Story so far
Matthu Koenen leads the Edward Israel's dozen militia in vacuum armor to attack the crippled Rocinante, hauling a dozen improvised gas-tank missiles. Deaf to Havelock's appeals to stand down, he answers with anger and contempt — 'Don't try to play that on us, you traitorous bastard' — revealing they watched the Roci's PDCs go dark before dropping and carry orders 'straight from Murtry' to bring Havelock and 'the Belter bitch' back to the brig. His squad launches the missiles: Havelock downs several, but one blows him off the ship, and others strike the Barbapiccola, shredding its tether and knocking it tumbling off orbit.
Still approaching under Havelock's covering fire, Koenen's crew keep coming — the frightened, hate-driven engineer executing Murtry's demand that RCE cede 'not a centimeter' even when the target is doomed anyway.
Appearance
The Israel's chief engineer, gravity-born; here anonymous in vacuum armor with a sun-darkened faceplate, leading a squad of suited militia and improvised missiles across space.
Role
The Israel's chief engineer and militia leader; the man executing Murtry's order to take Havelock and Naomi by force and deny the Barb its last minutes.
Relationships
Havelock — His defector former chief, whose pleas he rejects while trying to capture or kill him under orders.
Adolphus Murtry — The chief whose orders — take Havelock and Naomi, cede nothing — he carries out with the missile attack.
Barbapiccola — The freighter his missiles knock tumbling off its stabilized orbit.
Sources — 8 recorded facts, by chapter
Chapter 18
- The Israel's gruff, planet-born chief engineer, who eagerly raises the scientist militia at Havelock's request — and gladly excludes Belters.
Chapter 22
- Koenen's militia drills hard for eight days; he pushes to seize the softer Rocinante, and is overruled in favor of the unarmed Barbapiccola.
Chapter 25
- During the hull drill, Koenen's sharp eye spots the saboteur torching the shuttle-bomb — the catch that lets the militia take Naomi prisoner.
Chapter 36
- The Israel's militia-armband chief engineer corners Havelock with conspiracy theories: the disaster was rigged to save Naomi, and Holden is a protomolecule doppelgänger.
Chapter 41
- The militia chief engineer pushes his confident plan to squeeze extra days from the Israel's power grid, bristling when Marwick calls his numbers guesswork.
Chapter 45
- Handed Murtry's codes and the armory, the movie-soldier Koenen musters his militia to repel the boarders — 'we'll poke those bastards so full of holes you can see stars through them.'
Chapter 47
- High on the firefight he's dreamed of, Koenen pins Basia, ignores Havelock's cease-fire, and charges — only to be dropped by bag rounds, screaming 'traitor' as his own chief mutinies.
Chapter 55
- Leading the militia drop under Murtry's orders, Koenen shrugs off Havelock's pleas, boasts of taking him and Naomi back to the brig, and fires improvised missiles at the crippled Roci and the Barb.