Joseph Ryan

From FEInfobase

Name: Joseph Ryan

Terran Age: 44

Date of Birth: 2359

Place of Birth: Preston, England, Earth

Species: Human/Vulcan

Rank: Lieutenant Commander

Position: Squadron Leader, 12th EDF Squadron “Angry Apes�

Marital Status: Single

Family: Father: Commander Sovak (Deceased) | Mother: Angela Ryan | Brother: Samuel Ryan | Step-Father: Cal Gillespie

Languages Spoken: Federation Standard; Tellerite; Vulcan.

Height: 5’10�

Weight: 145 lbs.

Hair Colour: Light Brown

Eye Colour: Grey

Appearance: Ryan is of a devotedly average height, weight and build, something that holds him in good stead as a pilot. He is a generally fit individual due to a regular exercise routine, has a healthy tan, but has nothing particular about him that makes him stand out – save the slight, delicate points of his ears from his Vulcan heritage. Despite the fact that he is approaching middle-age in human terms, he still has a fairly youthful appearance thanks to the other side of his biology, and seems liable to stave off ageing.

Interests: Fighter maintenance and upgrading; Jazz Music; 24th Century Literature; Action holo-programmes; Extreme sports; Socialising; Early Federation History; Aviation History; Federation Politics; Vulcan Philosophy; Tal-Shaya.

Decorations, Reprimands, Commendations and Achievements:

Academy Pilots, Delta Squad (2379)

Raeyan Campaign Medal (2382)

Distinguished Flying Cross (2384)

Purple Heart (2389)

Silver Star (2395)

Earth Defence Service Medal (2398)

Presidential Unit Citation, Outback Squadron (2395, 2398)

Service Record: 2377 – 2380: Starfleet Academy; Officer Candidate (Cadet)

2380 – 2381: USS Miami; Fighter Pilot Trainee (Cadet)

2381 – 2385: Falcon Squadron; Fighter Pilot (Ensign)

2385 – 2389: Falcon Squadron; Squadron XO (Lieutenant JG)

2389 – 2395: Outback Squadron; Squadron CO (Lieutenant)

2395 – 2398: Outback Squadron; Squadron CO (Lieutenant Commander)

2398 – 2403: Starfleet Academy; Flight Instructor (Lieutenant Commander)

2403 – Present: Angry Apes Squadron; Squadron CO (Lieutenant Commander)

Background:

Joseph Ryan was born to a human mother and a Vulcan father, though his father died within months of Joseph’s birth. His mother re-married a human, and despite these turbulent early years of his life, Joe did grow up in a fairly normal and secure environment.

His step-father, Cal Gillespie, was the one who first imbued him with a love of flying. Gillespie ran a shipping industry, and in Joe’s early teenaged years he would take him out to the various shuttles and teach him how to handle them. As he grew up, most of Joe’s long summers would be spent working for his step-father, though usually in maintenance of the freighters rather than flying the smaller hoppers.

But it was Joe’s elder brother, Sam, who pointed him in the direction that would form his career. Sam was more involved in hovercar racing, and involved his kid brother in such things during term-time, when he couldn’t be working for their step-father. This combination of a love of speed and flight began to point Joe in only one direction.

The easiest and most obvious way to get to fly like that was Starfleet, and Joe originally signed up to be a shuttle pilot. But at the end of his first year, in the graduation ceremony for the fourth-years, Ryan witnessed the stunts displayed by some of the fighter pilots in the class, and he realised that this was the sort of flying he wanted to do.

So he shifted his focus in his second year to the flying of one or two-man fighters, and it was true that this was where his full talent lay. His Vulcan heritage proved to be both a boon and a curse, for he could reach levels of self-discipline, psychologically and physically, that allowed him to reach beyond his classmates – but if he would lose it in any way, shape or form, he would be utterly gone. These occasional flashes of utter failure almost made him wash out, and his erratic nature in flight earned him the call-sign of ‘Rascal’. No matter what, Ryan would be extreme in nature, in success or in failure. At the end of his second year, he headed for Vulcan for two months, hunting down this side of his family to search for the self-control that most expected of one with his heritage.

His family and the tutors they found for him despaired of him rapidly, and he of they – the complete lack of emotion was not something he could wrap his head around, and although he stuck it out until the beginning of his third year, he did not part on good terms with his Vulcan family. Regardless, he had learnt enough self-control from the two months to no longer be a threat to himself or his classmates when flying. If he lost his nerve or his temper, he could generally be talked into calming down, if it was combined by his own effort, taught on Vulcan.

As such, by the end of his third year, Ryan volunteered for active service for his final Academy year. His improved performance and the promise of only better service to come had this granted, and thus he was assigned to the USS Miami, a fighter carrier and, in Ryan’s eyes, the best possible place to earn his wings. He served there for a year before he graduated from the Academy, and did indeed request to remain on board as a commissioned officer and certified pilot. However, the Borg invasions annulled this possibility.

Because of his high scores and skill as a strong pilot, he was assigned to Falcon Squadron, a unit placed in for a lot of front-line combat, with a reputation for a high pilot turnover due to the dangerous nature of the missions. Ryan settled there for four years, establishing himself rather well, flying against the Borg in the Raeyan Sector and wherever else Falcon Squadron was required to be. One of the squadron mechanics was also a Vulcan, a man from whom Ryan learnt an awful lot about his people and their ways, drawing upon his knowledge to further understand that side of his heritage. As war and maturity shook off youthful impetuosity, and knowledge of his Vulcan side rose, he became increasingly emotionally controlled and disciplined, even becoming involved in Vulcan philosophy and rituals.

