In the aftermath of the Unification War, many of the independents who had fought and lost
drifted to the edges of the system, far from the control of the victorious Alliance.
On the rim, people struggled to get by with the most basic technologies; a ship would
bring you work, a gun would help you keep it.
Former independents became freelancers, bounty hunters, merchants, smugglers, and transport
captains.
They dyed their old uniforms blue or grey to forget the past and let the past forget them.
For some however, the war was not so easily forgotten and no matter what jobs they took
or what kind of life they led, they remained soldiers.
This was the case with Zoë Alleyne Washburne.
Zoe was born vesselside on February 15th, 2484 but the details of her upbringing and
early life remain scarce.
By the outbreak of the Unification War, she had enlisted in the Independent’s Army and
been assigned to the 57th Overlanders.
Known as the “Balls and Bayonets Brigade”, the 57th fought in some of the bloodiest battles
of the war including the brutal trench fighting on New Kasmir, the siege of Du-Khang and the
last stand of the Independents at Serenity Valley.
During the war, Zoe demonstrated expert proficiency in marksmanship and guerilla tactics, reflective
of a career soldier.
At the end of the war, Zoe and the only other surviving member of her platoon, Sergeant
Malcolm Reynolds, were placed within an Alliance internment camp.
Upon her eventual release, Zoe joined up with the Dust Devils, a group of Independent sympathisers
which continued the war against the Alliance and were quickly labeled terrorists.
Zoe eventually accepted that the war was truly lost and left the Dust Devils to track down
her old friend, Malcolm Reynolds.
Together they refurbished a decrepit Series 3 K64 Firefly and when it was once again flight
worthy, Zoe became first mate of the “Serenity”.
The ship allowed them to find honest and not so honest work, and kept her beyond the reach
of the Alliance.
Despite her initial apprehension, Zoe later fell in love with and married Serenity’s
pilot, Hoban “Wash” Washburne, less than a year after he joined the crew.
The two worked a dangerous sort of lifestyle, frequently taking part in jobs that found
them on the wrong side of the law.
Through it all however, they managed to maintain a happy marriage, an oddity in their line
of work.
Rarely emotional, Zoe’s time as a soldier allowed her to maintain a calm and critical
approach in nearly every situation.
Her stoicism contrasted greatly with the emotional spontaneity of Malcom Reynolds and the laid-back
humor of Wash.
While outsiders might not have fully understood her complex relationships with both, Zoe was
fiercely loyal to her husband and her captain.
When these elements of her life came into conflict, she would stand with Wash without
hesitation, but always addressed her former sergeant, Captain Reynolds, as “sir.”
She was honest and straightforward, equally adept at carrying out orders or in taking
command herself, even in moments of immense emotional trauma.
Above all, she was a person of duty, dedicated to her job and capable of acting with impeccable
decisiveness.
She preferred to live in the way she was accustomed to, but not above adapting to new ideas, so
long as they passed her scrutiny.
Jobs for less than reputable clients, smuggling, heists and even encounters with Reavers defined
much of Zoe’s life aboard the Serenity.
The arrival of River and Simon Tam, two fugitives desperately wanted by the Alliance, would
ultimately end with an encounter with an Alliance Operative and the death of her husband.
Zoe buried Wash on a distant moon before returning to Serenity, heartbroken …but not alone.
In Dossier, the Templin Institute investigates the legendary figures from alternate worlds.
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