Kirsty Lee Carpenter

Lieutenant Commander Kirsty Carpenter is currently Chief of Security/Tactical for the USS Ronin. Whether she likes it or not...

Though muddling through a career marred by a singular tragedy, Carpenter stands as a solid field operator, consummate officer, and takes her duties seriously.

Sometimes too seriously.

Stats

• Full Name: Kirsty Lee Carpenter
• Race: Terran
• Date of Birth: 237207.19
• Place of Birth: Hemingford Home, Nebraska
• Age: 28
• Gender: Female
• Telepathic status: N/A

Appearance

• Height: Six Foot Even
• Weight: 210lbs (working toward 220).
• Hair Color: Dark Auburn (with starting streaks of grey around the temples)
• Length of Hair: Usually shoulder length, but no longer. Always tied back or up (even off duty).
• Eye Color: Light Green
• Skin Tone: Pale. Pale. Pale.
• Birthmarks, Scars: Two long, crisscrossing scars along the flat of her back. One 4in. vertical scar on her left flank. Evidence of broken right shoulder on the skeletal level.
• Build: Long and lean. Obvious strength in her arms but not bulky. Old CO used to joke she was built for "speed, not power".
• Face: Tight, almost imperious at times. Rarely is seen smiling (but it has been known to happen).
• Eyes: Calculating. Almost spooky when focused.
• Mouth: Full, but is usually kept so tight people don't notice right away.
• Arms: Obviously toned and maintained, but appropriate for her frame.
• Legs: Conditioned and able to move at a moment's notice.
• Carriage: Closed off, but highly aware. When people first meet her, they clock her as paranoid, when it's really just a heightened (constant) vigilance (born out of trauma).
• Poses (Hands/Gestures, Feet/Legs, Torso/Head): Standing where she can see the exits, keep a close eye on her peers and superiors, and move across the compartment quickly. Tends to crack and rub her knuckles when nervous.
• Taste in Clothing (when off duty): Almost grungy, which is a stark contrast to how she keeps her uniform (which is usually as neat as she can muster that day). Lots of loose jeans and slouchy shirts, usually men's flannels and henleys.
• Shoes: Sneakers or running shoes. Decently shined boots when on-duty.
• Voice: Husky, but pointed.
• Handedness: Ambidextrous (but favors right).

Manner

• Quarters: U.S.S. Ronin. Deck 9, Room #5
• Favorite Room: Any one she can get out of quickly.
• Habits: Cracking (and reacking) her knuckles, being emotionally withholding, punching civilian law enforcement officers, and pulling at uniform sleeves.
• Mannerisms: Tends to huff and roll her eyes (when she can't help it; it's almost a physical tic). Will sometimes stand at ease or loose attention when thinking.
• Religion/Spiritual Devotion: Raised Baptist (but quietly resents it).
• Hobbies and Pastimes: Doing complicated puzzles and models. Reading mystery novels (secretly). Moderate conditioning. Journaling (VERY secretly).
• Likes: Locked doors, strong drinks, a finely tuned phaser, learning new ways to fight back, but above all, being useful (saving people).
• Dislikes: The Dark, enclosed spaces, sadists, the unknown (or, rather maybe, the uncontrolled), and being looked down on or thought of as weak.
• Ambitions and Goals: A decent week of sleep. To save lives. Preventing what happened to her from ever happening to anyone again.
• Achievements in Life: Completed civilian Marine training. Gained the rank of 1st LT. Joined Starfleet SAR. Attained Rank of Major (despite herself).
• Disappointments in Life: Being the one who lived.
• Temperament: Calculated and outwardly cold. But that's only a mask for the deep reserve of duty and responsibility she carries underneath.
• Mental problems (complexes and phobias): Survivor's Guilt, Minor Claustrophobia (manageable over time), Anger Issues usually stemming from frustrations at inaction or dismissive responses to her persons.
• Physical Limitations: Joint pain/stiffness at times. Especially after major exertion.

