Andrew Watters was born in a small manufacturing town in the southwest quadrant of Tauron, to a lower middle class family who worked in one of the planet's many industrial facilities. Andrew was a bright and creative child, though unfortunately his family's economic circumstances left him with little hope of a college education immediately following high school. Instead, Andrew turned towards the military, taking JROTC classes in his last years of schooling before enlisting in the Colonial Marines shortly after his 18th birthday.
He completed his basic training with minimal difficulty, and was granted the rank of Private First class based on his JROTC training. Based on his natural technical aptitude and creative approach to problem-solving, Andrew was selected to complete his advanced training as a marine assault engineer. Following his Rifle and Assault Engineer AIT courses, he was posted to BS-87 Themis Aboard the Themis, Watters quickly proved himself both a capable and resourceful member of the crew, earning rapid promotion to Lance Corporal. Two years later, a promotion to Corporal and transfer followed.
Transferred off the Themis, Watters' next assignment was planetside duty at Fort Honos. While planetside garrison duty was hardly the sort of assignment Watters desired, it would prove useful in a number of ways. The time planetside finally gave him the chance to enroll in college, though even with credit for his military training, his duties would result in obtaining his degree becoming a five-year process. Ultimately, he would successfully graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering. Despite the mundane assignment, Watters' qualities would not go unnoticed… earning the attention of his superiors for both his drive in completing his education and his ability to always seem to come up with the equipment to perform his duties, even when logistical problems could have reasonably been offered as an explanation for being unable.
Seeing potential in the young Sergeant, Watters' commanding officer devised something of a test. He arranged for his transfer to the highly undesirable assignment of the Tau Garrison, to observe how the assault engineer dealt with the challenge. Though given what was considered a 'punishment' assignments, Sgt. Watters thrived. The harsh climate of the area took a particular toll on equipment, yet Sgt. Watters always seemed able to improvise a solution to his problems… either obtaining replacements seemingly out of thin air, or coming up with ways to do without. Moreover, having an assignment focused less on protocol than on results naturally suited his temperament. Not all of the skills Watters honed at Tau were strictly professional, however. In his free time, Watters' frequently took part in Triad games with other marines to pass the time. After nearly a year at Tau, Watters was informed of the true nature of his assignment, granted both a promotion to Staff Sergeant and a recommendation for Officer Candidate School.
Attending OCS on Picon was a dramatic shift. For a marine who had built his career on finding irregular solutions to his problems, an environment where how results were achieved counted for as much as the results themselves proved difficult at first. He survived his fourteen weeks, however, and was commissioned an Ensign shortly before his twenty-eighth birthday.
The freshly-minted Ensign was posted to BS-108 Cosmic as a supernumerary attachment to Company Headquarters. Aboard the Cosmic, Watters would get his first real taste of a marine officer's life and responsibility. Though he secretly loathed the increased paperwork that came with the promotion, he proved quite adroit at navigating the intricacies of military bureaucracy. Upon completion of his tour on board the Cosmic, Watters was requested for assignment at the Tau Garrison by his former company commander. His transfer was approved, and he once again returned to the equatorial garrison on his home planet.
It was from this harsh outpost that Watters would witness the horrors of Warday, only three days after his promotion to Lieutenant JG. Among the few survivors of his garrison, Watters took to the harsh back-country of the equatorial region of Tauron. Using his knowledge of his home planet he survived, gathering what survivors he could to him. Nearly a year of desperate resistance fighting followed, striking where able… running when necessary. Inflicting what damage he could on the invaders with a handful of scavenged weapons, improvised explosives, and courage. The actions weren't without cost, however, and Watters' band of resistance fighters had nearly been annihilated by a year of constant fighting by the time of his rescue by forces from Battlestar Cerberus.
