Author's Note:
This story was originally my mirror characters as of Summer/Fall 2018, and a set history of their mirror-verse selves. Originally intended for Summerdawn's ISS Paw RP discussian, this became an interesting what-if given the gap between the Terran Empire and the Terran Rebellion and a source of conceivable weaponization and shipyard fortress; A hidden underground complex that sprawled kilometers deep underground in biodomes using Andorian technology and engineering. A familiar backdrop and homage to one of the classic films, as well as a plot device that was tied into the series, planetology.
This origins story, combined with elements of 'Wrath of Khan', DS9 Second Sight as well as aspects from The Expanse & Halo: The Fall of Reach, in that the Terrans had shipyards in hiding that were meant to be a secret facility of great threat to the Cardassian-Klingon-Bajoran-Ferengi Alliance. It was a disguised planet buried beneath layers of nuclear winter. Given blueprints for warships from the prime universe, it was at this Imperial holdout colony and port of call here where various mirror universe vessels visited or refit, such as the ISS Enterprise and ISS Defiant-which won't make a cameo here. Captains Bashir and O'Brien do not hold the Ceti Alphans in high regard, despite maintaining ships/arms-for-resources agreement. The Ceti Alphans are considered greedy and elitist, hoarding the cream of the Terrans' yellow-steel hulled starships to themselves while only sending the Alpha Fleet to Terok Nor arguably only in dire circumstances and selling the Station's sector fleet 'used goods'; despite being the ones who sold the Ceti Alphans the Defiant (among untold dozens of others) blueprints in the first place.
Given common threats and treatment by their rivals in this universe, the Andorians, Tellarites and Vulcans are close allies, albeit in the 'developing' biodomes in Ceti Alpha V.
After the Victories over Terok Nor, however, Ceti Alpha was betrayed from within upon completing the first armada in a new-generation Imperial Starfleet. Despite resurrecting and perfecting the careful weapons of Protomatter by Governor Gideon Seyetik, the use of Genesis Was perverted into a weapon of mass creation.
I'll contribute to this story as it unfolds.
--Triton.
PS: This is an outlet to clear my writers' bloc. Given that I'm tentatively presuming this is around 2381, this location concludes relatively soon, just in case.
CMDR Leon Marquez (Mirror)
Before becoming Chief Tactical Officer on the ISS Paw, Leon Marquez was the Executive Officer on the Terran Luna-class Scout Raider, the ISS Resolve before the Battle of Terok Nor. As was necessary to acclimate to the underground limitations and artificial atmospheres of an Atlantean underground, Leon was physically augmented as a child. He grew up hidden on the Terran colony of Ceti Alpha V, a colony on a remote world which, despite being dismissed by the galaxy at large as having a permanent uninhabitable coat of nuclear winter stemming from a previous Klingon Bombardment, was able to flourish into a small civilization. In time, Ceti Alpha became home to a network of subterranean cities and shipyards beneath the surface of the planet using subjugated Andorian Subterranean Dwelling Technology. Leon trained in the planet's Forest Military Academy and armed forces, rising to the rank of Commander in the Terran Empire. He fought with honor and distinction . Leon Marquez aided in the opposition against the Cardassian-Klingon Alliance in the end of the 24th century.
Lt CDR Alessia Garcia-Marquez (Mirror)
Before becoming a Helm officer and shuttle pilot for the ISS Paw, Alessia Garcia was a pilot on the Terran Scouting Raider, ISS Resolve before the Battle of Terok Nor and well into the Siege of Ceti Alpha V. Alessia Garcia was one of two orphans of a family who were themselves raised on the ideals of the short-lived Terran Republic. Using her loyalty to her squadmates and friernds, rather than her feminine wiles or personal favors, Alessia was able to climb the ranks by her performance and test results.
