Biofile ======= General ======= Name: Howard J Gopher Nickname: Howie Service Number: FR-4578-5891 Race: Human Gender: male Age: 43 Place of Birth: Washington, D.C., USA, Sol III, Sol System Education (SFA and later) ========================= Languages: Terran Standard, Modern English, Modern Vulcan, Modern, Romulan, Modern Klingon Interests: Holodeck Programming Degrees: Engineering, Tactics, Communications, Operations Service Record ============== SD 11120 graduated Starfleet Academy Major Degrees: Engineering (1/232) Tactics (2/259) Minor Degrees: Communications (6/303) Operations (2/245) SD 11120 promoted to Ensign (O-1) SD 11125 assigned to ALB SD 11201 graduated ALB SD 11202 assigned to Special Training Center for Special Rescue Unit SD 51201 graduated Special Training Center for Special Rescue Unit (2/45) SD 60203 assigned to Special Rescue Unit (SRU) alpha 4 SD 70101 promoted to Lt.jg. (O-2) SD 71007 assigned as assistant team leader or SRU alpha 4 SD 80130 promoted to Lt. (O-3) SD 80510 assigned as team leader of SRU alpha 16 SD 90315 accident on Europe, moon of Jupiter (see below for further details) SD 90317 admitted to Frankowski Hospital, Mars SD 90802 released from Frankowski Hospital, Mars SD 101201 promoted to Lt. Cmdr (O-4) SD 100202 assigned to USS VICTORY NCC-5005 as OPS/2O SD 110328 ordered abandoning of USS VICTORY to save the crew of an terror act SD 110501 assigned to Special Operations, RED Fleet SD 110501 took part at several top secret operations -130331 received promotion to Cmdr. (O-5) and several decorations SD 131108 promoted to Captain (O-6) SD 140130 assigned to USS SORANUS NCC 47901 as temporary CO SD 140816 destruction of USS SORANUS NCC 47901 SD 141023 assigned to USS SORANUS NCC 47901-A as Commanding Officer SD 141023 assigned as CO of Taskforce Alpha, RED Fleet SD 150115 lost USS SORANUS NCC 47901-A during battle for SB 514 SD 150120 assigned to USS SORANUS NCC-122901 as Commanding Officer Character Decorations ===================== Distinguished Tactical Medal Purple Heart Humanitarian Service Medal Combat Action Medal Bronze Star Silver Star (2) Starfleet Medal Cross of Alexander Service Ribbons: CENCOM, TYPCOM, SARCOM, HARCOM Handicaps ========= Gopher can't see in darkness. Green light produces pain. So he can't use a noctovisor. Outward appearance ================== Gender: male Skin: pale Hair: black Eyes: brown Height: 1.79m Weight: 83 kg Personality Profile =================== Gopher always speaks his mind. He has never been very diplomatic in that matter as for him honesty is more important than getting sympathy by saying things he can't stand for. If Gopher makes a decision he expects it being executed without any doubt. He won't excuse for it or ask for understanding. Usually he asks for opinions and alternatives before he makes a decision to give anyone the chance to express their concerns. Especially his XOs experienced that he accepts questioning of his orders in private to discuss them. He even might change his mind if he is proven doing wrong. But he'd never accept his orders being questioned in public. Though expecting high standards and developing his crew's abilities, Gopher is always fair. If he makes a mistake he excuses for it (though he hates to excuse) and will stand the consequences. He expects the same from his crew. He expects full loyalty of his crew. In return he will always cover his crew and support them in any matter. Gopher experienced several traumatic events in his past. He lost the love of his life and holds himself responsible for her death. He will allow friendships to other people to a certain degree, but probably wouldn’t allow it grow deep. The limits of this are always expanding. The longer this event is behind him, the deeper friendships he'll allow. Because of these events, Gopher appears to be rough to other people. It is not easy to get through this mask, but once it is passed people experience a very sensitive and warm character. Gopher has joined Starfleet for the thrill of special operations. Though he won’t experience this in line duty very often he will prefer to lead away teams whenever the chance for an exciting leave is given. After the loss of the second ship under his command (which was the second mission as commanding officer and brought him the nickname "Ship Smasher Gopher") he has a personal issue with Brian Hudson. Hudson is a former Starfleet Captain who managed to take over his ship for the Marquis. Hudson destroyed the second SORANUS and defeated Gopher. Gopher has a sharp mind, thinks logical but sometimes doesn’t act predictable. In his time for Intelligence he experienced that unpredictable actions are more efficient than predictable actions, even if those move you in a worse situation shortly. He won’t act foolish, but sometimes surprising. Background/History (Additional Information) =========================================== Captain Gopher didn't go up the usual way in the chain of command. His command position is a consequence of Starfleet desperate needs of command officers. Howard always loved specialized units. In his childhood he wanted to become member of a secret undercover unit performing top secret missions. He dreamed of the glory he'd have. Howard watched any agent movie and read any agent book available. At the age of 12 his clique visited a holiday marine training camp. The camp took place in the jungles of Horatia III. It was designed for children in his age. Although the young Howard performed well and he and his friends accomplished all missions successful he decided as the only one of his clique that this is not his fate. Realizing that Marines most time put their life at risk to destroy other lives he found out that he wanted to safe lives. Later he visited the yearly open house of Starfleet Academy with his father. There he discovered the Special Rescue Unit (SRU). Small teams of 3-5 people were sent to anyplace to perform high risk rescue operations. From the first advertisement video on Howard was fascinated. The challenges of rescuing people from situations which usual don't promise