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

Sometimes the great players in history are not alien warlords or augmented supersoldiers or wily politicians. Sometimes someone caught up in events too enormous for her to even fathom can make all the difference in the galaxy.

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.

"If it's broken, it can be fixed"

- George Hunsinger, instructing Zoey in basic mechanics.

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"
"We all deserve to be free to make our own way in life. But there's always some sacrifices you have to make to get it. If you want freedom, you have to be willing to pay the price for it."

- George Hunsinger

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 armor. 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.



Stray honored George's conditions and slipped out of the machine shed after speaking with Zoey. He vanished into the fields and Zoey, disappointed that she hadn't learned anything about the strange visitor, assumed the encounter was over. The following morning she went out again to work in the fields. There she encountered more strangers, this time in the form of a mercenary named Ger 'Hullen. Terrified by the imposing alien, Zoey was captured by 'Hullen's militia group, composed of human and thugs. Threatened by 'Hullen's lieutenant, a thug named Marcos Ramon, Zoey admitted that her family had housed a stranger the night before. 'Hullen and his troops took the girl back to her homestead and confronted George about harboring "the fugitive." George's claims that he did not know where Stray had gone failed to satisfy 'Hullen. As a horrified Zoey looked on, Ramon beat her father to a pulp as 'Hullen continued to question him. Still not getting the answers he wanted, the Sangheili turned his attention to Zoey and threatened to kill her if George did not cooperate.

Lily, who had remained inside the homestead, reacted furiously to 'Hullen's threat. She opened fire on the thugs from withing the house, killing the Kig-Yar restraining her daughter. With 'Hullen and his troops distracted, George ordered Zoey to flee. The terrified girl ran into the crop fields as plasma and gunfire erupted behind her. Encountering one of the hired hands, she begged him to get help only for the man to seize her with plans to turn her over to the criminals. As more of 'Hullen's Kig-Yar reached them, gunfire cut down the farm hand and the aliens. Stray, who had hidden out in the Hunsingers' crops, emerged and used a knife to finish off one of the Kig-Yar before a stunned Zoey's eyes.

"You're family's dead! You can come with me or die here, just move your ass!"

- Stray

As Zoey grieved over the loss of her parents, 'Hullen—who had heard Stray's gunfire—ordered his troops to set the crop fields ablaze. With the fire spreading quickly, Stray realized that they were being cut off by the inferno. The young man violently berated Zoey into action, shaking her out of her sorrow-induced stupor. With everything her parents had worked so hard to build burning to the ground around her, Zoey found herself seized with a sudden desire to escape and survive. As the thugs fired into the burning crop field, Zoey led Stray to an irrigation pipe that ran under the farmlands. The two of them escaped into the underground pipe and made their way through the irrigation system. Emerging near the edge of the lake near the farm, Zoey could only watch as 'Hullen's men completed the utter destruction of the Hunsinger farm. Exhausted from her ordeal, Zoey nearly collapsed from shock and grief. Stray, however, insisted on putting as much distance between himself and 'Hullen as possible. Faced with being left alone outside the destroyed farm, Zoey forced herself to hurry after the armored stranger as he fled off into Venezia's plains.

"Whatever it Takes to Survive"
Despite Zoey's fragile state, Stray made no allowances as he pressed on into the Venezian wilderness. Knowing full well that the armored fighter was responsible for the tragedy that had befallen her family, Zoey nursed a growing hatred of her companion even as she clung desperately to his heels. Showing no apparent remorse over the carnage inflicted on his behalf, Stray pressed on across the plains. Isolated and bewildered by the horrific turn her life had taken, Zoey stubbornly pressed after the mercenary. Infuriated by his flippant dismissal of her exhaustion and his repeated threats to abandon her, Zoey pushed herself to her absolute limit as she tried to keep up with Stray's brutal pace. When a patrol of what Stray suspected to be pursuers came upon them, he ambushed the criminals. During the ensuing firefight, Zoey collapsed from hunger, thirst, and exhaustion. She lay alone on the plains for hours after the sounds of fighting had ceased, hoping that she would die and find herself with her parents again. But before she could expire, she was found again by Stray, who went against his word by coming back to look for her after she fell behind.

