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 67 [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 | Terran 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 Terran Confederation Medal of Honor for his actions in that campaign. He also became 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 one of his many accomplishments during his military career. 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, with whom he sparked a romantic relationship with that carried 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 transfered to the Confederation Marines where she served with the 1st Marine Commando as the space-to-ground coordinator because of her prior flight experience at the Academy.
Early Career
Upon graduating, Bondarevsky was assigned to the Waterloo class cruiser TCS Gettysburg. Bondarevsky's placement on this ship was the start of his famous career. It was also during a mission flown off of the Gettysburg in 2664 that Bondarevsky met 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 paid off later during the events of Operation Back Lash as both were 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 successfully removed 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 turned 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 completed 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 Wake Class 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 was the 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 andJanice 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. One notable pup, Kevin Tolwyn, callsign Lonewolf.
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 remarked 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 was relayed by both Bondarevsky and 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 had 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 Merrit the 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 were 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 forced them to split off part of their fleet. The hope was that the Confed task force in position near Vukar had 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.
Battle of Kilrah
The Battle of Kilrah began as soon as Strike Force Valkyrie 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.
After a tense moment between Merritt and O'Brian the order was given to prepare for an assault on the facility. The Intrepid and Kagimasha bombarded the surface of the moon for an hour before a strike of eight Sabres and four Rapiers along with the ten landing craft was launched. Each Sabre was carrying four brand new "air-to-ground anti-radar missiles each of which broke into 50 submunitions that locked onto individual radars, radio links, laser trackers, point defense guidance systems, and subspace transmitters." The large amount of these missiles being launched required a special command system that was mounted on Montclair's Sabre that reassigned priority targets if missiles were shot down. Fourteen hundred anti-matter warheads made their way to the surface. Hundreds were lost, but hundreds got through as well knocking out a large portion of the Kilrathi defensive network. The landing craft then made their own assault.
As the Marines landed on the second moon, stealth fighters began an attack on the Tarawa. They had been launched from a fleet carrier that arrived on the opposite side of the system. Upon learning of the new contacts, O'Brian decided that withdrawal was the best decision, without the Marines on the ground. Bondarevsky got into a heated argument with O'Brian before the conversation ended with Bondarevsky slamming the comm channel off.
Upon landing, Bear made straight for the bridge, however en route a terrific explosion shock the ship. The bridge had taken a Kilrathi kamikaze. The bridge crew was dead, including O'Brian, whose lower half was completely gone. The kamikaze had killed O'Brian and promoted Bondarevsky to Commanding Officer. He immediately rescinded O'Brian's withdrawal order and gave the Marines time to wire the Kilrathi shipyard.
Bondarevsky was forced to setup a temporary bridge in Flight Control. The damage to the bridge was too severe to allow the running of the task force from there. He then brought the Tarawa and her escorts back into the fight. Crown Prince Thrakhath commanded the Kilrathi fleet that was moving to intercept the Tarawa. One fleet carrier, two cruisers, four destroyers and two corvettes barreled at Strike Force Valkyrie.
Confederation forces held the Kilrathi at bay while Marines placed mines in six carriers, a cruiser assembly building and numerous over production facilities. During the evacuation, Bondarevsky witnessed his love interest, Svetlana Ivanova, die while detonating the mines after her landing craft was hit during the ascent. This episode had long lasting emotional effects of Bondarevsky who never quite forgave himself for her death.
The raid destroyed the facilities on the second moon of Kilrah including the six carriers, cruiser construction facilities, berths and a team of the Kilrathi's best designers who were visiting the installation at the time. Compared along with the victory the Confederation won at Vukar Tag at the same time, Operation Back Lash was the largest Confed success in some time.
The Withdrawal
Through the use of a gas giant the Tarawa and Bondarevsky are able to elude Prince Thrakhath for twenty hours. During that time, repairs were undertaken to both the Tarawa herself and fighters onboard. After the Tarawa lifted out of the gas giant's atmosphere and using a ferret and landing craft armed with nuclear weapons as decoys, used Kilrah and tractor beams to slingshot the Tarawa towards a jump point leading out of system. However, Kagimasha was lost when it collided with a Kilrathi fighter.
The tractor beam maneuver impressed even Prince Thrakhath who remaked that was "damned good." The jump point Bondarevsky had taken did not lead directly back to the Confederation so a stern chase against a heavy cruiser began. It ended in the Jugara system, a system that possessed several key jump points into and out of the Empire.
Tarawa and Intrepid faced Prince Thrakhath's three heavy carriers at first. In the engagement, Intrepid was lost in a torpedo exchange with a enemy cruiser. Tarawa was subsequently rescued by Concordia which had made the trek after the Battle of Vukar Tag to aid in the Tarawa's withdrawal. Admiral Tolwyn had neglected orders and pulled out before Vukar was fully cleared to aid in the rescue of Tarawa. Bondarevsky respected Tolwyn for the rest of his life for this effort on the Admiral's part.
After returning to Confed space, Bondarevsky received the Medal of Honor for his actions during the Kilrah raid. TCS Tarawa was sent to dry dock for refit and repair while Bondarevsky made a stint as an instructor at the Academy.
