Matthew Decker (2215-2268)
Matthew Decker - CO of the Yorktown and Constellation, decorated combat officer and explorer - was the archetypal Starfleet captain of the 2260s. He was, in many ways, the prototype of Jim Kirk: the decisive, charismatic leader. He had flaws, but he was, at heart, Starfleet to the core. In a time when many within the ranks of Starfleet succumbed to militarism, jingoism and apathy for the exploratory principle, Decker's own tactical acumen never came at the expense of his principles - or his duty to the primary mission of scientific discovery.
Matthew Decker was born in New York City on December 14th 2215, the son of William and Angela Decker. The Decker family were an old-style 'military' family; both his parents had served in the Federation Ground Forces, while a Decker had been involved in every major military conflict that involved the old United States. Deckers had been present at Gettysburg, Midway and Bitulok Valley; his grandfather had been a gunnery officer aboard the UES Marathon at the Vela Gap and Cheron. Service was therefore expected of Decker; despite this, he began to display an increasing antipathy towards strict military service throughout his adolescence. While, in 2235, he would enrol at the Forester Military Academy in High Point, North Carolina, he would choose to take the Starfleet Academy entrance exam in his third year; passing with flying colours, he would join the Starfleet Command School as a final year Midshipman in 2239, the same year he married his wife Jane. The decision to become "an explorer, not a security goon" would sever his relationship with his parents for fifteen years; one of his many regrets was that his parents refused to meet his sons Willard and George upon their birth in 2242. Decker graduated from Starfleet Command School in 2240 as a Lieutenant Junior Grade; he was assigned to the Marshall class destroyer USS Patton Oswalt. The Patton was over 80 years old by then; built immediately after the Federation was formed, the aging destroyer served as a second-line escort, operating as part of the "Prospectors Protection Squadron" out of Starbase 18. By 2244, Lieutenant Commander Decker served as CO of the Patton when she and the Eisenhower were ambushed by a superior Klingon force in the Donatu system. Decker - along with Commander Jose Mendez, CO of the Eisenhower would work together to draw the Klingons away from the dilithium prospectors to the Gas Giant Donatu V, where they fought a running battle with the 3 Klingon ships until reinforcements in the shape of the recently commissioned USS Constitution & USS T'Plana Hath arrived. Decker's conduct as CO of the Patton would earn him the Starfleet Medal and promotion to Commander; after a brief period as a security chief on Starbase 4 (a job he detested) Decker & as First Officer aboard the USS Constellation, in 2250 Decker would become a tactics lecturer at Starfleet Academy; while he disliked being associated with the martial side of Starfleet, his lessons on tactical restraint and careful use of force would stick with the cohorts he taught, which included famous figures like James T. Kirk, Lance Cartwright and Isita Chandran. In 2252, he would be given command of the USS Yorktown for her first "Five-Year Mission". While the Mission would be curtailed by the outbreak of war in 2256, Decker would be credited with the discovery of several dozen systems in the lower Beta Quadrant, as well as the first credited mapping of the Cestus sector. Decker's war service is best known for the long retreat of the Yorktown after the battle of the Alwanir Nebula. The ship and the surviving members of Admiral Igvon's Task Force would fight a delaying action all the way back to the Rigel Colonies, herding a flotilla of Corps of Engineer tugs, transports and police frigates with them, earning himself the Star Cross and the Rigel Medal of Freedom. The Klingon War significantly hardened Decker's attitudes to space; Yorktown's flight corewards had followed in the wake of significant social disarray and collapse, as colonies and worlds dependent on Starfleet support withered on the vine. Post-war, Decker would be seconded to Admiral Shukar, where he would help write much of fateful Shukar report. Decker's attack on Starfleet military practice was damning, and made him many enemies in the exploratory force, cementing him in many circles as a "military man" despite his explorer's credentials. He would eventually return to a field command in 2259, taking over as CO of USS Constellation, a former testbed ship converted into a flight II Constitution. He would command her until the ship's destruction, and his own death. Despite being one of the 1st Fleet's core of exploration Starships, Constellation would find herself at the frontline