Ruan entered the Academy on Londinium when he was 10 years old after successfully passing a series of tests of both intelligence and psychological state as well as an audition process in which he demonstrated his competitive gymnastics abilities. Prior to his selection, he had attended a Londinium Arts and Sciences magnet school that already had a well regarded gifted and talented program. As a competitor in Londinium’s junior interplanetary gymnastics team, he often stood on the winner’s podium.
He was an obvious choice not only because of his high scores on both his math and intellectual reasoning tests, but also because of his exceptional “splitting” ability. Subjects who were good splitters were considered most apt to incorporate their new trained “assassin personalities” without adversely affecting their existing selves. These balanced subjects were difficult to find and performed the best in the field. “Poor splitters” had a tendency towards psychotic breaks and were less reliable.
After learning the fundamentals Ruan was assigned to “Locke”, his handler. Ruan and Locke trained together for another year before embarking on their first trial in which they acted as a support team on an intelligence gathering mission. After that, they had steady work for the next 4 years.
Things changed on Ezra, when Ruan was sent in to eliminate Amos Beeson and his family.
Amos was a rancher, a known former browncoat, and was now acting as governor to his district. He was also considered a terrorist collaborator by the Alliance. With his connections to Adelei Niska, who was using the Beeson ranch to launder money, Amos was also able to use his political position to embezzle Alliance money. Both his Niska cut and the embezzled funds were diverted to support anti-Alliance groups in Red Sun. Because of the tenuous relationship between Niska and the local federal marshals, it was decided that it was best to make it look like a home invasion gone wrong. The next day, when Amos, his wife, and three daughters were found dead, the missing money would be recovered during the Alliance led investigation and that would be that.
Ruan entered the home as planned. Locke directed him to the girls' room first. Knowing that Amos was a tough customer, Locke planned to take out the girls and the woman first. It would be easier for Ruan to then overcome an anguished and demoralized Amos Beeson than a man defending his wife and children. Shortly afterwards though, Ruan cut his com connection to Locke so that he could no longer issue commands. Realizing that something had gone terribly wrong, Locke armed himself and prepared to follow Ruan in and deactivate him. As Locke rose to exit the transport Ruan was waiting for him with a length of metal pipe.
Ruan took Locke's vehicle and drove to Niska's compound. Niska was happy to have his money (plus a little extra) back and take the stolen vehicle. Alone and armed only with a pistol, Ruan had put up an impressive fight against his guards so Niska considered that he might be worth keeping as well. He placed him in an interrogation room for later. Within a few hours it seemed to Niska that Ruan was some kind of drug addict and probably crazy as well so he reconsidered and ordered his interrogation and execution.
Magda Niska overheard the exchange and recognized that Ruan wasn’t just making stream of conscious babble, but actually describing one of her most poignant childhood memories from her perspective. She gave him the proverbial “earful” and he agreed to hold off on his plan to see if she was right. Later, Niska helped Ruan get a false ID as well as a line on schooling that would get him a job. Ruan was given a few options for rim world schooling and he picked paramedic. Niska said they were square for now, but gave Ruan a personal cortex com link with an encrypted channel Niska could use to contact Ruan and call in his marker.
Locke was collected by their escort team an hour after he stopped responding to their request for updates. It was Agent Y all over again only this time it was on a sparsely populated planet with plenty of room to run and lots of places to hide. This time the stray dog was his.
To make things worse, it very quickly became clear that the Beeson job had been started, but left unfinished. What was meant to be a simple clean up job, performed by an undetectable presence under cover of night, was now under investigation by both local and Alliance authorities.
Locke was immediately taken into custody and remained under the Hand’s guard during the subsequent investigation and clean up. When neither a planet wide sweep failed to turn up their lost agent over the next few weeks it was assumed that Ruan was most likely dead.
The Beeson job was completed and no money was ever recovered. Both the first and second attempts were blamed on Syndicate rivalries using the Beeson family to send a message to Adelai Niska.
