Gold Fleet- Lieutenant Colonel Charles Howden

• played by Mark Mosher
• Updated SD 200703

BILLET INFORMATION

• FULL NAME: Charles Michael Howden
• SURNAME: Howden
• GIVEN NAME: Charles Michael
• CURRENT RANK: Lieutenant Colonel
• CURRENT BILLET: Marine Company Commander, USS Andromeda

ETHNIC BACKGROUND

• SPECIES (EXTRACTION): Human
• GENDER/SEX: Male
• AGE: 83
• DOB: 15 February 2337
• POB: Rock Hill, South Carolina, Earth

FAMILY INFORMATION

• PARENTS: Both Parents Deceased
• SIBLINGS: All Siblings Deceased
• SPOUSE: Commander Issa, Romulan Imperial Navy (Deceased)
• CHILDREN: Aidoann i'Ramnau t'Aimne-Howden

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION

Muscular, well-defined body features, in excellent physical health and condition for a man of his age.

• HEIGHT: 6 feet 3 inches
• WEIGHT: 228 pounds
• HAIR: Gray
• EYES: Dark Brown
• SKIN TONE: Light Tan
• BLODD TYPE: A+
• VISION: 20/10 uncorrected
• RELIGION: Unknown / Assumed Agnostic/Atheist
• CITIZENSHIP: UFP Citizen by Birth
• LANGUAGES: Terran, Klingon, Romulan, Reads Breen, Cardassian, Bajoran

EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND

Academic Institutions Attended

All pre-Starfleet educational records have been lost.

Service Schools Attended

• Starfleet Academy

Qualifications

• Starfleet Intelligence Background
• Weapons/Demolition Expert Certification
• Infiltration Expert Certification
• Strategic Operations Certification
• Marine War College Graduate

Starfleet Academy Record

• Academic Major: Advanced Military Strategic Planning
• Professional Major: Intelligence
• Class Rank: Upper 1%
• Reprimands: None on file
• Commendations: None on file
• Athletics: None on file
• Activities: None on file

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

Chronology (tabular form)

• 0-18: Attended Terran School System
• 18: Accepted into Starfleet Academy
• 18-21: Attended Starfleet Academy
• 21-38: First Tour with Starfleet as an Intelligence Operative
• 38-70: Cryogenically frozen
• 70-83: Second Tour with Starfleet as Marine/Intelligence Operative

Background Summary

Charles Howden grew up in the rural town of Rock Hill, South Carolina. His childhood was rather normal for a child of such upbringing, with no unusual happenings occurring for most of his first 18 years of life. While he spent a good majority of his time playing sports, and otherwise building his body, Charles also spent a good portion of his time in libraries, studying Earth history, mainly the history of Earth wars.

Personality Summary

• Likes: Discipline, people that have good attention to detail
• Dislikes: Ignorance, rude behavior and individuals that don't know when they have crossed the line
• Strengths: Commanding presence, superior tactician
• Weaknesses: Very quick tempered, impatient at times

OFFICIAL STAR FLEET RECORD

Promotion History

• Stardate (23)580529: Commissioned as Second Lieutenant (O-1)
• Stardate (23)600830: Promotion to First Lieutenant (O-2)
• Stardate (23)620701: Promotion to Lieutenant Major (O-3)
• Stardate (23)661119: Promotion to Major (O-4)
• Stardate (24)180421: Demotion to Lieutenant Major (O-3)
• Stardate (24)190902: Promotion to Lieutenant Colonel (O-5)