Family

• Marital Status: No
• Parents
  • Father: Unknown
  • Mother: Sidney Anne Carpenter
• Siblings: N/A

Personal History Timeline

1. 237207.19 - Birth, Hemingford Home, Nebraska.
2. 2389 - Graduation from Gatlin High School - Very Same Year Joins Terran Civilian Military; Marine Corps Track.
3. 2393 - Attains Marine Rank of First Lieutenant. Parlays Service into Starfleet SAR. Assigned to "Zero Company", a Sol System Based SAR Outfit Tasked with Liasoning with Sol System Law Enforcement Entities.
4. 2394 - Sole Survivor in Mysterious Botched Raid of Breen Criminal Outpost on the Martian Moon of Phobos. Records Largely Sealed But is Deemed Fit to Return to Duty After Three Month Leave of Absence and Rehabilitation.
5. 2395 to 2399 - Is Shuffled Throughout the Sol System and Ekes to Marine Rank of Major Despite More Than a Few Disciplinary Actions. Starts to Lose Confidence in Her Own Career and Abilities.
6. 2400 - Unexpectedly Re-Assigned to New Alpha Isles Patrol Ship U.S.S. Ronin as Chief of Security & Tactical at the Rank of Lieutenant Commander. CO Warns This is "Last Chance" to Make Something of Herself.

Professional History

• Date Graduated from Academy: 2392 (Carried Over From Civilian Military Service)
• Current Rank: Lieutenant Commander (Marine Rank: Major)
• Current Assignment: U.S.S. Ronin
• Duty Post: Chief of Security & Tactical

Awards & Commendations

For award descriptions, see: Awards and Service Ribbons

• To Boldly Go: 240101.06
• Pioneer: -

• Starfleet Academy Graduate Ribbon: [2392]
• Legacy Ribbon: 240101.06
• Tholian Campaign Ribbon: -
• Captain's Commendation: -
• Good Conduct Ribbon: -
• Prisoner of War Ribbon: 240104.16
• Purple Heart -
• Captain's Commendation (2nd Citation) -
• Sheathed Sword: 240106.25
• Shaxs Star: 240107.04
• Distinguished Service Ribbon: 240107.29
• Lifesaving Ribbon -
• Purple Heart (2nd Citation)
• Captain's Commendation (3rd Citation)

Stats

• Full Name: Kirsty Lee Carpenter
• Current Rank: LTCmdr/Major
• Race: Terran
• Date of Birth: 237207.19
• Place of Birth: Hemingford Home, NE.
• Gender: F
• Telepathic status: N/A.

Appearance

• Height: 6'0"
• Weight: 210lbs.
• Hair Color: Auburn.
• Eye Color: Green (light).

Family

• Parents
  • Father: Unknown at This Time
  • Mother: Sidney Anne Carpenter
• Siblings: None.

The Story So Far...

Kirsty Lee Carpenter was born into a humble, but devout home. Situated off the back roads of Hemingford Home, Nebraska, the Carpenter Farm hadn't produced corn in years, but brought forth a healthy and screaming baby girl into a world just on the verge of moving on. Just like Kirsty's father did barely a year into her existence.

But even so, both her and her hardy, Bible-thumping mother Sidney Anne made a nice life for themselves as Kirsty grew from squalling babe into a tall and strong young adult. Around that time, Sidney Anne's churching had started to grate on the young Kirsty and as young adults are want to do, she started looking toward the sort of life she could make for herself outside of Nebraska and the piousness of her ma. Like a lot of her peers in Gatlin High, the military seemed to offer the best (and quickest) way out and she joined up barely a year out of high school.

From there, Kirsty learned to love and appreciate the rigidity and form of military life. Though she still sent occasional holo-missives and money back to Hemingford Home, she realized very quickly that the REAL action was happening off-planet. And she resolved herself to be right in the middle of that action. She worked hard and trained even harder, gaining martial skills and a strong reputation as a hard worker. Soon after, she caught the eye of Starfleet SAR. A representative officer reached out to her civilian CO and offered her a spot on a Starfleet SAR team. "Zero Company" to be exact, a sort of rag-tag group of "breachers" who had been loaned to a number of Sol based police outfits to help them with higher level operations. Kirsty, being a brash and bold new 1st LT, jumped at the chance.

And it was with "Zero Company" her life changed forever...

