Captain Lazanos Torena
Name Lazanos Torena
Position 21st MEU Commanding Officer
Rank Captain
Character Information
| Gender | Male | |
| Species | Zibalian | |
| Age | 39 |
Physical Appearance
| Height | 5’11” | |
| Weight | 170 lbs. | |
| Hair Color | Black | |
| Eye Color | Brown | |
| Physical Description | Laz is a tall, densely-built Zibalian with short black hair and a habit of growing out a scruffy goatee. He carries scars from a number of combat operations and a facial tattoo in dark red ink on one side of his face, like most Zibalians. The tattoo denotes his family name, status and profession, per Zibalian custom. He has broad shoulders, and looks a little bit like a bruiser. His default expression is often mistaken for a glower. His sense of style off-duty is usually colorful, composed of colorful tropical shirts, t-shirts and sneakers. It’s not uncommon for Laz to have the occasional bruise, abrasion or burn from training or sparring. |
Family
| Mother | Jira Torena, Abele Torena |
Personality & Traits
| General Overview | Laz is a man who on first appearances wouldn’t appear to be a Marine officer, with a more laid-back and casual demeanor when he’s not out in the field. He’s a lifelong Marine with two decades of service under his belt and knows how to keep outwardly steady in most situations. His sense of humor is dry and perhaps a little dark at times. As a former Recon Scout, he developed a sharp sense of observation and situational awareness, and he always seems to be paying attention to what’s happening around him. In the field, the underlying intensity in Laz’s demeanor comes out. He expects his people to be the best, and he expects himself to be the best. As a result, he can be a demanding commander, but one who prides himself on standing side-by-side with his people every step of the way. Nobody does anything he wouldn’t do himself. Laz is decisive when he’s working, capable of quickly assessing a combat situation and rolling with the punches as necessary, believing a plan is good but knowing what to do when a plan fails is even better. Growing up on Theta Zibal III wasn’t easy, as it exists outside of the Federation. It’s a trade and commerce-based society, similar to the Ferengi, and life was often a struggle for Laz and his family. He doesn’t take everything for granted as a member of Starfleet with all of his needs easily met, and has a tendency to collect things he may like or need. He’s got a collection of colorful shirts, rare or strange kinds of alcohol and coins from all over the galaxy. He’s an animal lover and has a six-year-old black cat named Moo. |
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| Strengths & Weaknesses | Laz possesses a sharp tactical and strategic mind, and is a combat operative with a good deal of experience in the field. He’s highly-trained in close quarters combat, reconnaissance and special operations. He’s very open-minded, able to roll with a lot of things that come his way. Laz is a strong believer in the ideals of the Federation, having seen how things work on the other side of the spectrum, and would like to bring more equality to his home planet. While he’s open-minded and a true proponent of the Federation’s philosophy, he’s something of a cynic. He expects the worst of most situations, which shows a well of anxiety in his personality that he tries to hide and ignore. He’s lost friends in combat, and has a tendency to hold those losses deeply personal. As a Zibalian, he learned to enjoy collecting and amassing things, and can be reluctant to let things go. He also seeks and makes friends easily, but experiences anxiety about losing them. While he’s a decisive commander in the field and in combat situations, that sometimes leads to a bit of impatience in things apart from combat. He tries to temper this impatience as best he can by being more relaxed with people but will tend to take control of things if he’s not mindful. |
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| Ambitions | As a career Marine, Laz has ambitions to stay in a spot that allows him to do what he loves. He genuinely enjoys being a Marine and doing his part for the Federation. Though he’s happy in a command role, he doesn’t want to sit behind a desk all day, grinding towards retirement. He’d like to get his parents off of Theta Zibal, but neither of them have been open to that idea. Sometimes he thinks about going back home to try to change things, but at the same time he’s skeptical that people there would change. | |
| Hobbies & Interests | Having learned the skill during Advanced Special Operations School, Laz has become an avid scuba diver and swimmer. Growing up on a planet without widespread access to replicators and with two working mothers, Laz learned to appreciate quality food and likes trying new things. He’s got a taste for genre fiction, especially of the sword and sorcery variety, though he also finds Klingon mythology particularly fun to read. His time on Qo’nos led to him picking up bladesmithing as a hobby and if you know him long enough he’ll probably make a knife for you. | |
| Languages | Standard, Zibalian, Klingon |
| Personal History | Born in the Kaul District in the city of Tirokani on Theta Zibal III. The Zibalian society is one dedicated to commerce and trade, and as a result experiences a heavy degree of economic inequality and the social problems that go along with it. While the great trading consortiums on Zibal have great wealth and power among other commercial species, those who don’t have as much suffer under grinding conditions just to stay alive. Laz was given up for adoption as a baby and was adopted by his mothers. Jira was a mid-level trader with one of the consortiums based in Tirokani, and Abele worked security for the same company. They made a living, though it was often paycheck to paycheck, and they both worked long hours to maintain their positions. All the same, they loved Laz and did the best they could for him. He was a decent student, and popular enough, but life in Tirokani was tough. Everybody was scraping for a living, crime was rising in his district, and Laz eventually fell in with a bad crowd. By the time he was a teenager, he was in frequent fights, stealing when he wanted, and getting a bad reputation in town. Still, he remained a good student, smart enough to keep his grades up. He had heard stories of the wider galaxy by then. Tirokani was a trading hub and different species could be seen, and his imagination always aimed towards the stars, with plans to get a job on a trading ship. His parents tried to straighten him out, but it was hard enough just keeping ahead. It all came to a boil one summer in his senior year. Some wealthier kids came into the Kaul district, going