Commander Nicholas Means
Name Nicholas Means
Rank Commander
Character Information
| Gender | Male | |
| Species | Human | |
| Age | 140 | |
| Languages | Federation Standard |
Physical Appearance
| Height | 6' 3" | |
| Weight | 228 | |
| Hair Color | Bald | |
| Eye Color | Brown | |
| Physical Description | Nick is tall and well built. As a child his large frame made him a target for those boys that thought by taking on the ‘big’ guy so they could create a reputation for themselves. First impressions can make him seem unapproachable, but he is quick to smile, and forms friendships easily. He is a great listener and is often sought out to bounce ideas off. |
Family
| Spouse | Rebecca Means - Married 2277 - Deceased | |
| Children | Nicholas Means IV – Born 2280 - Deceased | |
| Father | Admiral Nicholas Mean II - Deceased | |
| Mother | Jasmine Forrester-Means - Deceased | |
| Brother(s) | William Means - Deceased | |
| Other Family | Great Great Great Grandson Edward Means and his family - Living on Vulcan |
Personality & Traits
| General Overview | An “Old School” Officer having gone “Mustang” by first serving in the enlisted ranks before becoming an officer. He believes in people having to earn their way and not just have something handed to them just because. He can be slow to trust but for those that have earned his trust they can have no greater ally. If the situation is right he is willing to give most anyone a second chance, but if he feel betrayed…you can have no worse enemy; so beware getting on his 'shit list'. Nick, or Scratch to those he’s served with, believes in the old adage of working hard and playing hard. As such he has risen through the officer ranks rather quickly as he takes care of his Marines like no other. Willing to get his hands dirty and to buy a round if need be. Enjoys good food, and drink Is a notorious Poker player He is extremely self confident. Some may take is as being cocky but he knows what he can do and doesn’t let the hesitations of other slow him down. When he thinks he is right he will stick to his guns. It can take quite an effort to convince him otherwise; but if proven wrong, he will be the first to admit his mistake. |
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| Strengths & Weaknesses | Strenths: Strong – Physically & mentally Self-confident Very personable – having somewhat of a disarming affect on others Weaknesses: Stubborn |
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| Hobbies & Interests | Reading Martial Arts Boxing Camping Collects antique guns Listens to classical & 21st Century Rock music |
| Personal History | 2269 – Despite his father being an officer and could have literally walked into the academy Nick wanted to earn his way…not have it given to him on a silver platter. After more than one heated argument he enlisted in Starfleet and graduated from basic Training specializing in Security Operations. 2275 - After being transferred to the USS Entente he earned the first black mark on his record. Not long after reporting aboard he caught the eye of striking red head named Rebecca during a party in the ships lounge. One thing led to another. The next morning he discovered that she was an officer. While not in his direct chain of command, everything in his training told him that he needed to break things off…but he couldn’t. They continued to see each other even after she was appointed to assistant chief of security. 2277 – Eventually the relationship was discovered and Rebecca resigned rather than deal with the embarrassment of disciplinary action. Nick on the other hand stood his ground and took the licks for the both of them and was demoted to PO2 for Fraternization with a Starfleet Officer. Before she could disembark from the USS Entente and return home Nick proposed and they were married by the same Captain that had handed down his punishment. 2284 – Was declared MIA when the USS Bloome disappeared near the Romulan Neutral Zone. No remains of the ship were never found and the ships disappearance was never explained. 2373 – Nick’s Starfleet enlistment is reactivated when the USS Bloome reappeared near the same coordinates it had originally disappeared from almost 100 years earlier. While several of his ship mates were recovered, he was the only one to survive. It was during his debrief he reported that they had engaged an unknown vessel. Based on the sensors it was believed the Bloome had engaged some kind of Romulan ship, but they were never able to confirm. Based on analysis of the ship’s hull it was established that the weapon was an experimental subspace weapon. Following his debrief and after intensive retaining on current Federation technology he is assigned to the USS Endeavor 2373 – More to keep distracted about the loss of his family than anything Nick requested a transfer to the front upon the outbreak of the Dominion War. Nick was assigned to the USS Breckenridge, a troop transport used by the resurrected Starfleet Marine Corps. He came to befriend several of the Marines as his ‘old school’ way of doing things fight their hard core mentality. 