2374: Assigned, Pilot, Starfighter - USS Avenger-B

Gryphon Stone was born in 2353 on Yokota Air Base – Tokyo Japan to Chief Petty Officer (retired) Chuck “Hardhead” and Danielle Stone. He also had a brother, Jared, in Starfleet. His father was rejected from Starfleet Flight School due to inner ear issues. Refusing to let his passion for flight subside he opted into becoming a Crew Chief for the Earth Based Fighter Tactical Wing until he was injured and lost two fingers on his dominant hand, trying to fix a support manifold that was misaligned by a subordinate. He took an early retirement, but never lost his love flight and Starfleet. A fact he continually drilled into his young sons. Gryphon never met his mother because she died due to an adverse reaction to anesthesia during his own Caesarian birth, but he kept her picture near him always and speaks to her at length in times of need. If “Hardhead” is his mind and body, his mother Danielle is his heart. Before her premature demise, his mother had been a base specialist in Xeno-Medicine and as a youth he would spend hours studying his mother’s books and journals on Xeno-Biology and Medicine in a hopeful attempt to identify with the woman he would never know. Jared, like most big brothers was Gryphon’s inspiration; Five years his senior Chucks second born idolizes his brother and hopes one day to prove to his father that he is as worthy of the same love and respect showered upon Jared. These are pleasures his better looking and far more popular brother enjoyed but he had always lacked.

Gryphon devoted his early life into his schooling with the prospect of entering Starfleet like his brother and father before him. He failed to develop as swiftly socially as he did scholastically but managed to graduate second in his class (a fact his old man loved to point out… always second). He received a nomination for Starfleet Fighter Corps Academy from his Astrogation and Flight instructor two years ahead of “schedule” at age 16.

He entered Starfleet Academy in 2369 as a First Year Cadet. Socially awkward he struggled to “fit in” with his classmates. This is further exacerbated by his young age. Jared at this time was currently in Starfleet Command School and the remnants of his older brother’s renowned “legacy” placed further demands on the young pilot in training. What Gryphon lacked in social ability he more then compensated for in star fighting skills. His flight ability constantly pushed the envelope and swiftly earned him the name “Samurai” for his unrelenting drive to complete simulated missions with “bleeding edge” accuracy and almost fanatic attention to detail.

Samurai graduated with honors from the Academy in 2373 with a secondary major in Xeno-Biology (pre med) and was nominated to Starfleet Flight Command – Advanced Starfighter Tactical Academy (ASTA). He graduated in the top 10% of his class in 2374. He was 21 years old and the Federation was in the middle of the Dominion War. Before his graduation ceremony could even begin he was immediately assigned to the 219th Tactical Wing, USS Avenger-B NCC-69925 (Akira Class), under Captain Bradley Barrett, 2nd Fighter Wing, under Lieutenant Far’aka, Starfighter-8. He didn’t even get to see his father before he was brought aboard the Avenger currently in route from Andoria to Dominion – Cardassian Space.

The Avenger arrived at the Cardassian territory border just as the USS Cortez was coming under fire by Jem’Hadar forces during the Kalandra Offensive on stardate 51456.8. Gryphon and the other fighters in the 1st and 2nd starfighter wings managed to drive off the Dominion forces but not before they completed the destruction of the Cortez. The young fighter pilot’s ship was struck by debris from the explosion and nearly destroyed

Gryphon next saw action in both the First the Second Battles of Chin’toka. It’s the Second Battle where he was “posthumously” credited with the “killing blow” to a Breen warship before being destroyed himself after the fleet was hit by the Breen Energy Dampening Weapons. As his uncanny luck would have it, he wasn’t destroyed. With his ship on the most basic of life support and operating on only auxiliary power only his naturally adept flying skills found the green eyed pilot of little renown, crash landing on Chin’toka III, A class M planet that housed several Cardassian military research outposts. He is captured by Cardassian scientists who threaten him with death for war crimes by being a Starfleet starfighter. He managed to convince his captors that he was actually a Xeno-Medical specialist by displaying a “limited” amount of Xeno-Biology knowledge in caring for a wound on one of the scientists forearm. He was allowed to live under the provision that he offered care for fellow detainees.

Gryphon spent the next five years as a detainee of the Cardassians who, for reasons unknown to them, had been cut off with contact from Cardassia Prime. During his captivity the astute Terran learned many things from both his captors and from his fellow prisoners of war. When he finally managed to execute his escape in 2380 by stealing a Cardassian shuttle he could speak fluent Cardassian, and could at least understand, and semi-fluently speak, Romulan and Klingon. Beyond this he was able to plead for his release, complain about living conditions and request food or medical care in at least a dozen other languages.

Gryphon managed to get picked up by Federation forces soon after his escape only to find out that his brother Jared, paid the ultimate sacrifice, when his ship the USS Defiant was destroyed five years before earlier in the during the Second Battle of Chin'toka. After his lengthy debriefing he was sent home to his father back on Earth for a year to mourn and recover from his extended captivity – Administrative Leave of Absence. The reunion was bittersweet. Hardhead wasn’t any less stoic then Gryphon remembered as he embraced a man whose whole life has been one of loss. He would spend the rest of that year caught between an unfeeling old soldier and his own passionate desire to “get back out there.”

In 2382 he once again rejoined the crew of the USS Avenger-B, which somehow managed to survive the Dominion wars (many joke that it’s because Samurai, whose penchant for being in the proximity of destroyed ships wasn’t aboard) as a fighter pilot. He was older then he was when he first stepped aboard this and maybe a little wiser but to him, it was like starting all over again. He still possessed an elite level of starfighter mastery, but to his wing mates he seemed to have lost his youthful zeal. On his off-time he can be found in the sick bay keeping “polished” up on Xeno-Medicine. He liked to quip that he’d forgotten more about alien biology then he would ever know about the human genetic makeup.

Gryphon was caught up in legal troubles when he was accused and pled No Contest to fraternization with a superior officer aboard the USS Avenger. He originally was demoted to Pilot but later this was overturned and he ultimately accepted a transfer to the USS Galaxy as a Starfighter Flight Officer.

Seemingly shy at first he warms up swiftly. Mostly, his shyness is a ruse to hide his fear of social blundering, and it allows him to study the behavioral expectations of those he interacts with. Once he feels accepted he can quip and crack a joke with the rest of them. Gryphon prefers the company of females even though he gets awkward around women he finds attractive. This is preferable to the company of most men for him as he usually feels competitive around males of any species. Nearly all of his mannerisms change the moment he walks into a flight deck or within the cockpit of a small craft. In these two places he is always “Samurai”. Only here is he in “his element” and seems to literally move with a cocky elitist saunter. Most of his wingmates find his “change” amusing but accept it because he really is one of the best starfighter pilots in the fleet. A life long student of the Bushido Code Gryphon will follow the direct order of a superior without question as long as its not about his flying.

Gryphon is a calculating fellow who has several self projects for himself.. He has a mild hatred for Cardassians and as such a desire to learn martial arts so that he may never be taken captive again. The internment experience did help push him from introversion to extroversion in many aspects, but he still seeks improvement in these “soft skills”. His inexperience or ineptness with female relationships is directly proportional to his desire to have such a relationship. This often finds him wanting or even winning the attention of a woman, but with little clue about what to do once has achieved that end. His current plan in this manner is the same he used regarding being more confident at the Academy – “Fake it, till you make it”.

Chuck "Hardhead" Stone - Father - Crew Chief - Chief Petty Officer (retired)

Danielle Stone - Mother - Deceased

LT Jared Stone - Brother - USS Galaxy (Deceased)