Matthew Decker (24th century)

Cadet Matthew Dennis Decker was the youngest son of Admiral Dennis Decker and the latest in a very long line of Deckers serving in Starfleet. Decker's first name comes from his great-grandfather, the legenday Commodore Matthew Decker of the USS Constellation.

Early Life
Growing up, Matt worshipped his older brother Robert, who joined Starfleet and was listed as lost in a deep-space mission from which his ship never returned. Decker's mother also died when he was young.

Matt's best friend growing up was Yoshi Mishima and in 2372, the pair joined Starfleet Academy together hoping to be assigned to the same squadron. To this end, the pair investigated a Jex dealer named Carson. When their investigations got Yoshi captured by the Jex dealers, Decker went into rescue him, while alerting Starfleet Security with a subcutaneous transponder. Starfleet Security arrested Carson and his associates, but things didn't turn out as Decker had hoped. The cadet's investigations ruined a Starfleet sting operation that had a much larger scope than Carson and his Jex market. Starfleet Academy Commandant Admiral Brand decided that the pair had to be separated. Matt was assigned to Omega Squad under Commander Kyethn Zund of Trill.

Omega Squad
Omega Squad consisted of Decker, squadron leader Kamilah Goldstein, T'Priell of Vulcan, Pava Ek'Noor sh'Aqabaa of Andor, and the first Ferengi to attend the Academy, Nog. Decker took an immediate dislike to Nog, believing that the Ferengi had no place in Starfleet. However, after Nog's instincts saved the squad in a holodeck training session gone awry, and bonding over Matt's comic book collection, the two became good friends. (Although they would make a show of it not being so). (SA comic #1-2 Prime Directives; Liberty)

Red Squad
Soon after entering the Academy, Decker was recruited by cadet Tim Watters* to join Red Squad, a squadron of elite cadets. At first Decker was anxious to join the squadron, but when they recieved orders to sabotage Earth's power grid in order to fake a Dominion attack as part of Admiral James Leyton's attempted military coup of the Federation, Decker tried to resist. Decker was captured by Red Squad and stored in the Academy's transporter buffer for six days before he was rescued by Omega Squad. Decker and Omega Squad resisted Red Squad, and several members of the Red Squad team were brought into custody. (SA comic #3 "Loyalty Test")


 * * The comic actually names Red Squad's leader as Jim Walters, but as the name is so similar to the name of the Red Squad leader established in "Valiant" (Tim Watters), it's safe to conjecture that they are actually the same person.

Squadron Leader
Matt was unexpectedly thrust into the leadership position of Omega Squad after Cadet Goldstein was brutally murdered by a Klingon cadet of First Cadre. Decker lost his left eye in the confrontation with the Klingons, and had to have it replaced with an bionic eyepiece. The new eye looked real, but gave Decker perception beyond normal sight. (SA #5 "Love and Death")

Matt's first test of leadership came soon after when he came up with a plan to flush out a Changeling that had infiltrated the campus and had attempted to murder new Omega recruit, Betazoid Edam Astrun, and place the blame for the crime on Nog. (SA #6-7 "Passages", "Hide and Seek")

The "Deadmen"
Soon after, Cadet Astrun recieved a compulsive telepathic distress call from the forbidden world of Talos IV, and took steps, including stealing a shuttlecraft, to answer it. Matt and Omega Squad were unable to stop Astrun, but were taken along on the shuttle.

After Astrun explained his sincere belief that Talosian lives were in danger and his intent on going to Talos to help whatever the cost, Matt gave the rest of Omega Squad a choice: Turn around, or go on to Talos and save lives despite the fact that the penalty for breaking General Order 7 was Starfleet's sole remaining capital offense. The Omegans were unanimous in their desire to save lives at the risk of their own.

Upon arriving at Talos IV, they discovered a war-torn battlefield as Talosians battled a ruthless Jem'Hadar invading force. The Jem'Hadar were using the isolated Talosian telepaths to test a deadly new Dominion weapon-- a meme virus designed incapacitate telepathic species. With the help of the Talosians and a telepathic illusion of the late Christopher Pike, the cadets managed to fend off the Jem'Hadar invaders.

The cadets rushed back to Earth to sound the alarm about the Dominion's planned assault against telepaths, but instead found themselves arrested and put on trial for violating General Order 7. Despite the best efforts of their defense council, the legendary Spock of Vulcan, the cadets were sentenced to death. (SA #9-11 "Return to the Forbidden Planet", "A Prelude To War", "Judgement")

The Telepathy War
The cadets managed to escape imprisonment with outside help of Commander Zund, Cadet Mishama, Boothby, and others after being convinced that the mysterious Admiral Pradesh had some sort of personal grudge against the squad.

