William

The Walters Family
Lieutenant Commander William Horatio Walters is the unwilling son of a Sivadian military dynasty. His father is Rear Admiral Cromwell Walters who commands a destroyer flotilla in the Sivadian defense force, while his mother is Victoria Marie Walters-Scott – a member of parliament in the Sivadian government from the Enaj Arcology. He has two older brothers: Captain Robert Nelson Walters of the Staunton-class Battleship ‘Sir Randall Willoughby’ is ten years William’s senior. Commander Christopher Horace Walters is a senior member of the command staff of the Sivadian Home Fleet, and is seven years his senior. In fact, William was, in family planning terms, an after thought.

History
His childhood was reasonably simple. He was given no other choice than proceed to become yet another naval officer of the Walters line, who can proudly trace back their service to Sivad for over 35 generations. This tradition, obviously, was carried on to Orion Union Fleet. To make a long, boring story short, William made it to the academy. He graduated with a surprising, but not record breaking, amount of demerits. According to his mother, a certain relative back in their history may have had an independent streak and William has been tainted with this blood.

Despite being disinterested and a mild discipline case, nepotism had its way with William Walters. He graduated just as the Everwar began, and was quickly assigned to a vessel in the fleet as a young ensign. In the next two years, through the influence of his family, more than anything else, he rose to the rank of lieutenant at a faster than usual rate while he mostly sat in Sivadian orbit in safe assignments. As his mother’s baby boy, the family was not willing to commit him to the frontlines if they could avoid it – despite the cloning tech.

The Everwar
It was several events during the Everwar that catapulted him to rank of Lieutenant Commander at such a young age. The first event got him promoted out of the Sivadian Home Fleet and into the general ranks of the Orion Union Fleet. A pair of Fulton-class barges were captured by the Nall early in the Everwar and were modified. One became a shielded carrier, while the other was loaded with Nall clone commandos. A small fleet of Nall vessels jumped into the outskirts of Ikeopo system, and the Home Fleet reacted swiftly to engage, while the pair of barges jumped in on the opposite side. The Tominov-class destroy Lieutenant William Walters was aboard was the only ship in range to intercept the barges for the usual customs sweep as they made their full, if sluggish, maximum speed towards Sivad.

The destroyer was very much outclassed by the two squadrons of Vril fighters that poured from the lead barge, which also attempted to ram the destroyer. The fighters nearly disabled the destroyer, killing all the officer on the bridge above William. Quickly taking command, and fighting against a scheme were surprise was the main offensive tactic, the crippled destroyer quickly disabled the engines of both barges while fighting off the fighters as best they could. Several squadrons of Blades-class fighter were quickly directed towards them, and managed to destroy the remaining vessels of the surprise attack, leaving a barely functional destroyer that had suffered over fifty percent casualties. At the same time, they had prevented at elite force of Nall warriors from attacking vital Sivadian industries, or perhaps lashing out at the very tech that caused the war.

The quick thinking that William showed in crippling the Nall strike won him an award from Sivad, and the attention of the fleet despite multiple remarks on his record concerning minor incidences of insubordination. Although a man who resented authority, William did show himself a quick thinker, and despite nepotism getting to his position over those better qualified, he proved himself an adept and competent officer. To make a long story short, he was given a position on a bridge of a Staunton-class battleship that saw frontline combat.

Again, there were reports of disciplinary issues. Nevertheless, when battles arose that battleship distinguished itself. A large part of that were the actions of William Walters.

After the War
Eventually, though a little slowed for being difficult, William was promoted to Lieutenant Commander and assigned to the UFCV Versailles as the second officer at the reasonably young age of 30. There he will serve until his term ends, at which point – despite a major fuss from his family – he plans on resigning and figuring out something else to do with his life. The discipline and regimentation central to the military is a yoke that William cannot bear much longer and not become a broken man.

Aboard the Versailles
To be seen