Service History

• Stardate (23)580529: Entered Starfleet Academy
• Stardate (23)190501: Graduated from Star Fleet Academy: Second Lieutenant (O-1)
• Stardate (23)58XXXX: Intelligence Officer, Intelligence Team XI: Second Lieutenant (O-1)
• Stardate (23)60XXXX: Weapons/Demolitions Expert, Intelligence Team XI: First Lieutenant (O-2)
• Stardate (23)62XXXX: Infiltration Expert, Intelligence Team XI: Lieutenant Major (O-3)
• Stardate (23)64XXXX: Strategic Operations Officer/Second Officer, Intelligence Team XI: Lieutenant Major (O-3)
• Stardate (23)66XXXX: Acting Executive Officer/ Strategic Operations Officer, Intelligence Team XI: Major (O-4)
• Stardate (23)67XXXX: Executive Officer, Intelligence Team XI: Major (O-4)
• Stardate (23)69XXXX: Marine War College
• Stardate (23)70XXXX: Executive Officer, Intelligence Team XI: Major (O-4)
• Stardate (23)73XXXX: Assistant to the Starfleet Intelligence Director, Starfleet Intelligence Headquarters: Major (O-4)
• Stardate (23)75XXXX: MIA/Presumed KIA (Metabolic Stasis)
• Stardate (24)11XXXX: Debriefing, Office of Star Fleet Intelligence
• Stardate (24)12XXXX: Mandatory retirement from Star Fleet service
• Stardate (24)15XXXX: Marine Platoon Commander, USS MONITOR, NCC-31849: Lieutenant Major (O-3)
• Stardate (24)19XXXX: Marine Company Commander, Deep Space 13: Lieutenant Major (O-3)
• Stardate (24)19XXXX: Special Agent in Charge, TF Sierra: Lieutenant Colonel (O-5)
• Stardate (24)20XXXX: Marine Company Commander, USS ANDROMEDA: Lieutenant Colonel (O-5)

Medals and Commendation

All commendations given in first tour of duty have been excluded from this file for simplicity. None received so far in second tour of duty.

SKILLS PROFILE

Charles Howden is a tactician with few rivals. His analytical abilities and his attention to detail are unparalleled by anyone but the genetically enhanced in Starfleet. Coupled with his amazing stealth and stunning agility, Howden is considered to be a lethal entity, armed or unarmed.

RECENT FITNESS REPORTS

Lt. Major Charles Howden performs his duties with a dedication and passion that is to be envied and admired in an officer. His leadership skills and motivational abilities are the stuff of legend and this has made him stand out as one of the finest individuals I have ever had the pleasure of serving with. He would be an asset no matter where Starfleet decided to place him.

Captain Gerald Moore Commanding Officer, USS Monitor

CURRENT RECREATIONAL INTERESTS

Enjoys working out, reading strategies from all manners of wars, spending time in the holodeck

MISCELLENEOUS INFORMATION (CAREER HISTORY)

During his four years at Starfleet Academy, Charles Howden showed remarkable skill for managing personnel and planning battle strategies. His leadership skills were surprisingly developed for someone so young, and his ability to garner results from anyone he was placed with was the subject of much admiration.

Because of the unusual request made by Cmdr. Grindle to recruit the up and coming Marine Cadet, several high ranking officials with Starfleet Intelligence approached 2Lt. Howden with an offer. They suspected that Grindle had some ulterior plans beyond simple career ambition; unfortunately all internal operatives had been discovered and ousted. Their hope was that, having only recently come up through the Academy, 2Lt. Howden would be able to effectively infiltrate the team's inner sanctum and if the need arose, prevent Grindle from carrying out anything untoward. Because of Howden's fierce sense of loyalty to the Corps and Starfleet, he accepted their `deal' and waited for graduation.

Upon leaving the Academy, 2nd Lt. Howden was given the position with Cmdr. Grindle's Intelligence Team. Upon actually meeting Howden, Commander Brian Grindle saw great potential in the fresh faced young 2nd Lt. This being the case because of his superior ability to garner trust and information from people he came into contact with. 2nd Lt. Howden's first assignment was as an Intelligence Officer, a position that gave him broad experiences and contact with virtually all the members of the large intelligence team. After a few years serving as an Intel officer, 2nd Lt. Howden requested that he be transferred to an area where he would gain a much more useful set of skills to aid him in his mission.

His request was granted in the form of Weapons and Demolitions Expert, where he spent several months training with some of the best operatives in the field. Because of his desire to learn, Lt. Howden mastered most of what he was taught, though his level of competence began to fall off after he was exposed to the most complicated and hard to master weapons and explosives. This did not diminish his effectiveness, however, and he went on to serve in the post with remarkable flair and style. Several notable, though classified engagements with Federation enemies saw the inventive use of explosives not only to distract and confound the enemy, but to aid the team in the completion of their missions, something that greatly impressed Captain Grindle.

