#oc:talon

Prior was the first of the bunch to be rescued from the Human Recycler. His trainer was a Mandalorian named Rothorn Midell, whose paternal instincts overcame his professional obligations when he was informed that Prior was to be essentially executed for a harmless skin condition.

He gets a few of the other trainers on his side and they form what is for all intents and purposes, a union. They threaten to leak confidential information to the Jedi/Republic if the child murder continues. As much as they are all criminals and assassins, a good number of them draw a line at killing kids.

NOMAD SQUAD

First, a little background.

My main group of clones compose the entirety of Nomad Squad, an “on call engineering team” which sees a suspicious amount of combat. This is because of the Major in command, Ra’an D’Ara, or Stopgap, who is not allowed to be in an official combatant role because she has literally no qualifications except the fact that she was a mercenary. Which she can’t have on her record anyway because that’s a crime.

(The majority of) this group of clones was assigned to Stopgap upon her initial recruitment when she came forward with sensitive data about a CIS operation on Manpha, where she was based at the time. They were taken from the maintenance teams as a sort of supervision, as sending Stopgap alone would be tantamount to hiring her. You know, The Criminal.

ONTO THE INTRODUCTIONS

The Pathetic Lieutenant - Vega

Vega is the highest ranked clone in the squad, being a Lieutenant (Stopgap herself is only a Major).

He had the most training on Kamino before being sent to maintenance. He was the leader of his squad, running through a typical simulation when he tripped over an already disabled droid and smashed his face full-force into the very edge of a concrete block. This cracked and caved in the visor of his cadet helmet which gave him his scar (and therefore his name) and blinded him in his right eye. He was physically ~16 at the time. This experience has given him a horrible fear of falling, as well as a fear of the dark, as he went temporarily blind from the concussion during the incident. He is also extremely fixated on following ‘the rules’, since his injury only happened in the first place because of an unorthodox tactic he invented that differed from the rulebook. He’s anxious about proving himself and gets very frustrated when he doesn’t live up to his own expectations.

Throughout the war he grows significantly, gaining a much deeper understanding of the nuances of morality and following orders. He begins to relate to Stopgap’s resentment of the Kaminoans and the Republic’s government, as he processes what they were actually going to do to him had it not been for his trainer, who had him sent to maintenance. He also learns that he doesn’t have to be a perfect soldier to earn the respect of Stopgap, a revelation which he is first irritated by but later grateful for.

This is immensely helpful during Order 66, as he trusts Stopgap’s intuition not to answer any incoming communications, saving the team from having their chips activated. Stopgap puts him in Ultimate Command when she leaves them to rejoin the Republic/Empire in an attempt to get a gauge on what’s happening. She ends up getting stuck in the new Imperial Army, so Vega is saddled with this position for two years.

The Heavy Trooper - Drift

Drift is very brash and confident. He excels in the use of sarcasm and dark humour. He quips like a marvel character. This is mostly to make up for how hollow he feels inside.

His name comes from the fact that he would consistently veer wildly off of the planned course during training and attempt to complete the entire task on his own. Every. Time. As he was actively holding the rest of his squad back, the decision was made to send him to maintenance. He’s often sulky, has a short temper and will isolate himself when upset. This is Bad because he’s very liable to self-destructive behaviours. He smokes Death-sticks to calm down, an unhealthy habit which Vega berates him for, Prior is concerned about and Stopgap takes advantage of by trying very obviously to siphon off of his supply.

Drift has only one passion in life - blasting clankers. He has by far the highest kill count, only challenged somewhat by Wires, the explosives-obsessed blond.

Drift lives the longest along with Vega out of this group, much to his surprise. As he matures he learns to open up a little and be more sensitive. Especially as he loses more and more brothers.

His ultimate fate is as a proud father of a dozen cadets who follow him around like ducklings. They’re so good for his mental health, you wouldn’t believe. Vega is somewhat afraid of these children, which Drift teases him about constantly.

The Medic - Prior

Prior is the medic of the group. His PTSD-resistance conditioning didn’t work. He is very often traumatised. However, he’s also very empathetic and caring, which makes him a great medic.

He has vitiligo, which was the obvious ‘defect’ that made the Kaminoans send him to maintenance. He has long hair which he used to hide behind for comfort on Kamino, but which he now ties up into a bun to see better. He’s an absolute sweetheart. He ends up leaving the army after the battle of Kamino because he had the unfortunate experience of walking into the destroyed nurseries of Tipoca City. Which is a sight he will never recover from.