Though her first year with the company was all but a breeze. Led by human XO, Captain Kurt Faraday, Kirsty was first out the door on a number of successful operations. Alongside Faraday's "right hand lizard" Major Sunrom (Saurian Special Forces) and Warrant Officers Beam (a Terran SWAT expert) & Joran (former Maquis), "Zero Company" assisted on a number of collars and operations, including a particularly hairy hostage negotiation between the Fenris Rangers and remnants of "The People" of the Aavaro Wilds. But everything changed with Phobos. Where a sadistic Breen criminal by the name of Jos'om Verrhess awaited with his equally debased gang of "followers".

Starting with a pitched robbery in the Northern Hemisphere of the moon and even more harrowing pursuit back to their compound hideout on the other side of the moon, "Zero Company" was called into to assist the Martian Defense Force. But as soon as the company made moonfall, they could see this was no ordinary criminal. The outside of the compound was armored for siege conditions and already external weapon systems had been sighted and neutralized by the Martian agents. The whole of the company felt uneasy, a fact Kirsty even noted in the many, many official reports (later sealed) about the events. But the Martian Commander was eager for the collar and all but forced his men and "Zero" to breach into the compound.

Kirsty has yet to reveal what exactly happened on Phobos but what is known is that she alone survived the experience. From later Security reports and Counseling debriefs, the compound had been set up with traps and anti-personnel devices of Verrhess' own design. Some of which decimating the Martians almost immediately. From there the survivors were plunged into what Kirsty described as a "house of horrors" where Jos'om and his gang hunted "Zero Company" one-by-one. Somehow, someway Kirsty alone survived. But as her injuries suggested, not without great personal cost to her body and mind. She was picked up later by MDF reinforcements almost a full two days later and then transferred to Starbase 1 for recovery.

From there, a once promising career became marred with near-constant reassignment and bouts of insubordination (usually directed by the "boneheaded civvies" (her words) that now populated her operations). Though barely scratching to the Marine rank of Major (mostly due to her continually improving skills and conditioning), it seemed Kirsty Carpenter's career would meet an early end.

That is until an unexpected reassignment to the Alpha Isles...

Is this Kirsty's last stop in a career hamstrung by tragedy? Or is it her last chance to finally be the officer she (and her taken compatriots) always knew she could be?

Only time will tell...

U.S.S Ronin (2400-Present)

Mission #1: The Shakedown of Sunjat

After a less-than-auspicious transit from the Sol System to the Alpha Isles, Kirsty Carpenter was thrown into the deep end of her new assignment and home sector.

While once a formidable presence around Sol and...let's say, effective operator in the field (when she wasn't fighting with her CO's and civilian commanders, that is), Kirsty found her new billet somewhat lacking. While also being outwardly confused as to why she had been selected for the assignment. Though the Isles provided her little time to ponder the question. As she started to settle into the ship, she found she had missed the Captain's Address in person, which was being held in the Docking Bay of Deep Space 33, the very space she had just been hassled by a snootily charming Quartermaster. But she shook it off, citing that she likely wouldn't be around long anyway.

How badly we get things wrong sometimes...

Soon after, Kirsty found herself in her first meeting. Standing out almost immediately thanks to her keeping on her Marine SDU Uniform, standing oddly amid the sea of Gold, Red, and Blue uniforms of her new peers. However Captain Niac and Commander Raga provided her little time to feel it, launching into a lengthy and comprehensive briefing as the whole of the new crew finished filing into the Conference Room. After observing a highly suspicious amount of Sheliak traffic throughout a nearby Isles local system, The Sunjat System, A binary star system, home to various gas giants and the mid-sized planet Olidrina 4, Starfleet Command had tasked the Ronin to investigate. Complicating matters is the residual reading of an exotic radiation form, Sencha Radiation, which one of Captain Niac's former personas had a direct hand in creating.

The assembly was then dismissed to their stations and after a crunchingly fun launch from DS33, Kirsty found herself serving on a starship for the first time in her less-than-illustrious career.

Upon approach to the Sunjat System, circumstances changed almost immediately. Thanks to some sharp scope work from Chief Science Officer Alieth, the ship was alerted to a debris trail leading up and around the shadowside of a nearby gas giant. Looking deeper into the debris, the crew and Kirsty determine that it looks more like a civilian trawler than a Sheliak vessel. But the strangest element of the debris was yet to come. As Chief Alieth and a number of Bridge officers worked to improve the Ronin's sensors, Kirsty and the Medics, including a newly introduced Dr. Kel and the First Officer, Toryn Raga, head down to one of the Cargo Bays to examine a collection of the debris they had beamed into the ship.

