"Mercenary" by Mack Reynolds is a science fiction novel published in 1968. In a future where Western society is divided into rigid castes, Joe Mauser, a Mid-Lower soldier, sees one chance for upward mobility: military service. Corporations now settle disputes through televised battles using pre-1900 technology. When Mauser joins an underdog company in a high-stakes corporate war, he bets everything on an untested tactical innovation that could defeat the finest commander in the business—and finally elevate him to the Upper caste. (This is an automatically generated summary.)