of the brewing cold war with the Klingons, taking part in anti-piracy operations, flag-flying missions to Cajitar and Xahea and other "military activities". Most famously, Decker would command the blockade of the Acamar System in 2262: his actions proved pivotal in preventing escalation to a General War. Decker's decision to report the illegal arms aboard the merchant ship Basra to Starfleet Command were critical in the toppling of President Broadhurst, and accredited him as a "man of honour" during the tense negotations with the Klingon General Kesh, which allowed both sides to withdraw from Acamar with their dignity intact. Decker would return to earth as a reluctant hero, increasingly discomforted with his military role but resolved to defend the Federation from an Empire he viewed as "a bunch of rule-breaking goons." In February 2263, Decker would be promoted to Commodore, and given roving command of Rapid Action Force (Constellation) - with mission patch modelled on the Acamar symbol of peace. RAF Constellation would be assigned to the far end of Klingon Command; Decker would be the first Starfleet Captain to enter the Taurus Reach in Summer 2263, before being recalled during the Kobax Crisis. Decker would continue to make a name for himself as the face of a renewed Starfleet, encouraging the careers of junior commanders like Ishita Chandran, Harry Morrow and Jim Kirk. Despite being increasingly called upon as a task force commander, Decker continued to rack up a significant number of scientific discoveries, mapping both the Alwanir Nebula and the Alshanai Rift in more detail than before. He also continued to push back against more militant types within the Tactical Fleet, opposing plans to convert the Constitution into an entirely military vessel and continuing to argue for the independence of the 1st Fleet. While the Constellation and it's destroyer task force did not participate in the Four Day's War, it was earmarked for post war patrols and "flag flying duty". With 2nd Fleet understrength and facing a new threat from the other side of the Romulan Neutral Zone, Constellation would join Enterprise, Exeter and Intrepid as "firefighter" vessels along the length of the new neutral zone, reacting to and opposing those who were attempting to exploit the new normal for their own gain. Constellation would go missing after responding to the loss of communication in the Yridia Sector; she was found a week later by USS Enterprise, wrecked in battle with the mysterious planet killer, her crew killed during a desperate attempt to save their lives; Decker was killed shortly during the battle with the immense machine. The destruction of Constellation and the death of Matt Decker at the hands of the "Planet Killer" came as a massive shock to Starfleet and the UFP. Decker had already been earmarked for command of the 2nd Fleet, or even commandant of the Academy. A great hero and leader had been lost. Decker would recieve a state funeral in Paris, attended by thousands; his wife, however, would refuse to allow a memorial in the Starfleet cemetary in San Franisco. Instead, Decker is memorialised at his family plot in Arlington Military Cemetery. Both Deckers' sons followed his father into the Stellar Service; Willard Decker, who would briefly serve as CO of the USS Enteprrise, went missing during the V'Ger Incident; after this, his younger brother George would resign from his field posts and become a teacher at Starfleet Academy for the rest of his career. Matthew Decker is always remembered as a more militant man than his actions displayed; certainly he never shied from battle, but he never believed that combat was the primary role of Starfleet. His militarist turn in the 2260s was already waning by the time of his death, as he adjusted to the new normal of the Organian Peace; it is unlikely that he would be remembered for his most famous quote - "I’m starting to realize that ‘we come in peace’ only means something if they’re clear on the fact we can also kick their ass" - if he had lived longer. |
InformationFull Name: Matthew Brand Decker
Born: 12th December October 2215 (New York, North America, Earth) Died: 10th Feburary 2268 (System L-374) Affiliation: United Federation of Planets Branch of Service: UESPA, Federation Star Fleet Service History
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Excerpts From "The Edge of Midnight"
Captain Matthew Decker first heard of the rumblings properly when he finally arrived back on Earth in December 2257. “I knew that there was clearly going to be a clean sweep. We all did. Starfleet Command hadn’t just dropped the ball this time. They’d had the damn thing kicked in the face, and even if they didn’t want to admit it, we all knew it. We’d had our asses handed to us by the Klingons.”
