Lieutenant Commander Artemis Dominic Pierce - Chief Tactical/Second Officer

Artemis was born in Darwin, Northwest Territories, Australia, though his family lived and worked on an outback station far from civilization. At an early age he learned tracking, shooting, and survival skills from the aborigine work hands on the station. His family has a long and distinguished history of Starfleet service and so it was natural when Artemis applied to Starfleet Academy.

At the Academy, Artemis made top scores in both piloting and combat tactics, and for his first year he was torn between specialties. Eventually he chose tac/sec because his natural inclinations were against sitting cooped up in a cockpit, preferring the more active life of a tactical officer. Artemis was recruited into the Academy's elite Red Squad and served with distinction. He graduated from the Academy with honors.

Artemis' first posting was as an ensign on the USS Washington. He kept at his studies in his off-duty hours and proved himself adept at his duties and received a promotion to lieutenant a year ahead of most ensigns, being made armory officer and earning certificates in small arms and field maintenance.

At this time, Artemis became interested in intelligence operations and studied for intelligence certification. He applied for and received a transfer to Starfleet Intelligence. After an intensive year of training, Artemis was assigned to the USS Trafalgar. While the Trafalgar performed routine Starfleet missions, it was also a platform for Starfleet Intelligence tactical teams along the Federation borders, especially the DMZs with the Romulans and Cardassians as well as some of the border areas with the Klingons.

In 2369, with the advent of the Dominion threat, Artemis was promoted to Lieutenant Commander, transferred to the USS Southern Cross and recruited into a top secret SFI program called Operation Proteus. Details of the operation are highly classified, but Admiral Leyton, who later organized the attempted military coup of Earth to highlight the changeling threat, originally established the program. Proteus survived the court martial of the admiral and some say it was due to Section 31 involvement. What is known is that the project was a covert black ops and wetworks operation with a specific mission of targeting suspected changelings (and eventually Vorta) within the various Alpha and Beta Quadrant territories (Federation, Klingon Empire, Romulan Star Empire, Cardassian Empire, etc.). They were also given other missions of opportunity to advance Federation interests leading up to and during the Dominion War. No one really knows everything that the program did, and Artemis rarely talks about it.

Artemis eventually made Commander while serving in Proteus and was given command of the USS Peacemaker, the program's secret tactical prototype troopship. A small ship, like a half-sized Saber-class heavy scout, it was designed for long range undetected penetration into enemy territory for midterm mission lengths. It had fast engines and heavy weaponry, the latest in the Federation's anti-Borg ablative armor, quantum torpedoes, Type X phasers and rotating shield harmonics. Additionally, it had an interphase cloaking device. The hull was unmarked and it had long range and high warp transporters as well as jump pods for quick intrusion and extraction of the tac team. Manned by a skeleton crew of Starfleeters, the tac team was cross trained to assist in running the ship to and from missions.

As the Dominion War was drawing to a close, the Peacemaker made one last mission into Orion territory to a nebula cloud. Inside was a clear pocket containing a rogue planet with an Orion Syndicate research facility. Their mission was to retrieve the research data and blow the facility. Orion security was light and the team took the main lab relatively easily. They found a cloning chamber with several tubes filled with embryonic human Augment clones as well as evidence of Section 31 involvement when they found a human operative liaising with the Orions.

As Pierce directed the data downloads, most of his team spread out through the facility to sweep it and place charges. Soon Pierce began getting frantic comm. chatter that 'something' was out there, phaser fire, and then losing contact with various parts of his team. With the data retrieved, Pierce led the rest of his men out into the facility to find out what was happening.

Pierce found his men with throats slashed, necks broken, or stabbed through their body armor. All were killed hand-to-hand, with no evidence of weapons fire other than phaser blast patterns on the walls or friendly fire kills. Not knowing what the hell was going on, Pierce ordered a tactical withdrawal, but before he could call it up to the Peacemaker, they were hit hard and fast. Pierce couldn't tell what was happening, only that something small, fast and deadly was wading through his men. They were firing blindly, and then someone lost a concussion grenade and everything flashed bright and loud and then there was blackness.

