Character Information

Gender		Male
Species		Human (Colony Born)
Age		37

Physical Appearance

Height		5’ 11’’
Weight		160 Ibs
Hair Color		Dark Brown
Eye Color		Dark Brown
Physical Description		Nate Stanton has easy charm and a roguish air. He’s almost six feet tall with a lean, athletic build, shaped by years in the cockpit rather than the gym. His dark brown hair is usually tousled with just a few silver strands at the temples. His eyes are warm brown and often give away his emotions. Nate favours a slightly relaxed take on uniform regulations; open collar, sleeves pushed up and boots neglected. His stubble is somewhere between casual charm and ‘running out of time’, but there’s still something effortlessly likeable about him. As a colony born human, he speaks Federation Standard, but with the trademark Starkhaven drawl. In his spare time, he can sometimes be seen wearing a Stetson from Starkhaven as part of his civilian getup.

Family

Spouse		Husband: Leo West [deceased]
Children		Loretta ‘Lottie’ Stanton-West, 11 years old
Father		Unknown
Mother		Lucile Stanton
Brother(s)		Levi Stanton, Clint Stanton
Sister(s)		Nell Stanton, Bess Stanton

Personality & Traits

General Overview		Nate Stanton is pure ‘Chaotic Good’ energy. He’s a warm-hearted, instinctive and impulsive man who’s spent a lifetime winging it...sometimes literally. He’s the kind of person who will forget his commbadge but never forget your birthday. His natural charm, dry humour and slightly scruffy roguishness give the impression of someone who’s always five minutes late and only just about holding life together...and most of the time, that’s true. But beneath the chaos is a man with deep reserves of resilience, empathy and loyalty. He always shows up. Even when he’s a mess, even when he’s overwhelmed, he shows up...for his daughter and for his crewmates. He’s disorganised, forgetful and doesn’t always get things right...but he really does try, with every fibre of his being. He’s laid back, quick to apologise when he’s wrong and a loyal friend. He masks pain with humour, often downplaying his own hardships to keep morale up, but he isn’t afraid of difficult feelings. He’s gone through too much to be afraid of a little vulnerability. However, structure isn’t his strong suit. Schedules and admin are his nemesis, and he tends to rely on instinct rather than planning and protocol...with both impressive and embarrassing results. His daughter, Lottie, is his world. There’s absolutely nothing he wouldn’t do for her. She has a sensible head on her young shoulders, and she often steps in to calm his chaos and make up for his shortcomings. Despite his guilt at her often being the steady hand, he loves being a part of their awesome team.
Strengths & Weaknesses		+ Nate’s instinct for flying is exceptional. He’s quick-thinking, adaptable and calm under pressure, especially in unpredictable and difficult conditions. + He’s an empathetic listener, especially with younger crew or distressed people. + Despite his chaotic energy, Nate is both a loyal and generous friend. If he says he’s got your back, he means it. + He’s a resilient guy who will always try and lighten the mood and lift morale when needed, often using humour to comfort and reassure others...and himself. - He’s often chaotic and disorganised, especially when it comes to admin, schedules and finding stuff. - He has a strong impulsive streak, with a tendency to act first and apologise later, which can land him in hot water. - Despite his laid back exterior, he’s self-critical and harsh on himself when he fails the people that matter. - He’s still dealing with grief. Leo’s death still lingers beneath the surface even if he doesn’t talk about it much.
Ambitions		Nate’s biggest ambition is to raise Lottie well. He wants to give her the stability and unconditional love he never had growing up, even if he doesn’t always get things right. In his career, he wants to keep flying, stay useful and make sure he never wastes the life Leo lost. He’s had thoughts about teaching young pilots, but he’s not quite ready to slow down yet.
Hobbies & Interests		- Flying in all of its forms. - Tinkering with machinery and shuttle systems...‘improving’ them in ways that would make an engineer sweat. - Casual holodeck racing programs (always with Lottie in the co-pilot seat). - Cooking comfort food...even if it doesn’t always turn out well. - Telling stories and spinning wild tales about his youth on Starkhaven to make Lottie laugh. - Playing guitar...he’s not amazing, but it’s heartfelt. - He keeps fit by hiking, climbing and running. He avoids any kind of weight lifting or muscle training, finding it utterly boring.

