Mercenaries In the Star Trek Universe

[Samuel]

Have we ever seen actual onscreen evidence for soldiers for hire in Star Trek?
The closest one I can think of was in the first season of DS9 when the guy tried to steal the Dax symbiot. He had at least one Klingon hired to help him. And although the novels are not canon, the TNG novel "Survivors" had the former mentor/lover of Lt. Yar having become a mercenary after he was courtmartialed and thrown out of Starfleet (by mistake it turned out).

It seems to me that given what we know about the Trek universe it would be literally awash in soldiers/starship crewman for hire. Klingons who get tired of "chasing honor". Trained Starfleet personnel who can't abide by Federation rules and regulations. Demobilized former soldiers from say planets like Eminar VII or Ekos who don't have anything to do once peace breaks out.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Ex-MACOs like Edison.

 

[Timo]

Trek is awash with pirates. That's self-employed mercenaries for short.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[F. King Daniel]

The guys from the Renegades fan film?

Ex-MACOs like Edison.

He was pursuing his own agenda though, a mercenary does someone else's bidding.

 

[Kor]

There were those people who kidnapped Picard while making it look like he was vaporized.

Kor

 

[Samuel]

There were those people who kidnapped Picard while making it look like he was vaporized.

Kor

I had forgotten about that. They were hired to find the Vulcan relics used to create a negative emotion weapon or something like that weren't they?

 

[The Wormhole]

Some Nausicaans act as mercenaries, like the ones Brunt used as his muscle in Bar Association. And in The Magnificent Ferengi there was Leck.

 

[Samuel]

Some Nausicaans act as mercenaries, like the ones Brunt used as his muscle in Bar Association. And in The Magnificent Ferengi there was Leck.

I had forgotten the particular episode but I thought that some Nausicaans showed up as mercs somewhere.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

There's also the TNG episode with the particle sweep, when Picard faced off against a group of mercs onboard the E-D.

 

[The Wormhole]

There's also the TNG episode with the particle sweep, when Picard faced off against a group of mercs onboard the E-D.

They seemed more like a terrorist organization than mercenaries. That is, they seemed to be working towards their own goals, not those of someone else.

 

[Timo]

But Picard was specifically disgusted about the main villain's profit motive - she was going to deliver the loot to a customer for payment. We don't get a clear picture of whether she or the customer was responsible for the theft happening in the first place; if the latter, mercs.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

I always assumed they were the middlemen, hired to do the job for others who didn't want to get their hands dirty--though it has been a while since I saw the episode, so I'd need to refresh my memory.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

He was pursuing his own agenda though, a mercenary does someone else's bidding.

I meant ones who were similarly dissatisfied and chose another avenue to vent said angst.

 

[Greg Cox]

Sounds like something the the Orions would be into. I'd buy green Orion mercenaries.

 

[flandry84]

/\Buy two and get another free!

 

[Samuel]

I've wondered about mercenaries large enough and well organized and equipped enough to be flying their own starships.

IIRC in the DC Comics classic Star Trek editions that took up AFTER Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered country, the Klingons and another race put a price on Kirks head which prompts a bounty hunter named Sweeney (who is drawn as a very dapper, proper British gentlemen) to attempt to capture Kirk. Sweeney has a fleet of six very heavily armed ships.

 

[Greysun]

In the Enterprise episode Bounty there are bounty hunters that capture Captain Archer for the Klingons. They might qualify as mercenaries.

 

[Tosk]

Easiest answer...

http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Mercenary

 

[JirinPanthosa]

DS9 had multiple hit men, a form of mercenary. One hired to kill Garak, one hired to save Ishka.

 

[Voth commando1]

Didn't Worf mention joining some distant organization that was involved in mercenary work or combat?