Under the employ and control of an Imperial scientist hellbent on creating the Empire’s most elite soldier, a shadow clone going by the designation CX-86 is responsible for a history of sabotage, espionage, and deaths spanning over a decade after the Clone Wars’ end.
Though originally an early iteration of the first reconditioned clone assassins, CX-86 proved to be a cut above the rest and outpaced everything the CX program had to offer. Unstoppable on any terrain, an expert marksman and close-quarters combatant, he does not rest until his quarry has been hunted down and his mission has been executed.
CX-86 is a formidable foe enhanced by cybernetics and the life-weaving experiments of the mad scientist in charge of his craft and creation, revitalized and improved upon as the years continue and parts of his body inevitably begin to fail. CX-86 is one of the Empire’s deadliest and most successful ongoing test subjects, bits and pieces of his failing body replaced by organic technology as time goes on and he continues to work. The assassin’s handler continues to perfect the closest to a killing machine a human can be while retaining complete control over the assassin’s actions.
This harbinger of death seems to exist only in whispers, but they are ones that travel all the way from the Deep Core to Wild Space, alongside the promise that one’s fate is sealed the moment his sights are set on them.
A non-comprehensive list for me to organize and keep track of my original characters. Many of them are placeholders without names yet, but they have a role in whatever story they’re categorized under.
Singular (Most are part of their own stories/snippets)
Saira Shand/The Jackal — Mercenary
Peli Motto’s ex-husband — Scoundrel, petty criminal
Koziol and Bonne Chance Bobo — Kowakian monkey-lizard informant and his Kowakian ape-lizard bodyguard/enforcer
Marcéi — B-bellan woman, lady of the evening
Sekotza — Yellow male Zabrak guard, Calamity’s twin
Crash — Pilot, vehicles and heavy artillery, ranger
Djao — Intelligence, amateur scientist/jack of all trades, cryptographer, technician, secondary medic
Hexx — Engineer (Canon character, expanded lore)
Nocturne — Medic, marksman, unarmed combat
Alco (deceased) — Unofficial quartermaster
Chance (deceased) — Infiltration and recon, demolitions, specialty gear
Jedi General Hiram Kes (deceased) — Human man
Nauka— Rizel’s brother
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Expanded Call Sign Universe
Captains Mongoose, Shæze, and Lyric
S’venna — Rizel’s sister
Droid — S’venna’s friend
Doc — Older man, S’venna’s friend
PB — Droid mechanic, friend of the Karth family
LJ-3 — Former early generation battle droid, hangar operator, amnesiac/reprogrammed
Eret — Male of an original saurian species, former POW
Roz — Sunset-colored male Twi’lek, bouncer
Delia — Zeltron woman, sex worker
Solaris — One of Nocturne’s batchmates
Rizel’s exes: one’s pathetic, one’s charismatic, one’s a droid, and one who’s not an ex but an annoying admirer
Nocturne’s potential semi-adopted kids/crew: A Nautolan girl, a Mirialin boy, two clone cadet tweens and a toddler, a Zabrak boy, a late teens crew member, and a young teenager with a curious past…
Benthic and Edrio — Canon characters, expanded lore
Yar and Mot Liozz — Mechanics and SCaN talk radionics hosts
🍁 For the group asks: 21. (at least I think it was 21) What is the group dynamic like? Are some people closer to others?
!!!!! This is somehow the best question because Call Sign is basically “Character Dynamics: The Fic™” 😆 The story is predicated on the relationships Mayday’s crew members have with each other and with the pilot. The plot wouldn’t work or exist without them.
Summary of the (unposted WIP) fic for anyone just now tuning in: A (mostly humorous) Mayday/OC adventure and romance multi-chapter fic set six months into Mayday’s assignment there on the outpost, immediately after the end of the war
A bush pilot crashes in the mountains near the depot and is welcomed (albeit under some suspicion) into the compound to recover from her injuries. Some of the crew suspect she may be a spy and until they can investigate the crash site for themselves, she won’t be allowed to make contact with the town she was en route to. Once she’s cleared of suspicion the men will find a way to get her down the mountain and back where she belongs.