Major James Mariner (Mirror)
Before becoming a MACO Officer on the ISS Paw, James Mariner was a gunner, tactical officer and security commander on the Terran Maquis Raider, the ISS Hornet before the Battle of Terok Nor and well into the siege of Ceti Alpha V. Mariner aided in the opposition against the Cardassian-Klingon Alliance in the end of the 24th century. The Nephew of the beloved Ceti Alphan Governor, Gideon Seyetik, James Mariner's father remarried, becoming Marquez's younger stepbrother. Lifelong friends and trustees, both grew into their eventual careers in the Academy and well into the military, given James's family connections. A capable soldier, James was spared the preference of favoritism by learning from the Imperial archives directly, which included restricted files of the weaknesses and tactics of captured Prisoners of War unknowingly imprisoned in holodeck prisons without seafety protocols in gladiatorial 'endurance' matches, which Mariner and fellow recruits saw 'training tours'. Mariner was known to be as bold as he was glib but was unquestioningly loyal to his captain and crew.
BACKGROUND
Ceti Alpha was initially a thriving colony the Terran Empire had founded before they were pushed back during one of the many wars with the Klingon Empire. Imperial Planetologist Gideon Seyetik was able to convince the Emperor for the opportunity to experiment with protomatter in limited habitat domes to attempt to repopulate the planet in secret, to serve as a hidden base sworn to the Emperor or any Terran forces that had been painstakingly vetted, a practice which worked for several decades on both Ceti Alpha V and its lesser-stable sister planet, Ceti Alpha VI, managing to house a small, domeless partial ecosystem restricted for the Governor's experiments.
Ceti Alpha V, also known as Blue Horizon, was a silent technological marvel produced by the now-wealthy and highly-influential Seyetik family. Gideon himself in addition to being a master Terraformer, was also an expert in Protomatter, with ambitions of using the technology to terraform the worlds of hostile or war-torn worlds once his great experiment was ready. Living out of carefully constructed and monitored Domes that constituted the colony, Leon’s father was an Imperial Terran MACO officer during a firefight with a Cardassian assassination squad, and died to save the Professor's family's life during a speech in the Da Vinci Falls monument on Ceti Alpha's Nexus-Dome; a crowning achievement to the potential of protomatter technology, whose moment was saved by Officer Marquez's sacrifice.
After the loss and in gratitude from the Governor, Leon’s mother Rose Marquez, herself a reputable pilot in the Imperial Alpha Fleet, had remarried, to her benefactor, Gideon Seyetik’s nephew, Pete Mariner, whose son James grew up as Leon’s stepbrother. Despite neither parent fully accepting the other’s stepson, Leon and James grew up in Blue Horizon together, training with other children when enrolling into Ceti Alpha V’s military academy which had drawn influence from the old Military Assault Command (MACO) for all inhabitants, to make up for the colony's relatively small size and native population and need of a standing defense force of citizens. Protests against cloning children, even augments had caused an unpopular backlash, and the Governor reluctantly agreed to ban the unauthorized use of cloning, which saw a decline in trust of the augmentation process, after a scare among the slave caste somehow acquired augmentation methods. Leon's and Mariner's first mission had been to suppress this facility after a lengthy urban operation.
Among the handpicked recruits at the Ceti Imperial Academy was an orphaned young lady named Alessia Garcia, who would grow into a lifelong friend of Leon’s and James’s, falling in love with the former as they competed in everything from martial arts to simulated academic dogfighting to strategy and theorem, which Professor (now-Governor) Gideon Seyetik himself had made note of and assigned into a group, based off of loyalty and their willingness to die together in the dreaded Kobeyashi Maru suicide mission preparedness simulation. This put them in their first years in a Raider together, the ISS Hornet. During long-term survival training and combat experience, the trio grew close as they integrated with crew from their new vessel, earning their way up the ranks under the command of fleet commanders Smiley O’Brien and Julian Bashir after a treaty had been signed with the Terok Nor outpost. Ceti Alpha would supply limited amounts of reinforcements and ships in exchange for diplomatic ties with other powers in the quadrant, even offering to house any prisoners of war and exchange information.
After the ISS Defiant’s first deployment and the schematics sent back to Ceti Alpha for full-scale deployment and construction of a new model Imperial Starfleet, the Ceti Alphans, civilian and military alike were united in celebration of their collective dream to restore the Empire to power. The fruits of the ISS Resolve and hundreds of other small but mobile and effective ships following the ISS Defiant to several victories, which led to the first deployment of the experimental Galaxy-Class. the ISS Hornet and through prototype Cloaking technology, a wing of Six Maquis raiders struck at the orbital shipyards of the Alliance Systems' home planets and freed thousands of Terran prisoners from the planets below.
