Deathless Callsigns

*You ever wonder why our unit is called "Cannon Feeders"?*

*I don't know, Bait, that's a good question.*

*Yeah something to think about, Target Practice.*

A Callsign is a name given to a Deathless individual, ship, unit, army corp, squadron, fleet group, etc. that is different from their identity or class, examples include but are not limited to: Arhat, Stonewallers, Queen’s Wrath, Chernobog or Where’s my money?

## Origins

The history of callsigns within the Deathless can be traced back to their founder, Guillaume “Koschei” Obruchev. Who earned the moniker of Koschei following his survival in multiple idiotic and suicidal front line operations. Nicknames have always been a thing between comrades but rapidly the young noble became known across the legions simply by his new callsign “Koschei”. Soon after members of Koschei’s 1st Platoon took up callsigns of their own and started only using them during combat operations. This tradition transfered over to the Deathless and nowadays every member of Deathless operations has one given to them at one time or another during training.

## How to get your callsign

There are as many ways to gain your callsign as there are Deathless, usually others decide for an operative’s callsign, maybe after a funny story or a noted characteristic. Everyone and everything in the Deathless has received a callsign at some point in their existence within the Deathless. For ships, the “callsign” is usually a shortening of the ship’s full name, for example the DCS *Sweet Mother Mercy I thought I’d Die Alone Down Here*’s callsign is the Mother Mercy. Another example is the DCS *If I’m In Range, Then It’s Game Over For You Bud*, which is just shortened to Game Over Bud, and others. Units like squads, platoons, companies, battalions, divisions and larger units all have their own callsign decided in accordance with the unit’s commander as they please, through vote, executive decision, trial by combat or something else. Due to operational requirements, callsigns are required by DCS management to be unique within the massive organisation that is the Deathless, as such a record is kept so that the creative individual knows when a callsign is taken or not. Sometimes this leads to callsigns receiving an additional word or series of words to differentiate themselves from the 5000 other “Killer”s in the Deathless Marines.

Some callsigns are linked to specific positions within the Deathless, for example the President’s callsign will always be “Koschei”, as it is the only callsign they need. Some departments and units also have their VP or CO take a specific callsign, but it is highly dependent on the unit’s tradition. Examples include “COIN” for the VP of Finance, “Velocity” for the CO of the 2nd Mechanised Light Infantry Division “Hornets”, and many more.

Choosing your own callsign, lying about your callsign or changing your callsign without operational requirements/approval by the Callsign Administrative Bureau is strongly against Deathless Terms of Service. Such transgression is a chargeable offence and, depending on the details of the case, may be punished with prison time.

## Operational Use

It is part of Deathless communications protocol to address each other by callsign while in combat operations. This is to confuse potential listeners on the full extent of the chain of command. Find below a demonstration of this strategy through a perfectly understandable discussion:

>
>
> “Compound Interest this is Demon we’re arriving on objective with the Dogs, over.”
>
>

> “Demon this is Compound Interest be advised that Old Wolf is conducting operations in the AO (Area of Operations) so watch your fire, over.”
>
>

> “Compound Interest I see Old Wolf on my screen, tell me is Velocity scouting or should I engage, over?”
>
>

> “Demon negative Hornets in the AO engage as per contract, over.”
>
>

> “Compound Interest we’re already shooting, Demon out.”
>
>

In this scenario, “Demon” the CO of the 9th Orbital Marines “Dimi’s Dogs” (shortened to dogs”) is talking with “Compound Interest” the stealth ship DCS *Compound Interest Can Really Sneak Up Fast On You* who is serving as space borne reconnaissance for the operation. They advise that “Old Wolf”, the CO of 1st Mechanized Siege Division “Wall Breakers” is currently planetside and to watch for friendly fire. “Demon” then asks “Compound Interest” if the CO of the 2nd Mechanized Light Infantry Division “Hornets”, who’s callsign is “Velocity” is also operating in the area or if the mechs he’s seeing are hostile. With a quick check “Compound Interest” can confirm that the mechs are enemies and "Demon" is ok to engage. All this was understood in much simpler lines! And no one listening knows what the hell has just been said, how efficient!

Some have complained that the callsign procedures are too complicated to learn quickly, but it’s not the Deathless’ problem and they aren’t running out of trainees any day now.