It’s soon clear that Rizel, the pilot, is as sociable and entertaining as they come and it isn’t long before she’s befriended and charmed a majority of the squad; having any change of pace is a relief, and the boost in morale revitalizes the squad and reminds them there’s still a life outside of the mountain. What follows her arrival and integration into the outpost is a series of mishaps and adventures pitting the soldiers and pilot against nature and the elements, the nine of them facing wildlife attacks, raiders, near-death experiences and bad luck of every kind, testing friendships and relationships through difficulty, danger, and potential tragedy.
It’s easy to fall in love when everything’s going well. It’s weathering hardship that will test if it can last.
Knowing it’s a romance from Day 1 doesn’t mean you know how the story will end. It’s an ensemble cast with several different character arcs and story threads, and we know how many of Mayday’s men survive the Outpost.
So! Here’s a brief rundown of the cast and their specialties before we get into character dynamics (though for the purposes of this ask, it’ll just be the crew’s relationships with each other without Rizel):
Commander Mayday: Canonical character from S2 E12 of The Bad Batch, leader of the outpost, one of our main protagonists and primary love interests, with plenty of expanded lore! Commander of the 106th Battalion, the most unlucky patchwork assembly of soldiers in the GAR
Captain Barak: Mayday’s only original surviving captain of the 106th. Sharpshooter, combat strategist, expert on laws, customs, history, and culture of other worlds, cross-trained on just about everything besides advanced medicine and engineering. If he were anything else he’d be an ARC trooper or a lawyer
Nocturne: Longest surviving medic of the 106th. Has been with Mayday through thick and thin from the very beginning
Hollis: Espionage, reconnaissance, communications, and security specialist
Hexx: One of Mayday’s engineers. (Barely there canonical character, characterization is all my own)
Crash: Pilot, ranger, and wilderness survivalist, proficient with vehicles and heavy artillery
Djao: Jack of all trades, cryptographer, technician and student of multiple sciences, secondary medic
Veetch: Pilot, mechanic, communications (The other barely there canonical character, characterization also my own)
Rizel Karth: Inuk bush pilot and our other primary protagonist and love interest!
Mayday’s squad is an assortment of men from his battalion who were on the last ship out of their last assignment before they were rerouted to the “temporary” watch on Barton IV. All of them knew each other either in passing or had worked with each other before they were assigned to Barak’s unit, and they all drew the short straw on being posted on the mountain right after the war’s end
Mayday and Nocturne weren’t batchmates but they’ve known each other since the formation of the 106th at the start of their careers and are closest friends with each other. Barak came in as a lateral transfer a little less than a year into the war and has known both of them since. Barak is Mayday’s official second in command, but when it comes to interpersonal and professional problems (or issues that overlap with each other) he’ll lean more on Nocturne’s counsel (Nocturne as a medic feels like less of an authority to the men so it’s easier for him to find out people’s personal issues. Barak, equally as personable, is more of the drill sergeant and tactical leader, so troopers have a more professional than personal relationship with him). Both Barak and Nocturne are objective mediators with level heads and can step in when Mayday is unavailable.
As time on the outpost stretched on, the men considered each other largely on equal standing with one another regardless of rank, Mayday being the exception as the commander with final say in everything. All of Mayday’s men even before this knew he’d never give an order he wouldn’t follow himself, and they were just as likely to look over and see him doing the same crummy job alongside them. The 106th was notoriously unlucky not only in their campaigns during the war, but in just about everything; the lot of them there have all been through hell and back with each other combatting forces and phenomena outside of battle. The eight of them (and the two of their squad they lost before the story begins) have been through a lot.
The men follow Mayday’s lead almost entirely without question, but they’re not afraid to ask questions when they have them, and Mayday values their viewpoints and is inclined to get as much info as he can before he makes decisions, so it’s not uncommon for him to question them first to figure out reasons or motivations for things they’ve done, or to find out why and how they’ve screwed up.
