Commandant Steele

**Commandant Steele** is an officer in the Crimson Lance and the primary antagonist of *Borderlands*.

## Background

**Commandant Steele** is the leader of the Crimson Lance forces on Pandora. She is also a Siren, as hinted at by her tattoos and the demonstration of her ability to piece the Vault Key fragments together.

## Involvement

**Commandant Steele** leads the Crimson Lance army, the lawless fighters encountered in Old Haven and beyond. She claims the alien technology she believes to be hidden in the Vault as the property of the Atlas corporation and tries to take the vault keys by force after the last piece is collected.

The first time that she is seen is when she ECHOes shortly after Sledge has been killed and the first Vault key piece has been acquired. At this point she transmits a message commanding that the vault key piece be turned over to the Crimson Lance, although the message is ultimately ignored and the adventure continues. It is also possible to receive a transmission en route to Sledge's Safehouse, where Steele berates the Vault hunters for accepting a mission to assassinate a "local leader".

Her later machinations involve impeding the progress of the Vault hunters, both by sending her forces to attack (in the hope of taking the vault key fragments) and by commandeering the ECHOnet. Just before the ECHOnet gets shut down it becomes clear that she is making a stronger bid for power than originally expected when Crimson Lance forces under her control are reported to be assaulting Sanctuary. Shortly thereafter, she is briefly seen ordering Master McCloud to execute the Vault hunters.

When **she** is eventually encountered in person, the meeting is cut short; During the cut-scene, she announces that the Vault and its riches are the property of the Atlas corporation and that the Vault hunters belong to **her**. After connecting the Vault key fragments together and placing them in the keyhole, pieces of the surrounding ruins merge to form a portal to the Vault. **Steele** is under the belief she has won and begins to celebrate when a tentacle pierces her from behind and drags her screaming into the mouth of a huge beast known only as the Destroyer.

## Trivia

* Sub-titles refer to her as "Commander" rather than "Commandant".
* Though never mentioned in game, a string that was ultimately dropped from the final release lists her given name as "Helga".
* **She** bears similar Siren tattoos to Lilith and Maya. When she activates the Vault Key, her hand produces blue mist not unlike the other Sirens. When reanimated as **Commandant Steele-Trap**, however, she demonstrates no obvious supernatural abilities.
* **She** also bears an uncanny similarity to the original design of Lilith when the game was announced to GameInformer.
* Despite being killed by the Destroyer, if Master McCloud is fought again later, she will be there yelling "Death to all who oppose us". She also performs the same animation she does when she places the key in the Vault, right before she gets stabbed.
* Tannis once referred to her as an "albino" due to her extremely white skin. This reference is made again by General Knoxx.
* General Knoxx dislikes **Steele** because "she talks too much". Knoxx states this dislike right after accepting You've Got Moxxi: Moxxi's Red Light and thanks the Vault hunters for turning her into a "meat kebab".
* Knoxx also calls Steele bulimic in the fifth ECHO recording of the Knoxxed Out mission.
* Originally, it was possible to see what **Steele** would have finished saying in the Vault if she hadn't been interrupted by the Destroyer by watching the cutscene with subtitles enabled. It seems that she was planning to throw the Vault Hunters into Tannis' jail cell to keep her company. This has since been partially fixed, though the subtitles do still show a little of what she says after she is killed (as opposed to being cut off midway).