Location of Vergere
47 light years from Vestiva,
165 light years from Earth
Grand Coalition Fleet
Flagship GCS Christian Huygens
When the time to pick education, he expressed a strong interest and desire to study the technical side and theory behind space aviation. His parents agreed and so he was enlisted to join the best schools Vergere could offer, aged twelve. There, he belonged to a particular group of students that showed under average results at the beginning of most courses, and so his hopes were very low. As the courses went on, the young boy caught up to the basics and progressed them at rapid paces. He was never the top of his class, but he was far from being the dead last he used to be. He dedicated a lot of his time to his studies and the results showed up when the students turned sixteen had to pick their specialization. The decisions of most students were discussed by the boards, but James´s application to military aviation was accepted almost immediately.
After having his goodbye with his parents, he was moved to The Academy of Military Aviation to one of the moons of the planet Huygens, in the Vergere system. There, he learned the rules behind military aviation tactics and unlike most of his peers, instead of using old ones, he tried to adapt them to other situations than they were intended to, and used a lot of simulated battles to create his own strategies. As with the school back on Vergere, he was not the best in the class but neither the last - the only thing that made him stand out was his dedication to the studies at hand. After eight hard years, James graduated and unlike most of his peers, he was immediately assigned to a star ship - the 1100 meter long destroyer GCS Vergere, where he served the role of the executive officer.
The next couple of years saw James getting into sporadic contact with his family who fully supported him in his now established military career. He spent the years serving on various positions in various parts of the Galaxy, either escorting civilian crafts with a small military detachment - still as an executive officer. His first tests came when he was placed in the role of a Commanding officer of larger fleets with the task of quelling surges of rebellion and chaos at the outer borders of the Grand Coalition. There, the now promoted Real Admiral Garret saved countless worlds from the flames of orbital bombardment by not issuing the orders, but he was forced to turn several of them into wastelands after his options ran out.
His greatest test came in year 2498, when his home planet of Vergere rebelled. Using its huge shipyards, the Vergerian Insurgents raised an impressive amount of ships and other technique to take the fight to the Grand Coalition. Rear Admiral Garret was sent to deal with the situation, as the Coalition believed that he will be able to negotiate a peaceful end to hostilities. Garret and his now sizable fleet arrived, immediately blockading the planet with the ships at his disposal. Despite his best attempts at trying for a diplomatic end to the hostilities, the Vergerian Insurgents tried to break the blockade by dozens of ships. Garret issued a hold fire until one of the ships rammed a part of the blockade in kamikaze like fashion. This forced the Admiral to change his approach and he gave the " Fire at will " order to most of the ships in the fleet.
This led to the state of total uprising from the Vergerian side, with Garret´s fleet being the nearest target. Soon after the first blows were exchanged, Garret found his fleet engaged in a full scale battle with the Vergerian forces, a costly victory for his fleet. Immediately after ending the climatic battle above Vergere, he performed the most accurate shot from a Gauss in the history of the Grand Coalition Fleet. Obliterating the Vergerian hedquarders with minimal collateral damage. Basd on his experience from this battle, he perfected his idea of a perfect warship for his needs - thus, the GCS Christian Huygens was born. The fact that he ended the hostilites with minimal colateral damage and civilian casualties earned him recognition back on Earth - he was promoted to the rank of a Grand Admiral of the Grand Coalition, one from the total amount of seven Grand Admirals that responded to the Global Coalition Fleet Headquarters back at Earth.
As soon as he was promoted, he was told of the news of the Contact. Being the Grand Admiral in the sector where the first contact was about to happen, Garret was tasked with preparing his now huge fleets for the first encounter - whether it will be a peaceful meeting or the beginning of a galactic war. Garret dedicates all of his time to this task - be it debating with researchers about new weapons,undergoing extensive simulations with other Grand Admirals or going through the formations and statistics of the Grand Coalition. As the day of the contact approaches, so is the work Garret is putting into the effort multiplying. He wants to do his best at the meeting, let it end one way or another.
Despite his harsh appearance, Grand Admiral Garret is a kind, emphatic person. He is ready to give advice, discuss strategy or everyday matters when somebody approaches him with a polite request. His long carreer and accomplishments are giving him a justified sense of pride, and he expects other to show a certain level of respect when dealing with him - in return, he will show the same respect for the ones around him. In his rare free time, he is a talkative, friendly person who tends to have moments when all he needs is the solitude of four closed walls.