#Cadet Batch

[zaana]

Bad Batch cadets could have their own show

[blairaptor]

Wrecker and Crosshair as two little blond boys

[drafthorsemath]

In Rescue on Ryloth, Tech says that "children often overreact" when Hera calls for help. Anyway how many of us think cadet Tech expressed concern over something and was told to stop overreacting by an adult so he internalized that experience?

[letshareapapou]

Some kitten cadet Tech with 99

[vivaislenska]

A ‘teenage’ Crosshair too!

[elslittlestories]

PLAYTIME at the nursery!

Crosshair is busy aligning his toy blocks (and those crayons that were scattered next to him by one of his brothers)

I'm not sure what Tech is building and I'll let you decide whether it's Wrecker or Hunter throwing a spaceship a him 😜

[doodlingfoolishness]

For @summer-of-bad-batch ‘s prompt this week, injury.

Crosshair insisted on trying out the Firepuncher 773 when he was about 6 years old, 2.5 years before most regs were even offered a chance to train with the advanced weapon. His scores with other weapons were impeccable, so the regs running the armory gave in to the defective kid and let him have at it. Even though he’d been expecting the kick, it was still a weapon made for someone fifty pounds heavier and at least half a foot taller. Little surprise it broke his collarbone.

Crosshair was absolutely mortified, but Wrecker assured him it made for a cool story — and that he’d kick the Firepuncher’s ass the next time he shot one.

Sure enough, it became his weapon of choice.

[kybercrystals94]

Playing around on Procreate produced this extremely rough draft of fanart…decided to make it my “Cadet” fill for Week 4.

Might spruce it up later if I figure out how to properly utilize the app…😅

**let’s pretend Omega has access to tape and flimsi and colored pencils on Kamino**

[leapingbadger]

So, random thought…where did Hunter’s bandana come from? It’s not like they were standard issue on Kamino. My HC is that it’s from his old cadet uniform. Which means he then doodled a little skull on it and the rest of the squad liked the aesthetic and went with it. Which is adorable.

[friendlyneighborhoodsynthezoid]

Plan 66

There were plenty of disadvantages to being experimental commandos, Hunter remarked to himself as the squad staggered towards their barracks, but there were upsides here and there. For instance, after a typically torturous day of training, testing, and reg torment, they were making their way towards their own private room- far from the prying eyes and muttered comments of regs and kaminoans alike. Granted, they were returning to said barracks in various states of exhaustion, many hours after late-meal, because maybe those disadvantages were just a bit more substantial. 

The door to the barracks slid open and the 99s swiftly scattered to various corners of the room. Hunter paused for a moment in the doorway, savouring the feeling of safety. His squad was here, together, and for now he could keep them all in his sight and away from danger. 

Hunter sat on his bunk and began readjusting his senses to the Kamino rain outside and the permanently unfortunate smell of the 99s’ barracks. His brothers were doing similar activities to declare to the world that they were done for the day- Wrecker began rummaging through the plentiful supply of snacks they absolutely weren’t supposed to keep in their room, Tech left his datapad on his rack and beelined it for the refresher before anyone else could claim the first sonic, and Crosshair collapsed face-first on his bunk and buried his head under a pillow without even pausing to remove his training armour. 

A few minutes passed in blessed peace. Wrecker began hoisting heavy objects over his head, Hunter began sorting through command training assignments he was expected to have done several months ago, and Tech emerged from the sonic and reclaimed his data pad. Hunter absentmindedly watched his brother coast through unknown reaches of the holonet that gave Tech his infinite wisdom. As he watched, Tech’s darting eyes stopped flitting behind their goggles and he sat down suddenly. “This is… not ideal.” He said, voice shaking very slightly. “Hunter? I-“

Crosshair’s voice emanated from his bunk, “I swear, if those bastards spring another of their ‘surprise assessments’ on us, Kamino will burn.”

“No, it is not-“ Tech cut himself off with a harsh exhale and simply turned his datapad around, the illuminated screen casting eerie light across the floor. Hunter edged forewarned and read off the screen: OFFICIAL G.A.R. REPORT FROM UMBARAN FRONT- FRIENDLY FIRE CASUALTY NUMBERS RISING

Hunter would have read more, but Tech turned the screen back around and pressed the datapad to his chest. “I read it,” Tech said, “it is a disturbing incident that merits immediate discussion.”

Hunter called over their other two brothers and they waited in tense silence for Tech to explain. “I have compiled an explanation from various official and unofficial sources,” Tech began. “From my understanding, the 501st and 212th legions suffered significant losses in a friendly fire incident arranged by their Jedi general.