Decker was one of the few Starfleet Captains who had any experience fighting and beating the Klingons before the 2250s, with major combat experience in the Four Years’ War.[1] Descended from a line of naval officers that went back as far as the Battle of Midway, Decker's early education began at the Forester Military Academy in High Point, North Carolina followed by Brunswick Academy and then Starfleet Academy. He’d made a name for himself at the 2244 battle of Donatu V, where he’d commanded an outdated Patton class starship against three Klingon ships until reinforcements arrived, saving the APA station in orbit from destruction.[2] His recent record was similarly prolific: as the Captain of the USS Yorktown, he’d fought a long delaying action all the way back to the Rigel Colonies, herding a small flotilla of Corps of Engineer tugs, transports and police frigates with him. Upon arrival, he immediately put them to work forming a system patrol that was dubbed the “Seabee Squadron'' after the 20th-century nickname for navy engineers.
He’d expected to be kept on as the CO of the Yorktown, but instead, he was recalled to Earth for an unstated reason. “Honestly, I expected to be bawled out for breaking some stupid law, or for pissing off the Rigellians,” he wrote to his wife. “Not whatever this was.”[3] Upon arrival, he was ordered to report to Starfleet Command on the 14th of December 2257: the day after his 42nd Birthday. “I’ll admit Jane, I was hungover, and the train ride from San-Fran to the Presidio didn’t help that. I nearly threw up all over my nice new yellow uniform, which would have been a really bad start to the day.”
Expecting to be ushered upstairs to the Admiral’s offices, he found himself being led downstairs into the depths of the Starfleet Headquarters, down winding corridors until he found himself in a large office with a huge viewscreen on one wall. “Admiral Ch'Shukar was sitting behind a desk, staring at a padd. He glanced up at me, grinning. ‘Welcome to my lair, Captain Decker,’ he said. It certainly felt like a goddamn lair to me. No windows at all. It was grim. The Admiral handed me one of the padds and asked, ‘How would you like to define how Starfleet works for the next decade, Captain?’ Now how do you say no to that? I told him ‘Do I have to read this here?’ He chuckled and told me to come back tomorrow and tell me what I thought of his notes. So, I left that damned Andorian in his lair, the poor bastard with those big blue Antennae grinning at a desk full of padds, data cards and even some godforsaken paper documents.”
Decker was one of the few Starfleet Captains who had any experience fighting and beating the Klingons before the 2250s, with major combat experience in the Four Years’ War.[1] Descended from a line of naval officers that went back as far as the Battle of Midway, Decker's early education began at the Forester Military Academy in High Point, North Carolina followed by Brunswick Academy and then Starfleet Academy. He’d made a name for himself at the 2244 battle of Donatu V, where he’d commanded an outdated Patton class starship against three Klingon ships until reinforcements arrived, saving the APA station in orbit from destruction.[2] His recent record was similarly prolific: as the Captain of the USS Yorktown, he’d fought a long delaying action all the way back to the Rigel Colonies, herding a small flotilla of Corps of Engineer tugs, transports and police frigates with him. Upon arrival, he immediately put them to work forming a system patrol that was dubbed the “Seabee Squadron'' after the 20th-century nickname for navy engineers.
He’d expected to be kept on as the CO of the Yorktown, but instead, he was recalled to Earth for an unstated reason. “Honestly, I expected to be bawled out for breaking some stupid law, or for pissing off the Rigellians,” he wrote to his wife. “Not whatever this was.”[3] Upon arrival, he was ordered to report to Starfleet Command on the 14th of December 2257: the day after his 42nd Birthday. “I’ll admit Jane, I was hungover, and the train ride from San-Fran to the Presidio didn’t help that. I nearly threw up all over my nice new yellow uniform, which would have been a really bad start to the day.”
Expecting to be ushered upstairs to the Admiral’s offices, he found himself being led downstairs into the depths of the Starfleet Headquarters, down winding corridors until he found himself in a large office with a huge viewscreen on one wall. “Admiral Ch'Shukar was sitting behind a desk, staring at a padd. He glanced up at me, grinning. ‘Welcome to my lair, Captain Decker,’ he said. It certainly felt like a goddamn lair to me. No windows at all. It was grim. The Admiral handed me one of the padds and asked, ‘How would you like to define how Starfleet works for the next decade, Captain?’ Now how do you say no to that? I told him ‘Do I have to read this here?’ He chuckled and told me to come back tomorrow and tell me what I thought of his notes. So, I left that damned Andorian in his lair, the poor bastard with those big blue Antennae grinning at a desk full of padds, data cards and even some godforsaken paper documents.”