The ailing Governor Seyetik had designed the raid to immaculate perfection, deploying scores of automated drones carrying transporter tags and phaser beams. Long after the Terran ships had dealt their attack, Pete Mariner's drones had cameras and powerful sensors to gather intelligence unavailable for such short-range scan and sabotaging the homeworlds' central computers, damaging the Ferengi Empire in particular, which seemed to have driven a rift in the Alliance. However, outraged the Cardassians and Klingons, who vowed to retaliate once they had finally discovered the Terrans' shipyard planet before they would return with an even larger fleet they correctly predicted was in the works.
Despite the winning streak and chance for military-liberation to be elevated in caste, there was much to be improved upon for the aliens and slave-castes. To the Terrans' dismay of the growing slave caste was starting to show signs of an uprising, appealing to the Logic of the Vulcans who were recently given access to Ceti Alpha 6’s Protomatter Installations overseen by Deputy-Governor Pete Mariner himself and reluctant ally, Admiral Solok of Vulcan. Word had reached the Slaves of the so-called 'prison camps' being holographic slaughterhouses for the amusement and training of the Terran MACOs, whose uncompromising Human-only policy soon led to extremely few aliens rising in the officer ranks. Alien Draftees however had been sure to have taken courses of Captain Maxwell Forest's example, for whom the academy was named for, rather than his successors.
In response to the capture and detention of Regent Worf, the location of the Ceti Alpha colony was finally leaked by the colony’s slaves to the Klingon-Romulan Alliance. After years of suspicious silence and a build-up of the Terran Empire’s best-Kept secret world, The Klingon-Cardassian Alliance struck right as the planet had activated secretly-purchased Xindi technology and planetary defenses, given the flawed-but-lasting relations with the Xindi after Forest had dealt a crippling blow to their council centuries earlier. The end began when Governor Seyetik passed away. To his nature, he wrote his own obituary and even his own eulogy via a transmission as he demonstrated the completion of the new and improved Genesis torpedo, with the intent of settling on the surfaces as human beings again. His heir, Pete Mariner, ensured this weapon could be redeployed as an endgame weapon if either of Ceti Alpha was to ever be captured.
Despite the noble sacrifice, Seyetik's death was the catalyst for the Alliance’s attack as the Ceti Alphans mourned the loss of their leader; but always ready for this situation, . This weaponry staved off the Invasion for a while, but old feuds with fellow Terrans left the planet doomed and isolated in the ensuing blockade and siege of the Ceti Alpha system. Doctor Peter Mariner, the new Governor commanded a defense campaign using forces that managed to break the siege to stage Protomatter torpedo attacks on Cardassian, Klingon and Bajoran colonies and holdings, attempts that were deemed too dangerous, instead opting for a traditional siege involving blockade running and strategic hits. The ensuing campaign was somewhat successful in luring Klingon and Cardassian forces away from Ceti Alpha but the siege went on for years with ground invasions and surface warfare in a desolate, atmosphere-less invasion. Terran MACOs were subject to bombardment for the sport of Klingon Commanders, while Alliance Warriors invaded the surface and began to bore down into Ceti Alpha itself, intent on destroying the planet while a contingency plan was formed.
Commander Marquez, Lieutenant Garcia and Major Mariner were at the forefront of the battle to defend Blue Horizon and her two planets. As it proved that the siege would go indefinitely, the ISS Resolve, now consisted of Imperial Academy graduates, alien draftees and previously-restricted clone augments (created from DNA compatible parents, rather than genetic duplicates). Major Mariner earned a name for himself in the many strike teams attributed to the elite MACO units. Commander Marquez using his cloaked ship's versatility made him best left without Captain stripes given his tendency to be unusually honorable and cautious for a Terran Officer, but at the same time, this didn't incline any crewmates or officers to assassinate him. Eventually, Rear Admiral Solok, the highest ranking alien in the fleet was able to 'expose' the traitor who rescued Regent Worf from prison and allowed him to escape. Solok specifically requested to be posted aboard the ISS Resolve and took the Scouting Raider on high-risk, high reward missions that strained relations between Marquez, Mariner, and when he calculated Garcia into the mix, her as well.