I’m not one to pigeonhole characters into generic tropes or roles within a group so there’s no one jock, nerd, hotshot, airhead, or wild card among them, nothing like that, but there are some loose categories that’ll overlap between all of them based on skillsets and personalities, and that combined with their different histories with one another make for a bunch of dynamics or clusters within the group
Mayday, Nocturne, Barak, and Hollis feel more like the ‘older’ brothers of the group. As long as one of them was calm and in control, everyone else knew they’d be able to weather the storm
Crash, Barak, Veetch, Djao, and Chance (deceased) were the more daring side of the squad, some by virtue of their jobs and some by personality. Barak and Chance were proficient gamblers and enjoyed high stakes card games and adventurous/risky recreational activities on what little shore leave they got. Crash and Veetch are both pilots and gearheads and have a talent for taking risks, and the two of them and Djao make up the more sociable side who are more likely to initiate and follow through with outside-the-box solutions
Those three are often referred to as the Three Musketeers (or whatever the Star Wars equivalent would be). Hexx was stationed with Djao and Veetch before they picked up Crash from yet another decimated company absorbed and reassigned elsewhere in the 106th
Hexx and Hollis are the most reserved, cerebral, and blunt and end up hanging out with each other more than the others (and in the story are the most mistrusting of Rizel)
Veetch is often referred to as the ‘little’ brother. It started mostly as a joke because they’re all barely that far apart in age, but he is one of the youngest (alongside Djao and Hexx) and for some reason seems a bit leaner and more affected by illness, injury, or the elements than the rest of them. Barak jokes that the Kaminoans messed up somewhere with him and he ended up with bad circulation. Veetch isn’t the butt of every joke, that’s just the joke most often directed at him. Teasing him gets the funniest reaction as opposed to the rest of them
Veetch and Barak are close friends; Veetch was under the command of another captain before a majority of their unit was lost early on and he was reassigned to Barak, who made it a point to know as many of his men as well as he could and took a shine to Veetch. The two of them have saved each other’s lives more than once, and it makes Barak in particular unconsciously more protective of Veetch
Crash is the most relaxed and even-keeled and because of that several of the guys find him the most chill to decompress around. Despite appearing to outsiders as the stereotypical meathead jock and risk-taker, Nocturne especially has realized exactly how calculated each of Crash’s plans and stunts are, which means he doesn’t feel like he has to worry about Crash or be available for problem-solving/guidance with him. Crash has a good head and handle on his emotions, and Nocturne can actually relax and not feel like he’s on call, for once. Sometimes just sitting in whatever room their ranger is hanging out in is enough for Nocturne to be able to take a breather.
Djao’s spare time is often spent reading and/or learning any new skill he can get his hands on, and because of that he’s ended up with more medical knowledge than the standard trooper. He’s no heart surgeon, but I think he’d qualify as the equivalent of a paramedic, which means he’s their unofficial backup medic and Nocturne’s second set of hands when need be. The two work seamlessly together and will often confer about science/medical-related issues, which came up often during the war when they had to handle weird Star Wars bs being thrown their way that their training never accounted for
Hollis and Nocturne are the most investigative of the crew. It’s a Venn diagram of the pursuit of knowledge and the initiative to speculate and plan ahead for whatever their men may face in the future. They’re not pessimists, they’re realists, and if their time facing every manner of accident and tragedy has told them anything, it’s that there’s no telling what the next day may bring. If you see the two of them with serious expressions, conferring in hushed tones, something is definitely wrong
While Mayday doesn’t lord his position over them and considers each of them a valuable contributor to the team, his word is final. His sense of loyalty and duty is strong enough to have weathered the mountain this far without making a point to figure out what it is they’re guarding. Orders are orders so they stay put and maintain the compound. Because of how much forethought and recon he puts into his strategies and plans, he often arrives at a decision that will not be changed, and there’s no amount of persuasion that will keep him from following orders and doing what is best for the most amount of people
