Marcus D. Ming

Marcus Ming was born on the Luna Colony New Berlin at the end of the Earth year 2349 on 9 December at 0744 in the morning.  His mother was a Starfleet Tactical officer while his father was a professor of Zhou Dynastic history including having an acute expertise in artifacts from the era.  His adjunct roles allowed him to teach at both the National Taiwan University and the main mountain campus of Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff Arizona North America.

Growing up he was always very competitive although it was heavily tempered by his outwardly even tempered if not easy going attitude. This helped him in scholarly endeavors as well as making friends.   One of his best friends growing up was another moonrat by the name of Joel Michael McCabe.  They were often called the odd couple as Ming was quite thoroughly of Asian descent (with the exception of his eyes) and his best friend who was a pale skinned redhead with amber eyes.  When Ming chose to go to Starfleet his friend, Joel, chose to follow his dream of being a big a big name chef.  Northern Arizona University still had a famous Hotel Restaurant Management school alongside it’s even better known Forestry Department which had been well regarded for centuries.

His parents also enrolled him in martial arts training rather young.  He continued this into adulthood and throughout his time at Starfleet Academy and beyond.  Because of this he earned advanced belts in Taekwondo, and Wadō-ryū with more mid-level belts in Muay Thai, Jujutsu as well as Shaolin zuì quán as of 2374.  He also trained with hand to hand weaponry as a part of this training with the Japanese Katana and the Roman Gladius being his two favorites.

During his time at the academy his best subjects wound up to being history, strategy and tactics at Starfleet Academy. He also took to piloting fairly quickly.  This was what led him to a major focused on Astronautics / Astronautical Tactics alongside a minor of History.  His historical interests lead to him becoming very knowledgeable of the life and times of Zephram Cochrane and Jonathan Archer. With all this going on he still managed to graduate at the top 1/5^th of his class.

Not long into his first assignment the rest of his unit started calling him Lunar Lunatic due to his aggressive piloting style during battle simulations that outwardly looked to some as somewhere between erratic and borderline reckless at times.  The off handed reference soon evolved into his call sign “Lunatic” thanks to his flying style and a reference to his origins on Luna (Earth’s Moon).

After Graduation he was assigned to the USS Churchill as a member of their pilot corps.  During the year he was assigned here he flew a number of missions none of which involved actual combat or serious conflict being in a time of peace.  Tense moments came but went almost as quickly.  His record as having been invovled with first contact on two occasions and his good conduct was noted as being postively noteworthy.

After a little over a year he was transferred to the USS Tucson upon request of her captain.  One of his classmates was serving there and had recommended him when the wing was in need of new pilots.  In all honesty Ming was pleased to be moving to an Akira Class.  They were new, geared (in part) to work with small craft like the ones he flew, and proper ships of the line in his mind.  With things getting interesting with the Klingons and, later, the mysterious organization known as the Dominion he was glad to be there.

He volunteered often as the patrols increased near the Bajor Sector and Cardassian border.  He was eager to get involved if there were to be hostilities.  He was the type not to shy from a fight unless there was good reason and he wasn’t the biggest fan of mysteries which the Dominion seemed to be.  The Dominion war happened to kick off during one of these patrols….and he would be the first to admit that he got his butt singed after his flight had a close encounter with the Jem’hadar.  His flight of four attack fighters had a run in with two Jem’Hadar ships that were acting as scouts.  The two Jem’Hadar and one Federation fighter got destroyed in that furball.  The three remaining fighters came home with two returning damaged including Ming’s.  It was during this action Ming earned his nickname of the “Moon’s Madman” behind his back (mostly).

Ming’s squadron, named The Ranger squadron (after the Tombstone Rangers), had a number of other engagements.  Losses could’ve been worse but were existant.  Part of the success was due to Ming’s skills at tactical and strategic planning.  It was mostly the fact that they had a damned good team.  Ming wished that was a gauranteed win but he new quite well it was not and he’d not be able to outguess the Dominion forces all the time.  He did his absolute best and gave it 125%.  His squadron had become a second family and he’d do anything he could to help make every fight a win whereever there was even a remote chance. The Battle of Torros III happened late in 73 which was costly for both sdies.  The Rangers and the USS Tucson were both bloodied in the process.  Even with the damage and losses the Tucson was ordered to repair what they could in the field and to carry on best they could.  Relief would be a priority but it was war so Ming read between the lines figuring that it was a necessity but Starfleet’s way of saying “We’ll get to you when we get to you.”

As time marched on the Rangers had wins and losses as were the tides of war.  By the start of 2374 he had racked up enough kills to be considered an ace. Days later, thanks to his contributions and personnel lost, he was not only promoted to Lieutenant JG but he was made second in command of the squadron.    There were many fights afterwards and the wins as well as the losses began to get more costly.

In early May the USS Tucson was recalled to Earth.  Once there they were to be refit, resupplied and recrewed.  However, during the downtime, Ming received new orders.  After some earned R&R he was to be reassigned to a Nebula Class named the USS Denver.

With some surprise, which caused a second and third reread of the orders, Ming noticed he was being promoted again to a full lieutenant and taking command of the ship’s figther wing.  He and his wing celebrated making it home plus the promotion.

Drinks were poured and downed, speeches were made, a good natured hug came into play here and there.  The tears of loss and of joy slipped out of an eye or two making an apperance and nobody spoke about it then or after.  It was time for a new adventure however.  Ming would face it like he faced most things….Head on and throttles to full.

As the Dominion War raged on and the USS Denver faced the fight once more Ming found himself in an unexpected position.  He became the mentor to a young woman named Órlaith Murphy.  The daughter of mirror versions of two of his crewmates had betrayed the evil plans of her family.  She came on board the Denver to train with Bravo Flight and was a young woman whom Ming suspected would go far.  She’d come on board the Denver and he became her mentor.  Funny how the universe can be.  He now had another to lead, train, and protect to the best of his abilities.