Company Store

Revision as of 03:31, 12 December 2009 by 218.101.84.78 (talk)

The "company store" is a gambit by the employer of a mercenary unit to financially undermine the unit, strip it of its autonomy, and force it into permanent service with that employer.

Methodology

Mercenary contracts typically involve the employer providing at least some support services and supplies to the mercenary unit, which pays for them out of the unit's purse (which is naturally served by the regular income from their employer's payment for the mercenaries' services). In a 'company store' scenario, the employer typically offers the mercenaries direct access to their own military's quartermaster service on a cash-and-carry basis, with an increase in their pay to offset the price of supplies and services; however, the price of the supplies and services is also increased, whether openly or surreptiously, to the point where the unit's income does not cover the debts it is incurring with the employer. This forces the unit to undertake supplementary contracts, typically high-risk/high-reward raiding missions, in order to cover its debts; this brings with it heavy combat that requires more supplies (mainly replacing expended munitions and repairing damage), thus incurring even more debt. This vicious cycle continues until the debt becomes too great for the unit to bear, either financially or morally, at which point the mercenaries often find themselves compelled to renegotiate their contract to pay off the debt, usually on terms so biased towards the employer that the mercenary unit is either permanently bound to that employer alone, or in the most egregious cases outright absorbed into the employer's regular armed forces.

Generally speaking, once a mercenary unit is well-ensnared in the 'company store' cycle - especially if it endures one or more disastrous battle(s) - the only alternative to absorption by the employer's military is to break contract and try to flee to another employer.

Notable Cases

One famous example of 'company store treatment' is the Paul Bunyan Regiment once employed by House Kurita, which accepted increased pay in exchange for access to DCMS procurement channels, but was systematically undermined by price-hikes and the need to supplement their income with secondary raiding contracts (which consumed more supplies and increased their debts). In 2825, the situation came to a head: while the Paul Bunyan Regiment was stationed on Zlatous, the DCMS outright stopped their pay, citing a need to cover their debts. In response, the regiment seized several warehouses to obtain food and other necessities. Declaring them a rogue unit, the DCMS destroyed the Paul Bunyans' DropShips and set the 5th and 9th Galedon Regulars on the 'renegades', sparking two months of fighting that saw much of the planet laid waste and the majority of the Paul Bunyan Regiment destroyed. Only a handful of mercenaries escaped in a captured DCMS DropShip, fleeing into the Periphery.

At one point in their employment by House Kurita, Wolf's Dragoons suspected that Warlord Greig Samsonov was attempting to use the 'company store' gambit as part of a campaign to seize direct control of the Dragoons.

  • House Kurita sourcebook, p.62
  • Wolves on the Border