It is from the city Tusculum, province of Ilium on Leonis that the Decumius family hails from. The family was mostly blue collar, lower middle class for its recent history. Though agriculture is a big industry in Tusculum, surrounded by farmland, the family hasn't been a participant in it in the last few generations, though indeed farming is in their origins. Lucius Decumius's father, also called Lucius Decumius, grew up in the outskirts of Tusculum and after occupying a few low level jobs after high school, decided to join the Leonisian Army as an infantryman. The budget of this once proud military was tiny and chronic underfunding plagued its ranks – still it was a proud history that they served, even though they'd recently lost a great war. It wasn't long before the Cylons rebelled and started the First Cylon War. The Leonisian military was soon folded into the Colonial Fleet, with Lucius Decumius (Sr) joining as a marine infantryman. He finished the war, only lightly scathed himself, and decided to stay on for an illustrious career.
After he started a family with his wife, he moved back to Tusculum and had himself transferred to a Colonial Guard unit, where he woud act as its Regular Marine liason. His wife, Anna Cotta, was also from Tusculum, and knew Lucius Decumius since she was young. They attended the same high school, though they were not particularly friendly or close. Being a few years younger than Lucius Decumius (Sr), she was fresh out of high school when the Cylons revolted. When the war came, she joined the fleet as well, albeit as a deckhand on the Battlestar Ilium. After the war she left the service and used the Colonial Service Bill to go through university.
It was in this traditional, conservative and hard working household that Lucius Decumius (Jr) was born on 11 September 2015. Really, his upbringing wasn't all that remarkable, along with his brother and two sisters. He worked hard around the house from a young age, his parents unwilling to let him take to sloth. It mostly worked, and coloured Lucius's distaste of laziness once he became a responsible adult himself. In school, Lucius was considered bright, but not overly gifted. He simply had a decent mind for figures, was good with his hands and was a voracious reader as well as a decent writer. In history, current events and politics, he had an especially strong interest, but none of these things really pointed to an occupation later on.
On the other hand, he grew up in a military household and loved trying to glean as much as he could from his mom and dad's service. He had no real interest in being a greasemonkey like mum was during the War, and she wasn't really interested in telling him much about the time she spent on Battlestar Ilium, anyways. It was assumed that he would probably follow his father's footsteps, and Senior did as much as he could to impart skills he had learned because of this – basic navigation, wilderness survival, moving around quietly, fundamentals of weapons and operations. He prepped his son physically, too, because that was where he always saw new recuirts having a tough time, and this payed off well. Junior was well used to ruck marching, slogging it out in the field and a real athlete before he even slipped into his CMC boots and uniform for the first time.
As soon as he turned 18 and finished up his last year of high school, Decumius shimmied on down to the local recruiter, who of course, like every military member in Tusculum, knew who his dad was. Few questions asked and a smirk on his face, he was admitted to the Colonial Marine Corps, infantry, and shipped off for basic two weeks later. Most of what he learned here was a breeze, since he'd seen it or talked about it before with his father, over and over again. Physically he scored at the top of his basic company and he was rewarded with the Commandant's Medal for achievement during his course. He moved on to his advanced training where again, he excelled. Due to his exceptional performance, he was offered another course after this was finished – he chose a basic reconnaissance qualification. Now, finally, he got a chance to sink his teeth into a challenge – he was the least experienced troop on the course (composed mostly of Lance Corporals and up) and actually had quite a tough time on it. Still, he finished middle of the road, very good for such a junior troop, and was posted to 3rd Battalion, 4th Colonial Marine Regiment (3/4 Marines, The Thundering Third) in a rifle platoon. This was mid 2034.
Although the 4th CMR's homestation was Camp Clarkson on Libran, they were one of the regiments that sent units to Sagittaron on a regular basis, since 2028. Slotted for rotation was A Company of 3/4, attached to another Marine unit. About eight months after Decumius got to his unit, his company started workup training for its deployment. They would move to Sagittaron in late November 2035 and be present for Operation Market Cage, as one of the prime units. Most of the time, Dec's platoon did the day to day foot patrols, security for public officials and the occasional raid which, usually, did not turn up anything of import. It wasn't until March 2036 of the tour, when Market Cage began, that Dec actually began to see real combat. He served with distinction, and earned a promotion to Lance Corporal for well acquitting himself during the course of the operation. His company returned back to Libran for post-tour leave and refitting. The next year would mainly be a combination of courses, field exercises and familiarization with new equipment entering the system. Decumius moved around roles, from platoon machine gunner #2 (the guy who humps around ammo for the platoon's medium machine gun, loads it and makes sure the gunner is on target), grenadier and finally squad machine gunner.
The entire 4th Colonial Marine Regiment was slotted for another tour of Sagittaron, this one starting in May of 2038. The usual pre-deployment training went off without much of a hitch.. It was expected to not be a particularly strenuous tour, given the apparent successful completion of Op Market Cage. They would have been hard pressed to have been more wrong.
Several days after the regiment made ground break on Sagittaron (in Xenos Province), the South Sagittaron Liberation Force struck, capturing three large cities in the Jharkhand Basin and their resource rich countryside. Their demands were issued, and in response Decumius's regiment along with all of its supporting units and a second regiment moved into position along several sides of the Basin. Decumius was posted to the reconnaissance platoon of his battalion, which would mean that frequently he was one of the first Marines to see enemy positions before the rest of the group up and attacked.
After a month the Colonial Marine Corps and their allies, the Sagittaron Colonial Guard, moved into enemy territory. What Decumius and his comrades saw there were no simple insurgents like the years before – these were trained, well equipped and entrenched enemies who were out to cause a bloody defeat against their outnumbered foes.
