Roman Sanchez
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History
Roman Sanchez was born as the eldest of three brothers and one sister to the Spanish-American family of Claro and Danielle Sanchez, in the city of Miami in Florida, in the continent of North America on Earth. With parents both in careers at Starfleet medical, Roman and his siblings were always at the peak of health and physical fitness, with well-structured diets and regular exercise, tailored to their specific ages. All throughout school the Sanchez brothers were known as the best sportsmen and atheletes, while their sister was known as the best gymnast and most sought-after (and protected) girl in the school. Their parents made sure that their popularity and phyisical prowess never went to their heads, however, and taught them to know when to be humble. Liked by students and teachers alike, and never known as trouble-makers, they were all smart kids, and attained some of the highest grades by the time they left to pursue careers of their own.
With their parentage, it was no surprise that one after the other, led by Roman, the Sanchez family entered Starfleet Academy as soon as they were old enough, though each pursued a different track. Malcolm majored in medicine, like his parents, while Eber focused on his supreme flight capabilities. Silvana, meanwhile, took courses in galactic history and demographics, on her way to a career in the Diplomatic Corps. Roman took the most militaristic route of the four of them, triple-majoring in tactical studies, strategic planning and military history.
Roman, being the eldest, was the first to enter and first to graduate from the Academy, receiving high praise from the Academy Commandant, and a personal recommendation for his first assignment; he could choose any he wanted in the fleet, and he chose the one as close to the frontier that he could find, on a starship called the USS Archer, a Miranda-class starship, which set out to explore the frontiers of Federation territory. During his time aboard the Archer was devoid of the typical encounters his red uniform from the Academy was used to, as the Klingons which Kirk had seen battle with had been officially at peace with the Federation since the Khitometer Accords over half a century before, but they did encounter many other challenges to the young tactical officer's skills, including the Tholians and the Gorn, though neither produced any major incidents. Due to his letter of recommendation from the Academy Commandant, Roman joined the Archer as assistant chief of tactical and security. After looking after his younger siblings for all of his life, Roman found it fairly easy to take on a leadership role aboard the starship, though he found the new uniform design that came into use as he left the Academy a little more difficult to get used to. He complained to his friends that it was less comfortable than the uniforms of the era before, and too tight-fitting - though he hardly had to worry about fitting a belly into it, as his middle-aged Captain did. The rank pips he found simpler, but a lot less prestigious, as he had been looking forward to the arrowhead insignia of an Ensign when he graduated. Instead, he felt disappointed when he received a single gold pip on his new collar.
Minor annoyances with uniform aside, Roman enjoyed his new life. He took on the unofficial role of ship's physical trainer, allowing anyone who wished to join him on his daily fitness regime, and helping those who struggled. He also led tactical training exercises with the other officers in his department, writing two papers on tactical theories during his six-year tour on the Archer. In 2362, the ship was logged for decomissioning and Roman - having attained the rank of Lieutenant JG four years previously, was reassigned to one of the new, larger vessels now coming into service in Starfleet - the Galaxy-class starships.
The USS Galaxy, prototype of the class, and Sanchez's new home, had been launched in the year of his graduation, and commissioned into the fleet the following year. After a five-year cruise, which had begun with extensive testing on the ship's brand-new systems and LCARs interfaces, which were a significant upgrade from most Starfleet vessels in service at the time, the Galaxy was being assigned a new Captain and a new tactical chief, as both of the predecessors were retiring after many decades of service. With the XO of the ship assuming command, and the assistant tactical officer taking up the position of first officer, Roman was granted the post of chief tactical officer aboard. Three years later, he proved his worth, as the ship was involved in an incident with a rogue Romulan warbird, which had crossed into Federation space and begun a series of attacks on Federation colonies near the border. The Galaxy was sent to investigate the attacks, and when they found the aggressor, were quickly put on the defensive by the Romulan commander, suffering heavy damage in the Romulan's opening salvo. It was Roman's quick thinking and strategic ingenuity which allowed him to find the chink in the Romulan's armour, and destroy the Romulan ship. Though his Captain told him later that the Federation would have preferred it to be disabled, there were sufficient survivors amongst the wreckage for them to be able to avoid a serious diplomatic incident with the Romulans. Roman was credited for saving the ship, and promoted to full Lieutenant.