Matt led the squad to starbase Deep Space 9, where, with Nog's help, the cadets got an audience with Captain Benjamin Sisko. The cadet's assistance was invaluable when a joint Cardassian/Dominion strike force attacked the station.

Later, Matt and Pava accompanied the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-E) under Captain Jean-Luc Picard into the Gamma Quadrant in what turned out to be a Dominion diversion from their real target, a conference of telepathic species on the planet Alaya 2.

Matt accompanied Commander William T. Riker and a landing party to the surface of Alaya 2 and, with the telepathic assitance of the conference attendees, fended off a Jem'Hader strike team.

The Enterprise escorted Omega Squad back to Earth, where the cadets were exonerated of their crimes. For the accomplishment of beating the death penalty, Omega Squad was given the nickname the "Deadmen" by their fellow cadets. (SA #12 "Renegades"; DS9 Marvel comics #12-13 Command Decisions", Day of Honor; Star Trek: Unlimited #6: Heart of Darkness, ; Star Trek: Telepathy War one-shot Reality's End)

Family Issues
During the Telepathy War crisis, Matt was reunited with who he believed to be his father. Dennis Decker seemed cold, distant, and singularly unconcerned about his son's being sentenced to death. Matt soon discovered that his "father" was actually a Changeling infiltrator assigned to make sure that the Enterprise failed in her mission.

After the Changeling was revealed and defeated, Matt was reunited with his real father, who had been liberated from a Jem'Hadar prison by a Jem'Hadar defector named Lyb'r. (Telepathy War crossovers)

After becoming aware of his son's recent activities, Admiral Decker demanded that Matt transfer to another, more respectable squad, Matt's objections notwithstanding.

Admiral Decker changed his mind after encountering Pava's mother, famed holo-novelist, Undeieela zh'Noor, deciding that Matt's association with the Omega cadets and their "healthy relatives" could prove beneficial. (SA comic #13 "Parent's Day")

T'Priell
Two weeks later, Matt and Omega Squad were inexplicably attacked by their own squadmate, T'Priell. T'Priell used holographic images of Matt's dead mother and brother to distract him while setting an incapacitating and painful feedback loop through his bionic eye.

"T'Priell" was acutally a Romulan named Selke, who carried the katra of the real T'Priell, who had died two years prior. Selke brought the cadets and Commander Zund to an un-named planetoid in Romulan space to her Tal Shiar overseer, subcommander Thokol. Thokol had used Tal Shiar technology to bend the otherwise peaceful Selke to the will of the Tal Shiar. Then, he submerged Selke's personality deep within her own mind, and allowed T'Priell's katra to control the body. Thokol then sent "T'Priell" on to Starfleet Academy as a deep-cover spy unaware of her own identity.

Matt and Omega Squad were rescued by cadets Nog and Mishima, with the assistance of Ambassador Spock's re-unification movement, who were secretly made aware of the situation by Selke, who was resisting her "programming". At first, Matt was unwilling to forgive Selke/T'Priell until he realized that she had not been acting of her own accord due to Thokol's "programming". After the T'Priell and Selke personalities were successfully merged, Matt welcomed T'Priell back into the squad. (SA comics 14-17 T'Priell Revealed parts 1-3: Betrayals, Origins, The Fall; Culture Clash)

Rematch With First Cadre
Some time later, Omega Squad managed to lure their Klingon rivals, First Cadre, across the Federation border with rumors of the lost Sword of Kahless. Once in Federation space, First Cadre could be arrested for the murder of Kamillah Goldstein.

The two teams of cadets fought to a standstill until the arrival of the Klingon cadet Kovold, the Klingon who had killed Kamillah and was Pava's lover. Kovold warned of the arrival after a billion years of the mysterious Viators, whom had altered Kovold and First Cadre leader Murg at the molecular level. Kovold and Murg were killed in a shuttle explosion, and the surviving members of First Cadre blamed their comrade's deaths on Omega Squad.

Several months later, the squad faced down the threat of the Viators. (SA comics 18-19 mangHom qaD,Between Love And Hate)

Starfleet Career

 * Although no information is available from Matt Decker's Starfleet career, it can be speculated that Matt and Omega Squad were among the new Academy graduates recruited by Captain Jean-Luc Picard following the Breen attack on Earth in 2375. Omega Squad would have been among the that years graduating class. (Tales of the Dominion War short story Eleven Hours Out'')