slumming. They were used to having things their way, and Laz ended up having an argument with one of them. There was a fight and Laz badly beat up two of the other boys, hospitalizing one of them. Enough people witnessed it and knew who he was. In short order, real trouble came chasing Laz in the form of enforcers hired by the boys’ parents to straighten him out. Abele knew that Laz wouldn’t really be safe anymore, and arranged to get him passage on a ship off-world. Before he really had time to understand what was happening, he’d left the only place he’d ever known. Life up until now hadn’t prepared Laz for life in space. His mother had managed to wrangle him a job as a cargo handler on a freighter heading towards Federation space. He spent the next eight months working in this capacity, doing tough work and long hours in the cramped confines of a freighter. Laz grew up fast, and when the freighter stopped in Federation space, he jumped off at a Starbase and went exploring. He worked odd jobs here and there, and quickly became enamored with the Federation, at the equality that existed at the heart of it, and at the age of eighteen he enlisted with the Starfleet Marine Corps. He shipped off to basic training at the SFMC Academy on Mars, and the discipline of boot camp quickly corralled his wilder impulses. The Marines found a recruit hungry for a family and a purpose in Laz, and he took to the training and education in the Corps eagerly. At the same time, war with the Dominion was brewing and tensions were high. Shortly before Laz graduated from the academy, the Dominion War broke out and the new recruits would be called to serve. Laz’s regiment was assigned to the USS Galaxy, and quickly saw action on the front lines of the Dominion War. Ground battles were often quick and intense skirmishes over vital strategic targets, and the Galaxy-class ship was a highly effective troop transport. Laz saw combat on the ground and in space, when boarding actions were called for. He distinguished himself in combat throughout a number of engagements, and formed tight bonds of friendship both with his fellow Marines and the Starfleet officers they served alongside. By the war’s end, Laz had earned a promotion to Lance Corporal. With the war over, Laz went further in his career, and went to Advanced Special Operations School to begin a career in special operations. It was hard work, intense training designed to turn the candidates into the most elite combat operatives that Starfleet offer. When Laz came out the other end of it, he was a different man than the one who’d entered. He’d developed more patience, and a greater well of confidence in himself and his abilities. As a new operator, he was assigned an initial position as embassy security for the Federation Embassy to the Klingon Empire on Qo’nos. The job of a marine performing Embassy Security is usually designed to teach them a bit about the importance of diplomacy, and to get them to more deeply experience other cultures. It also gave them the opportunity to put into practice some of the intelligence and counter-espionage training they’d received in school. For his part, Laz enjoyed his time on Qo’nos. He found Klingon culture and mythology fascinating, and he took full advantage of the opportunity to learn more about the warrior way on Qo’nos. It was on Qo’nos that he also learned some things about Klingon bladesmithing and developed the hobby. After his tour at the embassy was up, Laz took a spot as a scout with a reconnaissance special operations team. As a scout, Laz’s job was to move ahead of his fire team and gather intelligence on the situation on the ground. The job suited him, and Echo Team performed jobs all over the quadrant. They assisted in striking pirate hideouts, recovering lost or captive Federation citizens and performed the occasional job at the behest of Starfleet Intelligence. It was the sort of high-stakes work that Laz had spent his entire adult life training for, and he loved it. By the time his tenure on Echo Team was coming to an end, he’d achieved a rank of Sergeant and had a choice to make. His CO had come to him with the idea he’d be a good candidate for the Officer Candidate Program. With a little more training, he could become an officer and lead a team like he was serving on. It’d give him a chance to make more of a difference and have a little more control over his own path. Laz liked the sound of it, applied and was sent to the program in Starfleet Academy. It was two more years of training, and when it was over, Laz was given a First Lieutenant commission. While he waited for a spot leading a team of his own to open up, Laz took a job as an instructor at the SFMC Academy. It was a strange experience, having a bunch of fresh cadets looking up to him. For the first time, Laz felt old and the responsibility to the cadets reminded him daily that some of them wouldn’t live to finish their tours of duty. When a spot opened up with Bravo Team, he jumped at it. Leading a team of Marines suited him more than educating squads of cadets, because at least he could be on the lines taking the same risks as his people. He served with Bravo Team for three years, and formed a tightly-knit squad. They served on the edges of Federation space, dealing with the chaos that still existed a decade after the end of the Dominion War. If left to his own devices, Laz very well may have stayed in that role forever, but following a particularly rough mission near Breen space, Laz received a promotion to Captain, which came with an opportunity for a larger command. When he took the promotion, it came with it a role on Deep Space Five, as head of the 21st MEU |
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| Service Record | 2372: Entered SFMC Academy Basic Training 2373: Graduates Basic Training, assigned to USS Galaxy, 6th Marine Regiment 2373-2375: USS Galaxy, 6th Marine Regiment 2375: Entered Advanced Special Operations School 2376: Graduated ASOS, and Enrolled in Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape School 2377: Graduates SERE School, Enrolled in Starfleet Academy, Intelligence Branch 2378-2380: Graduates Starfleet Academy, Assigned to Federation Embassy to the Klingon Empire, Qo’nos 2380-2386: Assigned to Echo Team, SFMC Reconnaissance Scout 2386-2388: Enrolled in Officer Candidate Program, Starfleet Academy 2388-2390: Graduated Officer Candidate Program, Assigned as Instructor at SFMCA in CQC and Edged Weapons 2390-2393: Assigned Bravo Team Leader, SFMC Recon 2393-Pres.: Assigned 21st MEU CO, Deep Space Five |
Starfleet Id [Admin Use Only]
| Serial Number | HA - 424 - 4856 - VAM | |
| Security Clearance | Level 4 | |
| Duty Shift | Alpha |
Personal Data [Admin Use Only]
| Office | Deck 72 |