Zachary Edmund Sheperd was born on CFA: Leonis, his mother was a former combat medic and parajumper who now handled the training of first aid to cadets on the base and his father owned a restaurant off of campus. When he was younger, he'd visit with his father, watching him cook, sticking his nose in different things, learning the art of cooking from him. From his mother he learned how to garden, how to recognize when herbs, fruits and vegetables were their ripest. So it was only natural that when he decided to go to college, he would follow in the family footsteps and become a culinary arts major. He decided once he was in college that he would go the route of study that would take him through culinary arts, but also be part of the cadet corps for the Colonial Fleet. His plan was to graduate school and use the opportunity as a raptor pilot to see different bases and be able to sample different foods and bring them all back home and make the restaurant even a better success than it was.
He graduated from the two year school in 1986 and enlisted fulltime in the Colonial Navy, following the Raptor Pilot MOS track. When he graduated from the course, he earned the callsign 'Pie' because of his last name and because he won the Dessert Division of the FLEETCOM Bake-Off in 1986 with a strawberry-rhubarb pie. He was assigned to the VAQ-048 'Thundering Herd' based off of the escort carrier Tannerman Ocean, he flew relief missions in support of the efforts to supplant supplies during the Gemenon Drought and Famine. During the LONGBOW Deployment Exercise in 1988, then-Lieutenant (JG) Sheperd performed to exempliary marks in every training exercise that he participated in.
Zachary then took an assignment to the VRC-487 'Fleet Angels' off of the Hospital Ship Tranquility in 1988. He participated in Operation Silent Night, the rescue of aid workers on Sagittaron in early August of 1988. In October of 1989, Sheperd participated in the rescue of passengers and crew from the Cruise Liner Persephone's Star when she suffered an explosion in her engine compartment, cutting gravity and life support to the stricken vessel. In 1990, Sheperd reupped with the Tranquility and was promoted to Lieutenant. During this time, he continued to serve as a Raptor driver, but started to express his interest in becoming part of the CSAR teams that he had assisted on missions with exclusively and put in for the CSAR Squadron Assignment in the hopes of getting an assignment on the ground and doing what he had learned to do best, assisting other people.
In early 1991, Lieutenant Sheperd was transferred to the VAQ-494 'Beachheaders' on board the Battlestar Erasmus. Most of his time during this tour was spent in training, and participating in the different scenarios of live fire drops and using the Raptor as an offensive weapon. However, his tour would be cut short by a new assignment, his application for CSAR driver had been processed, approved and he was to report to Anchorage Naval Base on Leonis to begin the intense training that was required to become a member of the CSAR Squadron. After nearly two years of intense training in emergency field medicine, zero-G rescue, hitch and hook procedures for towing damaged craft and training for flying in almost any weather condition, Zachary graduated from CSAR school in 1993 and was transferred to CFA Leonis to become a pilot for the 917-RQS 'Aphrodite's Embrace'.
The assignment to CFA Leonis is not just another transfer, it was a 10 year commitment to the unit. He served in various operations and rescue roles during his first couple of years as part of 'Embrace'. In late 1996, he led a group of CSARs to Pallas, where a group of college students had attempted a radical new way to kobolform part of the planet as part of their thesis project. The kobolforming had not taken, and their ship was damaged by debris from the project. When assisting the students on his ship, he met one of them - Eden Ackerman. She was a 22 year old graduate student with a degree in horticulture. The two talked about the different herbs that would make the best ingredients in meals the entire trip home. Smitten, Zachary asked for and began a formal correspondence with Eden, who was 10 years his junior.
In 1998, Zacharay assisted in relief efforts after a riot broke out at the Aquarian Summerfest, believed to have been spurred on by Zarek-followers from Sagittaron. He was wounded when a full bottle of beer slammed against his head while assisting with the removal of an injured person and nearly lost the vision in his left eye. He would have to take six months to recover. During that time, Eden Ackerman came to his side, helped him with his recovery. Eden met Zachary's parents and the two of them became enraptured with the lovely young horticulturist. It was during the Satrunalia celebration of 1998, that Zachary and Eden were married.
Zachary and Eden settled into the off-base billets at Leonis. He also participated in no less than seven rescue missions of lost ships or flights that had been damaged in mock combat missions. The two had settled into married life until 2002, when the project for a new planet to explore was announced, Eden jumped at the chance to go. As a well-educated and promising horticulturist, it was easy for her to be accepted into the mission. She promised to only take one tour and come right back home to start a family. Zachary still had nine months left on his tour with 'Embrace' so remained behind while Eden travelled to Piraeus aboard the Orion.
She was gone for 18 months. While she was gone, Zachary handled the home front chores and duties, and continued to train in Combat and CSAR missions. Zachary made Major in the air wing and went to advanced leadership training to be groomed for the opprotunity to become an air wing commander when a position opened, should he chose to do so. When Eden returned home, she was so full of hope and stories of the world she had seen that she wanted to convince Zachary to apply for the next mission. They would start a better life where they were going, she promised. They could have a long and fruitful life. He could retire there and they could finally start a family. Maybe even open their own restaurant like his father had back on Leonis.
He had received a lucrative re-up offer from the Fleet to spend another decade on Leonis and then become a trainer. They would have wanted for nothing. But there was something about what her wife said. That gleam in her eyes as she talked on and on about her duty assignment that he decided to join her for the second tour. He was accepted on the second tour, and with his wife, they traveled to Piraeus and to prepare for a future together.
It was during the first couple of months of the second tour that the war broke out. Zachary was the main Raptor driver for the drop and retrieve mission of the Marines at Avery Hall, and now that the universe has been turned upside down, the Sheperds are not just thinking of a life together, but how to survive together in the gathering storm.