Zoey Hunsinger

"You don't have to teach me how to be a soldier. Just teach me how to survive"

- Zoey Hunsinger to Simon-G294

Zoey Hunsinger was a human spacer and a native of the -aligned colony Venezia. The daughter of farmers, she grew up on her parents' land and knew little of life elsewhere in the galaxy until her family was caught up and slaughtered in a crossfire between local criminals. In order to survive, Zoey threw her lot in with a wandering mercenary known as "Stray"; the scruffy renegade became her reluctant teacher and companion, filling the void left by the death of her family. The two later hired themselves out to the smuggler Gavin Dunn; the trio crewed the freighter Chancer V and following Gavin's retirement Zoey assumed command of the battered vessel and began building a new life for herself on the galactic frontier.

"A World of Opportunity"
"To hell with their politics. This is a world of opportunity, a place where we can have a new start. Who cares what flag's flying in New Tyne?"

- George Hunsinger regarding the rogue state of Venezia

Zoey was born on October 12, 2542 to George and Lily Hunsinger, two farmers living on the colony world of. George and Lily had fled colony when it was besieged by the invading. The couple had hired a local smuggler to traffic them off-world; after a harrowing run through the Covenant's blockade the smuggler evaded the aliens and escaped into. Zoey was conceived during the two-month journey. The smuggler brought the Hunsingers to his port of call on Venezia. The planet had cut its ties with the a year previously, declaring that the Earth government was incapable of defending its remaining colonies from glassing at the hands of the Covenant. Although wary of settling down on a planet that was known as a haven for terrorists and outlaws, the Hungsingers had little choice: the price of passage off of Arcadia had cost them almost all of their money. The smuggler who had been their pilot sympathized with their plight and arranged for George and the pregnant Lily to get jobs working in the capital city. The couple were able to earn enough money to purchase a small plot of land in one of Venezia's many agricultural regions, where they built a farm. Lily gave birth to Zoey a week later and the overjoyed Hunsingers took it as a sign of future happiness on the isolated planet.

From even her early years, Zoey proved to be an adventurous, inquisitive child. Quickly learning to walk, she often terrorized Lily by wandering off to explore when left unattended. While Lily struggled to juggle work on the farm with keeping Zoey in check, George encouraged his young daughter's precocious streak and enjoyed bringing her out into the fields to watch him work. Much to Lily's dismay, Zoey spent more and more time outdoors wandering the farm. Despite the Hunsingers' satisfaction with Venezia's opportunities, they were wary of the Insurrection's influence on the planet's culture and chose to educate their daughter at home on the farm rather than send her to their community's school. This choice was met with mixed results; Zoey was not one to sit still for long periods of time and frequently abandoned her parents' lessons to spend more time outside. Worried that his daughter would fall behind other children her age, George came up with a solution to Zoey's learning problem. While Lily continued to teach their daughter standard lessons, George would take Zoey on "breaks" into his workshop, where he would give her lessons in practical machinery. Despite her educational deficiencies, Zoey was fascinated by the mechanics her father taught her and studied constantly to become capable enough to eventually help her parents maintain their farming machines, particularly their temperamental harvester units.

Venezia was fortunate enough to avoid the Covenant's attention and the war passed the renegade planet by, leaving its government and citizens free to maintain a thriving economy and infrastructure. For Zoey, the alien fleets remained a distant terror present only in a few scattered colonial news bulletins and her parents' stories of their harrowing escape from Arcadia. Zoey loved these stories, pressing George and Lily to recount them over and over again. She was interested by her parents' life before Venezia, but was even more enraptured by the idea of space travel. Venezia's farmlands were the only world she had ever known, making her fascinated by the idea of traveling through the night sky to other planets. The smuggler who had saved her parents, always the hero of George and Lily's stories, became Zoey's idol and she dreamed of someday making her way off-world in a spaceship. At night she would often crawl onto her family's homestead roof to stare up in amazement at Venezia's starry sky. The end of the war and the diminished Covenant threat only reinforced her ambition; even as she embraced her responsibilities on the farm she continued to hope that one day she would leave to make a life of her own amongst the stars.

"We're Looking For A Bad Guy"
The end of the war brought even more prosperity to Venezia. As rebels, criminals, and even aliens from the dissolved Covenant flocked to the world and its promise of free enterprise away from the UNSC's jurisdiction, credits flowed into the economy. The price of this good fortune was the rise of crime across the planet. A new era of organized crime was spreading, feeding on Venezia's thriving black market and lack of trade controls. The Hunsingers knew little of these sinister developments; they benefited from the economic surge along with the rest of the planet, earning enough credits to expand their farm, purchase more JOTUNs, and hire on new help. Zoey celebrated the success with her parents, content to take on more responsibilities around the enlarged farm even as she continued to dream of a future in space. She worked hard to improve as a mechanic, hoping that the skill could make her a useful part of a spaceship's crew. Her parents, content to remain with their farm, admired Zoey's drive and encouraged her to pursue her goal. On her thirteenth birthday, George delighted his daughter by promising take her into New Tyne to see the spaceport and possibly learn more about how she might join a freighter crew when the time was right.

A few days after George's promise, Zoey was working in the fields when she found an armed figure lying amongst the crops. The figure, clad from head to toe in battered armor, was dehydrated and begged Zoey to help him. As she hurried to find her father, Zoey came upon an armed militia patrol on the road. The patrol claimed to be looking for a "bad guy" and asked Zoey if she had seen any strangers around the farm, offering a thousand credits for information that helped them track down their target. Guided by George and Lily's upbringing, Zoey lied to the patrol and contacted her father the moment they had left. George brought the armored fugitive back up to the homestead. The fugitive called himself "Stray" and Zoey was shocked to discover that when his helmet was taken off he looked to be only a few years older than her. George and Lily were frightened by the armed young man and the trouble he seemed to be running from. A wary George told Stray that he could hide out in their machine shed, provided he left in the morning. Despite her parents' fears, Zoey was fascinated by Stray's weapons and. Sneaking out to the machine shed that night, she wore down the bemused Stray with her questions and was delighted to learn that he had been to space many times, though the strange boy refused to go into detail about his origins.