Following this, he’s essentially sold to Hondo Ohnaka, who Ra’an tracks down easily, having had experience with his gangs during her time as a mercenary, as well as hearing about his encounters with various Jedi. They make a deal: Ohnaka takes this “strange, patchy faced young man,” and in return, Stopgap continuously wipes the worst of his crimes from the Republic’s records. She has no problem doing this, especially as it ensures Prior’s safety from a desertion charge.

Prior comes back during the Rebellion when, joy of joys, Stopgap starts working to salvage the remaining clones from the Empire. Hondo is indifferent about this, complaining that Stopgap wasn’t even holding up her end of the deal anymore anyway.

Prior’s death is very tragic and I don’t feel like talking about it because it makes me sad. But the short version is: he gets shot while attempting to herd a group of cadets into a transport as their base is attacked by Imperial forces.

The Explosives Tech - Wires

Wires is autistic ADHD. Very. He’s practically nonverbal most of the time, but will follow orders dutifully when given. He has a plethora of hidden talents which are never mentioned. Not because he’s trying to hide them, but simply because it has not been necessary to mention them.

He’s particularly good at electrical engineering (his namesake!), which means he’s often saddled with maintaining the various assistance devices his brothers need to function, like Racer’s hearing aids. He’s happy to do this, it’s his special interest, after all.

He’s also blond and doesn’t cut his hair until it’s long enough that nothing has to touch his scalp (sensory nightmare).

Wires’ combat tactics are interesting, to say the least. He has the space equivalent of a sawed-off shotgun (courtesy of Stopgap at his request) and a ludicrous number of grenades of all varieties. He has droid poppers, concussion grenades, thermal detonators, impact grenades, smoke bombs and even a couple of mines, all housed in his very large backpack, as well as his bandolier and belt. He has a near infinite supply of these things and it terrifies anyone who gets in his way.

He doesn’t really understand how scary he is. He’s just doing his job. He’s good at grenades. He’s good at blasting things with a shotgun. That’s his job. Nothing more to it.

Wires’ path comes to an end when Nomad is attempting to enact a prison break in the initial years of the Empire. After the roof falls in due to an Imperial orbital bombardment, Wires is trapped under rubble. As the Empire’s scouts find him and threaten him with torture, Wires detonates everything he’s carrying. Clever boy, hiding a masterswitch in his comm like that. He, of course, doesn’t make it, but he successfully takes out the databanks of the prison, which contained information about Nomad’s methods of obtaining intelligence, as well as a GOOD chunk of the scouting team.

The Sniper - Talon

Talon’s sniper-focused conditioning worked a little too well. He has an intense fear of crowds and noise in general, having been trained to operate alone, far away, and quietly.

He’s an absolute crack shot. When he’s not having a mild anxiety attack. Which is nearly constantly. His radio is limited to one input at a time so that he doesn’t get overwhelmed by the chatter. He’s always up on a ridge somewhere, away from the group. Drift envies him intensely.

Talon’s biggest source of emotional support is Prior, who is very understanding of the crushing weight of People Talking.

Talon struggles throughout his life with sensory overload. He usually wears ear defenders or earplugs when stationed on bases or ships where there’s a lot of activity, as the noise sparks his fight or flight. Wires fitted Talon’s helmet with noise cancelling speakers for this purpose, the function of which he invented himself. He’s very proud.

Talon is also really into reality shows. Initially there were a coping mechanism as something he could watch and listen to to block out external noises, but eventually he just started watching them for fun. He’s intensely fascinated with them, and has at least four different shows downloaded to a datachip at any given time. He gets Wires to pirate acquire them from the holonetwork whenever they’re on one of the core worlds.

Talon unfortunately also does not make it through to the Rebellion. It happens while Nomad is on a mission to rescue a Jedi Padawan from a laboratory on a remote moon, who is being used (via torture and other horrific things) to track down surviving Jedi through the Force.

As Vega, Prior and Opps are making their way out of the base, they trip an alarm, sparking a base-wide search. Talon makes the split second decision to deliberately trigger the proximity sensor near his position on a nearby hilltop, then starts shooting. He is caught and killed as the others escape with the padawan.

The Infantry Trooper - Opps

Opps is possibly the most hardcore of the entire group.

He was absorbed into Nomad by Stopgap when she was stationed with Opps’ parent Legion… which was under the command of General Krell.

Opps is named for his concise, reliable strategies on how to evade punishment by Krell. He’s always thinking about their optics. Considering how any and all actions will be seen by their awful General.

Opps transfer was triggered by his presence in a catastrophic gunship crash, which left him with severe burns across much of the left side of his body. Krell, being who he is, opted to execute him. Stopgap protested this, under the argument that she would take full responsibility for Opps. Krell allowed this, full believing that Opps would die from his injuries sooner rather than later. That did not happen.

