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Comstar Mercenary Review Board
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The Mercenary Review Board allowed ComStar agents to serve
as brokers for all mercenaries and their employers in the
Inner Sphere. After negotiating a contract, an employer would
turn over the full amount of money (plus a 5 percent handling
fee) to local ComStar authorities. ComStar, in turn, advanced
as much of the payment as it saw fit to the mercenary unit
for necessary purchases and operating capital. Upon successful
completion of their contract, the mercenaries collected the
balance (less a second 5 percent handling charge).
Arbitration of contracts by the Mercenary Review Board proved
a valuable safeguard on both sides. Any unit failing to perform
contracted services after taking an advance found itself unable
to evade ComStar's almost universal reach. ComStar informed
other potential employers of a rogue unit's actions, and had
the power to threaten an Interdiction against any House employing
such a unit. ComStar returned the money to the original employer
when a unit skipped on a contract, and in the interim, used
the money for profitable investments.
To ensure fair dealings on the part of employers as well
as those they hire, Blake provided for a panel of ComStar
administrators to hear claims concerning breaches of faith
and to judge the veracity of complaints. Upon reaching a verdict,
the panel broadcasted its findings throughout the Inner Sphere.
As the reputations of mercenary units and their employers
have a bearing on subsequent negotiations involving other
units or Houses, violating contractual terms offered little
profit to any concerned.
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Through the Mercenary Review Board's variety of activities, ComStar
has functioned not only as a communications service, but also as a
mercenary guild, an inter-League criminal extradition service, and
a banking house, all of which has added considerably through the centuries
to ComStar's power and prestige.
Due to ComStar's dealing with the Clans before Tukayyid, however,
most if not all of the Houses no longer trusted the Order as an
impartial arbitrator of mercenary contracts. So, during the peace
summit Primus Mori held on Terra in the spring of 3052, Precentor
Martial Focht proposed to abandon control. The Houses agreed to
have the Board re-form as a jointly administered committee made
up of representatives from each government, also allowing ComStar
to maintain an active seat on the board, as a legitimate employer
of mercenary forces. Outreach, the home of Wolf's Dragoons, was
chosen as the official seat of the new Mercenary Review and Bonding
Commission. This marked the end of ComStar's centuries-old control
over mercenary contracts.
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