The contract is a bonding system by which the mercenary and bounty hunter can protect him/herself from various agencies of law enforcement, untrustworthy employers and the unprofessional, unchartered freelancers that still roam the fringes of space. For the purpose of the article, you will be briefed on the nature of the OSC's working environment, our hiring, firing and training policies, the reward and payment system and the consequences for failing to abide the guidelines that maintain the working conditions that the OSC wishes for its employees and associates.
| Play every side until someone wins, then say you were on his side all along. – The Art of Never Again, Chapter 731: I'm a Mercenary and I'm Okay |
It is the specific intent and goal of the OSC to provide well-equipped, well-trained and well-adjusted professionals who can operate in the set parameters demanded by an employer. The parameters in which the OSC specializes are the management of private military companies, bounty hunters and the maintaining of desirable working conditions for both. OSC members are not cannon fodder or hired thugs, but professionals that have gathered together, using a preexisting, highly functional network for the betterment of all individuals of their trade.
But most importantly, the Opportunists' Social Club are opportunists with work ethic, who are taking advantage of socio-political instability to engage in the lawful pursuit of wealth.
The conditions created by the modern warfare of this age are unlike any of those created in previous eras. System destroyer weapon systems have reached saturation points in the great militaries of Yamatai and Democratic Imperium of Nepleslia, while to the east, the growing peacekeeper nation known as the UOC and their Lorath Matriarchy allies are developing together into another superpower. Powered armor are deployed by the tens of thousands in all major fields of battle and ship-to-ship warfare is waged on the scale of millions of kilometers. In modern warfare, it may not seem like the mercenary or bounty hunter would be useful, but this is only true to the extent of early PMC organizations that were more or less pirates operating under letters of marque, and poorly trained thugs given weapons and dropped into the battlefield with instructions to kill an enemy bearing a certain standard upon their armor and vehicles.
As a member of the Opportunist's Social Club, this is not your mode of combat.
The mercenaries of the OSC are from all walks of life, trained by veterans from many different conflicts and many different nationalities. A member of the OSC not simply a gun for hire, but a warrior of the modern battlefield. Contrast with the notion of the soldier, a civil servant that is trained to serve a purpose in the military, the warrior is a professional that is meant to operate in the conflicts and wars created by the unstable socio-political environment of the current era. While the soldier is meant to do his/her duty until a conflict is resolved, the professional of the OSC is hired to represent any interest that suits his/her purposes, until the expiration of the agent, objective or contract.
It is the OSC's intent to thrive on conflicts, but not create them.
The relationship between law enforcement is one that is tenuous at best, and can only remain viable when the hunter is pursuing a career in live and state-sponsored death bounties. Additionally, if the target is regarded as innocent of any crimes, pursuing them with the intent to capture or kill may be regarded as a criminal action. For this reason, the OSC publicly admonishes bounty hunters from going after bounties that are not specifically marked down as legal and valid, though it will not stop certain invidiuals from posting or answering illegal ones. This is because for the most part, the OSC is a chartering and regulation board, not a bounty hunting corporation, and acts as a liaison between employer and contractor. On the corporate level, the OSC is not responsible for issued bounties that are considered illegal or for hunters engaging in illegal activities. For reasons of posterity, however, it will either deny knowledge of/or refuse service to an agent that is caught committing a felony.
Is it the OSC's mandate to not become illegal in the states in which it operates. Additionally, it is the intention of the OSC to become recognized by those states, and eventually recognized as an important chartering office.
So far, the OSC has become illegal (and shoot-on-sight) in the Yamatai Star Empire.
| How tiring. -Routhe Madgaffe, Nepleslian Laison |
All members and associates agree to a charter of rights and responsibilities which entitle them to high class contracts where they can make use of their skills, discounts for the purchasing of work-related goods and grant them a large number of benefits such as extensive medical and life insurance, oversight pay due to employer incompetence and assurance of fair wages. The OSC is able to gradually recruit and bolster it's member base by showing the inherent advantages of being bonded and chartered in their offices, and by doing this, is effectively replacing the older, inefficient and low quality market of mercenaries, and renewing it with their training and equipment programs. Not only is the Social Club creating market stability, but also improving quality (therefore profits) and raising the standard of living for its employees.
In this sense, the OSC is the first and only global and non-invitational bounty hunter and mercenary union that ensures working standards for all members.
Due to the non-elitist nature of its Freespacer and Nepleslian founders, the OSC allows from nearly any person to join, pending psychological and skill tests to determine if they are suitable for work. If they are found to be psychologically or physically unfit, or lacking the proper skills to function in their chosen branch can choose to take training courses or receive augmentations at OSC centers until they are able to make the grade. The Social Club also makes extensive use of liaisons, fixers and handlers, which can be alternative career choices for individuals seeking employment with the OSC.
In short, the OSC hires any person that is competent, professional and understands the socio-economic ideology behind their organization. That is, to make a bad business better.