Jennifer Bronwen

> Keera Naraymis- "You like the idea of being the saviour of the galaxy, somewhere deep down."
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Jennifer, "Jen" Bronwen, a former combat pilot in the Marauder Marine Corps, is the owner and captain of the independent merchant freighter Bronwen's Fortune. In addition to hauling legal freight contracts she occasionally freelances as a mercenary and smuggles contraband cargo. At the beginning of Conflagration, she is offered a potentially lucrative job by Orden Snake-Eyes, and begins to assemble a crew.

## Origin

Jennifer Louise McAndrew was born and raised on a fledgling terraforming colony (Whitland) on Siwan in the Bronwen system. Her parents, Philip and Delia, were terraforming engineers working on the colonisation of the planet, and had little time for a child they had neither planned nor wanted.

As a result, at the age of 18 Jen left home, taking the surname Bronwen to cut ties with her family. She enlisted in the Marauder Marine Corps on Geonova, in the Marauder capital system of Sol Deuterion, and was stationed on the base at Yokosuka. During her basic training she met and befriended Thaddeus "Thud" Jones, with whom she was stationed throughout her service. Jennifer's billet was 2nd Platoon, Bravo Company, 3rd Battalion, 11th Regiment, 2nd Division, Marauder Marine Corps.

Jen qualified as a combat pilot in 992 ATA, taking over the position of dropship pilot for her platoon (the so-called platoon zoomie). During the course of her enlistment she achieved the rank of corporal, and received two commendations for bravery.

In 993 ATA, bored with the monotony of military life, Jen began a short-lived relationship with her platoon commander, Lieutenant Gina Bell, with the goal of securing a discharge from her enlistment. She engineered the discovery of the relationship by Bell's own superior officer, banking on the military hierarchy preferring to retain and rehabilitate an officer rather than enlisted personnel. The ploy worked, resulting in her receipt of a bad conduct discharge (BCD) from the Marine Corps. She secured an undisclosed settlement as a "good faith" payment in return for not revealing details of her dismissal to the press. Investing that money, she relocated to Asgard to start afresh.

Initially employed as a bouncer at a bar in Midmarket, she met Shan'Chael within a few weeks of her arrival and signed on with his network as a freelance mercenary. Eventually, after two years, with Shan'Chael's help, she managed to earn enough money to purchase her own ship, a modified twin-deck Marauder frigate equipped with neomorph engine technology. The vessel, named the Bronwen's Fortune, permitted her to set up an independent freighter service specialising in fast deliveries for niche and perishable cargoes - the neomorph engine tech produces FTL speeds up to two times as fast as conventional human vessels.

Check out the video to learn more about the process of creating Jen's character.

## Conflagration (Book One)

Jen meets with the Asgard crime boss Orden Snake-Eyes, who offers her a contract to steal a templar artefact from the Modeus system. With the help of her long-term associate Shan'Chael, she recruits a crew to carry out the heist. Once she secures agreement from Darya Solinas, Wai-Mei Xox, Timo Honold, Thud Jones, and Dolos, she arranges to pick each of them up from their current locations en route to Earth, the capital planet of Modeus.

Arriving in Berlin, the crew plan the robbery, intending to steal the artefact during the Pergamon Museum's opening hours, but the job goes bad when Solinas betrays them. Jen, Thud, and Wai-Mei are cornered by the police inside the museum. Thud, in a bid to try to buy the others time, engages with the police and is shot dead. Jen is shot with a concussion round when she warns the remaining members of the gang that they have been discovered.

Jen is charged with murder as well as attempted robbery, a charge arising from Solinas' killing of one of the museum staff, but appeals to the Marauder Embassy for extradition. During the course of her interview with a Marauder diplomat, Keera Naraymis, Solinas reappears disguised as a police officer and attempts to kill Naraymis. The diplomat releases Jen from confinement, and during the ensuing scuffle Solinas is killed and Naraymis is revealed to be a changeling agent.

Trapped in the police station, Jen and Keera strike a deal - Keera will get them off Earth, if Jen will take her to a neutral system. They escape towards Asgard, but not without cost - Keera is cut off from her resources by the changeling government. Jen offers to let her work off her incurred debt and Keera accepts.

