Mercenary Soldier

Of the 8 Career Skills, choose 4 to get a free rank. Of the 4 Specialization Skills, choose 2 to get a free rank.

Hired Gun Career Skills: Athletics, Brawl, Discipline, Melee, Piloting (Planetary), Ranged (Light), Resilience and Vigilance

Mercenary Soldier Specialization Skills: Discipline, Gunnery, Leadership and Ranged (Heavy)

If the Marauder is the melee master, and the Bodyguard is the all-around weapons and gear trooper, the Mercenary Soldier is the warfare expert. An adept of both ranged combat and military tactics, he is a leader of warriors in combat and a deadly combatant himself.

A Mercenary Soldier can be a true mental rock in critical situations. He is a deadly foe all on his own, and deadlier still if he has a force to lead in battle.

Mercenary Soldiers are the most likely to have come from prior service with a larger organization, and they almost certainly had at least a non-commissioned officer role with that force. They have a keen grasp of both tactics and strategy, though they will tend to focus more on the former as a matter of practicality and survival. Even in less formal situations, a Mercenary Soldier will tend to show a high degree of personal discipline and order.

In a Player Character group, it will not be out of the question for a Mercenary Soldier to take charge, at least in situations where combat is likely. Though his leadership skills are not as comprehensive as other specializations, they are uniquely focused for combat.

Potential Backgrounds

  • Yesterday's Hero: Mercenary Soldiers fit this background very well. Many such characters started life as soldiers, fighting for a single cause or government. However, even a heroic and successful soldier can fall from grace. Perhaps the wars he fought ended and the character was unable to live in peace, or perhaps he fought with his superiors over their foolish decisions and was forced to leave.
  • Ex-Military: Many Mercenary Soldiers are ex-military, and as their name implies, they more than any other Hired Gun bring their training as soldiers with them to their new career. Their ability to follow and give orders, their skill with firearms, and their innate discipline make them natural leaders and commanders in a band of miscreants and soldiers of fortune.
  • The Avenger: The galaxy is full of stories of soldiers betrayed by their superiors and left to die on some nameless battlefield. That betrayal might be why the Mercenary Soldier became a mercenary in the first place. In his new role, he has the motive and the weaponry to enact revenge on those who betrayed him.
  • Scion of a Legacy: A Mercenary Soldier could be in the same position as the Marauder, but reversed. His parent could have been a renowned soldier, even a war hero. However, when he joined the military, the character found that he was ill-fit for the soldier's life. For his own reasons, he turned to mercenary work and became a Hired Gun. Although he uses the skills he learned as a soldier, he must come to terms with the disappointment of his parent (and possibly his own guilt as well).
  • Peace Turned to War: A Mercenary Soldier's twin attributes in leadership and ranged weaponry could have been cultivated as a sheriff or other elected peace officer on some frontier world. Such a job might leave the character with a lasting air of authority that defines his actions long after losing the badge. In addition, a former sheriff might keep a sense of right and wrong even when he's working morally ambiguous jobs as a mercenary or criminal.