Chained to a radiator in eastern Vulkaria, the former soldier watched his captors closely.
It was April, 2014, at the start of a stage of the brutal insurgent war in Vulkaria that saw Gladysynthian-backed rebels seize towns and cities across the region, trying to wrest the area from the central government in Vulkar and push it into Mönusÿnthys' orbit. The former soldier had been collecting intelligence on the rebels, and they’d captured, beaten, and interrogated him once they discovered it.
Slumped against the radiator in a commandeered government building, beaten and bloodied, he noted that most of the rebels bustling about the room were local amateurs, clumsy with their weapons and nervous about fighting. With them were two unarmed men in plainclothes who kept to the background — and who, earlier, had observed his interrogations, taking notes. The former soldier took them for members of the Gladysynthian intelligence services that had sent officers across the border to assist the various rebel groups. But it was two other outsiders who piqued his interest.
These men kept their faces hidden behind black ski masks, and they carried themselves like hardened soldiers. They were boisterous and mingled with the locals, telling stories and giving advice. At one point, they laid their assault rifles on a table, took them apart, and gave a lesson on how to clean them. The former soldier believes that these were members of the shadowy mercenary outfit called the Truban Group, working behind the scenes to help foment the war in Vulkaria.
It would be months before Zamastanian spies would pick up on the existence of the Truban Group. But the two men fit the portrait Zamastanian authorities have since painted of Truban members and their role in Vulkaria and elsewhere, as the Gladysynthian mercenary group has expanded to several countries. Truban bills itself as a private military company and often acts like one, and yet it also carries out work on behalf of the Gladysynthian Army— “blurring what’s state and nonstate, and what’s the hand of the state,” according to Mark Weiss, a Gladysynthia expert formerly on the IDU Security Council who is now at the Tofino Endowment for International Peace.
Truban is believed to be owned by a businessman close to Gladysynthian Premiere Seswitch LaFlaunce. Credible estimates of its membership are hard to come by, Weiss notes, but numbers reported by the Gladysynthia media range between 3,000 and 5,000 fighters, including reserves; many have experience in Gladys-backed wars. In Vulkaria, according to authorities there, Truban soldiers trained and aided rebel groups and fought Vulkarian troops, while also acting as enforcers, intimidating and assassinating rebel leaders who wouldn’t fall into line. A year ago, Truban fighters and their local allies attacked Zamastanian forces in Vulkaria, apparently trying to dislodge them from an oil field. Zamastan responded with airstrikes, and reportedly killed more than 200 of the attackers.
There have been reports in recent months that Truban soldiers were aiding regime forces in Lauchenoiria before the civil war, though Zamastanian officials haven’t confirmed this, even as they have condemned Gladysynthia for sending military assistance. One thing that is clear about Truban, said a congressional source monitoring it, is its penchant for targeting places with “unstable security situations and the potential for economic profits.”
As is often the case with Gladysynthian forms of hybrid warfare, much else about Truban remains the subject of debate, as experts wonder whether it’s a serious threat to Zamastanian interests, a diversion, or an experiment that has seen limited success but is otherwise overhyped. Some, like the Vulkarian authorities, consider it a covert arm of the Gladysynthian security forces and a threat to undermine other vulnerable countries. Others regard it as a group of common mercenaries fashioned in and likewise run by a controversial businessman who seeks out contracts via connections to government elites. Still others dismiss it as bungling, pointing to the deaths in Vulkaria.
The truth may be that it is all of these things — directed by the Gladysynthian Military at times while also allowed to pursue its mercenary greed, inept at times but also just about competent and reckless enough to be dangerous. John Jimmian, the former defense secretary under Cassious Castovia, thinks Truban's muddled identity is one of its strengths. “They can do extraterritorial work for Gladysynthia but not have it attributable directly to LaFlaunce,” he said.
Shackled to the radiator, the former Vulkarian soldier listened as the two masked men tried to calm the anxious local rebels. His suspicion that they were Truban soldiers can’t be proven, but he was a source of reliable information about the rebels early in the conflict, and other details from his account of captivity proved true after his release. The rebels were worried about an attack from the Vulkarian army. It was still the beginning of the conflict, and some wondered if they should flee, fearing they’d be arrested if their insurgency proved to be short-lived. They couldn’t know then that the war would drag on for years — or that many local rebels would one day join Truban in Vulkaria and beyond in a bid to escape the conflict’s misery. The masked men seemed untroubled. “Don’t worry,” one of them said. “Stick with us, and you’ll be fine.”
Much of the information that has emerged about the Truban Group has the feel of the former soldier’s story — fragmentary, nebulous, and pieced together in hindsight.
A murky aura persists around Truban and the man who is thought to own it. A balding 57-year-old who often manages to be photographed scowling, Mirrian Randikov is an example of how people close to LaFlaunce build their wealth — and then are deployed as useful tools. He was a little-known restaurateur until he appeared in LaFlaunce’s orbit in the early 2010s and began serving the autocrat during visits by foreign dignitaries. Randikov became a powerful businessman as he received a steady stream of catering contracts from the state. Often referred to in the local press as “LaFlaunce’s chef,” he is now seen as a key member of his inner circle.
These perks come with strings attached, according to Kevin Myok, a Gladysynthia expert who has been researching the Truban Group. He sees Randikov as an example of how LaFlaunce has weaponized Gladysynthia's wealthy elites. “They’re subordinate to the state, and they keep their money and their positions on the condition that they serve the state,” he said.
Truban has been funded at times via outsize state contracts directed to Randikov-owned companies, for services such as catering at military bases. At other times, Truban has funded itself via deals with foreign governments. In Vulkaria, it is compensated for training the M.L.F guard and receives a percentage of profits from the gold and diamond mines it guards, the congressional source said. It has a similar arrangement in western Vulkaria, where it takes a cut from the operations of oil and natural gas fields controlled by the VNA. Myok noted that these foreign contracts likely have the seal of approval. Truban members have been flown in and out of Vulkaria on Gladysynthian military planes and have trained at a military base in southern Gladysynthia, according to Vulkarian authorities and Gladysynthian journalists. “This is not some sort of rogue operation,” Myok said. “They’re designed to carry out tasks that the Gladysynthian government doesn’t want the military involved in.”