Leonal Drizzt

"Spider" Drizzt

'Spider' Drizzt (Pronounced Drist) is the Marine Executive Officer & Chief Combat Engineer aboard the USS Boudicca

Authors Note

What, you expect an Authors Note? I don’t really have much to say about Drizzt, so you luck out here. ;-)

History

Pre-Starfleet Life

Spider was born of two civilian contractors on Andoria, both of whom worked in a factory that produced weapons components for Starfleet weapons, items such as power-cells and coils for handheld weapons. A young Leonal would often see Starfleet security patrols as escort for the finished weapons, and as he grew up, he was often allowed (quietly) to try out some of the weapons as they came off production as they were put onto the testing range. It gave him his first taste of the Tactical side of the fleet.

Leonal was always hot blooded and physical, even by the standards of a warrior race such as the Andorians. He spent most of his teenage years in competition, hand-to-hand and kojoki-stick (something like a dull sword) mostly, where he, more often then not, came out as the winner.

He had a tendency toward regional history and technical classes while he was in school, though he excelled at anything he put his mind to. And with his graduation from secondary school at age 17, he put in his application to Starfleet Academy.

Starfleet Academy

Leonal’s time at the Academy was mostly without note; he arrived and immediately took to continuing in competition. His chose a Tactical major in his first year, though he also took a heavy course load in engineering classes, coming within a few credits of qualifying as a level 1 engineer. His time on Andoria, watching his parents work and further his classes, had taught him all the basics and more and thus he found that engineering came to him naturally.

But Engineering wouldn’t cool his fiery blood, and by his third year at the Academy he had signed up for all the Marine prep-courses with every intention of joining the Marine Corps.

He passed the Academy with flying colors, and after a one month personal leave to visit his parents on Andoria, he went back to earth and joined the Marine Corps boot camp at Parris Island.

Marine Boot Camp: Parris Island, Earth

Parris Island is a masochists dream, a one year primary program where fresh boots or crewman out of either the Academy or Crewman School are thrown together without any previous rank and whom find their heads stuffed full of deadly ways of making war. Cadets find themselves run into the ground, brought up at all hours for watch, and taught the intricacies of basic combat tactics and all the advanced weaponry which separate the Marine Corps from ground-based Starfleet Tactical forces.

Leonal took to it like a babe to milk. He was already a very athletic man, and his competitive edge had been honed by years worth of training in hand-to-hand and stick combat. With the physical aspect behind him, something most boots were having the most problems with, he had the mind-space to watch the Marines around him and pay special attention to the classes and demonstrations of each basic class. Like any boot, he had the right to test for any Marine position he chose, and with only two months left of Boot Camp, he took the necessary physical, mental and psychological testing and passed all for Combat Engineering… what was perhaps the single most difficult and dangerous job the Marines had to offer.

Combat Engineering was, for lack of better definition, the special forces of the Marines. They cleared landing zones, engaged in Counter Terror and a slew of other jobs that varied from noble to malicious. The entire concept intrigued Leonal, and he got his entire boot-squad drunk the night he found out he had been accepted to the CE Training program on condition he passed Boot Camp… much to their displeasure the next morning.

The last couple months of Boot Camp flew by, and he found himself a newly christened Marine, ready to stand the Line for Starfleet and the Federation.

Starfleet War College & Marine Advanced Training: Parris Island, Earth & Ravhivik, Tellar

Unlike most Marines, Leonal went into the multi-tear Combat Engineering program immediately after he graduated from Boot. Standard procedure would have the Marine in question take a tour on a ship and achieve many of the necessary pre-requisites by correspondence. Leonal, however, was fully qualified from the get-go, he’d taken all the necessary engineering and tactical classes during the Academy, the few credits he needed were easily taken on the side during the course at Parris Island and the Starfleet War College.

With the exception of the accelerated engineering classes; he split his time evenly between the War College at San Francisco, where he learned advanced combat tactics, games & theory and other applied courses that would apply to his position: And Parris Island, where he learned Counter-Terrorism, Explosives, Explosive Ordinance Disposal and applied combat tactics in a hot-zone. In one years time he learned all the necessary skills that would turn him from a standard Mod-Zero Marine into a highly motivated Combat Engineer.

