PRMDS (1983: Doomsday)

The Private Response and Military Defence Service (PRMDS) was a private military firm which surfaced in several Middle Eastern conflict zones following the Doomsday catastrophe. Since 2005, there have been furious rows about its activities in the Eastern Turkish Wasteland, Kalmykia, Dagestan, and elsewhere.

Background
In 1983 Doomsday came suddenly for many countries, triggering the collapse of national defense structures and security forces. The Turkish military was certainly no exception, and its subsequent border war with the Soviet Union saw broad cuts in its personnel due to straggling or desertion. Soviet divisions in Georgia and Armenia fared little better; these disgruntled soldiers-turned-bandits, often taking valuable hardware with them, led a general exodus west to escape nuclear devastation to the east and south. The unemployment pool they joined - shared with thousands of former policemen, intelligence specialists, guards, and state paramilitary operatives from dozens of locales in the Caucasus - was to provide the inevitable basis for a new organization: PRMDS.

One of Doomsday's most serious consequences was the erosion in domestic security (and of a government's ability to deal with the problem). It was only natural that central authorities would have to entertain a new strategy to protect their assets; personnel for maintaining order were simply too few and forced to do too much. Among the most active participants in meeting this demand were Russians, as well as a sprinkling of Armenians - because they not only carried military backgrounds but also knew the destabilised areas well - having served there. Other nationalities included Greeks, Bulgarians, Chechens, and Turks, especially those representing more specialized disciplines concerning logistical quandaries, aircraft maintenance, electronics, etc.

Post-Doomsday conflict intensification has now made the private military industry a lucrative world-wide growth market. An established firm offering preemptive and preventative crisis control can now develop solutions for a client's need through third party negotiations, dispatching trained operators to sites around the globe.

Turkey
Few outside the Eastern Turkish Wasteland had heard of PRMDS until October 2004, when the Sultanate of Turkey's royalist army subsumed the Republic of Hatay and began advancing on its weaker neighbour, Elazig. Among other accusations leveled against the Elazigi regime were its alleged use of foreign combatants; as early as 2002 the Konya press was already claiming that "Greeks, Italians, and 300 Russians" had entered the district disguised as "construction workers". It soon became clear that they were part of a contingent charged with protecting key infrastructure and putting down unrest.

Sources from inside the collapsing Elazigi government claimed that PRMDS was then a fifty-man operation based in Trabzon and headed by a veteran of NATO military intelligence. The company had already acquired a reputation for providing unspecified training to Trabzon police, as well as security instruction in New Ezurum. Elazig's autocrats, recognizing the inadequacy of their own military strength, apparently hoped that a contract with PRMDS could blunt regional aggression by both Trabzon and the rising Turkish Sultanate. By introducing mercenaries, however, namely Greeks and Russians, some Elazigi officials feared that they had merely introduced another unstable element into an already volatile Anatolia.

During the Doğu Fethini (Eastern Conquest), PRMDS pilots flew two F-100 Super Sabres, likely appropriated from the former Turkish Air Force fleet, in sorties against Sultanate ground forces. Elazig also retained several armed Bell 205 helicopters for transport and light attack. Their failure to coordinate tactical air support resulted in Elazigi units being effectively neutralised on the ground while their high-flying helicopters remained dangerously vulnerable to strike aircraft and ground fire. Additional advisers were thus deployed with Russian Mil Mi-17s to offer instruction and provide professional backup to the infantry and armour operators. All of the Mi-17s were eventually captured intact in March, 2005.

Later operational History
PRMDS has gained public prominence for their actions in areas as far away as Africa and the Eastern Turkish Wasteland. There have been furious rows about the idea of guns for hire unrestrained by any law or authority, working for the highest bidder, but little has been done to stem such activity.

The current demand for PRMDS mercenaries has two main sources: anti-guerrilla operations and irregular warfare in Doomsday-torn countries. PRMDS is now in the employ of those unable or unwilling to raise an army by conscription. Illegitimate forces, for one, have lately resorted to mercenaries to either make up entirely or augment their numbers. Anti-government forces in parts of the former Soviet Union have also employed operatives affiliated with PRMDS.

PRDMS has since surfaced in Kalmykia, where certain units have apparently been dispatched to protect and defend important Buddhist pilgrimage routes to Tibet and back. In 2007, it was reported that armed foreigners working a security detail with a large crowd of civilian pilgrims had opened fire on a bandit raiding party, killing six of the assailants. Mercenaries have also been linked to a related incident which involved a helicopter assault on an alleged terrorist outpost. Twelve suspects were captured and summarily executed on orders of the local authorities.

In the summer of 2010, it was announced that PRMDS was officially active in Dagestan. Observers from outside the nation have concluded they have been entrusted with eliminating Islamic insurgents in some of the more isolated border regions.