His next transfer was one that now 1st Lt. Howden never asked for. Because of his undisputed mastery of all things destructive, Capt. Grindle decided to test Lt. Howden's ability to use stealth and cunning to get a job done, rather than brute force and a hail of weapons fire. Such a complete shift in roles was indeed a challenge for the Marine, and though he would later succeed in mastering even that, his early attempts proved less than masterful. His first mission as an Infiltration Expert proved too much for his limited experience with the covert world. In the midst of a rather important and highly classified mission, Lt. Howden inadvertently destroyed a power distribution network, causing himself and several team members to be discovered and captured after a lengthy battle against superior numbers. Thankfully a rescue operation swiftly spirited them away before their existence could be made public and their entire mission compromised. Subsequent missions proved far more successful, and Lt. Howden's exploits soon earned him a promotion to Lieutenant Major.

A year after his promotion to Lieutenant Major, Maj. Howden found himself taking on a role that he, in his mind, had been born to fulfill, that of Strategic Operations Officer. His prowess for planning and effectively utilizing the strengths of the individual members of a team to execute nearly flawless missions within enemy territory earned him much respect among his peers and superiors. At the end of his third year as the Strategic Operations Officer, the Intelligence Team found themselves faced with a tragic loss. On a mission to infiltrate a Romulan outpost suspected of making raids on Federation holdings near the Neutral Zone, the team's Executive Officer was discovered, savagely tortured, and put to death. This sent shockwaves through the team, and morale was crippled for months.

The news suddenly reached Maj. Howden that he would be filling in as the Executive Officer until a suitable candidate was found. Such news seemed to instantly stave off the tide of poor morale, though he did very little in the way of run the team as his duties as a strategist took up most of his time. A year after his appointment as Acting Executive officer, Commodore Grindle came to Major Howden with new orders. It seemed that his service to the team in the dual role had garnered him much support and much admiration for the Commodore's cause.

With the permanent title of Executive Officer, Major Howden was given the task of removing agents that could not be trusted. The Major did the Commodore's bidding with ruthless efficiency, sweeping through the large intelligence team in a matter of months. The loyal ITXI members stood firmly behind their Executive Officer, and began to do much of his work for him to prove their worth to him and Commodore Grindle. Within a year, Major Howden had solidified Commodore Grindle's position within the intelligence community, which gained him a class date to the Marine War College.

The year spent in the War College was mainly to learn the principles of commanding units in the Corps, and had little to do with his duties as an Intelligence Officer, though none but the Commandant knew that he was an intelligence officer of great skill and prowess. Despite never having been a part of a standard Marine Company, Major Howden's natural leadership abilities and adaptable nature gained him a graduation with honors, something even the Commandant of the College thought was out of his reach given his knowledge base.

Upon returning to Intelligence Team XI, Maj. Howden began to place the operatives he knew he could trust in various locations to facilitate the culmination of Commodore Grindle's plans. The Dominion War, which started three years after his return to ITXI, greatly impeded their plans. Throughout the War, Maj. Howden and his team were called upon to deal with the covert threats to the Federation, including the Changeling infiltration. While Maj. Howden never saw any front line action, nor did he participate in any of the more widely known battles of the war, he and his team did manage to impact the war and secure their Commanding Officer the office of Director of the Starfleet Intelligence Bureau.

With Rear Admiral Grindle in the position he had been seeking so very long, Maj. Howden was finally given the orders to implement the plans that had been left on the back burners while the Dominion threat was being dealt with. Over the next three years, various diplomats, representatives, and covert operations outposts were replaced or re- staffed, changes that were meant to bring about Admiral Grindle's domination of the Federation. The sudden involvement of ITIV in the Admiral's grand scheme gave Major Howden the opportunity he'd been waiting for since 2355, the chance to bring Grindle down. While on the surface, he did all that he could to impede ITIV and their mission, once they successfully ousted the Admiral from his position as Director of Intelligence, Major Howden was able to pull his hidden strings and slowly cripple Adm. Grindle and his followers. Using agents that were singularly loyal to him, and not the Admiral's true cause, Howden instrumented dozens of mysterious accidents and disappearances of key allies to the Grindle faction that began to slowly but surely strip the Admiral of his power base in the Federation.