The gratitude Zoey felt towards her rescuer was short lived. Stray had helped himself to the deceased patrol's and now had a means of getting both of them to safety; however, in exchange for taking the girl any further the mercenary demanded payment for "services rendered." Though disgusted by her companion's greed, Zoey was determined to survive and reluctantly offered Stray the credits stored in a trust fund her father had set up for her to access when she came of age. Satisfied, Stray drove them both in the direction of New Tyne. But Ger 'Hullen had not given up in his pursuit and the pair soon found themselves under combined fire from aerial patrols of and  and the vicious  of a mercenary. In her first real taste of combat, Zoey briefly took the Warthog's wheel while Stray manned the turret, but a combination of enemy fire and the girl's inexperienced driving forced them into a rocky field where Zoey crashed and totaled the LRV. Several of Zoey's ribs were broken on impact, but Stray dragged her out of the Warthog and away from the site of the crash before detonating several explosives underneath the thugs who arrived to inspect the ruined vehicle.

Stray brought Zoey to a small bunker, one of several hidden vaults that he claimed to have set up across Venezia. The mercenary had treated her injuries to the best of his ability and was now trying to devise a plan on how to escape the bunker without alerting Ger 'Hullen's watchful trackers. Despite the loathing she felt towards her companion, Zoey knew that he remained her best chance of survival and devised a plan to use the explosives stored in the bunker to create a staggered series of controlled detonations, a technique her father had used to clear rocky fields. With the patrols thrown into confusion, the two fugitives made a last-ditch escape attempt on a ATV Stray had stored within the vault. The mounted Jiralhanae pursued and cornered them on the outskirts of New Tyne. The injured Zoey dragged herself to cover as Stray faced down the "Brutes" in savage close-quarters combat. Although the mercenary killed several pack members, including their chieftain, he was close to being overwhelmed when the remaining trackers were picked off by gunfire. Zoey caught a glimpse of a figure in armor like Stray's before she succumbed to her injuries and blacked out.

"Teach Me To Fight"
"Where do I go now?"

- Zoey Hunsinger

Zoey came to in a small medical facility, the worst of her injuries treated. Stray, himself bloodied and exhausted by the wilderness pursuit, was recovering with her. Their benefactor was a young woman named Cassandra Engel, who ran the unlicensed clinic in New Tyne’s poverty stricken outskirts. It had been Cassandra who had saved them from the Jiralhanae pack and, based on her armor and proficiency in combat, Zoey deduced that the “doctor” was of the same breed as her mercenary companion. Stray and Cassandra—who shared an uneasy friendship—admitted to having military background but refused to elaborate further. Cassandra offered the orphan girl room and board at the clinic, though Stray kept a stubborn watch in the alleys around the clinic, wary of Ger ‘Hullen and his militia. Zoey was shocked to learn that Stray (His real name, as she learned from overhearing conversations between him and Cassandra, was Simon) had not exacted payment from her as he had promised. Despite having the access key to her father’s trust fund, the inscrutable fighter had withdrawn only a single paltry sum to reimburse Cassandra for her trouble.

During the days she spent in the clinic, Zoey learned of the conflict that her parents had died for. Stray had been in the employ of a local rebel-turned-politician who had campaigned to curb the extent of violent criminal influence on Venezia. When the man had been assassinated by agents of the Syndicate, Stray had refused to surrender his employer’s files, which included the results of deep investigation into Venezia’s criminal network. The Syndicate had ordered Ger, one of its local enforcers, to eliminate Stray and destroy the data he was carrying. Though she still blamed Stray for her family's demise, Zoey had become fascinated by his ability to adapt and survive in the face of daunting odds. His unexpected generosity had taught her that he was not as cruel or greedy as he tried to appear; Zoey exploited that knowledge, chasing after him as he left the clinic and demanding that he teach her how to fend for herself to make up for what he had done to her family. Irritated by her ability to play off his guilt, Stray reluctantly agreed to let her follow him as he left the clinic for another one of his nearby hideouts.

