[Politics] Tshombesha to Hire Mercenaries

Tshombesha to Hire Mercenaries

The mining concerns bankrolling the newly-independent Tshombesha have decided to bring their invisible hand to bear on the battlefield as well, providing a lucrative contract for the Blue Suns private military company to serve as both standing army and internal security force for Tshombesha. While the Blue Suns have acquired a fearsome reputation for ruthless effectiveness on the battlefield, some have questioned their use as gendarmes on Tshombesha.

“The hiring of these bloodthirsty mercenaries to serve as police shows just how little the mineral magnates care for the well-being of their workers and planet,” said the Vonskar Coalition in a statement released yesterday. “It can only be a matter of time until their guns are turned on the citizens they signed on to protect.”

The Blue Suns have deployed their Ninth Commando, a veteran unit of counterinsurgency campaigns in the hanar Illuminated Primacy’s colony worlds along with the Reaper War itself, to Tshombesha. In mercenary circles, this has raised some concerns over the unit’s possible deployment in heavily populated areas.

“The Ninth has proven time and again to be a unit more inclined to fire first and not ask questions at all,” said Commander Bertram Peters of the Suns. “It would be far more in the corporation’s best interests to assign a more considerate unit to the planet.”

Commander Dynarch Tuillax, likewise of the Blue Suns, defended his decision, saying that, “9 Commando has proven itself an effective unit during the many years it has served under my command, and will no doubt acquit itself well in whatever duties the Tshombesha government calls upon it to perform.”

While there has been internal discontent within the Blue Suns and the Vonskar Coalition over the hiring of the unit, President Joseph Godefroid defended his decision and praised the Suns, calling them “the thin blue line that stands between independence and slavery.”

No representative of 9 Commando could be reached for comment. The Eclipse likewise refused to comment.

It's too bad they choose such an unsubtle battalion there, because I can attest that Blue Suns are perfectly able to provide proper security. We at Slaves4Us were always happy with their services.

I suppose it is simpler if you only have one group handling both military AND police operations, but it all seems very shady. Ninth Commando is brutal, if the stories I've heard are to be believed.

I think the very idea of using PMCs as law enforcement is dubious at best. I know ERCS has done an admirable job wherever they were hired as rent-a-cops, but they are also under the scrutiny of C-Space laws and regulations. Also they are not known for piracy and such.
But Blue Suns as law enforcement?
That is just begging them to open up racketeering schemes, piracy and smuggling rings on Tshombesha.

I was going to be offended, but then reality reasserted itself.

Oh, this is turning out to be quite interesting. One wonders how the Coalition will respond.

I must say, though, it surprises me to see that 9 Commando is already back on its feet - I had the dubious pleasure of working with them Earthside last year, and let's just say that their frightfully unrefined disposition did not serve them well.

Coming soon to a city near you, I am afraid. And I don't mean another Terminus backwater. I mean Earth, proper.

The Alliance security services have been conscripting like crazy since the occupation, but they're still stretched wafer-thin across a planet containing billions of people. There are whole swathes of territories still unaccounted for. As of last month, only two-fifths of the planet had been officially declared 'pacified', and there is much speculation that even that is a charitable estimate. The Alliance simply does not have the manpower to maintain the current zone of occupation and expand it into the periphery.

My belief - purely hypothetical, of course, and not at all influenced by being privy to officialdom - is that the Alliance will continue to expand its sphere of control, moving its core troops outwards while deferring urban security to auxiliary arms, such as the security services, the military police and private militias. Of course, there's no telling how much of a shitstorm this will raise.

What I know about the Ninth Commando is that it's not even private security any more, but rather a private army. I mean they have fire support assets and air support like any other modern military, and the former campaigns haven't exactly gone peacefully. It's like putting the Armiger Legion in charge of your local shopping centre.

This is true for the entirety of the "Big Three" mercenary outfits, seems strange to single out one unit when the entire organization is this way.

Haha! Have fun with that, Daye - spooky, the way things work out, isn't it?

You too, hey? Tides. 'Least when we had to team up, it was just jellies and lizards, not fucking husks.

Huh. We've been hearing all kinds of crazy rumours out there, but nothing like that. Any word on whether the Alliance is going to privatise security any time soon?

Please no. Just...no.

That's a fucking recipe for riots.

You're telling me. Remind me to chat with Peters after we finish this fucking contract, for that matter.

Hiring Suns for police work?

Defense I get, but this seriously? Can't you just hire a few real cops? Or maybe some retired cops and start a local training program? This screams sketchy.

Not all Suns units are this heavily armed. Some at least try to keep up appearances that they are a private security organisation and not mercenaries...