A mercenary outfit, circa 1000
Ley and Gateway,for all your irregular needs!
Merricks Rangers
A battalion strength unit with its own transport assets, Merricks Rangers is a unit specializing in spec ops missions of all sorts but which has made its reputation on the “gray” side of the merc trade. Deniability has been their forte, and they have worked for clients as diverse as megacorps to individuals to criminal syndicates, a habit that has not endeared them to the Ministry of justice.
The unit is not truly a battalion, as the organization is non standard. Merricks fields on company of Rangers, one company of support, one company of weapons/special troops ( more in TOand E) and one company of dedicated aerospace/grav troops.
They field 220 combat effectives, the remainder being 310 support, medical, and technical personnel with 17 officers, for a total strength of 547 troops.
Unit History
Merricks rangers were formed in 966, originally as a company sized unit. They grew over the years through lucrative contracts and by means of judicious theft of vessels “lost to enemy action” providing themselves with their spaceborne capability in the process. They are past masters of the fast raid, the spoiling mission and point assault, and are best known for their expertise at their two bread and butter missions: the snatch and the recce. They routinely take hire with any that can pay their price, and they are best known for their results oriented approach. This is a unit that willingly gets its hands dirty, and everyone in the business knows it.
Since the onset of the Solomani Rim war, they have made both friends and enemies (depending upon who you talk to) in and out of the trade, and have of late taken more work in the private sector than most other such outfits. They have remained busy, as they have proven both reliable and able to provide that most desirable of services, deniable operations.
Equipment
The Rangers are kitted out to an eclectic standard, and gear up according to specific mission requirements, but their small size allows them a wide latitude. As a general rule, they field at tech 13, equipped with anything from gauss rifles to SMGs to sidearms at that level. Specialized troops can field with a variety of weapons, such as the snipers with their gauss and laser weapons to the combat armored assault specialists.
They can, when needed on a case by case basis, field troops equipped to TL 14, as they maintain a very high standard of training, but as a rule do not keep such assets on hand and instead purchase them as required, later liquidating them ( often at a tidy profit and generally on the gray market)
The weapons company maintains heavy gauss weapons, 40mm, 62mm and 80mm mortars; but the preferred heavy weapon is a variety of missiles and high energy weapons. The focus is on reliability and ruggedness and they routinely roll over their inventory of weapons.
The only really uniformity of weapons is a unit preference for the Instellarms M246a1 ACR/GL for its reliability, its relative ready availability and its use of the Imperial standard ammo. Sidearms are generally personally purchased.
The Rangers operate a number of grav vehicles; six g-carriers and a large number of civilian vehicles, which are typically stolen or repaired to be later abandoned.
They operate three spacecraft, all capable of jump 3: a merc cruiser of standard configuration called Gremlins Castle, a 200 ton trader that has seen better days called Hera’s Dream, and a 400 ton freighter that they change the name and registry of so often that within the unit it is only known as “the other ship”.
The unit also maintains five assault shuttles, four being operational and the fifth being the resident hanger queen until they manage to unload it along the way.
Organization
The rangers are organized into the following: two companies of combat troops, one being Alpha , comprised of strikers and the other being Bravo, the weapons company which is also home for the scout/sniper squad and the intrusion squads.
Charlie company is the support company, and is home to the computer /intel specialists, along with commo and medical. This company is overstrength as it also keeps the technicians and financial teams.
Delta is the transport company, maintaining the vehicles and transport assets but not the spacecraft. The ships are all independently crewed and maintained as a separate corporate entity, which provides the legal fiction of being a non military asset and therefore not connected to the Rangers. ( Basically, the Rangers “hire out” their passage on a mission by mission basis providing them a clean paper trail. Practically, this fools nobody, but it is a legal loophole they have found useful on more than one occasion.) This is one reason why the Rangers seldom sweat repatriations, and it also saves them reliance on outside sources for transport.
Deployment
Befitting the eclectic nature of their contracts, Merricks Rangers hire out at any strength from a squad to a company, although their usual practice is to field a platoon in strength with whatever support is needed. They will take on any mission they have the capability to manage, although they never serve as starmercs nor do they take on garrison or cadre. They are exclusively a spec op outfit.
Tactical Doctrine
Strictly speaking, the rangers have none, they operate on a mission to mission basis. As a rule, however, there are commonalities in their approach. They are known to be highly adaptable and are proponents of unconventional tactics; the units planning styaff is highly innovative and the focus is generally speaking on results rather than methodology- if it works then by definition it’s a good tactic. They are not above breaking the law and will at any opportunity bend it, and have come under MOJ and Imperial scrutiny more than once for near misses on the Rules of War. Although they have not yet pulled a stunt resulting in action regarding their license, they continue to push their luck. It is this willingness to flaunt the rules that gets them contracts no others will take, and gets them a black mark in most of their counterparts books.
