Unn Birger

"Salvagers, girl. That's where the gold's at."

- Unn Birger to Rion Forge

Unn Birger was a salvager abaord the cargo tug, Hakon, and the wife of its captain, Bjorn Birger.

History
Unn Birger was born on Earth, but when she was sixteen years old she left the planet behind her in pursuit of wealth and adventure. With her came her future husband, Bjorn, who was eighteen at the time. Bjorn eventually came to captain the Hakon, which he used to salvage and sell anything he could get his hands on. When Rion Forge met the Birgers while they were visiting Earth, she estimated Unn was in her forties. After being told to get out of a Chicago bar for being too young, Bjorn scolded the bartender and invited Rion to join he and other members of his crew at their table. Before long, she wasn't just a guest at the table, but a full member of the crew as well.

For the first few years after that fateful encounter, lief aboard the Hakon was everything the Birgers had promised Rion it would be. The ship and its crew frequently dodged into and out of war zones as the Human-Covenant War raged around them. Starvation, torture, betrayal, and death were familiar sights for the hardened crew. As time passed, the nature of the work took a toll on the crew and they started to act more and more like pirates. Bjorn began to lose control over his ship and both he and Unn stopped paying as much attention to Rion as well. However, when Bjorn's health began to decline, Unn confided in Rion and the began to lay the groundwork to ensure they would maintain control of the Hakon were he to pass away. Sometime after Rion's twenty-fourth birthday near the end of the war, Bjorn died. Unn and Rion tended to his body as necessary. Before his death, Rion estimated that Unn could have captained the ship for years, but when it finally came, she lost all ambition. Unn bequeathed all her knowledge and lifelong advice to Rion and then died a year later of natural causes.

Personality and traits
Unn Birger had a strong, striking face with sharp, ice blue eyes and gray hair in two fat braids. She spoke with a deep accent that Rion Forge could not place when meeting her for the first time. Unn was a talented pilot as well as adept at wielding knives. To outsiders, she and her husband could appear course looking, travel weary, and out of place, but also very capable. When Rion met her, she noted then that it seemed she possessed a great amount of weight and worldliness; as if she had seen and done it all and had the scars--both inside and out--to prove it. Many times, Unn told Rion that in order to survive, one must adapt. When she and her husband began to seem more distant to Rion, she told her it was necessary for Forge's development as a leader.

Trivia
"Unn" is a predominantly Norwegian name.

List of appearances

 * Halo: Smoke and Shadow