United Free Company

The United Free Company, a mercenary force of Benacian mutineers, previously expelled from Samhold and Amaland and as of 1729 AN present in the Emirate of Sathrati.

History

The United Free Company had its origins with the garrison of the Union Defence Force placed on the island of Samhold in the 1690s.

The island was garrisoned, indeed largely populated, by Elwynnese personnel tasked with its defence. The UDF's lead formation on the island being the 1st Regiment, 3rd Brigade of the 81st Landsfördelning, a formation specialising in boreal operations. The deployment is supported by a further 1,200-strong detachment from the Union Aerospace Corps, a 120-man detachment from the Elwmarine, and a 40-man troop from the 17th Logistics Division.

Following the independence of Normark the island remained under the sovereignty of the Benacian Union, the successor to Elluenuueq, however it seemed that this fact remained obscured from the High Presidium of the Benacian Union in Chryse, which made no provision for the continued governance of the place.

By administrative oversight the garrison came to be forgotten following the reorganisation of the UDF into the Benacian Union Defence Force in 1703 AN. Without regular reinforcement, rations, nor pay, the garrison troops endured until late 1706 AN when, finally despairing of ever being relieved from their dismal posting, the survivors mutinied and slaughtered their officers. Thereafter, having burnt the structures of the island after raping, murdering, and cannibalising the small remnant native community, the mutineers - some eight-hundred and forty men in total - pledged themselves to form the United Free Company. Placing themselves aboard the single icebreaker and the provisioning boat which had been their sole means of trading with the settlements of the Hexarchy, the United Free Company departed the island to begin their new lives, to be spent plundering the settlements of the north-west Keltian Green.

A defence service agreement awarded by the Hurmu Peace Corps on 1.XIII.1707 AN provided for the United Free Company to garrison Amaland, supplementary to the small force of artillerymen put ashore by the Honourable Company. The services of the mercenaries would be retained for an initial period running from 1707 to 1712 AN.

The Defence Service Agreement between the United Free Company and the Hurmu Peace Corps elapsed in 1712 AN without being renewed, owing to the demise of the final al-Osman cabinet. As of 1714 AN the United Free Company remained in possession of its fortified places once more as an independent mercenary band, levying fees upon the surrounding communities and receiving a compelled subsidy from the government of the colony. This oversight was addressed once it came to the attention of the administration in Huyenkula, with the result that a new ten year contract (1714-1724) was hurriedly brought into effect under the same terms as before. Owing to the chaos arising from the 1719–1720 Hurmu civil conflict the contract with the United Free Company was once again allowed to expire without being renewed, provoking a further instance of the mercenaries resorting to mutiny and brigandage to protest their loss of income.

In 1727 AN the Regiment of the Blackfriars' was awarded a ten year contract by the Hurmu Fyrð to garrison Amaland in conjunction with the ESB Group. Implicit in the contract was the obligation to expel the United Free Company from the district.