Mercenary

A Mercenary is a soldier for hire, and amongst the chaos of the Imperium, there are still plenty of opportunities for hired soldiers.

• For the Classic Traveller Book, please see Mercenary.
• The remotely centralized government of the Third Imperium is possessed of great industrial and technological might, but it is also unable, due to the sheer distances and travel times involved, to exert total control everywhere within its starspanning realm.

Description (Specifications)

Mercenaries are military forces for hire. They typically have only peripheral connection to an established polity at most. Forces may range from fairly substantial interstellar naval assets all the way down to ground forces as small as a demisquad. However, in practice, most forces are at least a rough company in disposition. An owner typically acts as the command officer although many arrangements are possible.

Mercenary Contract Types ("Tickets")

No information yet available.

• Bonding
• Regular
• Irregular

Alternate Mercenary Nomenclature

• Varieties include Condotterie, Hessians and Huscarles.
• Many other terms additionally exist in common usage.

History & Background (Dossier)

Extensive home rule provisions allow planetary governments to choose their own forms of government, raise and maintain their own armed forces for local secunty, pass and enforce laws governing local conduct, and regulate (within limits) commerce. Defense has been a cooperative effort of local indigenous forces, which is stiffened by Imperial naval bases manned by extremely sophisticated forces.

• Conflicting local interests have often settled their differences by force of arms, with Imperial forces looking quietly the other way, unable to intervene en masse. Imperial forces have been able to operate as a police force so as to not jeopardize their primary mission of defense of the realm. Only when local conflicts threaten either the security or the economy of an area have Imperial forces taken an active hand, and then with overwhelming speed and force.
• In this environment, the soldier for hire has found active employment. The tolerance exhibited by the forces of the Imperium have made the hired military force a practical matter. Imperial policy has allowed the marketplace to provide military force to those who can afford it; one line of thought has been that a hired military can be more effectively controlled if it gets out of hand, as opposed to nationalistic or politically-motivated military forces.

Late Tri-Imperial Period

(Megatraveller/TNE): The united Imperium stood ready to enforce its own standards; things have changed in the uncertain climate of the divided Imperium, however The basic restrictions against improper scales of force are no longer observed, and weapons such as poison gas or nuclear devices are being used by belligerents. Matters have gotten out of hand as each archduke has done what he though was best for the defense of his local realm Imperial forces have attempted to intervene, but the widescale nature of the turmoil has diluted their effect and even turned Imperial forces against each other in border areas.

See also

• Interstellar War
  • Militaries of Charted Space
  • War in Charted Space
• Mercenaries
  • Imperial Rules of War
  • Mercenary Slang
  • Repatriation Bond

References & Contributors (Sources)

This list of sources was used by the Traveller Wiki Editorial Team and individual contributors to compose this article. Copyrighted material is used under license from Mongoose Publishing or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.

• Classic Traveller Book 4 Mercenary (book)
• Periodical: Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society 03 in Article: "Mercenary Character Generation Outline" by: Chuck Kallenbach II
• Classic Traveller Little Black Book Supplement 8 Library Data (A-M)
• MegaTraveller Imperial Encyclopedia
• Lester Smith. Milieu 0 (Imperium Games, 1996), TBD.
• The Traveller's Handbook
• GURPS Traveller: Star Mercs
• GURPS Traveller: Ground Forces
• Mongoose 2nd: Mercenary Forces