Jason Bondarevsky

Jason Bondarevsky
2641 -
Callsign	Bear
Place of birth	Razin, Alpha Centauri (2641)
Allegiance	Free Republic of the Landreich / Terran Confederation
Service/branch	Navy/Space Forces
Years of service	Confed Space Forces - 2657 - 2667, Confed Navy 2667 - 2669, FRLN 2668, 2670-
Rank	Rear Admiral - FRLN, Commodore - Confleet
Commands	Wing Commander - TCS Tarawa (2667), Captain - TCS Tarawa (2667-68), Commander - DesRon 57 [Flag on the TCS Coventry] (2668-69), Wing Commander - FRLS Mjollnir (2670), Commander - FRLN CVE Fleet (2671-72)
Battles/wars	Gettysburg Mutiny (2666), Invasion of Vukar Tag (2667), Kilrah Raid (2667), 6th Battle of Munro (2668), Free Corps (2668), 2nd Battle of Hell Hole (2668), Battle of Terra (2668), Battle of Loki (2669), Battle of Baka Kar (2671), FRL-Confed Conflict of 2671-72
Awards	Confederation Medal of Honor Free Republic of the Landreich Order of Nova with Diamonds Golden Sun

Jason Bondarevsky was a pilot for the Terran Confederation. His name appears in the context of many noteworthy events during the late 27th century. He is best remembered for his role in Operation Back Lash in 2667, being the commanding officer on the TCS Tarawa when she returned from her part of the operation in the Kilrah system. He won the Confederation Medal of Honor for his actions in that campaign. He would also become the youngest captain of an escort carrier during the war, a distinction that he well deserved following the debriefing after the raid. His actions in the Kilrah system have become legendary at the Academy. Besting Crown Prince Thrakhath in his home system was but one of many of his accomplishments. The rest of his combat record is no less compelling starting with his role in the mutiny aboard the TCS Gettysburg as a young pilot in 2667 to his retirement from the Free Republic of the Landreich Navy (FRLN) in the late 27th century.

Enlistment and the Academy

Jason "Bear" Bondarevsky was born in the Russian Colony on Razin, Alpha Centauri in 2641. His father was Russian, his mother (maiden name Houston) was Australian. Jason had a single older sibling, Joshua Bondarevsky who joined the Confederation Marines and later died during the defense of Khosan in 2661. His contact with his father was limited as a result of the war as his father was a pilot with Confleet. His father was killed in combat in 2657 when Jason was only 16. Enraged by this, Jason stole a birth certificate from his local clerk's office and doctored it so that he could enlist with Confleet.

He was a second class flight deck mate on his first cruise. Two years later he went on to the Academy, where he met Janice Parker and Svetlana Ivanova, whom he would spark a romantic relationship with that would carry consequences later on in his life. Unfortunately, she failed her “Advanced Spaceflight and Jump Point Physics” course exam and washed out of the Academy. Having a chip on her shoulder from the death of her father, much like Jason, Svetlana would transfer to the Confederation Marines where she would serve with the 1st Marine Commando as the space-to-ground coordinator because of her prior experience at the Academy.

Early Career

Upon graduating, Bondarevsky was assigned to the Waterloo class cruiser TCS Gettysburg. Bondarevsky's placement on this ship would be the start of his famous career. It would also be during a mission flown off of the Gettysburg in 2664 that Bondarevsky would meet Captain Grierson of the destroyer TCS Intrepid for the first time. Having been forced to eject during combat, Bondarevsky was tractored in by Grierson while having several Kilrathi destroyers in hot pursuit. This initial meeting between the two men would pay off later during the events of Operation Backlash as both would be major actors in Strike Force Valkyrie.

On 2667.072, after encountering unarmed Kilrathi civilian transports in the N'Tanya system, Commander Cain, commanding officer of the Gettysburg, ordered his pilots to destroy the transports. The pilots refused and trigged a mutiny that would successfully remove Cain from command. However, soon after the crew split into two divergent groups. One group under Colonel Ransom wanted to continue a career of terrorism and piracy and forget about returning to the fleet. The other group was led by Lt. Colonel Poelma and Lt. Bondarevsky and they sought to rejoin Confleet as quickly as possible.

As the debate on what to do waged on the Gettysburg jumped from N'Tanya system to Rigel where they then staged a raid on the Rigel Supply Depot. The raid was led by Colonel Ransom and was successful in capturing the depot intact, however during the raid a prisoner attempted to escape and what followed has been described as a massacre of the Kilrathi by the Colonel's team. This event caused the opposition group to leave Ransom's team on the depot, who would turn it into a temporary headquarters until he could retake the Gettysburg.

The Gettysburg crew then sent out a signal to the TCS Concordia informing them they were willing to negotiate. Bondarevsky was selected to fly out and meet a representative from the Concordia. He was met by Colonel Christopher Blair who then escorted him back to the Concordia for debriefing. Upon arrival he was interned in the brig because of the nature of the situation. During that time, Bondarevsky met Admiral Geoffrey Tolwyn an encounter that will have long lasting effects on Bondarevsky. Colonel Blair then rendezvoused with the Gettysburg and informed the crew they have been given a full pardon for their actions. Bondarevsky was eventually released and transferred aboard the Concordia where he would do one tour of duty before being promoted and transferred to the TCS Tarawa as its new Wing Commander.

