Gavin Dunn

Gavin Dunn was a human smuggler, musician, and captain of the Argo-class freighter Chancer and its successors. Born far from, Gavin grew to resent the for its efforts to control the colonies without being able to protect them. Their failure to live up to these responsibilities played parts in the deaths of his brother and father, and ultimately led him to joining the Humanity Liberation Front on. Gavin was deeply devoted to the Insurrection, justifying to himself and Redmond Venter the use of child soldiers in their ever-more desperate struggle. Only when their methods killed someone he'd cared about did he realize the horror of their terror attacks, and gave up the HLF's location and strength to the UNSC before fleeing the planet. Wanted by both sides, Gavin fled to the Outer Colonies as a freelance starship captain transporting cargo and passengers between worlds, often taking on less-than-legal jobs to stay afloat.

Biography
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Early Life (2531-2545)
Gavin was born the second of three children to first-generation colonial parents on  whom had emigrated from the North American city of Seattle on  while his mother, Sarah, had been pregnant with him. His father Corey worked as an assistant dockmaster for the colony's singular planetside spaceport, a job that didn't pay exceptionally well, but was steady work and enough to get the family by. Gavin, his older brother James, and his younger sister Melete grew up watching the starships come and go overhead, each dreaming of one day flying with them.

When Gavin was about eight, however, construction of the was completed, terminating in Emerald City, Oz, making Castaway lose its early bid to become the colonial capital. As fewer ships expended the extra fuel coming down through the atmosphere, the Castaway Spaceport was forced to cut wages and lay off workers, Corey very narrowly keeping his job. Fortunately James, now sixteen, got a job with the ferry companies that delivered people and cargo between Emerald Cove's archipelagos, which had greatly benefited from the business the elevator brought. The extra income improved their quality of living, and Gavin intended to help by joining him as soon as he was old enough.

But less than a year later, while carrying cargo for forces that had replaced the  as the planet's military garrison not so long ago, Jack's ferry was torn apart by one of the fierce storms that were prone to occur in the warm, shallow oceans. Because they had been given the UNSC's uniform training, the local Marines were unprepared to handle the unorthodox jobs the CMA had done and took too long to respond. Other civilian boats arrived in the area before, and found James' body drifting, likely to have been knocked unconscious and fallen overboard to drown. Corey blamed the UNSC for his son's death, and not knowing much better, Gavin began to emulate that resentment. {|style="width:100%;"
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Falling Off the Grid
"This isn't cool! I'm not fighting pirates or space battles, I'm cleaning bathrooms!"

- After his first day aboard a freighter.

In addition to mourning James' death, the family was forced into harder times without the support he'd brought them. After several years, the security of Corey's job became uncertain, and he left it to return to his career as a spacer when he got word of a ship in need of a crew. Although it would mean spending weeks away at a time, the sum they were offering to smuggle stolen warship ordnance from the shipyards on would assure they could maintain their quality of living for months. Still enamored with the idea of space travel, Gavin begged to come along, which his father of course refused. However, after mentioning the matter to his crewmates, their captain decided to encourage bringing him along as cabin boy, eventually bringing Corey around by offering a half share for Gavin.

Reality proved far different than what he'd imagined, tasked with doing what he considered everyday chores. While the crew all agreed the trip was going well, Gavin was quickly bored, discovering slipspace travel essentially came down to not seeing stars outside and being stuck on the ship for two weeks until they reached Skopje. When at last their transition ended, Gavin finally started to enjoy himself, from looking down on the planet in orbit to exploring the urban sprawls that far surpassed anything on Emerald Cove. He didn't have long to play tourist, however, as their job ran on a schedule. Meeting with Insurrectionist plants within the shipyard, Corey, Gavin, and the rest of the crew took possession of the lead-lined crates and returned with them to their ship's berth.

Laying over for the night to rest, refuel, and see if they could make any extra credits by taking on more legitimate cargo on their return journey, Gavin started to get a basic education on ships from one of the technicians late in the evening. While inspecting the ship's landing strut hydraulics, the hangar was suddenly stormed by colonial police led by an Inspector Harding, having uncovered the parties responsible for the missing military-grade weapons. Gavin was hastily ordered to hide in the alcove where the landing gear retracted and hid listening as his father and the rest of the crew were taken into custody. As he was neither officially on either a crew or passenger manifest, Gavin was overlooked while the ship was impounded. By the time one of the crew mentioned him in interrogation and policemen sent back to find him, Gavin had already wandered off into the streets.

Street Urchin
"I hate it that every time that wannabe British bastard comes around, he thinks I owe him something. It's all Moa plop."

- Gavin to another urchin.

