Kurt Darkly

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Latest revision as of 15:22, 25 September 2011

Kurt Darkly
Darkly in 2406
Species:	Terran
Homeworld:	Earth
Gender:	Male
Born:	12th June 2350
Eyes:	Green
Hair:	Bald
Height:	6'3"
Weight:	168 lbs
Affiliation:	Starfleet
Rank:	Captain
Insignia:
Player:	Taylor
[ Source ]

Kurt Darkly was the assigned to Star Fleet Command during the year 2409.

Before this, he had served as the Commanding Officer of the progenitor to the Ark Royal class, USS Ark Royal and before that the Executive Officer and later the Commanding Officer of USS Stargazer, before which he had a long career as a tactician and possible strategist within Starfleet. The son of a career family, the life of Darkly has often been one of expectation, no greater now with the establishment of the USS Ark Royal.

Character History

Early Career

Kurt joined Starfleet out of a need to please his father, a long time career Starfleet Officer. Growing up Kurt saw a wide variety of families; it underlined in his mind just how much his father did for him and his sister. By the time Kurt reached 18 years of age his father was in command of his own Intrepid Class starship, while his mother served aboard USS Potemkin as the ships Executive Officer. Sitting his Starfleet Academy Entrance exams he had one over riding thought, living up to the good name of his parents.

Unsurprisingly Kurt managed to pass his entrance exams on his first attempt, the weeks and months of preparation he had put in to them had paid off. At the academy he majored in Tactical Studies, 4 years later he graduated the academy and was promoted to the rank of Ensign aboard USS Moonwalker where he served as a Tactical Officer.

Kurt stayed aboard the Moonwalker for several years, onboard the ship he rose through the ranks and positions finally reaching Assistant Chief Tactical Officer. Eventually he left the Moonwalker in hopes of furthering his career, on his 30th birthday he realised he had almost no promotion prospects on the ship. 3 months later he transferred to USS Firefly to serve as that ships Chief Tactical Officer, the transfer came with a much desired promotion to Lieutenant.

Lieutenant Darkly stayed aboard the Firefly for 6 months, he felt extremely unsettled there and was always looking for something he couldn’t put his finger on. A transfer to USS Cain solved the problem for a few more months, again though he began to feel a longing for home. His problem was finding that home. Kurt finally found home months later when the Cain was placed in dry dock following a battle with a Borg sphere.

Mark of a Leader

From the moment Kurt beamed aboard USS Ascot he felt at home, within weeks he was promoted to Lieutenant Commander and offered the chance to take the Bridge Officers exam. Kurt snapped up the CO’s offer as quickly as he could, by the end of the year Kurt had passed the exam, and he had been promoted to Commander and the position of Second Officer.

By this time the battle with the Borg was in full flow, the Ascot became involved with several major battles. The losses suffered by Starfleet grew each day, Kurt soon found himself bombarded with requests for him to take Executive Officer positions within the fleet. Before he had a chance to reply to a single offer the Ascot’s Executive Officer was killed on an away mission, Kurt wasn’t just the natural replacement for the deceased officer he was the only one considering the shortage that had put Kurt in demand in the first place.

His promotion to Executive Officer will forever be a bitter sweet memory for Kurt, on the same day as his promotion he received news that his father was missing in action. His ship had been lost with all hands last seen entering a dense nebula. Kurt, his sister and mother were distraught at the news. Each wanted nothing more than to resign their commissions and go searching for him. The weight of war and their promise to protect the Federation stopped them from doing it, instead each of them vowed to help Starfleet beat back the Borg before retiring.

The events of the war changed Kurt in a way he never thought possible, to the point where it became impossible for him to retire.

Kurt was only the Ascot’s Executive Officer for 6 months, in another battle with the Borg the ship was boarded and the Ascot’s commanding officer was killed. Still woefully short on officers Starfleet placed Kurt in command of the Ascot hoping that the ship would last long enough for them to put a more capable Commanding Officer in place. For three years Kurt remained the Ascot’s interim commanding officer before Starfleet finally promoted him to Captain and gave him the job.

The ship and her crew served Starfleet well right up until the Battle for Sol, it was there the ship finally met its match and Kurt was forced to watch his ship and crew captured by the Borg. Kurt has never been able to accept why he wasn’t assimilated too, his escape pod was unarmed and floating near to a Tactical Cube, yet still he was left alive.

Kurt was sectioned by Starfleet medical when he finally returned to earth, like many other officers he had given his life and his sanity in order to protect the Federation. It took six months of intensive treatment for Kurt to snap out of his post battle episode, when he did he almost broke down once more. The survivor guilt instilled in him was almost too much for him to take, rather than keeping him at Starfleet Medical it was decided Kurt should return to some form of light duty so he could be monitored and treated while still functioning as a normal human being.

Kurt stayed on earth from 2397 right through until early 2403 when he was finally declared ready to return to space, despite the frequent bouts of depression that plagued him. Starfleet Medical knew that only time would heal him now and keeping him on earth would only prevent that healing from occurring, so like with many other officers they sent him back out to serve on a Starship despite his problems.

Throughout 2403 he served onboard USS Stargazer as the ships executive Officer, for the latter half of the year he was under the command of one Aaron Carter. During that mission Kurt was racked with indecision about stopping Carter’s crazy actions and following the chain of command. Eventually the final decision was taken from his hands; Carter got himself killed during a battle with a Romulan vessel. This left Stargazer in Kurt’s hands a situation that was quickly ratified by Starfleet Command with the formal creation of the Second Fleet by Fleet Admiral Taylor.

