While open warfare between systems is rare in the Alliance, smaller conflicts are much more common than most people would like. Since standing armies are expensive, especially when there isn’t a war on, a lot of this fighting falls on contractors.
The vast majority of mercenaries in the Alliance and nearby space are independent operators. They may be under contract for a given time, but they’re not bound beyond that. Equipment and training vary widely, from rank amateurs trying to be tough guys with a cheap pistol and the clothes on their back up to elite special operations troops with everything they need and then some. Most are passably competent, with training and gear the equivalent of a defense force rifleman. Which is a fine coincidence considering many are former defense force riflemen. Vehicle crew are either independent or hire out in teams. This includes armor crew as well as pilot/copilot teams that fly atmospheric or spacecraft. There are also small units that hire out together. Typically these are squads or platoons of infantry, a tank platoon, or pair of starfighters.
Anything over a platoon or company is rare. Battalions or larger units are almost nonexistent. Mainly this is because they’re a logistical nightmare without a government or large corporation’s supply train. The few that do exist, however, are extremely dangerous. If a unit is well enough funded to keep that many troops and their gear in combat-ready condition, they can also usually afford top-notch training and equipment. Pelletier’s Battalion fields three full companies of powersuit-equipped amphibious infantry with supply and command companies, as well as interstellar transport capability equipped for hot landings. They’re fairly typical of such units, with others being similar aside from their operational specialties and the TOE changes made necessary by such.
Independent mercenaries and crews usually work through contract brokers. Brokers are the rough equivalent of modern-day temp agencies with a very specific focus. They keep up with current hotspots and who is looking for mercenaries, mostly on a subsector or sector basis. If a call for troops comes in, they in turn call the mercenaries in their database and send out the word. In exchange for a percentage of the contract, they send the mercenary on his way with whatever information he needs to make contact with the employer. Mercenaries with any real experience keep in contact with several brokers. Since contracts can take mercs all over the Alliance and beyond, standard procedure is to contact a few local brokers as soon as he gets off an assignment, assuming he’s in Alliance space. Because they have to have such a wide network of contacts and the ability to ship people and materiel all over the Alliance, the vast majority of brokers are backed by major interstellar corporations, banks, and similar institutions. They are quite literally the sword of Alliance commerce in many ways.
Whatever you do, do not do your broker wrong. If they’re worth their salt, they know which jobs are good or bad. This could result in being sent on extremely sub-par contracts with low pay and bad conditions if you’re only annoying. If you’ve actively cheated your broker, you could be sent on one of the jobs nobody will come back from alive.
Conversely, if a mercenary gets mistreated by their employer they do have recourse through the brokers and their backers. For starters, the broker community has people and contacts everywhere, starting with the huge interstellar corporations and banks backing them. Despite what seems like an obvious conflict of interest when dealing with corporate clients, there are enough of these backing corporations to easily vote over another member if they’re in the wrong, and they have a vested interest in appearing neutral in these affairs. If anything, a mercenary hopes that the corporation that screws him over is part of this network, as they’ll usually be very quick to disavow any involvement by the corporation as a whole and take special interest in finding the low-level managers responsible for this breach. To the organizations playing at that level, reputation is a currency, and a precious one at that.
Mistreatment doesn’t refer to simple contract disputes or missions that go horribly wrong, but actual employer malfeasance and contract breaches. Deserting mercenaries in the field, double crossing them, deliberate “friendly fire” incidents, significant failure to fulfill their end of the contract, or rounding up your mercenaries and executing the lot to avoid paying them are examples of “mistreatment” as the community considers it. If something like this happens, a mercenary should get in contact with their broker as soon as possible. If their own broker is unreachable for some reason, any broker will do in a pinch, even one handling mercs for the other side. Brokers may not technically be mercenaries, but they’re still part of the merc community.
Once contact is made, an investigation will probably be carried out if the accusation warrants it. Complain that a shipment of recreational pharmaceuticals was a week late because the transport was shot down and you’ll get laughed at. If your employer’s forces kill your commander, desert, and try to arrest your own unit for orderly execution because they realized they were on the losing side you have a case. Such investigations are carried out by some of the best investigators and corporate lawyers in the Alliance, and if they have people on the ground they’ll be the cream of the mercenary crop.
