Raddick was born into a typical loving family which was completely happy and normal. His father was a white Austrailian laborer who worked at the shipyards assembling the duranium space-frames of new starships. His mother was a North American of African descent -- a medical professional who enjoyed helping others. As he grew up, Vance had a well adjusted childhood, until his family moved to a Federation colony called New Harmony in 2354, when Vance was 11.
The move came about when the Federation recruited Vance's mother to join the medical staff at the new colony. Vance's father also gained work there helping build the new outpost on the edge of Cardassian space.
Not long after they moved, however, the Cardassians broke a truce in the long waged Cardassian/Federation war and attacked New Harmony claiming it belonged to them. In the bloody and terrifying attack, most of the colony was slaughtered. Vance's father was among the militia members killed defending the colony and his mother died when Cardassians burned the colony's only hospital to the ground.
Young Raddick wandered the destroyed colony for weeks without food, water or adequate shelter until he was finally rescued by a Starfleet ship which came along. With no immediate family known, Vance ended up at an orphanage on Zeolek VI, a Federation world near the Cardassian border.
Raddick grew up there, hating the Cardassians more and more as he grew and could not get over the images of the Cardassian attack on his home. He also harbored ill feelings toward Starfleet for arriving so late to render assistance to the colony. Vance grew introverted, troublesome and downright mean in the orphanage. There were accounts of him beating up no less than a dozen children there . . . several of whom were part Cardassian.
In 2361, at the age of 18, Vance Raddick was released from the orphanage, having never been adopted. Angry and bitter he worked in several odd laborer jobs for a few years until, at the age of 20, he enlisted in the Federation Marine Corps.
Vance, on one hand, found a home in the marine corp where he was a combat specialist who also excelled at mechanized vehicles and piloting. But he had a lot of trouble with discipline and respect for superiors. He was reprimanded on several occasions over the years for insubordination, fighting and, in one case, was almost court martialed for an alleged sexual assault. That case, however, was dropped when the alleged victim recanted her story. If he had been tried and convicted, Raddick would have been dishonorably discharged and imprisoned.
After the sexual assault claims, even though dismissed, Raddick ended up getting bumped to a transport ship full of Marine misfits called the USS Dupont in 2371. Corporal Raddick and his fellow marines were on their way back from engaging the Klingons in the brief but destructive Klingon/Federation conflict when the Dupont was damaged and accidentally wandered into Breen space.
Unable to transmit a distress signal, the damaged Dupont was relieved at first when the Breen ship appeared on the screen. But when the Breen offered assistance, it turned out to be a trick. The Breen boarded and seized the Dupont. Twenty-seven of the 56 men and women aboard the ship were killed. Raddick and the others were taken prisoner and were turned into slave laborers for the Breen.
Raddick and his collegues spent from 2372 to 2376 in a Breen mine on an unknown planet mining dylithium. The Breen were ruthless masters who went to great extremes to keep their slaves alive. Though ominous on the outside in their helmet environmental suits, the Breen are actually frail inside the suits and require slave labor to work in dangerous, hot locations. Because of the dangerous to live beings mining dylithium, the Breen found new ways to keep their captives alive longer. Raddick and the other prisoners were surgically augmented to make them stronger and more durable in the mines.
Raddick was augmented with muscle replacements (throughout his entire body, large areas of muscle were removed and replaced with stronger synthetic materials), his lungs and heart were replaced with stronger cloned organs and his eyes were replaced with cybernetic implants which allow him to see multi-spectral images, including lowlight (al useful to a miner deep underground), and his bones were laced with duranium to make them stronger.
For four years the new and improved Raddick toiled away underground, looking for a chance to escape. One day, in 2376, new Starfleet and Marine prisoners began arriving by the scores and Raddick learned the Breen, now allied with the Dominion, were at war with the Federation.
With the influx of new, battle hardened slaves, some of whom were Klingons and Romulans, Raddick seized on the opportunity to gather support quickly for a coup agains their captors. Within weeks a plan was in place and Raddick led a huge breakout. He and his renegade slave army broke out of the mines, killed dozens of Breen and stole a ship. They made it the front lines and were rescued by a Klingon ship. As the war ended Raddick and the four remaining survivors of the Dupont returned to Earth.
Raddick, the misfit marine, was elevated to hero status for his breakout. The Federation figured the Breen would have kept the slaves even after the war ended, so Raddick had saved all of them by planning and executing the breakout. Deep down, he only organized the escape because he was personally tired of being a slave and saw the influx of prisoners as a way to muster support for an escape.
He decided to stay in the Marine Corp and accepted a promotion to sergeant. He spent several months after the war taking refresher classes and other training to hone his long unused abilities. During this time he rejected an offer to have his augmentations removed, citing they were now a part of him. Wary of his enhancements, the Marines begrudgingly decided to allow them to remain, but cautioned Raddick if they became a problem they would either have to be removed -- or he would have to leave the corp.
Sgt. Raddick then obtained an assignment to the USS Valkyrie as a member of Shadow Operation's Marine Force Alpha.
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