In the days that followed Zoey moved between Stray's hideout and Cassandra's clinic. Stray was trying to stay hidden from the Syndicate as he pondered what to do with the investigation data and rarely left his basement hideout. Zoey's dreams of having him teach her survival skills were frequently frustrated by his callous demeanor and refusal to take her seriously. Aside from a few half-hearted lessons in basic marksmanship and combat maintenance—Stray's instruction was hampered by his refusal to leave the basement hideout—most of Zoey's "training" consisted of menial tasks such as fixing the hideout's ventilation system and emptying the waste disposal system. When Stray ordered her to scrub down the interior of his armor, a disgusted Zoey instead smeared the armor with feces and returned to Cassandra's clinic. Amused by the frustrated girl's tirades, Cassandra let Zoey stay in the clinic where she worked alongside a few other unlicensed doctors to tend to the residents of the New Tyne outskirts. Zoey did not take to medical practice nearly as well as she had to mechanics, but still managed to pick up a passing knowledge of first aid from tailing Cassandra on her daily visits to patients throughout the district. The lethal caregiver was a much more patient instructor than Stray and Zoey looked up to her as someone she could actually admire in the wake of her family's murder. Although Cassandra did not divulge any more about her past with Stray, she assured Zoey that behind his veneer of shallow greed and cynicism was a person who had endured similar horrors and was just trying to find a new place for himself in a hostile galaxy. The days Zoey spent with Cassandra exposed her to the poverty that was rampant amongst the less fortunate residents of New Tyne; the young orphan quickly began to realize just how sheltered she had been on her parent's farm and how relentless the daily struggle to survive really was. Despite her easier relationship with Cassandra, Zoey could not shake the feeling that she would learn more from Stray and returned to his hideout after only a few days at the clinic.

Despite their previous altercation, Stray accepted Zoey back into his bunker without comment. Although he resumed pressing menial tasks on his charge, the mercenary treated Zoey with more respect and made an effort to actually teach her how to take care of herself. Starting Zoey on a rigorous physical training regimen—or as rigorous as he could make it when they were confined to the alleys around the hideout—Stray also taught her the basics of handling a sidearm and the principles of surviving on the battlefield, namely "stick to cover" and "keep your head down and it won't get shot off." Unfortunately, Zoey's introduction to combat was soon the last thing on either of their minds; the local Syndicate, tired of waiting for Stray to make a move, launched a full-scale invasion of New Tyne's outskirt districts. With the local marshals either bribed or driven off, only a handful of local Insurrectionist militia offered the Syndicate's hired guns any resistance as they swept through the alleys, searching for Stray and the data he carried.

"We're All Bad Guys Here"
"So this is the world off the farm. A bunch of tooled up jerks with guns killing each other for money... I guess I could get used to this."

- Zoey Hunsinger

With Syndicate thugs moving from house to house in search of their quarry, Stray and Zoey were forced to abandon the hideout in the face of the oncoming hunters. Zoey once again became a witness to savage violence as Stray shot and stabbed his way through the raiding teams. Unwilling to draw the thugs to Cassandra's clinic by retreating there, Stray instead attempted to break through the cordon and flee into downtown New Tyne, where he hoped the presence of organized law enforcement might deter the Syndicate from pursuing. Unfortunately, gangs of mixed-species militia were not the only tools at the Syndicate's disposal. As night fell over Venezia's capital, contracted assassins took over the hunt, all of them seeking to collect a ten thousand credit bounty posted on Stray's head. After a confrontation with Syndicate enforcer Jens Aasen turned into a firefight, Stray and Zoey took cover in an office building where they weighed their options. Stray no longer saw any profit to be made off the investigation data in the face of the Syndicate's brutal determination to get it back and planned to negotiate with the criminals in exchange for his life. Zoey, however, saw in the data chip a way to get back at the Syndicate for the deaths of her parents. As she saw it, her parents had died so that Stray could escape his pursuers and thus he owed it to their memories to make sure the data was put to good use. Stray did not share her assessment of his moral obligations, but their argument was interrupted when a Syndicate team led by Ger 'Hullen ambushed them inside the building.

