Captain Cassandra Hawk
Name Cassandra Olaani Hawk
Position Commanding Officer
Second Position Commanding Officer
Rank Captain
Character Information
| Gender | Female | |
| Species | Human/Bajoran | |
| Age | 31 |
Physical Appearance
| Height | 5′10″ | |
| Weight | 150 lbs | |
| Hair Color | Blonde | |
| Eye Color | Blue-Green | |
| Physical Description | Cassandra Olaani Hawk is 5′10″ with an blonde hair and distinctive blue-green eyes she inherited from her mother's side, along with faint but distinctive Bajoran nasal ridges. She's maintained a semi-athletic build through years of training. While on duty, she keeps her hair styled in a neat bun or ponytail, to convey an air of seriousness, though off duty she allows it more freedom. Off duty, Cassandra favors the clothing of her old homestead, often wearing older stylings such as flannel shirts, denim, and practical boots, rather than fancier modern fashions. |
Family
| Children | Her pet cat, Persephone | |
| Father | Former Admiral Marcus Hawk - Location Unknown | |
| Mother | Ilira Hawk (nee Olaani)— Deceased | |
| Sister(s) | Cyra Olaani Hawk — Starfleet Academy cadet, Ops Specialty | |
| Other Family | Paternal Aunt: Selene Hawk, resident of Alpha Eridani II Maternal Aunt: Olaani Meera, resident Bajor - Niece: Olaani Shary |
Personality & Traits
| General Overview | Cassandra Hawk on duty is principled and resilient, a steadfastly sticking to her convictions and advocating for her crew. However, off duty, she also enjoys a casual attitude, preferring comradery to maintaining a detached command style. She has a cutting intuition that she's worked on over years, and able to make decisive yet well thought out decisions in the heat of a moment. Her crew's safety and well being are paramount. Her experiences on long-range missions have given her a tendency toward adaptability and curiosity, and she continues to maintain a deep curiosity and respect for diverse cultures. While she holds great respect for her mother's Bajoran religion, she herself is not a follower. |
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| Strengths & Weaknesses | Strengths: - Decisive under pressure - Skilled in diplomacy and cross-cultural negotiations - Well-versed in starship command and combat operations - Resilient and adaptable Weaknesses: - Tends to internalize responsibility for crew setbacks - Can be overly self-reliant, hesitant to delegate - Idealistic tendencies may conflict with pragmatic solutions in complex situations |
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| Ambitions | Cassandra's ambition has always been to attain command. Now that she has it, she intends to remain there in some form. | |
| Hobbies & Interests | Animal riding/taming, sailing (particularly old cloth sail forms), reading (mystery and horror are preferences), music, reading histories, and a morning with her best friend, coffee. |
| Personal History | 2371 -Early Life: Born to Admiral Marcus Hawk and Ilira Hawk, Cassandra Olaani Hawk was born aboard her father’s starship, the USS Hamilton, stationed along the Cardassian border. Her mother, a Bajoran liason, lived aboard his vessel. 2273-2275 - Childhood in the Dominion War: Cassandra turned 2, just old enough to slightly understand the height of the Dominion War. Her early years were shaped by the constant tension of war. Her mother, a Bajoran liason was still coping with the scars of the Cardassian occupation, and struggled with the anxiety of raising a child on a front-line vessel. These tensions are intensified when Cassandra and her mother were eventually sent to Bajor to stay with her aunt for safety, only for Bajor to briefly fall into the hands of the Dominion. Once Operation Return drove the Dominion back, her family remained on Bajor as her father's vessel went on increasingly dangerous missions as part of the Second Fleet. 2275-2278 - Life on the USS Hamilton: Following the war, they returned to life aboard the Hamilton, as it was assigned to Cardassian border reconstruction efforts. 2378-2384- Early Inspiration and Life in the Ancient "Old West": A 7 year old Cassandra found incredible inspiration in the return of USS Voyager, an event which inspired her to pursue Starfleet career as well as birthing a fascination with the farthest reaches of space. The summaries of Voyager mission logs became a frequent reading item. Following this, the family relocated back to Earth for Captain Hawk's promotion to Rear Admiral. They would remain here, with the family, particularly Cassandra, residing much of the time at her Aunt Selene's ranch near Sedona. The next few years would see Cassandra growing up around horses, the rugged but beautiful climate of the ancient earthbound frontier, and acquiring a fondness for the ancient iconography and culture of the region. Her own personal fashion sense was heavily defined during this time. 2384 - USS Achilles Begins Construction: Unbeknownst to the young Cassandra, the year 2384 would see the start of construction of a vessel she would later hold great connection to, the Protostar-class USS Achilles. While the vessel's construction would begin this year, the events of the following year would lead to the vessel being mothballed for nearly 2 decades before being completed. 