Chancer V


 * Gavin Dunn: "Everybody thinks the only way to survive out here's by being strong. You know how a fool like me has made it this long?"
 * Zoey Hunsinger: "Not really, no."
 * Gavin Dunn: "Trust. The Chancer trusts me to take care of her, and if I've done my job, I know I can trust her."
 * —Gavin Dunn and Zoey Hunsinger.

The Chancer V was a highly modified Argo-class transport starship with a storied history that stretched to just over half a decade before the start of the. Manufactured by the Rhodes Collosi Shipwrights, the Chancer traded hands between countless owners before eventually arriving in the hands of the insurrectionist-turned-smuggler Gavin Dunn. Dunn eventually hired on a traitor Spartan and failed ship thief, and the unlikely crew formed a makeshift family aboard the battered freighter. The Chancer's crew scraped out a living on the fringes of the post-war galaxy, more often than not straying onto the wrong side of the law. Crossing paths with Spartans, revolutionaries, crime bosses, and warlords, the Chancer and its crew would play a pivotal role in many galaxy-shaping events.

Construction and Early History
"She and her sisters are a relic of a bygone age. There used to be a time when you couldn't even look skyward on an outer colony without seeing one of these things lifting off or touching down."

- Tom Spender referring to the Argo-class.

The year 2519 signaled the end of an era as Rhodes Collosi announced that it would be ceasing production on the Series-7 Argo-class ships, the last of a dynasty which had played a pivotal role in settling the as the first slipspace-capable vessel available on the civilian market. When the last batch came off of Skopje's assembly lines in November of that year, a small celebration was held for the shipyard's workers, executives, and a number of minor government officials whom attended. The final vessel was specially purchased by a wealthy RCS executive and donated to the Skopje Historical Society to serve as a museum display, open to the public until 2547 when the planet was glassed. No one, however, would pay attention to the ship just four units ahead of the last, serial number RCS-SK-519/000A823543, which would outlive and outdo any of its sister ships.

Spending a week in drydock before she was purchased, the vessel would be christened the Karen J. and become the workhorse of a one-horse construction company on, where it was given its black, white, and orange paint scheme. For just over fifteen years, the Karen J. served as the company's heavy lifter and the owner's personal vessel, hauling lumber, stone, and steel to building sites across the flourishing outer colony, and even making occasional slipspace jumps to neighboring systems to pick up particularly rare materials. Ultimately, when the Jericho VII was by the  in 2535, it would be responsible for saving the lives of 47 civilians, including the owner and his family, when it broke through the alien blockade to make a randomized slipspace jump and eventually end up on. While he had survived, however, the owner would be forced to sell the ship as one of the growing number of refugees gathering in the core systems.

The buyer, who went by the nickname of "Gleaner," was a member of the criminal cartel known as the Syndicate, who planned to use the ship for smuggling. On his authority, the outdated vessel was fitted with two more powerful R171 Bucephalis thrusters, numerous smuggling compartments, and two hidden. Renamed the Starlight, the ship made routine runs between Iskandar, where the Syndicate was headquartered, and Reach, the heart of the Inner Colonies, to move all manner of stolen or illegal cargoes past United Earth Government checkpoints until 2543, when many of its parts were taken to repair Captain Tom Spender's Argo-class freighter Chancer. Still spaceworthy, the Starlight was kept on Iskandar by the Syndicate for nigh on ten years for odd jobs.

Finally in 2552, the vessel was sold to an anonymous old man who claimed he needed a shuttle for a one-way trip and paid in cash credits. The man was, a spiritual guru who had founded the , and now intended to hide out so that his many followers would believe he had attained a form of transcendence. Landing on where an opulent country villa awaited him, the Starlight was deemed not worth the cost of fueling up again to take out and resell, and parked in a wooden hangar several miles from any of the planet's few inhabitants. When the planet was found by the Jiralhanae ship and its sparse population rounded up, the Starlight's hangar was overlooked by the aliens and forgotten altogether, left to rust for the next four years.

Private Quarters
Although secondary to the role of cargo vessel, all Argo-class ships are equipped with personal quarters for members of the crew, and when running shorthanded as the Chancer often does, spare compartments can be used to accommodate passengers. The Chancer V incorporates eight dormitories in addition to the captain's cabin, located along the aft corridor above the cargo bay. Each measures around ten by ten feet, and include a modest bed, storage compartments, and a computer terminal for the occupant. The readiness of these quarters to receive guests, however, may vary, as Captain Dunn has been known to sell the spare bedding when particularly tight for credits.

The captain's cabin is double the size of the other accomodations, set in the very tail of the ship beneath a slanted roof, which bears several dents from the many times its resident has bumped his head getting up. The room includes a private bathroom and shower in addition to the bed, storage cabinets, and a desk. A large section of the back wall can be retracted to reveal an observation window for stargazing.

Cargo Bay
By far the largest single space aboard, the cargo bay measures roughly ten meters tall by ten meters wide, and thirty deep, located aft below the crew compartments. Twin stairwells run on either wall leading up into the common rooms, each a meter wide, leaving an 8-meter wide cargo deck for the freighter to hold up to 2500 square meters, enough room for two UNSC tanks end-to-end. The deck is flanked by two raised platforms under the stairwells on either side, where a workbench and myriad chests of tools are stored starboard, and cargo bay door controls, a small medical supply, and the local intercom terminal port.