After spending his first night on Skopje wandering the city's streets, Gavin returned to familiar ground where he felt most secure: the ship. However, he arrived to find the ship was gone, moved by Skopje's authorities. He spent more than an hour hiding and crying, scared that he'd been left behind, before emerging to find help. Foraying out into the streets again, he was distressed to find most doors wouldn't even open for him without a civilian ID card. Becoming hungry before long, Gavin resorted to stealing from a market stall, but was spotted by a member of the constabulary and fled into an alley. Hiding under a parked, Gavin was saved by an observer who misdirected the British-accented policeman and told Gavin when the coast was clear. The man turned out to be part of the Insurrectionist cell that had been behind stealing the weapons, and brought Gavin back to their safehouse for a meal and a night's good sleep where he was introduced to Jonathan Ulan, who lectured him on the morality of their conflict with the UNSC, most of which he was too young to understand, before being sent on his way.

But as he left, Gavin was picked up by the same policeman as before, Inspector Reginald Harding, who'd been staking out the safehouse to continue his investigation of the smugglers and their ties to the Insurrection. Harding mistook the boy for one of the many illegal colonists that took refuge in the city's streets, and considered turning him in to the immigration authorities. However, after seeing the boy exit the safehouse, Harding made a deal not to arrest him if he went back in and get information on Ulan and his plans, thinking he was doing the boy a favor. Soon after, Harding was knighted for his part in both uncovering and directly stopping Ulan's attempted bombing of a bridge, an event that would one day lead to his involvement in Project: FREELANCER. In the meantime, however, he found Gavin again by use of a tracker he'd planted on the boy.

Over the course of his first week on Skopje, Gavin had fallen in with a group of urchins that had banded to help each another survive. Harding and Gavin made a deal, with the urchins working to get him information in exchange for not being arrested, gadgets to fool the city Superintendent, and small compensation for their services. Harding would make use of them over the next several years, referring to the group as "Irregulars."

Stowaway to Cabin Boy
In 2547, two years after Gavin's arrival on Skopje, Harding was investigating another possible smuggling syndicate, this time illegal drugs instead of stolen weapons. Gavin followed the trail to Captain Tom Spender's Argo-class freighter Chancer, and snuck aboard to search the ship. While he found a number of containers concealed within hidden compartments, the crew returned while Gavin was still searching. Hiding in the myriad of hollowed-out sections of the old freighter, Gavin intended to slip out again at the soonest opportunity, but knew as soon as he felt the engines powering up that he wouldn't get the chance. The Chancer lifted off, beginning its trip to and taking Gavin with it.

The smuggling compartments were enough to keep him hidden for three standard days during the slipspace jump, but Spender finally caught him after emerging to steal from the galley. After some debate, the captain decided to treat Gavin as a passenger who had to pay his way, and put him to work on the most routine tasks that needed doing. Gavin had had experience with these particular jobs once before on his father's ship, leading him to think of his family for the first time in a long while. Spender took a liking to the boy, and after they reached their destination, offered Gavin a permanent job aboard the ship, which he quickly accepted.

Search for the Hephaestus' Forge
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Early Life (2531-2540)
"This isn't fun! I'm supposed to be fighting pirates, not cleaning bathrooms!"

- Gavin on his first day working aboard a ship.

Gavin was born to a pair of first-generation colonists on Paradiso, one of the larger settled islands on. Growing up around Castaway's modest spaceport where his father Corey worked, Gavin grew up watching the starships come and go overhead, and dreamed of one day flying with them. However, when he was eight, construction of an in Emerald City, Oz, made it less expensive for ships to dock in orbit and let the elevator deliver their cargoes to the surface, forcing the spaceport to cut wages and lay off workers. Corey narrowly kept his job, and Gavin's older brother James soon began working with the ferry companies that carried goods and passengers between the planet's archipelagos, which had greatly benefited from the business the elevator brought.

Although the extra income improved their family's quality of living for a time, less than a year later James was killed when one of Emerald Cove's fearsome tropical storms caused his ferry to capsize and drowned. His body was found by civilian boats while the, which had recently usurped control of the planet's garrison from the , was still mounting a response, being poorly trained for its watery conditions where their predecessors had been prepared. Since the ferry had been carrying the UNSC's own supplies at the time, Corey blamed the UNSC for his son's death, and not knowing better, Gavin began emulating his resentment.

Without James to help support the family and the security of his job at the spaceport uncertain, Corey began looking for another means of earning credits. When he heard of a ship, the Double-Aught Shovel, anticipating a large profit on a smuggling run and in need of a crew, the former spacer returned to his old career. Gavin begged to come along, but as he'd kept the smuggling part of his job a secret, Corey refused. It didn't stop him, however, and he stowed away in the freighter's cargo bay. By the time he was discovered, they were already in the middle of a jump, and despite Corey's reluctance, he was forced to accept the crew taking him on as cabin boy.

Although the crew agreed the voyage was going well, Gavin quickly grew bored of doing what he considered chores and being stuck in the confined ship. When the slipspace transition finally ended, however, he was excited to see a whole other planet and was eager to explore, but his father ordered him to stay on the ship while they picked up their illicit cargo: military-grade ship armaments to be smuggled to the Insurrection. But again, Gavin disobeyed his father and snuck out of the ship's berth at the spaceport to explore the city, larger than any on Emerald Cove, and naturally lost track of time and himself. While he was gone, a contingent of colonial police led by an Inspector Harding stormed the hangar, having uncovered the smuggling operation.

Hijacked
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