel that had long served as more than an operations platform to him and he had somehow grown attached to.

In 24 ABY, only a few months after his father's demise, however, Barec chose to abandon his successful career and his highly awarded officer rank, and joined the Mandalorian Protectors, convinced by Fett's new leadership. It would turn out that this conviction had been misplaced, when Fett handled the upcoming extragalactic invasion in a way Ronan didn't quite approve.



Yuuzhan Vong war (25-29 ABY)
In the next few years, he, along with many other volunteers, experienced a hard training regimen under Fett himself and became a true Mandalorian warrior, a Mandalorian Supercommando. When in 25 ABY the Mandalore chose to ally with the Yuuzhan Vong, Barec, like many others, struggled to help the extragalactic invaders, and he fought only on very few occasions for them. Concealed from the Vong, Fett even tightened the regimen, causing countless casualties, but when the Vong eventually chose to betray the Mandalorians and attacked Mandalore in 29 ABY, this proved to have been worth it as the Mandalorians more than successfully repelled the invasion. Barec, now experienced in larger scale battle than commando insertaions, finally got the chance to fight the invaders, and following the Battle of Mandalore, he led a group of Mandalorian supercommandos and normal soldiers to a decisive victory in the Liberation of Dubrillion.

This battle, however, also changed Barec's view on the war, mostly due to the friends he lost there. He acquired a new, more specialized armor and became less talkative and grimmer, but his will to push the Yuuzhan Vong back didn't cease.

After the war (29 ABY- )
Barec survived the following battles and the war, proving to be one of the most experienced and skilled Mandalorian soldiers under Fett's leadership, and he was still with the Mandalorians during the Second Corellian Insurrection.

Physical appearance and personality traits
Despite his strong build and tall size, Ronan knew well not only to rely on brute force and preferred ranged combat to melee. And while he had a body as trained and steeled as it had to be expected from a Mandalorian soldier, he didn't overdo it and knew if he was too muscle-packed, he wouldn't be as athletic and agile as he used to be&mdash;he relied more on other things, such as intelligence and a more elaborate approach at things. Also, while Ronan had a very modern technique and weapons systems for use, he turned down several features in his armor suit and relied more on his personal feats rather than tech (he did, for example, often deactivate his helmet systems when shooting his sniper rifle, relying only on his skills and instincts).

He had striking, penetrative blue eyes and distinctive scored facial features that told of experience, wit and cunning, and was known to be a companionable and cordial man, who cared about his friends and comrades and always had exhilarant and unconstrained lines in patter. After the events of Dubrillion, however, he became grimmer and less talkative, although he still remained sane and lucid&mdash;and somehow, he projected an even more aspiring and thrilling aura to others.

While never showing his fears and worries to the outside, keeping them tightly to himself, it was not like he didn't have any, like many who knew him were lead to believe. The deaths of his both parents, as well as deaths of partners in the Shogun forces, lead him to never forge too close relationships and bonds with others, for he feared he might lose them as well. Despite his efforts, he always found friends and comrades he cared about. Especially after the high losses on Dubrillion, he started to enforce his efforts and became more introverted, trying to prevent things like that from happening again. The fact that he never showed those feelings to anyone was probably playing against him, because sometimes he reckoned that if he had someone to talk to about his worries, they might start to vanish. Those traits showed also in his relation to women: he had various relationships with women before the war, but they never lasted long, and he still needed to find a partner that would be able to truly help and be there for him. Nevertheless, when it didn't come to romantics, he could quite well interact with females.

Those many losses only naturally lead to a grudge against the Yuuzhan Vong, and he hoped that once the war was over, he might truly start to live and get loose from his worries. With his father having been an Imperial in principle, Ronan also tended to dislike the Galactic Alliance as a governing body and was oriented more to the side of the Imperial Remnant.

