Your AI squadmateon comms.

A Singaporean special forces reconnaissance commander, Kaira grew up helping her father repair small boats on the east coast. Maritime reconnaissance led to regional exercises and monsoon rescue deployments, where she first took command of a mixed team. At home she restores an old sailing dinghy with her younger brother and guards one Sunday a month for family, whatever the duty roster says.

Bravo 4 is known by callsign alone. His identity, rank, former units, deployments and family details are withheld, as is the rest of his UK special forces background. He keeps his place in the squad through short, steady calls and a habit of putting the mission before a story about himself. The redactions are deliberate: there is no public name to decode and no missing biography for listeners to fill in.

General Attitude made a name for himself on parade grounds and field exercises where a short order had to carry across a crowded radio net. His booming delivery can make a routine contact sound like the start of a campaign, but he never loses track of the person receiving the call. Away from the microphone he collects old field manuals and runs a local training club, bringing the same exacting patience to every new recruit.

Billy Verenas grew up on Scotland's east coast, splitting weekends between a boatyard and the rugby pitch. He joined the Scots Guards, earned a commission after serving in the ranks and later passed SAS selection. Ginge began as a school nickname and stuck. On leave he returns to a small sailing boat bought with his first deployment pay, usually with his younger brother and a repair list neither expects to finish.

Bobby Ball started in stores and transport before earning a commission and taking command of a support company. Discount stuck after he rebuilt an exercise's entire supply plan on half the expected budget. Raised above his parents' second-hand shop, he has never lost the habit of fixing things others throw away. His garage contains three unfinished motorcycles and one his wife insists must run by summer.

Colonel Agus earned the name Hantuto, "the Ghost", during special-forces operations in the wilds of Timor, defending Indonesia against separatist forces. His patrols learned to move through the jungle without leaving a trace, and the name followed him long after those deployments. He adopted it as his own. Today, the quiet reconnaissance officer serves as a military attache, carrying the same patience into every conversation. The son of two schoolteachers, he keeps old maps in his quarters and letters from his daughter close at hand. On the radio he is warm, measured and difficult to rattle.

Tommy Smith left a job in his uncle's print shop for the infantry and spent the next two decades working from rifleman to sergeant major. Tuppence came from his habit of offering an opinion whether anyone had asked for it or not. Behind the barracks reputation is a devoted grandfather who runs a junior boxing club and still keeps every letter sent to him on deployment.

Mara Voss is a CIA station chief who began as a case officer, her first overseas posting growing into a career in human intelligence. An economics graduate raised by a nurse and a mechanic, she entered government expecting a desk job and found herself building relationships far from home. She keeps a small apartment, grows tomatoes badly and takes her younger sister on a road trip whenever their calendars finally agree.

Nadiya Vale is a senior case officer at MI5 with decades in counterintelligence, investigations and the patient work of training new case teams. Raised in a British Bengali household, she was the first in her family to join the civil service. Her grown children know more about her allotment than her career. She collects first editions, swims before breakfast and remains the person her extended family calls when something needs sorting out.

Chris Masters grew up around his family's repair garage before joining the US Air Force and training for C-130 aircrew duties. He completed an engineering degree while serving, earned his commission and progressed to captain. The homemade marionette he brought to a charity show still appears at squadron fundraisers. He spends leave building model aircraft with his nephew and is determined to put a proper workshop behind his first home.

James Silk grew up in regional Western Australia, working fencing jobs and repairing farm vehicles before enlisting. Field transport and remote exercises suited him better than a desk. After serving in the ranks, he earned his commission and rose to captain, carrying the same practical habits into command. Dingo is the nickname his older sister gave him as a boy. He sends money home, restores an ageing ute and talks about opening a fishing charter one day.

Boris Schmidt grew up above his mother's repair shop in Bremen and learned to solder before he could drive. Military signals led him into special forces communications and NATO liaison work. Cucumber stuck after he calmly made tea during a generator failure, then restored the exercise network. He spends alternate weekends with his daughter rebuilding an old camper van. Its wiring is immaculate; the engine remains a family argument neither of them is ready to settle.

Wayne Johnson was raised in Spanish Town by a bus mechanic and a teacher. He joined the Jamaica Defence Force as an infantryman, then built a career through training, regional exercises and hurricane relief. Sugafoot came from his skill on the dance floor long before any recruit dared use it. At home he repairs loudspeakers for a community hall and teaches his granddaughter to ride a bicycle, though he is still learning when to let go.

Liu Lang began in military engineering before moving through field commands into senior planning. Raised in Wuhan by a railway technician and a librarian, he was the first in his family to attend university. Flood relief shaped his interest in logistics and the people who make ambitious plans work. He tends an overcrowded balcony garden and takes his grandson to watch freight trains. Officers who know him well use the familiar address Chief; his formal rank is major general.

Danny Brown was born in Lagos and moved to south London at eleven. A vehicle mechanic before enlisting, he became a British Army corporal in a reconnaissance unit. TooBeaucoup followed a joint exercise when his eager French became the platoon's favourite phrase. He helps fund his younger sister's architecture studies and coaches youth football when leave allows. At home he writes songs on a battered keyboard; friends keep telling him the introductions are too long.

Lisa StClaire grew up in Marseille, the daughter of a nurse and a shipyard electrician. Interpretation work took her from commercial ports to humanitarian evacuations and civilian field liaison. The Sinner dates to school, when she borrowed the headmistress's car to collect a stranded friend and returned it empty. Lisa still disputes the telling. She collects second-hand cameras, swims through winter and shares a flat with a rescue cat that treats every packed suitcase as betrayal.

Fyedor Fyedorovitch grew up in a railway town and studied law before entering the security service. Investigations and counterintelligence postings led to senior appointments and promotion to FSB major general. HolyMoly came from an English phrasebook he overused during a liaison course. Widowed, he keeps Sunday lunch for his daughter and insists he has mastered her vegetarian recipes. His apartment is crowded with repaired clocks, detective novels and a cello he returned to after thirty years.