Personal History		Nate Stanton was born on Starhaven, a frontier colony founded on high ideals and even higher expectations. The name promised prosperity, beauty and peace...designed to tempt would-be colonists to make a new life in the haven among the stars. But the reality was a stark landscape made up of sand, rocks and tumbleweed, and by the time Nate was born, locals were calling it Starkhaven. Between the sandstorms, water shortages and chronic supply delays, life there was hard and demanded grit and determination rather than hopes and dreams. Nate’s mother was an engineer, born and bred on Starkhaven, and he has no memory of his father being in the picture. One of five children, Nate spent most of his waking hours outside and away from the overcrowded cabin, despite the harsh landscape. Nate was raised to be resourceful, unshakeable and self-reliant, skills necessary to survive the frontier lifestyle where technology had a 50/50 chance of shorting out at the worst possible moment. But as the other kids complained, Nate looked up to the stars. The sky was the one place Starkhaven hadn’t ruined. Wide, open and dangerous…but free. Starkhaven had a saying...‘the only way to avoid sand in your boots is to learn to fly before you can walk’. His first time off the ground was in a battered atmospheric glider cobbled together from junked parts and stubborn hope. He was twelve and it wasn’t exactly legal, but he’d never felt more alive. That was the day he fell in love with flying. By sixteen, Nate was piloting sub-orbitals for the colony’s supply teams and by seventeen, he was testing his own modifications. He learned to fly in gravity wells, sandstorms and constant turbulence, and while Starfleet had more refined training methods, they would never quite shake the Starkhaven out of his flying style. Quick reflexes, strong instincts and a healthy disregard for standard procedures would become his trademarks. When Federation supply ships came in, Starkhaven stopped feeling like the end of the universe. To a boy raised on frontier grit and sandstorms, those sleek Starfleet vessels looked like magic and the people flying them seemed like heroes. Nate never forgot the first time he saw the shimmer of a Starfleet commbadge up close. Starkhaven was in his bones, but it lit a spark in him that couldn’t be smothered. He wanted to fly beyond the horizon. He applied for Starfleet the day he turned eighteen. Nate’s flying credentials earned him a place in fighter pilot officer training, and for a time, it was a dream come true. But just like Starkhaven, dreams amounted to nothing when reality decided to bite. By the time Nate graduated in 2374, the Dominion War was in full swing. Fresh out of the Academy, he was deployed into active combat on his very first mission...and it never let up. As a fighter pilot, his rugged flying style (born from years of sandstorms and makeshift engines) turned out to be an asset in hostile territory. He became known for reflexes over protocol and instinct over strategy...it sometimes frustrated his superiors, but often saved lives. He earned multiple commendations for bravery and improvisation, even as his record became dotted with ‘disciplinary conversations’ about his refusal to follow plans and orders to the letter. Like so many others, Nate lost people during the war. Friends. Teammates. The death of Jeremy Milton, a mentor figure who’d taken him under his wing, hit harder than he liked to admit. It was the kind of grief that rewired something inside of him. From then on, Nate lived like he was on borrowed time. A few months before the war’s end, he fell into an impulsive romance with Leo West, one of the mechanics stationed at the same base. He knew it was probably a bad idea, but he didn’t care. Not after everything. The war had taught him that life was short, and if something good found you, you held onto it. The bond with Leo only deepened when Nate was badly injured during a mission. The mechanic, calm under pressure and fiercely loyal, helped him recover in more ways than one. Nate was back in his fighter for one final run before the Dominion War ended. The victory celebrations rang for weeks, but once the dust settled, he found himself adrift. The war had given him purpose and shaped him. What did a fighter pilot do in peacetime? After the war, Nate struggled to settle into anything resembling a normal life. His energetic and impulsive streak, once useful in combat, made adjusting to peacetime feel like crawling through sand. He groaned at the monotony of drills