Born on Picon into a large family of five children, Nicodemus Martin Stone is the youngest child of Oliver and Tamsin Stone. His oldest sibling, 13 years his senior, is his brother Brett, second oldest is his brother Colt. After Colt, there are two sisters, the older one following in their mother's footsteps as a psychiatrist.
As a child, Nicodemus, or Nickie as he was called, was like Brett's shadow. He practically worshipped his oldest brother, and wanted to be just like him. Whenever Brett and Colt would have arguments, it was always Nicodemus who chased after Brett. As Brett followed in their father's footsteps and became an officer, Nicodemus was enamored with that path. Just five-years-old, though, he could do little but support Brett, writing him and sending him drawings as often as he could.
When Colt joined the Marines instead of continuing the tradition, the schism that grew between Colt and their father and Brett began to include Nicodemus. Even though Nicodemus hardly understood what was really going on at the time, he mirrored the feelings he saw Brett exhibiting towards Colt, and shunned him. At the age of seven, Brett and Timson were both serving aboard the same ship when it was destroyed. It shattered Nicodemus, who wouldn't actually speak again for over a year, even with the expertise and attention of his psychiatrist mother. When he did finally utter his next words, it was to Colt, who was then stationed at Eos and checking in on the family as often as he could. Those words were, "You aren't Brett."
Over the next two years, Colt was on Picon and able to check in, and during that time he managed to get to a point where he and Nicodemus were at least civil. Nicodemus was too young to truly understand everything that had happened, and it left him elevating Brett onto a pedestal that no one, especially a Marine like Colt, could ever compare to. With his speech returned, Nicodemus secretly turned to cutting himself to cope with his family's difficulties.
During his teenage years, Colt was serving elsewhere, and Nicodemus was the only man in the house. He spent his free time doing work around the house and making sure his mother and sister were taken care of. Whatever time was left over, he spent rock climbing in the mountains not far from their home, where he would sketch the views from the top of the peaks. After graduating high school, Nicodemus saw no other path for himself but that of Brett and his father, and he applied for the Colonial Fleet Academy.
Nicodemus was accepted into the Colonial Fleet Academy on Picon, where he received his degree in Aeronautical Engineering. During his college years, he was quite popular. His slick confidence and skill at Triad, combined with his casual yet charmingly arrogant demeanor managed to leave him with a reputation as someone who loved life and wanted to share it with everyone. It was a chip on his shoulder that would also make him impulsive and reckless. He had also become very careful to hide his self-cutting and to use his charm and experience with his mother and sister's psychiatric knowledge to keep it from being discovered thus far.
After finishing CFA, Nicodemus went on to Flight School. There, he learned to fly a Viper, taking with him one of his brother Brett's dog tags for luck. It met all of the fast and dangerous requirements he hoped for, and he loved it. Brett's tag became his lucky charm, and he has never flown without it, convinced doing so would end in very bad things happening.
Nicodemus was crazy in a Viper, his aerial acrobatics being exceptionally skillful and ahead of most of those in his class. His gunnery skills are not nearly as good, however, but they're certainly on par with average. This leads him to outfly his enemies instead of outgunning them. Now that he's finished his training and become an Ensign, Nicodemus has volunteered for the Orion mission…