Where it seemed nothing but rust and ruination awaited them. Confirming that the debris had come from a transport ship, Kirsty and her new team took an even closer look. To see that the parts had been attacked almost at the cellular level. Sapping any and all metallurgic strength and properties from the material it once was and leaving only brittle, easily broken chunks of offal in its wake. Whatever had done this, it was something Starfleet had never seen before. And though she tried to hide it, the idea chilled Kirsty right to the bone. Soon after, Captain Niac called general quarters. A new contact had arrived. A new, Tholian contact.

In another hasty, but productive meeting, Captain Niac respectably laid his cards out on the table. Telling Kirsty and the assembly about his former host's involvement in Sencha and how it had directly contributed to the persona's eventual death. Though Kirsty had gleaned a great deal of admiration from the Captain's candor during his Address (something she had seen on the shipwide comm feeds some hours earlier), she noted later in logs that this was the moment she had started to fully respect him. It couldn't have been easy to tell them that, much less revisit it in the powerfully intimate ways a Trill can experience memory. Though they were given little time to appreciate it, as the new Tholian contact attacked with unexpected viciousness.

Despite sustaining injuries throughout the new Senior Staff, each officer rose to the occasion. And then surpassed it. Likely too while suffering knocks and rattles that would have felled a lesser crew. But while they kept the new Tholian contact at bay with some clever flying and taking keen advantage of the volatile system around them, new discoveries were made. Namely the S.S. Sabrina's Delight, the civilian trawler that had gained the Tholian's ire, and further evidence of a space station that had been hidden amid the Sunjat's planetoids and gas giants, presumably to harness the rich mineral weights of both. It became clear that the only way to get a handle on it all was to split into Away Teams. Kirsty fully expected her name to be called...and was more than a little crestfallen when it hadn't.

But the Ronin provided her plenty of distraction from her disappointment. As now Captain Niac, himself bearing a nasty gash to his ribs, declared that it was now their job to keep the Tholian eyes firmly on them to allow the teams the room and and clearance to work. Kirsty figured that that was a job she could do. Working with members of the Engineering Department, they worked up a sort of combinations of grapeshot and depth charges. Which when shot would spread a further fog of masking particles throughout the system, providing them and the teams ample cover to be able to complete their objectives. Packing spare footlockers and cargo containers with the appropriate mixture of explosives and corrosives, the Ronin flew to start deploying them, making full use of the ship's small size and speed to get the "fireworks" spread across the area of action.

The Isles started to give with both hands then, revealing a patrolling Sheliak fighter wing that had been housed just behind Olindria 4. One that was further supported by Tholian fighter forms and even a few independent vessels that seemed to be in the employ of both factions. As the teams were dropped to their objectives and the rest of the "fireworks" were deployed, Kirsty and the rest of the crew felt a mounting tension. Which was then broken by an opening salvo of mexellon gas containers provided by the Engineering Department, fulfilling the Ronin's obligation as the decoy. From there, the battle was joined. Microtorpedoes and "fireworks" danced across the whole system, shaving off some of the fighter forms, but not all of them.

However, the battle and the hit-and-fade warp tactics that had kept them ahead of the combined forces were taking a toll on the Ronin's systems. Pushing the shakedown to the furthest most point the ship could take. Which was then pushed even further with a brand new contact. A massive, hellish looking Tholian-Sheliak ship. Melding the brutalist construction of Sheliak war-frigates with the sleek crystalline structures of the Tholians. Kirsty had never seen anything like it. And felt that it heralded something much, much more sinister for the Isles and Starfleet overall. But the objective remains the same; keep the Sheliak and the Tholians focused on them and them alone. Even if the massive ship was emitting more Sencha waves and building up another pulse-wave of the illegal radiation between it's main spires.