When Pierce came to, he found the cause of the carnage. Three identical human girls around nine years old lay unconscious, covered in blood, but not their own. They were unharmed except for some burns, bruises and cuts from the grenade blast. Pierce did a count of his men, finding he'd lost three-quarters of them to these little girls. Getting the survivors on their feet, Pierce ordered the Peacemaker to start beaming up the bodies and the wounded while he went about terminating the last of the research. But looking on the angelic faces of the girls, he couldn't do it, though his second reminded him of their orders. Pierce countermanded the order and instead pulled out the isolinear chips that contained the data they had downloaded. He broke them in half and dropped them to the floor and then crushed them with his boot heel, informing his men seriously that they were destroyed in the firefight. Securing the three augments, he had them beamed out with the last of the team and the Peacemaker destroyed the facility.

Pierce fought his superiors regarding turning the Augment children over to SFI and the science division. They faced being locked up for the rest of their lives simply because of the genetic manipulation done to them. Calling in several favors he had in Starfleet, and aided by a rapport he seemed to have developed with the girls due to his commanding presence, he finally convinced Starfleet to leave them in his custody, with oversight by Starfleet Medical's counseling division to try and integrate the girls into Federation society.

With the end of the Dominion threat, it was deemed too politically hazardous to re-establish the decimated Operation Proteus since some of its activities and its tainting by Section 31 were coming to light. Proteus was folded back into SFI and decommissioned. Pierce was caught in the Section 31 witchhunt that followed as Starfleet and the Federation tried to clean up its mess. There was entirely too much political mud to throw around, and too many high level careers and reputations were at stake, that Pierce and a few others were made the convenient scapegoats. Pierce was demoted and discharged from Starfleet and further investigation of Section 31 was stonewalled.

Pierce settled uneasily into civilian life. With former Proteus team members he established Blackwatch Security, a security and mercenary company based out of Sydney, Australia. Pierce also focused on raising his foster daughters and trying to clear his name. After his foster daughters went off to school, Pierce eventually, through contacts in Starfleet and SFI, succeeded. He was cleared of charges and reinstated into Starfleet at his reduced rank of Lieutenant Commander.

There were still too many political liabilities connected with Pierce, however, and he was initially denied a return to SFI. He knew too many secrets people wanted kept buried. Many wanted him promoted 'out of the way' to a safe desk job in San Francisco. Pierce rejected several such offers. He wasn't going to sit behind a desk. He wanted back out in the field. A compromise was reached and he was assigned as Consulting Officer on the USS Southern Cross to secretly reestablish the Operation Proteus as Operation Peacemaker, with one of his daughters, Eve Three, serving under him. Once the Peacemaker program was running again, Pierce was transferred out and sent to the USS Renaissance.

Pierce's career is rather stalled at the moment, due to the taint on his record. The only promotions he is likely to be offered are to desk jobs. No one really wants him in the captain's chair of a starship, and it's unlikely he would find that position comfortable anyway. He wouldn't want to sit safely on the bridge when there is field work to do, unwilling to send men out to do a job he isn't willing to do himself. Starfleet seems content to have him out of the way and use his experience to provide guidance and support to their younger, promising captains.


