Homework: Mercs

Put this stuff in your melon

Hey, gang! Nick Nethery here, the original Intern Steve. What are we looking for in the first (hopefully there will be more!) volume of Mercs?

First of all, remember the dates, as laid out along with the description on our Open Calls page:

Opens: 08/02/25
Closes: 09/21/25
Contracts: 10/04/25
Publication: 10/31/25

Next, let’s talk themes. We’re in the market for stories of men and women of fortune. These are soldiers for hire, who may march to the sound of gunfire ready to do God’s will, but in their case, it’s not under the flag of any nation or kingdom. They’re here to misbehave, and they’re here to get paid. Snappin’ necks and cashin’ checks.

Image: Cedar Sanderson

The term “mercenary” has acquired an unsavory flavor for some, sort of like “imperial,” “propaganda,” or “dogmatic,” but like those words, in truth, it is value-neutral and has no moral valence. A mercenary is simply a soldier who fights for pay, rather than political or religious motivations. I personally maintain that at some level, all soldiers are mercenaries (none of us fought for free, did we?), but sometimes that can rustle jimmies, so I don’t harp on it much unless I’m being deliberately provocative.

Fighting for pay does not automatically confer an illicit or shady tenor. Historically, many mercenary units folded into the legitimate and formal chain of command just like a regular military unit. The wars of religion in the middle-teen-hundreds in Europe offer many examples of this. The fighters in those units were bound by codes of conduct and laws of war, just as the regular soldiers were. Even today, contractors in US warzones are bound by the UCMJ¹ and in my personal experience, many are given additional, even stricter guidelines written into the terms of their contracts.

And—lest we forget—the ultimate real-life mercenary company: La Légion Étrangère, the French Foreign Legion. While romanticized to a fare-thee-well, I don’t think anyone can honestly claim that La Légion is illegitimate.

Here are some books, shows and games to put you in the right mindset. YES, most of these have some violence, language or sex. So, those of you with delicate constitutions, keep your pearls close at hand ready to clutch, your smelling salts locked and loaded, and don’t stray too far from your fainting couch.

Glorious.

We have to start out with the undisputed High King of military sci-fi mercenary groups: Hammer’s Slammers by David Drake.

The Black Company. For me, this is the quintessential fantasy-genre mercenary series, although it is by no means the only one. A group of mercenaries—a “free company” in soldier-of-fortune terms—fights for one evil overlord in a war against several other evil overlords. These are not unstoppable elite special-forces killers: they are rank-and-file infantry grunts, who die often and hard. The series follows them for several years through the late stages of the war and what comes after.

Strange Company. A science-fiction homage to Black Company, this is Nick Cole’s tale of a spacefaring group of mercenaries fighting at the collapse of an interstellar empire. Plenty of funny moments, but also some heartrending and brutal ones.

Lest you think that writing about mercenaries has to be grim and vicious, I give you Phule’s Company by Robert Lynn Aspirin. Hilarity and puns abound, as well as a few lessons here and there.

The Profession. Stephen Pressfield can write the hell out of military fiction (a topic for another time), but this is a standout.

The Shadowrun novels, especially the first few by Robert N. Charrette. A mashup of cyberpunk, fantasy and urban crime drama, these posit a near-future world where there are no legitimate military forces left. When all illusion of higher callings or noble causes are shrugged off, the almighty ducat rules all.

Once you read the first three by Charrette, grab Wolf and Raven. This is an interwoven collection of short stories by Michael Stackpole, and a quick, enjoyable read.

Image: Sarah C.

The Wild Geese. A group of old British vets get together to rescue a kidnapped African president. Also a pretty good mid-70s movie.

The Dogs of War

Battletech

Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries

The Mercenaries video games. See part 2 (the lesser of the two, in my opinion, but still a ton of fun) here.

For those who wish a quicker, more visual read, Jon Sable, Freelance comics by Mike Grell are pretty damned good.

Blood Diamond, from LawDog’s part of the world, has a slightly more modern take on the single mercenary.

Ronin is a look at the more shadowy part of mercenary operations.

Killer Elite is another along the same vein. A Middle East maven contracts a team of assassins to hit several SAS men who killed his son. I cannot speak to the quality of the book upon which it’s based, The Feather Men, but it’s well-liked (if controversial, because it purports to be a true story).

(This is Chris, Intern Steve Part 2, hijacking this for a moment: if you’re not familiar with Lone Wolf & Cub, in any form, now’s the time to fix that.)

The two Extraction movies are phenomenal. Highly recommend. All action movies should be this good.

So get out there, absorb some of these books, movies and games to put you in the right mood, and then send us a Mercs story. We can’t wait to see it!

Good talk, gang! I’ll see you out there.

—Nick

1. Uniform Code of Military Justice, the official legal doctrine governing all uniformed personnel.