Oliver Campbell

Family

• Mother: Jennifer Campbell, writer
• Father: Harris Campbell, deceased former publisher
• Brother: Robert Campbell, Chief of Staff for Secretary Madilyn Campbell
• Sister-in-law: Madilyn Campbell, Secretary of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs, United Earth Parliament
• Nephews:
  • Thomas Campbell
  • Nathan Campbell
  • Cameron Campbell
• Spouse: Fynn Trommler
• Ex-Spouse(s): Andrea Conrad

Early Life

Oliver grew up in Ayr, Scotland, in the United Kingdom. Born on August 5th, 2116, his birth came on an unexpectedly sunny day. He was four weeks early but quickly welcomed into his family. His family consisted only of him and his older brother Robert with their parents being involved in creative literature for most of their lives. Their mother was a well-known writer, and their father was his wife’s publisher. Growing up in a small Scottish town, Oliver got into a lot of trouble and was seen as the family’s rebel. He would get into fights at school and make the wrong choices. His parents spent much time meeting his teachers to deal with his behaviour.

Halfway through his secondary schooling, his mother was given a job to write and produce one of her stories into a Hollywood film. The whole family moved to Los Angeles, Oliver never liked change, and he would act up again while attending his new high school. His grades were never as high as his brother’s, but they were never genuinely awful. He enjoyed playing basketball, American football and was particularly fond of soccer. Robert would eventually attend college and university in the USA when his parents and Oliver moved back to Ayr once the film was completed and won several awards. Oliver was never close to either of his parents, and he soon left home when he turned eighteen to join the British Royal Air Force.

He attended flight school at RAF Cranwell, and it appeared the rogue that he was responded well to military discipline. While there, he met Andrea Conrad, a fellow trainee. The two quickly fell in love, and he married her by the time he was twenty-one. After remaining with the RAF, Oliver became an ace pilot, with Andrea becoming his wingman on several missions and exercises. His career progression was swift, and within a blink of an eye, he eventually became a Squadron Leader. Shortly after this, he placed requests to undertake other flight training and technical engineering. Soon enough, he was assigned to different positions, including flying the private jet RAF-01, assigned to the British Royal family. During this period, his father passed away; Oliver did attend the funeral, but it ended with him having a massive argument with his brother, and the two brothers fell out.

By the time he reached his thirtieth birthday, Andrea had left the RAF and wanted to settle down with a family. Oliver didn’t feel the same, and he wanted a new challenge. One night she jokingly suggested he apply to Starfleet. So, he did. They would go on to argue about this decision for years to come.

Starfleet Career

Early Career

Due to his previous military training and service in the RAF, Starfleet was keen to take Oliver’s application further. He attended one year of intense training and soon left with the rank of lieutenant. While there, he became close friends with Thomas O’Brien. Their friendship was born out of two things: how similar their backgrounds as O’Brien was the only other person in Campbell’s class on the one-year intensive training course because of his previous background and experiences. During a heated exchange between them and their fellow cadets (those who had to do the four-year course who were resentful to them for a “free pass” into Starfleet), Campbell came to O’Brien’s defence and ended up punching the lead instigator. That action led to Campbell receiving a dressing-down by a senior instructor (even though they understood why he was provoked), and the two men soon became friends.

Arrow NCC-130

Oliver was instantly picked to become the chief helm officer for the brand-new Daedalus-class ship Arrow, while Tom joined as the Second Engineer; both became best friends, almost like brothers. The vessel was designed to be slightly faster at impulse and manoeuvrable. Enjoying his time on the Arrow further strained his relationship with Andrea. In 2149, three years after joining Starfleet and one year under his belt on the Arrow, he had planned to see Andrea in Germany. The ship was receiving minor repairs and upgrades, which gave the crew time to take some well-deserved R&R. Oliver had scheduled to meet with Andrea the next day, but that night he had gone out drinking with Tom and his fellow crewmates in Hannover. Oliver became quite intoxicated with his shipmates, who had teamed up with a group of local footballers celebrating a recent match victory. Oliver took one of the players, a Fynn Trommler, back to his hotel room. While the two men were making out in a drunken state, Andrea walked in on them in the act. Not willing to listen to him anymore, Andrea filed for divorce and returned to live with her parents on the Luna colonies. Not feeling an ounce of regret (he felt his marriage had ended a long time ago), Oliver started to see Fynn, who was twelve years younger than him. For this, he got a lot of stick from Tom and other shipmates for having a “toy boy”.