SERVICE
((NOTE-- Timing aligns to the start, perhaps ending a few months before the sim's start, plot events are somewhat fresh in recent memory, not to take this lore for granted it it conflicts. Anyway, here goes.))
During the Siege of Ceti Alpha and even before, Marquez, Mariner and Garcia were experienced crewmates, flying sorties and extended-term hit and run campaigns against the Klingons, Ferengi, Cardassians and Bajorans, on missions of acquiring dilithium, food, resources and replicator supplies to make up for the lack of agriculture in the subterannean Cities on geothermal power alone, so the Ceti Alphans relied on conquest, piracy, 'Taxation' of trade routes or even bold hit-and-run fades on Alliance forces on Earth or the Solar Systems. They had once captured one of the Grand Nagus's personal D'kora-class 'mercantile' transports and staged its destruction while bringing the vessel to Ceti Alpha as a prize, leapfrogging their industrial capability upon the 'debrief' of the onboard privateers, liquidators and eliminators, which earned Leon a promotion and his first command.
A good foil to Garcia’s passionate will to survive and fight carefully against Mariner’s dogged tenacity and brilliant mind for attack tactics, the patient and even-keeped Leon mediated both the Pilot and MACO’s input, proving his worth as a reliable officer, but due to the infighting and establishment from avoiding any favoritism, their Commanding Officer, Admiral Solok prohibited Marquez from having a command of his own until Governor Seyetik had to step in for a compromise between his Nephew's career and the token Vulcan liaison to the Colony's populace. When posted to the ISS Resolve, the Vulcan instead acted to drive a wedge between the two by having Alessia for himself while pitting Mariner and Marquez against eachother for missions which would often either fail outright or inflict discord-incurring mission casualties. During one particular battle where they were left to die if not for a spared life of a remorseful Denobulan crewman, Klex Sonden, who arranged for their rescue in exchange for killing Solok for the treachery that was to be blamed on Marquez himself: The Location of Ceti Alpha and the Genesis research.
Upon learning that Solok had given away the location of the Protomatter laboratory on Ceti Alpha VI in exchange for a defection and a Great House of his own to fulfill his now-discovered personal vendetta against humans, Alessia staged her submission to Solok’s whims and was able to incapacitate the Vulcan before sending a transmission to now-stowaways Marquez and Mariner, before she was incapacitated, thrown into an agonizer booth awaiting execution. Upon leading a mutiny out of necessity, Commander Marquez slew Solok in a desperate duel to the death and saved Garcia's life before warning Ceti Alpha VI, upon lawfully assuming command of the now-under-attack ISS Resolve, and her sister ships whose locations were also compromised due to Solok’s treachery, and the fleet returned to the homeworld while announcing the evidence of this discovery, advising the Terrans to scramble their comm codes and transponders. It was confirmed that Solok was to inherit Regent Worf's forfeit lands in the event Ceti Alpha could be captured or conquered, and the Klingon Warlord had double-crossed him upon learning this fact.
The ensuing mutiny saw Mariner executing most of the alien crew without remorse, whether by decompression or phaser fire, a decision he grew to regret and feel remorse for, making him a cold, cynical man with a grim sense of humor and something of a xenophobe with a colonial complex and tendency to utter derogatory insults to most non-humans. He was prone to bedding only human women, Jimmy’s reputation as a womanizer was something of a silent compliment, attributing for his lack of a good nature, though he yearned for forgiveness and redemption by making sure those lives counted for something, and Mariner yearned to return to Earth itself when it was free again, rather than a trophy of the Alliance, given the pending destruction of Ceti Alpha.
THIS IS CETI ALPHA
Governor Mariner had ordered his son and stepson to rally as many allies to help the Ceti Alphans, even traveling to Romulus if they had to plead with Proconsul Vrenak, himself a steady ally and reasonable moderate leader of the Romulan Empire. They spared few ships and deniably-'lost' Scorpion attack fighters operated by cloaked drone-control ships that were refit with Terran weaponry. The Empire had to keep their hand clean, but deemed the Ceti Alphans as the government-in-exile among the scattered and more radical Terran colonies and so-called Maquis that flew the flag of the Terran dagger, be they Georgiou's or Sato's followers or rabid survivalists. Alien integration into society was a logical symbol of harmony. Until Solok's betrayal was revealed, which was an obstacle that could not be overcome without the approval of a polarized Romulan Empire.