Previous Starfleet Record

2358 – Enters Starfleet Academy
2360 – Recruited to Red Squad
2362 – Graduated Starfleet Academy with honors
2362 – Assigned as a security officer to the USS Washington (Constellation Class)
2363 – Receives small arms and field maintenance certification
2364 – Promoted to Lieutenant and armory officer
2364 – Receives intelligence certification
2365 – Transfers to Starfleet Intelligence and receives field training
2366 – Assigned to the USS Trafalgar (Ambassador Class), an Intelligence ship
2367 – Trafalgar works salvage operations after Wolf 359, focusing on recovering Borg technology
2368 – Trafalgar monitors the Klingon Civil War
21369 – Promoted to Lieutenant Commander and transferred to the USS Southern Cross (Sovereign Class)
2369 – Recruited to Operation Proteus: RECORDS SEALED AND CLASSIFIED
2373 – Promoted to Commander and given command of the USS Peacemaker (Peacemaker Class - CLASSIFIED)
2375 – End of the Dominion War and Operation Proteus; final Peacemaker mission under Pierce's command to an Orion rogue planet within a nebula and the rescue of three Augment clones; Starfleet begins a cleansing and witchhunt for members of Section 31 within its ranks
2376 – Pierce caught in the Section 31 witchhunt, demoted to Lieutenant Commander and discharged
2385 – Readmitted to Starfleet and reassigned his rank of Lieutenant Commander; assigned as Consulting Officer on the USS Southern Cross to restart the Peacemaker program
2388 - Transfers to USS Renaissance as Chief Tactical Officer and Second Officer

Personality/General Attitude/Quirks: Artemis is generally a serious and disciplined man, but he can have his lighter moments. He has a quick and intelligent mind, though he has little patience for the more 'mental' disciplines, tending toward more active pursuits. There is a haunting intensity behind his blue eyes, a man who has seen and done much that he would rather not think about. Expects and demands much of those serving under him. A bit old school in that he maintains a professional aloofness with his fellow crew members at most times. While he will follow protocol, he has no real use for political straightjackets like the Prime Directive if they interfere with mission goals, tending more toward the 'cowboy diplomacy' of an earlier era of Starfleet. He is driven and hates boredom. The required diplomatic niceties of command generally annoy him and he has little use for the boring official functions he is often required to attend. Enjoys reading, working out, sports, and chess. Still has a slight hint of his Australian accent.

Artemis is a loyal Federation and Starfleet man to the core and seems to bear no real ill will toward his superiors regarding how they treated him following the Dominion War and their stalling of his career. He is a man who knows not only where the skeletons are buried but where the skeletons buried their skeletons. When he appears on the viewscreen, admirals suddenly become cooperative. He has security clearances most people haven't even heard of.


Special Skills/Hobbies: Skills: Marksmanship, piloting, tracking, intelligence, special forces/black ops, languages (Klingon, Romulan, Cardassian)

Hobbies: History, rugby, chess

Extended Family/Relatives:
Great-grandfather (106): Admiral Jonathon Pierce (retired, Starfleet Command)
Grandfather (84): Cpt. Joseph Pierce (retired, Marines)
Father (65): Lt. Cmdr. Franklin Pierce (retired, Starfleet Science) – now running Wallagong Station
Mother (64): Cmdr. Diana Pierce (retired, Starfleet Medical) – running a Starfleet Hospital in Darwin
Younger brother (40): Cpt. Jack Pierce (Starfleet Corps of Engineers, USS Martin Luther King, Steamrunner Class) – Starfleet captain
Younger brother (36): Cmdr. Forrest Pierce (honorably discharged, Marines) – runs Blackwatch Security
Younger brother (33): Lt. Brett Pierce (Starfleet Science) – Professor at Starfleet Academy
Younger sister (30): Temperance Pierce – Federation Council Representative
Younger sister (30): Lt. Brennan Pierce (Starfleet Medical, USS Royale, Nova Class) – Doctor
Younger sister (25): Cady Pierce – Musician
Foster daughter (22) – Elisa One – pursuing graduate level music degree at University of Sydney
Foster daughter (22) – Emily Two – pursuing graduate level physics degree at Cochrane University, Auckland, New Zealand
Foster daughter (22) – Ens. Eve Three (Starfleet Tac/Sec, USS Southern Cross/USS Peacemaker) – recent graduate of Starfleet Academy on first posting