Returning to Asgard, the duo begin to investigate why Solinas was interested in both sabotaging the robbery and killing Keera. After interrogating Orden and doing some research, with Shan'Chael's assistance, they trace the trail to an arms dealer based in the Omega Chronos system, Octavius Gullane.

Infiltrating Gullane's private estate, they discover that the arms dealer is already dead, bait in a trap. Jen, suspicious of Keera's involvement, refuses to leave with the changeling, and detonates an electromagnetic pulse grenade to cover her escape from the immediate trap. Unable to locate her only potential ally, she retreats into the mansion pursued by the unknown enemy.

## Conflagration (Book Two)

Having evaded capture, Jen attempts to escape from Gullane's manor, only to find herself cornered by her pursuers. Keera comes to her rescue, however, and the two escape, although Keera is injured in the getaway. In the resulting conversation, the two women clear the air, having finally proven to one another that they are trustworthy.

Jen decides that they can no longer afford to pursue the investigation, and the two focus on earning some credit for a few weeks in order to make repairs to the *Fortune*. At the conclusion of the repair work, the girls head to a nightclub to celebrate. Jen's lover, Tamal, joins them, and Keera leaves early. Shortly thereafter, one of Orden's henchmen attacks Jennifer, accusing her of being involved in the hybrid's murder. Jen realises the murder is connected to Gullane's and rushes back to the *Fortune* to find Keera being attacked by a guardian. Jen intervenes, and is seriously wounded, but wakes to find their assailant dead and a relieved, unharmed Keera looking after her.

Needing to lay low for a while, Jen takes a job from Shan'Chael that takes them out of Asgard. During the course of that work, they pick up a distress call from the Marauder system of Oceanhill, Keera's home. Answering the call, they rescue Kohath, Dolos, and Praetorius from a Reaver attack. Kohath offers them a contract to transport the cyborgs back to Korxonthos, which Jen accepts on condition of visiting Marinaris first.

On Marinaris, Keera finds her younger sibling has been taken by the Reavers, and her childhood home has been damaged. Back on the ship, they learn about the history of the Reavers and the threat posed by the Wraiths from the cyborgs. As they leave Marauder space, they are intercepted by a border patrol and arrested when Jen's former lover Gina Bell, recognises her.

Keera frees Jen after breaking out of custody, and together they make their escape to neutral space. Safely back on Hel, they accompany the cyborgs to Shan'Chael's office, where Shan introduces them to a Ronin officer, Arkaion. Arkaion explains his involvement with Solinas and Gullane in his mission to protect the templar artefact, a sun harvester capable of wiping out entire systems. He states his intention to steal the harvester from the Assembly and send it someplace safe, and offers Jen and Keera a contract to help him.

Jen, enraged by the revelation that the Ronins sabotaged her job, caused the deaths of Thud and Orden, and attempted to kill Keera, tells both Arkaion and Shan to go to hell. Keera backs her, though later questions the decision, resulting in an argument, with Jen lashing out at Keera before storming off the ship. She heads down the Strip and gets drunk. Shan finds her and talks things over with her, at which point Jen realizes the true depth of her feelings for Keera. Returning to the ship, she finds Keera waiting, worried sick, and apologizes, admitting how she feels. Keera reciprocates the admission, begging Jen to kiss her and affirming that she wants a relationship.

Reassessing her decision, Jen talks with Shan, Kohath, and Keera, and decides to accept the Ronin contract, making ready to leave for Kyzar.

## Conflagration (Book Three)

Jen and the crew travel to Kyzar, where they plan and then attempt to execute the theft of the sun harvester. Keera aborts the mission upon discovering that the artefact is already gone, and after consultation with Arkaion and the others, they decide to report the theft to Envoy Xion. Xion brings Lau Lawinson and Sofia Stecchi into the discussions and together they begin to investigate the theft, quickly establishing that the neomorph Envoy, Iotanus, is actually a changeling, and the investigation shifts its focus to the potential conspiracy the replaced Envoy represents.