Operation Back Lash

The TCS Tarawa was one of the original nine medium transports that were converted into light escort carriers three quarters of the way through their construction. They were intended as quick fix for the horrible losses that the Confederation had suffered during 2666. They were designed with several missions in mind, but the Tarawa would be first to be committed to a deep penetration raid straight into the Kilrah system.

Bondarevsky was one of the youngest Wing Commanders in the fleet at 25 and he had achieved it in what can be considered record time. He went from 2nd Class flight deck hand to Wing Commander in 8 years. He owed his position because of a referral by Tolwyn to Admiral Bainbridge who wanted a talented officer to occupy the position. Tolwyn was not informed until later on why he had been asked to choose some of his best people for assignment to the Tarawa. Bondarevsky also chose some of his colleagues from the Concordia to serve with him on the Tarawa including Janet McCullough / Sparks, Etienne Montclair / Doomsday and Janice Parker / Starlight. There were other seasoned personnel on the Tarawa as well, however the vast majority of men and women serving aboard her on this first tour were fresh out of the Academy. Jason's first orders to his "pups" was that they were going back to square one with training and drills. He hoped to teach them every trick he knew in order that they survive another day to fight the Kilrathi.

Not only were most of the pilots fresh out of the Academy, the commanding officer of the Tarawa, Commodore Thaddeus O’Brian was an officer who had been transfered in from transport design and had no prior combat experience. The relationship between Captain and Wing Commander was rocky from the moment Bondarevsky first landed on the Tarawa in a Ferret. He had been sight seeing a bit too much and had come in a bit hard. Not the first impression a Wing Commander wants to make on his first approach. O'Brian would remark on the landing as being "shaky" and from that point on Bondarevsky had an instant dislike for the man. The cowardice of Commodore O'Brian would be relayed by both Bondarevsky and then-Colonel Merritt.

The first mission of the Tarawa was a cover that involved the redeployment of some of the best Confederation Marine units to a ground assault exercise at Khartoum Station. The 1st Marine Commando, one of the most elite units in the Confederation was part of this convoy as well. Svetlana Ivanova, Bondarevsky's old love had become a member of the Commando division and was known as the "talker" because of her role as space-to-ground coordinator. After meeting with the Marine transports the convoy turns around on 2667.157 and makes a high speed run for Vukar Tag where the Marines are to stage an assault on the planet. The TCS Sevastapol joined the Tarawa before the jump into Vukar Tag.

The two escort carriers and Marine transports then launched a full strike against space and ground based targets. The Sevastapol's fighters and bombers handle space-based threats while the Tarawa's wing had pulled the atmospheric missions. The main target of the Marine assault was the ancestral home of the Emperor's Mother, Dowager Empress Graknala. The structure was in Bondarevsky's own words "was beautiful, almost like a fairy-tale medieval fortress of polished limestone, complete to minareted towers." The entire commando battalion was committed to taking it by direct assault. The assault and subsequent demolition of the fortress was captured and burst transmitted to Kilrah by a listening post that was allowed to stay alive in order to relay this exact information to the Imperial Palace. Twelve hours after the assault begins the Tarawa along with the commando battalion are recalled to the Niven Sector where they are briefed on their true role in Operation Back Lash.

Operation Back Lash was an offensive planned in the six months prior by Confed HQ in order to cause enough damage to the Kilrathi Imperial forces that it could possibly cause a dynastic civil war and give the Confederation an edge. The taking of Vukar Tag was the opening move in the larger operation. TCS Concordia, TCS Wolfhound, TCS Trafalgar and TCS Gettysburg along with over seventy other ships had massed in the Niven Sector in order to meet the Kilrathi response. They were to ambush the Kilrathi fleet as it attempted its planetary assault with the hopes of catching them geared entirely for space-to-ground operations.

The Tarawa would have a unique role in Operation Back Lash as the main unit in Strike Force Valkyrie. Along with the TCS Intrepid under Captain Grierson, TCS Kagimasha under Captain Teng and the 1st Marine Commando battalion under Colonel Merrittthe task force was tasked with penetrating into the Kilrah system itself and attacking the 2nd moon of Kilrah, which was known to be a massive military installation. They would be using a set of jump lines that the Kilrathi were not aware Confed was aware of. They were then to let the Kilrathi find them the task force thereby putting the Kilrathi in a dilemma that would force them to split off part of their fleet. The hope would be that the Confed task force in position near Vukar would have a better chance of succeeding against 6-7 carriers as opposed to the full force of 10.

The transit time from Niven until the reveal point allowed Bondarevsky to further train his pilots along with rekindle the romantic relationship with Captain Ivanova. The time allowed for further training was very important to Bondarevsky as far as he and the other senior officers were concerned, their mission was essentially a one-way trip. He wanted the people under his command to have the best chance of surviving this raid.

Bondarevsky allowed a lone Sartha to escape with footage of the strike force as per the mission guidelines, however Commodore O'Brian had other ideas as he was more concerned with saving his own life instead of completing the mission as outlined by Bainbridge. If not for some actions on the part of Captain Grierson following Bondarevsky's return things could have gone very differently, however Grierson's intervention pushed the task force to flank speed for the heart of the Empire.

Once they entered the Kilrah system the first Kilrathi response was twenty plus fighters and 3 corvettes that were met and destroyed by the Tarawa's fighters. During this Bondarevsky noticed the six carrier construction slips as well as the rest of the massive facility. He transmitted his gun camera footage back to the Tarawa. Merritt originally estimated 30 hours to fully destroy the entire facility. The moon had been converted by the Kilrathi into a massive shipyard that had six carriers in various stages of construction as well as a cruiser construction yard.