Mars Fletcher

Marista hails from the large poor urban orbital “Oasis.” With poor yet loving parents, Marista grew up in a pleasant household but, like many of the citizenry of “Oasis,” he ended up enlisting in the Mandate military forces. At the age of 13 he volunteered to be in the Mandate Military. Quickly seeing Mar’s promise, Mandate officials approved of his application and accepted him for service. Marista was trained and taught by the Mandate and was something of a prodigy when it came to military tactics and strategy. By the age of 17 Mars had experienced 5 Starship bombardments, and 2 direct orbital invasions. Gathering almost 50 confirmed kills Mars was considered a top recruit of the Oasis Mandate forces. Mars hoped to train as an officer but due to Mandate stratification and their deeming of recruits from non-core orbitals being considered "untrustworthy" he was unable to do so.

It wasn’t until Mars was assigned the protection of Mandate Trade vessel that he was finally able to achieve his dream of becoming an officer. Mars and 9 other mandate pilots were ordered to guard an important trade ship bound for Sazen. All pilots were individually provided the A1-63, or “Sprawler,” fighter. While the mission initially went smoothly, Mars and the other Mandate Pilots were intercepted by Space Pilots from the Eastern Reaches hoping to plunder the Mandate Trade vessel. Outnumbered and outgunned the small Mandate forces suffered heavy casualties and soon it was only Mars against the enemy forces. Mars tried to evade the pirates long enough to serve as a diversion for the trade vessel to flee. The pirates however saw through this diversion and gave up their efforts in killing the last Mandate Spawler, instead choosing to ignore it and board the Trade Vessel. The Space Pirates then began boarding into the vessel. Mars, seizing the opportunity, flew back towards the conflict and began firing into the Trade Vessels boarding docks, this caught the pirates off-guard as a Mandate soldier was firing at their own sides ship. The result of this maneuver was the complete destruction of the space pirate forces and heavy damage towards the Trade vessel. Upon the arrival of Mandate support forces, the captain of the trade vessel informed them of Mars’ ingenuity, and as such Mars was granted the ‘honorable service’ now making him applicable as a ‘non-core’ to attained officer school.

Marista at the age of 18  would officially become accepted in one of the Mandates finest piloting academies, Faraday Academy (named posthumously after the famous Mandate Adamant Faraday), at the young age of eighteen. During his time at Faraday Academy Mars excelled with his tactical prowess, piloting abilities and precision accuracy with shooting of all types of combat arms, from advanced spaceship weaponry to a standard revolver. Mars’ non-core blood and accelerated capabilities caused envy from his peers, but also gathered the attention of his superiors, one individual, Adamant Yemitz, a man so respected that he held both the title of headmaster of the academy and Adamant of the at-the-time reserved 27th Mandate Space Fleet. Adamant Yemitz is often regarded as one of the best officers among the Mandate Adamancy. Described as stoic and dependable, Adamant Yemitz is best known for having never lost a Starship battle.

One day in the middle of Mars’ third semester at Faraday Academy, an unexpected school-wide announcement, demanded that “student number D11301822 Marista Fletcher is needed in the headmaster’s office. Mars, who had an extensive supply of school banned alcohol and death-sticks hidden in his dorm room, assumed that the faculty had procured it, and he feared for the worst. To Mars’ surprise his summons to the Head Office was not a result of his illicit substances but rather an impromptu interview as personal assistant to the headmaster. After talking with Adamant Yemitz about Mars’ exceptional scores for the better part of an hour, Yemitz ended the question with a final question: “Why do you fight for the Mandate,” to which Mars responded: “Because the mandate keeps order in a universe of chaos, fighting for the Mandate means to fight on the side justice, to fight on the side of order.” Mars’ was accepted as Yemitz batman and served under him for just under 5 years. Mars’ naive attitude towards the Mandate would later change as he grew older, more pessimistic, and less trusting.

Not long after Mars’ graduation from Faraday (at the age of 22), Adamant Yemitz was also called on by Mandate Administration to assume the position of Head Adamant of the 15th, 22nd, and 27th fleets, otherwise known as Section Sanguit, for the purpose of acquiring the technologically advanced Orbital of Halinth. After accepting Yemitz’ proposal, Mars joined the expedition. Briefly before the famous ‘Battle of Halinth’ Mars noticed hesitation he had never seen in Adamant Yemitz before as the massive Mandate fleet had been based just outside of the Halinth’s fire range for several days. When Mars asked Yemitz confessed that he feared for Mandate lives and was unaware of the exact weaponry that orbital confessed. Mars’ offered to pilot a single Mandate Reconnaissance Flyer (nicknamed the ‘Atlas) in hopes of gathering reconnaissance on the enemies technology. Knowing that a single Atlas wouldn’t be visible on enemy radars, and worrying for his own reputation within Mandate high command, Yemitz reluctantly accepted Mars’ proposal.

After entering Hanlith fire range in his Atlas, Mars was surprised to see a lack of any enemy spacecraft. Assuming that the enemy was in fact much less of a threat than Yemitz had anticipated, Mars arrogantly went further into Halinth Space then what was directed of him by Yemitz. When Mars finally gained a visual on the Orb he was shocked to find that Halinth’s defenses were indeed advanced and had the capabilities to destroy a significant portion of the combined Mandate Fleet. Mars immediately decided to set course back to the Mandate fleet to inform Yemitz of this vital information. On his course back, Mars was intercepted by a squadron of twenty Halinth Fighters. Unknown to Mars and the rest of the Mandate forces, Halinth had the technological capabilities to track the Atlas’ signature through their radars. Outgunned and against super ships Mars knew that there was no escape. The enemy began a magnetic pull that locked onto the Atlas, preventing Mars’ escape. Rather than be held captive and tortured by the enemy for Mandate intel, Mars decided to instead press the self-destruct on his ship. To Mars’ surprise he was unable to even do this as the Halinth magnetic pull also shut down any of a ship's technological capabilities. As the Halinth forces pulled him back to their orb Mars was abruptly knocked unconscious by fumes the enemy syphoned onto his ship.

Taken captive by the Halnithians, Mars witnessed the gruesome “Havoc at Halinth” as it would later be known. The battle was a devastating affair of the immense Mandate forces under Adamant Yemitz, and the technologically superior Halinthian defense arsenal. The end result was a pyrrhic victory for the Mandate forces as they conquered the orbital, therefore gaining its technological advances.

Mars, devastated by the chaos and destruction of the battle, had his the first doubts about the Mandate. From his place a top the Halinth Prison he saw the deaths of noncomabatents, women, children, an atrocity Mars could not forgive.To Mars the Mandate was no longer the positive force of order and prosperity that it had once been and instead became a domineering society fixated on the control of orbitals, never being satisfied, constantly expanding its domain. During the “Havoc at Halinth” Mars was able to escape his holding cell due to a power shortage of the Halinth Prison caused by a Mandate blaster. Attempting to escape the chaos Mars made his way to a Halinth escape vessel. Here Mars would become acquainted with his friend Aren Thaddeus. Not wanting to serve the Mandate, or any man for that matter, Mars made the choice to serve himself as a hired gun. Mars and Aren traveled much of the known galaxy together in search for work and wealth, joining the Ebon Dozen momentarily. Mars rarely if ever enters Mandate space, for fear both of the repercussions of his dissertation but more so as its remembrance of his previous life. Mars hasn’t returned home to Oasis since his departure to Faraday Academy at the age of 18. Mars assumes that his parents, Moira and Walt, his cousin, Lansar, as well as Adamant Yemitz, all believe him to be dead.