Amelia Steele

Amelia Steele (Ah-me-lee-ah - Ste-ul) held many records in the positions she reached: She was the first human Grand Councillor, the youngest Grand Councillor of any race, the first and final Chief-of-Staff in the Human Military and the last Grand Councillor of any type of the Galactic Council. Her original first name remains lost to history.

She is generally seen as a hero to most of humanity along with the many other races that she protected during the Annihilation War. Her humble beginnings and great achievements are the stuff of legend among the human race. After her early tuition on the asteroid mining colony in KPC-32 suggested that she may in fact warrent a place in a school for gifted children, she left her family behind at only the age of 5, to enrole at the Steele Academy on earth.

After joining the research and development wing of the military her meteoric rise began during the early years of the Annihilation War. Eventually reaching the standing of Head of the Human Military, official title, Chief-of-Staff. She then attempted to overthrow the corrupt Grand Councillor, that many believed had caused the Annihilation War to begin.

She died while serving on her Flagship, the HSV Westmorland, during the battle of Earth on December 4th 7842. After the ship took heavy fire towards the end of the battle a boarding party attacked the Westmorland, she attempted to keep them off the bridge. Although she would succeed she would be mortally wounded. Eyewitnesses claim she did survive to see the battle won but died shortly afterwards. Her death sparked widespread mourning among her supporters.

However her place in history is seen as nothing short of legendary, her story often being told to children of all races from a young age.

Childhood
Born on the small mining colony of KPC-32 to an economically poor family on June 20th 7813. Her short time spent on the installation is not widely documented, her original second name is unknown as her records were lost when the facility was destoryed. It is well known however that her father had a long police history of abuse towards his wife and on occasion towards Amelia. Despite this she remained at school, showing huge progress. By the age of 4 she had been scouted by the Galactically renowned Steele Academy and a scholarship was granted to remove her from the colony and bring her to Earth where she would be schooled.

Steele Academy
She then moved to the Luna City, Neo-London where the Steele Academy was based. Many of her teachers reported her being many years ahead of even the other gifted students at the academy, also that she was always happy and comforted other children who felt homesick. However they also noted a longing in her to return to KPC-32, where her mother lived, despite her troubled upbringing.

At the age of 7, she had out performed every other member of her class and had graduated her educational level, 3 years early. She continued to excel in all areas, being the youngest student to take quantum mechanics classes, at the age of 10. However in 7823, word from the KPC-32 colony reached her, that a series of raids by the Wuum race on the colony had resulted in the death of her mother and father. Friends and teachers from then on noticed a difference in the usually happy and outgoing Amelia. Her personality became much more hardened and although she wore, what one teenage friend would describe as, 'a mask of happiness' she was far more focused on work.

Graduation and Research
At the age of thirteen she had been taking classes designed for Undergraduates and Post-graduates for over a year. In October of 7825, they announced that in the following year Amelia would become the youngest member to ever graduate the Steele Academy. On July 16th 7826, Amelia graduated Steele Academy and took up a position in Research and Development in the Academy.

Her first project came under DNA modifications, a field she was particularly interested in. Her project had hoped to extend the human life to well beyond its natural years, something which had been tried several times over the centuries but had failed due to severe and always fatal side-effects. Her research led her to the comparing of DNA between families whose members seemed to die younger and those who lived longer. It is around this time that she is thought to have met her future spouse, Aaron Harridon, while collecting DNA samples from him and his family.

Leaving the Academy
In January 7828, at the age of 15, her position at the academy was revoked. Friends and collegues had found her using many of the experiments on herself, believing that her calculations were correct and that further testing would merely hinder the process. Many of her friends began seeing her as arrogant and childish, possibly due to her extremely sudden elevation. Her lifespan, many said had supposedly been increased to many thousands of years, however this was never tested and her death, at the age of 29 in the Battle for Earth, destroyed any chance of testing this.

She moved, with a substaincial fortune due to her copyrighted advancements, to a small colony, YRC-11, on the outskirts of the Human-Yi'puli borders. Again, her time here is not well decumented however some still facts still survive. It is understood that directly due to her presence on the mining outpost, the colony began using far more advanced and profitable machines and techniques. Adding to this, the boy who she had met while working for the academy who she had now formed a romantic relationship with now lived on the colony with her. Close friends who had known them both from this point reported that it was the happiest time of both their lives.

Attack on YRC-11
At the age of 17, she and her boyfriend, Aaron Harridon had been living together for nearly two years. However, the attack by Wuum forces on the YRC-11 colony, which indirectly led to the beginning of the Annihilation War, they were forced to leave. Amelia later admitted that both her and Aaron barely made the escape and were only helped by an engineer who led them to a two man pod, he died in the attempt to save them. Amelia did not know his first name, but would later call her flagship the Human Space Vessel Westmorland, after his surname which had been written on a name tag.

