Freelancer Mercenaries
You're part of a group of ex-colonists who decided that colonist life was too boring, so the obvious choice was to band together and become guns for hire.
You have no obligations to anyone, and your only goal is to make as much money as possible. You MAY assist the Marines in their defense of the ship, if the commanding officer pays you.
Anything else? Well, that's up to you.Overview
"Well, well, well. Decided to go freelance, huh? Tough business. You’re up against two mercenary giants, Weston Yamada’s corporate-backed war dogs and VAIPO’s elite ex-marine operatives.
No cushy contracts, no top-tier gear, no endless supply chains to fall back on. You don’t get the luxury of WeYa’s cutting-edge tech or VAIPO’s tactical intelligence network. Out here, you’re scraping by with what you can scavenge, steal, or buy with hard-earned blood money.
But that’s the trade-off, isn’t it? No masters, no corporate leash. Just you, your crew (if you trust ‘em), and the next contract. Make it big, and you’ll be the stuff of legends. Screw up, and you’ll be another nameless corpse in some far off morgue on a distant backwater planet."
Freelancers are, as the name suggests, mercenaries who fall under no preexisting corporation or government. Although some may have ideological leanings, a large amount are simply in it for the money; whoever pays issues the orders, and if they don’t pay, you don’t help. Despite that, mercenary groups can encompass people from across the galaxy, who may hold widely different views, beliefs, and codes from other Freelancer groups, or even other members of their crew. After all, Freelancers are not a single, unified group, but rather a hundred or more different mercenary crews.
Because Freelancers are independent, they often lack any forms of financial support, living job-to-job to supply themselves and their vessels. Life on a Freelancer ship is often cramped and challenging, but for some this is a far more preferable alternative from following the hierarchies of the superpowers such as WeYa or VAI. This has led to many freelancers considering themselves as the one truly free people, beholden to no master but their own.
Unless a mercenary group happens to hold allegiance to one particular power, a vast majority take any well-paying job offered to them. The nature of these jobs varies, ranging from being hired by Governments or Corporations to attack their rivals, to taking assignments to protect shipping lanes and local colonies from pirate attacks. Freelancers themselves may not be against using less scrupulous means to keep food on the table, but very few will break contracts so long as they’re paid.
Objectives
As a Freelancer, your main objective is simple - make money. Loyalty? That’s just a word people throw around when they can afford it. You fight for whoever pays best, whether it’s the Marines aboard the UNS Almayer or someone willing to pay even more to see that ship burn.
If the Almayer wants your help, they’d better be ready to pay a hefty sum. Risking your life to defend their ship isn’t charity, it’s business. But if another buyer comes knocking with deeper pockets and a grudge against the Marines? Well, that’s just another contract.