Beneath the bay's floor lies the majority of the ship's smuggling compartment space. Normally reserved for the majority of landing gear and bay door hydraulics, the Chancer V was modified to employ smaller alternative mechanics to leave room for one wide, though shallow, hidden compartment. Lined with layers of insulation that seal the space airtight and dampen the sound of hollow space beneath a metal deck, the section appears to scanning like merely another part of the ship's heat-retaining hull. Identifying the space from within the cargo bay is no less difficult; the floor panels over the compartment are genuinely bolted down, making it a pain to open and close each time, but creating a much more convincing facade. Only the best-trained eyes will notice the metal stripping around the bolts which give away that they've been frequently removed, hinting at what lies underneath. Though the largest individual compartment, dozens of smaller hideaways riddle the walls and floors of the ship, and even its owners might not be able to account for them all.

Gavin Dunn
"After Mamore, I didn't think I could ever do enough to make up for it. This ship gave me — gave us all — what we needed. A second chance."

- Gavin Dunn

Zoey Hunsinger
"I'm grateful for the parents I had and the life they tried to give me. But the Chancer is my home now, and I'll do whatever it takes to protect my family."

- Zoey Hunsinger

Zoey Hunsinger wanted the Chancer for her own the moment she laid eyes on it. Orphaned at an early age when her family's farm was caught in the crossfire between Stray and local gangsters, Zoey dreamed of escaping her hand to mouth existence and exploring the galaxy in a ship of her own. Her family's brutal death and stints as a criminal assistant, first under Stray and then under the thief Judith Ives, steeped her in the knowledge that the galaxy was a harsh and brutal place and when Gavin Dunn made the mistake of putting too much trust in a vagabond he had just met she jumped at the opportunity to steal the ship. Her underestimation of Dunn's abilities meant that the Chancer did not remain hers for long, but the smuggler stunned her when instead of venting her out the airlock he offered her a place as his copilot-in-training. Under Gavin, Zoey learned the Chancer's intricacies and nuances and when Stray made a home for himself aboard the ship she resumed combat training under the renegade Spartan. After years of mourning her lost parents she grew to see her dysfunctional crewmates as a surrogate family and despite a heavily cynical outlook cares as much for them as she did for her parents.

Simon-G294 "Stray"
"I've lost too many people already. They won't be the next ones on that list. You touch them, and there'll be no hole in this galaxy that's deep enough for you to hide in because I won't rest until I've hunted you down and killed you."

- Simon-G294

Orphan. Failure. Traitor. Murderer. Simon-G294 bore so many hateful stigmas that it's no wonder he discarded his name for the simple title "Stray." Following his desertion from the UNSC and a disastrous raid on Earth, Stray fled UEG space and set up shop on Venezia as a mercenary. Putting his skills as an augmented supersoldier to use as a bounty hunter and enforcer, Stray worked with his AI partner Diana to succeed in a daily struggle to survive. Misfortune seemed to follow him wherever he went; his arrival on the Hunsinger farm heralded its destruction and the orphaning of Zoey, who he reluctantly took in as a ward-turned-apprentice. His violent lifestyle soon pushed her away, but the two young vagrants met each other again while staking out their mutual prey, Gavin Dunn. Stray had fought alongside Dunn after joining the Insurrection and hoped bringing the former rebel to justice might ease the ghosts of his past. Instead, circumstances threw Stray in with his former assistant and the man he had accepted a contract on. Hardened and embittered by the galaxy's hardships and his own misfortune, Stray initially only saw the Chancer as a convenient means of getting from contract to contract without having to pay transportation fees. But his crewmates' willingness to accept him in spite of his brutal past and selfish tendencies gradually broke chinks in the armor he had erected about himself. The Chancer became a home for the young outcast as well as a new lease on life; unfortunately, the past did not simply go away and Stray's latent ambition and the interests countless third parties took in the Chancer's affairs would stretch his loyalty to his new family to the breaking point.

Though Gavin might claim that the Chancer has no need of an enforcer, Stray begs to differ. Though every member of the Chancer's crew more than capable of taking care of themselves, the Spartan commando is their trump card for when things get truly out of hand. Gamma Spartans who remember their former comrade as a clumsy failure are often caught off guard by the cunning fighter Gavin sics on the ship's enemies. Stray makes use of an ad hoc arsenal built into his heavily modified armor and prides himself in always having an extra trick up his gauntlet. He has learned to work around Gavin's limited defense budget and the ship is littered with looted weapons, gadgets, and explosives that Stray is either making or bribing Zoey to make for him. Behind Stray's callous, cynical exterior lurks a truly frightening killer with a penchant for brutal close combat and merciless methods that hearken back to a darker time before he found his way onto the Chancer.

Behind the Scenes

 * The Chancer V is a reference to ChanServ, the freenode bot jokingly referred to by the regulars on the #Halo-Fanon IRC as the channel's benevolent patron lady.
 * The vessel's original serial number identifies the maker (Rhodes Collosi Shipwrights), planet of construction (Skopje), year of construction (2519), model (Argo-class), and finally sequential number (000823543, which follows the equation used by Bungie for the ring Monitors, 7^7).