From there started a mad dash to sweep back up the away teams and the recently deployed Valkyrie Fighter Wing that had been providing Ronin with fire support. All while the Sheliak-Tholian monster loomed across the flight path. But even with the size and obvious power of the ship, the Ronin and it's newly tested crew won the day. Just barely. Gleaning key information from both the station between the gas giants and the S.S. Sabrina's Delight, alongside it's boisterously cantankerous Captain Bail. Turns out, both the Sheliak and Tholians had been conducting illegal weapons testing with the Sencha Radiation and the Delight had just happened to stumble upon their testing ground, seeking riches and unspoiled material harvesting throughout Olidrina and the Sunjat.

But as the Ronin and their new charges limped back to DS33, the Tholian-Sheliak monster ship had a message for the whole Alpha Isles. Declaring a new sovereign faction, The Lattice Alliance, and further laying claim to the entire Alpha Isles. Kirsty and the Ronin then engage in their first official shore leave, with the heavy shadow of this new Alliance settling across the whole of DS33 and the repairing ship. Also of note, Kirsty Carpenter finally puts away her SDU Greens, opting now instead to don the regular Gold Security uniform. Citing in her log that the rest of the crew had unexpectedly inspired her with their selflessness and tact throughout the engagement. Events over the leave just sured that thought in her mind, causing her to finally join a crew again for the first time in years.

Mission #2: The Grus Beta Three Affair

Kirsty's next mission with her new crew would prove even more complex. Just in an entirely different fashion.

Grus Beta Three, a post-warp M-Class world toward the center of the Alpha Isles, had petitioned Starfleet Command for emergency aid. Turns out, a massive fire had broken out on the planet and couldn't be fought by conventional means. Naturally, The Ronin was engaged to help, finding the developed, but slightly homespun planet under real peril. The fire had started to grow exponentially and now was starting to threaten the planet's capitol city, Landing City. The Grus Beta Three officials, namely an Administrator Enzai, further appealed for aid. Aid Kirsty and her crew were more than happy to provide.

But what they found on the planet was much more dangerous than a raging fire.

For starters, it seemed as if Administrator Emzai had made it her own mission to stonewall the Captain and his away team. Going even as far as to deny the very obvious emergency distress signal that brought them there in the first place. From there it became very clear that Emzai would provide no help, but the fire continued to spread toward the outer walls of the capitol. Captain Niac made a judgement call. He would take a detachment to the fire's origin point while Kirsty and Doctor Quentin Beck would remain in Landing City to supervise the evacuation efforts.

But even this proved difficult for the soldier and the medic. Though some citizens were evacuating, an even greater number seemed indoctrinated to some sort of anti-Starfleet sentiments fostered by the current Administration. Despite Quentin and Kirsty's best efforts, it became evident that much of the population had been funneled into the City's Aerodrome, where Dr. Kel's staff had set up their main triage center. However, before they could map out their next move, shots rang out across the plaza. Shots that Administrator Emzai was all too happy to blame on "Starfleet aggression".

But the mission remained. Kirsty and Beck, linking up with Grus Betian stragglers, escorted the citizens into the Aerodrome where Nurse Rox reported an odd sort of alkaloid poisoning presenting in some of the refugees. Also strange was the large stockpile of raw maleconite Administrator Emzai had ordered into the space. Unfortunately before they could investigate further, the shooter that brought them there started to strike again. Flinting a strange mind-altering gas into the dome. One that wrapped itself around Kirsty's psyche, bringing horrifying memories and feelings back to the surface. Endangering Beck, Rox, and the rest of the refugees.

Thankfully, Rox and Beck moved quickly. Sussing out the source of the poisonings as the ore's effects and quickly inoculating Kirsty (though she didn't make it easy). As the chaos is quelled for the moment, Kirsty and Beck find their shooter. A disgruntled Andorian mining boss who spun a story of oppression and strife for the miners and their families. Many of which laid in treatment all around them in the Aerodrome. Kirsty, Beck, and Rox quickly conferred, wondering about the mounting evidence against the Administrator and her regime. Then came the clincher. The Andorian convinced Kirsty of his personal connection with Emzai, claiming that he could convince her of her wrongdoing and finally lower her walls, allowing Starfleet to save their planet.