“A Jedi did this?!” Wrecker gasped, “I thought they were in our side!”

“Indeed,” Tech said, “a Besalisk Jedi Master by the name of Pong Krell, who seemingly planned to leave the Jedi order and offer his services to the Separatists. 

The regs apprehended him, losing more men in the effort. He was executed on Umbara.”

“Who did it?” Hunter asked in morbid fascination. “Wouldn’t killing a Jedi be a death sentence for a clone? Did the 501st lose their commander? Was it… Cody?”

 “It would seem he was killed by CT-6922, otherwise known as Dogma. I have been unable to locate Dogma in any subsequent reports or communications. Furthermore, his number has been deleted from the Kaminoan database.”

“He killed a traitor,” Cosshair muttered, glaring at nothing, “and they made him disappear.”

 “So it would appear.” Tech put aside his datapad and levelled a serious stare at his brothers. Hunter felt Tech’s eyes catch his and hold his gaze. “I am reluctant to accept that all the Jedi will turn on their soldiers so easily. However, it is now a proven possibility. As such, it seems prudent to be prepared in case we are ever in the presence of a Jedi who wishes us harm.”

The squad exchanged glances. Wrecker was the first to break the silence. “But… will we even be working with Jedi? The regs have generals, but we’ll be on our own once we graduate, won’t we? We only really report to Cody.”

Hunter sighed. Time to be the sergent, he supposed. “It doesn’t hurt to be prepared, I guess. Cody’s got a Jedi. We can’t avoid them completely.”

Tech nodded once and set his datapad on his lap, hands poised to type. “Precisely. As such, we need a plan. Just in case.”

They nodded along grimly and echoed him, “just in case.”

___________________

The discussion took hours. Jedi, it turns out, were not very easy to kill. But the Bad Batch weren’t the Bad Batch for nothing. As such, many scrapped ideas, shouting matches, and some very unhappy consciences later, they had a plan. It wasn’t perfect and it certainly wasn’t pretty, but it was enough. Eventually, Tech finished typing. “Well,” he sighed, “I suppose that is that. Now it needs a name. The next available numerical designation is fifty-t-“ 

“Sixty-Six,” Crosshair interrupted unexpectedly. Throughout the entire discussion, he had been very quiet, providing ideas when required, but largely just observing as the plan came together. Yet every time they flagged, every time Hunter threw his hands up in despair and declared it was futile, he was there. He’d set a hand on Hunter’s shoulder and meet his gaze with a look that said far better than Crosshair himself ever could that he needed to stay strong for the sake of the squad.

That look was no where to be seen, now. In its place was an oddly dark, thousand-yard stare that put his brother uncomfortably in mind of a corpse. “It’s got to be Plan Sixty-Six.”

Tech, puzzled, tried to argue that “It does not makes sense to skip the preceding numbers for this one in particular,” but then Wrecker spoke up:

“No, he’s right. It’s gotta be that. It just feels… right”

Hunter found himself nodding along. For some reason, as soon as Crosshair said it, there was no alternative. Even Tech conceded the point, muttering some rationalization involving multiples of eleven.

In the dark, mind still spinning with the news of Umbara and the newly minted “plan 66”, Hunter was struck by the creeping feeling that they had just taken once step closer to something terrible. Something inescapable. 

Something horribly, world-shakingly, inevitable.

[erin8411]

That One Annoying Sibling

@summer-of-bad-batch

Main Prompt: "Stop touching me!" // "I’m not touching you!" (Week 13)

Alt. Prompt: Lula (Week 8)

Crosshair: Stop touching me, Wrecker!

Wrecker: I‘m not touching you, Lula is!

In TBB S1E1 Wrecker whacked Lula several times in Crosshair‘s face and I‘m sure it wasn’t for the first time. So here is cadet Wrecker, grating Crosshair by touching him with stuffie Lula. The latter tells his older brother to stop -- not a chance! And technically, it’s only Lula who touches Cross.

It‘s been such a long time since I’ve last drawn something. And when I looked at Summer of Bad Batch prompts, I was internally debating, if I should try it.

Me: Hey, look at all those entries! So many awesome ideas. Why not draw something too? It looks fun.

Also me: Maybe later. I‘m not feeling up to it.

And it only took me the whole summer and early September to finally grab my pencil and become active for a turn. Played with a filter afterwards so that the colors appear more washed out like on one of those old instant photos.