Kurt found himself in the centre chair once again, this time with a new ship, a new crew and a new mission. Thoughts of finding his father were far from his mind, thoughts of loosing the ship and crew weren’t.

He knew one thing though, Starfleet had given him a mission to perform and by hell he and his crew would do it to the best of their abilities.

Kurts service to the Second Fleet were short lived after 6 months Starfleet officially decomissioned the fleet as part of it's political manuverings, all though the role filled by the fleet was still necessary it's ships were assigned back to the First Fleet. Along with a handfull of other starships Kurt found himself returned to Sol defence duties where he stayed for 6 months before finding himself re-assigned to Utopia Planitia along with USS Stargazer.

The Ark Royal

Stargazer was ordered back to Utopia Planitia for a minor refit to its warp core as it was one of the first ships to be built with a Trelinium mediated core and had yet to be upgraded with newer technology. Whilst the ship was undergoing its refit Kurt was seconded to the Ark Royal project as an advisor, however as with all plans that is not how it worked out.

Forces belonging to Admiral Bryan Cash's Renegade Armada stole Stargazer from Space Dock without any interference from Utopia Planitia's security forces, leaving Kurt stuck working on the Ark Royal project indefinitely as Starfleet Command had no other ships available for him to transfer too at the time.

Darkly worked on the Ark Royal project for 6 months before finally being informed that he would be getting command of the next Prometheus Class to roll off of the production line, however that was not scheduled to take place for a further 7 months. With Ark Royal being ready for space trials Starfleet Command assigned Darkly to serve as plank captain for the vessel during its initial trials which were expected to take around 6 months to complete.

Aside from general engineering issues Ark Royal's trails went well, so well in fact Starfleet decided to abandon their plans for the ship to under go a second set of trails to serve as its shake down cruise instead they decided the ship would be commissioned in to the fleet within a month.

Sadly a tragedy befell the ship as it returned to space dock when Major Anna 'Smuggler' Polaris Squadron Leader of SFS-5 Ghost Riders died after colliding with her wing mate and Ark Royal's hull.

Ark Royal returned to Utopia Planitia with Kurt expecting some kind of formal hearing due to the death on his watch as had happened previously when people died aboard Stargazer. He was surprised to find Starfleet had no such inquest in mind for him instead they gave him orders to assume full Command of Ark Royal and take her out to pick up the ships Mobile Infantry Commander Major Jenna Tucker.

Kurts time in command of the Ark Royal was eventful if short, the ship was barely in space for three months before being returned to dry dock.

The first mission Ark Royal undertook was to Qo'noS the former Klingon homeworld to assess its state. Upon Ark Royal's arrival it became apparent that a Borgesq Neo-Collective had taken control of the planet, following Kirok's orders Kurt unleashed a hail of Phoenix Torpedoes on the planet killing every living thing.

After leaving Qo'noS Ark Royal was attacked by a fleet of Harvester ships. Ark Royal was heavily damaged during the engagement and over a third of the Mobile Infantry aboard the ship were killed as the Harvesters boarded the ship. To Kurts surprise Ark Royal was rescued by members of Bryan Cash's Renegade Armada and by members of the Vulcan defense force, people he assumed to be hostile towards him.

At Deep Space One whilst recovering from injuries sustained during the Harvester attack Kurt met with Fleet Admiral Taylor and Former President Jellico, the weight of evidence they presented convinced Kurt of the need to remove Kirok. Within a short space of time he was once again called on to do something extra ordinary, despite the damage the ship had suffered at the hands of the Harvesters Kurt took the ship to Sol.

Ark Royal was damaged during the Second Battle for Sol when it engaged Kirok's Dominion Dreadnought USS Dissenssion, in order to disable the Dreadnought Kurt rammed Ark Royal in to the behemoth. That action left Ark Royal in dry dock with an estimated year before the ship would be remotely space worthy again.

At the request of President Stark Kurt and his command crew were reassigned.

The Big E

In January 2407 Kurt Darkly officially took command of USS Enterprise-F the fact he had taken command of the Flagship of the fleet was over shadowed by the events of the previous year.

Psychological Profile

A troubled man, Kurt Darkly hasn’t taken leave in over 8 years. The root of his troubles can be traced back to the Battle for Sol when he lost his entire crew to a Borg attack; survivor guilt has played heavily on him in the intervening years despite many hours of counselling it still greatly affects him on occasions he has been known to enter bouts of depression lasting days or even weeks.

Despite his deep routed fears, Kurt is adamant that he and his crew will do their duty to Starfleet. This often leaves him troubled by the nature of his mission, sometimes taking what the Federation needs doesn’t seem right to him, especially when people don’t want to give it up easily.

Although he hasn't mentioned anything yet Starfleet medical is worried the effects Major Polaris' death have had on Kurt, they were aware of his burgeoning relationship with the pilot. Starfleet Medical has instructed Ark Royal's counsellors to schedule a meeting with Captain Darkly at the earliest juncture.

The death toll he caused on Qo'noS weighs heavily on his mind, despite being found not guilty of any crime. Had it not been for President Stark's influence Starfleet Medical would have suggested a year off for Captain Darkly to assess hi mental state following the war.

Additional Information

Family

Commander Jason Darkly - Father - MIA since 2390
Captain Marietta Darkly - Mother - Retired from Starfleet, searching for Jason Darkly
Lieutenant Commander Jessica Darkly - Sister - Chief Engineer USS Akira