Blue Horizon was crumbling from within due to sabotage and a steady breakdown in thechain of command the way the Terran Starfleet officers did in other chapters or colonies of the Terran Empire (The Ceti Alphans reverted to such manners after regulation-honor rituals, but otherwise barred officer-assassination), chaos, paranoia and panic, a military coup after a particularly poorly-engaged deployment led to armed riots and Alliance-armed slave uprisings. Horrible score settling and barbaric executions left impressions on the next generation. In addition to receiving support, the prisoners aided in the coordination of the heavily-defended mining machines. Several of Ceti Alpha's major cities would be vulnerable to invasion, bombardment or worse within days. It was determined during one coup, that Seyetik's words, 'Let there be light' be cited as they trigger one of the Genesis Torpedoes to their own surface and stop the digging operations.
After shielding themselves entirely to the surface, they detonated the Genesis device on their world of nuclear winter, they purchased another few months as the new matrix formed on Ceti Alpha V. This took pressure off the now-thriving surface world of Ceti Alpha VI, whose earlier stripmining operations and onetime seat of power of Blue Horizon paved the way for a second network of geothermally-powered underground colonies barely 5 years before. It was allegedly here where the Ceti Alphans disclosed their alleged homeworld after an arms treaty with Benjamin Sisko's former crewmates. For security reasons, Ceti Alpha V was simply 'Blue Horizon' to their non-native fellow Terrans. Gideon Seyetik was obsessive about keeping his achievements a secret until it intended to declare itself the home of humanity. After the siege and countless coups, however, it was bracing itself to be destroyed in the aims of destroying the Alliance forces besieging the two inhabited worlds, only to cause their planet to implode, causing a growing asteroid field whose debris threatened Ceti Alpha V as well as the Alliance fleets.
The MACOs scuttled the Ceti Alphan Academy. Located next to an artificial bay within sight of Professor Seyetik's iconic Da Vinci Falls monument, which towered from the Biodome's atrium. The crown Jewel of Ceti Alpha had become toxic and a threat to Terrans as the alien revolt was simply too much for the MACOs. Broken off from the chain of command, and distrustful about whoever suddenly claimed command, the Terrans reverted to retreating and scuttling now-evacuated biodomes to at least stem the tide of the threat within as every resource was dedicated towards leaving the Ceti Alpha System in as many warships as could be spared.
The last Governor of the Ceti Alphans prepared to annihilate the planet's own sun with protomatter, upon the pending collapse and capture of the remaining protomatter laboratories and the imminent collapse of their planet's core due to the Alliance's digging operations and the Genesis protomatter taking its toll, despite what Seyetik claimed to have perfected. The device was conceived of for terraformation or a doomsday weapon, which was launched first on initially Ceti Alpha V some 2 years prior, which saw a guerilla war every man woman and to extreme cases, child, were forced to experience as the Alliance forces advanced with varying degrees of advances and retreats, taught the Ceti Alphans to fight to the death and avoid capture. Unfortunately, the Bajorans waged casualty-effective campaigns that forced the Ceti Alphans to bombard their planet with protomatter torpedoes again, causing instabilities in the planet’s core and forcing their self-sustaining technology to a standstill, and all production of evacuation-ready ships ground to a halt, which caused another mutiny amid the chaos. Rogue attacks against Alien-occupied domes inflicted friendly fire on MACO units and prompted recapture of some of the ISS Starships, fracturing trust between military and civilian (many of which were now seasoned combatants.)
Peter Mariner’s assassination paved the way for the eventual final coup d'état in a bloody series of them to place a onetime corporal in command, though 'General' Stiles formally had the command codes and intended to use the Genesis torpedoes, he only did so once every ship possible had run the blockade or went their separate ways. There simply was no unified Blue Horizon once the Ceti Alphan Imperial Fleet blasted its way out of one of the bloodiest blockade runs in history. In an astonishing turn of events, the Romulan Navy and even the Terrans of Terok Nor arrived to the Ceti Alphans' cause, unwilling to abandon their allies to annihilation.