Matt Decker had just arrived on the Constellation’s bridge for the 1st watch when the emergency order to Acamar arrived. “I heard the high-pitched whine of the flash-fax over my shoulder. By the time I turned round, Lieutenant Ru had it in hand.”[44] The order – straight from COMSTAR himself was frank.
USS CONSTELLATION TO BREAK OFF CURRENT ACTIVITY AND MAKE BEST SPEED FOR ACAMAR SYSTEM. CONSTELLATION TO FORM LEAD SHIP IN TRADE PROTECTION TASK FORCE. USS HONG KONG, AG ROBINSON, ERNEST KING, REV-UAN AND SYNAK TO JOIN CONSTELLATION AT CO-ORDINATES B-ACA-1SD-645. ADDITIONAL ORDERS RELATING TO OPERATION “INTERLUDE” TO BE TRANSMITTED BY KLICOM AND 2ND FLEET COMMANDERS.
A further section added, almost as an afterthought:
COMMANDING OFFICER USS CONSTELLATION IS BREVETTED TO RANK OF FLEET CAPTAIN FOR DURATION OF “INTERLUDE”.
Decker’s bridge crew offered him congratulations. “I told them to can it. There was nothing congratulate me over. Now we’re heading straight into the jaw of this Acamarian nightmare without even half the strength we need. I dread to think what might – will happen when the Klingons find out what we’re doing.”[45]
Operation Interlude – a curtailed version of Introspection – would go into effect on the 15th of June. Interlude’s task force was miniscule compared to the demands of Sh’Belulos, for a multitude of reasons. With the continuation of Kadis-Khot II and 2nd Fleet conducting a multi-front antipiracy operation at the same time, few ships could be spared immediately. The task force lead, USS Constellation, had been re-directed from a Pulsar study near Barolia to lead the operation; the frigates and cruisers of CRURON 30 were, in fact, a synthesis of vessels from CRURONs 14 and 16; USS A.G. Robinson had only been on active service for five weeks. It was a paltry collection of vessels, really; a symptom of Mehkan’s inability to push back against Rittenhouse and Broadhurst and create the space for cooler heads to prevail.
Decker was correct to worry about how few forces he had at his disposal. By h-hour on the 15th, he had at his disposal a mere eight ships; one heavy cruiser, 2 light cruisers, 3 destroyers and 2 frigates with which had was meant to protect commerce across nearly 15 cubic light years.[46] Even with the travel restrictions and now very clear danger to trade, shielding all traffic from the Acamarians was essentially impossible. What traffic could be herded into convoys was already doing so undern the purview of 2nd Fleet and the Federation Border Patrol, but this only accounted for about 48% of all trade in the region, and only 68% of Federation-flagged tonnage.
The intelligence picture was even worse; Starfleet Intelligence’s information gathering mission on Acamarian fleet movements – Operation Bovine Incursion – was dead on arrival; the other operations in the region (Cornhole and One-Night-Stand) were even less useful to Decker.[47] Even the overall goal of Interlude evaded him. The priority orders from San Francisco emphasised “the importance of restricting Acamarian freedom of movement within treaty space”, while the operational plan for Interlude (which had been written by KLICOM with confirmation by Paris) emphasised “trade protection over search-and-destroy activity”. Crucially, Klingon Command and Starfleet Headquarters seemed to disagree over red lines; despite having a more defensive mindset, Decker’s orders from Admiral Paris gave him purview to act within the 3 light year limit; something that Starfleet Command did not.
Decker stepped up to the thankless task with typical brusqueness. “When you’re wading through hell, the one thing they tell you to do is keep going”, he told his wife. “So what else am I meant to do?” Decker would split the force into three mutually supporting groups, with Constellation paired with the two frigates, Hong Kong with the Synak and USS A.G. Robinson with Xerxes and Ch’Fnalliuk. From the 15th, the three groups move coreward from the rendezvous to form a cordon along the main trade routes, acting as, in Decker’s words, “a moving cordon between Acamar and the main trade corridor.”[48] Crucially, his force would operate mostly on the far side of Acamar from the Klingons; an overt attempt by Decker to avoid a confrontation with the Imperial Navy.