2385 - Tragedy Strikes, both Personal and Galactic: Cassandra became emotionally motivated by her mother's heavy involvement in the Romulan evacuation effort. As a former refugee herself, Ilira felt driven to assist the Romulan people in this effort, even at her husband's resistance due to political history. Cassandra, having experienced the tumult during the war, seen her mother's motivations, and as a younger child viewing the Romulans as a recent ally, felt the same. Eventually, Ilira was directly invovled in the rescue fleet. Unfortunately, this direct involvement would forever reshape the family and the galaxy at large. The synth attack on the Utopia Planitia Shipyards would ultimately claim many lives, including Ilira Hawk's. In the aftermath, now Admiral Marcus Hawk resigned in outrage when Starfleet refuses retaliatory action, believing the Federation would be viewed as weak and complacent. His increasingly erratic views put him at odds with command, as well as his own daughter. Cassandra felt that her mother’s death should lead to more compassion, lest it be in vain. Rather than feeling the need for military action, she was devastated when the evacuation cause was abandoned, and for a time, she abandoned her dreams of joining Starfleet altogether, entering secondary school a bit more purposeless than before. 2387 - The Romulan Supernova: The eventual Romulan Supernova sent Cassandra into a bit of a spiral in purpose. Former Admiral Hawk similar began to enter a spiral, associating with shadier contacts as time went on. Ironically, it would be an argument over this exact event which would lead Cassandra to once again feel the drive to join Starfleet, this time with the dream of improving it. 2387-2389 - Final School Years: As Cassandra finished her secondary school years, her father became increasingly involved with shadowy organizations advocating for a militarized Federation response to external enemies, even going as far as outright unsanctioned violence. His bitterness over the loss of his wife and Starfleet’s perceived weakness pulled him further into extremist circles. Cassandra found herself increasingly emotionally and politically distant from him, focusing on her own academic excellence in preparation for Starfleet Academy. 2389 - Cassandra Enters Starfleet Academy: Cassandra's acceptance into Starfleet Academy triggers one of the first true major rifts with her father, who increasingly viewed Starfleet as a failed institution. She ultimately enrolled in the command track, driven by a desire to restore the Federation’s ideals of diplomacy and exploration, as unrealistic as that felt at the time. 2393 — Cassandra Graduates Starfleet Academy: Cassandra graduates with strong marks in command, diplomacy, and helm, assigned a commission as Ensign. By this time, her father had begun making connections with the extremist paramilitary group Umbra, though Cassandra remains unaware of the full extent of his involvement. 2393–2395 — Assigned to USS Lavoisier (Vesta-class): Cassandra's initial assignement was a fairly quiet one, but she distinguished herself on a handful of relief missions, gaining some notice among higher officer circles. Her performance eventually earns her promotion to Lieutenant Junior Grade. 2395–2397 — Assigned to USS Calgary (Parliament-class): Through the recognition she earned in her first few years, Cassandra was eventually able to receive an assignment to one of Starfleet's few deep space missions at the time, securing a position aboard the USS Calgary. Guided by her mother's experiences and her own burgeoning ideology, Cassandra demonstrated a talent for mediation and interspecies communication. These years also help her slowly define her own personal leadership style. During this time, she attains the rank of Lieutenant. 2397–2399 — Assigned to the USS Polaris (Akira-class): Cassandra eventually is transferred to the USS Polaris, a vessel assigned along the Gorn border. As she gained additional experience, she eventually was promoted to Lieutenant Commander and given the position Second Officer. Though her own career was going well, she grew increasingly concerned by scattered reports of extremist activity across the Federation border, with some disturbingly similar to the rhetoric she once heard from her father. 