She returned to Earth, a planet she had only visited fleetingly while studying on the Luna city Neo-London. Aaron and she moved into a small apartment in London. However this was a time of severe turmoil. After only six months in London, she was recalled by the Steele Academy to Neo-London, where she would be researching top secret military weapons for the war against the Wuum.

Returning to the Academy
When she returned to Neo-London and the Steele Academy, she remained the youngest member of their research team, by several years. Despite her tough time in re-adjusting to life in this environment, she would become a major part of the research team. However, Aaron Harridon would later say that she hated her time at the academy as many had still not forgotten that she had been expelled only a couple of years previous.

Joining 3rd Fleet
After making some major advancements in the 3rd Space Fleets ships, she was offered a place as an engineer onboard the 3rd Fleets flagship; Liberty. She jumped at the opporunity, through a combination of hatred for many at the academy and a sense of revenge against the Wuum, she joined as Chief Engineer, a position several decades above her age, something which was resented early on by the crew.

She would, indirectly, play a major role in the Battle of Colony ZSD-82. After the power failed aboard the Liberty, she risked her life in climbing through maintainence tubes, many of which were de-pressurised, with nothing but a temporary oxygen mask and some rope. The flagship then played a huge part in the decisive victory that the Battle of Colony ZSD-82 became in the early Wuum War.

She served aboard the Liberty for another two years, until, at the age of 19, the Treaty of Sol was signed, which ended the Wuum War. Her renown was spreading, not just in the army but back on Earth as well, occasionally being asked to interview for media outlets on the 3rd Fleets return to Earth, she obliged willingly. Having personally been responsible for saving the lives of many of the Liberty's crew, she was eventually promoted again. Gaining a position as First Officer aboard the HSV Norway.

First Officer of HSV Norway
She took up her position as First Officer on the HSV Norway as part of the 11th Fleet, a minor battle and scouting floatila. Captain Xao would always remark that she was the daughter he'd never had, the two became firm friends, Captain Xao acting almost as the father she had never had.

Skirmish at Kypael
After a distress signal was beamed from a nearby system to the Vitosi homeworld. A detachment from 11th Fleet was sent to investigate. The Norway, was among the group. However they were met with overwhelming force. Eight of the thirteen ships sent to investigate were destroyed. Captain Xao was severely injured which meant that for most of the battle, Amelia had been acting Captain, many acclaimed her performace, saving the Norway and the Ireland would have been lost had it not been for her quick thinking.

Diplomatic Relations
After the minor battle at Kypael, Amelia was sent on diplomatic missions to form alliances with other major races in the sector to protect themselves against some of their enemies. Amelia, standing in for the wounded Captain, proceeded to gain the trust of the Drullmali, Throok and Zaklarn and cementing an alliance, these combined with the Human-Yi'puli Confederation became the first Protectorate Planets and these would lay the foundations of the Protectorate for much of the war.

At a conference on Earth, Amelia was asked, rudely, by a Zaklarni diplomat, how old she was. She responded, famously, by telling him the number of people she had saved, including some Zaklarni during the Skrimish at Kypael. Immediately the Zaklarni diplomat was silenced, thus giving respect in the culture. On her 20th birthday, the treaty of New York was signed officially creating the Protectorate Planets Alliance.

Battle at Sol
The first major offensive began against Earth by the Galactic Commonwealth against the Protectorate. Amelia, still in command of the HSV Norway, was tasked with opening up a new front against the right flank of their fleet and holding it until Earth's defence system were repaired. Amelia, seeing the danger of being outgunned by superior firepower, used the attacking fleets own scanners against them, tricking them into believing there were far more ships than there were, in the hope of squeezing the flank.

The opposite effect occurred however. The main battle group then began reinforcing the flank, outnumbering the 11th Fleet 3:1. The fleet sustained severe losses, the HSV Norway, Ireland, Japan, Freedom, Iron and Pacific were all destroyed. Amelia managed to escape onto the HSV York, this did buy the Earth time to set up its defence which allowed them to repel the attacking force by costing the Commonwealth fleet time and a greater number of ships. However, Amelia would always view this as a failure and would mention several times over the course of her life, how loudly the screams still were to her.

First Command
After the Battle at Sol, most members within the Fleets higher ranks wanted to see Amelia promoted, despite her personal misgivings about the outcome of her mission. At the age of 21, she was awarded the position of Captain on the 9th Fleets Armarda Class Warship, the HSV Tranquility. 9th Fleet was a heavy battle group, with some of the most feared ships in the entire Human Fleet serving in that regiment. Although she had Captained the HSV Norway for several months, this was her first command as a true Captain. She hand picked several members of her higher crew from her time on the HSV Norway, mostly her friends who she felt had potential. This was not seen as a popular decision among her new crew, who felt she was promoting based on friendship not merit.