and resented the performative nature of some missions. But through it all, Leo remained. Still stationed on the same base, Leo West remained steady, warm and practical, and became Nate’s anchor. While Nate spiralled through restlessness and frustration, Leo would just shake his head and chuckle fondly. The relationship deepened quickly. Nate had learned the hard way that life could be over without warning, and he wasn’t about to waste a second of it. A year after the war’s end, they were married. Another year on, they decided to have a child. And a year after that, Loretta Stanton-West was born. Their little Lottie. She became the light of both her fathers’ lives. Fatherhood changed Nate in ways nothing else had, and he felt like he’d finally discovered his real purpose in life. Both men remained in Starfleet, choosing assignments that kept the family stationed together. There were occasional conversations, about whether Nate should step back from his role as a fighter pilot, for the sake of safety and stability. But after everything Nate had seen during the war, the skirmishes and patrols of peacetime felt like no real risk. And Leo understood; flying wasn’t just Nate’s job. It was part of who he was. So things remained as they were. Until the day everything changed. Lottie was eight years old. Nate had been called out to defend the station during an unexpected attack. Leo was in the hangar when a torpedo hit. He survived long enough to see Nate and Lottie one last time. Long enough to say goodbye. And then he was gone. Nate was shattered. He had always assumed that if one of them was going to die on duty, it would be him. That was the risk and tradeoff he had accepted as a fighter pilot. He had never once considered that Leo might be the one to fall. The loss gutted him in a way even the war never had. When the shock passed the pain began, and if Lottie hadn’t been there, he would have been lost entirely. But he knew that she needed him, and more, that Leo wouldn’t forgive him if he didn't get up out of the sand and take care of their girl. So Nate got up. And he kept showing up...not always perfectly, but with everything he had, for their girl. Nate took a few months of compassionate leave after Leo’s death to recover and focus on Lottie. It wasn’t nearly long enough, but one thing became clear; he couldn’t take the risk of staying as a fighter pilot anymore. Not when it was just him and Lottie. He formally requested reassignment, and Starfleet granted it. Nate retrained as a standard helm officer and was reassigned to the USS Raleigh, starting over at the rank of Ensign, and with Lottie alongside him. Their first year was quiet, almost unnervingly so after everything they’d lived through. And even their move to the USS Silo made little difference. The work was mundane, the stakes low. But for Nate, juggling single parenthood with work was more intense than any dogfight. He tried, every single day, to get it all right. But his natural chaotic state always ended up winning. He forgot appointments, lost PADDs and overcooked dinners. He even missed a costume deadline for that one school play. He often showed up late, or ran out of time and never seemed to be able to get to grips with the schedule and calendar. But Lottie, who took more after her other dad, adapted calmly. She reminded him of school events when he forgot about them, tracked the replicator settings when he botched them and had an uncanny ability to find whatever object he was frantically searching for. She’d shrug and say ‘it’s fine, Dad’, but Nate saw it, the way she was growing up just that little bit faster to help keep them both steady. He felt guilty for it. But he also knew Leo would’ve told him not to beat himself up, because he was doing the best he could with the cards they’d been dealt. Day after day. Nate didn’t always get it right, but he always tried. Nate and Lottie were moved to the Guinevere, a new chapter with a new crew, and hopefully a ship big enough to give his daughter the chance to be more of a kid again.
Service Record		2370-2374 – Starfleet Academy, Fighter Pilot Officer Training 2374-2375 – Starbase Halo, Fighter Pilot, Ensign 2375-2379 – Starbase 112, Fighter Pilot, Lieutenant JG 2379-2383 – Starbase Naila, Fighter Pilot, Lieutenant JG 2383-2386 – Starbase 97, Fighter Pilot, Lieutenant 2386 – Compassionate Leave 2386 – Starfleet Academy, Helm Officer Retraining 2387-2388 – USS Raleigh, Helm Officer, Ensign 2388-2389 – USS Silo, Helm Officer, Ensign 2389-Present – USS Guinevere, Helm Officer, Ensign