As electives, he took courses in sniping and guerilla warfare at Parris Island. At the War College he took extra classes in guerilla warfare, intelligence and counter-intelligence.

Also included in the basic training of a Combat Engineer was a tour-of-duty on the planet Tellar, in the city of Ravhivik. There was a standing Marine base in that city, but it was also a fleet training facility. It was there he and his other presumptive Combat-Engineers memorized the deck plans, and carried out mock attacks, against all known designs of Starship. CE’s are, in theory, tasked to know how to find their way through and destroy any type of Starship known to Starfleet. This training took six months, and allowed him exactly two short leaves-of-absence for one week each. He used that time to leave the planet Tellar, since Tellarites were his racial enemies from time-out-of-mind, and visit his parents on his native Andoria.

He graduated all the advanced courses with honors and was immediately assigned to the fringe, to a Roger-Young class ship named Drestier which had some openings in its Combat Engineering section. He left Earth two days after graduation to rendezvous with his new ship.

Serving Onboard USS Drestier

Leonal joined the Combat Engineering squad ‘Backbreakers’ and, after one minor mission which had nothing to do with using his given skills, was accepted whole-heartedly into the Unit. Because he hadn’t been a bloodied Marine from the time he joined, he had been watched closely to make sure all the psychological tests he had taken hadn’t been mistaken, and the Squad CO and CCE of the Drestier had made very sure to run him (and the squad) through multiple exorcizes to make sure his technical skills weren’t lacking.

It was during these first few months that he was given the moniker ‘Spider’, for his small size and dexterity. He was quickly identified as the ‘crawl man’, the Marine who crawled around the smallest of the corridors to place charges and etc.

This ability served him well in what would be his first major action. Several Starfleet ships were captured during a Xenolithe invasion and, if left alone, the Xenolithe would have stripped them down for parts to build their own awesome war machines. This could not be allowed to happen, so the Drestier was sent ahead of the battle-group in order to land Marines and destroy the Galaxy Class Vessel USS Pinochet, as no striking force large enough to take her back could be in place before she was long out of range. The Backbreakers managed to get on board the ship and set the charges, but not before loosing half their strength to the Xenolithe in the resulting attack. It was Drizzt’s first taste of the horror that was war, and the danger that was Combat Engineering.

He continued to serve with distinction during the Xenolithe conflict, though the Backbreakers were under-strength. They spent their remaining days in conflict doing what could be considered the very basics of the CE’s job, clearing landing zones and repairing necessary equipment while under heavy fire. Spider quickly proved that he was able to keep a cool head under fire and that he was tactically brilliant. These distinctions would serve him well, for not long after the end of the Xenolithe conflict, he was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant and transferred to another Roger-Young class ‘Gator Freighter’ to be the XCE (Squad XO) of a Combat Engineering squad, the Fallen Angels.

Serving Onboard USS Plutonian

The Fallen Angels, Unit Patch

Spider’s time on the USS Plutonian was marked by constant strife on the frontier, though nothing as horrible brutal as the Xenolithe war. He spent years first as the Squad XO, then as the Squad CO, and finally as the Chief Combat Engineer of the Ship. It was a learning experience, lots of small battles on nameless planets.

During the last year of his service on the Plutonian, he took Command Training and became the Company Second Officer; the Marine Commanding Officer took him under his wing and taught him all the ins and outs of commanding a ship full of grunts who tended to think with their emotions rather then their heads. That training served him well and his own squad-level command improved as his grasp of the greater politics of the Corps grew and strengthened.

It was during this time that he first met and served with Then 1st Lieutenant Straton, a firebrande of a woman who was gung-ho into the Marines. They became fast friends after a couple incidents where Straton’s quick tongue rubbed Spider the wrong way, and they saved each-others lives at least a half dozen times apiece. The day she was transferred off-ship was one of Spider’s saddest, she had been an excellent officer and exceptional Marine, and one of the few people he trusted implicitly.