2399 - Everything Changes: 2399 was a momentous year for Cassandra in more ways than she could have imagined. A series of events kicked off by the venerated and at the time retire Admiral Picard led to revelations that would shake up the quadrant. The events of the Utopia Planetia Attack, long blamed upon the synth work force, were revealed to have been a plot by the previously unknown Romulan covert organization Zhat Vash, a secretive cultish organzation nested within the already hyper-secretive Tal Shiar. This organization had infiltrated Starfleet at the highest levels, driving it toward its isolationist stance. This discovery, along with the discovery of an exiled colony of synths, and a near armed conflict with the Romulan Free State, led to a massive re-evaluation of the isolation policies and synth ban, followed by a near immediate reversal of these stances. To say that Cassandra was elated by this change would be an understatement, but it also came with reopening the wounds of half a decade prior. Her mother's death was now known to have been caused by the fear and xenophobia of Romulan infiltrators, a betrayal from within Starfleet itself. This also revealed that her father's desire for a militant response would have played exactly into the hands of these infiltrators. A brief attempt to reach out to her father and try to guide him back to his old ideals led to a shocking discovery. Marcus Hawk, far from the decorated officer he once had been, was now a commander of an extremist militia group within the rogue paramilitary organization Umbra. Cassandra discovered that the Umbra cell was plotting to attack the Romulan Free State in hopes of igniting a larger conflict. In an effort to prevent a war, she took matters into her own hands, sabotaging and leaking the plans, ultimately leading to a violent standoff with her own father. The two, facing off in each other's phaser crosshairs, finally understand just how far apart they are from each other. Cassandra attempted to take him in, only to be badly wounded when he returned fire with lethal force. While Cassandra was ultimately rescued by a few of her Polaris crew mates, the Umbra cell escaped and disappeared into the shadows of the galactic underground. 2399-2401 Assigned to the USS Hina (Duderstadt-class): Following her heroism in taking on and exposing the Umbra cell's plot, Cassandra is granted the position of Executive Officer the USS Hina, one of the first vessels engaging in Starfleet's renewed outreach. After numerous successful missions, she attains the rank of Commander. 2401 - Frontier Day: It is while serving aboard the Hina that Cassandra's fate would once again be swayed by infiltration. As 2401 proceeded, perhaps due to a sense of paranoia earned from the reveal of the Zhat Vash plot, Cassandra found certain orders taking place within Starfleet's command structure to suddenly seem a bit suspect. Led by her own intuition and the authorization of her mentor and Captain V'leth, Cassandra and her team uncovered a Changeling infiltration group aboard their own ship. Fearing a larger infiltration effort across Starfleet, Cassandra strongly advocated for warning Starfleet Command, unaware of just how far the conspiracy extended beyond her vessel. To prevent this, the saboteurs ultimately crippled the Hina before a message can be sent, leading to a harrowing chase through the damaged vessel, which eventually led to Captain V'leth being critically injured and transferring command to Cassandra. Unfortunately, during the confrontation, Cassandra’s close friend, a Bolian science officer Jol Venn, was killed. Grieving and somewhat injured herself, Cassandra decided to put the crew first, directing repair efforts and medical crews as the ship was brought back online. It was only once they regained communication with Starfleet that they understood just how substantial the Frontier Day infiltration had become. The moment the extent of the damage was understood, the choice was clear for Cassandra. Under her temporary command, the damaged Hina found itself limping back to Federation space, not to receive aid, but to render it. 2401-2402: In the aftermath of Frontier Day, with so many officers lost, Cassandra was quickly rewarded for her actions, attaining a promotion to Captain. Given her long history of diplomatic missions, Starfleet felt she would be an ideal choice for command of the new Copernicus-class Starbase Mojave. While the assignment massively appealed to her Cassandra was hesitant to lose the center chair of a starship, now that she'd tasted it. Discovering the file of the USS Achilles somewhat by chance in Starfleet records, she realized that a vessel like that would both be valuable to the fleet and allow her the best of both worlds, command of a station while also putting the entire galaxy at her fingertips. Cassandra requested that the incomplete USS Achilles be transferred to Starbase Mojave for its completion. It would be officially commissioned and assigned to Starbase Mojave as part of her command. |
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| Service Record | 2289-2293 Starfleet Academy 2393–2395 — USS Lavoisier (Vesta-class) Ensign/Lieutenant J.G. — Junior Officer 2395–2397 — USS Calgary (Parliament-class) Lietenant J.G./Lieutenant — Helm Officer/Junior Diplomatic Officer 2397–2399 — USS Polaris (Akira-class) Lieutenant Commander — Second Officer, Training in Helm and Diplomacy 2399–2401 — USS Hina (Duderstadt-class) Lieutenant Commander/Commander — First Officer 2402 — Starbase Mojave / USS Achilles (Protostar-class) Captain — Commanding Officer |