successful rescue operations and developing such plans made his eyes shine. A few years later he joined Starfleet Academy. Most of his friends decided to become Marines and were sent to the according courses. But Gopher took the extra time after the standard education and became member of the SRU. Though Gopher committed all his energy to the Special Rescue Unit his career wasn't coming along fast. His first promotion took nearly a year. Gopher received reports of his friends that they have been promoted a lot faster, some three times then. It was a frustrating start for him, though he really enjoyed the job. Howard was assigned to Team Alpha 4. His team leader Lt. Cmdr. Zukowski was very impressed by his tactical abilities and moved his promotion several times. He even recommended Gopher for the Silver Star after he saved a diplomatic team from a hostage situation. But someone in Starfleet always rejected these proposals. Instead of promotions Gopher's team was assigned to the most dangerous and sometimes top secret missions. Meanwhile he had been promoted to Lieutenant and became assistant team leader. Three years after the Academy Gopher has reached his destination. Now he was commanding a special mission team and made it pretty fast compared to his friends. But his happiness didn't last long. His team wasn't assigned to rescue missions as he was used to. They were assigned to spy missions or to get spies out of prisons. Around SD 090501 on a secret rescue mission on the Jupiter moon Europe, an accident hurt Gophers eyes heavily. Due the first weeks it was unsure if he would ever see anything through his eyes again. The commanding officers of SRU Admiral Sortek and Captain Joan Frohan refused to give any information to the physicians. All they did was adding a note to his file that the accident wasn't his fault. Fortunately his eyes recovered. Howard lost the ability to see in darkness. He can’t use a noctovisor because the green light hurts his eyes. After his recovery Gopher wasn't welcome anymore in SRU. The official reason was that his disability would risk the members of a team he might be assigned to. It didn't took Howard long to realize this though his former team leader Commander Zukowski asked him to stay. So Gopher requested a transfer. Howard became what he never wanted to be. He became a line officer. At least Starfleet assigned him to a command position. Promoted to Lieutenant Commander Gopher became second officer and chief of operations of the USS VICTORY, an ENDEAVOR class explorer. But it didn't take long until his past got back to him. In his first (and last) mission on the VICTORY Gopher was contacted by his former commanding officers. They had fielded an agent on the VICTORY and ordered him to protect him. Gopher hesitated, but finally decided to obey these orders. In the turbulent mission he lost the trust of his commanding officer and had to work hard to regain it. The mission led to the destruction of the USS VICTORY. Howard was in command when an unidentified force entered the ship. The crew wasn't able to defend the ship, so he activated the self-destruction and ordered to abandon the ship. Gopher was charged with the unauthorized destruction of the USS VICTORY. The trial drew the attention of the commandant of Starfleet himself and with the support of the agent to cover Gopher was able to prove not being responsible. They proved that Sortek and Frohan had been responsible for this mission and the attack on the USS VICTORY. Gopher was then transferred to the RED Fleet Special Operations, being only responsible to the Commander in Chief, RED Fleet. In the following years he performed undercover missions and headed several projects including one to improve the efficiency of Starfleet personnel. Most of the projects are top secret and still closed to public access. In this time Gopher received his Purple Heart, one Bronze Star, two Silver Stars and one Starfleet Medal, and had been promoted to Commander. While serving for Special Operations, Howard found the woman he loved and wanted to marry. She was an agent as well, but not for the Federation. Any relationship between them would have led to an investigation on both sides. They planned to leave the services as soon as possible and begin a new life. But in a joint mission she got murdered. Gopher would have been able to avoid it, if he would have been with her. Instead he was out to meet an informant. Howard never accepted her death and still believes himself being guilty. After the Dominion War ended and the Federation collected resources to rebuild Starfleet, they were in need of capable commanding officers. Gopher was transferred to line duty again. Though he protested officially the order was upheld. He was promoted to Captain and ordered to take command of the USS SORANUS, an aging medical cruiser. This "hospital ship" was sent to the Tholian border to investigate the attacks on freighters. They found out that the ruling pirate of the sector was responsible for the attacks. He built a smuggler ring, transferring orion slave girls. Gopher managed with the crew to hunt him down, but also destroyed the USS SORANUS. He was given a new command, another ship named SORANUS, but this time an EXCALIBUR command class cruiser. The ship was the last of its class. Though is shouldn't have any system problems as well tested and long run class, this ship showed several system failures in its shakedown cruise, but they weren't able to fix them on a Starbase. In a cruel attack the Marquis and an unknown force destroyed the headquarters of YELLOW fleet, Starbase 514. The new SORANUS was charged with the investigation of the attack. Again, in a hunt for the responsible forces, Gopher led the ship into a battle. But this time he was lucky to save all of his crew, after a battle he wasn't supposed to survive. The ships secondary hull had been destroyed. After a short time of vacation, the crew of the former USS SORANUS was transferred to the third ship to bear this name. The ARIZONA battle command class cruiser was committed as flag ship of Sares Command