"Amateurs talk about tactics. Professionals talk about logistics. I talk about the three miles of cable we're missing if we want to establish a secure uplink by dawn. Which one do you want to be?"

— C/1LT Coreen Symons

If Penelope is the mind of Alpha Company and Catrina is its heart, Coreen Symons is its shadow. As the Executive Officer (XO), Coreen’s job is to be the master of the "invisible" work—the paperwork, the supply chains, and the complex logistical webs that keep the company from grinding to a halt. While her teammates are out on the parade deck, Coreen is often found in the tactical office, surrounded by spreadsheets and glowing monitors, moving pieces on a board that no one else even knows exists.

Born into a family of high-stakes corporate fixers, Coreen was raised to believe that the person who controls the resources controls the outcome. She didn't join the ROTC for the glory of the frontline; she joined because she saw a system that needed a mechanic. She is the ultimate "fixer"—the girl who can find an extra crate of MREs in a supply desert or decode an encrypted transmission while others are still looking for their headsets.

Despite her efficiency, Coreen struggles with the feeling of being the "eternal second." As the XO, she is always behind the scenes, ensuring Penelope looks flawless, and Catrina stays supplied, while her own ambitions remain tucked away in the margins of her notebooks. She’s the quiet observer, the one who notices the small fractures in the unit before they become breaks. But as the stakes at Obsidian Ridge escalate, Coreen is learning that you can’t manage a crisis from behind a desk forever—sometimes, the shadow has to step into the light.