McDickus family

The McDicki (Singular: "McDickus" - Kiravic: Mikdikuv, Gaelic mac Diachus) are a Kiravian military family with ancestral roots in the state of Ateranda. The McDickus family has an illustrious (albeit eccentric) history of service in the Kiravian armed forces, having fought in every major Kiravian armed conflict since the Continental War, during which their patriarch Prickus McDickus was noted for being the only man in his company to survive the First Battle of the Swadesh, escaping a Draili prison camp, and single-handedly capturing a Draili stockade with a two-shot pistol and a shard of bottle glass.

The family's early origins are shrouded in mystery. Prickus, the first documented member of the family, listed his hometown as Āxaśuldor (English: "Dry Heaves"), Ateranda State at the time of his enlistment. Āxaśuldor, situated in a very remote, isolated valley in the Eastern Highlands, was notorious among denizens of other villages in the vicinity for its propensity for, and it is generally assumed that like the other families in the village and most families in the Eastern Highlands, the McDickus bloodline contains an admixture of Coscivian, Gaelic, Prythonic, and Aboriginal ancestry. While there are no residents by the name McDickus in the village today, a related surname, McBigdick, turns up numerous times in county court records, mostly in connexion with public indecency charges.

Biggus McDickus
Biggus Dukakis McDickus, born Vangelis Pythagoras Dukakis McDickus, is a Rear Admiral of the Kiravian Navy, currently serving as Military Governor of Kiravian-Occupied Covinia, and having previously served as Deputy Commander of the Northern Fleet with the Home Islands Unified Combatant Command at the Kartika Citadel.

Biggus was born in Mirśamur, Melian Isles to Petty Officer Friggus McDickus, a naval gunner aboard the KRH Íravokan, and Levitra Dukakis, a local waitress and and aspiring stripper of Melote descent, a result of a brief liaison the two had while Petty Officer McDickus was on shore leave at Mirśamur Naval Base. The elder McDickus was reportedly unaware that he had fathered a child until almost two years later when he noticed that his paychecks were being withheld for child support. After another year, during which he made his income hustling card games in various ports, Biggus saved enough money to return to Mirśamur and legitimize his son and change his name to "something less gay". Friggus then moved his family to a Kirosocialist-era poured concrete apartment block near the Silverda Naval Harbour, which at that time was the headquarters of the Western Fleet.

McDickus enrolled at the Kiravian Fleet Academy at Íopa, Hanoram. He was a member of the Academy's fieldball team as a third-string halfback (though he only played in two games), and also a member of the Academy's notoriously inept golf team. Despite a lackluster academic performance, McDickus earned satisfactory reviews for his performance during drills and other military training. He was granted an ensign's commission by the Stanora in 21174 and assigned to the KDH Rōnadarin, where he was responsible for overseeing radar technicians. He would go on to serve aboard the destroyer KDH Arkvera during the Echo Islands War and the Battle of Durrell Islet, during which time he oversaw helicopter groundcrews and anti-aircraft weaponry. In 21186 (2006 AD), he was promoted to Lieutenant Commander and transferred to a desk job at the Western Fleet headquarters and undertook higher-level command training in anti-aircraft systems and naval aviation. By 21190, he was working as deputy head of naval air strategy for the Home Islands Command, and became head of naval aviation for that operational region. McDickus was an important part of Operation Electric Fence, the closure of the Kilikas Sea to Ormati naval and air forces, and was made deputy commander of the Northern Fleet's general staff in 21207.

