Mercenaries, Bonds, and Dog Tags

On Reddit, someone asked what proves someone is a mercenary? Copying my reply here for future reference.

Comparing to real world history, there are laws of war that typically require participants or "recognized belligerants" to abide by certain rules, such as wearing uniforms, in exchange for certain protections, such as the Geneva convention, access for the International Red Cross, and so on.

For mercenaries, you'd want a Repatriation Bond from an institution that is recognized by the belligerents in a war so that they honor it. For instance, if you the Zhodani and Third Imperium are fighting and you're a mercenary employed by either side, you'd want a repatriation bond backed by a powerful bank or entity that both sides recognize such as at Arden (a neutral system between Zhodani and Imperium in the Vilis subsector).

So that if you're captured, the captors can return you to your home, or an acceptable neutral intermediary and cash in that bond (or your remains for a smaller fee).

In a Traveller setting, I imagine this would involve some kind of quantumly-entangled subcutaneous chip whose authenticity could be easily scanned and verified (and probably a redundant actual dog tag or UPC tattoo.

More:

Classic Traveller Book 4 Mercenary discusses the legal conditions of a mercenary ticket listing: conditions of payment, type of service, financial support, and repatriation bond ("generally posted in an escrow account in a neutral bank with sufficient funds to provide low passage off-planet to the personnel of the contingent . . . mercenaries become non-combatants and are given free transit to the nearest spaceport." - All this in the case the employing entity ceases to function.

Mongoose Traveller 1E Book 1 Mercenary has a whole several pages on the mercenary ticket but adds to the repatriation bond as a form of guaranteed payment for a mercenary when the employer ceases to function.