From there, the new company made their way to the Administration Center, finding Emzai still in her office and exhibiting suspicious, borderline hostile behavior. After an increasingly tense exchange, wherein the Administrator almost accidentally revealed that Starfleet had once conducted experiments on the maleconite ore in her anger, the team tries to hold their own. Discovering soon after a secret alcove in the Administrator's office where her infirm Vulcan husband laid in respite. Beck and Rox begged the Administrator to allow them to treat him, but she refused. The situation further deteriorated thanks to a multitude of countermeasures the Administrator enacted in her office, effectively trapping the team and the mining boss inside with her.

Which proved to be her undoing.

As Emzai stalled, the Andorian drew a disruptor pistol, faster than anyone could react. Shooting the infirm Vulcan in the chest before he could speak the truth of who the Andorian really was. One of the first families affected by the clandestine maleconite experiments and now would-be assassin to The Administrator. A new struggle ensued, one that was quickly brought to a resolution thanks to the timely intervention of First Officer Raga and a daring breaching raid on the office windows. The Andorian and Emzai in custody, Kirsty and her peers were disengaged back to the Ronin to help with the ongoing efforts with the fire, which unbeknownst to them had been revealed as just cover for a new hutch of Tholian drone warriors. A hutch that only bore one Tholian lifeform, but later consumed the planet of Grus Beta Three.

Later, in the aftermath, Kirsty would learn that the Administrator had been in collusion with the newly aggressive Lattice Alliance. A partnership that was forged with the promise of help for her now late husband. The crew would then transfer into shore leave, but the scars of Grus Beta Three would spread across Kirsty in the weeks to come.

Mission #3: War of the RoLFs

The Following is an Excerpt from the Personal Logs of Chief Kirsty Carpenter - SD: 240104.24

"This Lattice Alliance is really startin' to <REDACTED> me off...

This latest crap just took the blue ribbon. We had been called to the boondocks of the Alpha Isles because it turns out raids were bein' carried out with evidence pointin' our way. Meanin' Starfleet's way. Command authorized an op in order to combat the naturally bad optics. And to find out who was responsible. But as we always know, it was never that easy. We ran down one of the attack sites. Some freighter, smashed all'ta hell, but somehow still showing lifesigns. Captain Raga (Niac was off...somewhere, above my pay grade, to be sure) seemed...nervous for some reason. Like he might have known what this really was. But we looked into it anyway. Two teams. One on me, the other on Alieth. We were to check out the aft section and hopefully cut some power on. Alieth and her team were to look for the survivors.

But what was on that ship found us first. Right away, we saw the bodies. Whole holds of people, just cut down. It reminded me of Phobos, tell you the truth, but Verhess didn't have nothin' on this. It was some kinda...cyborg drone. We found one of it's limbs first, but it was independently deadly. Whole body was a weapon. And fast too. Fast, fast, fast. They drove us deeper into the aft section where we found our first and only survivor. A pirate, it turns out. The brig waits for him after sickbay, but he painted in the rest of the picture. They were working for The Consortium, who now, apparently, are working in step with the L.A. This run had been interrupted by the cyborg's travel housing and then, mid-flight, had gotten to business. We started to regroup with Alieth and that's when they started comin' from the walls. From the deck plating under our feet. From the ducts above.

And they were tougher than a two-dollar steak. Found out later that was because of Birikar stone, but I'm still not sure if Birikar even factors into this yet. That's a thread to pull later. But we barely survived getting back home. And then barely survived what was waiting for us there. The whole thing was a runaround. The L.A. and Consortium had suckered us into the wake of a white-dwarf pulse from one of the system's suns and used it to cover boarding operations. Operations that took...so many lives from us. I even thought I might buy it myself once the Juggernaut ship warped into the system.

But Captain Raga, shocking even now to talk about it, came clean with us all before the fight. Told us how he had encountered these RoLFs before and provided us all the data he had detailing the older models against this newer one. And that gave us the edge we needed. We got out of there, blacking the L.A.'s eye but good in the attempt too. And we finally proved to Command that the L.A. is something to take seriously. I just...I just wish it hadn't had to come at the cost of so many souls.

This new posting...it gives and it takes. This week it might have took a little more than I can stand. I'm gonna talk to Dek about it. Get checked out with Doc Beck too. I'm puttin' that under glass here so I feel like a jerk when I try to worm out of it by marking up the reports later...

Carpenter out."

Mission #4: TBD (Summer Blockbuster Crossover with U.S.S. Khitomer)

Further Report Incoming.