It’s simple and I like it. And it feels good to draw something without pressuring myself to make an outstanding creation. Self-pressure often kills that little motivation I have.

(Funny fact, this is the first time I created some fanart for TBB series.)

Inspiration

I got inspired by @locitapurplepink's

and the last two seconds from High Ground Animation‘s "CLONES - The Clone Wars Fan Animation Compilation". That eye-roll is so good.

(Seriously, when I first watched the clip, I didn’t realized it was fan-made. I thought, I can‘t remember that particular cutout, where in the TCW series is it?)

Aaand that wraps it up. Thank you for dropping by.

[zaana]

I've been wanting to draw them as cadets for a while now

[paperback-rascal]

Howdy!!! I love your art!

I have a quick question: When the bad batch kept a bear for a pet, where did it go to the bathroom??? Did they train it to use the toilet? It's a pretty small ship, and I can imagine the poop smelling horrid. (Especially for Hunter)

Unrelated, but I can see the bad batch having a pet raccoon after having a pet bear. After seeing your fanart and headcanon about the bear, in my mind I've decided that they have a pet raccoon. That seems like something they would do.

Sorry for the random thought about the raccoon. Thanks for your time!!!

I never really thought about logistics of having a bear on a small vessel like Havoc Marauder. Also, let's face it - the ship's layout is not... consistent throughout TCW & TBB... so there could always be a cargo hold we're not aware of.

As for the second part of the ask - I think Clone Force 99 had many pets, big and small, thought out their career and space!racoon as well as a space!goose could be one of them. They always end up releasing the animals into the wild or finding them proper homes.

I think the main "can we keep it?" instigator is definitely Wrecker.

In Hyperspace stories #10 comics it was noted the big guy collects plushies (or at least tries to) - it could be a substitute of owning a real pet for him.

Sorry for such a late reply, @mishakoon!

---

The OP is referencing those posts of mine: ->[LINK]<- ->[LINK]<-

===

STAR WARS: The Clone Wars/The Bad Batch © George Lucas/ Dave Filoni/ LucasFilm/ Disney

[waywardsou2]

Am I the only person that thinks that 99 was the first failed attempted member of the Bad Batch? Like they turned his mutation up to high and it crippled his body. Maybe 99 was supposed to be the first Hunter? Maybe there were supposed to be 6 or maybe even more. And when Nala Se says "Only five remain if clone Force 99" is because before the Batch there were so many failed attempts like 99 who either died or were discarded.

[fanfoolishness]

Growing Pains

This one came to me as a combination of prompts from @thecoffeelorian (who sent Tech and Crosshair + Cadet as a prompt!) and @summer-of-bad-batch, whose week 1 prompt was water gun fight. Somehow my brain mashed them together and here we are!

Crosshair has trouble sleeping, but Tech has an idea for a distraction. Cadet Batch, brothers being brothers, pure fluff. ~1700 words.

-

Tap tap tap.

Tap.

Tap tap.

Crosshair growled, rolling over in his bunk and kicking his legs out from under his blanket.  “Tech,” he warned.

There was no answer. Crosshair lay on his back, scowling up at the ceiling.  He reached down and rubbed his shins, wincing.  They throbbed and ached. 

More growing pains. He was so sick of them.  Nala Se said they were normal, that pain medication wouldn’t help. Crosshair wished he could just grow up already and be done with them.

He lifted his hand, nibbling at the dry skin around his fingernails, biting at it until he tasted blood.  He frowned, balling his hand into a fist and jerking it away.

Tap tap.

“Will you stop tinkering and go to sleep?” Crosshair hissed.  

“Hm?” Tech asked from across the room, where he was working on a half-scuttled battle droid under the light of a single glow lamp.

What he was doing with it, Crosshair had no idea, but the nagging tapping wasn’t helping him get to sleep any faster.  Especially not with the way his shins pulsed and ached.

“Put that thing away and go to sleep,” Crosshair snapped. “Haven’t you noticed it’s been lights out for hours?”

“You can usually sleep through my projects,” Tech said, adjusting his goggles. He got up, padding over to Crosshair and peering closely at him. Despite the late hour Tech looked as alert as ever, though his brownish hair was rumpled and dark grease smudged his cheeks.  “Why are you still awake?”

Crosshair sat up with a scowl.  “Because you’re annoying.”

Tech raised his eyebrows at him, unperturbed. “I’m no more annoying than I usually am.”

Crosshair sighed, crossing his arms over his chest.  “My legs hurt,” he confessed.  