It was also, incidentally, a recruitment opportunity, which placed them at odds with Leon once they had all fought alongside the Romulan forcess who declared they went Rogue to conduct humanitarian aid and defense to threatened peoples, per Imperial Prime Directive, despite the deliberation of the Senate and the alleged assassination of Proconsul Vrenak on a diplomatic mission to Sokara, which implicated the Alliance as an act of war. Romulan Warbirds made the Ceti Alphan Exodus possible, and attributing to his sense of honor, Marquez himself warned their Admiral of the pending countdown and to warn his crews and the Terrans' alike that the solar system had only moments left before the 'Operation Lightbringer' would destroy every starship in the alliance task force if they didn't jump to Maximum warp at once. Some Terran ships even stayed behind to buy the civi
Then came the hour of reckoning. As Alliance forces finally cut their way into The command center of Ceti Alpha V, the Terran governor announced his endgame before the transmission was suddenly cut short. From a volunteer suicide-crew a lone Imperial Nebula-class warped to just over their sun and left four torpedoes strategically placed to hit, making the detonation as omnidirectional as possible to wipe out most if not all of the Alliance fleet. Only about 40% of those forces survived, and most of the reinforcements slated to arrive were just out of range of the ensuing shockwave that followed a recording of Seyetik's own Last Words:
"LET THERE BE LIGHT!"
In their single-minded arrogance, the Alliance Fleets brought a sizable portion of their troops in response to the pending defeat of Ceti Alpha and its threat to their forces and in response to their costly campaign. Ironically, the Alliance suffered a devastating loss as everything in the sector was gone before Regent Worf's Grand Army could arrive. He and anyone in visual range instead saw the system go out in an indescribably beautiful eruption of divine destruction.
The Ceti Alphans witnessed their home star's destruction and almost anything else in the otherwise unnoticeable star system. No one knew exactly how many Terrans escaped their way aboard the assorted starships. Among the few survivors, the Hornet and the few ships under their command limped to allied worlds or scattered out of fear of annihilation, and upon facing an outright loss of hope, Marquez hesitantly turned to the Maquis movement after years of bad blood and contentious rivalries instilled by Admiral Solok, himself once an archnemesis of Benjamin Sisko, the predecessor Captain of the current Terok Nor command crew.
While Mariner has himself with no one else but his stepbrother and only friend, James Mariner has remained loyal to his remaining family, while following his example in attempting to start one of his own to repopulate the decimated ranks of the Ceti Alphans; some of whom were augmented to survive in the planet’s deep core, including Marquez himself, which give him a notably strong body and reflexes at the cost of a slow-burning temper with decades of experienced calm and precisely-applied rage. Major Mariner has previously served in Military Assault Command, served as Marquez’s trusted bodyguard, enforcer and first officer, and as a tradition was granted prima noctis of the female crew in exchange for missions accomplished, given his blood relationship to the Colony’s beloved founding governor.
Sharing Leon's bed is his secret and loving wife, Alessia Garcia, now a seasoned, battle-hardened pilot and soldier with both the loyalty and tenacity of a mother saber-bear. While the Helmswoman and her commander often clash about gut instinct versus direct orders, the two have seen more hours together than most surviving Ceti Alpha Senior officers paired for as long. The two were in love, and neither could see a future without the other in it.
PSYCHOLOGICAL PROFILE:
CMDR Leon Marquez
Leon was was close to his mother, a secret-practicing believer in the teachings of Emperor Spock and his consort, who were on the verge of a renaissance of the Human race, which had a place for all species under a common dream of peaceful prospering allied worlds under a common dream not a species. Even despite the conditioning and glorious history of the Terran Empire and the human race’s triumphs instilled through propaganda and institutionalized training, Leon in his heart knew there had to have been an aternate history or way forward once he and his fellow Ceti Alphans could emerge as a power player in the quadrant under the Terran flag. Unfortunately, his views were in the minority enough to prevent him from having a command that was truly his, serving at best as an advisor and moral compass and tactical officer, given his family connections at the time of his admittance to the Military Academy, best befitting his psychological profile and tendency to follow orders, fight with honor and never to hesitate.