Overview
Raised under her parents' loving, instructive care, Zoey grew up an optimistic, curious girl who loved the help she did on the family farm yet dreamed of a life of adventure in the stars beyond Venezia. The deaths of her parents did not stunt Zoey's inventive and daring spirit, though the sudden tragedy forced her out into a cruel, dangerous world where her once bright and cheerful outlook quickly turned into one of careful cynicism. Her friendship with the bitter, sardonic Simon-G294, particularly her exposure to his violently survivalist lifestyle, prompted Zoey to develop a warped moral compass of her own and the once-upstanding farmgirl found herself willing to fight, steal, and cheat in order to get by. But in spite of her questionable practices Zoey never lost her feisty attitude and simplistic belief in right and wrong. Her parents' murder instilled in her a deep hatred of injustice and she would often put herself in harm's way if she spied an instance of the strong preying on the weak. Zoey's apprenticeship under Gavin Dunn solidified her moral beliefs; though she, like the rest of her adopted family, was never above working outside of the law if it suited her purposes, she would also go to great lengths to do what she thought was right. Many took Zoey's good nature for weakness, though they did so at their peril; Zoey had been trained by a Spartan and a spacer, both former insurgents, and was a vicious, unrelenting foe for anyone who crossed her and her adopted family.

With Simon-G294
Despite, or perhaps because of the role he played in her parents' murders, the Spartan deserter Simon-G294 remained one of Zoey's closest friends throughout her life. Hunted by criminals on Venezia, the orphaned farmgirl and the outcast mercenary relied on each other to survive. Zoey initially despised Simon—whom she knew by his pseudonym of "Stray"—for his callous indifference to her pain and the deaths of her parents, though she later learned that much of this was a facade to push her to survive and to hide the guilt he felt over George and Lily's murders. His chaotic blend of self-serving greed, reluctant kindness, and rare flashes of genuine heroism often left her confused over his true nature. Despite his years of combat training, battlefield experience, and role as her teacher, Stray was not much older than Zoey; when they served aboard the Chancer V Gavin would often equate them to siblings, much to their dismay. Zoey looked up to Stray for his tenacity and will to survive but was often disgusted with his callous attitude and perceived lack of empathy for the suffering of others. Stray, for his part, was often irritated by her constant insults and mockery, yet felt strongly protective of her and trained her in fighting techniques, going so far as to give her scraps of spare armor for her own personal use. Zoey initially set out to become as tough as independent as Stray, but struck out on her own when she feared she was becoming too much like him. They reunited aboard the Chancer V, where Zoey felt that Gavin Dunn's influence was enough to keep her from adopting too many of Stray's amoral habits.

With Gavin Dunn
"You mean a lot to me... I care about you like you were my own daughter"

- Gavin Dunn to Zoey Hunsinger

Zoey never expected Gavin Dunn to be anything but an unfortunate casualty in her struggle to make her way in the galaxy. An insurrectionist-turned-spacer, Gavin came into Zoey's life as little more than a target on Stray's hit list. Zoey was dragged into Stray's repeated attempts to collect the bounty posted on Gavin's head, all of which ended with the freighter captain slipping away from his frustrated pursuer. Gavin impressed Zoey with his wily and offhand tactics, both of which she took into account when she stole his ship, the Chancer V in a moment of desperate opportunism. When Gavin hunted her down and confronted her, he stunned the impoverished girl by not only forgiving her but taking her aboard the Chancer as his copilot in training. Joined by Stray, the three of them formed the crew of the ship that became Zoey's new home among the stars. Gavin took it upon himself to ensure Zoey's safety in their oft-dangerous line of work, and he trained her to fly his beloved ship. A far more patient instructor than Stray, Gavin found in Zoey a gifted pilot and groomed her to eventually captain the Chancer himself. Gavin and Zoey grew extremely close during their time together on the Chancer V, with Gavin eventually choosing to adopt Zoey as his surrogate daughter.