Independent power
Mercenaries
Independent military companies that sell ships, specialists and protection to whoever can pay, for exactly as long as they are paid.
Not every warship in the galaxy flies for an empire. Between the great powers operate the Mercenaries: independent military organisations that hire out their services by contract.
Guns for hire
A contract can buy a whole fleet for a campaign, a handful of specialists, an escort for a convoy, a scouting sweep through a contested system, or a garrison to hold a world while your own navy is elsewhere. Mercenaries fight well, and they fight for pay. When the money stops, so do they.
Where they come from
Some companies are old and proud of it. Others were born in defeat. Crews who desert a failing Solar Dominion fleet, pushed too far past its Supply for too long, do not simply vanish: some of them reappear under a mercenary flag, selling the same guns they once pointed at the enemy.
The Relay Compact and the Red Balance Companies are two of the best known: see Clans, Contracts and Free Worlds.
Under one insignia
The steel hexagon and interlocking chevrons are not the badge of one company but the common mark of the trade: a sign that the ships beneath it answer to a contract, not a crown.
Mercenary contracts are part of the game's design and still in development. Details may change.