far-trader
SOC-14 10K
I've kinda thought that the usual setup would be that Chartered Mercenary Units* would be established on worlds/systems likely to hire them regularly enough to make it pay. Probably Balaknized governments.
* As all such are, in MTU at least. If you don't have an Imperial Charter you're operating outside Imperial Law, and that is Not Good.
This would be the place to make money as Mercs. Every little flare up provides nearly instant employment, often for both sides* and the side with the most cash will probably "win" (depending on how many native assests they are willing to sacrifice). No need for interstellar transports, heck you probably don't even need your own troop transports. Just use local infrastructure much of the time. Charter or scheduled.
* Usually opponents would hire from different Units, but not always, it is a business and there are no bad customers if they can pay.
A close second choice setup would be a hub world in an unstable subsector, such as a border region. This would be the base of operations and with all the regular traffic* you are easy to reach and can get on site just as quickly, probably a two week turnaround from the time somebody decides to hire some mercs to them landing on the ground. This setup is where you'd find your typical Mercenary Cruisers though they'd often be as the lead force with other assets coming shortly after on commercial scheduled ships or charters.
* The encounter tables are not really a good indicator of the actual system traffic, at least not as a direct measure as you used it BTL
You need to think of it as 20% (or whatever) chance of another ship being there whenever a ship enters or leaves the system (the way I recall the table). That implies a lot of traffic. Nowhere near some of the figures often used imo (of thousands of ships or more daily) but much more than a slim chance of one ship. But that is another thread...
Of course the ideal place to open up shop as a Merc would combine the two. A nice hot Balkanized world in the center of a wild border zone.
In all these cases you'd only have one Merc outfit if it wasn't really paying the bills (and they'd leave soon too, one way or another). If there's a profit to made there'd be comeptition and rivals. Remember, real Mercs are in it for the profits, just like real Merchants.
Anywho, just my thoughts.
* As all such are, in MTU at least. If you don't have an Imperial Charter you're operating outside Imperial Law, and that is Not Good.
This would be the place to make money as Mercs. Every little flare up provides nearly instant employment, often for both sides* and the side with the most cash will probably "win" (depending on how many native assests they are willing to sacrifice). No need for interstellar transports, heck you probably don't even need your own troop transports. Just use local infrastructure much of the time. Charter or scheduled.
* Usually opponents would hire from different Units, but not always, it is a business and there are no bad customers if they can pay.
A close second choice setup would be a hub world in an unstable subsector, such as a border region. This would be the base of operations and with all the regular traffic* you are easy to reach and can get on site just as quickly, probably a two week turnaround from the time somebody decides to hire some mercs to them landing on the ground. This setup is where you'd find your typical Mercenary Cruisers though they'd often be as the lead force with other assets coming shortly after on commercial scheduled ships or charters.
* The encounter tables are not really a good indicator of the actual system traffic, at least not as a direct measure as you used it BTL
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Of course the ideal place to open up shop as a Merc would combine the two. A nice hot Balkanized world in the center of a wild border zone.
In all these cases you'd only have one Merc outfit if it wasn't really paying the bills (and they'd leave soon too, one way or another). If there's a profit to made there'd be comeptition and rivals. Remember, real Mercs are in it for the profits, just like real Merchants.
Anywho, just my thoughts.