Editing Mercenary Review and Bonding Commission

{{Update Needed|[[Field Manual: Mercenaries]]|[[Wolf Pack]]|[[Field Manual: 3085]]|[[Combat Manual: Mercenaries]]|[[Mercenary's Handbook 3055]]|[[Second Succession War (sourcebook)]]|[[Dominions Divided]]}}
{{InfoBoxOrganization
| image = MRBC.jpg
| Type = Trade Association
| Founded = [[3053]]<ref name=CSSB78>''ComStar'', p. 78</ref>
| Dissolved = 
| Parent Organization = Independent
| Headquarters = 
}}
The '''Mercenary Review and Bonding Commission''' (MRBC) is an independent supranational organization that serves as the Sphere-wide official registrar for all legal [[mercenary unit]]s. Created in [[3053]], it is the successor of [[ComStar]]'s '''Mercenary Review Board''' (MRB) that previously filled the same role from [[2789]] to 3052.

==Overview==
The MRBC functions as a mercenary guild, brokering and arbitrating mercenary contracts through the endless wars of the [[Inner Sphere]] and the [[Periphery]]. Apart from registering mercenaries and providing a ranking system to gauge performance and reliability, the MRBC also serves as a court of arbitration in contract disputes for both employers and mercenaries. If a [[mercenary unit]] is not registered with the MRB/MRBC then it is usually not considered to be a legitimate mercenary command, and therefore not subject to POW rights, among other drawbacks, though there are exceptions.

While operated by ComStar as the MRB, it was at the same time also a criminal extradition service, a prisoner exchange and ransoming service, and a banking house. Arbitration of contracts by ComStar's Mercenary Review Board provided a valuable safeguard on both sides, as 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. To ensure fair dealings on the part of employers as well as those they hired, the MRB 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 broadcast 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.<ref name=CS-15>''ComStar'', p. 15: "Mercenary Review Board"</ref> The MRBC still offers all these functions but to a lesser degree, due to being a separate organization from ComStar.

==History==
===The Mercenary Review Board===
[[File:MRB.jpg|left|150px]]
Formed in [[2789]] by ComStar founder [[Jerome Blake]], the Mercenary Review Board allowed ComStar agents to serve as brokers for all mercenaries and their employers in the [[Inner Sphere]].<ref name=CS-15/> The planet [[Galatea]] with its numerous [[Hiring Hall]]s became the "Mercenary's Star," the greatest center of the mercenary trade in the [[Inner Sphere]] where mercenaries could train, rest, repair and negotiate their contracts.{{cn}}

There is a disputed alternate claim regarding the genesis of the Board. According to a [[3053]] publication, one [[Tai-shu|Warlord]] Scoble of the [[Draconis Combine]] had complained about the conduct of mercenaries under his command on [[Imbrial III]] around 2789, during the opening years of the [[First Succession War]]. Scoble claimed that he had been present when [[Coordinator]] [[Minoru Kurita (28th c.)|Minoru Kurita]] suggested forming a neutral policing agency to Jerome Blake. According to Scoble, a week after the Coordinator's transmission, Jerome Blake had announced the 'neutral' mercenary policing agency, cheating Kurita out of any credit for it. The credibility of Scoble, "one of the most vicious warlords ever to char a world to cinder," has been called into question.<ref name=CS-15/>

While publicly accepted as a means to ensure neutral dealings for all parties, ComStar in truth created and maintained the MRB as a clandestine means to monitor and control mercenary forces. Attempts by mercenaries themselves to set up their own competitors to the MRB, such as the short-lived Mercenaries Guild ([[2956]]–[[2968]]), fell prey to the determined opposition of ComStar to prevent any threat to its role as a neutral arbiter of inter-House dealings.<ref name=CS-15/>

===The rise of Outreach===
The first real change in the mercenary business in centuries occurred over several years and did not affect the Mercenary Review Board as such. [[Wolf's Dragoons]], one of the premier and most influential mercenary units, were granted the world of [[Outreach]] in [[3030]] and began to establish it as a new Hiring Hall. The center of the Inner Sphere's mercenary business began to gradually shift from Galatea to Outreach.

===The end of the Mercenary Review Board===
ComStar lost most of the trust that the powers of the Inner Sphere had previously placed in the organization because of the ramifications of the failed [[Operation SCORPION]] and when their clandestine collaboration with the invading [[Clans]] was revealed in 3052. In the [[ComStar Schism|schism]] that followed the upheaval within the organization, the [[Word of Blake]] zealots broke away and ComStar reverted from a mystical sect to a commercial provider of communications and other technology. Bereft of their status as an impartial and trustworthy power, ComStar could not muster the authority anymore to control and arbitrate the mercenary business as they used to. During [[Terran Peace Summit|the peace summit]] that [[Primus (ComStar)|ComStar Primus]] [[Sharilar Mori]] held on [[Terra]] in the spring of 3053, the [[Draconis Combine]] announced that they no longer recognized ComStar as a neutral mercenary contract arbitrator; the [[Capellan Confederation]] and [[Federated Commonwealth]] followed suit. After 263 years in operation, the MRB essentially collapsed.<ref name=CS-15/>