HSV Okinawa and Capture
While serving on a rescue mission in the outer regions of Protectorate space, the Capital Class warship, HSV Okinawa, part of the two-ship group carrying out the rescue, mutinied. The missions sister ship, the HSV Traquility was tasked with the recapture of the Capital Ship, despite the Okinawa being a far larger classification than the Tranquility.

Amelia headed a five strong team to sabotage the engines, shields and weapons of the Capital ship, while it was docked at the Chivii space station in neutral space. Four of the team made it off after completeing the sabotage, however, in allowing her team to escape Amelia was captured. For two days she was tortured and assualted by members of the mutinied crew of the Okinawa. The first officer of the Tranquility and now acting Captain, made a strike on the ship, while it remained sabotage. Eighteen members of the Tranquility were killed rescuing Captain Steele. However the Okinawa was recaptured and the rest of the munity crew arrested.

Marriage
Amelia would spend some time away from the military and the war. Returning to her boyfriend Aaron Harridon for a week to recover from her capture. In a private ceremony in the small French town of Bandol, they were married. Many of her friends would always say that the time she spent with her husband were when she seemed the happiest. Her husband had now also joined the military and was working as a gunner on a superstation defence platform, he left to go back on active duty two days before Amelia.

She spent the rest of the time in London, England. She had spent only a little time here in the past and wanted to know it better, however her trip was cut short by a day as she was recalled to the HSV Tranquility, as the 9th Fleet was about to set out on a mission.

9th Fleet
After being recalled to the HSV Tranquility the 9th Fleet left to defend the Galactic Council headquarters, also in the hope of rallying council members to support the war effort, as was outlined in the constitution. However, upon the arrival of the fleet, the council station refused to let the fleet dock. In fact the Grand Councillor at the time, Lioden Ziest of the Wuum, even threatened to open fire on the fleet unless they left immediately. Which they refused to do, believing it to be an idle threat, however the super station opened fire using newly equipt heavy guns. It damaged several vessals and destoryed the HSV Peru. The 9th then quickly left.

The Tomaal Meeting
The meeting on board the Yi'puli ship Rodmik was decisive in Amelia's own life. A group of all the Captains of the 9th fleet met to discuss the nexy course of action. Were they to assault the Council Station as it had made a clear attack on Human ships, or, did they remove themselves from the system and return home. Most of the Captains argued that they should assualt the council station, as retribution for the deaths of those aboard the HSV Peru.

Amelia however argued that the fleet should not re-engage with the Council defence,but take on the Council another time, when their usefulness would be less and therefore not as heavily defended, as now, that time had past, the Commonwealth Defence Fleet had, according to scans, taken up new defensive positions. She pointed out that with the Commonwealth fleet protecting the council the most likely region that they weakened to do this would be the Tomaal region of Commonwealth space. It was the homeworld of a rich race but one with limited military strength. The Commonwealth would have had to protect it with another races military, not only this but the limited time it had taken for the Commonwealth to reinforce the Council Station showed that the force had come from near by.

Amelia, after negotiating with her fellow Captains convinced them to take on this expedition. On April 24th 7835, 9 Fleet attacked the Tomaal homeworld, Amelia had been correct, it was not heavily defended and after a short, decisive battle in Tomaal orbit, the 9th Fleet won control, selecting and destroying key positions on the planets surface. They did not have enough resources to take the entire planet, however the destruction of Tomaal's capital city, forced them into surrender under harsh conditions, which constituted an extremely large one off payment in gold. After leaving Tomaal vertually bankrupt, the region was of little importance any longer.

After returning to Earth with 9th Fleet, Amelia was awarded the 9th Fleets Vidal Medal, a medal awarded for great acts of tactical brilliance. She had destroyed a large amount of the Commonwealth's immediate income and although they would recover, it gave the Protectorate a chance to push one with some major offensives, now that they were very aware enemy ships would not be available to be replaced very quickly.

She would fight aboard the Tranquility for another year, taking personal charge of another 7 battles and 2 planetary bombardments.

Promotion to Admiral
Amelia was promoted to the position of Admiral at the age of 23, due to her outstanding service aboard the HSV Tranquility. She had, during the course of the last 2 years of fighting with the Tranquility had lost only 25 crew members, the lowest amount in the Human fleet.

She was said to be "unsupportive" of the promotion. Saying: "The greatest crisis that can befall a desk jocky is that the pen will run out of ink." She took some personal time off before taking up her new command, based on Mars. She met with her husband for the first time in many months. She spent a large amount of her time off writing. Mostly about her life and her opinions on the war and the galactic situation in general. These books were not to be released until several years after her death.