Equipment and gear
In his time with the ShenCresh Ops, Barec had worn a plain matte-black standard-issue Mandalorian shock trooper armor without markings and only durasteel protection, an armor he kept after resigning and joining the Mandalorian Protectors. Shortly after the Yuuzhan Vong War began, however, he repainted it in a matte silver and golden scheme. After the Battle of Dubrillion, he eventually put his old armor away and went to the acquainted armorsmith Altair Jiriad to produce a new one. The suit was very expensive, even by Mandalorian standards, and Barec spent nearly all of the remaining money he had inherited from his father on it, but it was more than worth it for him.

Helmet
Ronan's new helmet was of standard Mandalorian design. The rangefinder included a powerful electrobinocular that allowed an immense magnification. Ronan often referred to this as his galaar'sur'haai (Mando'a for hawk eye), as this was the only visible feature on his helmet that showed his profession, not to mention that the rangefinder itself was shaped like a reptilian eye.

Default features were multiple visor modes (night, low-light, infrared, thermal, ultraviolet, and the Vong-detecting vision that had been adopted from Yuuzhan Vong Hunter droids), wink-commanded HUD (lacking the standard 360-degree vision, in order to provide better focus and attention in Ronan's natural FOV), enhanced aural and olfactory sensors, built-in A/V-recorder, targeting systems linked to his suit's weapons (not to external weapons like blasters), rebreather and airfilters (not visible from the outside, they sat on the "inside" of the helmet for aesthetic reasons) and an access on an expansive database (e.g. field guide), as well as a powerful long-range comlink that also allowed access on the HoloNet. Ronan also added enhanced sensors for atmospheric conditions and weather, since such data was important for ballistics.

Armor/clothing
Ronan would never equip all of his gear at once, he always adjusted his equipment to the environment and the kind of mission/assignment. This was especially true for ammunition and some of the variable suit weapons, and usually he had to unequip a certain kind of weapon, ammunition or grenade to replace it by another one.

Upper parts and torso protection
Barec had a small, ball-shaped targeting laser on his right shoulder that was always following his helmet direction if activated. A standard sniper ammo pack sitting on his right shoulder-pad, where often also grenades were fastened. On his left shoulder-pad was the traditional Mandalorian emblem.

Next was the standard armor vest with enforced armor plates out of an elaborate alloy of Mandalorian iron, durasteel and a slight amount of laminanium, forged by expert armorer Jiriad to provide best protection for an acceptable weight&mdash;still protective enough against lightsabers and not near as heavy a pure Mandalorian iron, the alloy found use in Jiriad's own armor and those of several of his clients; or at least those with large pockets. The right chestplate also bore Ronan's personal sigil and that of his clan.

His upper arms and elbows were not protected by armor plates, but there was a black brassard strapped around his left upper arm, the only item from his old armor that had remained unchanged ever since leaving the Shogun special forces. It bore the badge of his his former commando unit, Team Dorn, and served as one of his identification marks.

Weapon-mounted gauntlets
The right wrist guard featured retractable blades on the right (as seen on Jango Fett's armor) and the often-seen whipcord launcher. After various encounters with enemies that managed to sneak up close to him while he was in a prone or crouching sniping position, so close actually that he wouldn't have time to swirl his sniper rifle around and aim a precise shot, he installed a close to mid-range flechette thrower, the wide-spreading projectiles of which allowed him to counter such hostiles without having to take an accurate aim. The launcher could also utilize depleted baradium shells as highly efficient particles against Yuuzhan Vong materials like voduun crab armor and yorik coral, but that was too expensive even for Ronan.

Mounted on the left gauntlet was a gauntlet dartcaster, for rocket- or toxic darts and an extendable vibroblade. Further on, there was an extending nozzle that could be both used as a syringe for injection of toxins and nerve agents, but also bacta and painkillers, and as a device for spraying gases (like smoke or toxic gases, but also numbing dust for use against enemies up close). Latter feature seemed unusual for a sniper to many, but Ronan also often opted as a scout, and taking out hostiles from behind without making any sound whatsoever was something he deemed very useful. Notable was the lack of a flamethrower.