-- Interests : The survival and well-being of his crew, compatriots and family; The lives of Humanity and its allies, alliances, whether of convenience, opportunity or in some rare cases, trust; Leon is happily married to a trusted woman who embodies his trust and confidence in both himself and his goals.
Lt CDR Alessia Garcia[-Marquez]
Alessia Garcia, a silent Spock believer herself, secretly fosters this faith and has solidified his resolve as as their years together forge the two into a unique bond rare in the Empire between a man and a woman, a belief in love and in souls. This thought was considered Heresy in the Empire, and being an orphan, meant the streetsmart and tomboy had to make a name for herself boxing in the underworld, taking up the arena name ‘Angel’, for her often-ridiculed belief in the unknown, despite the filthy but character-developing upbringing she’d had to undergo in the lesser-privileged zons of the Domed districts of the subterranean city.
The experience wasn’t all bad: Orphans needed sponsors or experience in the underbelly of a Terran Colony, where Aliens and Slaves dwelled. Alessia grew up with their lingo, customs and tactics which saw her adopt traits from Bajorans, Andorians, Klingons and the accursed Cardassians who killed her brother Jonas who protected her from dangerous characters until the day he was drafted into service by Admiral Solok and never heard from again. Alessia Enlisted in the Imperial Navy out of high school, scoring impressive grades using what humble resources her school could provide. She had learned how to earn money in the arena as her alter-ego “Angel”, donning an old Luchador mask and distinctive Angel-patterned outfit, a callsign she would adopt later in her life as a Terran Officer. She had been a demonstrably capable pilot attributing to her time as a racer, which qualified her to serve as a lieutenant Helmswoman on a Raider, serving with academy friends-for-life Leon Marquez and James Mariner, the former she married in secret.
-- Interests: Starships, piloting, Combat training, survivan and fitness, the Teachings of Emperor Spock, Human Art, Philosophy, poetry and dance; her Husband and the will to start a family
Major James Mariner
While the son of privilege, James’s older stepbrother had gradually gotten into physical, rivalry-driven fights with his initial competitor, but as brothers, they corrected eachothers’ traits and more often than not wound up defending eachother and defying orders, which only cemented their compatibility, despite a rivalry, which was tested and bent but never broken. Still, James hated being called Jimmy, which his Brother or Sister-in-law would only use in dire situations of urgency or trust, given the Mutiny and other tribulations where things could have gone tragic; a testament to their loyalty and trust in eachother.
While arrogant, stubborn and impulsive, Mariner had been dealt lessons in humility and time in Agonizer booths to have straightened him out while acquiring a coldly-programmed sense of discipline for defying Captain Solok. Major Mariner has yet to recover from these experiences and others during the many ground campaigns he’s seen for his age, both in space or on the ground. Despite being the Grand-nephew of Gideon Seyetik, Mariner hardly had the governor’s charisma or particular fond of exotic locations apart from their economic or tactical value, making him in some ways as concise and direct as a Vulcan, despite the occasional grim or dark-humored pithy remark. James Mariner, like his stepbrother, was close to his living biological parent than who they married, and instead learned Sun Tzu and Machiavelli from Peter Mariner, who oversaw the Protomatter deployment and research for something He’d grow familiar with, Operation Genesis. A proposal for the Terran Empire which ultimately saw the destruction of Ceti Alpha, a cause of nightmares for the MACO Major.
-- Interests: Combat Tactics, Strategy, Conquest, Ship construction and design, Blue Horizon's Terran Imperial Uniform, Conquering Alliance forces and collecting trophies, treasure and loot from defeated enemy forces where possible.