All contracts are heavily and ruthlessly negotiated, and they seldom commit them to paper. Thus far only one client has reneged, and the inevitable response gained them a certain notoriety.
Campaign / Mission tickets/ GM plot suggestions
1. PCs may encounter this unit, say in an effort to prevent the retrieval of an NPC. The classic example would be the PCs bodyguarding someone the unit was hired to snatch.
2.PCs might encounter them in a joint op, or in providing support on a mission.
3.PCs might encounter them as the by-blow of a mission, as the Rangers have been known to hijack transport when the mission goes south.
4.Villians- the PCs may be transporting an asset, item or cargo the unit is hired to sieze or destroy. This is especially likely in the event of being in the wrong place during a corporate op.
Famous /Infamous NPCs
Colonel Arnuld Merrick
A career merc officer,he first made his reputation as a corporate soldier in the ling standard security forces, heading up the Gateway sector special services unit. He left under questionable circumstances in favor of the more lucrative mercenary trade. He has a surprising array of both underworld contacts as well as Noble friends; his reputation is one of results, discretion and willingness to get the job done. His unit does not come cheaply, and they work on a cash only basis. He is a hard bitten cynic, and is devious and resourceful. He leads from the front and his officers are expected to do likewise. He has absolutely no respect for conventional thinking and is both direct and to the point in all of his dealings. He is a harsh disciplinarian, but only in the operational aspects of his job; he is not a martinet. Uniform standards are not a concern of his, nor of what most outfits would consider routine-his only standard and criteria are competence.
He is also known for a willingness to hire anyone, provided they are capable. Past records or blemishes are of little concern so long as the troop works well within the unit
He has a low tolerance, however, for loose talkers, and any who either break security or jeopardize a mission are in for a very rough time.
Currently his repute is much like his unit: although among his peers there is a professional courtesy and recognition of his success, many among the trades detest his leanings toward the criminal element and regard him as a black sheep of sorts. They had had a run in with Harpers Hoplites, stealing a client out from under their noses, and in the process wounding several. While the rangers paid harpers reparations under the table, they left the hoplites with considerable egg on their faces and to this day the Hoplites have kept that grudge going. Although Merrick and Brigadier Vanya Koniev regarded the incident as merely an accident of business, there is no love lost between either, and when they occasionally meet both work hard to maintain a strained civility that niether really feels.
MSGT Roger Kendall, Company A Striker, First Sergeant
A tired old campaigner, Kendall is the lead sergeant of his unit for a reason- as mercs go, he is a soldier’s solder. He leads from the front, is first in and last out. He eats and sleeps with his men, and is also the single meanest son of a bitch in the outfit. He takes nothing for granted and is jaded as only a 25 year merc can be. Hired into the outfit in the first year, he has been with it ever since, and while he does not consider Merrick a freind, they have a professional regard for one another. His current nemesis is the First Sergeant of Bravo Company, 1st platoon, Staff Sergeant Rourke, who is seen as his replacement. Rourke has gained no points with Kendall as he is ambitious and a former officer, and as rivals they enjoy a relationship based on mutual hatred. They routinely snipe at one another, but for one aspect; both are consummate leaders, and never show their acrimony in front of the men. In private, however, they have been known to come to blows, and their respective NCO staffers dread their periodic meetings at sergeants call.
SSGT Martin Francis Rourke ,Company Bravo Weapons Platoon Sergeant
Discharged under "other than Honorable conditions" for assaulting an O-6 for actions involving a "friendly-fire" incident where fatalities were involved, Rourke was blamed for the lives lost, and the Colonel skated free even though he was the one who issued the orders that were followed. Now serving in Merricks Rangers, a spec Ops Merc Company as a weapons platoon sergeant he has been in that unit for not quite a year. Seen as a "weapons' nut" by his peers, he keeps abreast of the latest weapons in use, how they're used, and who makes them. He is ambitious, and wary of getting "left out to dry". He has a wry sense of humor, tinged by a wee bit of the gallows. He prefers to use his wits rather than his fists, but is no shirker in a scrap. He is also a firm believer in maximum firepower versus the opposition. He has the unenviable reputation for being a bastard when it comes to weapon's cleanliness in his platoon. Keeps to himself off duty, and has few "friends". Seen as one of "the Old school" types. Reads, and quotes Shakespeare. Amonst the mercs of Merricks Rangers he is a contrast in command styles, for while MSGT Kendall is easy going in many respects , Rourke is regarded as a martinet. In their own companies both command the respect and loyalty of their men, and the rivalry between both companies is fierce.
