"David Drake - The Hammers Slammers Handbook" - читать интересную книгу автора (Drake David)

Thenit's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, 'ow'syersoul?"
Butit's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll,
the drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll,
O it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll.

тАУ Kipling

The poverty stricken agricultural societies scattered across human space made fertile recruiting grounds
for the mercenary regiments. They tended to leave with as many troopers as which they arrived from
every planet they fought upon regardless of losses. Regiments generally preferred farm boys as recruits to
the urban slum dwellers of Old Earth or the moreurbanised colonies because they had fewer
psychological problems; oddly enough sociopaths, psychopaths and gangsters tend to make bad soldiers.
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Farming families in the agricultural colonies tended to be large despite the high infant mortality rate;
children were needed to work the farm. However, eventually only one offspring and spouse could inherit
or the farm would have to be split into uneconomically small units. The options for younger sons were
limited. A trooper's monthly pay in one of the elite regiments was higher than a year's salary for an
agriculturallabourer . Troopers also got access to medical care and pensions if they survived. The death
rate among the dirt-poor farmers did not compare particularlyfavourably with soldiers.

Finally, soldiering had a certain romantic wickedness to it. The image of a swooning exotic girl on every
planet just ready to be bowled over by a likely lad in a uniform stuffed with money to spend held a
considerable attraction, at least for the male recruits.

If a recruit was lucky, they ended in an elitemechanised regiment where they fought protected by the
thickest iridiumarmour , the best electronics and the most powerful guns the galaxy had ever seen. They
also received an education, maybe for the first time in their lives. If they were unlucky, they spent their
days as paramilitary policemen in ill fittinguniforms, that sometimes still bore bloodstains from the previous
owner, gunning down rioters in shantytowns.

Officers in the regiments came from a variety of backgrounds. If the unit was mono-ethnic, the officers
might be drawn from the traditional upper classes. Sometimes they were businessmen, protecting their
investment. In the best regiments where results counted more than fashionable accents, officers were
promoted from below.



As long as business was good, and there was never enough productive farmland to go round, the
recruits came whatever their reception.


Extract fromPsychologyOf A Hired Gun , Fin Sao