John Sheppard

John Sheppard is a Human male who is an officer in the Starfleet Marine Corps and, since 2379, a member of the Atlantis Expedition, commanding the expedition's military contingent for much of that time. Since 2377 John was serving aboard the USS Intrepid until it was destroyed by Klingons in 2378 and later served on the USS Intrepid-A. In 2388 John got command of the USS Yorktown, a Galaxy class starship after serving on the USS Intrepid-A for ten years.

Background information
John Sheppard was born to a wealthy family and was the son of Patrick Sheppard, a utilities mogul. By the time he was fourteen years old, his father had already planned his life for him. However, Sheppard had other plans and wanted to join Starfleet. This heavily strained his relationship with his father and never spoke to him since, leaving his brother, Dave Sheppard, to take his place. After his education at Starfleet Marine Corps Academy, he joined Starfleet and participated in several top secret missions. He was married to Nancy Sheppard, who worked at Homeland Security in Washington D.C. However, due to spending much of his marriage on secret missions, this led to a strain in their relationship and they eventually divorced.

Relationships
Prior to coming to Starbase Atlantis, Sheppard's ability to form meaningful relationships with others was poor; he and his father hadn't spoken with each other for several years, and his marriage had fallen apart due to his inability to be there for her. However, since arriving on Starbase Atlantis, he has formed close bonds with several people, ranging from the senior staff to offworld allies.

Larrin
Sheppard first met Larrin when she used a Traveler's ship to disable his Puddle Jumper and later captured him to use him to activate a Aurora-class battleship. At first they hated and distrusted each other. But after working together to rid the ship of Xindi and Sheppard saved Larrin's life from a Xindi. She then thanked him and kissed him, but used it as an excuse to stun him. However he was able to convince her to let him go and she seemed impressed with him. Larrin later fought in the battle against the Asurans at his request, even requesting Sheppard be aboard her ship during the battle as she knew he was the best at using the ship's weapons. When it was over, Sheppard asked for a means of contacting her for "professional" reasons. He later ran into some Travelers and asked the Captain if Larrin ever mentioned him. She later mentioned she did after lying and saying she didn't. It's indicated that Larrin speaks very highly of him and his abilities. It is implied that should they meet again that their relationship might develop into something more.

Elizabeth Weir
Although she initially only recruited Sheppard for his powerful Ancient Technology Activation gene, Dr. Elizabeth Weir came to greatly respect his abilities as a soldier, particularly after he single-handedly saved Starbase Atlantis from a Genii invasion. When Colonel Dillon Everett arrived to take command of Atlantis following Earth's discovery of a new Zero Point Module and the news of the approaching Xindi warships, it was Sheppard who convinced Everett to keep Weir in the loop if he wanted to maintain the support of the rest of the starbase. Weir reciprocated this respect by insisting that Sheppard be promoted to Lt. Colonel rather than allow someone else to take command of Starbase Atlantis.

Atlantis Team
Easily the closest bonds Sheppard has formed since coming to Starbase Atlantis are the bonds he shares with his teammates on the First Atlantis Reconnaissance Team, although he and Dr. Rodney McKay are prone to the occasional argument, with McKay sometimes growing frustrated with Sheppard's apparent assumption that he can automatically save the day when scientific problems arise. The two have shown on many occasions that they have both a great esteem for the other's abilities and share a surprisingly close bond, with McKay commonly attempting to help Sheppard when he suffers from personal problems despite his own poor abilities with relationships, such as when he attempted to express his sympathies following the death of Sheppard's father. The two have also been shown to spend a surprising amount of their leisure time together, both of them playing what they initially believed to be a Civilization-like game before learning that it was an Ancient experiment with real people, and racing RC cars in the lower halls of Atlantis. The two also have a habit of risking their lives to save each other which McKay actually uses as an excuse to go after him once, saying its his turn. Between their close bond, occasional bickering and deliberate attempts to annoy one another, and protective attitude toward each other, Sheppard's relationship with McKay can be seen as something of an attempt to recreate the bond he would have had with his younger brother, had the two of them not been estranged. John has close bond with Typhuss James Kira. The two have shown on many occasions that they have both a great esteem for the other's abilities and share a surprisingly close bond. John served on the USS Intrepid and the USS Intrepid-A, where the two formed a close friendship. At one point he admitted that he didn't really have a family and his team and Dr. Elizabeth Weir were the closest thing he had to one.

Personality and traits
Sheppard is one of the most skilled fighters on Starbase Atlantis. He is able to use a wide a variety of Starfleet and alien weapons. He was taught many fighting styles by both Teyla Emmagan and Ronon Dex, although he regularly loses to the more experienced fighters. When the Genii temporarily seized control of the starbase he was able to drive them out almost single-handedly. He is also an outstanding snap-shooter, able to draw, fire, and hit his target with unaimed fire from the hip and one-handed. He is an exceptionally skilled pilot, being able to fly a wide variety of ships, ranging from Ancient warships to Puddle Jumpers. He is a skilled fighter pilot, often flying an F-302 in space combat. Even though he had no experience in it, Sheppard quickly mastered flying a Traveler generational ship, saying he had flown harder ships before. Sheppard is highly intelligent, as indicated by his passing of the Mensa entry test, which places him in the upper two percentile on standardized intelligence tests, although he never actually joined Mensa. However, he rarely shows off with this, thus surprising other people when he does. His high intelligence also gives him somewhat of an ability to keep up with Dr. Rodney McKay and his plans and also come up with his own brilliant tactical plans when he needs to. He is also a keen and talented golfer, although he is disappointed that no-one else on his team shares his enthusiasm. Despite having no psychic abilities beyond his Ancient Technology Activation gene, Sheppard has one of the most powerful mental defenses known. He is able to resist Asuran mind-probes, albeit with difficulty. The only other person to display similar abilities was Lt. General Jack O'Neill who showed the ability to resist the Asuran mind-probe due to his previous encounters with it. When his team was temporarily placed in a mental illusions by the inhabitants of M5S-224, Sheppard displayed the ability to manipulate his own illusion, and was aware that something was wrong almost immediately.