The failed assassination attempt of President Jaresh-Inyo forced Major Howden to emerge from his hidden position of opposition and take a much more active role in the capture of the renegade Admiral. Together with ITIV, Howden managed to locate the man, who had fled to Romulan space with the aid of some Romulan allies Grindle had kept secret, even from Howden. Armed with the knowledge that the rogue Admiral was using Romulan help to carry out his plan for domination, Major Howden approached the Federation Counsel and presented them with nearly twenty years worth of evidence in an effort to secure a call for action. Such action was indeed called for, and though Major Howden had played a key role in the Admiral's plans, he was granted immunity from prosecution due to both his hidden efforts and the efforts he had made in the forefront to stop Grindle now that he was nearing success.

Howden led the members of ITIV to Remus, where they encountered the Admiral and his Romulan companions. The ensuing battle was chaotic and devastating, and in the process of Grindle's capture, Major Howden was reported as missing. Starfleet records up to this point indicated that he was presumed killed in action, as no evidence of his being alive could be found, and he never resurfaced anywhere in the Federation.

Major Howden had not, however, been killed in the effort, successful as it was. He had, however, been wounded severely and found by officers of the Romulan Imperial Navy, who had been dispatched to clean up the mess made by the rebels who were helping Grindle. Whether it was an act of benevolence or sheer luck, Howden was immediately placed in status for his injuries, and somewhere in route was transferred to a medical facility where he would remain, almost forgotten, for thirty-five years.

Sometime during 2408, Major Howden's status pod was returned to the Federation, however it would not be noticed for a further two years. At the tail end of 2410, Maj. Howden was finally revived and given medical attention for the nearly four decades old injuries he'd suffered, as well as receiving life-extension treatment in an effort to give him back some of the time he'd lost due to his stasis.

The following year greeted the newly awakened Howden with a battery of debriefings by the current incarnation of Starfleet Intelligence. His entire life history was placed under the microscope. While the investigation provided them with little information they did not already possess, a recommendation was made to have the Major retired from service as a precautionary measure.

Two years being away from the Corps seemed like an eternity for Howden. While his expertise was of great desire in the civilian security sector, it didn't have the rigid discipline that, to Howden, he had enjoyed and grown accustomed to all his life. To him, the last thirty some odd years had gone by in an instant. And to add insult to injury, he had been forced to retire well before he was ready.

Howden made several appeals to the Judge Advocate General's office, all but one being denied. The very last attempt saw the uncovering of the Major's Presidential Pardon, while post-humorously awarded, given his MIA/KIA status according to the records of the time, it was still a matter of record and was enough firepower to see that the Major was reinstated. The conditions given to him for his return to service were that he took a demotion to Lieutenant Major, which Howden had very little problem with, and that he was not to reenter the intelligence community ever again. Both conditions were immediately accepted by the man, and he finally was allowed to don the uniform of a Marine once more.

His first assignment was aboard the USS Monitor as Platoon Commander; an assignment that Howden made great efforts to excel in given his unfamiliarity with the 25th century. To the Major's surprise, the Marine Corps had had not changed much. The discipline demanded of a Marine was identical to that of his time, and the methods of command were so close to his own that he hardly needed time to adapt. The Monitor's Marine unit was nominated several times as one of the best Fleet Marine Force units in Starfleet, and while they lost to larger units each time, Howden considered it a point of pride that such a small detachment could be on par with the battalions that won the award over them.

Given the great efforts Maj. Howden put forth to make his unit shine, Starfleet Command decided to give him more responsibility. With a recent vacancy at Deep Space 13, Lt. Major Howden was ordered to take command of Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Expeditionary Unit, and turn it in to one of the best in Gold Fleet.

During his tour with Deep Space 13, a vacancy suddenly arose within Task Force Sierra, and although the stipulations of his reactivation would have prohibited his appointment to the position, it was decided by unanimous vote that Maj. Howden was the most qualified individual in Starfleet to take command of the most elite of intelligence groups since the disbanding of Starfleet's Intelligence Team program some ten years after Howden's initial disappearance. It was also decided that his original rank would be reinstated, that of full Major, and a promotion issued on top of that to give him the Command authority required for such a position. No sooner where his orders issued did Colonel Howden find himself thrown right into the clutches of intrigue once again…