Major Aveles

Aveles keeps her hair drawn back and an earpiece close, habits formed during years of work the Combine preferred not to acknowledge. She learned to enter a situation with a cover story, identify who held the useful information, and leave as few traces as the assignment allowed.

Command of Shadow Protocol gave her a visible position, but visibility did not erase those habits. She checks the backgrounds of visitors, limits what different parts of the crew need to know, and maintains routes out of negotiations that suddenly turn hostile. Some officers find her secrecy difficult; the people who have survived an ambush because of it tend to be more understanding.

Aveles knows secrecy can become its own form of danger. She has seen institutions hide mistakes behind classified orders, and she keeps private records when an instruction troubles her. She is loyal to her crew first, even when the Combine would prefer a less complicated answer.