Lower parts and leg protection
He wore a traditional kama with pouches for equipment (medpacs, grenades, supplies and other things depending on mission) on the back waist and the right thigh. On his belt, he carried ammunition for his rifle and sidearm (what sorts of ammo were depending on the mission), a sheathed vibrodagger, a pocket flask for (usually non-alcoholic) drinks and his sidearm in the holster on the left thigh. His vibrosword was fastened on the back, and if backpack or jetpack was carried, the sword was strapped on a belt from waist to shoulder, that had also space for additional ammo or grenades.

Thighs, knees, and lower legs were protected by armor plates, while a small rocket-dart launcher was mounted on the knee-guards. The armor protection, however, was only on the front, while the kama and a thicker layer of special armorweave on the jumpsuit's calves protected the backsides. Barec had two main pairs of combat boots, both with the upper parts protected by armor plates, sealable with the rest of the suit and with two punctured spikes on each boots, the only difference being that one pair had zero-g gripsoles and was thus heavier.

Protective clothing and camouflage
He also had two different jumpsuits, a standard one (vacuum-tight, fire and puncture resistant) with thicker protection for the unarmored parts, and a heavier one made out of a sophisticated armorweave that was produced in a diffucult quantal-process were every single fiber was sprayed with a thin layer of duraplast and all woven so tightly and multi-layered together that it provided protection against one or two razor bugs. The kama and the armor vest was also made of this special fabric. The only real disadvantage was that it was considerably heavy and unrepairable if it has holes, and naturally coming with a high price.

One item in his pouches was a special camouflage net that could cover his entire body and be improved by adding environmental treats like leaves, grass, snow, sand or alike to make it something like a ghillie suit. Depending on the environment of the mission, Ronan had different colors of the net for natural green, desert or snow environments.

Since he couldn't always repaint his armor in a color that hid him best in the environment, he could cover his armor plates with either pieces of camouflage cloth of the same type as the camo net, or with thin layers of adhesive foil.

All metal parts that were not covered by paint were matted to be anti-reflective (just like the helmet visor and the rifle scopes), what was very important for a sniper, because light reflections easily gave away hidden positions.

Sniper rifle
Barec's weapon of choice was a heavily modified BlasTech EE-23 Mk IV marksman carbine, perfectly suited for both long-ranged and close combat and equipped with a vibro-bayonet. The blaster/slugthrower-hybrid rifle allowed him to shoot high-energy blaster rounds as well as slug and particle rounds in various calibers.



Sidearm
His favored sidearm was a customized Merr-Sonn P-7, nicknamed "Offshoot" for its feel as an extension of the arm, a close to mid range blaster pistol, lightweight and not with much shots in one clip, but with a powerful and very precise shot. Later on, when the war came, Ronan went to the acquainted gunsmith Siege Takomir, an expert armorer who had been involved in the production of later EE-23 variants. Takomir worked on the pistol and modified it to have the capability to also shoot slug rounds, in addition to standard blaster bolts; after all, blasters turned out not to be very useful against the highly resistible organic protection of Yuuzhan Vong.

Additional armament
On only few occasions after his time as a commando, Ronan still wore his jet-black Mitrinomon Z-6 jetpack, the same type used by many other Mandalorians, although Barec preferably used a grappling hook missile rather than an explosive warhead with the force to blow up a medium-sized tank, and that wasn't all too well protected against blaster fire.

Ronan also sported a short vibrosword, double-edged and forged out of pure Mandalorian iron by himself. Under the grip was a pointy rivet, what made the weapon still deadly when bashing an opponent with its butt.

Behind the scenes

 * Ronan Barec's looks are based on Clive Owen. The images (not the artworks) show photomanipulations by me.
 * The Appearances listed below are fanfiction stories by Corran_Fett (me), in which Ronan has major roles.

Appearances

 * Rage of the Shadow Warriors: Honor Guard
 * Rage of the Shadow Warriors: Pariah
 * Rage of the Shadow Warriors: When Few Stood Against Many