2374 – Nick became stranded on the surface with the units assigned to hold Chin’toka following the First Battle of Chin’toka, as the system remained under almost constant siege by Dominion forces. During his time there he was injured several times earning 3 Purple Hearts and the Bronze Star. 2375 – Following his tour on Chin’toka Nick was assigned to the historic 2nd Marine Division, as a Starfleet liaison, and again found himself in the thick of the fighting during the Siege of AR-558. During the heaviest part of the fighting, his officers dead, himself seriously wound, the combined Marine & Starfleet forces near exhaustion, a medic tried to pull him off the line because of the loss of his eye and he fired back; “Retreat Hell…Over this Scratch?!” Heedless of his injuries he rallied the nearby forces and was able hold their position even through periods of hand to hand combat. Because of his actions he was awarded the Purple Heart and given a battlefield commission as a Lieutenant Junior Grade. It was here that he picked up the nickname “Scratch”. 2375 – 2379 Following the Dominion War Nick was transferred to the Starfleet Recruit Depot in San Diego to replenish the ranks. During his time there he rose to the rank of Lieutenant. He was hard on recruits and instructors alike, though strict, he was fair and led not edict but by example. If someone said they couldn’t go on or that something couldn’t be done, he was there to help them find the inner strength to reach their goal or to get down in the dirt and prove to them it could be done. His hands on approach led his recruits to have the highest scores in the entire Depot 4 out of 5 years he was there. While his time there was highly rewarding, it was also the most difficult for him. Every 13 weeks he was graduating his newly forged Marines; and every thirteen weeks he had to watch as wives and sweethearts swarmed the parade grounds to embrace their loved ones. And every thirteen weeks he was reminded of his lost Rebecca. A nurse at the Recruit Depot by the name of Julie Appleton, who attended the graduations regularly, and saw him whenever he had his trainees in sickbay, began to take notice of his guarded behavior. So before the next training cycle she, much to his surprise, came by the company office and asked him out. Accepting her invitation they went to “Old Town” San Diego and had a quiet dinner where she worked up the courage to ask him what was wrong. Over the time between training cycles they saw each other quite often and Julie was able to get him to open up about his loss, and the great great great grandson he had living on Vulcan with his family that he had yet to meet. It wasn’t long after that that his time at San Diego was over and he had orders to take command of a Security on the Galaxy Class USS Archer. More than anything h wanted to thank her for helping to heal the wound that couldn’t be seen so when he stopped by to break the news to Julie, she cried and hugged him for a while. He also let her know that he was taking some leave and was going to rendezvous with the ship when it stopped at Vulcan. He was tempted to ask her to join him but decided not to prolong the separation, but see did see if off to his transport when it was time to leave. 2380-2388 The nine years aboard the USS Archer were enjoyable. He had met several old comrades from the Dominon war as well as thers that he had overseen their training on Earth. The Captain of the Archer, a Betazoid named Riana Feraan, got along perfectly. She let him have nearly a free hand with his security staff and over the years they developed a strong friendship. While there were rumors that they were more than friends nothing ever happened, though there were a few close calls. Even with the close friendships renewed and forged on the Archer, things weren’t smooth. They encountered renegade Jem’Hadar while on a survey in the Gamma Quadrant. Helped tangle with some Romulans near Deep Space 5. They even had it out with some Borg and were aided by another Borg vessel controlled by Unimatrix Zero rebels. Through it all he was there leading his Marines, training his Marines, and even bleeding with his Marines. In November of 2388 as the festivities of the Archer’s celebration of the Marine Corps Birthday were in full swing the Captain took, now Lt. Commander Means aside with some Top Secret orders. A Commadore was gathering a force of Marines for insertion into now Kzinti controlled space and planned on dropping the Marines on the Planet Mercer to re-enforce a Marine detachment that got caught on the planet during the initial Kzinti assault and to act as a guerilla force, disrupt operations, and to keep the Kzinti from consolidating control of the planet. Even though it was going to be a Marine operation, Starfleet still would have a presence. 