Opps is incredibly loyal to Stopgap, he feels that he has a duty to protect her, as repayment for saving his life. He can almost always been found in front of her on the battlefield, shielding her, even though logically her sabers would be a much better deflective tool than his armour. Oh well, it’s the thought that counts.

Opps is often the logic of the group. Think of a dog with its lead ties to a pole. It can only stray so far. That’s the situation, except Opps is that anchor and the rest of the troopers are all the dogs being restrained.

Opps injuries have many physical effects on him. He cannot see out of his left eye very well, only being able to pick up shapes and colours. He also has a very limited sense of smell and an inability to speak clearly or without pain, as practically his entire respiratory system was damaged by smoke inhalation. For a time, he has limited mobility on his left side due to the heavy amount of scar tissue. I say “for a time” because this is the first thing that Stopgap invests in when she gathers the funds to improve the lives of her men. Many surgeries render Opps’ limbs near-completely functional. They’re not pretty, but that’s not important, as far as he’s concerned.

Opps also lives a long time! He lives long enough to partake in the upbringing of the cadets rescued from the Empire. They’re a bit scared of him at first, due to his scarring, which saddens him, but they quickly realise that he’s just as much fun as any other brother, and that his scars have an epic backstory.

The Scout - Racer

Racer is a man who does not understand the meaning of the word “slow.” If Racer existed in our modern day, he would already have wrapped five motorbikes around lampposts by the age of 21.

Racer lives for the thrill. Live fast, die young. Or get deafened young. Which is significantly less desirable, in his opinion.

Racer’s “incident” occurred when he was in the 327th, his original assignment. While out scouting, he blew through a canyon on his speeder-bike without scanning first. Bam. Trip-laser. This sets off a massive explosion right next to him which then triggers a rock-fall. Somewhat ironically, his speed saves him, as he’s going so fast that the sheer momentum of the bike carries him away from the rockfall, even through he’s not actively driving anymore because he’s in shock.

The sheer power of the explosion, as well as its concussive nature, blows out his eardrums and severely damages his hearing. Ra’an requests to take him in after hearing about this incident through the Jedi Gossip Grapevine.

Racer has hearing aids, as the most he can hear without them are large explosions (go figure) and blaring alarms. They’re not very good quality, though, which causes problems.

Racer, like many hot shots with strong moral compasses, is a casualty of the Galactic Civil War. In around 5BBY, He and the rest of his scout team encounter an Imperial platoon near a small Alliance-controlled lab, gearing up to attack. He makes the bold decision to not only warn the Rebels, but then also stall the Imperial attack to give them time. He knows he won’t make it out. He tells his team. But they’re all reckless speeder bikers anyway so they basically say “kark it, we ball.”

They get flattened, but they buy the Alliance scientists enough time to properly evacuate with their research, as well as call in Stopgap and her main force, which is more than enough to deal with a single platoon of flimsi-shells. She finds Racer, but it’s far too late. She brings him home regardless, for a funeral, if they have time for one.

The Pilot - Jolt

Jolt has Issues. Not the normal ones. He whole-heartedly believes that he is hottest man to ever grace the galaxy with his presence. He completely refuses to accept that he, in fact, looks exactly the same as everyone else. He has a sick undercut and a permanently cocky look on his face. He also has no legs. Which proves a difficult subject with the ladies whom he so often flirts with.

He tells them constantly that “they’re only amputated below the knee, gorgeous”. Which is a terrible method of assurance and also kind of an uncomfortable subject in general. The idea of having your legs amputated, funnily enough, does not often put people In The Mood. Generally this method results in “oh no, you poor thing! That must have been so painful!” And not the (stupidly) expected “kriff that’s so sexy take me to bed right now.”

Jolt does not understand what he’s doing wrong.

The moment Jolt lost his legs is a very typical one for a clone pilot with no Jedi in his LAAT-i. He was shot down during the second battle of Geonosis, and was rescued by, guess who, Stopgap, who had to cut a hole in the side of the cockpit to get at him. The nose of the LAAT was completely crushed in on impact, mangling both of Jolt’s legs. Below the knee on the right, and halfway down the thigh on the left.

Stopgap and Wires build him new ones from scrap, but in the meantime they steal borrow the wheels and motor off of some farmer’s antiquated terrestrial transport and bolt them to a chair. Jolt is an absolute menace in this thing, which is not helped by his frustration at not being able to fly anything in the meantime. He does get the small hangar of the Cardinal all to himself though, because he can’t get up the ladder to the bunk room, and he flexes the amount of personal space he has aggressively.

He’s also completely oblivious to Clone Racism, so he’s bamboozled the first time a civilian calls him a “meat-droid.”