In 2368, Roman was again reassigned, this time back to Earth. After suffering a serious leg injury on an away mission, he was left unable to walk properly until given sufficient time to heal, and so rather than request a leave of absense, requested a post at the Strategic Defense and Planning bureau on Earth, a post which he was granted, on merit of the tactical theorem papers he had been writing since the start of his career. A year and a half later, with a promotion directly to full Commander and a fully healed leg, he was assigned to the USS Pluto as first officer. Assigned to the Eleventh Fleet, the Pluto spent most of its time escorting freighters, diplomats, and other duties which involved much more escort than the action Roman had been used to. In 2371, when the Federation learned of a potential threat from the Dominion, the commander of the Eleventh Fleet began to make preparations for the war he predicted would come, and began increasing the number of ships under his command, by offering competent first officers new commands. Commander Sanchez was one of these first officers, given a promotion to Captain and command of the USS Achilles, a Centaur-class starship with a crew compliment of 240. Two years later, Captain Sanchez led the Achilles in the Battle of Sector 001, and his tactical strategies kept the ship largely in one piece, delaying the Borg cube enough as it blasted through the defense perimeter to allow sufficient time for Earth to be reinforced. Though the Achilles was crippled and unable to join the battle at Earth, she was later salvaged and repaired, being restored to full active status by the time the Dominion launched their invasion of the Alpha Quadrant. For his tactical prowess in the battles the Achilles was present in during the Dominion War, Sanchez became known for swift, decisive tactics, often involving a strong punch into an enemies weak spot, without slowing down enough to give the enemy time to think. He was promoted to Commodore and placed in command of a Task Force in the Twelfth Fleet in 2374, just prior to the sad demise of the eleventh fleet at the Battle of Benzar. Commodore Sanchez had spent a good six years in service to the Eleventh Fleet, and took its loss and the loss of all the officers very heavily on his shoulders, blaming himself for not being at the battle with them. For days, the same casualty list was projected onto the wall-screen in the Achilles' briefing room, which Sanchez had taken to using as his office since accepting his promotion, making use of the extra space the room provided to fill it with the extra padds and screens of information he needed as a Commodore. By the time the war ended a year later in 2375, Sanchez had become an important part of the Twelfth Fleet's organisational structure, and was disheartened when he learnt that it would be disbanded, and merged with the Third Fleet, to bolster the numbers they had lost during the war.
The Third was a long, and well-established fleet, and with its surviving officers, and those higher up than Sanchez from the Twelfth, there wasn't a place for him in its command structure, and so he turned over command of the Achilles to his first officer, and accepted a post at Starfleet Command, assisting in the teaching of strategic operations to the next generation of officers. By the time Voyager returned home in 2378, Sanchez had become known to the Commander-in-Chief of Starfleet, and had been promoted to Rear Admiral, being granted a place on the commander's advisory staff.
As the years passed by, Rear Admiral Sanchez saw a number of different tasks. He once again took up a life of travelling through the galaxy, though not on any ship he commanded. Taking rides on other Captain's ships, he went on a tour in 2383, assessing the Federation's state of affairs and rebuilding efforts after the war. He had become a much better diplomat than his time aboard the USS Galaxy - a ship which, whenever he could, he hitched a ride on, being one for nostalgia, since it was still in service - and brokered deals with various parties over various situations - such as a number of treaties with the Romulans to return worlds which had been siezed from the Federation by the Dominion during the war, and later reclaimed by the Romulans when they entered as allies to the Federation. In 2384, the commander of Starfleet promoted Sanchez to Vice Admiral, and ordered a complete report on the findings of his tour of Starfleet outposts.
It took nearly two years for Sanchez to finally finish the report, and in it he found that the Federation was recovering remarkably well from the War, and had been able to build its numbers back up, as well as return to its primary mission of peaceful exploration. With that in mind, he recommended to the ranking Admiral to start putting plans in place to reconstitute some of the fleets which had been decimated during the Dominion War. In 2386, Vice Admiral Sanchez was granted command of his newly reformed Eleventh Fleet, and promoted Captain Benjamin Edwards - an officer whom had caught the Admiral's eye several years previously - to Rear Admiral to serve as his second-in-command.
Sanchez commanded the fleet for the next four years, rising in rank to that of a full admiral and going through four more executive officers as the fleet grew and expanded from its initial remit to operate not just in the galactic south, but also commanding a task force assigned nearer the Federation heartlands, following the damage Romulus received as a result of the Hobus disaster, and Starfleet's re-prioritisation of assignments in order to be able to assist the Romulans with dealing with the fallout.
In 2390, Admiral Sanchez was promoted to a senior position within the Command Council and reassigned to Starfleet Headquarters on Earth. He was succeeded in his post by his serving executive, Admiral Kaitlen Walford.
| Preceded by: Admiral Jansen Grix |
Commanding Officer of Starfleet's Eleventh Fleet 2386 – 2390 |
Succeeded by: Admiral Kaitlen Walford |