He was eventually tapped by the War College and Parris Island for rotation back to Earth as a part-time instructor of Combat Engineering. He accepted this move gracefully, but only because he would maintain command of the Fallen Angels. The entire squad was transferred to Mars, and Spider was given the position of CCE over all Combat Engineers tasked with defending the Utopia Planitia Fleet Shipyards.

Whereas it would mean he would be guarding a facility, rather then dealing death as was his job, it was a much needed opportunity to rest; both for him and his squad. It was also an opportunity to teach some hard-learned tactics from the fringe to Marines who aspired to be what he had become: A hardened killer.

Spider and his squad caught a ride back to Earth on a Gryphon Class Transport (A Sod Hopper) with the rest of the usual crew rotation and quickly found themselves stationed on Mars.

Serving at Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards, Sol

Spider’s time back in Sol System was not the peaceful time he thought it would be. Between his duties overseeing all the Combat Engineering squads tasked to Utopia (and there were many) and his professors duties which had been split between Parris Island and San Francisco, he rarely had more then a few free moments to himself. He caught most of the little sleep he did manage on inner-system transports for his thrice-weekly trips back and forth from Mars to Earth.

There was a full Regiment of Marines stationed at Utopia Planitia, along with a nearly unheard of 7 Combat Engineering Squads, due to the highly important nature of the Center as a Shipyard, a backup Strategic Operations Center, and the command base for the Mars Defense Perimeter. His greatest achievement as the Chief Combat Engineer was to reorganize the command structure of the Combat Engineers and improve their reaction times. He had little time to do else, though he had many more plans which he would have implemented had he been stationed there for more then the year he had.

The rest of his time he spent teaching. He taught squad and mid-sized battle-group tactics at the War College, and served as a guest speaker for several other instructors over a myriad of practical subjects. He taught hand-to-hand combat, tactics under fire and explosive ordinance disposal to CE presumptives at Parris Island.

Though busy, it was a satisfying time for Spider, and he would have stayed for longer had an emergency not popped up. He, his squad and 4 other squads were ordered to join the USS Spectre with Spider as the temporary Marine Commanding Officer with only 12 hours notice. The Spectre, part of the 52nd Exploratory Fleet, had just finished repairs and upgrades at Utopia Planitia and was available for immediate embarkation.

Serving Onboard USS Spectre

Spider quickly found out why he had been so quickly assigned to the Spectre after they had departed. An advance unit of the Xenolithe had been found deep within Federation Space along a subspace corridor, and it was the Spectre’s job to clean them out. Spider was one of the few officers in Sol who had experience in dealing with the dreaded enemy and who was available for immediate reassignment, hence his first impromptu command.

The Xenolithe had taken root near the Federation/Romulan border, prompting Starfleet to request scouting aid by the Romulan Empire. They, in turn, send the IRV Red Claw as their forces. Both ships dropped their Tactical Forces on the Xenolithe-claimed planet and fought a battle with several Xenolithe ships while Spider and their forces fought against a vastly superior foe on the ground, far more Xenolithe then had been reported had found their way to that target planet.

The mission ended as Spider and a heavy infantry unit covered the escape of all Tactical forces, before withdrawing themselves and letting the Spectre bomb the planet from orbit, thus ending the Xenolithe threat.

The Spectre, for reasons unknown to Spider at the time, was immediately ordered deep into Fringe space without a chance to drop the remaining Marines back on Earth or Mars. He found out after they had arrived at Starbase Geneva, Admiral LoDona had pulled his fleet back after accusing another Admiral of multiple charges, including Treason.

Spider was then ordered by forces loyal to LoDona to stay on Geneva until he could be reassigned. The Marine toiled with that order for nearly two weeks until reports of Admiral Doenitz’s wrong-doings began filtering through the ‘crewman grapevine’. He confirmed enough through unofficial channels to set his mind at ease. And when the first casualties from border clashes filtered into Geneva for long-term medical care, he began preparing himself and his Marines for what would become a war against their own.

