After the Bomb: Conflict

freelance mercs are just people with guns and armor who do shit for money, much less close to whoever they contract to (and accordingly not given any tech or material support or are privy to company secrets as much as possible)

sponsored mercs get fat material support (like high standard of living when operating in whatever area corpo needs them to, supplied with sick ass guns and armor etc) AND money.

maybe sponsored mercs need to get a special implant that lets corpos eavesdrop on thoughts to ensure they don't defect. this is very OP, how to limit it? implant also rewires some chemical pathways so they love brutality