Rainbow Six Siege's first shield-carrying defender is a Scotland Yard officer named Clash

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The slow, steady rollout of the next season of Rainbow Six Siege, entitled Operation Grim Sky, continued today with a teaser introducing one of the game's two new operators: Morowa "Clash" Evans, a defender who bears an uncanny resemblance—at least for a brief, flashing second—to Shodan, the infamous AI villain of System Shock.

Clash, a Scotland Yard crowd control specialist, is the first Rainbow Six defender with a shield. And not just a shield, but a massive, transparent, person-height shield with a built-in taser. And not just a taser, but a howling Tesla coil, basically, that looks like it's cranking out enough juice to drop six men and the elephant they rode in on.

A native of England, Clash served with the Territorial Support Group during the 2011 riots, before earning a spot in Specialist Firearms Command, the branch of London's Metropolitan Police Service that provides armed response capability. Her shield, the Crowd Control Electro Shield, is actually a DIY rig put together by Twitch and Mira.

"Clash is the perfect Operator to handle this new gadget and weapon because she understands mob behavior and she pioneered snatch squad tactics, not to mention her experience as a riot officer," Ubisoft said in her character announcement. "She knows exactly when and where to deploy this shield to deny entry and slow down her opponents."

Clash, and all of Operation Grim Sky including the reworked Hereford Base map that we checked into last week, will be fully revealed on August 19 during the Six Major in Paris. And in case you missed it, this weekend is a fine time to find out what Rainbow Six Siege is all about: From August 16-20 it'll be free to play on Steam.

And in case you thought I was kidding:

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.