If they find the employer was at fault, a variety of things can happen. At the very least, the mercenaries involve will be paid for the remainder of their contract and allowed to leave. There will also be significant fines against the employer, and they face forfeiture of any assets the investigators can find if the crime warrants it. If the employer was a government, they may be subject to extreme tariffs or even a planetary blockade until they pay up.
A guilty corporation will find trade licenses suspended or revoked. In the worst cases, that corporation is declared an enemy of the mercenary community and their facilities and transports will have bounties placed on them. And yes, mercenary teams will be assembled on behalf of the community to prosecute these activities, as well as turning every mercenary in the Alliance into a de facto privateer. This is all paid for out of the incalculably enormous coffers of the banks and corporations backing the brokers. They like relative stability in the mercenary market, and they really like being able to obliterate competition and make it look perfectly fair.
Some mercenaries don’t go through brokers. These freelancers are usually either naïve or criminals who can’t get a brokered contract. While some of these unbrokered contracts can be quite profitable black operations, most are deathtraps. In the best cases, the contract is unbrokered because the client needs to keep it as quiet as possible. These contracts are usually hand-delivered to their most trusted associates and are the primary exception to the rule that unbrokered contracts are suicide missions. In the worst cases, the client is a criminal of the worst kind and they’re looking for utterly disposable troops to send into a meat grinder. Most are merely criminals or terrorists looking for cheap muscle with no recourse when they realize just what a mess they’ve gotten themselves into.
Assignments cover a wide spectrum of activities. Some are short-term bodyguard or shakedown contracts with a nice time and effort to pay ratio. Others are de facto enlistment into a government or corporate army. A good number are relatively short-term military contracts tasked with specific duties like guarding convoys through contested areas, base security, or special operations. Most are as above, but with less specific duties.
Often a contract will be for a single mission with a specific objective. Coups and seizure of facilities are the go-to examples of these kind of assignments. Some of these single-mission contracts are very open to interpretation. A simple strike may be described as “capture the facility and wait for our people to take possession,” and the mercs left to devise their own plan. Others make the mercenaries the de facto field officers, and they’re expected to train and equip other, lower-end mercenaries or volunteers for the mission. Most of these missions have a large budget, with the mercenaries being allowed to keep whatever they don’t need as a bonus or their pay. For an established, highly-trained merc with contacts in the community and arms dealers on speed-dial, this can be lucrative indeed. For a rank amateur dazzled by the budget and promise of a potentially mind-blowing payout, it can be a disaster.
Transportation is either provided or paid for by the employer. This can include a bonus to a mercenary who arranges his own transport, especially if he can bring others with. Depending on the contract and employer, transport could mean a ticket on a civilian ship, chartered flight, one of the employer’s own transports (whether corporate or military), or a combination of the above. Governments and certain corporations are prone to getting mercenaries to a stopover point before bringing them the rest of the way on their own ship.
Employer-provided equipment is hit or miss. Smaller contracts with shadier employers may expect their mercs to come with whatever they have and provide all upkeep out of pocket. This is most common with criminals looking for muscle. A good corporate or government contract could result in issuing equipment indistinguishable from a planetary defense force’s standard issue, and sometimes they’ll look the other way if mercs keep some or all of it when they muster out. Gear that typically falls through the cracks is either legal or low-end military gear like basic armor, sensors, and smallarms; trying to walk off with an antiarmor particle cannon or a few cylinders of nerve gas isn’t advised. Battlesuits and vehicles are also usually reclaimed after a contract, although they’re occasionally considered a victory bonus; it may be cheaper to just give away a battered and soon to be obsolete light tank or powersuit than refurbish it only to sit unused in an armory for the next decade.
When necessary, and it often is, a broker will equip a mercenary for an assignment. Contracts like these are looking for talent on the low end and include a signing bonus for a merc bringing their own gear. If the merc is properly equipped already, they pocket the bonus. If they need something extra, the bonus helps. If the broker is equipping the merc, the broker uses the bonus (and possibly some of the merc’s future pay) to do so. While broker-supplied gear isn’t typically top-end, it’s perfectly serviceable and appropriate. It also makes all the difference in the world when a merc has the option of heading out with street clothes and a pocketknife or being issued kit virtually indistinguishable from any that of other rifleman in the Alliance. In addition to this obvious benefit to their survival, the mercenary paid for the gear and it is legally theirs. This can help quite a bit on future assignments; some employers won’t even consider equipping their mercs, and a lot of really low-end clients can’t afford to equip their mercs even if they wanted to.