Jilan al-Cygni

"Kissing is for politicians, and I'm certainly not that."

- LCDR Jilan al-Cygni upon meeting Johnson.

Lieutenant Commander Jilan al-Cygni was the commanding officer of Staff Sergeant Avery J. Johnson and Staff Sergeant Nolan Byrne of the militia units during the operation to stop suspected Insurrection attacks against UNSC freighters near Harvest. She is affiliated with ONI Section Three.

History
Posing as an official from the Department of Commercial Shipping, Jilan al-Cygni was an undercover ONI officer whom arrived at Harvest to investigate the disappearance of various and diverse DCS freighters in the Harvest space locale, assumed to be lost at the hands of Insurrectionists but truthfully exterminated directly by Jackal pirates.

Jilan al-Cygni thought of a plan to trick the Insurrectionists with a decoy Freighter that both Avery Johnson and Nolan Byrne were secretly aboard. The plan was successful, however all three were quickly surprised to find the real cause of the disappearances, Jackal privateers. She authorized Johnson and Byrne to eliminate them before destroying the alien vessel with an Archer Missile from her sloop. Later, after making contact with the Brute investigation team arriving with a formerly decommissioned Cruiser, she was one of the first humans to meet an official Covenant delegation. The negotiations soured, however, and the group was forced to escape. She removed a visibly upset Governor Nils Thune from office by paralyzing him with Tactical Training Rounds, and assumed command of the UNSC presence on Harvest, consisting of a mere three Marines and a platoon of Colonial Militiamen.

After many risky and difficult plans, one of which her second in command volunteered to create a diversion at the cost of his own life, al-Cygni successfully escaped with Johnson, Byrne, and a handful of to-be-Marines and civilians. She and Avery Johnson entered into a small brief relationship. It is unknown whether the two remained together for any time, or whether they had any more contact with each other at all afterwards. It is most likely that she has been informed of Johnson's death by the end of Halo 3, provided that she survived the war.

Trivia

 * It may be possible that Johnson and Jilan al-Cygni were married, as Johnson will occasionally make remarks about his supposed "mother-in-law" during Halo 2. Whether it was just Johnson's typical sense of humor, or actually meaningful in any way is unknown.