She would create a plan whereby the council station would be retaken and a new Grand Councillor installed, which occured in the early part 7836, when the Wuum Grand Councillor was killed during the retaking of the station. A Vitosi was made Grand Councillor, almost as a symbolic gesture towards the memory of Svilk De-Vitosi who had ended the previous Galactic War.

Earth
The assult on Earth was a major tactical push by the Commonwealth to destory humanities ability to fight the war and destroy a huge part of the Protectorate. The attack was originally successful, the Commonwealth destroyed many Superstations and invaded the planet, now leaving ground forces with a huge task of holding the planet. It was estimated at the time that 75% of the Commonwealths military strength was put into the Earth attack, knowing that the Protectorate would be unlikely to advance without first taking back Earth. The military headquarters on Earth was hestily evacuated on June 8th 7836 and new headquarters set up on Mars, which was the only full Protectorate planet left in the system.

The human military appealed to the council which they had installed, asking for reinforcements to the region from members that had not yet fully joined the fight. They were denied. Amelia was then sent on a diplomatic mission to gain the councils support and therefore give the humans a chance to retake Earth. After six days of negotiations, Amelia left the council without their support, claiming under no circumstances were the council going to come to their aid.

Rescue Mission
Amelia was asked to head a taskforce to rescue some members of the Protectorate still trapped on Earth. The mission was for Amelia to lead several squads and rescue the Yi'puli Military Commander and his Captains, along with what remained of the human military staff on Earth. By coincidence, she connected with her husband while on the rescue mission. He was nearby to the site and after she had taken care of the mission, a single shuttle stood by as she went to collect her husband.

She found him along with a female squad mate hiding under a bridge under heavy fire. She was badly injured and could not walk. After some intense deliberation and at the request of the squad mate, they gave her a gun, some ammunition and left, as the crossed the road, they saw her take another shot to the chest and collapse.

They then ran though a building, attempting to escape before being cut off by some commonwealth fighters. They fought their way through, however Amelia's leg was hit, not badly but she had limited mobility. They managed to reach the shuttle, which was hovering over some rubble, waiting for them. Aaron helped Amelia aboard, however once Amelia turned around to give him a hand, he was hit several times in the back and slumped to his knees. The shuttle, fearing that it would be shot down, took off. Several crew members reported that Amelia had tried to jump out of the craft to protect him, only to be held back by them.

Coup d'etat
The battle changed Amelia for good. She spent much of the next few days in a form of self imposed social coma. In which 'she would continue to work, but as if she was only a shell' a collegue once said. Then something seemed to snap. Without consulting the human space fleet headquarters or under any orders whatsoever, she gathered troops and ships from the 9th, 3rd and 11th Fleets and went to the Council Superstation.

The council were in session and at that exact moment were debating the argicultural tax on Paullus VI. Amelia burst in, walking with a slight limp, followed by a heavily armed bodyguard, and headed straight for the central podium, on which the Grand Councillor Pex Ri-Vitosi was standing. He shouted at her as she walked "This is an abomination!" She famously responded, "No, this is war." Before removing him from the podium and declaring that the human military had taken control of the council and that a vote would take place immediately to elect a new Grand Councillor, with her as the only candidate. At gunpoint the Elected Chamber were forced to vote. On completion of the vote the newly Elected Grand Councillor, Amelia Steele, ordered the immediate support of Earth.

Her move was widely supported even by neutral races, as the Council was now seen as a corrupt and immoral institution and her official promise to relinquish the role of Grand Councillor upon the end of the war made her position stronger, as she was not seen as the despot that some Councillors in recent years had become.

Personal Life
Born to off-planet human parents, she had never been or even seen Earth in her early years. Her closest collegues and friends in the military said of her, after her death, that these times were reletively unhappy and that she had attempted to find solace in studying, which had supported her already natural gifts.

She met her future husband Aaron Harridon during her time as a researcher for the Steele Academy at the age of 15. Both her and Aaron were of similar age at the time. They were married in November of 7834, the date isn't known, however it is known the marriage took place while on recovery time after her capture, between November 3rd 7834 and November 17th. Most estimates put it at November 13th 7834. She had no children, however this was put down to a genetic disorder she had caused herself during her experiments during her teenage years, however this is unconfirmed.

Her husband, Aaron Harridon would be killed during a battle to free Earth in the later years of the conflict.

She owned a property in London and one in Bandol. However she lived only briefly in the London apartment and only visited the Bandol property on one occasion, the day she bought it. She had seen the Bandol house as a future home where she would live with Aaron after the war. However it was destoryed in the Final Battle of the war, when a dreadnought class Protectorate ship crashed landed, destroying most of the town.