Poseidon NP-01

By 2150, Oliver had married Fynn (who was a rising star on the German football team) in a private ceremony in Hannover (Tom was his best man). He eventually reconciled his differences with his older brother and discovered he had three nephews. Along with that, his sister-in-law was also now Earth’s Foreign Secretary. What only made it worse was that his father-in-law was also Earth’s Health Secretary. Oliver soon accepted a promotion to lieutenant commander and joined the crew of the Poseidon, a ship that Starfleet had constructed in 2148 as one of the prototypes for the NX-class. This ship had more armaments and, like the Arrow, was quick on her feet. Joining as the chief helm officer and second officer, his time with Captain Diana Paulsen gave him the mentor he needed. She took him under her wing and taught him everything she knew, not just about command and leadership but also about engineering. She had been an engineer all of her life and was part of the design and construction team that built the ship. What she knew, Oliver would know. He would regularly join her and other members of the senior staff for meals in the captain’s private dining hall. He built a solid rapport with many of the junior crew, who would often go to him first with any issues. As a result, when her first officer left in 2154 to take command of their ship, Paulsen asked Oliver to step up as her Number One (a nickname she gave all of her executive officers). He gratefully accepted. For the next year, he would be trusted to lead landing parties without Paulsen and deal with most of the ship’s day-to-day operations. Paulsen fully trusted him.

At the start of 2155, he had received a letter from Fynn, who stated he could no longer wait for Oliver to come home and did not want to become a Starfleet widow. Once again, Oliver found himself going through a divorce. Attempting to avoid a state of depression after losing Fynn, he focused on the recently declared war with the Romulans. The ship had been recalled to Earth to help beef-up defences in the home core territories. While there, it was given a new warp five engine; Oliver visited Fynn during this time. He had hoped to change his mind about their separation. The two shared one more romantic night before ending it for good at Fynn’s request. Fynn had told him he could not spend each day worrying if Oliver would come home alive or if he would receive a coffin with a draped UE flag over it on the doorstep. It was just something he could not deal with. In some way, it was a bittersweet end of the year for Oliver. He had gotten to see Fynn, someone he had genuinely fallen in love with and enjoyed writing to and reading letters from. However, his job kept him away from his husband. On December 30^th though, everything would change for Oliver. The Poseidon had just left the Obama repair facility when it was made to join forces with other Starfleet and Coalition ships. The monitoring stations on Pluto had picked up a flotilla of Romulan drone ships entering the system.

The Battle of Sol took place on the evening of December 30^th. It was the largest strike that the Romulan Star Empire had dared to take against the United Earth Commonwealth. Even though Starfleet prevailed, it had been a devastating victory for them too. Many lives and ships had been lost. The Empire had hit key installations and dealt a hefty blow. During the battle, the Poseidon lost its port nacelle, and the explosion from it knocked Captain Paulsen unconscious. Oliver took command of the ship and was able to implement some impressive flying that kept the ship in the fight long enough to bring about a victory. Oliver had single handily flew the ship into a dangerous situation to destroy a spread of nuclear warheads from hitting important targets. Once the battle had ended and Starfleet had called it a triumph, Oliver gave the order for the crew to abandon the ship due to the fact it was heavily damaged and could no longer sustain the crew in its damaged state. Main power and emergency back-ups were no longer operational and life support was failing at critical levels. They would need to get another ship to tow them back to the repair yards. At the start of the year, Oliver (with a recovered Captain Paulsen) attended a meeting at Starfleet Command Headquarters to debrief all those skippers that had been involved in the battle. At the end of the briefing, the Command Council had kept Paulsen and him back. They had shared with them how impressed they were with his command ability and tactical skill, as a result of this they gave Oliver a battlefield promotion to Captain and removed him from the Poseidon. The loss of so many good personnel made Starfleet make some tough choices on assignments on a fleet-wide level. Oliver was the first of many who would receive battlefield promotions and be assigned where the need was the greatest.

Endeavour NX-06

Sat in the NX-complex yards in Earth orbit, the Endeavour hadn’t finished being constructed. She had no warp drive and a limited crew. However, Captain Krischnan Demetriou had decided to launch the ship to assist in the Battle of Sol. His decision was a fateful one as the ship would be hit hard and it received a lot of damage during the fight. Captain Demetriou would die during the attack, along with a majority of the bridge crew after a Romulan fighter rammed into the bridge module. This action resulted in the hull being ripped open – exposing everyone on the bridge to the vacuum of space. Romulan Birds-of-Prey had taken several pot-shots at it too with their plasma cannons, but they were dealt with swiftly by Enterprise and Voyager. Adrift, the Endeavour was towed back into the yards for immediate repairs. On January 1^st, Starfleet Command had given the ship a new captain and ordered Captain Campbell to begin recruiting new members to join him and to oversee the ship’s repairs and final construction phase. On January 11^th, 2156, Oliver sat in the centre chair for the first time and the ship was launched. It was also during this time he found out that his late husband, Fynn, was also posted to the ship as a member of the MACO detachment.

Over the next month or so, Campbell would command the ship into battle against the Romulans on numerous accounts. He was hailed as the hero of Denver after the ship prevented the Romulans from invading the human colony. However it was at a heavy cost to the crew of the Endeavour, a number lost their lives or were injured. Nevertheless, Starfleet felt the ends justified the high cost, Oliver could not agree with this assessment though.