Still, they hadn't quite expected the Marines to advance as quickly as they did. Decumius's battalion punched a hole through the SSLF line and entered Jharkand's capital city, which lay 200km west of the border, in only two weeks. The Colonial Guard units formed a reserve and cleaned up behind the Marines. In the first few weeks, the slog was hard. There was very little sleep to be had and, especially for Decumius in recon, night was always a very busy time. As soon as they got to the capital, this changed, however. Dec's unit was stopped outside so that artillery and air could barrage the city and destroy known enemy positions. For a few days, they got to rest up and prepare for the assault on the city itself.
Within the city, Dec's platoon was utilized as another rifle platoon, albeit a more elite one that was better at sneaking around. Ultimately, it barely mattered. Stealth in the city was hard when they didn't know it well, and they fought just like everyone else. Combat was brutal. Many times, to cause maximum casualties, the SSLF troops wouldn't open up until the Marines were within very close quarters. On more than one occasion, Dec personally fought face to face with a committed, trained enemy willing to accept nothing less than the death or expulsion of every single Colonial troop on planet. They were savage fighters, very rarely surrendering even when wounded. Although they were off home-turf, though, the Marines were better trained and equipped. Their constant drilling over the years made the drills and habits of fighting unconcious for Decumius – he barely needed to think about what to do; his hands, feet, and head seemed to simply take over.
Deaths happened. Not in every squad, or even every platoon, but they did occur. Everyone had several buddies who were killed by the SSLF, and this was equally true of Lucius Decumius. Not everyone had the same experience as him, though. In mid-July, when heat was at its most brutal, Decumius's platoon was moving down a side street to reinforce one of their battalion's companies in contact when an ambush was sprung on them. It was very professional, the enemy using RPGs, mortars and machine guns to pick off and pin down the Marines. Decumius went with his fireteam into a house, like most others were doing, to assault into the ambush and kill those trying to kill them. Immediately, the team leader went down with a bullet to the neck. Almost collapsing over him, Dec was able to get a burst of machine gun fire on his leader's assailant, killing him and pinning down his cohorts. As he continued to lay down suppressive fire, his two remaining buddies moved into the next room to take a staircase and flank the enemy.
There was an explosion in the other room. Decumius sprinted in there to find both wounded by a grenade. He did what any of them would have done in the situation. He ran into the next room, emptying his belt and exchanging weapons with his wounded buddy once out of ammo – there was no time for him to reload a machinegun. He popped back into the room and shot one of the remaining two enemies three times in the chest, catapulting him back onto the ground. The last one, after emptying a mag towards Decumius, dropped his weapon and charged him. They were locked in a hand to hand fight for what seemed like eternity.. but was really only two minutes. Decumius managed to get the best of him when he slipped his bayonet into the screaming, cursing Sagittaron.
He barely caught his breath when he moved to collect his machine gun again, reload, and pull his buddies to safety. Once he deemed that a success, he was able to find two more unwounded troops to follow him. They conducted a very speedy house clearance, knocking out the remaining enemies inside and ceasing the firebase which had been pinning down their sister company's assault.
That was the defining moment of his tour. Though there would be much combat still to go, both in April Lightning and its successor operation, Phoenix Rise, Decumius would be noticed for saving his team. Ultimately, it was decided by someone that he had saved his platoon, since the house they took had a heavy machine gun in a window that had been causing much grief, and an RPG on the roof, and had assisted in the success of their sister company's operation. His recommendation went up to the task force level and it came back near the end of the tour, in 2039 – he would be awarded the Silver Cluster. There was never a more proud day in his life, though he insisted he had only done what was natural and his job; what anyone in his position would have done. His parents were, obviously, brilliantly proud of their son, as well, having both experienced war first hand themselves.
After the tour, with a shiny new Silver Cluster and the rank of Corporal, Decumius embarked on some well deserved R&R. The opportunity for a third tour came up for his company in early February 2041, and he eagerly took it, this time as a fireteam leader. It was a few weeks after arriving on a much less hostile Sagittaron that his company was out on an operation, trying to ferret out an SSLF supply depot in the wilderness of the Jharkand Basin, familiar grounds for Dec. The nukes dropped. At first, communications with battalion were steady. Then, they were spotty. Within a few hours there were no more comms. The company took flight to take stock of the situation.
The next few months were a great bleak blur. In their first contact with the Cylons, over half the company was lost – their ammunition and ordnance were simply not very effective. They were able to raid a Colonial Guard armoury and acquire explosive rounds later, but their numbers were continuously whittled down by missions gone wrong, or Cylon patrols of their own. That said, the troops made a good show of themselves. The Cylons weren't the only enemy, either, with surviving SSLF insurgents attacking wherever they showed up. In early August 2041, troops from Dec's company reported contact with friendly Colonials. Slowly, so as not to attract attention, they moved to join the new Cerberus Colonials. Dec's group was the last to stick around, and was soon integrated into the Battlestar Cerberus's CMC company.
Since Decumius has joined BS Cerberus in August 2041, he has moved around the CMC company a few times, in a few different roles. While he's mainly kept to himself and kept his head down, Decumius has participated successfully in nearly every single operation that's been conducted since he's been aboard. Whether he was avoiding promotion conciously or not, he seemed content to stay at his rank of Corporal, with its midlevel responsibilities as a junior NCO. The time came, however, in June 2042, where he could avoid promotion no longer and keep a clean conscious. He was given his Sergeant's stripes and a new responsibility.