Between 21205 and 21208, McDickus became preoccupied with the threat posed by the nation of Varshan, with colleagues at the Home Islands Command reporting that he habitually inserted his thoughts on Varshan into completely unrelated discussions. He requested a transfer to Punth Command in 21206 and again in 21207, and was denied both times. It was after the first denial that McDickus began to be openly critical of Prime Executive Andrus Candrin, arguing that the Federacy needed to take a more proactive approach to neutralizing Varshan than Candrin's more cautious strategy, which sought to postpone armed conflict with Varshan as long as possible for fear that if war were to break out suddenly, the Kiravian colonies in Punth would be overrun before the Federacy could mount an effective defence. By 21208, McDickus had become convinced that a preëmptive strike was the only option for defeating Varshan. He charted and proposed several different plans for such strikes, all of which were unilateral in nature and some of which involved massive nuclear salvos, false-flag operations incorporating Kiravian troops using to disguise themselves as Kelekonan Punthites, and other comparably outlandish tactics. Other Kiravian strategists believed that a preëmptive strike was necessary, but dismissed McDickus' proposals as moronic.

Increasingly ignored by and isolated from the rest of the Kiravian defence establishment, McDickus came to the conclusion that the Candrin administration and Kiravian High Command had become irredeemably complacent towards Varshan and abandoned his efforts to rouse them into action. Instead, he contacted his brother Thickus in the Air Corps and the two began plotting a coup.

In [month] 21208, as Varshan began posturing to seize control of the Ghazi-Aay'han Canal, Biggus and Thickus opted to carry out the coup ahead of schedule, fearing that the Candrin administration would act too slowly to stop the Varshani from taking the canal. As planned, Naval and Air Corps pilots loyal to the McDickus brothers moved to establish air superiority over Kartika and Primóra, but before the coup could proceed further, two problems presented themselves: Pro-coup forces were only able to scramble about half of the jets they had planned for (due to both maintenance issues and pilots not showing up), and Andrus Candrin remained in Kartika instead of flying to Valēka as he had been scheduled to. The brothers aborted the coup and were able to cover up the bomber flights over Kartika as legitimate "training missions", but public alarm caused by the low-flying planes over Kartika and Primóra, as well as concerns raised about the pair by their fellow officers, brought the McDickuses under scrutiny from the Federal Security Bureau and the Army and Navy counterintelligence bureaux.

Thickus McDickus
Thickus McDickus is a Major General of the Kiravian Army Aircorps, currently serving as Combined Force Air Component Command Chief with the Continental Unified Combatant Command, which is responsible for Kiravian military operations in Continental Ixnay.

Thickus was born aboard a city bus in Saar-Silverda to Petty Officer Friggus McDickus and his wife Levitra McDickus née Dukakis, a former waitress but still aspiring stripper.

Mujamydick McDickus
Lieutenant Mujamydick McDickus is a junior officer in the Kiravian Army Marine Corps and the illegitimate son of Rear Admiral Biggus McDickus.

Mujamydick McDickus was born at the Foster's Island Migration Detention Facility in Valēka, Kiygrava to then-Lieutenant Biggus McDickus and Nergüi Gurbanguly, a stateless woman of indeterminate Turkic-speaking ethnicity. Because Kiravian nationality law does not transmit Kiravian citizenship from Kiravian fathers to any illegitimate offspring by non-Kiravian mothers, Mujamydick was born a stateless person. His mother, an illegal immigrant who had been working as a hotel housekeeper in Iselin, Niyaska before being apprehended by the Migration Authority, was awaiting a deportation hearing at the time of his birth. The judge ordered a in the case until an interpreter speaking a Turkic dialect suitably similar to Gurbanguly's could be found, which ended up taking almost a year. Ultimately, a court-appointed attorney was able to have Gurbanguly released from custody and allowed to remain in Kiravia for two months in order to locate her child's father. At the time, McDickus was in active combat in the Echo Islands and could not be recalled to Great Kirav until just before Gurbanguly was due to leave the Federacy. Though still not a Kiravian citizen or national, Mujamydick was granted in Kiravia until adulthood. He was raised primarily by his Uncle Thickus and his wife Daria McDickus at various Kiravian airbases.

Knowing that he would face deportation at age 18, McDickus enlisted in the Kiravian Army Marine Corps in the hope of earning Kiravian nationality upon discharge.