===The Mercenary Review and Bonding Commission===
To salvage something out of the deteriorating situation, [[Precentor Martial of ComStar|Precentor Martial]] [[Anastasius Focht|Focht]] proposed at the summit that ComStar would abandon control of the MRB, and to have it re-form as a jointly administered committee made up of representatives from each government.<ref name=CS-78>''ComStar'', p. 78: "United We Stand"</ref> The defunct MRB was dissolved in 3052 and replaced with the Mercenary Review and Bonding Commission (MRBC) in the same year already,<ref>''Mercenary's Handbook 3055'', p. 5: "Welcome to Outreach"</ref><ref name=FMMr-12>''Field Manual: Mercenaries, Revised'', p. 12</ref> although the Mercenary Review and Bonding Accords were only signed in [[3054]].<ref name=FMMr-12/> The MRBC essentially took over the MRB's business in what appears to have been a seamless transition.

The MRBC was helmed by a group composed of representatives of the major political powers of the Inner Sphere—the five Great Houses, [[Free Rasalhague Republic|Free Rasalhague]], [[St. Ives Compact|St. Ives]], and ComStar—and several elite mercenary units, foremost among them Wolf's Dragoons. By 3059, membership of the board was beginning to shift. Both the [[Eridani Light Horse]] and [[McCarron's Armored Cavalry]] had left the mercenary trade, prompting the board to offer their seats to the [[Northwind Highlanders]] and [[Blue Star Irregulars]]. Three Periphery states and the [[Word of Blake]] were also offered a place on the board, with the [[Magistracy of Canopus]] accepting immediately, while the Blakists demanded that ComStar no longer be allowed to chair meetings as their price for joining. No effort was made to grant their request.<ref>''Field Manual: Mercenaries'', p. 25</ref>

Outreach, the home of Wolf's Dragoons and by now already the premier hiring hall, was chosen as the official home of the new MRBC following a suggestion from the Federated Commonwealth representative at the summit.<ref name=CS-78/> In reference to Wolf's Dragoons, who represent the mercenary trade and are regarded as the yardstick against which to measure the success of a mercenary unit, the quality ratings for mercenary units established by the MRBC became colloquially known as "Dragoon Rating."

While Outreach had been an important hiring hall before, the establishment of the MRBC spelled the end for Galatea as the official center of the mercenary trade until the [[Jihad]]. Galatea subsequently fell on hard times, although it remained a hiring center for less-reputable (or simply less successful) mercenary commands. In [[3062]] the MRBC returned to set up a satellite office on Galatea, with plans announced for further MRBC offices on [[Solaris VII]], [[Arc-Royal]] and [[Northwind]]&mdash;a move viewed by many as an attempt to prove the MRBC's neutrality and shed the impression that it was effectively run by Wolf's Dragoons.<ref name=FM:MRp10>''Field Manual: Mercenaries, Revised'', p. 10</ref><ref>''Mercenaries Supplemental Update'', p. 8</ref>

===The Jihad and the Dark Age===
In the wake of the massive destruction inflicted on Outreach by the Jihad in [[3067]], the MRBC moved its primary offices to Galatea after its liberation from the Blakists in [[3076]]. Following the conclusion of the Jihad, only the Galatea MRBC branch remained active in the wake of the [[Republic of the Sphere]]'s [[3081]] [[Republic Mercenary Act]] mandating it as the only legal mercenary destination within its borders. With the reduction in warfare resulting in almost all other hiring halls in the Inner Sphere closing, by [[3109]] Galatea again was the undisputed Mercenary's Star of the entire Inner Sphere. This all ended in [[3132]] when [[Gray Monday]] caused great complication for mercenaries and the Galatean-based MRBC-RB (Republic Branch), the lack of timely communications eventually resulted in the MRBC-RB declaring bankruptcy in that same year. In [[3133]] the MRBC was revived, but as a shadow of itself, with its former neutral brokering replaced with a heavy bias towards its employers and resulting in unscrupulous and exceedingly poor contract terms for many mercenaries.<ref name=FM3145-176>''Field Manual: 3145'', pp. 176: "Mercenaries - General Review - State of Mercenary Readiness"</ref> The situation has become dysfunctional for some mercenaries that many opted to take up offers from [[Clan Sea Fox]] as a result once [[Fox Khanate]] began brokering contracts in the IlClan Era. <ref>''Riptides''</ref>

==Delegates==
===The Mercenary Review Board===
These are the known members from ComStar that worked for the Mercenary Review Board:
{|class="wikitable sortable" style="background: #gray; text-align:center; border: 2px solid black;"
! Name
! Affiliation
! Years
! References
|-
|}

===The Mercenary Review and Bonding Commission===
By [[3056]], each of the five Successor States plus the [[Free Rasalhague Republic]] and the [[St. Ives Compact]] had a seat in the council. ComStar was allowed to maintain an active seat, and another seat was granted to Wolf's Dragoons as a representative of the mercenaries.