“Oh. Growing pains.  They’re no fun.”  Tech paused, looking closely at him.  He reached out and grabbed Crosshair’s hand, examining his fingers.  “You should stop biting those, you know.”

“Shut up.”  He yanked his hand away.  “I know.  I just -- I start and it’s hard to stop sometimes.  Especially if something else is bugging me.”

Tech sat down beside him, sitting with him back to back.  Crosshair felt some of his tension fade, and he leaned into his brother, closing his eyes.  He was so tired.

But his legs twinged, as painful as ever.

“So why aren’t you asleep yet?” he asked Tech, trying to keep his mind off his legs.

“I’m trying to figure out how to reprogram this droid,” Tech said.  “Make it fight for us instead.  I know it’s a training droid, so it won’t really be fighting at all, but it’s good practice.  Maybe it’s something I could do on the battlefield, once we get our shot.”  

“Huh,” said Crosshair, impressed.  “That would be good.”  He was quiet for a minute, thinking.  “Don’t you get tired staying up, though?  You could do this stuff during the day.”

Tech fiddled with his goggles.  “I could.  But we have other training then.  I want to learn as much as I possibly can, but since we grow so quickly, that translates into less time.”  He shrugged.  “And I don’t really get tired when I’m focused.  It’s as if I go into my own little world.”

Crosshair stifled a snort.  That was an understatement.  “I’ve noticed,” he said, but considered.  He thought he knew what Tech meant.  “Like when I’m planning a really hard shot?  Everything else goes away.”

“Yes, exactly.”

Crosshair wished he had that kind of focus now.  His legs ached with another horrible set of pulses, and he rubbed at them with both hands, swearing under his breath.

“It’s particularly bad tonight, isn’t it?” 

“Yeah,” Crosshair admitted.

“You know what helps me?” Tech asked.  “Distraction.  I may have just the thing.”  He trotted back to his tangles of wires and tools.  Crosshair watched him, wondering if they’d wake up Wrecker and Hunter.  But Hunter had buried his head under his pillow, and Wrecker could sleep through anything.

“If you want me to tear apart droids with you, thanks but no thanks,” said Crosshair. He was okay with basic datapad work, but hopeless at the intricate stuff Tech managed to do without breaking a sweat.  “They don’t make any sense to me.”

“You could learn if you wanted. You’re very bright.  Not at my level, but still —“

“Tech.”

Tech finished rummaging in his pile of projects and came back to Crosshair, pressing something into his hands.  “Here.”

Crosshair looked down at what appeared to be a small white blaster, but with a curious tank attached to it.  He lifted it and heard it slosh.  “What is it?”

“A water blaster,” said Tech. “They won’t let us have real blasters to practice with in here, of course, but I thought I’d try making something like this for practice.”  He held up a little board of shiny white material with a black target drawn on it.  “Where do you want this?”

Crosshair grinned.  “Across the room. Give me a challenge.”

“You might find it’s more of one that you think,” said Tech. “You’ll have to account for gravity, and the minimal propulsive capabilities of this water blaster compared to the real thing.”

“Hm. I’ll be the judge of that,” said Crosshair, experimentally squirting Tech with the blaster between the eyes.  Water dripped down his nose and splattered on his goggles.

“Very funny,” Tech said, mopping his forehead and lenses with his sleeve.  He flashed Crosshair one of his little half-smiles.  “All right, let me find a spot to stick this.”

“Try over here,” Hunter groaned. “Since you two are keeping me awake anyway.”  He tapped the top of his bunk.  “I think… it’ll take Crosshair four tries before he gets a bullseye.”

“Four?” Crosshair asked, offended, as Tech affixed the target above Hunter’s bunk, across the room.  He took aim with the blaster, lining up his shot, figuring that the water would take a parabolic motion at that distance.  He fired slightly higher than the target —

And the water splashed harmlessly onto the floor a good meter away.  

Crosshair stared at the dry target, infuriated.  “You didn’t tell me this thing had no power!”

“Well, look at it,” Tech chuckled. “Do you see a power source? I just put it together with some spare casing material and a simple plunger. It’s significantly limited.  That’s why I had it set aside, I’m sure I could design something much more effective if I had the time.”  Tech sat down again amongst his wires, resuming his fiddling.

Hunter yawned, sitting up and running a hand through his shaggy hair.  “Maybe four was too generous. Maybe I should make it five tries.”

Crosshair glowered.

“What are you all blabbering about?” Wrecker mumbled. “Some of us are trying to sleep!”

“Crosshair’s trying out a new weapon,” Hunter said.  Which was the wrong thing to say around Wrecker.