USS CONSTELLATION TO BREAK OFF CURRENT ACTIVITY AND MAKE BEST SPEED FOR ACAMAR SYSTEM. CONSTELLATION TO FORM LEAD SHIP IN TRADE PROTECTION TASK FORCE. USS HONG KONG, AG ROBINSON, ERNEST KING, REV-UAN AND SYNAK TO JOIN CONSTELLATION AT CO-ORDINATES B-ACA-1SD-645. ADDITIONAL ORDERS RELATING TO OPERATION “INTERLUDE” TO BE TRANSMITTED BY KLICOM AND 2ND FLEET COMMANDERS.
A further section added, almost as an afterthought:
COMMANDING OFFICER USS CONSTELLATION IS BREVETTED TO RANK OF FLEET CAPTAIN FOR DURATION OF “INTERLUDE”.
Decker’s bridge crew offered him congratulations. “I told them to can it. There was nothing congratulate me over. Now we’re heading straight into the jaw of this Acamarian nightmare without even half the strength we need. I dread to think what might – will happen when the Klingons find out what we’re doing.”[45]
Operation Interlude – a curtailed version of Introspection – would go into effect on the 15th of June. Interlude’s task force was miniscule compared to the demands of Sh’Belulos, for a multitude of reasons. With the continuation of Kadis-Khot II and 2nd Fleet conducting a multi-front antipiracy operation at the same time, few ships could be spared immediately. The task force lead, USS Constellation, had been re-directed from a Pulsar study near Barolia to lead the operation; the frigates and cruisers of CRURON 30 were, in fact, a synthesis of vessels from CRURONs 14 and 16; USS A.G. Robinson had only been on active service for five weeks. It was a paltry collection of vessels, really; a symptom of Mehkan’s inability to push back against Rittenhouse and Broadhurst and create the space for cooler heads to prevail.
Decker was correct to worry about how few forces he had at his disposal. By h-hour on the 15th, he had at his disposal a mere eight ships; one heavy cruiser, 2 light cruisers, 3 destroyers and 2 frigates with which had was meant to protect commerce across nearly 15 cubic light years.[46] Even with the travel restrictions and now very clear danger to trade, shielding all traffic from the Acamarians was essentially impossible. What traffic could be herded into convoys was already doing so undern the purview of 2nd Fleet and the Federation Border Patrol, but this only accounted for about 48% of all trade in the region, and only 68% of Federation-flagged tonnage.
The intelligence picture was even worse; Starfleet Intelligence’s information gathering mission on Acamarian fleet movements – Operation Bovine Incursion – was dead on arrival; the other operations in the region (Cornhole and One-Night-Stand) were even less useful to Decker.[47] Even the overall goal of Interlude evaded him. The priority orders from San Francisco emphasised “the importance of restricting Acamarian freedom of movement within treaty space”, while the operational plan for Interlude (which had been written by KLICOM with confirmation by Paris) emphasised “trade protection over search-and-destroy activity”. Crucially, Klingon Command and Starfleet Headquarters seemed to disagree over red lines; despite having a more defensive mindset, Decker’s orders from Admiral Paris gave him purview to act within the 3 light year limit; something that Starfleet Command did not.
Decker stepped up to the thankless task with typical brusqueness. “When you’re wading through hell, the one thing they tell you to do is keep going”, he told his wife. “So what else am I meant to do?” Decker would split the force into three mutually supporting groups, with Constellation paired with the two frigates, Hong Kong with the Synak and USS A.G. Robinson with Xerxes and Ch’Fnalliuk. From the 15th, the three groups move coreward from the rendezvous to form a cordon along the main trade routes, acting as, in Decker’s words, “a moving cordon between Acamar and the main trade corridor.”[48] Crucially, his force would operate mostly on the far side of Acamar from the Klingons; an overt attempt by Decker to avoid a confrontation with the Imperial Navy.