During arbitration, four of the members of the panel would hear the case and take the vote on the disputes. The appointees were ComStar, a Mercenary representative without ties to the involved Mercenary unit, and two of the State representatives, though never the contracting party. Each of the disputing parties could veto one of the representatives if they felt it could be biased against them.<ref name=MH3055p5/>

These are the known members who worked for the Mercenary Review and Bonding Commission:
{|class="wikitable sortable" style="background: #gray; text-align:center; border: 2px solid black;"
! Name
! Affiliation
! Period
! References
|-
| [[Lord]] [[Deng Xiao (Capellan Confederation)|Deng Xiao]]
| [[Capellan Confederation]]
| [[3054]]
| <ref name=NSp12>''Null Set'', p. 12: "The Trial"</ref>
|-
| [[Merideth Ambridge]]
| [[ComStar]]
| 3054
| <ref name=NSp12/>
|-
| [[Mark Bremmer]]
| [[ComStar]]
| [[3068]] (acting)
| <ref name=MRBC>''The Future of the MRBC''</ref>
|-
| [[Akira Sugioka (Draconis Combine)|Akira Sugioka]]
| [[Draconis Combine]]
| 3054
| <ref name=NSp12/>
|-
| [[Baron (noble title)|Baron]] [[Humfrey Donahugue]]
| [[Federated Suns]]
| 3054
| <ref name=NSp12/>
|-
| ''[[Freiherr]]'' [[Rolf Bjarnesson]]
| [[Free Rasalhague Republic]]
| 3054
| <ref name=NSp12/>
|-
| [[Duke]] [[Randolph Severn]]
| [[Free Worlds League]]
| 3054
| <ref>''Null Set'', p. 31</ref>
|-
| [[Duchess]] [[Marion Reynolds]]
| [[Lyran Commonwealth]]
| 3054 - [[3056]]
| <ref name=NSp12/><ref name=MH3055p5>''Mercenary's Handbook 3055'', p. 5: "Mercenary Review and Bonding Commission"</ref>
|-
|}
==Mission Types==
By 3067, Hiring Halls recognized several different mission types for mercenary contracts, broadly grouped into four categories: defense, raids, assaults, and covert.  Covert missions were rarely allowed through Outreach and other hiring halls approved by the MRBC.<ref name=FMMRp23>''Field Manual: Mercenaries, Revised'', p. 23: Mission Types</ref>

The mission types are:
{{div col|colwidth=25em}}
*Retainer (Defense)<ref name=FMMRp23/>
*Garrison (Defense)<ref name=FMMRp24>''Field Manual: Mercenaries, Revised'', p. 24: Mission Types</ref>
*Cadre (Defense)<ref name=FMMRp24/>
*Relief Duty (Defense)<ref name=FMMRp24/>
*Defensive Campaign (Defense)<ref name=FMMRp24/>
*Riot Duty (Defense)<ref name=FMMRp24/>
*Security Duty (Defense)<ref name=FMMRp24/>
*Covert Security Duty (Covert)<ref name=FMMRp24/>
*Objective Raid (Raid)<ref name=FMMRp24/>
*Extraction (Raid)<ref name=FMMRp2425>''Field Manual: Mercenaries, Revised'', pp. 24–25: Mission Types</ref>
*Reconnaissance (Raid)<ref name=FMMRp25>''Field Manual: Mercenaries, Revised'', p. 25: Mission Types</ref>
*Covert Reconnaissance (Covert)<ref name=FMMRp25/>
*Diversionary Raid (Raid)<ref name=FMMRp25/>
*Covert Diversionary Raid (Covert)<ref name=FMMRp25/>
*Planetary Assault (Assault)<ref name=FMMRp25/>
*Pirate Hunting (Assault)<ref name=FMMRp25/>
*Guerrilla Warfare (Assault)<ref name=FMMRp25/>
*Covert Guerrilla Warfare (Covert)<ref name=FMMRp25/>
*Assassination and Terrorism (Covert)<ref name=FMMRp25/>
*Espionage and Sabotage (Covert)<ref name=FMMRp2526>''Field Manual: Mercenaries, Revised'', pp. 25–26: Mission Types</ref>
*Observation and Mole-Hunting (Covert)<ref name=FMMRp26>''Field Manual: Mercenaries, Revised'', p. 26: Mission Types</ref>
{{div col end}}

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Image:MRBC_poster_FMMercsRev.jpg|MRBC promotional poster
</gallery>

==References==
<references />

==Bibliography==
* ''[[List of Solaris Broadcasting Co. articles#The Future of the MRBC|BattleCorps Solaris Broadcasting Co., 20/10/3068: "The Future of the MRBC"]]''
* ''[[ComStar (sourcebook)|ComStar]]''
* ''[[Field Manual: 3145]]''
* ''[[Field Manual: Mercenaries, Revised]]''
* ''[[Mercenaries Supplemental Update]]''
* ''[[Null Set]]''

[[Category:Trade Associations]]
[[Category:Mercenary Related Categories]]