Kel Janaia

> "*Sir, I've served with you for fourteen years. I'm Kel, you're Kel, I'll even follow you into a fox's jaws. But I will serve you better if you help me understand what the hell we're doing.*"
> ― Kel Janaia
>
>

Commander **Kel Janaia** was a cindermoth commander in the Swanknot swarm. She appears in Raven Stratagem.

## Appearance and Personality

Janaia sleeps lightly, likes luxuries and hates disruptions, and refuses to explain the collection of octopus figurines she keeps in her quarters. Usually hard to rattle, she believes strongly in loyalty and formation instinct and is extremely proper about Kel procedural nuances, though after a point her rigid nature becomes a liability to her. As stress weighs on her, faint lines become visible around her eyes. She enjoys action, prefers not to be left out of the shooting, has an understated but occasionally emerging sense of humor, and doesn't care for planetside life, feeling lucky to be a moth Kel.

## Personal Life

Though Janaia is a mix of ethnicities, she identifies most strongly with the Moionna because of her favorite grandmother.

## Career

Janaia was made a moth Kel directly after Academy. Eventually, she became the commander of the cindermoth *Hierarchy of Feasts*. She served with General Kel Khiruev for fourteen years, including during Khiruev's Rahal-mandated destruction of Raggard's Basket. Khiruev came to depend on her for her support during battles.

After the scrambling of the Swanknot swarm, Janaia was restless while waiting for the arrival of Kel Cheris, repeatedly checking the time on her terminal despite having access to her augment's internal clock. Janaia witnessed the swarm's takeover by General Shuos Jedao, she was discomfited when her quarters were shifted to accommodate the new ranking officer. However, seated at his left at the officers' first high table with him, she attempted to make small talk to ease the nerves of the other Kel, discussing the food and introducing some of the staff.

Janaia called Khiruev and Jedao to the command center for the swarm's first contact with Hafn outriders, and entered Jedao's move orders for the tactical groups. When Jedao posited, without further explanation, that the outriders were "geese" rather than humans, Janaia silently mouthed a question about his sanity to Khiruev. She was sorry to be left out of the shooting when it started, and later shared a chuckle with Khiruev, to the disapproval of Colonel Kel Muris, her executive officer, about the hope that the one outrider caught by Commander Kel Kavinte wasn't full of death spores.

Janaia disapproved when Tactical Group Two was detached to shoot outriders, but had no grounds to object. During the swarm's first action against the Hafn near the Fortress of Spinshot Coins, she was startled at the nonregulation use of Khiruev's Swanknot banner instead of Jedao's Deuce of Gears and blanched later at Khiruev's test use of the suicide formation Wildfire Over the Aerie, even with the second and third pivots left unfilled, but was darkly amused when the Hafn saw the unfinished formation and retreated immediately.

After Khiruev invoked the Vrae Tala clause, keeping the rest of the swarm tied to Jedao despite his demotion, Janaia became withdrawn around Khiruev, seldom meeting her eyes. Khiruev understood, knowing Janaia was the kind of Kel who, even if a loophole emerged, would continue to carry out her orders flawlessly. Though off-shift at the time, Janaia was the first person to whom Khiruev forwarded the two ultimatums she received from Kel Command, along with directions for the swarm to hold formation until further notice.

Eight days out from Minang Tower, Janaia was frustrated with the Hafn's continued refusal to turn and fight. She requested a meeting in Khiruev's quarters and was granted permission to speak freely. They discussed Khiruev's unilateral decision to invoke Vrae Tala, the destruction of loyalists and heretics alike on Raggard's Basket, and Jedao's plan to take on the hexarchs, the only pale opportunity Khiruev could guess at to build a better world, though she wouldn't be around to see it. Janaia, invoking their long service together, asked her to at least tell Jedao about the Vrae Tala quarter-candle that should have been by Khiruev's seat at high table: "Let him do the right thing by you." Khiruev agreed to consider it.

Janaia was uneasy about Jedao's absence from the command center as the swarm approached Minang Tower, especially with the sudden disappearance of the usual flocks of outriders, and serenely doubtful of their survival odds as he remained absent. Though she would have preferred to keep the swarm in a multi-formation shield modulation sequence, she passed on Khiruev's orders for a grand formation instead and continued to adjust the swarm as a second Hafn swarm arrived and hit the Kel bomb ambuscade prepared for them.

Janaia broke down, however, after a Hafn exotic attack corrupted fourteen bannermoths and caused them to break formation as crashhawks. Unable to hide her terror of being turned against her swarm, she experienced a panic attack and Khiruev relieved her of duty. She saluted, white-faced, and left the command center.

Khiruev appointed Muris to take Janaia's place as the cindermoth commander, though she missed Janaia's always-reliable assistance with swarm geometry as the engagement continued. Khiruev later reviewed the incident with Jedao, who agreed that Janaia's exemplary Kel nature had made her vulnerable. He planned to talk to Janaia later, and referred her to Medical for assessment and counseling.

After counseling, Janaia likely retired from moth command and took a position on Khiruev's staff, a high-level position due to Khiruev's prominence in the Compact's military.

## Trivia

* Janaia told Khiruev that servitors scare their babies by saying they'll end up in Khiruev's gadget collection if they're bad.
* Khiruev describes Janaia as "lackadaisical" for arriving four minutes early to high table instead of Khiruev and Jedao's six, but later viewed Janaia arriving exactly on time to their scheduled meeting as unusual for her.
* Like many moth commanders, Janaia dislikes River Snake, a "glorified column" travel formation with negligible combat effects.
* Janaia had not yet returned to duty by the time High General Kel Brezan arrived to retake the swarm.23

## References

1. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 13
2. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 2
3. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 14
4. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 21
5. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 6
6. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 21
7. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 19
8. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 6
9. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 2,5
10. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 2
11. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 13
12. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 2
13. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 1
14. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 19
15. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 19
16. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 21
17. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 1
18. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 2
19. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 5
20. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 6
21. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 15
22. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 13
23. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 19
24. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 20
25. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 21
26. ↑ Revenant Gun open thread
27. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 2
28. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 2
29. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter
30. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter 6
31. ↑ Raven Stratagem, Chapter