Serving Onboard USS Boudicca

Spider was assigned to the USS Boudicca, a ship which he’d watched out a port-hole since his arrival, after a particularly long and grueling patrol mission on a Marine Stallion. He found out later that he had been assigned as Marine Executive Officer and Chief Combat Engineering of ‘Wolfpack’, the 1st Boudicca Company, on the word of his former friend and superior Major Eva Straton.

Both were of the same mind about the war, and Spider took to his job of training the Marines to fight their own forces with deadly earnest. That training came in handy almost immediately after the Boudicca was summoned to the site of a nearly destroyed civilian ship. Straton and Spider both beamed over to the nearly-destroyed hulk and thus were the first to encounter the energy loving machines that have since been dubbed ‘psi-ders’. A very rough fight ensued on the civilian ship in which many Marines lost their lives when their suits were ruptured in open space, or the psi-ders special arm zapped them and made them mindless vegetables.

The Marines were beamed over after a good hours battle, and they were immediately thrown into yet another fight as many hundreds of the psi-ders had been beamed onto the Boudicca.

The psi-ders were only destroyed after the most powerful of the telepaths on the ship formed a ‘trap’ for them in a three-way corridor with Spider and his marines waiting in the wings to cut them off. It was a bloody end, but the ship survived.

As Spider is an engineer, he and his Combat Engineers were temporarily tasked to the Engineering department to repair the massive damage done throughout the ship after the battle, until such time as they could get the ship into a dry-dock for refit. Even during refit the Combat Engineers maintained engineering duty as Starbase Geneva was short-staffed and every engineer was worth their weight in gold.

The next few months were relatively quiet on the Boudicca, despite numerous alerts, but the Marines have not been idle. Spider provided security and was one of the first personnel involved with the natives during their resupply mission. He was also instrumental in finding defenses against the advanced technology used by the ‘warlocks’ against the Boudicca’s crew, and was also involved in the rescue effort to take back two of their abducted crew, including their Chief Science Officer.

With the bombing of his home, Andoria, Spider now has a very personal reason to be in this war and he is driving the Marines hard in training in preparation The Combat Engineers are already planning to play their deadly games with the coming of their current ‘telepath’ mission, so who knows what will happen.

…and with that, we’ve come to the current. Watch this space for more details as they unfold!

Biographical Information & Other

Notes on ‘Spider’

‘Spider’ was a name first given to him on the Drestier, mostly because of his small size and very dexterous frame. He can crawl in and out of tight holes ‘like a spider’, hence the name.

Biography

Name: Leonal 'Spider' Drizzt

Race: Andorian

Sex: Male

Age: 36

Eye Colour: Red

Hair Colour: White

Height: 6 foot 4

Weight: 155 Lbs

Blood Colour: Blue

Skin Colour: Light Blue

Physical Description:

Spider is Andorian, meaning he has blue skin, white hair and antenna. Beyond that, he is thin and built with corded muscle from his years within the Marine corps. Various scars criss-cross his body, detailing a legacy of violence within his chosen profession.

Education:

Standard Education until joining Starfleet Academy

Starfleet Academy - Tactical Track with Engineering courses

Post Academy: Starfleet War College, Marine Training at Paris Island, Advanced Engineering & Combat Engineering courses at Starfleet Academy and on Paris Island (Including the standard Counter Terror courses)

Medical History:

Various scars and broken bones from a long history of combat action.

Skills:

Combat Engineering, Fully skilled Engineer, Explosives Ordinance Disposal, Explosives handling, Counter-Terrorism, Brilliance in Strategy and Tactics for single squad and mid-sized forces. Starfleet Hand-to-Hand Combat. Master Phaser. Average Piloting skills, with the most hours logged aboard standard Marine dropship craft (though he is not rated for anything larger then a Stallion Class Marine runabout.)

Hobbies: Spider collects ancient martial weapons, primarily those of his home-world, although he does have a smattering from other cultures.

Otherwise, like most Marines, he is a bar-rat and can often be found in ten-forward.

Awards:

Awarded Cross of Fire, Awarded Combat Action Ribbon, Awarded Squadron Commanders Commendation

Leonal 'Spider' Drizzt is played by J Trout