During his early years with Falcon Squadron, Ryan was decorated with the Distinguished Flying Cross for his skill and, in 2385, promoted to Lieutenant Junior Grade and made the Squadron XO, by then having become an ‘Ace’. Falcon Squadron’s reputation merely rose until 2389, when they were assigned as one of the units to protect Khitomer when it was attacked. It was here that Falcon Squadron met their demise, and Ryan himself lost all power to his fighter, which was dragged in to a Borg Cube. He would have almost certainly been assimilated had he not undergone the exceptional good fortune to be pulled on board a cube suffering massive damage from Starfleet ships and, as the Central Node was damaged and the drones thrown into disarray, Ryan managed to escape back down to his fighter and flee the ship and the combat before dying or, worse, suffering assimilation.

When he finally made it back to Starfleet, it was to discover that, on the whole, the state of Starfighter Command was not particularly good. Many pilots were appearing only to be killed instantly, and their power against the Borg was minimal. Ryan managed to carry enough weight with contacts above to allow him to form a new squadron, drawing on what pilots he could find who had been successful in combating the Borg. As he was one of the few pilots left with extensive experience in fighting the Borg, he was picked to command Outback Squadron, with the mission of finding successful methods for smallcraft to combat Borg ships.

It required extensive co-operation with Intel and engineering groups charged with in-depth analysis of Borg systems, but in the end, Ryan and Outback Squadron managed to establish the strengths of fighter groups against Cubes and Spheres. There were certain weak points in the Borg ships which could bring them down; however, starships paying attention to such locations were generally dealt with quickly. Starfighters, on the other hand, could pack a solid punch of their own, were easily overlooked, and were harder to destroy en-masse. If their efforts were focused on these weak points, it would be harder for a Borg cube to wipe out an entire squadron launching torpedoes or firing phasers at it from several directions, especially with starship support.

Outback Squadron were highly successful in fighting the Borg for ten years, and enjoyed fewer casualties than most squadrons for their rapidly adapting tactics and skilled selection of pilots. Because of the tactics they developed placing them as the spearhead of any attacks on Borg ships, they racked up impressive ratings, and were even awarded the Presidential Unit Citation in 2395, at the same time as Ryan’s promotion to Lieutenant Commander.

However, come the final fight at Earth, Outback Squadron’s luck ran out. Over the days of the combat against the Borg at Sector 001, the squadron had little opportunity to rest and recuperate during the continuous, raging battle, and most of them died under the guns of the Borg. Ryan did not – mostly due to his Vulcan heritage, which meant he did not tire as quickly as his squadron-mates, and thus his flying did not suffer. But all but a handful of the squadron were wiped out, despite bringing down a significant number of Borg vessels in the fighting.

In the aftermath of the battle, Outback Squadron were officially de-activated – though not before being awarded their second Presidential Unit Citation and the Earth Defence Service Medal being given to all pilots, dead and alive.

With his squadron gone, Ryan took a post at Starfleet Academy to instruct the next generation of pilots, teaching there for five years until, finally, a new squadron appeared that piqued his interest, in the Earth Defence Force – the 12th EDF Squadron, the “Angry Apes�, and he was quick to put in for a transfer for command of the Squadron.

Personality Profile:

Joseph Ryan, when first noticed, will come across as a typical fly-boy, socialising and joking and with a healthy ego that he projects in all situations. He always appears confident, seems to be regularly laughing, and is found more often than not down the bar with friends and enjoying life. Yet in unguarded moments there is often something empty to be found about him, in his eyes and his actions, and his social activities and constant front of confidence seem to be merely efforts to fill in this hole.

He is a true veteran of the Borg wars, one of the few truly successful pilots considering the gross casualties suffered over the twenty years of fighting. Deeply involved in the highest levels of developing smallcraft tactics against Cubes and Spheres, his experience in combat is almost unrivalled amongst pilots of his age. But he has seen a lot of his friends and comrades die, despite his best efforts to keep them alive in his ten years of squadron command.

Despite his early troubles with his Vulcan heritage, over the years he has continued his examination and study of the philosophy, and although he will never be the ‘ideal’ Vulcan in terms of control of his emotions, he has at least learnt how to stop the massive explosions of extremes which he suffered in his youth, which reached to levels that even a manic-depressive would have been proud of. He has no wish to clamp down on his feelings but, when flying, can achieve a heightened state of control and discipline which has given him an edge over his fellow pilots for his entire career. He still studies the philosophy, meditates, and has even begun to practice the Vulcan martial art of Tal-Shaya, but to ‘true’ Vulcans he is still a wandering, floundering half-breed.

Still, his happy-go-lucky attitude is not a complete front to hide and ease his pains. After seeing so much death, he lives life on a day-by-day basis, despite the end of the Borg War, and refuses to live for regrets, taking chances whenever they arise so as not to spend the rest of his life kicking himself for the choices he didn’t make rather than screwing up the ones he did.

Although it is more under control, he does still have powerful emotions. His strong ambitions and strong desire to become the very best pilot he can possibly be remain, though it has changed somewhat to how it was in his youth, for now he wishes to fly as best he can to help protect the Federation rather than pander to his own ego. When his control fails him, though, he can still display a vicious temper, and when actually let loose his emotions can drive him to the ends of the galaxy, for the right reason.

Regardless, most of the time, he is best known as a solid and reliable pilot and squadron leader, and a loyal comrade, devoted to flying as best he can to protect the rebuilding of the Federation as best he can.