PMC Contractor
The Rim's professional deniability -- a corporate soldier who exists off the books, fights other people's wars, and vanishes when the contract ends.
A PMC Contractor is the verse's expendable-but-elite professional: a corporate soldier paid by a House or megacorp to fight wars that no one wants on the official ledger. Where the Legion is the volunteer ladder and the corp armies are debt-soldier meat-grinders, the PMC is the deniable middle -- well-trained, well-equipped, and carrying no affiliation a captor can prove. Their loyalty is transactional; their will bends toward the highest bidder; their gear is configured for the job, then reconfigured for the next.
Individually, a Contractor is a cut above a line trooper -- quicker, better sighted, harder to pin. As adversaries they appear in small teams under a Team-Lead, deployed on black jobs: asset seizures, deniable raids, corporate skirmishes the Families do not want traced. Their defining edge is that nothing on them leads back to anyone, which makes them brave in a very specific, very legalistic way -- until the contract runs out.
Rules Reference
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Abilities / Cha | 10 |
| Abilities / Con | 14 |
| Abilities / Dex | 14 |
| Abilities / Int | 10 |
| Abilities / Str | 12 |
| Abilities / Wis | 10 |
| Armor Class | 15 |
| Base Attack Bonus | 2 |
| Creature Type | Humanoid |
| Flat Ac | 12 |
| Hd Count | 2 |
| Hd Sides | 10 |
| Hit Dice | 2d10+4 |
| Hit Points | 15 |
| Hp Bonus | 4 |
| Initiative | 2 |
| Languages | Trade Cant; Core Standard; field-signals |
| Psionics | None |
| Resistances | Mesh armour (included in AC), Optic implant (included in senses/Notice) |
| Role Tags | Skirmisher, Ranged, Deniable |
| Saves / Fort | 5 |
| Saves / Ref | 4 |
| Saves / Will | 0 |
| Senses | Normal human vision; optic implant grants low-light and +4 to Notice; passive Perception 14 |
| Size | M |
| Skills / Athletics | 5 |
| Skills / Deception | 5 |
| Skills / Notice | 6 |
| Skills / Stealth | 6 |
| Skills / Tactics | 4 |
| Speed | 30 |
| Threat Rating | 2 |
| Touch Ac | 13 |
| Xp | 150 |
| Dialogue Path | game/dialogue/npc-pmc-contractor.yaml |
Notes
Full Attack: Contract Carbine ranged +4 (1d8 ballistic; range 80 ft; scoped or short per Loadout) or Holdout slug pistol ranged +4 (1d6 energy; range 30 ft) or Combat Knife melee +3 (1d4+1 slashing; +2 on ambush)
Habitat: Black jobs across the Rim and Core edges: deniable raids, asset seizures, corporate skirmishes, Family proxy actions. Deployed in teams of 3-6 under a Team-Lead, often with a configured loadout for the mission. Roll 1d6: 1-2 = three Contractors on overwatch around an objective (Marksman Loadout, patient), 3-4 = four Contractors breaching a target (Breacher Loadout, fast), 5-6 = three Contractors infiltrating quietly (Infiltrator Loadout, until the first shot).
Morale: Steady (11) while the contract pays and a Team-Lead or extraction beacon is live; drops to Unsteady (8) the moment the extraction is called off or the Team-Lead goes down
Tactics: Plan to the contract, then execute cold. Contractors use the Loadout's strength (Marksman holds range, Breacher closes fast, Infiltrator sets the ambush), share targets over the tac-net, and disengage the instant the job is done or the extraction lands. They will not chase a fleeing foe past the objective, and they will not hold a position the contract did not pay for. Bravery is budgeted.
Treasure: Mesh armour (150 rek), contract carbine (300 rek), holdout slug pistol (150 rek), combat knife (40 rek), optic implant (800 rek), spoofed Kadiss fob (200 rek; untraceable), encrypted tac-net earpiece (250 rek), 6d10 rek in hazard pay (the only thing they will fight over if it is on the body).
Vulnerabilities: Will-poor (the Contractor's defining weakness: physically elite but morally flexible, with a weak Will save; fear, mind-affecting, and Intimidation land hard), Contract-bound (the moment the contract's terms are met, the pay runs out, or the extraction is called off, the Contractor disengages -- they do not die for a job that stopped paying), No backup (unlike the Legion, a lost PMC team triggers no rescue; cut off their tac-net and they have nothing to fall back on but themselves)
Attacks
Contract Carbine (Modular)
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
bonus | 4 |
category | ranged |
damage | 1d8 |
damageType | ballistic |
name | Contract Carbine (Modular) |
rangeFt | 80 |
notes: Configured at contract start; can be declared as scoped (+1 to hit, +40 ft range) or short (+1 damage, -20 ft range) per the Contract Loadout
Holdout slug pistol
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
bonus | 4 |
category | ranged |
damage | 1d6 |
damageType | energy |
name | Holdout slug pistol |
notes | Sidearm; the Contractor's fallback |
rangeFt | 30 |
Combat Knife
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
bonus | 3 |
category | melee |
damage | 1d4+1 |
damageType | slashing |
name | Combat Knife |
notes | Quiet work; +2 to Stealth-based ambush attack rolls |
Special Abilities
Contract Loadout
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
actionCost | passive |
name | Contract Loadout |
description: At the start of an encounter the GM declares the Contractor's loadout for this contract (chosen once, locked for the job): Breacher (carbine short, +10 ft speed, +1 damage in melee), Marksman (carbine scoped, +1 to hit and +40 ft range, cannot move more than half speed), or Infiltrator (stealth-focused, +4 to Stealth and +1 to ambush attack rolls). Player-visible: the Contractors all carry the same configured kit, because they were briefed for this exact job.
Deniable Operator
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
actionCost | passive |
name | Deniable Operator |
description: The Contractor carries no traceable ID, serial numbers are filed off, and their Kadiss is a spoofed or off-grid fob. Anyone attempting to identify the Contractor's employer from the body, gear, or testimony must make a DC 18 Investigation or Bureaucracy check (the corporate firewall holds). The Contractor gains +4 to Deception and Disguise checks to conceal affiliation. Player-visible: the dead one has no name, no unit, no flag -- just a cheque that will clear somewhere the players cannot reach.
Tac-Net Comms
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
actionCost | Free (1/round) |
name | Tac-Net Comms |
description: Contractors on the same contract share a short-range encrypted tac-net. Once per round a Contractor can spend a free action to mark a target for the team; the next allied Contractor to attack that target gains +1 to the attack roll. Player-visible: a clipped word over the net, and the next shot comes from a different angle.