Freelancers

Freelancers

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History

Though mercenaries have been active throughout human history, many work either by themselves or for the PMCs Weston-Yamad employs. One such man, known as “Python” was the leader of a small but noticeable band of guns for hire. These mercenaries slowly gathered more and more recruits as demand for their services increased. This necessitated the official formation of the “Freelancers guild” to manage the increase in demand. The Freelancers guild or the Freelance Mercenaries officially formed during the later years of the colonisation efforts that spanned the known galaxy. Some viewed them as nothing more than a cheaper and worse alternative to security forces, like the USCM and other security firms. Other colonists saw them as the better option due to their availability to protect them, for a modest price.

Their central base of operations is an old retrofitted mining asteroid located between the UA and RESS border nicknamed “Inner Sanctuary” due to being just outside the legal reach of the law. It is also where they train their mercenaries. Usually where there’s a colony in the outer rim, there’s a small Freelancer outpost, in which the mercenaries are stationed. In the Tychon’s Rift Sector, they operate the Irkala Station, a trading hub for commerce and a base of operations to send out Freelancers for assignments. Since the Dust Raiders left the system quite some time ago, they’ve received a lot more demand for their services and they are quite keen to supply them with protection for the right price.

Equipment and Training

The Freelancer mercenaries are a mixed bag when it comes to general competence and equipment. Some are either eager colonists that want to seek adventure among the stars, while others see it as an opportunity to get out of their current situation, whether it is to pay off debts or just down on their luck. When contracted into the Freelancers guild, they’re issued a uniform and a surprisingly well crafted armour set almost rivaling the protection of lesser militaries. The firearms are reliable for their troubles, even considering the age of them. They have to pay off the equipment during the course of their contract. Some prefer to bring their own equipment, which usually consists of personal weapons and or attachments.

The Freelancers are trained by retired instructors from various militaries around the galaxy. They aren’t as disciplined as normal bootcamp grunts since their main motivation is the price rather than pride of service. Their firearms prowess on the other hand is similar to the soldiers fresh out of bootcamp. The Freelance unit leaders are trained by the Lieutenants of Python. They receive much more diverse training in both leadership and first aid to properly lead the Freelancers they’re assigned to.

Elite Department

The Freelancer guild employs mercenaries to conduct security, funding their operations. They also have a mining and salvage operation to further increase their funding. This is mostly kept as another part of the guild, so they do employ a more professional and elite mercenary group in the mining and salvage operations for “protection”. This group is far better trained and equipped, than the bog standard Freelancers that are contracted into service. They could even rival the infamous PMCs that Weston-Yamada owns. Yet such notions are rather speculative, for now.

Events

After the loss of the Dust Raiders in Tychons Rift Sector. The Freelancers saw this as a prime opportunity to commandeer the munitions and supplies from the now abandoned USCM bases in the sector. They scavenged through the outposts taking anything they could find. Though the Dust Raiders did manage to relocate most of their supplies back to their ship, they did have to scuttle a good portion of their munitions that they couldn’t bring back. Luckily for the Freelancers and other interested parties, they stumbled upon small supply caches the Dust Raiders failed to destroy. This gave them access to more modern firearms of the time, which also allowed them to sell USCM weapons on the blackmarket to deepen their pockets.

Ranks

Standard

Role	Description
Standard	Bog standard mercenary. Decently equipped and willing to fight for the right price.
Medic	Equipped with standard issue medical supplies, the job of mercenary medics is to ensure the other mercenaries as well are fit to fight. So long as they're paid with medical care, but that's taken care of.
Leader	The leader's job is to command the squad, lead them to victory (or defeat), and negotiate payment.