In February 2155 he was given the task of leading a diplomatic mission to Kreetassa in an attempt to formalise further relations with the government there. It was hoped that Endeavour would be successful in getting the Kreetassans to become trading partners with the Coalition of Planets. Instead, Oliver delivered an alliance treaty between Earth and Kreetassa. A bulk of this was down to the fact the Romulans had attacked the Kreetassans and his crew ended up providing relief aid to them. These gestures impressed the Kreetassan government, especially their leader Chancellor Manazol. After conducting a ceremony to propose the treaty with them, Campbell and his staff’s efforts were greatly received by the Kreetassan people. Within a short span of three weeks, Campbell had established something no one else had done with the Kreetassan government. Alongside this, he and Fynn had decided to give their relationship another attempt. This was partly due to the fact that Chancellor Manazol would not accept Campbell’s diplomatic overtures if he did not deal with his personal matters (Kreetassans are very particular about dealing with any unresolved issues in their private lives). Without knowing, the two of them had undergone the Kreetassan’s version of a wedding in front of the ruling council and senior staff of Endeavour. Starfleet and the President of Earth would commend Campbell’s efforts. He left Kreetassa and further talks under the watchful eye of his former mentor, Captain Paulsen while Endeavour travelled to Starbase 1.

As the war continued to rage, Oliver found himself leading his new crew into constant danger. From rescuing the crew of Starbase 1 after a Romulan sneak attack to one of the most decisive battles in 2156 (the Battle of Devron), he eventually became used to the ship continuously fighting. After the Battle of Devron, where he was awarded the Starfleet Medal of Valour, Oliver and his crew became a well-oiled war machine. The ship started to gain a reputation for itself that rivalled those of their fellow NX-class sister ships.

In May, at the Battle of Nelvana, Campbell had tricked the Romulans into thinking that Starfleet had established a beachhead on the third planet by placing a probe on the planet’s surface. The probe emitted false readings, sending signals from a concealed base. The Romulans had sent eight ships into the system to remove the apparent forward base. Not expecting to find a hidden Starfleet task force waiting for them, the Romulans were outgunned two-to-one and were completely obliterated. The impact of this battle later resulted in another Coalition victory a month later, where the Earth colony on Altair VI was successfully defended. The Romulans thinking they could have another go at taking the planet had not expected to find a joint Earth-Andorian-Tellarite task force waiting for them at Altair. As such, after losing ships at Nelvana and now, once again out-gunned, found themselves having to be quite ruthless to damage their enemies. Once again Endeavour led the combined coalition forces to victory, however, the battle resulted in a majority of the Andorian and Tellarite forces being lost. This high cost resulted in both sides withdrawing from supporting the defence of other worlds that were not part of their own states. Also during the battle, the portside hull plating of the Endeavour was melted off by a salvo of nuclear warheads. Oliver was injured and spent two weeks recovering from this.

During the summer of 2156, Endeavour was assigned to convoy duty. Its mission, along with a handful of other Starfleet ships, was to protect the many transports and cargo vessels being used to evacuate the smaller colonies in the Commonwealth that lacked any real defence systems. Operation: Fortress Earth had been created by President Littlejohn, where she had signed an executive order where a large number of Earth’s forces would be withdrawn from outlying regions to assist in the defence of the Sol System and other key colonies. The mass evacuation of the smaller colonies required a combined effort of Starfleet and the Earth Cargo Service (that had been hired to assist with the operation). Thankfully, Endeavour was successful in any engagement during their escort efforts. No civilian life was lost, but in its final mission to evacuate the colonists on Draken IV, Endeavour arrived too late finding the Romulans destroying the colony from an orbital bombardment. Enraged that they would decimate civilians so carelessly, Campbell ordered his ship and task group to attack the Romulans. Though he was victorious, the win for Starfleet came with a cost. Endeavour was heavily damaged and had to be towed back to Earth. The shame of one of Starfleet’s finest ships arriving in the tractor was a crippling blow to troop morale as much as it was to Campbell’s.

Deciding that Endeavour would undergo its refit ahead of schedule, Starfleet ordered the Endeavour to be dry-docked for the next four months. Campbell, along with a handful of his crew, was kept on to oversee the overhaul and repairs while others were given temporary reassignments. During this time, to help get his mind off the war, Oliver re-married Fynn and the two bought a five-bedroom house just outside of the City of Rochester in upstate New York. Being able to escape to something on the ground was a welcome break for the Starfleet captain. While Endeavour sat above them, Oliver would work part-time for Starfleet Tactical, a new division set up earlier on in the year to respond to the Romulan War. He would review and suggest operational deployments for the continuation and success of the Operation Fortress Earth policy. A bulk of Starfleet was now set up to defend the core home territories and it was his job to provide tactical advice to maintain this posture while Earth rebuilt and repaired its forces.