Virginia Halcomb

*"I am Virginia. You may call me Virginia, Miss Halcomb, or Ma'am. I run and manage the whole back end of the team. Funds, roster management, purchases, all of it. If you have any questions regarding the team, please let me know as soon as possible and I will get back to you at my earliest convenience." - Virginia speaking with the Bonded Fates recruits after the team was officially assembled*

Virginia Halcomb is the team manager for the Bonded Fates. She manages everything on the back end of the team including treasury duties, roster management, purchasing and orders, opposing team scouting, and she assists with recruit scouting. While most teams have one person that does this in the Assistant Captain, the Bonded Fates follow a modified structure. Also, while the Assistant Captain is typically the second in command of a Squad Mates team, in the case of the Bonded Fates, that is Virginia. One of Virginia's tasks, and one that Anya Novak appreciates to no end, are the pre-match team reports that she creates and presents to the team to brief on. These usually include the players present in the match; how many and who as well as what strengths, weaknesses and strategies they employ, the map of the location, any tips and tricks that the team can use, as well as the game mode and potential objectives.

Virginia was married to Anya Novak. She was also an SMC Official before founding the Bonded Fates with Anya. The two married secretly after a long dating relationship and things were going well until someone caught wind that Anya and Virginia might have had something going on between them. It caused stress between the two and when the SMC caught wind of it and did enough digging, they found out the two were indeed married and the SMC fired Virginia because the bad optics surrounding an SMC official being married to a team captain could give rise to accusations that the SMC is playing favorites for the Bonded Fates even though nothing suggested Virginia was doing anything of the sort. As secretly as they married, the two of them got a secret divorce in order to not draw any eyes on the SMC.

Virginia knows that a rift, and even a wall of sorts, grew between Anya and her after this. She holds no ill will toward Anya so she isn't quite sure why Anya wanted to get the divorce. Using her skills with searching into people's records and pasts, she noticed that there was a ton of information about Anya's past that either didn't make sense or was hidden entirely. The more digging that Virginia did, the more questions she had. Every time Virginia wanted to talk about them, Anya told her that it wasn't the right time and the she would get back to her. While she hasn't told anyone, Virginia wants to repair her relationship with Anya and possibly their marriage too. Despite this, Anya and Virginia maintain a very strong professional relationship and run the team effectively. Anya and Virginia don't spend a lot of personal time together because of these unresolved issues. Anya and Virginia are a strange pairing as the two have borderline polar opposite personalities.

Virginia is beginning to get suspicious that some people in the Bonded Fates are starting to piece things together about her past marriage. This eventually turned out to not matter as Randall Westar, the leader of the Sand Crabs broke the news to the Bonded Fates of Virginia and Anya's past. This caused a serious situation within the Bonded Fates with Virginia threatening to leave not only the team but the planet as a whole as there was a possibility that the SMC could become involved and the team could be put at real risk. At least if she was gone, the team would be reasonably safe. Anya, now that everyone knew about them showed a side of her no one seen before and actually embraced Virginia the way a lover would. After calming down, for the first time, the Bonded Fates saw Virginia actually lose her cool and in that moment she vowed to personally see to it that Randall would lose everything in Squad Mates and she would use whatever sources in the SMC and any skills she had to do so. Anya and Josephine both fully supported this endeavor.

Virginia splits her time between serving as head of the team's Command Element and actively participating in matches when she sees fit to do so.

## Appearance

Virginia dresses very smartly. She tends to wear tucked in button up shirts or sweaters, pencil skirts, black leggings, heeled shoes or boots and a tie. She normally has her hair pulled up in a bun or pony-tail and sometimes wears glasses for near sightedness.

## Personality

Virginia is an incredibly intelligent woman. She has little tolerance for "tomfoolery" as she calls it even though she doesn't particularly stop the team members from playing around with one another. Mouse likes to play pranks on Virginia which vexes her but that's just how Mouse is. Virginia is a no-nonsense negotiator when in that role for the team. She knows what she's talking about and knows the game of Squad Mates inside out so it's almost impossible to put one over on her. Virginia is all business all the time and when she's seen around the squad house she's typically either on a data pad doing research for the team, speaking to suppliers or tournament staff, or screening potential recruits. She will occasionally do yoga with Apple out under the trees and she also enjoys taking long baths to relieve stress. While Virginia doesn't dislike anyone on the team, Apple is one of the few she will regularly converse with as Apple doesn't engage in too many pranks or get in the way of things.

## Trivia

1. Virginia almost committed suicide after her divorce. It was only through her sheer determination that it was the weak way out that prevented her from doing it.
2. Virginia takes stimulants to offset her bouts of depression
3. She has her wedding photo with Anya as the background on her comm device.
4. Virginia pours her all into the Bonded Fates; Anya believes it's as a distraction to keep her mind off more personal matters
5. Virginia was friends and a close associate to many employees of the SMC. They regularly come to her for assistance with SMC matters. While not employed with the SMC, she does charge rather large consultant fees.
6. It is through her connections that the Bonded Fates is given access to certain levels of markets for equipment that normal teams don't get as quickly
7. Virginia has contacts in the black market and criminal underworld
8. Although she sometimes finds Mouse annoying, she also treats her almost as a daughter
9. Every Sunday, she prepares dinner for the team
10. Virginia knew that the Bonded Fates was going to get absolutely humiliated by the Dark Angels. All her research pointed to no chance. Despite this, she still urged her team on hoping that maybe, somehow they could pull off a win. They didn't.
11. Virginia purposely chose to sit the Grudge match with the Dark Angels out to avoid being publicly humiliated.
12. She spent a lot of her personal savings to buy new equipment for the team after they decided to pursue championship tournaments to have a rematch with the Dark Angels again.
13. She holds a personal grudge against Randall Westar of the Sand Crabs. She vows to execute him in a match.
14. Virginia is fascinated by Apple.
15. Virginia has a wedding venue picked out already if Anya and her repair their marriage
16. Though she has a very tough shell, Virginia is actually very lonely. She's afraid of getting close to people because of what happened between her an Anya.
17. Virginia's Mk31 Recon Drone was incredibly expensive. But it gives the Bonded Fates a pretty substantial advantage on the field.
18. Virginia had flare pods equipped to the bottom of the Mk31. This allows her to drop photon flares to light up areas of the field.
19. The lipstick that Virginia uses is typically picked out by Mary Kate.
20. Virginia and Ace almost came to blows after the grudge match. She felt that the Dark Angels made a point to humiliate them and she almost lost it when Ace told her that they did.