“What!” Wrecker cried in excitement.  He tried to get out of his bunk, but was so tangled in his blankets that he rolled onto the floor with a thump.  From there he propped himself up on his elbows, all hint of sleepiness forgotten.  “New weapon? Where’d you get it? How’d you sneak it in? What’s it do? Can’t believe you were holding out on me —“

“It’s Tech’s. It’s just a water blaster, and not a very good one,” Crosshair said, taking aim, adjusting based on the disappointing performance of his last shot.  He experimented by slightly covering the barrel of the pistol with his fingernail, narrowing the opening, and shot a jet of water out the end. It sailed across the room, falling short of the target again but hitting Hunter square in the face.

He grinned.  That would do nicely.

“Oh that does it, Crosshair,” Hunter grumbled, wiping his face off.  “Tech! You got any more of these things?”

“Yes, I made enough for all of us,” Tech said mildly.  “Though as I said before, the design could be better…” He searched through his piles of debris and pulled out three more blasters, tossing one each to Hunter and Wrecker before whirling and squirting them both in the face with his own.

“Oh, it’s on!” Wrecker roared, rolling out of his blankets and squirting Tech three times, then training his blaster on Crosshair.

“Oh no you don’t —“

The battle was pitched and bloody.  Crosshair leapt from his bunk to take cover behind the crate that held their dirty laundry, sending out jets of water that spritzed his brothers dead in the face every time.  Wrecker charged him, wearing a blanket as armor, water from his blaster flying everywhere.  Hunter circled around on the outskirts of the fray, catching Tech from behind, but Tech pulled out a secret fifth water blaster and squirted both Hunter and Crosshair at once. 

They howled with battle cries, erupting into a mad scuffle in the center of the room, water splashing into the air, limbs a tangled frenzy.  

“I’m gonna get you!”

“I’d like to see you try!”

“You’re all dead!”

“We’ll see who has the upper hand now!”

At last the battle came to a close.  By the time they flopped onto their backs panting with exhaustion, Wrecker had a (self-inflicted) bloody nose, Hunter’s head was drenched, Tech’s goggles were halfway across the room and Crosshair had stolen all five of the blasters for himself.  

“We should do this every night,” Wrecker snorted, pinching his nose shut.

Hunter laughed, elbowing him.  “Well, it was pretty fun.”

“It was certainly a good distraction.”

Crosshair took aim with one of his blasters at the target over Hunter’s bunk.  The spray drenched the bullseye perfectly.  “There.  Three,” he said in triumph, sticking his tongue out at Hunter.

“Haha, nice one, Cross!”

“Ahhh, I knew you had it in you.  I only said four to piss you off.”

“Not that that is difficult.”

“Hey, that’s -- okay, that’s true.”

Crosshair lay on his back near his brothers, still catching his breath, his eyelids getting heavy.  He put his hands under his head and stretched out on the floor.  With the blankets Wrecker had managed to hurl around the room beneath him, he was pretty comfortable.  

Comfortable enough to stay here, just a little longer.  He yawned and his eyes fell closed.  

He drifted off to sleep, and his legs didn’t hurt at all.

[inkyclone99]

Hunter sees a man in his dreams.

His face drenched in darkness, blood all over his white shirt and the deepest bloody cut he had ever seen surrounding his neck.

A scary vision, a terrifying figure.

But…when he sees the man…he feels calm. He feels like he is with an older vod, like 99.

The man holds him, looks at him with a familiarity in his widened eyes. It’s like he knew Hunter his entire life, and wanted to protect him forever.

Hunter was just a cadet. He had never seen a natborn so…closely. He had no idea who that man was, and why he felt safe at such big and horrific vision.

He knew that man would keep him safe whenever they were close. He could feel comfortable and trust…

Even if there was always a skull with the man, haunting him like a ghost.

Perhaps…that’s where he got the idea.

“You are the strongest vod I’ve ever met!”

Dio saw the boy when he was wide awake.

He couldn’t sleep in the coffin. He couldn’t dream. For almost a century he hadn’t been able to rest. Because the haunting of the skull kept him up.

But whenever he saw the boy, and the boy talked to him so excitedly…he felt like he was seeing a light in the eternal darkness.

He didn’t knew who the boy was, he never saw an uniform like that, he didn’t understand what he talked most of the time.

Though, the boy was familiar. And comforting.

Something in his eyes…

Whenever the boy disappeared, Dio could just hope these sweet hallucinations would come back soon, so he didn’t feel alone.