Author: Nickolas Mercier
First Officer Nickolas Mercier was born in 2914 on Goss III. His father being a Navy Officer and his mother being a Nurse, he somehow merged with the differing interests in his family. Being sly and educated, well-mannered and long-term oriented, he somehow lacked all qualities necessary for his dream profession: becoming a fighter pilot. Although he learned aeronautics pretty early due to his Dad, Nick showed no sign of evidently necessary combat pilot qualities like intuition, agressivity and tactical focus. So he failed his Navy Combat Pilot Test in 2935. What can be a lack of qualities in one branch was his benefit in another. So he sucessfully passed his test for United Empire of Earth Imperial Center of Cartography in the same year and became Pilot in 23rd Exploration Group. He earned his merits there for being a skilled pilot, serving on an Andromeda Class Vessel in his final stages of service. In 2946 he surprisingly mustered out after his mother´s death and joined Intergalactic Airlines, gaining his Type Rating for Genesis Starliners in 2947 and advancing to management and flight instructor position rapidly. In 2949 he changed his employer and joined Atlas Defense Industry as transportation pilot for roughly a year. Prefering a career in civil aerospace transportation though, he skipped to Extensive Enterprises becoming Chief Pilot in 2950. Due to his experience in Starline Operation he was nominated as Interim Operations Manager for Swift Starlines - a small semi-bancrupt passenger and cargo transportation company in the same year, effectively managing to lead the company out of it´s financial within a year.