2388 - 2392 Kzinti Nick met with Commodore Da`nal during the missions briefing and thought the Klingon’s plan was just crazy and bold enough to work. The USS Achilles would be packed to the gills with Marines, other volunteers, equipment and was even going to be modified to attach extra transports to the ships landing pad and warp core ejection hatches. Entering the system under cloak they would destroy the orbital platform and use the falling debris to cover their entry into the planet’s atmosphere. The only problem would be that once on the planet they were pretty much on their own. To his fortunate surprise the plan worked and they only lost one transport during the insertion operation. The following months were eventful to say the least. While there base of operations was being set up his Marines found the Commodore’s detachment, which added a Recon element to their list of assets. They linked up with the Romulan refugee camps as well as managing to locate some civilian resistance in remains of several large cities. During their operation they disrupted the hell out of the Kzinti operations on Mercer while Starfleet began to retake the territory lost in the initial blitz attack. With thing beginning to turn in Starfleet’s favor the Kzinti were unable to bring additional resources to Mercer. Nick quickly gained a respect for the Kzinti they were a determined enemy both highly skilled and cunning. They had a code of honor similar to Klingon but less refined and their huge size and raw power made them extremely dangerous at close range. During the last part of the operation they actually found themselves fighting alongside some of the Kzinti when news came to light that fractured the Kziniti forces. It wasn’t an easy pairing but he the respect they had come to share for each other’s fighting skills had been enough to create a basis of trust. Following the War most of the Federation personell were rotated out but Nick remained to help secure the planet. The Kziniti and been forced back into their own system as they were basically in a state of civil war. The Kzinti he had allied with were returned home to aid in the restoration of the rightful ruling family while those considered enemies to the heir were held on Mercer. 2389 – 2392 Giving his experience and rapport with the Kzinti Nick was assigned as liaison and made several covert landing on Kzin to bring the Pro-Heir factions intel or other assistance. The Federation could not be seen as openly aiding the Heir or the Kzinti populace might have seen him as a puppet of a hated enemy and rejected him despite their traditions. Once the Heir was victorious and was in control instead of sending diplomats the Federation decided that a ‘warrior’ was needed to represent them. And this was Nick’s first foray into diplomacy. To his relief the fact that Kzinti diplomacy could involve combat at times made it both easier and immensely challenging at the same time. One thing was for sure, having to deal with and potentially fight a 8+ foot tall tiger kept you on your toes. Nick was given a detachment of Security forces and Marines and eventually had to split their duties between ‘policing’ the Kzinti and providing security for the reconstruction of SB 24 began. As part of their reparations, the Kzinti war machine that had been used over the decades to build the weapons of war, was used to recycle not only their own warship but the remains of the starbase to fabricate the alloys and components to rebuild the starbase. Any excess material would eventually be sent to Federation shipyards. 2392 Nick was recalled from Kzin and was enjoying some well earned leave. When the call for volunteers for a mission went out and he threw is name in the ring for consideration. He and another officer were up for consideration for command of one of the USS Freedom, one of the missions escort vessels. When he found out that the other officer had a family, and that the officer not selected would have the option to be placed in stasis as a back up, he volunteered to be the popcilce. |
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| Service Record | Service Record 2269 - Graduated Starfleet Basic Training and assign to the USS Columbia 2271 - Promoted to PO3 2271 - Transferred to the USS Copernicus, an Oberth Class Starship. 2273 - Meritoriously Promoted to PO1 2275 - Transferred to the USS Entente, a Federation Class Starship. 2277 - Demoted to PO2 2279 - Promoted to PO1 2281 - Promoted to CPO 2281 - Transferred to the USS Bloome, a Constitution Class Starship, as Security SNCO 2284 - Listed MIA, along with the rest of the USS Bloome 2373 - Enlistment reactivated 2374 - Decorated for his actions during the First Battle of Chin'toka 2374 - Transferred to the 2nd MARDIV as a Starfleet liasion 2375 - Decorated for his actions during the Siege of AR-558 and given a battle field commission to Lieutenant JG. 2375 - Transferred to Starfleet Recruit Training Depot in San Diego 2379 - Promoted to Lieutenant 2380 - Transferred to the USS Archer as MCO 2385 - Promoted to Lt. Commander 2388 - Assigned to special operations during the Kzinti War 2389 - Assigned as liason and attache to the Kzinti 2392 - Promoted to Commander and volunteer for placement in stasis for the Achilles mission to the Gamma Quadrant. |