PHYSICAL PROFILE:
Leon Like his biological father (who died when Leon was eight during a mission against the Bajoran Army), Marquez had the physique of a soccer player, and was a fast runner. He was a skilled, self-taught Kickboxer, and used his legs and feet for offense, with his arms for defense. The Siege of Ceti Alpha V forged Marquez into a tough, rugged fighter with a true soldier's attitude to go with the soccer player-boxer body he'd made for himself, a game played with as fully-serious of a rivalry as brothers could have with one another. Marquez was often seen jogging around the decks, bicycling in a gym or his quarters, or practicing his soccer maneuvers in any gym or communal a space with his wife or among his crew. Like most Terran Officers, Leon was an accomplished knife fighter as well, though his first instinct was to kick or leap out of trouble in time to attack or defend on his own terms, citing the partial-augment Marquez’s Muay Thai training.
A product of the Ceti-Alpha University of Warfare and the family connections made when his mother married Prof. Peter Mariner, Leon was augmented slightly to make up for his body’s initial inability to adapt to the planet, growing up on a different gravity setting when his parents birthed him aboard a starship, like so many Ceti Alphan refugees and their offspring while fleeing Earth or other colonies during a year-spanning exodus, Leon was subjected to limited augment treatment and informed of it at an early age. His endurance is somewhat above average, as is his stamina, strength and intelligence. Unlike Most who are self-identified Augments, Marquez still recalls his father’s fondness of the teachings of Emperor Spock, a role model he shows when possible through his actions. Leon is fond of proteins, greens and meat, fresh if possible, or otherwise replicated carefully, being a self-taught cook, he is explicitly careful of poisons, a necessity in the Empire, given his coveted position, and incidentally, an astounding knife-thrower and swordfighter.
Alessia had an impressive athletic body from her weightlifting and capoeira regiment in the Ceti Alpha Military Academy and whenever deployed in the service of the Ceti Alpha System, the Terran Empire or its many factions such as the Terran Maquis. Her active lifestyle continued in the gym and holodeck of the starships she'd been assigned to and she has added a variety of extreme sports to her list of favorite activities, and is always eager to try new ways of extreme sports, especially if dancing, intimacy, martial arts, racing, her beloved husband or any of the above were involved.
She stood at 5'5" and weighed 132 lbs. Ceti Alpha Imperial Fleet female Officers, Alessia’s martial arts and harsh survival training regiment was almost spartan, and thus when not suited in pressure or exo suits, Garcia had been trained in the arts of seduction and using her body to her advantage, and such was not beyond wearing a midriff or skirt in combat, not being shy of her physique. Her body had excellent muscle tone and her strength was evident in places like her arms and legs, where her musculature was well-defined. She never wanted to be a body-builder though, and so she exercised for endurance, not for brute strength. She had lovely Spanish curves to go with her fit body. Her hair was shoulder-length, thick, black and wavy, worn either regulation loose or in a ponytail when in combat. Off-duty, She wore it pulled back and let down, depending on how her husband felt that evening or moment. She had easy-to-get-lost-into chocolaty brown eyes and caramel-colored skin.
James Mariner was attractive and he knew it, allowing himself a non-regulation 5'o'clock shadow beard on his jawline; Jimmy was almost always caught smiling, smirking or wearing a knowing regard, he claimed to attribute to his latest score in the range, dojo or knife fight combat training. The MACO Major is a young but experienced senior officer with a skillset ranging from wearing heavy armor indefinitely to being calm under fire and logically sound of mind while maintaining a tenacious, if calculated approach to leading from the front.
Mariner was an experienced combat operative and spent hundreds of hours in holodeck combat training simulators. He had a well-toned body marked by several noticable battle scars from Klingon blades, Cardassian rifle shockstrikes and fists, but he always managed to get up and fight until complete physical exhaustion. Jimmy's experiences, he'd never admit, motivated him to be a determined body-builder to never be perceived as 'weak' or 'Puny Terran' ever again, so he had a dogged hatred toward bullies, particularly Alliance species. Also, he knew how to attract female attention, this is why he usually rolled up his sleeves when off-duty to show off his muscular arms and his encyclopedic knowledge of Martial Arts moves and Terran music. Due to his devotion to weight lifting and abdominal exercises, Jimmy was capable of lifting his own bodyweight, and did so to show off, even if it was not necessary. Being the relative of the Ceti Alpha Colony Governor’s family had made him a prize for any Ceti Alpha woman he enjoyed the company of, before his transfer to the ISS Paw, serving as Security and Away team specialist.